We have become familiar with TV footage from Jerusalem. It is the same location where Jesus looked over the ancient city and wept; because although His people had every opportunity to welcome Him, they rejected their Saviour (Luke 19:41).
He said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing." (Matthew 23:37-39).
The theme of 'gathering' occurs throughout the Bible. It is God's passionate mission to gather every person who will come to Him through Jesus.
He gathers them because:
- He gave them life and they belong to Him;
- He loves them and has compassion on them;
- He is the only way to Father God;
- He keeps people safe from darkness and the Devil.
"Come to Me", is Jesus' rallying cry (Matthew 11:28), which echoes Isaiah 55:3. He told the adults to let the children come to Him (Luke 18:16). He rebuked the religious leaders because they had refused to come (John 5:39-40). Although they claimed to be devoted to God's Word, they repudiated and rejected Jesus - the Word of God who lived among them.
The picture of the mother bird giving warmth and protection to her vulnerable chicks is what God designed for their bonding and safety. We would say it is natural. God also designed us to to come back to Him, but humanity has despised God's gracious call.
That is why the world needs the gospel - to know the loving God who calls them to come to Him through Jesus. Then He can lead them through a dangerous world with confidence and security.
That is why BeaconLight exists: so that people can hear the call of Jesus and have confidence to respond to Him in repentance and faith ... and that they can learn how to follow Him in a dark and dangerous world.
The hunger for the gospel seems to be greatest where people are in the most danger, and least when people are self-satisfied.
Requests for BeaconLight's help are greatest in unstable countries, in dangerous and insecure work environments, on the streets, and in prisons. That is where frightened people need gospel hope and some find it ... as gospel workers share what BeaconLight freely offers in hard-copy book(let)s and online.
Thank you for your support in prayer and finance so that we can let needy people hear the call of Jesus, "Come to me".