YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE

In yesterday’s blog I referred to the GPS capabilities of the iPhones and Smartphones. What technology is just now figuring out how to accomplish, our Creator has done in our lives since the beginning. The psalmist David makes a couple of great statements in Psalm 139:7 (NLT) “I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence!” (Note: Other translations present these two thoughts as two questions. The NLT translates them into statements for those who don’t do so well with tests) I’ve always looked at David’s statement as one of those things which can either be comforting or convicting, depending on the choices I am making in my life. If I am seeking to do the right things, I want the presence of God to surround my life. I don’t want to be separated from Him for even a moment.  On the other hand, if I am choosing against God’s Word and what he says is best and right, I don’t want to be reminded I can’t get away from his presence. 

It could be awkward to answer my wife when she asks, “I checked your GPS data on your Smartphone and, um, it says you’ve gone to Mallard’s Ice Cream four times this week. What are you doing there?” To which I would respond, “Err, ahh, buying gift certificates for people who serve at King Mountain.” I think that’s a good standard answer, and I am sticking to it! I can see advantages to being able to know the location of those you love and care about, especially when a serious situation arises. But how do you feel about the truth you can run from God, but you can’t hide from him? He’s got all the data on where we’ve gone, what we’ve done and who we’ve been hanging with. And, no, He doesn’t have to use a GPS chip. Is that a comforting or convicting reality?

I want to apply this truth in a slightly different direction. Many of us have people we love and deeply care about who aren’t living lives fully devoted to Jesus. Most of the time we have no idea of where they’re going, what they’re doing and who they’re hanging with. Our concern for their salvation moves us to frequent prayer for their safety. We live in hope that they will open up their heart to the amazing love of God, and the sooner the better. We fight against thoughts, suggested by Satan, that they will never choose Christ and will be eternally lost. If you are deeply concerned today about someone’s spiritual condition, I want to remind you of something: They can run, but they can’t hide from God…from his knowledge of them and his unending love for them. Even more, God, through the Holy Spirit, is pursuing them. He is seeking after them and speaking to them constantly. His love for them is relentless. He is not giving up. 

Jesus tells a divine love story, in Matthew 18, of a shepherd who owned a flock of a hundred sheep. Back in the day this was a nice sized flock and was sufficient to provide a substantial source of income. Losing one sheep was not that big of deal except when one wanders off, which is something sheep have a tendency to do, the shepherd in the story leaves the ninety-nine and sets off on a search for the lost one. I love the application Jesus makes of this short story in V14: “In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” Praying parents, grandparents, uncles/aunts, friends, you can be confident the Shepherd is right now seeking and speaking to your loved ones who have “wandered” away. The word, lost, may describe someone’s spiritual condition but the Father’s children are never lost to him, he knows exactly where they are. Exactly!

“The Lord [Shepherd] knows those who are his.” 2 Timothy 2:19