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Chapter 4 Knowing that God Wants to Recruit Us
An important factor in attaining effectiveness is knowing that the Creator of the Universe wants to recruit each of us (as incredible as that might seem). It is also important to recognize that God is, in a word, EVERYTHING.
Many years ago, the famous orchestra conductor, Arturo Toscanini, had just finished conducting Beethoven’s great Ninth Symphony. As he stood facing the audience with his arms outstretched, there was a long silence; it was apparent that the conductor was overcome by the music. Finally, he said, “Who am I? Who are you?” After a brief pause, he said, “I am nothing. You are nothing. Beethoven is everything!” In my imagination, I see myself in conversation with Toscanini after the concert. Over coffee, I say to him, “Maestro, you were right when you said that those of us in the audience are nothing. You were right when you said that you are nothing. But you were wrong, sir, when you said that Beethoven is everything. The truth is that Beethoven, great composer that he was—perhaps the greatest—was also nothing. It is God who is everything.”
Man has a tendency to exaggerate his importance in the overall scheme of things. The following verse is typical of what the Bible says about man:
As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower in the field, the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. —Psalms 103:15
The word, “God,” occurs about a thousand times in the Bible, mainly in extolling His might and power, His omnipotence and omniscience, in short, His glory. The primary focus of the Bible is on God—not man.
When we think of the sharp contrast between the relative importance of God and man, we can understand why the psalmist posed the rhetorical question: “What is man that Thou are mindful of him?” (Psalms 8:4). And yet this great God, who is everything, has bestowed His marvelous handiwork on man, and entrusted him with domination over it. Not only that, but He is concerned about and wants to have a personal relationship with each individual. Jesus taught His disciples that everyone is invited into a fellowship with God, who wants to be our Friend and Guide, and who wants us to become partners with Him. Essentially, the message is: “Come, God will receive you, and He will never desert you.” To emphasize that His recruitment message is for everybody, Jesus told three parables which have similar meaning. They are found in the 15th chapter of Luke.
In the Parable of the Lost Sheep, Jesus asked:
Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? —Luke 15:4 (NIV)
Some of Jesus’ listeners may have thought, “Would this be practical? Why would a shepherd leave 99 sheep in the open field to search for a lost one? What is the importance of one sheep? Others may have agreed with Jesus, i.e. that any good shepherd would search for a lost sheep. Whatever they thought, this parable got the attention of the men because it fit their experience. For the women, He had another story—also beginning with a question:
Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? —Luke 15:8 (NIV)
This parable is called “The Lost Coin” (verses 8-10). In those days a silver piece represented roughly a day’s wages. Therefore, losing one was considered a serious loss. A typical house of that time was dark and the floor was nothing but earth covered with dry reeds, which meant that looking for a lost coin was not unlike looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. No wonder that finding the coin was an occasion for celebration (Luke 15:9).
The third parable (verses 11-24) is the familiar story of the prodigal son. A father had two sons. The younger son left home, squandered his inheritance, and finally, in desperation, returned to the home place, broken in spirit and repentant. The father had thought that he was probably dead, so when the emaciated son arrived, the father shouted,
Tell the cook we are going to celebrate this occasion with a feast; we will kill the fatted calf. My boy is alive, and has come home. Let us be merry.
The message in these parables is that God’s searching love knows no limits—that He wants to recruit and bring us into the fellowship of this Kingdom, and nothing we do will change His mind. The Shepherd never gives up on us. He never tires of trying to bring us into the fold, or to bring us back into the fold if, we, like sheep, have strayed away from Him. He will not leave anyone out on the cold, dark mountain, friendless and alone. That is good news; indeed, it is very good news.
The poet Francis Thompson describes God’s relentless pursuit as follows:
I fled Him down the nights and down the days; I fled Him down the arches of the years
and then in the last stanza of the poem the Shepherd says:
Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He whom thou seekest! [1]
These three parables might raise a question in our minds, namely, “If God, who is omnipotent and omniscient, wants to recruit us, what’s the problem? Can’t God do anything?” Of course He can, but it’s against His nature to force obedience. It has been said that true love requires choice.
The problem, of course, is our response to God’s recruitment overtures. A theme which runs throughout the Bible is that we must want God intensely. God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, said, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13). Seeking Him with all our heart implies single-mindedness. It implies that we want Him for His own sake, and not for what we think we can get from Him. Too often we want Him for comfort—particularly when our self-made plans go awry. Too often we want to have it both ways; we want to keep one foot in the world. God is not interested in recruiting lukewarm, half-hearted followers; He doesn’t want “summer soldiers.” He wants dedicated, committed partners.
Jesus communicated this one-trackmanship requirement in two very similar parables:
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. —Matthew 13:44 (NIV)
This first story is called the Parable of the Hidden Treasure. Let’s assume that the man in the parable was a tenant farmer who had worked this ground for many years. Soil which is cultivated has a tendency to erode so that over a period of time, the cultivating tools go deeper into the ground. Suddenly the farmer’s plow hit something hard. “Probably a rock to be dug up and carried off” he thought. As he dug down to remove what he thought was a rock, he discovered that it was the top of a chest. A surge of adrenaline went through his body, and he began working faster. He knew that people often buried their valuables because of wars and other catastrophes which drove them off their land. This farmer had discovered a chest of beautiful jewels! As he looked at those jewels glistening in the sunlight, he suddenly wondered if anyone had seen him. He quickly covered up the chest, and marked the spot. Whatever the cost, he knew that he had to acquire that piece of land so that the treasure would be his. With great joy, he liquidated all his assets to buy the land. Nothing was as important to him as obtaining that treasure.
We can imagine that this story captured the attention of Jesus’ followers. Certainly they would have liked to be in that farmer’s shoes.
Now that He had their attention, Jesus told another story:
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. —Matthew 13:45 (NIV)
This parable is called “The Pearl of Great Price.” Presumably, this merchant had spent his life studying pearls, and therefore had heard stories of a pearl of exceptional beauty. He dreamed of owning it. Acquiring that pearl had become almost an obsession with him. Then one day he saw that beautiful pearl for the first time. He decided that he had to purchase it. It cost him everything he had, but at long last he could say, “That pearl of exceptional beauty is mine.”
The meaning of these two parables is succinctly expressed in a footnote of the NIV study Bible: “These two parables teach the same truth: The kingdom is of such great value that one should be willing to give up all that he has in order to gain it.”
These twin parables might (perhaps should) trigger a disturbing question in our minds: Is the Kingdom of such value to me that I am willing to give up all that I have in order to gain it?
It would be reasonable to ask ourselves:
· What am I giving up? · What am I gaining?
St. Augustine answered the first question many years after becoming a Christian. He said, “What I feared to be parted from was now a joy to surrender.” The Apostle Paul expressed similar sentiments, and so have dedicated, committed Christians throughout the centuries.
The answer to the second question—what am I gaining—could be expressed as follows: We gain a soul-satisfying purpose in life when we put our lives under new management, and become partners with God. As we become more and more surrendered to the divine will, we become more effective as instruments and channels through which our Senior Partner can operate.
When we read the biographies of outstanding Christians, we see how their surrender to the divine will enabled them to become channels for the Kingdom. Among many who could be mentioned, is William Wilberforce (1759-1833), an English statesman. As a young man he turned down an opportunity to go into his grandfather’s business, and decided to pursue a career in public service.
In 1780, at the age of 21, Wilberforce was elected to the House of Commons. He was welcomed into London society, and became a member of five clubs, including one in which he developed a strong and lasting friendship with William Pitt, who later became prime minister. At first, Wilberforce participated in social gambling, but gave it up after winning 600 pounds one night from men who could not afford such a loss.
In 1784, God recruited William Wilberforce when he was on a trip to the European continent with one of his former teachers, who was a dedicated Christian. As they traveled, they read together Doddridge’s Rise and Progress of Religion, which was instrumental in Wilberforce’s conversion. At the outset of his conversion, Wilberforce determined that God had given him two primary goals:
· The suppression of the slave trade. · The “reformation of manners” (living according to Christian principles).
For 20 years, Wilberforce worked diligently in the House of Commons to eradicate the slave trade—which his friend John Wesley called “the execrable sum of all villainy.” In spite of strong opposition from the nobility, the colonial plantation owners, and others, Wilberforce engineered the passage of a bill abolishing the slave trade in 1807. It should be noted that the passage of this act preceded Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation” by 55 years.
While working tirelessly for the abolition of slavery and other causes, Wilberforce wrote a book, Practical Christianity, published in 1797. Ultimately 15 editions were printed in England, 25 in America, and the book was translated into the language of every major Christian country.
There is no question that William Wilberforce was one of the most influential parliamentarians of all time. It is generally agreed that he would have become prime minister had he not fought for causes that were unpopular with the power brokers of his day. He was opposed not only because of his political positions, but also for the sake of his Christian witness. He felt that it was not enough to correct earthly injustice. He said, “My only hope for the well-being of my country depends…not so much on the wisdom of her rulers, or on the spirit of her people, as on the persuasion that she still contains many who love and obey the Gospel of Christ; that…for the sake of these, Heaven may still look upon us with an eye of favor.”
It is obvious that William Wilberforce was convinced that the Kingdom of God was of such value that he was willing to give up everything in order to gain it. He was not only an effective statesman—he was an effective Christian.
From time to time, we meet people in our everyday life who impress us with their Christian commitment. Among many dedicated lay-persons I have known, one stands out above the others. When I first met him, he was a 41-year-old corporation president; I was doing some consulting work for his company. The first item on his agenda every work day was a meeting with his key subordinates, and their first order of business was always prayer. This man was respected not only by his fellow executives but by the rank-and-file employees. They knew that he had a genuine concern for their welfare. It was apparent that this man’s life was totally integrated. He was an effective business leader and an effective Christian.
The biographies and autobiographies of outstanding Christians frequently reveal that Christian effectiveness depends on recognizing our inability to manage our own lives well. We should turn the management of our lives over to the only One who is capable of managing it effectively—to the One who wants to recruit us for work in the Kingdom. [1] Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven.
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