Return to Me: Part 2- He Brings Us Back

Often times in the Bible we are referred to as the sheep of God’s pasture, and that Jesus is our Shepherd. I was reading in the book of Ezekiel the other night. As some of you know, I’m reading through the Bible in 90 days again. Anyway, Ezekiel has become a favorite book of Bible of mine. Chapter 34 is about God being our Shepherd bringing us back to the sheepfold.

Ezekiel 34:12-16
New Living Translation (NLT)
12 I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. 13 I will bring them back home to their own land of Israel from among the peoples and nations. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel and by the rivers and in all the places where people live. 14 Yes, I will give them good pastureland on the high hills of Israel. There they will lie down in pleasant places and feed in the lush pastures of the hills. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and give them a place to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bandage the injured and strengthen the weak. But I will destroy those who are fat and powerful. I will feed them, yes—feed them justice!

Isn't it a beautiful picture of Jesus coming and looking for the ones who strayed? So many times when we are out in the wilderness we cry saying God left us, and He doesn't love us anymore; that He is trying to kill us. But it this really the truth? If He didn't love us, He wouldn't come looking for us, He wouldn't bring us HOME, He wouldn't clean us up and strengthen us. We leave Jesus, He never leaves us. He gives us peace.
The truth is that many of us need to find ourselves prostrate at the Throne of God in repentance, myself included. The things that we think we desire are the things that often times lead us astray. Do you know what The Throne is? It is the alter! If you want to shaken and brought to a humble place in your life you find yourself at the alter where you enter the presence of God. It is a place of sacrifice, surrender, and transparency. Often what we offer God is not what He wants. He usually wants that which you dread giving Him. It is Issac, the well-beloved, that He wants you to give up. It is what comes between you and Him, thus why it leads us astray, our eyes are off Jesus.....The alter....it is where we sacrifice the things that we think define us, and where we pick Him up and HE defines us. We must keep bringing ourselves before Him.
I love the hymn written by Henry Williams Baker, "The King of Love my Shepherd Is." Henry Baker worked on a book of hymns that would reflect the grandeur of majestic worship. The first edition was published in 1861, entitled Hymns Ancient and Modern. He had labored for many years and so earnestly over every hymn, editing, amending and deleting words, some called it Hymns Asked for and Mutilated. Eventually, it became the leading hymnbook in the Anglican church, going through many revisions and selling over 150 million copies. "The King of Love My Shepherd Is" didn't appear until the 1868 revision, in the appendix.
When Henry passed away in 1877, his friend, John Ellerton, reported that his last words were from this poignant hymn:

"Perverse and foolish oft I stayed,

But yet in love He sought me,

And on His shoulder gently laid,

And home, rejoicing, brought me."

1. "The King of love my Shepherd is,

Whose goodness faileth never;

I nothing lack if I am His,

And He is mine forever.

2. Where streams of living water flow

My ransomed soul He leadeth;

And where the verdant pastures grow,

With food celestial feedeth.

4. In death's dark vale I fear no ill

With Thee, dear Lord beside me;

Thy rod and staff my comfort still,

Thy cross before to guide me.

5. And so through all the length of days,

They goodness faileth never.

Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy praise,

Within Thy house forever."