Can We Seek His Face Without Seeking the Lost?
Dr. Gregory O. Baker
President: FaithWay Baptist College of Canada
1964 Salem Road, Ajax, Ontario L1T 4V3
Missing children are a sad reality in our world today. A photograph, along with a personal description, printed on the side of a milk carton bears the evidence that not all children are safe and sound. That picture also gives testimony that parents and other loved ones are distressed because one that they dearly love is lost. Many times these children have been taken advantage of by someone known to them that they have trusted. What a terrible thing for those innocent children to experience. The harm many times is irrepairable.
This is exactly the picture of multitudes of God's creation. The awesome reality is that out of the nearly six billion people that are alive today, over 50% of them are lost! Their faces are not literally printed on "missing" posters, but their faces are an ever-present image in the mind and heart of God. He loves them and longs for them to come to Him. Men and women of all nations are being taken captive by the devil. He is stealing their hearts and ruthlessly abusing them to his own pleasure. Most of these people, being so trusting of the philosophy that is leading them astray, have been taken at will and now are estranged from their only hope of true liberty. The sad reality is that for most, the harm will be eternal. You see, the ruin of their earthly life fades into insignificance when one considers the damnation that awaits them in their eternal life. "Forever lost" is the refrain that they will sing unless someone who is already found seeks to bring the lost back.
Seeking the lost was the purpose that God placed into the heart of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 19:10 tells us this truth so emphatically. As the Lord Jesus sought the face of His Heavenly Father, the passion of God was evidenced in His life. The goal of seeking lost souls was the all-consuming passion of the Lord. This was the natural thing to happen when He came face to face with His Father. Several years ago our family was traveling to a meeting where I was to preach. We stopped at a department store to pick up some needed items. While my wife and I headed off in one direction in the store, my oldest daughter, Allison, was given the responsibility to keep an eye on Christi-An, her younger sister. During the course of browsing in the store, Christi-An got out of Allison's sight and was missing. It was shortly after this that Mom and Dad showed up to find Allison engrossed in items that the store offered, unaware that her sister was lost. A diligent search followed, and she earnestly wanted to find Christi-An. It was difficult for Allison to face us knowing that she bore the responsibility. We found the lost child, and the relationships were restored. God has given us the responsibility to be stewards over His creation and seek for the lost. This become obvious when we seek His face. Even as Jesus set His face like a flint toward Jerusalem to provide the payment necessary to redeem man, we must set our face toward the multitudes who are scattered as sheep having no shepherd.
Henry Martyn died at age 31 after five short years on the mission field. In seeking the Father's face, he had discovered he had to seek the lost. In one of his journals he penned these words.
"The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions, and the nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we must become."
How true this statement is for every child of God! It is absolutely impossible for any Christian to seek God's face without seeking the lost. The reproach of twenty-first century Christianity is that we have continued to drink from the carton of the milk of the Word without seeing the faces of the lost.
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