The End Times.2

"My people, my people, you who have killed the prophets, and spurned those sent to you, how often would I have gathered you, even as a hen shelters her chicks beneath her wings, and yet you would not! Behold, your house is left desolate; and you will not see me again until the time when all will say: 

'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

--Jesus

Chasing chickens is not for the faint of heart!  NFL defenses

image from anewscafe.com

used to prepare to face the elusive, Hall of Fame running back, Barry Sanders by letting chickens out onto the practice field!  Watching Barry dart around frustrated grown men as easily as these speedy birds was almost as entertaining as watching our grandkids try to gather chicks let loose in the yard!

There is a reason we associate extreme fearfulness with these fleet fowl: it is extremely hard to even get near them before they take flight! Comparing people to chickens, however, is a pretty accurate way of describing our extreme reluctance to draw near to our Maker who would be our Master.  Because our hearts are so far removed and our eyes so focused on our own security, little can we see the devotion in the face behind the hand extended to save us from our own folly.

But there is a price to pay for morbid devotion to our own self-preservation...

des·o·late

adjectiveˈdesəlit/
1.(of a place) deserted of people and in a state of bleak and dismal emptiness. e.g., "a desolate moor"

Desolation In the USA

"It is hard on God, when His children will not let him give; when they carry themselves so that he must withhold His hand, lest he harm them. To take no care that they acknowledge whence their help comes, would be to leave them worshippers of idols, trusters in that which is not.”

Lord Jesus, we do not understand thee, because we do not trust thy Father – whole-hearted to us, as never yet was mother to her first-born! Full of care, as if he had none, we think this and that escapes his notice, for this and that he does not think! While we who are evil would die to give our children bread to eat, we are not certain the only Good will give us anything of what we desire!

The things of thy world so crowd our hearts, that there is no room in them for the things of thy heart, which would raise ours above all fear, and make us merry children in our Father’s house!" 

(quote from The Cause of Spiritual Stupidity, George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons II)

Lord Jesus, keep gathering until we realize:

"Lo, here comes One who will increase our loves!"