John MacDuff<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI will heal your backslidings.\u201d \u2014Hosea 14:4<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wandering again! And has He not left me to perish? Stumbling and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
straying on the dark mountains, away from the Shepherd\u2019s eye and the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shepherd\u2019s fold, shall He not leave the erring wanderer to the fruit of<\/p>\n\n\n\n
his own ways, and his truant heart to go hopelessly onward in its career<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of guilty estrangement? \u201cMy thoughts,\u201d says God, \u201care not as your<\/p>\n\n\n\n
thoughts, neither are your ways My ways.\u201d Man would say, \u201cGo, perish!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ungrateful apostate!\u201d God says, \u201cReturn, O backsliding children!\u201d The<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shepherd will not, cannot allow those sheep to perish which He has<\/p>\n\n\n\n
purchased with His own blood! How wondrous His forbearance towards<\/p>\n\n\n\n
it!\u2014tracking its guilty steps, and ceasing not the pursuit until He lays<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the wanderer on His shoulders, and returns with it to His fold<\/p>\n\n\n\n
rejoicing! My soul! why increase by farther departures your own distance<\/p>\n\n\n\n
from the fold?\u2014why lengthen the dreary road your gracious Shepherd has<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to traverse in bringing you back? Do not delay your return! Do not<\/p>\n\n\n\n
provoke His patience any longer! Do not venture farther on forbidden<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ground! He waits with outstretched arms to welcome you once more to His<\/p>\n\n\n\n
bosom. Be humble for the past, trust Him for the future. Think of your<\/p>\n\n\n\n
former backslidings, and tremble\u2014think of His patience, and be filled<\/p>\n\n\n\n
with holy gratitude; think of His promised grace, \u201cand take courage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Go and lay your icy heart upon<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His flaming heart of love!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John MacDuff \u201cI will heal your backslidings.\u201d \u2014Hosea 14:4 Wandering again! And has He not left me to perish? Stumbling and straying on the dark mountains, away from the Shepherd\u2019s eye and the Shepherd\u2019s fold, shall He not leave the erring wanderer to the fruit of his own ways, and his truant heart to go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,34,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-john-macduff","category-gods-love","category-reconciliation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5621,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5620\/revisions\/5621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}