The reason I ask is because of Third Day. They are still among my favorite bands, yet as I listen and sing along with one of their songs I had to ask “is this true?”
The lyrics are line this:
how many times have I gone astray. The number is the same as the stars in the sky. Every time you’ve taken me back, I pray that you’ll do it tonight.
So, does God “take us back?”
As I think of redemption, and family, and the ways God relates himself to us, I don’t believe he does.
Think of the prodigal son. Was he taken back? Or did he simply recognize and return to whom he was. The father doesn’t say to his brother “we must take him back” but states “he has returned”.
That analogy, as with many other references and also the realization that when we are His we take his name, made me think of our redemption in terms of family. As family we are not “taken back,” for we cannot be removed. I think we recognize who we are and return. Maybe even from the dead. (Luke 15:32). Which kind of helps me understand baptism.
I will surely keep this question in my head as I read through the scripture and am open to have my mind changed on this subject, but as for now I think we go astray and return. He doesn’t take us back, but rejoices over our recognition of who we are.
Isaiah 55:6 (ESV) “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
Thank you for your thoughts.
Shalom,
- Bruce
Perspectives 