Are We Willing? Are We Hungry?

Mt 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing."

As we come to Good Friday, this verse summarizes Jesus' insight into the depth of the hardness of heart of His people that led to His crucifixion. It points to the hardness of heart of not only the people of Jerusalem - but of all Israel - of which Jerusalem is but the center of spirituality, the center of the presence of God. Remember in the time of King David, Jerusalem was the center for the worship and the presence of God. But in the time of the Old Testament prophets, Israel strayed away from God and killed God's prophets. Now Israel is rejecting God incarnate, Jesus - like what they did to the prophets.

Chicks would naturally dive under the cover of the mother hen's wings as she shields her young from danger. But Israel chose to reject Jesus.
There is a sense of sadness when Jesus said those words.
But probably there is more than sadness and lament.
There is a sense of pain.
As a parent and especially for mothers, we can feel the pain when a child strays away.
All the more so would Jesus feel the pain as His beloved people not only rejected Him but would rather release another no good prisoner, Barabbas, than Jesus (Mt 27:15-26).

When we reach out to hard ground, sometimes we feel sad and sometimes we are pained.
An international student once said that New Zealand must have a lot of Christians - after all they named a city after Christ and a church (Christchurch). But in reality the ground is hard. And it can sadden the workers in the field.

But recently, I was thrilled. A few weeks ago, I was watching the NZ Rugby 7's team play in the HongKong 7's and the 7's in Adelaide. I was very thrilled not so much that the New Zealand team won both competitions, but by how the co-captain Raikabula gave glory to God after winning the HongKong 7's. The captain D J Forbes is also fervent for the Lord. This is all very heart warming because we are in a place whereby it is generally seen as not cool to be a Christian. And here we have two prominent sporting figures in rugby in a nation whereby rugby is their first love give testimony and glory to God for their victories.

Here are excerpts of his testimony which has uplifted me and may it encourage all of us:

"About six years ago I arrived at the crossroads in my life. I was at the point where I needed to make a decision for my life as I realized that I couldn't carry on living the ways I was (backslidden worldly ways of a teenager). My life at the time only existed to play rugby, to have a beer with the boys, chasing girls and all the other desires of my head. But this all changed when I asked Jesus into my heart about six years ago ...

This is when things drastically started happening for me. All the desires of my heart started flowing into my life and it was only because of the decision I made to trust God for everything. I was a rugby player who hadn't played provincial rugby, let alone international. I was not known in international circles and all of a sudden I got the opportunity to trial for the New Zealand Sevens side.

At the camp for the trials I met a strong Christian guy, Onaisi. Having him beside me in that environment where there were not many believers helped me a lot. Around the selection time the other boys were crossing their fingers, but Onaisi and I were praying in the corner and trusting God for our names to be called out. God answered our prayers in 2006 when we were both selected. In the same year, about 9 months later I got asked to captain the side, which had to be God. It was the first time that I was playing Sevens and now all of a sudden I had been asked to captain our national team! Everybody was probably asking "Who is D J Forbes?" ...

As much as I take my rugby seriously, my walk with God I take even more seriously."
(Source: PromiseKeepers 2011 Publication Pgs 1 and 4).

Isn't this testimony thrilling.
May it encourage our hearts to be willing to come under His wings and be hungry for God.
May it encourage all of us in who are laboring in the harvest field, when we are sometimes sadden by the hardness of the ground, to watch such a moving testimony.