by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2025
(Nov. 25, 2025) — I balked whenever we sang the hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” because some of the lyrics seemed inappropriate for a Christian.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wand’ring from the face of God; Bind my wand’ring heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love: Take my heart, oh, take and seal it With Thy Spirit from above.
The first two lines were fine. The Bible teaches, “We all like sheep have gone astray,”1 and Jesus said He came to seek and to save the lost. Yes, I was wand’ring from the face of God when Jesus found me.
But the persistent wandering in the hymn troubled me. Should this sentiment pour from the same lips that revel in the triumph of Amazing Grace?
I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see.
What kind of testimony is this? Found, yet prone to stray? Saved, yet inclined to run back into danger?
I get it now.
The threat of believers becoming unhinged burdened the Apostle Paul and spurred him to visit the churches that he and Barnabas had planted during their first missionary journey.
“Let’s go back and visit,” he said to Barnabas, “and see how they are doing.”2
The English translation doesn’t convey the burden in Paul’s heart.
By visiting the churches, Paul had in mind to inspect them. His second missionary journey was not a casual tour; Paul was returning like the relative for whom you clean and tidy the house before the white-glove treatment.
But concern, not criticism, compelled him. “To see how they are doing” sounds nonchalant. The Greek reveals Paul wanted to see how the churches were holding up, whether they were possessing the Gospel they had grasped. They had been on their own, and he worried that the remote believers might lose their grip on the apostolic teaching.
Were they owning the Gospel he had given them?
This reminds me of the Church’s roots in Israel’s history. God delivered the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and brought them into Canaan to be free and prosper. He gave them the land to occupy and possess.
We can read the books of Joshua and Judges to see how they fared. (Spoiler alert: not well.)
The new followers of Jesus in the Gentile countries were like the Hebrews in Canaan—delivered from sin and charged with taking hold of their new life in Christ. “Put off the old, and put on the new,” Paul said.3
The book of Acts and the letters in the New Testament allow us to tour with Paul and see how they fared. (Spoiler alert: Paul was concerned for good reason.)
This anxiousness for our welfare runs throughout the Bible.
Read the rest here.