From the Articles

This Week · October 11, 2026

The God Who Pursues

by Michael Jones

Picture a shepherd at dusk counting his flock and realizing one is missing. What he does next defies every rule of good management: he leaves the ninety-nine in the open wilderness and plunges into the gathering dark for a single wandering lamb (Luke 15:4–6). Now picture a woman turning her house upside down for one small coin, and when she finds it, throwing a party that costs more than the coin is worth (Luke 15:8–9). Finally, picture a father publicly disgraced by a son who demanded his inheritance early, a gesture as cutting as wishing his father dead. Yet when that broken young man appears on the horizon, the father hitches up his robes and runs to meet him with open arms (Luke 15:20). Jesus stacks these three parables together to paint one unmistakable portrait: our God does not sit on a distant throne waiting for sinners to find their way home. He is a seeking God, a pursuing God, a God whose love is so fierce it looks unreasonable. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

The Old Testament gives us this same portrait through the prophet Hosea. God commands Hosea to marry Gomer, a woman who will be unfaithful, and then to love her still, to go after her, buy her back, and bring her home (Hosea 3:1–2). It is an agonizing love story because it mirrors God’s own heart toward Israel. “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? … My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender” (Hosea 11:8). God is not a detached judge waiting for his people to shape up. He is a husband grieving over an unfaithful bride, a parent whose chest aches for a wandering child. His holiness demands justice, yet his love will not let go. That divine tension finds its resolution at the cross, where justice and mercy meet in the broken body of Christ (Romans 3:25–26). The pursuing God does not overlook sin; he pays for it himself so that nothing can stand between him and the ones he loves.

Paul captures the staggering timing of this pursuit: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Not after we cleaned ourselves up, not once we proved our sincerity. While we were still rebels, still lost in the dark ravine, God moved toward us. He did not wait for us to become lovable; he loved us into transformation. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). And when we respond in faith, turning to him in repentance and being buried with Christ in baptism, we are raised to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3–4; Acts 2:38). That moment of rising from the water is the lost sheep draped over the shepherd’s shoulders, the prodigal wrapped in his father’s robe, the pursuing God bringing us home. From that day forward he continues to shape us “into the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29), not by force but by the patient working of his Spirit in our hearts.

If God pursues with that kind of love, then so must we. Every Lord’s Day when we gather around his table to remember his death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11:26; Acts 20:7), we are reminded that we were once the lost ones. When we lift our voices together, praising him with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs from the heart (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16), we are singing the shepherd’s homecoming celebration. That memory should make us the most joyful, most persistent seekers of the lost this world has ever seen. We share the good news not from guilt but because we know what it feels like to be found. So look around you this week: at the neighbor whose marriage is crumbling, at the coworker drowning in anxiety, at the friend who walked away from faith years ago. God is already pursuing them. He is inviting you to join the search, to be his voice, his hands, his open door. “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people” (Galatians 6:10). The God who left the ninety-nine for you will never stop running toward the one still out there in the dark. Trust his relentless love, and carry it toward someone who needs it today. - MJ

Other congregations are welcome to reprint this. It may be reproduced in another congregation’s bulletin or newsletter without asking permission. An acknowledgement of Orange View Church of Christ is appreciated but not required.

Bible Questions & Answers

Is the earth old or young, and does it matter for my faith?

This is an honest and important question, and the fact that you are wrestling with it shows a desire to take both Scripture and God’s creation seriously. Before examining the competing positions, we must establish what is not up for debate. Genesis 1:1 declares, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The Hebrew verb bara’ (‘to create’) is used exclusively with God as its subject, indicating a sovereign act that belongs to him alone (Genesis 1:1, 21, 27; Isaiah 45:18). The New Testament likewise affirms, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3). Whatever position a Christian holds on the earth’s age, these truths are non-negotiable: God is the sovereign Creator, creation was purposeful, and human beings are uniquely made in his image (Genesis 1:26–27). The age question is a secondary matter on which faithful Christians have reached different conclusions, and we should approach it with both conviction and humility.

Much of the discussion centers on the Hebrew word yom, translated “day” in Genesis 1. Young-earth creationists note that when yom appears with a numeric qualifier (“first day,” “second day”) and with “evening and morning,” it most naturally refers to a literal twenty-four-hour period, as in Exodus 20:11: “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.” On this reading the earth is relatively young, perhaps six to ten thousand years old, and the appearance of great age in the geological record reflects either the global flood of Genesis 6–9 or the mature state in which God created the world. Old-earth creationists, however, observe that yom has a broader semantic range. In Genesis 2:4 it covers the entire creation period: “in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.” Psalm 90:4 notes that “a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday,” and Peter echoes the thought: “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). On this reading the “days” of Genesis may represent long epochs, and scientific evidence for an ancient earth can be received as part of God’s testimony through what he has made (Psalm 19:1–4; Romans 1:20).

Both positions are held by serious students of Scripture who affirm its authority and inspiration. The young-earth view honors the straightforward reading of the creation narrative and guards against subordinating Scripture to shifting scientific consensus. The old-earth view honors the principle that “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1) and seeks to integrate what God reveals in nature with what he reveals in his Word. Neither view requires a denial of biblical authority. What would compromise the faith is denying that God created at all, denying that humanity bears his image, or treating the creation account as mere myth. Paul warns against “foolish controversies” that produce quarrels rather than godly edification (2 Timothy 2:23; Titus 3:9). The earth’s age is precisely the kind of question where Christians should reason carefully, listen charitably to those who disagree, and refuse to make a secondary issue a test of fellowship.

So does the age of the earth matter for your faith? Not in the way many people fear. Your faith rests on bedrock truths that neither position disturbs: God spoke and the universe obeyed (Psalm 33:6, 9), humanity was created in his image for relationship with him (Genesis 1:26–27), sin entered the world through human rebellion (Romans 5:12), and God’s redemptive plan culminated in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Whether the earth beneath your feet is thousands or billions of years old, it remains “the earth” that “is the LORD’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1). Study this question with an open Bible and an open mind. Weigh the Hebrew text carefully. Consider the testimony of creation with gratitude. But above all, let your study drive you deeper into worship of the God who, whether he worked across six sunrises or six vast ages, fashioned this world with wisdom and made you to know him. That is the truth that will anchor your faith when every other question is still being debated. - MJ

Other congregations are welcome to reprint this. It may be reproduced in another congregation’s bulletin or newsletter without asking permission. An acknowledgement of Orange View Church of Christ is appreciated but not required.