Brother Matt Henson and Brother E. Stanley Jones

“You belong,” is an invitational message I have seen on several signs in my travels over the years. As I consider our vision for the United Christian Ashrams International Ministry, we want our fellowships to be a place where people can find belonging. In Brother Stanley’s ministry, he wrote and spoke on several occasions, “If you belong to Christ, and I belong to Christ, then we unbreakably belong to one another.” As I was considering this statement, I was drawn to Brother Stanley’s devotion book In Christ where he writes about belonging. I want to share this devotion with you this week.

The Need to Belong

In the passage we have been considering there is this sentence: “I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). Will go in and out and find pasture.

Four things are there: “enters by me”—a sense of belonging; “will go in”—will find security; “and out”—adventure; “and find pasture”—satisfaction. Four things are promised: belonging, security, adventure, and satisfaction. Basically, we need those four things.

Psychologists say that all human nature has three basic needs: the need to belong; the need for significance; and the need for reasonable security. Here Jesus added a fourth—the need for satisfaction. We shall make our own four needs.

The first need is the need to belong. The delinquent child turns delinquent because he has no sense of belonging. Ninety-five percent of delinquent children come from broken homes—they don’t belong. The central sickness of the world is that,

“…but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you so that he does not hear.” (Isa. 59:2)

The sickness of the world is homesickness—homesickness for God. There is a sense of orphanage, of estrangement, of being lost. That first need is met when you are in Christ—you belong. You belong not to the marginal or ephemeral, but to reality—ultimate reality.

The second need is security—“will go in.” You have the security of a fold—in Christ—of which Almighty Love is the keeper. Compared to this all-other securities are insecure. This is “a kingdom that cannot be shaken”—the unshakable kingdom (Heb. 12:28).

Prayer: Dear Father, in the fold of Thy Son we belong and are secure. We are in, and the in has ultimate meaning. The security has ultimate security. We are now at home. Fears and tensions drop away. Finding Thee we have found all. Amen.

AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY

My first, last, and intermediate business is to belong to Christ.

(Jones, E. Stanley. In Christ. Published by Seedbed in 2017. Page 25)