Good Shepherd

 

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Each morning I sit at my desk and study God’s Word.  It is early enough to still be dark, and it always strikes me as the most peaceful, renewing, and blessed time of the day.  And I’m always aware of what King David called the peaceful streams of such restful, reflective moments, the holy hush of being close to the Good Shepherd.  I’ve been pursued by His goodness and unfailing love; I’m in the midst of living in His house forever.  The images come flooding from God’s Word:

“I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me,  John 10:14
And when the Great Shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of never-ending glory and honor….Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you 1 Peter 5:4, 7

And, of course, there is the greatest of Good Shepherd passages, Psalm 23.  Consider the ways this Shepherd carries the lambs (and this old sheep):

Peace to regroup and renew

The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.  He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.  He renews my strength.

Life can certainly wear one down under the kinds of burdens we face.  One look at the news channel can suck the hope out of you if you let it.  And who doesn’t let it from time to time.  For that, God reminds us we have everything we need, and He renews our strength to persevere.

Guidance for the next steps in life

He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.  

God’s Word is our GPS.  It’s purposes are many, but all directed to helping sheep like us find our way in this minefield of life in the 21^st century.  A shepherd’s job is to see the sheep through life’s journey.

Comfort and Courage against fear

Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.  Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.  

This is the one I treasure greatest of all.  When things happen that don’t make sense, and life gets scary, and I tremble with fear at the thought of going on another step for dread of the darkness, it is then I reach out to hold-onto the Good Shepherd’s robe, just ahead of me, His light showing the next step…and that is astounding, that He has already been there.  He has faced the darkness, and the darkness scatters in His presence.  And he turns back to look at me…and His smile lifts my soul.  And the darkness loses…again!

And then, the ultimate question is answered as the Shepherd gives:

Confidence in the future and beyond death’s veil

You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.  You honor me by anointing my head with oil.  My cup overflows with blessings.  Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever. 

Life with the Good Shepherd is a never-ending, always-unfolding, ever-widening, and increasingly-blessing story.  It’s more than epic…it’s eternal.

Usually, by the time I finish writing a devotional reflection on the day’s passage, I begin to notice how the darkness outside my window is beginning to give way to the new day’s light.  The Good Shepherd has been with me through the dark night, and we start another day of going where He leads in the light; embracing where He labors, and rejoicing in the way He blesses.

Perfect!

For You Today

The next time you’re greeted by an acquaintance, or the cashier at WalMart, or the one who fixes your car, and you get that question, how’s your day going, haul out Psalm 23 and hit the highlights of every day with the Good Shepherd.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

The Tools of a Shepherd

Thursday, March 19, 2020

The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.  He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.  He renews my strength.  He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.  Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.  Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.  You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.  You honor me by anointing my head with oil.  My cup overflows with blessings.  Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.  Psalm 23:1-6

There are so many dangers associated with tending a flock of sheep.  Ancient shepherds lived with the sheep to keep watch, because predators were everywhere.  The shepherd’s tools are well known, rod and staff.  The staff was a guide to help move the sheep along to the next place where there would be water and grazing.  Sheep tend to wander, so even the staff was a means of protection against just stumbling along, and perhaps winding up in a place that’s barren and unsustainable. 

I was watching a TV drama where one of the main characters was talking to a co-worker.  She asked her friend, have you ever felt like things happening to you were all connected; like you were being driven to something?  Had I been in on that conversation I would’ve jumped in and screamed, YES, YES…are you not listening?  Of course you’re being moved along, you senseless, non-attention-paying sheep!  That’s the Great Shepherd guiding your steps.

So, if the staff is for guiding, where does the rod come in?  That may be the most important tool in the shepherd’s hands.  The rod was for protection and discipline.  There are enemies of sheep that are too formidable for any sheep.  A rod was about the length of a man’s forearm, fortified with pieces of metal or rock strapped to the end.  It became a club in the hands of a skilled shepherd to drive off wolves and other predators. 

But it also became a different kind of protective tool each night.  As the sheep gathered close to the shepherd, he would use his rod like a diagnostic tool, pulling back the thick wool covering each sheep.  This was to allow the shepherd to see if there were any wounds that needed tending.  This was the comfort part of rod and staff of which David wrote.  David was a good and faithful shepherd tending the family’s flocks.  When he penned Psalm 23 it was with fond memories of simple, but profound experiences keeping watch.

And this is the task our Heavenly Father gave to The Good Shepherd, God’s son, Jesus.  We human beings are like a flock of wandering sheep who have a peculiar habit of wandering away from the Shepherd, as Isaiah said:

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.  Isaiah 53:6

For You Today

What Isaiah said about God laying the sins of us all on the Christ of the cross, is God’s rod combing over our sheepish, wooly backs, revealing the sins of our foolishness and pride.  His omniscient eyes don’t miss a one…no matter how big or small.  And the Good Shepherd removes our sins and heals our wounds.

Take a moment just now and thank him in your best sheep prayer that the Good Shepherd is willing to live with His flock…us!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on Psalm 23 see In Green Pastures and Beside Still Waters  or  Enough

Spiritual Attorney

 

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for.  But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.  And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.  Romans 8:26-27^(NLT)

Aside from a few mundane issues like a real estate transaction or making a will, I’ve never needed to employ an attorney.  But I’ve probably watched more than my fair share of courtroom drama shows, and, as a pastor, I have experienced the angst of a friend or church member going through that kind of drama.  When you’re facing the accusation of the governing authorities of the state, you don’t know which way to turn first.  You need someone who can speak the language of the court on your behalf.

Paul was talking about that kind of helpless feeling when we know life has gotten off-center, or bad stuff is on the horizon, yet we just don’t know what to ask God in prayer.  We’re caught between knowing we want help, and not wanting to ask for something foolish or selfish, or just plain wrong.  We want to ask within God’s will, but how can you know for sure that what you want is what God wants for you?

If you’ve ever experienced that special kind of frustration that puts you between the rock and a hard place, and offers no easy choice, and just makes you want to throw your hands in the air and cry out, WHY, OH WHY…; When you get to that place on the helpless meter is when you need an advocate, an attorney who understands both sides of the conversation.  You need someone who can speak for you.

Paul the apostle says that person is the Holy Spirit of God.  It sounds kind of absurd really, that God would be your attorney pleading the case to…well…Himself.

Now this wasn’t just Paul going off the religious deep end; he got it from Jesus.  When the crucifixion was near Jesus was preparing his disciples for what lay ahead – life without Jesus’ physical presence, but the guidance and strength they would experience from the inner presence of God’s Spirit:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.  He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.  The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him.  But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.  John 14:16-17^(NLT)

The times I have been most equipped to follow God’s leading are the times I have trusted that whatever comes, the Spirit of God would not mislead me.  It is at those frustrating, overwhelming and seemingly unfair times which the world and its ways throw at you that God’s Spirit most shows who is really in charge.  And the person who sees that most clearly is the one who is willing to listen for the still, small voice.

For You Today

You have an attorney within…you have the right to remain silent!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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Following the Leader

[1]

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

VIDEO

Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others.  God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.  Are we commending ourselves to you again?  No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart.  If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God.  And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.  Either way, Christ’s love controls us.  Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.  He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves.  Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.   2 Corinthians 5:11-15^(NLT)

A popular saying is that you should always follow your heart.  And, for those who want to support what they want that to mean, you can always find Scripture to back it up. 

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.  Luke 12:34^(NLT)

The problem with that is Scripture can also be used to show the other side of the argument:

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.  Who really knows how bad it is?  Jeremiah 17:9^(NLT)

So, do you follow your heart, or avoid it like the plague?

Paul understood his calling to follow Christ was a lifetime battle for the souls of men and women.  He also understood that God’s calling could make him look like a crazy fool or a hero.  But that was all in other people’s perception; for Paul, the only thing that mattered was the love of Christ that urged him on, directing him. 

Paul said it was Christ’s love that controlled him; he walked with Christ, voluntarily became the slave of Christ, and chose to leave everything for the joy of serving Christ.  And therein we find the truth of Scripture that cautions each of us against trusting our own hearts in favor of following the heart of Christ.

An example of this would be in marriage or family.  I have a wonderful Christian wife, and three grown children with families of their own.  My heart’s treasure is right in front of me whenever I think of them.  When it comes to my time, treasure or talents, there’s no competition – I would choose them over you any day of the week.  It’s not that you’re not a person of worth; it’s just that they are my heart’s love.

But there is a greater love that controls me.  

Life’s choices are many and ever before us.  In choosing to follow Christ I have decided to place Him on the throne of my heart.  And that allegiance supersedes everything, wife, relatives, children and friends.

If someone in my circle of acquaintances, family or neighbors chooses against Christ, that does not mean I would love that person less; indeed, as Christ loved, I would continue to love and perhaps reach out more sympathetically in an attempt to draw them back. 

But, this “love that controls” me cannot control others, nor make their final choices.  In the end, the same freedom in which Christ has offered his love and acceptance to us if we come to him is that very same freedom that permits us to walk away from him. 

We can follow the leader…or not!

Which leads to a sad statement we read in the prophet Amos: 

Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?  Amos 3:3^(NLT)

If I am following Christ and another person follows his own heart, choosing to reject Christ, the two directions will inevitably take us apart. 

And that is the pain of the sword Christ warned us he came to bring, where households would be divided.[2]

For You Today

Got a division in the house?  Reach out with the love of Christ.  While there is breath there is still hope.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] Title image: By Doug Coldwell (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Luke 12