pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: shepherd


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Know and Follow

Reading: John 10: 1-7

Verses 3 and 4: …the sheep listen to his voice… his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

In a devotional I read, there is a story about sheep following their shepherd.  As the writer sat and observed, a real shepherd walked along a very narrow and dangerous path along a steep ridge.  One after another, several dozen sheep dutifully followed along the path.  One after another they walked along a path that none would have taken on their own.

This little snippet reveals much about the typical shepherd-sheep relationship.  First, the shepherd was willing to lead his flock through dangerous placed because he knew greener pastures lay ahead.  Second, the sheep knew and trusted the shepherd.  The sheep know their shepherd’s voice and will follow him where he leads.  In fact, sheep will run from a voice they do not know.  Third, the shepherd cares for his sheep.  He is bringing them to a place with good food.  He will protect the sheep, both along the journey and once they arrive. He will keep them together and will defend them for wolves, robbers, …  He genuinely cares for the sheep.

In our passage, Jesus is using the shepherd-sheep analogy to illustrate our preferred relationship with Him.  Jesus wants to be our shepherd.  He wants to lead us to “green pastures” – to life in the full.  He wants to protect us from the dangers and temptations of the world.  He was even willing to lay down His life to do so.  For our part, we are the sheep.  We need to know His voice.  We study His voice in the Bible and we learn to recognize it when the Spirit nudges and whispers to us.  We come to be able to differentiate Jesus’ voice from the many voices of the world.  These other voices are voices we should run from.  Once we come to know Jesus’ voice, He wants us to follow.  He will lead us well.  For our part this means doing what Jesus did and loving as Jesus loved.

May we know the Good Shepherd’s voice and may we follow where He leads.


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He Restores My Soul

Reading: Psalm 23: 1-3

Verses 2b and 3a – He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul.

Psalm 23 is well known.  At its core it speaks of resting in and trusting in the Lord.  The Psalm uses the common shepherd-sheep analogy to illustrate our relationship with God.  In a society that was highly agrarian, the original readers would have related well to this analogy.  Today many would have to google it to find a video that explained it.  Articles are just too much.  (I am only half joking.)

The relationship between a shepherd and their sheep is exclusive.  The shepherd will do anything to protect and care for the sheep.  The sheep will only follow the voice of their shepherd.  This very well parallels our ideal relationship with God.

Just as it did in David’s day, life gets busy for us too.  Just as it did back then, the voices of the world were loud and called often.  Just as it was back in the day, we need time to step away, to find some solitude, to reconnect deeply to God.  In the Psalm, this place of quiet and solitude was out in a meadow beside some still waters.  One can easily imagine birds singing as butterflies flutter around.  Just envisioning it brings a lot of peace.

I try and get out to walk each morning.  It is just around the streets of our small community.  As I walk past homes and businesses, there is time to think and pray.  As I walk past churches and the jail and the courthouse and the schools, there is opportunity for specific prayers.  My walk is definitely not through green pastures and the still waters are puddles from melting snow.  But I am outside in God’s creation, enjoying the sounds of the birds, connecting with God in a time of quiet prayer and reflection.  It is good for my soul.

This day may we all find a quiet time and space to be outside in God’s beautiful creation, allowing God’s presence to restore our soul.


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Faithful Sheep

Reading: Jeremiah 23: 1-6

Jeremiah expresses God’s anger towards those who have allowed the people to wander from God and to be scattered.  There is the implication that the leaders have acted in ways that lessened the peoples’ faith.  “Destroyed” is the term used in one translation.  If we look back just one chapter, we find the story of evil kings who have lived far from God’s ways.  Not only did they not tend to the flock, but they led them astray, through idol worship and godless living.

God proclaims punishment on the poor leadership.  At the same time, the loving God promises to gather up the flock.  God will return the poor sheep to the pasture they were intended to live in – to faith in God alone.  God states that here, back in a right relationship with God, they will prosper and be fruitful and will increase in number.  God will bless them.  In this way God seeks to return humanity to the original intent: created in God’s image, living in Union with God.

This is God’s desire for us as well.  As the new sheep of God, we too are prone to wander, to stray.  God continues to work to bring us back to our faith and to dwelling in the pasture of God.  In Jeremiah we see the promise of a future King, one of the line of David.  Unlike the Kings of Jeremiah’s days, this King will rule wisely and with justice and righteousness.  This King will be named Jesus.

In Jesus, our good shepherd, we have the image and love of God lived out in the flesh.  Through a personal relationship with Jesus, we come to live in union with God and to understand God’s love for us.  In Jesus, we have a king we can look up to.  In Jesus, we have a king whose example we can follow.  And through Jesus, the gift of the Holy Spirit comes to continually shepherd, guide, and protect us, drawing us ever closer to living a life worthy of our King, Jesus Christ.  Each day may we faithfully follow Christ and His example, ever seeking to bear witness to God’s love and mercy.


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He Is with You

Reading: John 20: 19-31

In the hours and days after the crucifixion, the disciples hid in fear.  They gathered together for support, but we’re basically in hiding.  Who could blame them?  One may occasionally slip out but they returned quickly, probably with one eye turned back to see if they were being followed.  If the authorities could so easily strike down the shepherd, what resistance could the sheep really offer?

Fear was real and palpable amongst the disciples.  They had good reason to be hiding behind locked doors.  Then Jesus comes and stands in their midst.  Both times He opens with the same line: “Peace be with you”.  I imagine there was a short pause before He continued to talk.  Jesus could have offered them anything.  He chose peace.  Fear was controlling them and Jesus knew that for them to go on from here, to begin to spread the good news, that their fear must be conquered.

When asked why one did not share their faith or why one could not bring themselves to invite a friend to church or why one decided not to help the one in need before them, the answer is usually the same: fear.  In our minds we may try to rationalize our failure to act with some other excuse.  But when being truly honest, dear is usually the main reason.  So Jesus’ words speak to us too in our weakness, in our fear: peace be with you.  Peace be with you.  Peace.

‘Calm your fears my child, my peace is with you” – step out in trust and invite that hurting friend to church.  ‘Feel my peace washing over you’ – in faith share that burning message in your heart with the one who is seeking.  ‘Sense my peace washing away your fears’ – in the helping of a stranger, Christ is present.  Peace be with you.  Fear not, for He is with you.  Peace be with you.  Peace.


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The Shepherd

Psalm 23 is probably the most well-known psalm.  It is so well-known because of its content.  It speaks so beautifully of the relationship we have with God.  In the words of the psalm we hear how fully David trusts in God because he knows God is always there.

In the psalm God is in the role of the shepherd.  David, and later Jesus, will come to play the role of shepherd as well.  In all of these cases the people are the sheep under the loving shepherd’s care.  This care is spelled out so so richly in Psalm 23.  Today we are the sheep as well.  In this care we find our needs are met.  We find times of rest when we refresh our souls.  We find both guidance and protection.

Beyond these basics, we also find care that extends to our spiritual and emotional needs.  The Good Shepherd prepares for us a table and blesses us with oil.  With Him we are assured that goodness and mercy will be with us all of our days.  Within this relationship we come to see that we do indeed dwell in the house of the Lord all our days.

When we get to this place in our relationship with the Shepherd, the fears, doubts, and other concerns of life do not have a grip on us.  We trust in His care. We rest in His love.  When we know our Shepherd is walking with us through all of life, then we begin to live life to the fullest.  Not only do we live in and enjoy the abundance of God’s grace and love, but we begin to share Him with others.  Our cup overflows into other’s lives.  Through sharing how the Shepherd cares for and loves us, we help others to come into His care as well.

Scripture reference: Psalm 23


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Attuned to the Voice

Who would we identify as prophets of God in our world today?  Is it the big TV evangelists or the mega church lead pastors?  Is it the pastor of your local church or the leader of your small group?  Is it your spouse or best friend?  Yes, yes, yes, and yes!  A prophet can be all of these at certain times and points in our life an it can be others not mentioned above.  God can still speak in many ways through a wide variety of people.

Surely prophets are people like Moses, Elijah, and Jesus.  While this is a pretty impressive list, the Bible is full of prophets – many of whom came from out of nowhere.  Many spoke the word God gave them and faded back into regular life.  In this sense, we live today among many prophets.  Some are here for a while and others only for a short period of time.

One of the main jobs of a prophet is to align the people of faith with the will of God.  In this sense they help guide like a shepherd.  A prophet can also offer correction as we stray from God’s plan.  In our personal lives this comes mostly when we pursue worldly idols and when we fall to temptation.

In these terms, the voice of God can be heard from the many prophets in our lives.  We too may be a prophet to others.  We all need to be attuned to the voice that God has given a message to.  God is still very much alive and well and active in our world.  May His voice continue to lead and guide us all.

Scripture reference: Deuteronomy 8: 15-20


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All the Sheep

When Christians reflect on the parable of the sheep and the goats, in general we think we are all sheep.  We consider ourselves to all be in the flock, under the care of Christ, the Good Shepherd.  Ezekiel 34 points out, however, that all sheep aren’t always good sheep.

Even with the flock that is our church, sometimes a sheep can try to bull its way or its agenda through the other sheep.  Sometimes a group of sheep fail to take the whole flock’s wellbeing into consideration.  Sometimes the flock doesn’t notice the ones on the edge, struggling to make it out there on the margins.

As Christ’s body we are all connected together, all a part of one another.  The Good Shepherd is concerned with all of the sheep.  He calls us to be concerned with all as well.  As we grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ, we too gain eyes to see the needs and hearts that seek to love.  As Jesus cares for and loves us, we are in turn empowered to love and care for each other, especially the ones that are struggling and lost.  The blessings that God has entrusted us with are meant to be shared so that all may be blessed.

Scripture reference: Ezekiel 34: 20-24


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Well Done

The shepherd is looking for a few good sheep.  He searches for us so that He can gather us up, take us to good pasture.  There He will tend to our needs.  If any wander off, He will seek them.  If any hurt, He will heal them.  Ezekiel lays out a kind, loving, caring shepherd role for Christ.

Isn’t it comforting to know that Christ the King is such a loving shepherd?  Yet Jesus is also the King of kings and Lord of lords – absolute, sovereign, and in total control.  Ultimately Christ came to sit as judge over all of creation.  For us this is a present and future reality.  For some this is a discomforting thought.

On a day to day basis Christ is a loving, caring, nurturing shepherd, kindly caring for all the sheep.  And what is our response?  To do the same for other sheep, even for those who are lost?  When we choose to live and love as Jesus did, then we have no fear of Christ as judge.  Because on the day when we stand before Him, seated on the throne, He will say, “Well done good and faithful servant.”  Can’t you just see Him smiling as He repeats, “Well done”?

Scripture reference: Ezekiel 34: 11-16 and 20-24


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Calling All Sheep!!

The church I serve is the downtown area of a small city in a rural state.  We are in and amongst some sheep that are not like our ‘average’ sheep.  Most of the flock comes from neighborhoods where they must drive to church.  The body is made up of many loving sheep from lots of the different pastures around town.  But when we come together we form one body.  Gathered there and when apart, we all strive to listen to the same One voice of Jesus.  In His voice we find nurture and protection, guidance and conviction, strength and comfort, love.

Occasionally ‘another’ sheep wanders into our enclosure on a Sunday morning or on a Wednesday night.  Sometimes, to the casual observer, they are hard to identify as not being of our flock.  In other cases, it is easy to see they are not part of the regular flock.  But do we realize that almost all of these sheep are seeking to hear the same One voice we are there to hear?  On Wednesdays some of these ‘other’ sheep are there trying to find a warm meal and to be in a safe places for a little while.

As the Good Shepherd, his voice calls out to us all.  Not just to some – to all!  As we find ourselves next to a sheep that is different from ‘us’, may we NOT look them over with the “What are you doing here?” look in our eyes.  Instead, may we show them the same love we would show our own spouse or son or daughter.  He is calling them too.  There is no one Jesus wants to see outside the fold.  Why should we?


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What a Shepherd!!

Sheep have a reputation for being animals that lack intelligence.  They are known to do stupid things at times – they wander off and find themselves lost or in danger.  When the shepherd isn’t around or when they cannot hear his voice, they can become lost or worse.

Sheep are a pretty good metaphor for us, aren’t they?  Not the lacking intelligence part – humans are pretty capable intellectually.  But this make it all the more ironic that at times we too wander away from Jesus, our shepherd.  We know He paid a price.  We know he bled, suffered, and died to pay for our sins yet sometimes we are prone to wander off down a different road.

When the shepherd notices a sheep is missing, he will search for that sheep until he finds it and bring it back to safety.  At times, danger comes near the sheep.  The shepherd takes up staff or sling and protects the sheep.

When we wander away, surely we will hear His voice.  When I hear Him calling, ‘John, where are you?’ then I respond, ‘Here!  Here!  Here I am!’ and I come running back.  As I come to walk again with the shepherd I wonder why I ever went astray.  But Jesus just smiles ad welcomes me back into the fold.  There is no “tsk, tsk’ or sad look in His eyes.  Just a smile and love in the eyes.  At times, do you hear Him calling?  Run to Him!  He will do the same for you.  Jesus offers love, grace, and mercy to all.  What a Good Shepherd we have!!!