The Joys of Technology

Technology is an amazing thing, especially if you can figure out how to make things work properly!  I apologize if you have signed up to receive this blog by email and nothing has happened.  My tech support (which is my wife!) is trying to work out all the bugs with the blogger and feed burner folks.


Maybe I should offer to raise her pay???  


We hope to have things running smoothly soon.  Thanks for your grace and patience with us.

The Sheep and The Shepherd

"THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD"

Today in ABF class we talked about Psalm 23.  Next to John 3:16, this is probably one of the most often quoted sections of scripture from the Bible.  These words have been sung by mothers to soothe a crying baby, whispered by young men as they ran at an enemy across a bloody battlefield, spoken over a flower covered coffin at a graveside, and recited by children on countless hot summer days during vacation bible school.  

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.  He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.   Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.   You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever".

Most of you probably didn't even really read these verses just now, but glanced over them quickly because you were so familiar with them.   Oh yeah, we got these down pat.   

AND THAT IS THE PROBLEM!    

Our common knowledge - our familiarity - with these verses puts us on dangerous ground.   Do we even really pay attention to the first 5 words?   The words that I believe are the most important in the entire chapter?  A grasp of those first 5 small but incredibly important words is needed to really understand the next 4 words... "I shall not want".

"THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD"

THE = not "a" but "the".   David knew there was only 1 God.   At the time David was writing this psalm, experts believe the Egyptians had 360 different gods; that is a different one for almost every day of the year.   And the Canaanites whom David would have been very familiar with, worshipped many different gods as well.  But David knew His God was "The".

LORD = one who rules over all. The word used for Lord was Jehovah, the Jews most sacred name for deity.  Jehovah is my shepherd! 

IS = always has been, always will be.   Our God is eternal.

MY = not a shepherd, but MY shepherd.  Our relationship with the Lord is personal.

SHEPHERD = responsible for every care the sheep might have, to be their guide, their protector, their constant companion.

"THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD"

The one who never had a beginning and never has an ending, the ruler of the universe, the great I AM is my shepherd!  

But it gets even better.   3 different times in the NT Jesus is referred to as a shepherd.  

John 10, Hebrews 13, 1 Peter 5   

The Good Shepherd lays down His life/The Great Shepherd rose from the dead/The Chief Shepherd is coming to take us out of this mess!

When you think about Jesus in Psalm 23 - you are talking about His deity as Lord and His humanity as shepherd.   A king and a shepherd.   A God who is able and a shepherd who is available.   

"THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD"

Is the Lord your shepherd?   The answer to that is the key to the entire chapter.  

Without Jesus as your Lord and Shepherd - you will never be able to say "I shall not want".   Only the Sovereign and the Shepherd leads to satisfaction.  

So much more that we talked about in class today - especially those next 4 words...

"I SHALL NOT WANT"

We'll catch up tomorrow.  

  

Not Just For Girls

A phenomenon has swept through my home, the homes of my wife's friends, and the homes of most of the female members of my ABF this past year.   It's called "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp.   According to my wife, it is a life changing book.  And yes, I can see a change in her and how she has handled this past year.


The premise of the book is this - be thankful - and keep track of these things that you are thankful for in a journal or notebook of some type all the way up to 1000.  To see God's gift to us in every circumstance, no matter how hard or beautiful it might seem at the time.


The women love it!   But how come it's just them?


Why don't men count their blessings?  
Why aren't we giving thanks in all things?  
And writing them down so we can look back over them?   


I know sometimes we do utter a quick "Thank You Jesus", especially when there are scary moments and we escape back to our normal, everyday life.   But just saying the word "blessings" or "counting gifts" sounds like something a woman might do.  It's almost like we think it could be unmanly to do such a thing.

But Jesus --- the most manly man --- gave thanks --- even on the night before he went to the cross.

"And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”  Luke 22:19 ESV

The second "I" of Uprising/REUP is INTIMACY.  It is centered around spending time journaling and recording God's work and blessings in our lives.  Doing so we leave a memorial of our own for our families and generations to come. 


In Joshua 4:5-7 we read, "⁵ And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, ⁶ that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ ⁷ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”  ESV

How different would we be as fathers, as husbands, as sons, as friends, as employees, as volunteers, as teammates, as bosses if we lived a life of giving thanks?    If we spent time each day recording what God has done in and around our lives?


Henry Ward Beecher said, "The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings"!