Date Posted: 11/23/2012 5:33:49 AM
Posted By: dsimiyu1 Membership Level: Bronze Total Points: 45
“Your Father in heaven is not willing that any of this little ones should be lost.” (Mathew 18:14, NIV)Christ is our good Shepherd and He’s actually on the lookout for flailing sheep!From Scriptures, at the judgment day, our good Lord will be separating the sheep from goats (Matthew 25:31-36). Sheep will be on the right and goats on the left. The born again (sheep) will be told by the King, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ The not born again (goats) will be told, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’So which side are you on?If you study Scripture well, you will discover an important aspect of God’s character; He seeks out those who are lost. That’s why Christ came, ‘to seek and save the lost.’ So if you are lost, you are the person Christ is seeking for. Whenever we wander from the Savior, He will always come looking for us.The Analogy of sheep:It’s no accident that one particular analogy is used repeatedly throughout the Bible to describe God and His relationship with people. God is often described as a Shepherd and we are often described as sheep, probably for good reason.If you were to do a little research on sheep, you’d discover that they are completely defenseless and require more care and attention than any other kind of livestock. They also have mob mentality. They tend to work together in concert. They desperately want to conform. Does it describe anyone you know?A good Shepherd looks out for the welfare of his sheep. As David, the shepherd-psalmist, describes in Psalm 23, a good shepherd leads his sheep to the green pastures and besides still waters. In spite of all the shepherd’s tender care and good intentions, though, the sheep have another trait that is so much like us. They tend to go astray.As the Scripture say, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6).Perhaps that’s why David adds to the list of the Shepherd’s duties, “He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:3). You would think that anyone under the care of the Good Shepherd would never go astray or need restoration. But sadly, that is not the case. Because the sheep are also incredibly stupid, they can be scared by a stray rabbit and run in panic, sometimes to their own detriment. Even more amazing, sheep have actually been known to follow a wayward leader over the face of a cliff, one by one, dropping blindly to their death.It isn’t necessarily a compliment that God, on more than one occasion, compares us to these dense, wayward creatures. He could have said, “My chimpanzees hear My voice,” comparing us to a relatively intelligent animal. Or perhaps, “My dogs hear My voice.” But no. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice.” He says that because we are just like them.Why do we run from God? Why do we disregard His plan for our lives? Isn’t it amazing that we break God’s commandments, ignore His Word, and then-when we begin to reap what we have sown-actually got angry at God about it? In essence, we blame God for a mess that we ourselves have made, a problem of our own design. Let’s consider why sheep might need to be restored. In Psalm 42:1, David cries out, “why are you cast down, o my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him.” The phrase in that verse for ‘cast down’ is an old English shepherd’s term for a sheep that has turned itself over on its back and cannot get up again by itself. This would leave the sheep in a vulnerable position, flailing away its legs, an easy target for predators such as a wolf or vultures.It’s interesting that the sheep that are most vulnerable to being cast down are those that are, in correct terminology, well fed. Or, to put it in plain terms, the fat sheep. The heavy, fat sheep will lie down comfortably in some little hollow in the ground and roll on its side slightly to sort of relax. Suddenly the center of gravity in the body will shift so that the sheep will turn on its back far enough so the feet no longer touch the ground. The sheep, feeling a sense of panic, begins to kick frantically, and that only makes matters worse. It’s like a tortoise being stuck on its shell upside down. He just can’t get turned over again.Once this happens, the sheep is in serious trouble, and will die in a matter of hours. So if the Shepherd recognizes that one of His flocks is missing, He will go searching for it. Knowing that time is of the essence, He looks for signs to direct Him to the sheep, such as circling vultures that think they are about to have a leg of lamb for dinner. The Shepherd must get to the sheep as quickly as possible to put it back on its feet-essentially to restore it.Of course, the sheep had no intention of getting into this dilemma. It started innocently enough. But one thing leads to another, and suddenly it’s in desperate need of the shepherds’ immediate help. Again, it’s the well-fed sheep that are most vulnerable to being cast down. In the same way, often those of us who are the most vulnerable to sin are not the weakest but the strongest.You say, “What? It seems that the weak believers would be most vulnerable.” Well yes, they can be, but sometimes weak people recognize their vulnerability and as a result, stay closer to the shepherd and under His care. But the strong and fat feeling their oats, say, “I don’t need to be that close all the time. I will just wander off on my own and kick back over here and take it easy.” It’s at those moments when we lower our guard that we can be hit by an onslaught of fiery arrows from hell. So we must always keep our guard up. As the Scripture say, “Let him who thinks he stands take head lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).David himself, the author of Psalm 23, is a case in point. The Bible tells us in 2 Samuel 11 that when the time had come for kings to go forth in battle, David was relaxing on his rooftop. He was taking a little siesta when he spied a beautiful woman named Bathsheba bathing herself. You know the rest of that story. Just one look, that’s all it took.Of course there is nothing wrong with taking a little vacation. And certainly there’s nothing wrong with resting. But timing is everything and a king should not be on vacation when it’s time to lead his troops into battle. In essence, David was taking a spiritual vacation. He was taking a little time off from walking closely with God and from spiritual pursuits. At this point in his life we don’t read about his playing the harp and singing praises to the Lord as he had done as a young shepherd boy out in the hills, where he composed many of his beautiful devotional psalms. Maybe he was resting looking at all the good he had done. Whatever the case, he was like an overfed sheep that lay down to relax, lost its center of gravity, and was suddenly cast down and in desperate need of the shepherd’s help.Do you need restoration right now? Maybe you have strayed into sin or gotten yourself into trouble. You may even think that God is looking for you-hunting you down so that He can give you what you deserve for your mistakes.Au contraire! God loves you. He misses you. And just as in the story that Jesus told of the shepherd who left the ninety-nine sheep to go after the one that had gone astray, God is seeking you out, wanting to put you back on your feet.God is just as patient toward His wayward child as He is toward the reluctant convert-But remember, time is of essence.
Next: Discover how caution and boldness works in businessPrevious: Making job advertisements
Get premium membership