You Need to Know the Shepherd!

The other day I watched a video posted on the Godvine website.  It was the sad story of a teenager who ended his own life through suicide.  It described the effect this act had upon his friends and family.  After watching it, a deep longing came over me, a desire for all people to know the comfort, protection and serenity available to them through the Good Shepherd.  In my morning devotions that day, immediately after viewing the video, I read the 23rd Psalm.  My heart cried out: 'If only people could truly grasp the goodness of what our Wonderful Shepherd longs to provide His beloved sheep.  If only they will listen to His voice!'

Please take a moment to watch the video and then continue to read my post about the Good Shepherd.

Here is the link to the video:

http://www.godvine.com/Girl-s-Heartbreaking-Yet-Inspiring-Video-After-her-Friend-s-Suicide-1885.html#.UCOrznoW5yg.facebook

Now please read the 23rd Psalm:

The Lord the Shepherd of His People

A Psalm of David.

23 The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
² He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
³ He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

Now, here are my thoughts: 

We have a Shepherd, my dear ones!  We have a Wonderful Shepherd!  We, like sheep, do often wander off and are in need of this Great Shepherd's guidance.  We have a Good Shepherd, dear ones!  He tenderly cares for us and closely watches over us.  He is our Provider and our Protector.  That is why it would be to our great advantage for us to learn to listen for His voice to guide us while we work to develop a calm faith in His providence. 

Just as a shepherd would lead his flock to a cool meadow in the heat of the day, so our Good Shepherd gently guides us to a place where we may find rest for our weary souls and be refreshed with streams of living waters. 

It is the deep desire of our Shepherd to lead us on the right path, the path of righteousness, which is not always an easy one.  He desires to refresh our spirits and to satisfy our hunger for spiritural nurishment.  He desires to comfort those in distress.  He desires for us to hear His voice.  Listen for the Shepherd!

Though we may find ourselves in a dark and gloomy place, a place where danger may be lurking, we need not fear misfortune, for our Great Shepherd is with us.  He will drive away our enemies and He will relieve us from anxiety.  Look to your Shepherd, dear one!

He prepares for us a table of hospitality, in a secure place, in the presence of our advarsaries.  He desires to generously anoint our heads with the oil of gladness.  Our joy can be overflowing!   Listen to His voice!  Joy can be yours!

Physical well-being and the provision of all our needs will follow us all the days of our lives, along with His divine love and guardianship, if we only will follow after Him!  And we shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever!

Remember, listen to His voice!  Follow the Shepherd!



A response to Bronnie Ware's list of the top five regrets of the dying.

I just read about Bronnie Ware's list of the top five regrets of the dying she noted during her time spent as a nurse working with the terminally ill.  She has written a book detailing her experiences called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying:  A Life Transformed By The Dearly Departing.  It caused me to meditate upon what one's regrets will possibly be when standing before the King of Glory.  I will list each of Bronnie's top five regrets and I will see if perhaps each regret might be a little different before the Throne of Glory.

Regret #1:  I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

Revised Regret #1:  I wish I'd had the courage to live my life true to the way the Lord had intended for me to live and that I hadn't spent so much time trying to please myself or others.

Regret #2:  I wish I'd hadn't worked so hard.

Revised Regret #2:  I wish I'd taken time to rest on the Lord's Sabbath as He commanded and that I had done all of the work I was expected to do for God's Kingdom.

Regret #3:  I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

Revised Regret #3:  I wish I'd had the courage to speak God's words to others and to speak about God's wonderful way of salvation.

Regret #4:  I wish that I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Revised Regret #4:  I wish that I had remained in fellowship with the Lord.

Regret #5:  I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Revised Regret #5:  I wish that I'd followed God's ways which would have filled my heart with joy.

Of one thing I am certain, those who follow after Yeshua will have a lot fewer regrets than those who don't.  He is the Way, the Truth and the Life!  May His Name be praised forever!

Three Things to Share

I was reading the scriptures this morning, as is my habit, and these three were so lovely that I want to share them:

Psalm 66:8-12:  Bless our God, you peoples, and make the voice of His praise to be heard; Who has set our soul in life, and suffered not our foot to be moved.  For You, O God, have tried us; You have refined us, as silver is refined.  You brought us into the hold; You laid constraint upon our loins.  You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out unto abundance.

Just as silver is tested and purified in the refiner's crucible, Israel was made to pass through the fires of suffering and came forth cleansed of dross.  They were nearly crushed by troubles.  Then they were brought out to a place of abundance. 

Malachi 3:1-4 (NASB):   ¹ “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts. ² “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. ³ He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness. ⁴ Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.

He who gives life to our soul also refines us through suffering to produce righteousness.

Psalm 66:16-20:  Come, and hearken, all you that fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul.  I cried unto Him with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue.  If I had regarded iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not hear; but verily God has heard; He has attended to the voice of my prayer.  Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me.

When the king was in peril, he cried out unto the Lord.  If he had been guilty of any wrong-doing, the Lord would not have heard his prayer.  The king praises God for His mercy, not with a complacent self-justification on the score of his own righteousness.  He does not regard God's hearing of prayer as due to him for his integrity, but as an act of grace for which the Divine name should be praised. - Davison, Prof. (Christian Hebraist), The Psalms I-LXXII (The Century Bible).

When we come to the Lord in prayer, we must examine ourselves to see if we are guilty of any wrong-doing first and, if so, do teshuvah (repentance) first and be reconciled to God. 

Psalm 119:169-176:  Let my cry come near before You, O Lord; give me understanding according to Your word.  Let my supplication come before You; deliver me according to Your word.  Let my lips utter praise:  because You teach me Your statutes.  Let my tongue sing of Your word; for all Your commandments are righteousness. Let Your hand be ready to help me; for I have chosen Your precepts.  I have longed for Your salvation, O Lord; and Your law is my delight.  Let my soul live, and it shall praise You; and let Your ordinances help me.  I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant; for I have not forgotten Your commandments. 

The note of joy in the commandments, because of their moral perfection, is distinctively Hebraic.  The king pleads three reasons for an answer to his prayers:-he has deliberately resolved to obey God's precepts; he has long been waiting eagerly for deliverance from the hindrances to obedience which surround him; his devotion has been no grudging service, but his constant delight. 

Unfortunately, those who are called Christians have been taught that God's laws are to be ignored and of little worth.  Obviously, they don't know the scriptures which hold them in the highest esteem.  The laws of God reveal His Divine will for us and if we love Him, wouldn't we naturally want to walk in a manner that pleases Him?  Yeshua never said that the commandments of God were no longer important....Read Matthew 5:17-20:

Matthew 5:17-20:  ¹⁷ “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸ For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹ Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

"I have gone astray" The Hebrew accentuation supports the rendering: 'Should I go astray, like a lost sheep, seek Your servant.'  The Psalmist may be alluding to the frailty which is part of human nature, and prays that, should he ever succomb to his weakness and err, God will speedily restore him to the fold, because His commandments are always in his mind and he longs to be obedient to them.  He may, on the other hand, be using the image of a lost sheep as the symbol of forlorn helplessness and liability to attack without a protector.  If he is in such a condition and at the mercy of the wicked, may God be to him like a watchful shepherd.

"I have not forgotten Your commandments"  The concluding clause of the Psalm sums up its purpose, of which Oesterley gives this fine estimate: 'It is perfectly true that the main purpose of the Psalmist is the glorification of the Law, and the setting forth of the joy that he, as a truly godly man, experiences in observing its precepts; but as he constantly emphasizes, the Law is the expression of the Divine will.  It is not the Law, per se, that he loves; he loves the Law because it tells of God's will; and he loves it because he loves God first. 

Yeshua said: 

Matthew 19:16-17:  ¹⁶ And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” ¹⁷ And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

Yeshua also said this in John 14:15:    ¹⁵ “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

It is also written in 1 John 5:1-4:   ¹ Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. ² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. ⁴ For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

In the end of days, the faithful will also be keeping the commandments, for it is written  in the Book of Revelation, 14:9-13:  ⁹ Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, ¹⁰ he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. ¹¹ And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” ¹² Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. ¹³ And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”

Please note that the scriptures that I use or paraphrase come from either The Psalms from the Soncino Books of the Bible, or from the NASB.

When Judgment Cannot Be Delayed Further

There comes a time for which the wrath of God is to be poured out upon a wicked nation; and even national repentance cannot delay its coming.  Let us consider this event in Israel's history and repent before the evil in our midst is too great to escape judgment.

  

Josiah was the next-to-the-last Judean king to reign before that kingdom's downfall.  He was 8 years old when he began his 31 year reign as king in Jerusalem.  Nearly 2 chapters of scriptures are assigned to the telling of his righteous acts during his reign (see 2 Kings, chapters 22 and 23).  It is recorded that Josiah did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD and he did not turn aside from following the ways of his father (ancestor) King David. 

During the 18th year of his reign he sent the scribe, Shaphan, to the house of the LORD, to Hilkiah, the high priest, to take the money collected at the temple doors and engage workmen to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD.  Hilkiah had found the book of the Law (the Torah) in the house of the LORD which he gave to Shaphan, who read it before the king.

When the king heard the words of the book of the Law, he tore his clothes and commanded that Hilkiah, and others with him, seek a prophet to inquire of the LORD for him and the people and for all Judah, for he realized that the wrath of the LORD was kindled against them because their fathers had not hearkened to the words of the book, to do according to all that was written concerning them. 

They went to Huldah, the prophetess and she said to them: "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel:  Tell the man who sent you to me: 'Thus says the LORD:  Behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read, because they have forsaken Me, and have offered to other gods, and they provoked Me with all the work of their hands.  Therefore, My wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it shall not be quenched.'  But to the King of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall you say unto him:  'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel:  As touching the words which you have heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become an astonishment and a curse, and you have torn your clothes, and wept before Me, I also have heard you, says the LORD.  Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the evil which I will bring upon this place.'"  And they brought back word to the king. 

The king had all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem gathered to him.  He went up to the house of the LORD with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read to them all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD. 

And the king stood on a platform and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments, and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book; and all the people stood to the covenant (accepted it). 

The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all of the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Beth-el.  And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to offer in the high places round about Jerusalem; and those who also offered to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. 

He brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD, to outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it and stamped it to powder and cast the powder upon the graves of the common people. 

He broke down the houses of the sodomites that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wore coverings for the Asherah.  He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on the left as one entered the gate of the city.

Nevertheless, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their bretheren. 

He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnon, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.  He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nethan-melech the officer, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 

He broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD; he beat them down to dust and cast the dust into the brook Kidron. 

King Josiah also defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of th mount of corruption, which Solomon the King of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the detestation of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the detestation of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon.

Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down and he burned the high place and stamped it to powder and burned the Asherah.

And he took the bones that were in the sepulchres in the mount and burned them opon the altar, and defiled it, according to the work of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.  But the bones of the sepulchre of the man of God who had proclaimed that these things would happen were left alone by the command of King Josiah.  And they let the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria alone too.

All the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD Josiah took away and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el. 

He slew all the priests of the high places that were there, upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them; and he returned to Jerusalem.  And the king commanded all the people, saying: 'Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.  And there has not been kept such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; but in the 18th year of king Josiah was this passover kept to the LORD in Jerusalem. 

Those who divined by a ghost or a familiar spirit, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the detestable things that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.  And there was no king like him before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him. 

Notwithstanding, the LORD turned not away from the fierceness of His great wrath, wherewith His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations wherewith Manasseh had provoked Him.  And the LORD said:  'I will remove Judah also out of My sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said: My name shall be there.'

Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, were written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.  In his days Pharaoh-necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates; and king Josiah went against him; and he was slain at Megiddo.  His servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own sepulchre.  Then the people took Jehoahaz his son and anointed him king in his father's stead. 

So, here is an event in history that shows us that when sin is so grievous to the LORD as this, even great national repentance cannot stay His judgment.  Was there ever a more devoted king ruling over Judah?  But the damage had already been done.  God spared Josiah from seeing the destruction by allowing his death in battle.  And yet there remains a day, that great and terrible day, of judgment.