Sheep Food

  “My sheep….they hear My voice…and they follow Me.” (John 10:27) My sheep. They hear… My voice. And they follow Me. In other words, those who hear Him, they do what He says. That’s pretty cut and dry. I often circle back and think about that question Jesus asked some folks there in Luke 6:46- “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do…the things I say?” It is an amazing thing to think that the Creator of the universe, the maker of heaven and earth, is not only willing to speak to us…but He desires to speak to us. And why would that come as such a shock to anyone who claims to know Him…trust Him and believe in Him? For all this talk we offer up about having a “personal relationship with Jesus”…why do some get skittish about the idea that He would actually speak to us? Friends…it’s ok to acknowledge that God speaks to His own people. He always has…He always will. Now whether we want to listen and follow is another matter altogether. But make no mistake about it…God speaks to us

  I have a hunch there are some people who need to read this message today as it might help bring some clarity and even some ‘balance’ to your understanding of what it means for a believer/follower of Jesus to ‘abide’ in Him. And again, I am also aware that if there is any understanding or insight to be gained from reading here, it is solely the work of the Holy Spirit which is always my prayer that He will continue to ‘open the eyes of our understanding’. (Eph. 1:18) There are no shortage of ‘litmus tests’ out there that we use to size up and assess what a ‘true believer’ should look like. There are Lutheran versions and Baptist versions and of course a variety of Pentecostal/Charismatic versions. Believe it or not, I once heard a preacher I knew and sat under make the claim from his pulpit that “You might say you are a Christian but I will know whether you are a Christian by the car you drive.” I kid you not; yet at the time, it was kind of easy to understand the reasoning he was

  “And while they (foolish virgins) went to buy oil, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready… went in with him to the wedding; … and the door was shut.” (Matt. 25:10) Not everyone went in to the wedding; just those…who were ready. Jesus shared this parable talking about these ten virgins who had lamps and all ten of them were looking for the bridegroom to come. (vs.1) Because we know from studying the bible that God often uses types and foreshadows and word pictures to represent truth…it is safe to say that oftentimes the church is represented in these stories by a ‘woman’ or a ‘virgin’. We see this well in Revelation 12:13-17 and the great conflict that arises between the ‘serpent’ who makes war with the ‘woman’ and wants to cause here to be ‘carried away by the flood’ and then takes on her ‘offspring’.(those whom the church has given birth to). We also know that Christ is coming back for a ‘spotless bride’ as Paul details in Eph. 5:27-28). Sounds sort of like a wedding might b

  Do you know what a ‘social media influencer’ is? It’s a relatively new term used to describe a growing number of people who make a pretty good living as an …’influencer’. In short, people can attract large numbers of ‘followers’ on their social media accounts like Instagram or TikTok by things they are constantly doing, saying, or talking about, and when I say large numbers, we are talking up in the millions of people. In turn, they start collecting decent sums of income from an assortment of marketers who sell products for businesses. It might be make-up or camera gear or just about anything that people are willing to purchase because…the person they ‘follow’ pitches it on one of their clips or postings. It really is a ‘thing’… hence the term ‘influencer’. If Noah were alive today and doing ‘his thing’ that he is best known for, (built an ark) it would be laughable to even give a fleeting thought that he might be considered an ‘influencer’. Best we can tell from all we read in o

  “OllyOllyIncomefree….OllyOllyIncomefree…” That’s how I remember that old phrase we used to shout to close out a game of ‘Hide & Seek’. Funny how we can say things, regurgitate things without ever giving much thought to what we are actually saying. Sheep are good at doing that; especially when it comes to hearing things we’ve been taught. We just take it as truth and trust the person who is feeding us that what we have heard could not possibly be wrong. How many of us have been guilty of forwarding an email or sharing some random post on social media that ‘sounded legit’ and it certainly lined up with what we like to hear ourselves…so we just passed it on assuming it was truth. I mean, why bother to verify to make sure what we are spreading is factual or not. Since when did facts matter? (Now I’m digressing with hint of sarcasm) I’m poking myself here now because I know I’ve been guilty of doing things like that, and it usually leaves a shade or embarrassment on my face. Oh

  It would be hard to fully appreciate the panic and horror that one might experience if they woke up in the middle of the night to smell smoke and come to the realization their house was on fire; especially if they had loved ones sleeping in other rooms as well. I personally have never experienced anything on that level. I do remember once waking up during my first year of college and having overslept, I quickly realized I was already late for a final exam that had started 20 minutes earlier. I may have set some land speed records running to that lecture hall that morning in panic. Then, there was that time not long ago when I was flying back home to Texas after being here for the boy’s birth and was informed upon my attempt to get through TSA security that I was at the airport in San Francisco when I was due to fly out of San Jose within the hour. Yeah, I even posted about that one here-(10.23.21) There really is nothing like that sense of dread and anxiousness though that we ca

  “We are not going anywhere until this room is picked up and completely clean!” If you have never uttered that phrase to your own children, no doubt you at least heard it growing up yourself, yes? And a good parent will back up what they say to reinforce that they mean what they say; sort of like what God does. When God told Adam they were not to eat off that one tree or they would surely die…(Gen. 2:17) … did He mean it? And what was the first thing the serpent says in his opening line following his entrance in to this drama? - “Has God really said?” (Gen. 3:1). Then after some brief tap-dancing around some verbiage with a little creative twisting thrown in, he (the serpent) totally turns God’s word around to say just the opposite: “You will not surely die.” (vs 4) Then, many, many ‘pages’ later towards the end of that beloved Bible of ours, we will read more about this ‘serpent’, a.k.a. the ‘devil’ or ‘Satan’ who was cast down to earth along with his angles and he…(are you ready

  What is it with our obsession to constantly be trying to reassure ‘believers’ that they are really “saved”…even admonishing them over and over to ‘not doubt their salvation’? And why do so many sincere church members continue to struggle with those very doubts? You know who you are…those quiet whispers that ‘nudge’ you with a gnawing sense that something is ‘not right’. Or maybe those whispers are not so quiet after you fall on your face, again…in sin… for the umpteenth time, leaving you with a condemning sense of failure as to why you can’t seem to overcome that sin of anger, for example, that blows up at the worse times with people you love the most. Maybe it is the grip of lust that sucks you down that dark hole of temporal euphoria before the crashing waves of guilt pound you. “Am I even saved?!”, you yell out in frustration. For many others, it doesn’t even have to be ‘obvious lapse in behavior’, … you just sense not all is well within. And there is no shortage of those quiet

  If I am not mistaken, it is my understanding that a person who is studying to get their pilot’s license have various maneuvers they must master while learning to fly a small plane. One such maneuver is putting the plane into a ‘stall’ on purpose so as to learn what to do in the event that happens when they are not expecting it. Seems I’ve read they put their plane on a steep climb until the engine dies or ‘stalls’, then as it begins its downward descent, the pilot-to-be pulls it out of that stall and resumes flying. I have a pretty strong hunch that is what has happened to so many sincere ‘believers’ who began a walk with Jesus early on. But somewhere along the way, that walk ‘stalled’; and sadly, no one ever really trained them how to ‘come out of a stall’ and resume the walk. No telling how many eventually ‘crashed and burned’. I’m speaking from personal experience now; but don’t think for a moment I will be short on offering scripture for you to examine for yourself today. A