Sheep Food

  It’s one thing to hear and recognize God’s voice; but it’s another thing altogether to respond to His voice and actually follow His leading. (John 10:27; Heb.3:7-11,15; 4:7). Why bother calling Him ‘Lord’…if we are not going to do what He says? (Luke 6:46). Now I don’t want to come across sounding like I’m suggesting that hearing audible voices in our heads is supposed to be some daily, ongoing experience in our walk of faith; but I’m not going to say that doesn’t or can’t happen either. Both Enoch and Noah had such a testimony that “they walked with God”. I just know I’m not at ‘that place’ yet, myself, but I sure hear Him a lot more these days than what I did in previous years. Some people will stop talking to you when you don’t appear to be listening. Hello? But this idea that we can truly be ‘led by God’s Spirit’ is very attainable for anyone who claims or desires to be a ‘follower’ of Jesus. And yes, I have some very definable moments where I know that I know that I know…...

  Today’s message is kind of a tricky one, where I find myself ‘walking a thin-line’ not wanting to cause anyone unneeded anxiety or self-doubting, but also want to admonish sincere believers to ‘take heed’ and make sure your heart and mind is ‘fixed on Jesus’ and ‘things above’, not on things of the earth. (Col. 3:1-2). The subject matter today has to do with true peace vs. ‘false’ peace. Those who profess to be true followers of Jesus have not only been called to walk in this peace, but we are exhorted to ‘pursue’ it (Heb. 12:14). Peace is a ‘pathway’ to which Jesus leads us down; that is…if we are truly following Him. (Luke 1:79; Isa. 55:12). We talked about this yesterday and can I just tell you that the best way to maintain walking in ‘His’ peace…is to keep your mind stayed on Him because those who do…are promised to have ‘perfect peace’. (Isa. 26:3). Where this can get dicey is when people are convinced they do indeed possess or have this ‘peace’…when in reality it is not;...

  We were talking about the ‘way of peace’, yesterday, and how the Bible states few of us know about it (Rom. 3:17). It is the ‘way of peace’ that Jesus came to lead and guide us in’ (Luke 1:79). This should not come as a surprise to anyone who is familiar with that beloved 23rd Psalm. Surely you are familiar with it: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul, He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” (1-3). That sure sounds like a place of ‘peace’ to me, does it not to you? You might underline that word ‘lead’ which is used twice there, because that is a very important key to maintaining this ‘walk of peace’. If you are going to claim Him as your ‘shepherd’... be sure to acquaint yourself with John 10:27 because that is where Jesus makes it known that ‘His sheep hear His voice, and He knows them…and they follow Him.” You might also jot down Romans 8:14 bec...

  In Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, he exhorted the believers there to do something for their own good; and I suspect that if he told many modern day churches today to do this…it would offend more than a few folks, who might respond with a bristling “How dare you!”. What was his advice he gave…? “Test and evaluate yourselves to see whether you are in the faith and living your lives as [committed] believers. Examine yourselves [not me]! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves [by an ongoing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test and are rejected as counterfeit?” (2 Cor. 13:5 AMP) So, if you were to heed his counsel…where would you begin? What ‘checklist’ would be your ‘go to’ to start the self-exam? As I mentioned yesterday, there are plenty of sincere believers today who are suffering needlessly and are presumably ‘holding on to their faith…barely’ because they don’t seem to be thriving and living this ‘abundant life’ that ...

  Back in 1975…well-known PGA golfer Lee Trevino was struck by lightning while playing a tournament in Illinois. Being the funny guy he was, and a crowd favorite, a story evolved suggesting that at some point leading up to that incident, he had quipped that if you ever get caught in a lightning storm…”wave a 1-iron because even God has trouble hitting it.” I’ll leave it to you to sort the truth from fiction from that urban legend, but I only bring that story up to say this: That is not the way God’s ‘wrath’ works (usually). Let’s be honest though…how dumb would it be to ‘tempt God’ in such a way? (1 Cor. 10:9) We’ve been spending some time delving off into scripture in both the OT and the NT to gain a better understanding as to what this subject of God’s ‘wrath’ is all about. I continue to make the case that our lack of understanding and knowledge of it has led to much needless suffering for so many people, especially those who claim to be a part of God’s household, or ‘family o...

  John the Baptist asked the religious leaders of his day, many, if not most of who were clearly ‘blinded’ to the things of God (Matt. 23:24; 15:14)…”Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matt. 3:7). We are told in John’s gospel that anyone who is not a follower/believer in Jesus…that the ‘wrath of God remains, or abides on them’ (3:36 & Acts 26:18). And Paul would later declare in Romans 1:18- ‘the wrath of God is [being] revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…”. Friends, I would submit to you that many sincere professing believers today have a deficient understanding as to what the ‘wrath of God’ is, why it’s here and how it is relevant to all who are on the earth today. And if/when you ask a professing believer who claims to be ‘saved’…what exactly they are ‘saved from’…few seem to be able to tell you off the top of their heads that it is the ‘wrath of God’ that Jesus came to ‘save us’ from, according to Romans 5:9. In fact most m...

  “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” says the LORD.” (Jer. 23:1) Friends….I’m telling you…we ought not to be in a hurry to call ourselves ‘teachers/preachers’ of God’s word, and James tells us why that is in his letter- “for we who teach will be judged more strictly” (3:1) Do you know why God was not pleased with his teachers/prophets back in Jeremiah’s day? Because “the Lord’s flock was taken captive” (Jer. 13:17); and if you continue on reading chapter 23 there…it will become clear why: “they caused God’s people to err.” (13). Twice, in the first two verses in this chapter, God accuses these teachers, or ‘shepherds’ of being responsible for ‘scattering His flock of sheep’ (1-2). Do you want to know what a scattered flock of sheep looks like? Take a look at Matt. 9:35-36. You’ll probably will recall that Jesus was not real thrilled with the teachers of God’s word back in His day either, calling them a bunch of ‘vipers’ (Matt. 12:34; 23:33)....

  I have a question for you. If you were sitting in a jail cell on death row in a highly fortified prison, and the warden himself came to you and handed you an electronic ‘key-pass’ that would open any and every door for you within that complex until you walked out the front gate, telling you that you were ‘free to go’…would you not take him up on that? If you chose not to, for whatever reasons, it might prompt the warden, or maybe a neighboring cell mate who heard the offer… to ask this question: “How can you neglect so great a salvation?” (Heb. 2:3) So how many sincere ‘Christians’ today are still imprisoned to ‘sin’, and make no effort to hide the fact they are still ‘bound’ and will most likely remain bound…’until they get to heaven’ someday? What did Jesus say about anyone who ‘commits sin’, in John 8:34? And yet once we come to ‘know the truth’…what will this ‘truth’ do for anyone who receives it? (32,36). I’ll be the first one to admit that my understanding to all this did...

  “For [God does not overlook sin and] the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who in their wickedness suppress and stifle the truth…” (Romans 1:18 AMP) Hence…the reason Paul expressed why he had no shame or hesitation in declaring the gospel of Christ, giving this reason: “ …for it is the power of God for salvation [from His wrath and punishment] to everyone who believes…” (16) The gospel, or ‘good news’… that Jesus came preaching teaches us how we might be ‘saved from the wrath of God’, and it begins with ‘repentance’ (Mark 1:15; Matt. 4:17). You might also underline that part where it states it is the ‘power of God for salvation’, with that word ‘power’ implying a super-natural or miraculous working power. Care to guess why we might need such a ‘power’? How about in order to set us free from the power of Satan and sin? (Acts 26:18; 2 Tim. 2:25-26) I mean really…it’s pretty simple and quite profound to think we could have suc...

  A good friend of mine shared this story with me years ago, about how he was sitting in a Sunday School class in a church that prided itself on being ‘Pro-Israel’ as well as being on the ‘right’ side of the ‘political divide’. An elderly deacon in the class chimed in with a passionate statement of support for the nation of Israel, voicing his view that “Israel can do no wrong!” There was just one minor problem with such a blanket statement made by this gentleman: nearly the entire Old Testament is a well-documented account of how Israel was constantly ‘doing wrong’, and then suffering the consequences of God’s wrath for their ‘wrong doings’. God’s ‘chosen people’ were repeatedly falling into sin and rebellion, and then ‘forgetting the Lord their God’, despite the repeated warnings that came through various prophets whom God sent to them. And 'whose' people... were often ‘destroyed for a lack of knowledge’? It was God’s people (Hosea 4:6). It’s not surprising that many people ...

  It’s one of those passages that will stop you dead in your tracks; especially if you have ever pastored a church, taught a Sunday School class, or led a small-group Bible study. You’ll find it in Ezekiel 33, and it’s where God communicated to the prophet these words: “If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity;; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand… So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. ” (33:6-7) That might be why James cautioned ‘wanna-be’ teachers not to be in such a rush to do so… pointing out how “we shall receive a stricter judgment.” (James 3:1) And please let the record show that God makes it known through Ezekiel there…”As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the w...

  So as I made the case for in yesterday’s message…we come to discover that we all have our own unique ‘story’ when it comes to how we met or encountered God for the first time; that is…assuming you have already. For others…that story remains to be written. But we can classify those stories as a ‘personal experience’; and while personal experiences can be wonderful and life changing…that is all they are- a personal experience. It is a waste of time to try and compare your story with someone else’s because God has His own unique way in meeting us where we are at, and we are told that He first has to ‘draw us’ (John 6:44); but that is no guarantee that we will respond to His drawing favorably. I do believe we have a ‘choice’ in the matter (Joshua 24:15) and we can opt to remain in darkness (John 3:19-20) if that is indeed what we ‘love more’. But ‘coming to Jesus’ is a ‘starting place’, not a final destination where we have ‘arrived’. I think the church world at large would do a gr...