Sheep Food

  Well our Texas bluebonnet season has come and gone once again...what remaining flowers being overtaken by the growing grass and such before they continue the cycle of dying, going to seed, and falling into the ground where they will lay dormant for another year. Then as God designed it all, they will again spring back to life and provide so many of us with beautiful scenery, not to mention gorgeous backdrops for picture taking.   I’ve witnessed this phenomena of nature for years now and oftentimes, when driving by certain locations where I have taken photos in the past, I will remind myself that lying there beneath the dried out ground that has baked underneath a hot August sun here in Texas...lie seeds of our beautiful state flower and in due season...they will rise again.   I find a similar mystery with God’s word. Scriptures and passages that lie there between the covers of my bible...have always been there and I’ve read them countless times over and over...

  Picking up where I left off yesterday...We read in Matthew 9 where Jesus sat down to eat with ‘many tax collectors and sinners’. (10).   Some Pharisees, apparently a bit put off by this, asked some of the disciples why Jesus would waste time eating with such heathens. (11).   Jesus overheard them and answered their question directly: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick....I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (12-13)   Later on in this very same chapter, we read “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” (35)   The next verse really gets next to me...”When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”(36). If you are curious as to how the people ended up...

  I’m pretty sure we understand how important a good foundation is. Foundations have to do with beginnings. Making sure things are level and solid make all the difference in constructing a new home or building. If we don’t ‘get it right’ at the start, it will only manifest later down the road in a more serious manner. I think most of us who have grown older and look back over our lives...could attest to this and offer up how we might have done things ‘differently’ if we had a ‘do over’. Unfortunately, we don’t get ‘do overs’. Fortunately, God’s grace can meet you wherever you are and ‘fix things’ if we would just allow Him in.   Years ago, a good friend advised me with this nugget of truth when we were building homes and cabinets: “If you don’t have the time to do it right the first time (as in we like to get in a hurry)...where are you going to find the time to go back and fix it later?   Yesterday’s post brought home the point that in both the OT story o...

  You do realize that the early church did not have a leather bound King James Version of the bible to carry around with them to study and preach from, yes? In fact, they had no New Testament. What they did have though, was an incredible presence of God’s power and Spirit that was working mightily among them and through them. And when they met together to pray and study, they did spend time in the ‘word’. Acts 17:11 tells us that after Paul and Silas went to Berea and shared the gospel in the synagogue there, that those folks “received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” (*note-‘received the word* for later.)   Do you know what they studied when they ‘searched the scriptures’? – What we would call the Old Testament. Now what is interesting is today, there are many who are under the impression that since we now have a ‘new testament’, that we no longer need God’s incredible presence and power worki...

  Who has time today to ‘read the small print’, right? How many of you when downloading a new app or software to your computer/phone, when you see that box open up with multiple paragraphs of terms of agreement, read through it all before you ‘click on I agree’? Ha...we are more like about ‘Yeah...Yeah...I agree with this...just let me open up this deal so I can get about my day!”   What’s that old saying about the ‘devil is in the details’? I don’t know about that, but we sure do read over much of what God has to say in His word like it’s small print. We like to hear about God’s promised blessings yet really don’t give enough time to ‘read the small print’ and how to receive them. The Israelites did that all the time. Moses would lay down God’s laws and the people were all like “Yeah...Yeah...we’ll do everything the Lord commands us.” (Ex. 19:8; Deut. 5:27)   Do you think we are guilty of that today? Look at John 15:9-13. This comes on the heels of Je...

  I want to visit an OT book today. I think you will find interesting, some relevant truths woven into the story of Joshua who led the Israelites into the Promised Land, and how it relates to us today adding more insight to what I’ve been addressing here of late. Keep in mind, Paul mentions in 1 Cor. 10 that the things that these people experienced back then serve ‘as warnings and examples to us today upon whom the ends of the ages have come’. (11)   You may or may not be familiar with the term and usage of ‘types’ that serve as examples of foreshadowing…God laying the groundwork back then to illustrate what His future plans would be in His ultimate design for the redemption for mankind. i.e.- Moses was a ‘type of Christ’ who lead the people out of the bondage of Egypt. Egypt of course, being a ‘type of the world’ and Pharaoh a ‘type of Satan’. Jesus came to set us free from spiritual bondage. Moses leading them through the Red Sea was a ‘type of baptism’. They wer...

  I don’t drive across country for a living....but I’ve had my share of road trips. Who hasn’t made a trek across state lines before, driving where you’ve never been, and after a while you have this subtle yet gnawing sense...that you might not be on the right road. Perhaps you missed an exit or just need a mile marker of sorts to confirm that you are indeed heading in the right direction. I’m guessing most of us have experienced that before.   I will also admit discovering I missed a turn somewhere use to be an intense trigger of irritation for me. I HATE having to ‘backtrack’... talk about a waste of time! But such is life. We get distracted...preoccupied and we miss hearing that ‘soft, quiet voice’ that says ‘go this way’ and in turn, we go another.   Perhaps that is why our bibles our FULL of repeated warnings that we ‘take heed’ and ‘be not deceived’....’lest we drift’, etc. I closed out yesterday’s post with Paul’s admonition for us to ‘examine ours...