Say What?

The Sheep

There were a couple of comments made in my previous blog, The Leading, that struck a chord and begged for a response.  It was about the bell some of the sheep were wearing. This bell was placed by the shepherd on their necks to distinguish them or (set them apart) from the others, letting the shepherd identify which ones actually would respond to his voice.  The ringing of the bells, hopefully, drew the remainder of the sheep to follow the bell-ringing sheep.  

My question, what bell or sound are we following? 

There are so many sounds in this world today, it seems that everyone in the world wants you to follow them. Those sounds can be so enticing, promising to satisfy our every need and want, even some desires we didn't even know we had!  So carefully crafted are these worldly sounds that masses flock to them.  The media calls them trends, fads, and marketing.  If you don't follow some of these sounds you might be labeled as out-of-touch, old-fashioned, or not keeping up.  I remember when I was there, in my past, listening to those voices and wanting to keep up, and thinking there was something wrong with others when they didn't/wouldn't keep up.  Then one day, without realizing it, I saw the falseness of a lot of those sounds; promises that never amounted to anything, answers that never came to pass.  I had put a lot of time and energy into something that wasn't even real! They were lies that had no substance, like clouds with no rain.  I felt drained.  I was listening to the wrong sound and being led by something that was leading me down a spiraling path that seemingly had no end.  With my wheels spun bald and still hoping I would find what I thought I needed.  Maybe you can relate.  Maybe you also have been searching for something but looking in wrong places, or maybe you have been listening to the "wrong" sound.

Now...back to those sheep.  Can you see that grassy meadow with all those grazing sheep in it? Can you see the shepherd with a staff in his hand keeping a close eye on those sheep? What if the shepherd is not a good shepherd?  What if he has only controlling ideas about how to keep "his" sheep because he has heard a sound that will satisfy his needs?  Yes, it happens, and what?...not all shepherds are good ones?  Well, dear one, here's the proof text:

The Warning

Jeremiah 23:1 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord.


Ezekiel 34:10 "Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them."


Jeremiah 50:6 “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold."

From these verses, we can see a description of shepherds who are not taking care of the Lord's sheep:

• They destroy the sheep

• They scatter the sheep

• There's no food for the sheep

• They feed themselves at the expense of the sheep

• They satisfy only their selfish desireThey lead the sheep astray, away from the Mountain of God, heading downward

• They have allowed the sheep to stray to other folds

The Sound

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27

The Promise

Jeremiah 3:15 “‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Jeremiah 23:4 "I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord."

Ezekiel 34:23 "And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd."

Ezekiel 37:24 “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes."

The Davidic Messiah, Yeshua, shall be Shepherd King over all His sheep. He will:

• Place shepherds over His flock that have His heart

• They will graze on the food of knowledge and understanding (the Word/Torah)

• Place shepherds who have His heart and care more for the flock than themselves

• Remove fear from the sheep

• Remove dismay from the sheep

• Ensure none will be missing

• Be One King over them

• Ensure all shall walk in His rules

• Ensure all are careful to obey His statutes

• Ensure all will be given a heart to understand, eyes to see, and ears to hear (Deut.29:4)

Here's my short list of some of the lies bad shepherds propagate in the Name of the Lord:

• They teach that the Shabbat is on Saturday, but we should only worship on Sunday

• They teach that we can eat anything we want because that is what they want to eat

• They teach that Christmas and Easter replace Chanukah and Passover

• They teach that the Old Testament is done away with

• They teach that the "church" has replaced Israel

My list goes on and on, these are only a few of the highlights.  But folks, these are lies. Please check it out for yourself.  If you search, you will find the truth. We need to turn (repent) from the fallacies and learn to live by His Word, by following His commands  Yeshua never came to do away with the Torah, He IS the living Torah/Word!

He said on the road to Emmaus with two of His disciples in Luke 24:25-27 "And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."

Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets is an idiom that includes all of the Tanakh, which is Hebrew for the old Testament.  So why would He do away with it, or abolish it, if He came to fulfill and demonstrate how to live it?  Are the Ten Commandments done away with? No.

Then further on in verses 44-47: "Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for[ the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem."

In Acts 3:19 says "Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out"

Conclusion

So, if His sheep are repentant, they will turn from the lying ways they had been listening to because they hear His voice and turn to follow Him and His ways.  This is a metaphor for hearing in order to study and do His commands.  

This can be complicated to say the least.  Maybe you thought you have been in the right place and say to yourself, "so what if I make a mistake, God knows my heart!" I know I did! But nowadays, it feels like we are running out of excuses.  It is so important to really listen and discern what and who you are listening to.  Maybe you have been fed a bunch of lies too.  I dare say we all have as it has been passed down through our generations and now we call it truth.  But today, God is raising up true Davidic shepherds who have His heart, who are discerning from His Torah what a true shepherd is, and how to feed His sheep.

And finally, some food for thought about sheep:

• They cannot right themselves from certain positions and will need help to get upright or they can die

• They are prey animals and their natural instinct is to flee and not fight

• They would rather avoid and run away from danger

• Wild sheep evade predators better than domesticated ones.  Domesticated ones rely on man for protection from predators

• They will band together for safety

• They never walk in a straight line, they produce winding trails

• They can perceive danger from predators

• They can direct their ears to the direction of the sound

• They have an amazing tolerance for pain

• They don't like to show pain and appear weak or injured for fear of predators

• They can respond to a trusted voice

• They can recognize faces

• They can recognize those who have abused them

These traits sound a lot like us, don't they? I love being cared for by the Shepherd according to the 23rd Psalm. I hope you will find encouragement from it and the Prophets after reading this blog. Yeshua is the Great Shepherd to be fully trusted.  And as His sheep, we must learn to recognize His Voice.  He speaks loud and clear through the Holy Scriptures and leads us in paths of righteousness for His Name sake, He will restore our souls. It will take us all our lives to continue to wisely discern His beautiful voice, as there are many other voices out there and all kinds of shepherds who are battling for control of our souls.  Let's keep our ears open to hear (Shema) Him!  Shavua Tov!

Man in the Mirror

When you look in the mirror each morning, what do you see?  Well, what I see when I look in the mirror depends on how well I slept, or maybe find a pesky pop up pimple again or, hey, is that more gray hair?  Where did that come from?  And sure enough, we always seem to look for ways to cover it up, you know what I mean!

But, seriously, when we look in the mirror, doesn't it determine how we see ourselves.? Not only on the outside but also on the inside.  Shouldn't I be asking myself if what I see is really how the Lord sees me?

There is a Scripture in 1 Samuel 16:7 that says, "But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.  For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."" (ESV).

Now I don't think the LORD was talking about king Saul being vertically challenged (in the tall sense) but instead if he would be obedient to what the prophet Samuel told him to do. This king was chosen by the people for his outward appearance because the people thought he looked like a king but the Lord saw the disobedience lying in his heart.  This is getting pretty real here.

I am not writing to preach a sermon about the Messianic kingdom.  Many of you already know this verse and the story.  What I do want to say is I have repeated this verse (God looks at the heart) many times to my (yikes, stiff-necked) self in the past when I did or said something I shouldn't have done to cover it up.  I have even mentioned it to others and tried to make them feel better by saying, "but God knows your heart!".  If we're not careful, we can use Scripture as a bandaid, instead of really picking up that ol' mirror and looking at our own heart and let true motives and objectives be revealed.  It's not easy sometimes to see ourselves as the Lord sees us.  And who wants to be rejected, anyway? That preconceived notion we carry in the back of our minds that tells us we are somehow okay before God but never truly dealing with our own internal issues.  We all have weaknesses and the Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 12:10, "He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you" (ESV). This is a powerful statement because the Creator sees our hearts truthfully, clearly, and unobstructed. Only He knows what it takes to create in us a pure heart.

So why are we so good at changing our outward appearance like hair color, buying the latest cosmetic to cover and dare I say erase those unwanted areas?  We go to great lengths and expense to try the latest trend.  Well, to be truthful does any of it ever really work? No.  The most important area we could ever allow the Lord to work on is our inward part, our heart, our mind, our soul.  Of course, we would have to give up our control, and be willing to yield under His hot, cleansing pressure.  That can be messy but so worth it! It is life to us!

Again, the Lord is so much smarter than we are.  I believe He wants us to focus on who we are in Him on the inside.  You know the word, it's called character.  It's an over-used word that somehow has begun to de-sensitive us into deceiving ourselves that we are okay just because we do this or that.  Well, I will admit I am not okay.  I am still trying to learn a life-long objective: to be cleaner on the inside than on the outside.  My goal is to possess a heart so pure, that I can see God, to reflect His goodness in the land of the living, and to be a woman after His heart. That is my only objective. The coolest thing is this part is easy and hard,  I only have to yield up my heart to Him and turn away (repent) from the evil inclination - for God is faithful to perform the hard part, the surgery.  After all, His yoke is easy and His burden is light, right? (smiling).

Also, it takes discipline to be in His Word every day.  I try, most days I am, but I stumble too.  It takes diligence and His Spirit working in me to be faithful and to learn to rightfully divide that Word in order to apply it to my daily life. As my late brother said, "In the book of James, you don't have to dig, there are golden nuggets just laying there in the open!"  So true, and we can pick them up and take them to heart, or we can put them on a shelf to display them, or be willing to be the display and reflect them to others!

The Holy Scriptures lay out the foundation of right living.  It sets our feet on the path of Life. Those Scriptures are called the Torah, (first 5 books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). They go into great detail of how to live a life that is beneficial to us; key word: Repentance. Yes, the Lord, our Living Torah, is into the very smallest detail of how we live out our days. Ever patiently waiting, like the perfect parent watching His child grow up.

Lastly, reading His Word is important because therein lies the path to His blessings.  It puts a fence of protection around us.  Like sheep living in a pasture protected by the Shepherd of our souls.  And yes, He also sees what kind of heart we have.  Just because they are called sheep does not mean they lose their identity.  They are like-minded, you know, like kind, producing after itself? So it is with people who belong to Him.  I am pretty sure you know all this, but I am reminding myself how to look in the mirror and remember that He sees me as a "King's kid", as my mom used to say.  That always reminds me to lift up my head and remember that He has given me a body to take care, a family to grow up in, and to trust that He will light my path of Life.  My goal is to reflect Him always, how about you?

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The Leading

For my very first post, please let me say how grateful I am for a venue that allows us to share about our wonderful Savior, Yeshua, (Jesus) and the life-changing direction we are given that He calls the path of life.

The Spirit of the Lord has "taken me by the hand and led me to everyone I ever met, to learn something from."

When I say, Spirit of the Lord, I am speaking about Yeshua, the Living Torah, the greatest One I have ever had the privilege of giving my life to and being led by His hand. He is my Shepherd and I am a sheep of His pasture.

In a flock, there are also other sheep.  In any flock I have ever seen, sheep seem to all be peacefully grazing or lying down with one another.  I have never seen any commotion stirring in the field. Maybe they do but I just have never witnessed that.  If people are like sheep, then maybe there is something to their behavior and relationships that we can learn with our relationships with one another.

I believe we can learn from everyone we meet, no matter who they are.  Hasn't it always been and will be about relationships with others?  Some are easy, some take time, some you wish you had never met.  But each and every one can be that little piece of what was missing in the puzzle of your life.  We all need each other, and some might need you more than you need them. If that's the case, then let's share with each other and graze on God's good Word, peacefully.

Remember in the Exodus, the Lord spoke to Moses.  Moses shepherded Israel out of Egypt and into the Wilderness.  When Moses died, Joshua was chosen to lead Israel into the Promised Land.  I see Moses and Joshua as the shepherds and Israel as the flock. The Lord was the great Shepherd over them all.  Even though there was a lot of grumbling and complaining throughout that 40 year journey, the Lord was faithful to provide for them.

Relationships are not easy, this path of life is not easy, many tests and temptations, circumstances and problems can really stop us in our tracks sometimes, but if we can keep our focus on the Lord and how He wants us to behave we will stay on the right path.  A path that leads to life, a path that can be followed by our children and our children's children.  Isn't that what it's all about anyway? Let's lead!