Monday, December 17,
2012, 5:37 a.m. – the Lord woke me with the song “My Sheep” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is
listening. I read Psalm 33 (NIV
1984):
Sing joyfully to the
Lord, you righteous;
it is fitting for the upright to praise
him.
Praise the Lord with
the harp;
make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.
Sing to him a new
song;
play skillfully, and shout for joy.
For the word of the
Lord is right and true;
he is faithful in all he does.
The Lord loves
righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.
By the word of the
Lord were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of his
mouth.
He gathers the waters
of the sea into jars;
he puts the deep into storehouses.
Let all the earth fear
the Lord;
let all the people of the world revere him.
For he spoke, and it
came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
The Lord foils the
plans of the nations;
he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
But the plans of the
Lord stand firm forever,
the purposes of his heart through all
generations.
Blessed is the nation
whose God is the Lord,
the people he chose for his inheritance.
From heaven the Lord
looks down
and sees all mankind;
from his dwelling
place he watches
all who live on earth—
he who forms the
hearts of all,
who considers everything they do.
No king is saved by
the size of his army;
no warrior escapes by his great strength.
A horse is a vain hope
for deliverance;
despite all its great strength it cannot
save.
But the eyes of the
Lord are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing
love,
to deliver them from
death
and keep them alive in famine.
We wait in hope for
the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts
rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing
love rest upon us, O Lord,
even as we put our hope in you.
Man
There is much teaching in scripture about not
putting our trust in man, in princes (rulers), and in horses (man power) or
armies of men to save us, but for us to put our trust in God, and in God alone.
So, why is this so important? Shouldn’t we trust people? Shouldn’t we believe
our pastors, kings (rulers), government, police and/or military to tell us the
truth? Shouldn’t we believe what our news media tells us? - And, our history
books? I mean, after all, what advantage would there be in them lying to us? We
read this in the scripture:
Ps. 5:9: Not
a word from their mouth can be trusted;
their heart is filled with destruction.
Their
throat is an open grave;
with their tongue they speak deceit.
Rom. 3:10, 13: “There
is no one righteous, not even one…”
“Their
throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
Ps. 118:8-9: It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in man.
It
is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes.
Ps. 146:3-4: Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.
When
their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to
nothing.
Micah 7:6; Matt. 10:36: “…’a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’”
1 Thess. 5:21: “Test everything. Hold on to the good.”
1 John 4:1: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see
whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the
world.”
We, as human beings, are sinful. We have a
propensity to sin. We are all tempted to sin. And, even though Jesus Christ has
forgiven our sins and has freed his followers from bondage to and the control
of sin over their lives, and he has given us the Holy Spirit within us to help
us to not sin, we will still sin, though we should no longer live lifestyles of
willful and unrepentant sin. So, no matter how good a person may appear, we are
all still prone to wander and to follow after the desires of our flesh. So, we
cannot even trust ourselves at times, because we can be self-deceived.
So, this is why we should test everything and
why we should not automatically believe everything we read or hear. We test by
comparing what we hear against the word of God, and we test through being
sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit within us, and we test by asking
questions and not assuming and by fact checking. Yet, all in all, we must know
the voice of our Good Shepherd speaking to us, and through time spent at his
feet each day, learning from him, and then in obeying what he teaches us so
that we can discern truth from error, though none of us will do this perfectly.
Yet, we should know the voice of our Lord so that we don’t follow the voice of
strangers. This calls for much discernment!
God
Yet, there is One who can be trusted fully
and without question, and that is God Almighty/Jesus Christ, maker of heaven
and earth and all that is on the earth and in the heavens. By his very word all
things came to be. His word is perfect. His word is the only word that is
absolutely true and right and without fault and without deceit at all times,
and in all circumstances. He is righteous and holy and is motivated by love in
all that he does, and his word can be trusted. His plans and the purposes of
his heart stand firm forever through all generations.
So, we should give him the honor and glory
that is due him, and we should revere him and hold him in high regard, and we
should listen to what he says. We should inquire of him and we should obey him
in all that he commands us to do, according to his word. We should go to him
and seek his face, and we should check out the things we hear of men before
him, in his presence, and ask for discerning spirits to know what is trustworthy.
The
Nations
God foils the plans of the nations and he
thwarts the purposes of the people. So, obviously the nations, including our
own, and the peoples of our nation do not all have the mind and heart of God
central in their lives. They do not all have godly plans and purposes, and, in
fact, many of them have very evil plans and purposes which they carry out on a
daily basis. We must know and understand this or we will set ourselves up for a
fall because we put our trust in man and so we end up walking right into their
evil traps.
If we, by nature, are deceitful people, then
it stands to reason that those who do not honor God with their lives and/or who
are driven by success, power and/or wealth may be ones who are, in fact,
willfully misguiding the people of this nation into believing as true what, in
fact, are lies cleverly disguised to look like truth. So, it is imperative that
we are a people of discernment who have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying
to the churches, so we don’t wake up on the wrong side, thinking that we were on
the right side.
Blessed
“Blessed
is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.”
God looks down from heaven and he watches
mankind and he considers all that we do. He sees when we put our trust in
mankind – in armies, in the strength and power of men, in kings and princes, and
in human shepherds of the people. And, he instructs us that trust in man is
vain, and that man cannot save us, because we are all too human and are thus
susceptible to failure.
Yet, he says, that we are blessed if we make
God our Lord (master; ruler) of our lives. His eyes are on those who put their
trust completely in him, who honor him with their lives, and who show him due
respect and awe by how they conduct their lives in obedience to him and to his
commands. His eyes are on those who trust in his unfailing love and who look to
him for deliverance, safety, protection and security instead of trusting in man
for such as this.
God/Jesus should be the only one we follow
with full surrender, allegiance, loyalty and devotion beyond doubt and with
full assurance of faith that he is who he says he is and that he will do what
he says he will do. He is our help and shield, and our hope is in him. We
should not follow strangers, but we should follow the Good Shepherd of the
sheep.
My
Sheep / An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Based off John
10:1-18 NIV
My
sheep hear me. They know me.
They
listen to my voice and obey.
I
call them and lead them.
They
know my voice, so they follow me.
They
will never follow strangers.
They
will run away from them.
The
voice of a stranger they know not;
They
do not follow him.
My
sheep hear me. They know me.
They
listen to my voice and obey.
I
call them and lead them.
They
know my voice, so they follow me.
So,
I tell you the truth that
I
am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever
does enter
Will
find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless
whoever enters
Not
by the gate; other way,
He
is the thief and a robber.
Listen
not, the sheep to him.
So,
I tell you the truth that
I
am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever
does enter
Will
find forgiveness and will be saved.
Oh,
I am the Good Shepherd,
Who
laid his own life down for the sheep.
I
know them. They know me.
They
will live with me eternally.
The
thief only comes to steal and
Kill
and to destroy the church.
I
have come to give you life that
You
may have it to the full.
Oh,
I am the Good Shepherd,
Who
laid his own life down for the sheep.
I
know them. They know me.
They
will live with me eternally.
They
know my voice, so they follow me.
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