Psalm 23:1-3 ESV
“The Lord is my
shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down
in green pastures.
He leads me beside
still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths
of righteousness
for his name's sake.”
The Lord Jesus is the true shepherd of his sheep. And, his
sheep listen to him attentively, and they follow (obey) him, and they will not
follow strangers.
Those who are strangers, who are not of his true sheep, but
who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, they will not follow because they do not
know the voice of strangers. In fact, they will run away from them. And, who
are these strangers? They are the liars, thieves and robbers who have come to
steal, to kill, and to destroy the sheep (Jn. 10:1-30).
And, how are these false shepherds doing that? In many
different ways, but primarily through deception here in America. Yet, Americans
are not the only ones being deceived. Deception is world-wide.
For, these liars and thieves who are out to destroy the Lord’s
sheep are very clever enchanters and actors who can be extremely convincing
with their lies. For, they are not working alone, usually, but they are often
part of a much larger network. So, there are many of them telling the same
lies, and thus people believe them.
Some lies are easy to spot for students of the Word of God,
because the strangers’ lies are in direct opposition to the truths of
scripture. But, other lies, which have no apparent opposition to scripture, but
are still lies, must then be spiritually discerned by those who are walking in
fellowship with the Lord.
For example, a politician, an actor, and/or a famous athlete,
etc. may appear on television and tell us something they want us to believe and
to follow. Do we automatically jump on the bandwagon and buy into whatever they
tell us, just because they say it is so? No, we shouldn’t! We should pray,
asking the Lord to give us insight and discernment, and to help us to recognize
the truth from the lies, so that we don’t believe the lies.
Thus, the true sheep will need to have spiritual discernment
to test the spirits to see if they are of God. And, the Lord will give them
guidance in knowing what is a lie and what is truth so that they don’t end up
following after the lies cleverly disguised as truth and thus fall into a trap.
For, the Lord, who is the true shepherd of his true sheep,
is not going to lead us astray. He will warn us when danger lies ahead, and he
will rein us in if we are beginning to be led astray. But, we have to be
listening to him intently, calling on him in prayer. And, we have to follow his
lead. And, we have to believe him. And, we have to submit to him and do as he
says.
Now, we need to test all voices speaking to us, and so we
need to make certain the voice we are hearing is the Lord’s, but if we are his
true sheep, the longer we get to know him, especially, the greater our
recognition of his voice will be immediately. But, we have to recall, too, that
Satan disguises himself as an angel of light in order to deceive the true
sheep, so this is why we need to be discerning and not easily believe what
people tell us.
No Fear
One of the tactics of these strangers and of Satan is to
instill fear inside our hearts and minds, and to instill confusion, too. They
will try to get us afraid of all sorts of things like of being sick or of not
having food, or of running out of the essentials of life. And, they will incite
panic in people’s hearts.
But, what does this say here in v. 1? It says, the Lord is
my shepherd. I shall not want, or I shall not be in want. He will provide what
we need, not necessarily what we think we need, but what he knows that we need.
And, he will carry us through every difficult situation in our lives, too. For,
he has not promised us a life without suffering. But, he has promised us that
the Christian walk is a life of suffering for the sake of righteousness.
So, we need to not listen to those voices which tell us to
be afraid. We need to be sensible, yes. We should always exercise reasonable
caution. But, we don’t have to be afraid, for our Lord is with us wherever we
go, and he will take care of us because he promised he would. It just may not
go the way we had hoped, but it will go the way he has planned, and for his
purposes.
Psalm 23:4 ESV
“Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.”
From all appearances, the world at large seems to be
distraught over this purported novel virus which is said to be infecting many
people and which is reportedly killing human lives. The fear factor is huge.
As a result of this purported virus, entire nations are
shutting down. Schools are closing. Restaurants are being deserted.
Entertainment industries and sports industries are also closing their doors.
Companies are sending their workers home to work from home, if they have jobs
that can do that. And, people are being quarantined in their own homes.
Social gatherings are being disbanded, including gatherings
of the church. People are afraid to gather together with others out of fear of
contracting this novel virus. Economies are crashing. People are out of work
because industries are closing their doors. And, the world is in chaos, from
all appearances. Greed is setting in, and people are beginning to fight with
each other, too, and if this continues, it is only going to get much worse.
So, why do I question the legitimacy of this virus? I
believe the Lord is giving me discernment that direction. Could they do a
switcheroo and all of a sudden what might now be fake become real? Absolutely!
So, I am not hanging my hat on this being fake, but I have yet to see any real
substantial evidence that it is true. For the symptoms are no different than
that of the common cold or flu, and their overreactions to the severity of it,
at least here in America, was and still is suspicious, at best.
Why else? Because the Lord Jesus has been helping me to see
our US government for what it is for the past 15 years, and so I know their
agenda, and I know where they are headed with all of this, and I assure you
that it is not for the good of the people, for they are serving the beast. If
good information about this is still available on the internet you can read
about their agenda by researching “Agenda 21,” which is the agenda of the New
World Order and that of the conquering of the world by the beast.
But, even if this is where we are right now, and the beast
is conquering America, and it is bringing us down, which is part of the agenda,
we still don’t have to be afraid. No matter how dark the darkness gets, we don’t
have to be afraid, for our Lord is with us wherever we go.
We just need to trust him and not give way to fear or
intimidation. Always obey the Lord, too, and remember that you are allowed to
resist Satan and you can say “No” to governing authorities if they ask you to
disobey God.
Psalm 23:5-6 ESV
“You prepare a table
before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head
with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in
the house of the Lord
forever.”
Our enemies may be able to kill our bodies, but they can’t
kill our souls. They may be capable of mass confusion, discord, chaos, panic,
lies, deceptions, and physical destruction of property and human lives, but
they can’t do anything to us that God does not allow, and that he will not
accomplish his purposes through it. For, God is still sovereign. Nothing that
is presently going on in the world comes as a surprise to him.
The Lord is accomplishing his purposes in human lives
through it all. And, his biggest purpose, I believe, is to save human lives and
to turn the hearts of his adulterous church back to him in repentance and in
walks of obedience. For, so much of his church has gone astray and has gone the
way of the world, and so as the true Shepherd of his sheep, he is bringing them
back.
No matter the outcome of all of this, too, we have to
remember that this world is not our permanent home. We are just passing
through. Our home for all of eternity, if we are truly HIS, is with our Lord.
So, all of this is temporary. One day all of this will be over, and we will be
forever with our Lord, if we are his true sheep who listen to him and who obey
him.
But, if you are not his true sheep, I pray you will
surrender your life to him today.
We’re Marching to Zion
Hymn lyrics by Isaac Watts, pub.1707
Music by Robert Lowry, 1867
Come, we that love the Lord,
And let our joys be known;
Join in a song with sweet accord,
And thus surround the throne.
The sorrows of the mind
Be banished from the place;
Religion never was designed
To make our pleasures less.
Let those refuse to sing,
Who never knew our God;
But children of the heav’nly King
May speak their joys abroad.
The men of grace have found
Glory begun below;
Celestial fruits on earthly ground
From faith and hope may grow.
The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets
Before we reach the heav’nly fields,
Or walk the golden streets.
Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground
To fairer worlds on high.
We’re marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We’re marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.
*copyright status is public domain
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