I Don't Need to be a Shepherd

When Moses slew the Egyptian and fled from Pharaoh's face, he was known as the presumptive heir to the throne of Egypt. We know GOD did great things through Moses, but it was only after he had been a shepherd for forty years. He had to learn be Christ-like-humble, patient, sympathetic, and so on- before he was fit to be used in delivering Israel. Sheep have a way of teaching you these virtues. A particularly stubborn one will most likely show you you don't know it all, and teach you to be patient as you seek to make it obey. A sick one will teach you to have compassion and a tender regard for life.

It was because of this that I used to wish I could be a shepherd. I needed-and still do need-to learn these lessons so badly! After thinking some, however, I realized more clearly that even though I may not be alone with GOD and a flock of sheep under an azure sky, He has sent me my own "wilderness" experience. I have been disabled for more or less twenty years for a reason. GOD knew there were things I needed to learn-patience and sympathy being among them-that I couldn't otherwise learn. Not only did I realize this more fully, but I also realized that if I don't learn from this trial, keeping sheep probably wouldn't do me any good.  Unfortunately, I haven't always looked at my lot in life in such a positive way. I've often moped, complained, and fretted, thinking it was mean of GOD to allow this to happen. I've wasted years that could have been invaluable in molding my character for the better.

Perhaps you are in the same boat as I am. There is nothing that can be done to change the past, but if we cling to GOD and seek to cooperate with Him, we can make the best present and future possible. Through His strength, I hope we all can learn to look cheerfully on our perhaps humdrum, disagreeable portions of life, remembering to thank Him for these teachers even when we don't want to. After all, "no chastening [the root word means tutorage, education, training] for the present seem to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Hebrews 12:11.

Are we willing to learn?

Blessings,
Jean

"Take Care of My Business"

Sometimes GOD asks us to do things that make us scratch our heads in confusion. "Why, LORD, are You asking me to do that? I have this and this and this to think about, and You want me to do that?" We become worried and nervous and frazzled, but we don't need to. GOD is a wise GOD, a GOD of infinite understanding (Daniel 2:20, Psalm 147:5). He knows all that we need to do when He asks us to do something else. Obviously He has an answer for that as well. He never asks us to do something that will not be a blessing in our other situations or to other people involved.

Let's not be like Moses who kept objecting when the LORD gave him a command. The LORD kept giving solutions for each thing that Moses brought up, until finally He became angry with him and said this to the last one: "[Is] not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well" (Exodus 4:14). He says, in effect, the same thing to us with our issues. No, we may not have speech issues or brothers who can speak well, but the LORD has the answer if only we will trust Him.  These obstacles we encounter should make us happy; they are opportunities for GOD to show forth His love and power in answering them. May we not then be full of complaining and distress, but wait  and see what GOD will do for us when we present the issue to Him.

He says to us, "And call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me" (Psalm 50:15). GOD has many marvelous ways of answering prayers, ways we can't even imagine. In Jeremiah 33:3 He says, "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not." The apostle Paul says that GOD "shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" ( Philippians 4:19). This is why he writes, "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto GOD" in verse 6. With such promises, why fear?

Queen Elizabeth I once asked someone to do her bidding. When he asked what he would do for his business and family if he complied, she gave this reply: "You take care of my business, and I will take care of yours."

That is what GOD is saying to us today. "You take care of My business, and I will take care of yours."

Sincerely,
Jean

We Must Finish

"And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.

"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have [sufficient] to finish [it?] Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish [it,] all that behold [it] begin to mock him,

"Saying, This man hath begun to build, and is not able to finish." Luke 14:27-30.

It is not enough to lay the foundation in the Christian life-accepting and believing in GOD's pardoning love-as important as that is. We must advance farther on, allowing that love to transform us into His image and likeness. We must finish what we started; we must build to completion. For Christ's sake and the gospel's. For the sake of those we love. For ours.

The Holy Scriptures never say that the transformation will be an easy process, that we would always enjoy it. In Malachi 3:3, GOD is likened to the "refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap:" The LORD asks in Jeremiah 23:29, "Is not My Word like as a fire? ... and like a hammer [that] breaketh the rock in pieces?" Ephesians 6:17 states that His word is the "sword of the Spirit", and Hebrews 4:12 says it is "sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Fire, soap, hammer, sword. All those either purge or destroy. GOD's Word isn't there to make always make us comfortable, though it can comfort; it's there to show us what we are, and to remove all our wickedness. To make us the noble people GOD intends for us to be.

We allow this to happen by choosing to deny ourselves, and do according to GOD's will; when we surrender whatever (idea, hope, practice, etc.) that is not in harmony with His Word. No, it won't always be enjoyable at the moment. It won't free us from difficulty. It won't make us popular, even with the Christian world. In short, it won't make smooth-sailing out of this life. Even our Saviour wasn't free from a thorny path, and if we honestly follow Him, neither will we be. Yet, just as we shall know of His suffering, we shall know of His joy. He will not leave us alone, and there will be reward in this life as well as the next for our sacrifice. The joy, the reward, of leading some souls-or soul- to Jesus by our example.

And if nothing else, when all is said and done, when all the sorrows and trials are passed, we will inherit life everlasting, and we may be sure that we uplifted our Saviour most clearly to a dying world.

Blessings,
Jean