August 13-Wild Sheep and Consultants

Happy Monday to you! I hope you had a great weekend and you were able to worship the Lord our God in spirit and in truth. I had a couple of take-sways from the sermon I heard yesterday. In John 10 where Jesus tells us that He is the good shepherd and his sheep know his voice and they won’t listen to the voice of a stranger, because they don’t recognize that voice. The sheep only follow the shepherd they know. 


My first take is that you just don’t find a pack of wild sheep. I’d never thought of that before! You may find wild horses, wild dogs, wild hogs, you might even find wild cats. But you’ll never find a group of wild sheep. They just can’t survive on their own. I’ve read they are lucky to survive overnight on their own in most places. They can’t make it without a shepherd and Jesus calls us sheep, meaning we need a shepherd. We simply can’t survive on our own. 


Secondly, most of us don’t want a shepherd, we want a consultant. We want someone who will listen to us, offer their opinion, but in the end let us do what we think we should do (or really, just what we want to do). Jesus didn’t offer himself up to be a consultant. He offered himself as our Shepherd. Maybe the love He has for us is so great that we not only don’t understand it, it’s more than we really want as immature believers. 


““I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.”

‭‭John‬ ‭10:14-16‬ ‭NLT‬‬


The difference in our Shepherd and others in our Shepherd loves us so much that He laid down His life so that we might live rather than raising us for His use, He takes care of us for our sake because our Shepherd loves each one of us and knows us by name. Our Shepherd can be trusted when the enemy comes and threatens us; our Shepherd doesn’t run away. Our Shepherd stands His ground. He surrounds us and provides our security and our hope. Yeah, we need Him and that overwhelming, all encompassing love He has for each of us. 


Dear Jesus thank you for being our Shepherd and help us to remember that you promise to care for us when we follow, not when we negotiate. Help us Lord to listen to your voice and to recognize it. Help us to consciously tune into you and to tune out others who would try to mislead us. You are a good, good Father and you love us with a reckless love that we can never understand. We praise you this day for your grace and for your mercy on us. Amen and amen.  


Love you dear one,

Pam. 

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