The Shepherd's Call

      I was reading a web page written by a shepherd of Icelandic Sheep. He actually raised Icelandic Sheep in Virginia. He was under the considered opinion that sheep are not that discerning when figuring out what their names are or what exactly the shepherd is saying. According to him the naming of sheep is quite an art form and a complicated industry. Even so, he goes on to say, the sheep are very responsive when the shepherd calls. It does not seem to matter what animal or name he uses when he calls. This particular owner claims they, the sheep, come running when he calls "kttty, kitty, kitty", at the cat's feeding time, or if he whistles in the pasture for the horses. The sheep "hear his voice" and know the sound of it, but they may not  be that discerning about what he is saying.
          This guy had a complicated system for naming his sheep. Jacob I am sure had some thoughtful systematics too. Knowing the names of the sheep is the shepherd's responsibility.  It may be for the shepherd who is responsible before God that he knows the sheep's name, but is it the main issue for us, His sheep? Do we need to know if God knows our names? The Icelandic shepherd still will take care of his sheep, even if they don't know their names. So whats the dif?
        I have to admit it is disturbing to me that the sheep, according to this Icelandic sheep herder, don't know their names. I am sure he is wrong and just  has not invested the time to get to know his sheep.  There are two reasons I know he is wrong. (1) John 10:3 clearly states that the "good shepherd" knows his sheep by name and calls them by name,  τὰ ἴδια πρόβατα φωνεῖ κατ’ ὄνομα,  and they follow him. Jesus knows His sheep by name and he calls them (us) by name and they follow.
   (2) Years ago I heard a preacher say that every Christian should stay on his/her knees until she/he hears the Lord call him/her by name. Now that struck me as something I wanted. I searched the scriptures to see if God called people by name, and He does. He does it in the OT and the NT. So I spent a lot of time on my knees, mostly, falling asleep  until one day I heard Him call my name, "Doug". I have had that experience many times since. I know He knows his sheep by name and calls to them. I know because I heard him!

       "My sheep hear my voice, and I call them by name they follow me." There is a quality that is in sheep that wants to follow their shepherd. This quality is very important. Once He has named you, you belong to Him and are responsible to follow Him. His name becomes greater in our lives as we realize we are His sheep. Then His name is honored about every other name. To me His name is the one I enthrone as my Lord.  John Stevens in an article that he wrote called To Be A Christian said, "It (being a Christian) means that I honor His name above every other name, and place obedience to Him above every other obligation...It is His responsibility to lead, my to follow."
     A dear Christian friend of mine just had his 60th birthday. At his party he said the most important thing now for him was letting Him (Christ) lead. His days of independence, were over. This was an eye opener. This guy to my estimation has always had a close walk with God. It reminded me of what Christ told Peter about how to shepherd the sheep. When you were younger you went where you wished. You are older now and another will gird and take you where you would not (John 21:18). A good shepherd is a lead sheep. Learning to follow is prerequisite to leading. Christ said "Ego eimi" the good shepherd. He was because he followed the Father in perfected obedience. He did what the Father told him to do and said what the father told him to say. I would like to develop that instinctive ear that responds positively to the shepherds voice no matter what His voice is actually saying and follow Him even if it is where I would not have gone before. I want to be responsive when the shepherd calls.

What Would You Choose?

"He chose... Poorly"

     Lately our fellowship has been focusing on lessons of obedience. The lessons have been coming in concert with the principle found in Deuteronomy 15:16-17 KJV.  What happens when the Lord sets you free? What do you do when the obligations to serve are removed? Reading this scripture we get a clear understanding of a choice that a slave can make after serving for 6 years. He can leave or stay. Simple. If he chooses to leave, the master was to give him provisions and allow him to leave with his blessings.  God is saying we have the same choice.  Not that we could ever 'leave' the Lord, but He might want us to take another, deeper step in walking with Him and serving Him. A step that might cost us some of our precious freedoms. We can choose to go with his blessing or we can choose to stay for a deeper commitment to him. The slave if he stayed would have an aul place through his ear as a sign. This was done, I am sure with a cube of ice.  I wonder if they had stylish rings? Maybe a star of David or a brand for that particular ranch. There might have been a ear-ring shop with beautiful stones, you know, so at least it would look nice.  I am having a little fun because in real life who would choose to be a permanent slave? Really? Because it does sound great, spiritual, religious, righteous and we all want that or we wouldn't be going to church and sing about Jesus being our Lord. But is there a difference between going to church and being a servant, a live-in maid type servant, 24/7. It makes me stop and think. Who really chooses to do that? Certain things I want to submit to God then there are times I want for myself, like facebook. Come on. (Did you read about the preacher in New Jersey who made his staff get off of Facebook or lose their job?) Is he requiring servitude?
     I grew up in the still proud, "hell no we ain't forgettin'", region of the world, the rebel south. There were many stories, in fact there is one in my own family, about slaves who refused to leave their master after the Civil War. My great however many great grandfather had a slave that willingly stayed on after the great conflagration.  In fact this particular slave requested to be buried at my g-grandfather's feet after he died. I have seen their graves. This is repulsive to most people you talk to these days. And rightfully so, no person should own another. Yet, this is definitely what this scripture says. This goes against every independent thought which is nearly every thought of this age. "But I want to be free, free, free and I just got to be me, me, me." That's actually a song by Deniece Williams. 

       Christ gave himself freely to do His father's will, so I know that it is possible. But it is not something you can just mix up in the sink, like Love Potion #9. In fact at first my religious self said "yeah, I can do this". But the more I worked with it and considered the cost of obedience it became simplistically hard. The choice was too overwhelming. It seemed I needed an intermediate step between "thanks for loosing my bonds" and "put that hot iron through my lobe, I'm astayin'".  Who would choose an aul in the ear unless something else happened first, like a preparation of heart. I know that is a duh, but sometimes I need help.  I found an old sermon by J.R. Stevens titled What Would You Choose?(This Week Volume VI, p.243). It is taken from the scripture in Psalm 51:15-17 and I think it helps me to get down the road to deeper obedience.

       Psalms 51 prophetically said in verse 16, "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings".  But I thought we were talking about sacrifice? Isn't it a sacrifice to be obedient, to be a slave? I have done a lot, what else do I need to do to be that 'real' servant?  I realized that at some point sacrifices stopped being that meaningful to God. The one sacrifice that counted was Christ's and His sacrifice was obedience. Another place these verses in Psalms 51 are quoted is in Hebrews 10:6-9, "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do your will, O God."  Not in offerings and sacrifices, but to do His will. What is the step between these two verses? I guess that is were I am. The motivation to serve, I guess is what I am looking for.  I believe between stopping my own works and entering into His works is a broken spirit. I think that is why David put it there. "Only A broken and a contrite heart will enter" isn't that Indiana Jones - "Search for the Holy Grail? 

Holy Grail

       So what does God delight in that I might be obedient. There has to be something I can do that helps me reach that spot. Well simply enough David tells us in verse 17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."  Now when I finally get down to this quality of spirit my resistance leaves. My desire changes. I want what he wants. I can't explain it, in fact it may be magic, like that Indian ink sink potion. Once my spirit is broken then the serving Him is all I want. It is a choice I can freely make. Stevens said "The dealings of God are designed to bring about that which in the sight of God is of the greatest value. I know that He is concerned that you walk with Him, that you be led by Him. I know that He is concerned about your dedication to bless one another and to minister to one another. But in the final analysis, the greatest thing of all is that He looks down upon you and says, “To this one will I look—the one who has a broken and a contrite spirit before Me” (Isaiah 66:2). A man may have many other things, but nothing is going to equal a broken spirit before the Lord." Again the writer of Hebrew said,
      "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. (but a broken and contrite spirit, I will not despise) Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God". 

          

Holy Laughter

     I was watching a clip from "Mary Poppins" that someone put on Facebook from YouTube. It is the part where Mary, Bert and the kids go visit uncle Albert,  played by Ed Wynn. "The more I laugh, the more I'm a merrier me." They all go flying up to the ceiling. Its a great scene and Ed Wynn was an adorable actor. We love to laugh and be full of Joy. The Bible says that "in His presence is fulness of Joy and by his right hand are pleasure evermore" (Ps.16:11). Actually the Hebrew has the "abundance of joy is before you" or "your face". I don't think it means God has a funny face. I think it means what KJV translates "in His presence or before His face" is abundance of Joy.

     Have you ever had Holy Laughter come on you? That is what that scene from "Mary Poppins" reminds me of. You laugh until you think you will never stop. You realize how wonderful it must be in His presence. Joy is such a wonderful gift. And to see us straight faced most of the time as Christians is, well, not right. If we laugh in his presence or at least are full of joy so, well, some might be forced to crack a smile, it might be what God wants. 

     On Sunday we had a visitor to our fellowship from Brazil, Silas Esteves.  He is the senior pastor in our sister church in Niteroi, Brazil. In fact he is over all of our churches in Latin America, including Mexico. It was delightful having him with us. He talked to us about obedience. Something we in our fellowship recognize  about him is that he is a very humble and an obedient man of God. Silas said many  important things about obedience, but this one thing kept cycling through my mind. He said "obedience draws His presence." I went home thinking about that one thought. But soon I sat down to a football game and that thought receded to the back of my mind. 

      We were keeping our grandson all weekend. He is a great kid, although he is having trouble in school with his teacher. After the game I played "school" with him. I mentioned that he was going to school tomorrow and he started to cry and said he didn't want to go to school. Suddenly the two ends came together. Joshie (his name) didn't like school because he was not being obedient to the teacher. Obedience draws His presence, and in his presence is fulness of joy. These two would come together for Josh when he decided to listen and do what his teacher told him. "I only do what I see my father doing" is what Christ said (John 5:19 ff).  He learned obedience. Josh has to learn obedience. He will enjoy school when he does. I wonder if a lot of our dislike for learning is because we are not giving ourselves to be obedient to the process. Josh is getting ripped off of the joy of learning, that makes me mad.We can be in His presence more than we know. It does make me wonder if the places that I am unhappy are the places I need to reconnect with the Lord and become more obedient. Our obedience draws the Lord's presence, and His joy. 

     When I am doing what God asks me to do, I am staying in His presence where the fulness of Joy resides. The Hebrew word shema and the Greek word akouo both mean to hear and obey. Obeying has the element of really listening and hearing what is being said. A good student listens. It is amazing the battle on kids hearing. Think of all the sound that bombards them every day and yet it is hard for them to really hear. I want to have the ears that truly hear. I want my grandson to have the same. I want to live in His presence where there is fulness of Joy, to be caught up in His presence full of laughter. Is it possible that that is what the scene from Mary Poppins meant? No. Forget it, Jake, it's Holywood. 

"I love to laugh long and loud and clear, I love to laugh it gets worse every year".  Now don't watch this next part your gonna laugh.  Holy Laughter (please disregard the notation before and after) I can't watch that second one without laughing. God is Great. 

 Except for the laughter part, you can hear a more direct word on obedience entitled, "Our Obedience- The Way Into His Kingdom" by Gary Hargrave.