|
daf
|
A lot of different messages today. The first goes out to the preachers:
There was a royal shepherd who wrote down instructions for the rest of the king's shepherds-in-waiting. They were to care for the flock, keep them from harm and protect them as though their lives depended on it, for they did. They were to stay on their master's land, so that all would be protected and the shepherds would be near one of the king's many storehouses to supply themselves from.
This head shepherd knew his master's land well and remembered the signs he'd been shown, to know where the boundary lay, so none would get lost. He told these signs to the rest as instructed, but some ignored his instruction, some altered it and some interpreted it loosely. When the royal shepherd left, his instructions were written down and used to instruct the kingdom's many shepherds for generations afterward.
Once, a shepherd accidentally left his master's land while seeking better pasture for the flock under his care, because his instructions hadn't been properly interpreted by the shepherd who taught him.
He was a good shepherd in his heart, who loved the flock like a mother would, but he didn't know the lay of the land as well as he thought he did. Soon they all were lost in mountainous terrain, (although the flock still ate well.) Without the benefit of his master's storehouses to resupply himself, with not enough milk for the lambs let alone for him, and not knowing the area well..he was soon famished.
It was then, that he looked to the many innocents in his charge and (though not a single one of them belonged to him), he decided they were so many, that taking only a little from the flock was as good as taking supplies from his master's storehouse (which he felt entitled to) and so he took what he needed to feed himself from the flock.
An interesting thing happens to a shepherd who doesn't keep his flock off limits to himself. He can't ever see them the way a good shepherd should, for as long as they are also his food source. He cannot fulfill his duty to protect them from predators, for he has become the first..and if he isn't careful, soon enough, his flock will be a commodity and he'll be on the way to market with the king's sheep. That's a sure path to prison and death.
The good shepherd learns his master's land and stays near the storehouses, keeping his sheep safe, so that when the master calls for them, they'll be healthy and well fed.
The other shepherds stay lost, because their fear of hunger has them feeding off of sheep and chasing circles in the mountain grass. Go find your master's storehouses before you lead his sheep one step further. Before you lose them further and bury yourself in the process. This is your cease and desist order, thanks. (Whew..that went well so far.)
John 4:34,35
Matthew 4:19,20
Acts 9:26
2 Chronicles 6:19
John 5:19
Jeremiah 12:7-17
Jeremiah 16:18
John 2:15..the list goes on and on.
Go read more Jesus and less Paul. Stop drinking so much blood and embracing materialism so hard.
Shame on those of us who are slipping. We haven't even gotten to the hard part yet. Be well, do right.
Amen
|
230319
|
