God is to be the
center and focus of my life. Anything
else, no matter how good it may be, will become an idol, a golden calf. Church, Bible, even ministry always had the
danger of becoming such an idol. They
are good things, and they are things God calls me to be a part of; but always
secondary to God Himself.
I am call to
reflect God as one created in His image; I am called to be light and salt to
this world while I am here; I am called to be in this world but not of the
world while I am here. Those things have
manifested in many different ways over the years. They were and can be challenges that need to
be met head on at times. The world can
be a very tempting place, and I have fallen more than once. God is always faithful to help pick me up and
get me back on track. But that seems to
be what God has done since the beginning of time, down throughout history. He is redemptive and restorative towards all
of His creation faithfully and continually.
God never give up.
I am the one who
gives up, throws in the towel, and refuses the love that wants to redeem and
restore my blunders. If I don’t yield to
Him I will put myself in jeopardy. Continually rejecting God’s grace will put
me into enemy land where the enemy of God waits with open arms to destroy and
devour me. I know this land through
examples in the Bible. In the beginning
of time God warns Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you don’t do well, sin is crouching at
the door. Its desire is for you, but you
must rule over it” (Genesis 4:7). Jesus
warns Peter of Satan’s desire in Luke 22:31.
“Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I
have prayed that your faith may not fail.”
Judas was not living well; he was a thief and robbed from the money
bag. When the time came he conspired to
have Jesus arrested, for money. He put
himself in enemy territory and, “Satan entered into him” (John 13:27).
Cain did not do
well and was banished from God’s Presence forever. Judas felt bad in the end for his deed but
had lost his faith in Jesus as redeemer, and hung himself. Peter denied Jesus and felt bad about it, but
he kept his faith, and Jesus comes to him, and redeems and restores their
relationship.
I believe that if
Judas’ faith had not been worn weak through wrong doing, he would have known
that Jesus would have come to him just as he did Peter.
He would have
redeem, restored, and reconciled their relationship. Jesus never gives up; only we do.
When the concepts
and consequences of sin, of not living well, are removed from the minds of
people, God’s enemy is standing at the door waiting with open arms, to have
God’s creations sifted like wheat and destroyed. It is not a good shepherd that leads his
sheep into enemy land, and eventually into the hands of the enemy himself. The good shepherd leads his sheep in the ways
of God. The good shepherd seeks those
who are lost and brings them to green pastures, still waters, and the path of
righteousness. The good shepherd leads
his flock to the Truly Good Shepherd Jesus, where they can be redeemed,
restored, and reconciled in their relationship with their Creator God. His sheep will be and do well.
Query: What kind of a servant am I to those whom God
has put in my life
that I might help care for? What kind of servant am I to those
who are lost and need to find
their way to their True Shepherd?
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