Tag: shepherd

Categories
Devotions

Daily Devotion May 28th

THURSDAY 28th

John 1

Having had six children, Elaine and I have known the difficulty in deciding what names should we give them. Shall we use family names, shall we be different and use obsolete names, shall we just choose names we like, but then what if we both do not want the same name. One name or two, or what about three? Well, we chose, and between the six we have used 14 names. Some are family names carried on and others are names we chose because we liked them and although some of our children have chosen to shorten their name’s we will still only call them by their full name. i.e. Robert goes by Rob to many, but we will never call him Rob, it is always Robert, the same with Andrew / Andy. To me, one of the joys when they were born was going to get the birth registered and having the names put on record by the registrar.

Can you imagine Mary and Joseph going to register the birth of Jesus? Name please? Jesus. Middle name? Yes, but how much time have you got, he’s Messiah, Word, Lord, Christ, Redeemer, Saviour, Lamb, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God . . .

Well, he is all of these and so much more. This new-born baby had a lot to live up to and live up to it he did.

In John’s gospel chapter one, Jesus is identified in many ways. First in verse one as the Word, then he is identified as the creator (v3), life (v4), light (v5), the true light (v9), full of grace and truth (v14, 16), God (v18), Lord (v23), Jesus (v29), Lamb of God, (v29, 35), Baptiser (in the Holy Spirit) (v33), Chosen One (v34), Rabbi or teacher (v38), Messiah, Christ (v41), Son of God (v49), King of Israel (v49), Son of Man (v51). It is a comprehensive list of names, titles etc. When you add in the ones I have listed earlier and many more such as Great High Priest, Advocate, and others which Jesus used to describe himself, the ‘I am’ the door, the Good Shepherd, etc his names would have taken some registering at birth!

But for us today what matters is not the registering of his name at birth, but our receiving him for our new birth, as John records in 3:3 Jesus said, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ And in 3:5 Jesus said, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’ Earlier in chapter 1:12 John had said,  ‘But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.’ Being born again, brings us into a relationship with Jesus which then opens up to us everything that Jesus is and everything that he has to offer! But, whichever of the names and titles we use for him, we first and foremost need to go back to the name that God told his earthly parents to give him – that is Jesus, for he was to be the Saviour of the world. It is only when we come to know Jesus as our own personal Saviour that we can really start to get to know him in all the other ways. For example, he can only become my Shepherd after he has become my Saviour!

What I want to share briefly this morning is that once we do get to know Jesus as our Saviour, (that is we have believed in his name), we then begin to get to know him in all the other ways, and we will begin to realise that Jesus is all or everything that we need.

Need saving – he is our Saviour who saves us

Need help – he is our Helper, our Advocate and Great High Priest

Need direction – he is our Shepherd who leads us, he is our Light, he is our Doorway, he is our Way

Need healing – he is our Healer and the restorer of our soul

Need strength – his grace is sufficient for in our weakness, his strength is made perfect

Need peace – he is our Peace

Need comfort – He heals the broken hearted

Need resources – he is our provider

Feeling lost and helpless – he is our Hope

Need I add any more? There was a new chorus that became popular in the late 80’s early 90’s which I think we almost wore out with singing at the time when it became known in our local Church, but the truth of the words could never be worn out. It is ‘Shout for joy and sing’ and the second part continues, ‘You are my Creator, you are my deliverer, you are my Redeemer, you are Lord; and you are my healer, You are my provider, You are now my Shepherd and my guide; Jesus, Lord and King, I worship you.’

What are you in need of today? Look to Jesus, the all sufficient One. We used to go to an annual convention in South Wales and one year a new chorus was introduced as was often the case and it must have been sung over and over and over again, after returning home I popped into Hereford to the bank, and queued outside the ATM, Steven our second son was with me, he would have been around 6 years old and suddenly in the queue he started belting out loud and clear the song, he had obviously learnt it!  ‘I confess that Jesus Christ is Lord . . .’ But what surprised me the most was that he had remembered the bigger more complicated words in the song, ‘He’s omnipotent, magnificent, all-glorious, victorious, I confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.’ We need to keep reminding ourselves, or instead like Steven, sing to ourselves till we not only know the words but the reality of the words, that Jesus Christ is Lord, he is omnipotent, he is magnificent, he is all-glorious, he is victorious. Because we have come to know him as Saviour, Jesus is all we need.

It was the words of the following song that prompted me to do this devotion today, He is all I need.

He’s all I need when I just need someone to talk to,

He’s always there to hear my prayer each time I call him,

All my need he supplies my thirsty soul he satisfies,

He’s the Lord of and he’s all I need,

He comforts me when I am weary eases every pain,

Fills my deepest longing, time and time again,

He’s my souls inspiration, my hearts consolation,

He’s my everything, He’s all I need

He’s all I need I will not turn to any other,

For he’s my friend who’s closer than any brother,

On this friend I can rely to be my strength as life goes by,

The Lord of all is all I need

He comforts me, when I’m weary, eases every pain,

Fills my deepest longing, time and time again,

He’s my souls inspiration, my hearts consolation,

He’s my everything, he’s all I need.

He is all I need, He is all I need, All, Jesus is all I need,

He is all I need, He is all I need, He’s my everything, He’s all I need.

Categories
Devotions

Daily Devotion May 9th

Saturday 9th – Isaiah 40:21-31

We come today to the last verses in Isaiah 40, and today I will bring the devotion from verses 28-31 ‘Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.’

These verses commence with two question, ‘Have you not known?’ and ‘Have you not heard’? Known and heard what? That ‘the LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.’ That is good, but listen further, ‘He does not faint or grow weary.’

I want us to think sheep and Shepherd again, and when it says ‘The LORD is . . .’   think ‘The SHEPHERD is and then consider what it says about this Shepherd. ‘He does not faint or grow weary’

You can ask any farmer who works alone during the lambing season and they will tell you that it is hard work and it can be very tiring because you have to be available to watch the flock day and night, it is a 24 / 7 job. And the first night or two are not so bad, but then you begin to get faint and weary through lack of sleep, through toil and hard work and through the demands of needing to give the sheep your full attention. NOT SO WITH OUR SHEPHERD! He does not faint or grow weary and imagine the size of his flock! Imagine also how awkward and time demanding some of the sheep might be and yet he looks after the flock with his full and undivided attention.

Continue the picture of these verses referring to the Lord as our Shepherd, and it tells us that not only does he not grow tired and weary but that he gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength. Taking Thursday’s thought, he sees us when we are like the weak helpless lambs and he is willing to nurture us back to strength and to revive our cold hearts. Without wanting to seem irreverent with my illustrative mind, there have been many times when the Shepherd has needed to wrap me in a hessian sack and warm me up, and bottle feed me till I have gained strength again. Maybe that is where you are today, feeling weak and helpless, maybe low in spirit, allow the Shepherd to nurse you back to strength again, to revive your faint heart and to reinvigorate you in your weariness.

See, there is not one of us who can say we never feel like this, verse 30 says ‘EVEN the youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.’ We all know periods of weakness and lacking in power or strength spiritually, but our Shepherd in his care for us comes to renew.

The final verse is so well known, ‘but they who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength’ – there is no doubt about it – we need to know what it is to come and to wait in the Shepherd’s presence, come into his ‘farmhouse’, come into the warmth of his love and care and know what it is to mount up again with wings like an eagle, to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint.’

Thou Shepherd of Israel, and mine,

The joy and desire of my heart,

For closer communion I pine,

I long to reside where thou art.

The pastures I languish to find

Where all who their shepherd obey

Are fed, on thy bosom reclined,

And screened from the heat of the day.

Ah! show me that happiest place,

The place of thy people’s abode,

Where saints in true happiness gaze

And hang on a crucified God.

Thy love for a sinner declare,

Thy passion and death on the tree;

My spirit to Calvary bear,

To suffer and triumph with thee.

‘Tis there, with the lambs of thy flock,

There only, I covet to rest,

To lie at the foot of the rock,

Or rise to be hid in thy breast.

‘Tis there I would always abide,

And never a moment depart,

Concealed in the cleft of thy side,

Eternally held in thy heart.

How good is the God we adore,

Our faithful, unchangeable friend,

Whose love is as great as his power,

And knows neither measure nor end.

‘Tis Jesus the first and the last,

Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home,

We’ll praise him for all that is past,

And trust him for all that’s to come.

Charles Wesley CCLI 788682

Categories
Devotions

Daily Devotion May 7th

Thursday 7th – Isaiah 40:9-20

The heading for these verses at verse 9 in my ESV Bible says, ‘The Greatness of God.’

We considered the greatness of God in earlier devotions, for today I want to consider his greatness in the context of what it says in verse 11, ‘He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.’ We are back to the Lord as our Shepherd. His greatness in his gentleness.

I had got to the point of preparing the devotions for this week, I had done the ones for Sunday – Tuesday and suddenly when it came to yesterday’s devotion I had for the first time while preparing the devotions over this period of time hit a brick wall! I had two attempts at putting something together but scrapped them, but deep inside I felt it needed to be about lambs! I ended up putting my planning and prepping aside and going for a walk. The next morning, I felt an inner witness to devote the three days mentioned as yesterday to Isaiah 40 and as I went through it you’ve, probably guessed it, there it was in the chapter,  the word ‘lambs’ – ‘He will gather the lambs in his arms.’ (v11) So this is our subject for today. Believe it or not, while I was preparing this actual devotion I had an email from Iain and it was pointing me to a song he had discovered that morning it was at this point of my prepping that I decided to listen to it and guess what it was called? ‘Gentle Shepherd come and lead us for we need you to help us to find our way.’ wow, talk about a confirmation!

There are lots of beautiful things we can see in this world around us, and to me one of the most beautiful is to see a field of sheep and to look at all the lambs playing, running around and skipping together.

A happy farmer is the one who has had a successful lambing season, but every farmer or shepherd knows that during the lambing season there will always be loss, lambs that are still-born or a ewe that has died during birthing leaving orphan lambs. It then becomes the responsibility as soon as possible for the shepherd to do what he can to provide for the orphaned lamb. It could be an adoption with another ewe, or it may be to have to hand rear it, the lamb to become what we call a ‘tiddler’. Being a farmer’s son, I have been involved in this, I was never going to be a farmer, if I had had to remain on the farm it would have either have been as a maintenance worker with the machinery etc or as a shepherd. There was an inbuilt instinct in me from a youngster for the sheep, maybe that was God planting a spiritual seed in my life in preparation for being a shepherd for his flock, the Church and in particular you as the flock he has placed under my care in the present.

We often had orphan lambs which became tiddlers, they would be the lambs that we would bottle feed and during lambing season the farmhouse would become like an animal hospital as the weak, cold and starving lambs would be brought in from the cold and warmed up, wrapped in hessian sacks (sometimes in the Rayburn oven with the door left open or into an electric clothes airer that my mum had) and then fed. Often it was us the children that had the responsibility of feeding them every day. Eventually when they were strong enough, they would be placed in the barn with other lambs until time for them to go out into the field with the other sheep with their lambs. It was particularly during lambing season that you would see the gentler side of the farmer / shepherd.

Our Scripture tells us that the Lord who is our Shepherd is a gentle Shepherd, he knows those who are his sheep (Psalm 100) and he cares for us. These verses tell us that he TENDS his flock, that is he looks after our needs, he feeds us, he watches over us, he checks us over, he heals the wounds, he keeps us safe and should it be needed he lovingly corrects us. I love to picture the Scripture when it says that as a shepherd he gathers the lambs in his arms – I don’t know what you imagine here, but I see us as the sheep especially when we may be afraid, or downhearted, or even broken-hearted, and he the Shepherd stooping down to picks us up, to scoop us up into his arms and hold us tightly, close to his chest, where we can hear his heart beat. It reminds me of the well-known poem ‘Footprints’ where there seems to be only one set of footprints in the sand, and the conclusion is that in those moments I was carrying you in my arms. (poem at the end)

We have touched several times over the weeks about the Lord as Shepherd and us as his sheep. Today may we learn that we can always trust our Good Shepherd, he will never fail us or let us down, whatever our situation, he is with us, ready at a moment’s notice to pick us up and hold us close to his side.

One night I dreamed a dream.

As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.

Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.

For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,

One belonging to me and one to my Lord.

After the last scene of my life flashed before me,

I looked back at the footprints in the sand.

I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,

especially at the very lowest and saddest times,

there was only one set of footprints.

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.

“Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,

You’d walk with me all the way.

But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,

there was only one set of footprints.

I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”

He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you

Never, ever, during your trials and testings.

When you saw only one set of footprints,

It was then that I carried you.”

Categories
Devotions

Daily Devotion April 25th

SATURDAY 25th

Psalm 34

V18 ‘The LORD is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in Spirit.’

We are many weeks into a period of uncertainty, a period the like of none of us have never been through before on such a large scale. To date (25th) There are 2.7m confirmed cases of Covid-19 world-wide, with 195,920 deaths. In the UK 143,464 cases and there have been 19,506 deaths. Thankfully many have and are recovered or are recovering.

Death has come suddenly, almost with either very little or no warning. Yes, we all know that we will die one day, but out of these present figures so many will have died unexpectedly, that is one of the reasons why the authorities have put in place many procedures to try to halt the spread and to eventually, hopefully wipe it out.

The Bible tells us that death has come as a result of the entrance of sin into the world. Death is no respecter of persons, it comes to all, and not always when we are old in age, sadly it calls from every age group. Any death is a sad time, any funeral service is a place where we would rather not attend. One of the saddest I’ve attended was when a previous school friend of our daughter died of Meningitis. She was just 11 years old, we had moved away, but for our daughter we travelled the 275 miles back to Great Cornard, Suffolk to enable her to join with all the other class-mates at the funeral, it was such a heart-breaking time. After the funeral I had a conversation with the vicar who I knew from our time living there, and he confided with me with some news that only he and his wife knew at the time, of which they were not disclosing yet owing to the events of the day. That same morning before he had had to officiate at the funeral, their own daughter just a few years old had been diagnosed with cancer, sadly just a year or two later, their daughter had also died. At the other end of the extreme I went to a funeral around the same time of an aunt of mine, she was 101.

We don’t like to talk about death, but we need to constantly remind ourselves as believers that we have as we considered on Tuesday, a Shepherd who is with us. But there is something else that we are reminded about in our Scripture today, the Shepherd also comes near to the broken hearted. Picture this: as the Shepherd is going through the valley of the shadow of death with a dying soul, transporting them into his eternal presence and home, he is at the very same time drawing close to the bereaved to minister to their broken-heartedness. What a wonderful Shepherd we have.

We can know a broken heart in many ways, it can come through a relationship breakdown, it can be as a result of devastating news but more commonly as already mentioned, we know broken-heartedness at the loss of a loved one when death has come and taken them. And many are experiencing this at this moment, the whole world over. There are many broken-hearted people in this world today. Death is awful in that it brings separation, as a loved one is taken, but perhaps it is made even the more difficult today in that we are constantly being reminded that such is the risk of contamination, that loved ones are sadly being left to die alone. Couples who may have been together for many years, unable to embrace, hold hands and to be a comfort to each other because of the potential and dangerous risk of getting the virus.

We can take many steps to help in this period, we can pray, we can ensure we follow the guidelines, we can ring, encourage etc. but we can also be the means through which the healing of the broken heart can take place as we allow God to use us to minister his grace to any that we know who may be hurting. Not just as a result of the virus, but any that are going through a period of loss. Elaine and I lost three of our parents in a month, three funerals in the space of 27 days, and we thank God that while we were grieving there were many in our Church family who were praying for us, getting in touch with us and just being there for us, but above all we thank God that our Shepherd was with us helping to heal our broken-heartedness.

In the New Testament, we read of the moment when Jesus arrived at the grave of Lazarus, even though he knew what he was about to do, he connected with the broken-heartedness of the two sisters and he wept. We must and should never be afraid of tears, again the Scripture says that when one rejoices, we rejoice with them, when one suffers, we suffer with them. We need to learn the art of connecting and caring! The need to enter what another person is going through, to be able to give them succour and support.

In Isaiah 61:1-2 we read ‘The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour.’

In Luke 4, Jesus stood up in the temple and took the Scroll of the prophet Isaiah and when he found these verses, he read them out concluding at the end, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

Yes, Jesus came to be the Saviour, he came to seek and to save the lost, he came to reconcile and to redeem, he came to give abundant and eternal life. But, among so many other things as well he came to bind up, or to heal the broken hearted.

The Psalm for today, is a reasonably well-known Psalm, meditate upon it, but if at this moment are down-hearted or broken-hearted allow the Saviour to lift you up, allow him to replace your sorrow with joy.

Psalm 147:3 ‘He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.’

He gives beauty for ashes

Strength for fear

Gladness for mourning

Peace for despair

When sorrow seems to surround you

When suffering hangs heavy o’er your head

Know that tomorrow brings

Wholeness and healing

God knows your need

Just believe what He said

He gives beauty for ashes

Strength for fear

Gladness for mourning

Peace for despair

When what you’ve done keeps you from moving on

When fear wants to make itself at home in your heart

Know that forgiveness brings

Wholeness and healing

God knows your need

Just believe what He said

I once was lost but God has found me

Though I was bound I’ve been set free

I’ve been made righteous in His sight

A display of His splendor all can see

CCLI788682

Categories
Devotions

Daily Devotion April 21st

TUESDAY 21st

Psalm 23

I wonder going back to what I suggested on Sunday morning about listing seven of the Psalms, how many put Psalm 23 down? It is possibly one of the most well known and used Psalms and possibly most used portion of Scripture alongside ‘The Lord’s Prayer.’

And yet the reality is that so many who have used it whether at a wedding, funeral etc. do not actually know the Lord, let alone know him as their Shepherd. See it is a nice psalm, it speaks of nice things, but to know it’s benefits we need to know in a personal way the Shepherd it is referring to.

Can we truly say today that we know the Shepherd so that we can say ‘The LORD is my Shepherd?’

What are the benefits of knowing this Shepherd?

To list them:

We will not want

We lie in green pastures

We are led by still waters

Our soul is restored

We are led in the paths of righteousness

When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will not fear evil

The Shepherd is with us

His rod and staff comfort us

There is a table prepared before us in the presence of our enemies

Our head is anointed with oil

Goodness and mercy follow us – all the days of our life

We will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

The Psalm covers our pilgrimage as we walk with the Shepherd through life from our getting to know him as our Saviour, that is, our walk with him in the present, and his being with us as we pass through death and into eternity.

In Johns gospel, Jesus says that he is a Shepherd, he uses another word to describe what kind of Shepherd he is – ‘I am the GOOD Shepherd. (John 10:11) In the epistles he is also described as the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4) and as the Great Shepherd. (Hebrews 13:12).

If the LORD is the Shepherd then it also means that we who claim to belong to the Shepherd must be sheep, and not just any sheep but HIS sheep. In Isaiah 53:6 we read ‘All we like sheep have gone astray’ but 2 Peter 2:25 says ‘For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.’  In Psalm 100, one of the songs the Children of Israel sang includes the line, ‘We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture’ thank God because the Good Shepherd came to seek and to save the lost we can now also declare that we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. ‘I was lost, but Jesus found me, Found the sheep that went astray, threw His loving arms around me, drew me back into His way.’

We are familiar with the parable of the lost sheep, (Luke 15:1-7) that parable speaks of where we all were, lost, until Jesus came looking for us and found us and saved us. Perhaps there may be someone reading this today and you are still lost, you are still like a sheep that has gone astray, today you can come in repentance and know forgiveness of sin and be brought into the fold of the Good Shepherd. It was after hearing the parable of the Good Shepherd being preached one Sunday evening that I came to give my life to Jesus.

In deciding what to bring from this Psalm I decided upon v4 ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.’

There are as we noted in the devotion on Sunday 19th April, many blessings attached to knowing Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. This verse, Psalm 23:4 speaks of one of the most comforting blessings that come from knowing the Lord as our Shepherd. To summarize it ‘when we are faced with death be it our own or that of someone who is close to us, we do not need to fear any evil, we do not need to be afraid, and two reasons,

1) Because the Shepherd who hung on the cross for us, the Shepherd who came looking for us, the Shepherd who is walking with us every day will still be with us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He made a promise that I will never leave you, even unto the end of the age and he is a promise keeper he will never leave us not even in the dark valley of death.

2) Because the Shepherd who is going to walk through that valley with us, has already been through it himself, and the good news is that by going through the valley of death himself, he conquered it, he destroyed its power. And here is some exciting news, in the book of Revelation we read that John the Apostle saw the risen Christ, our Shepherd, and as he looked upon him, it says, ‘he fell as if he was dead,’ but the Shepherd touched him and gave him some brilliant and exciting news; ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive for evermore.’ Now if Jesus had stopped there that itself would be awesome, but he didn’t stop there, he continued with more amazing news that should bring us comfort and a realisation that we do not need to fear death. What did he say? ‘AND I HAVE THE KEYS OF DEATH AND HADES.’ (Revelation 1) What does this mean for us?

It means that the keyholder of death will have those keys with him as we walk through the valley, therefore we need not fear because he also has the power to grant eternal life to all who have believed on his name. I like to picture walking through the valley of the shadow of death and Jesus is walking with me and every time a door appears with death written upon it, he rattles it and says to me, ‘look it’s locked and I’ve got the key’ and when we get to the other end there is a door that says ‘life’ and he opens it and he takes me through it and into his eternal presence. 

When it comes to the valley of the shadow of death it is something we have no choice over, one day we will all have to walk through it, but be encouraged as I have often said we may fear the way that we will die, its natural as we don’t want to suffer or go through pain, but we don’t need to fear death itself, this is why this Psalm is such a comfort to the believer.

 Sadly, many are dying at this time, we often hear that many are having to die alone, and we need to pray that in their final moments that men and women will cry out to God for mercy and salvation.

I have a Shepherd, One I love so well;

how He has blessed me tongue can never tell;

on the Cross He suffered, shed His blood and died,

that I might ever in His love confide.

Following Jesus, ever day by day,

nothing can harm me when He leads the way;

darkness or sunshine, whate’er befall,

Jesus, the Shepherd, is my All in All.

Pastures abundant doth His hand provide,

still waters flowing ever at my side,

goodness and mercy follow on my track,

with such a Shepherd nothing can I lack.

When I would wander from the path astray,

then He will draw me back into the way;

in the darkest valley I need fear no ill,

for He, my Shepherd, will be with me still.

When labour’s ended and the journey done,

then He will lead me safely to my home;

there I shall dwell in rapture sure and sweet,

with all the loved ones gathered round His feet

Leonard Weaver CCLI 788682