A good shepherd

I experienced the kindness and goodness of THE Good Shepherd and a good shepherd today. The Good Shepherd took me to green pastures for food, rest and comfort. The Good Shepherd led me to still waters for a soul quenching.

This morning my Good Shepherd took me to the house of God where I received His care. That care was extended to me through my pastor, a good shepherd who faithfully called me to the Word of God. Thank you Steve.

We are sheep. We wander. We think we know where we are going but somehow when we stray from the shepherd we always end up in some barren wilderness, or dangerously close to falling into a deep chasm. It was so kind of God (and Steve) to redirect us to the only place where we will find safety, shelter and nourishment for our souls. The Word of God

Did you, like me, hear Steve's shepherding heart? Did you feel his care and concern for your soul? Did you hear him remind us that we have the privilege to hear from the Living God? Did you hear his shepherd love to caution us to not only hear the word but to be hearing rightly the word and thereby "doing" the word? We heard our shepherd give us Christ's warnings to professing believers as written in Matthew 7:21-27; Luke 6:46; and James 1:22

Steve taught us that before we can be doers of the word we must be hearing the word. Here Steve gave us a word picture that all of us could "connect" to. Remember the dot-to-dot illustration: We have to connect the first two dots in order to make sense of the picture of life. The first dot is God, the second dot is our heart. The connection is His Word. God has to speak to us before we can go on to any of the duties of our lives. We have to hear from God through His Word before we can attend to marriage, family, church, work or else it will all be a scrambled mess.

The last expression of shepherd love that Steve extended to us was a word to mothers of young children. How kind of Steve, how kind of God. For here is a part of the flock that struggles to find the time/make the time to spend in the Word. Steve was careful not to heap guilt and shame upon these tender souls. Tomorrow I'd like to add to Steve's encouragement by posting about how to hear the word of God when in this season of life. I hope you will meet me here again. And I'd love to hear your thoughts. Oh, and one more thing: if you felt cared for by your shepherd today, why not email him with a word of thanks?