The Deep Trust of a True Shepherd: Part 2

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The Deep Trust of a True Shepherd: Part 2

Digging Deeper Questions

March 26, 2024

Give

Yahweh’s instruction to Abram was clear, as was the remarkable promise...

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

— Genesis 12:1-3

Abram chose to trust, and he obeyed God... without question.

One would be hard-pressed not to be challenged by the thought of that level of obedience to such a call. Even if God made the same promise to me that He made to Abram would I leave my neatly appointed home in a safe corner of the world, my grown children and their children, and set out for an unknown place? Without question? In full obedience?

Or would my response sound more like this...

The Love of a Shepherd

April 30, 2024

We can too frequently neglect to consider the consequences of poor shepherding. The negative affect the state of a shepherd’s heart has on the ability to influence as God desires is regularly underestimated. Scripture provides numerous examples of leaders whose behavior adversely affected those they influenced, most often because their hearts were not in line with the heart of the Father. Moses’ account of the happenings at the edge of the Promised Land is no exception. Although often overlooked, it is important to note the role the majority of the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel played in turning a 40-day journey into a 40-year wandering. And there is a lesson for us in the backstory...

The Lament of a Shepherd

April 23, 2024

Winter is an interesting time of year in the part of the hemisphere where I’m located. Dreary, dark, foggy days can go on seemingly forever, with the sun peeking through the clouds on only a rare occasion. Often, our lives feel similar. When we are mourning the loss of a loved one or lamenting a situation in our lives, all around us can seem dreary. David lamented on several occasions, as is evident throughout the psalms. One such time was after he was anointed king and was being unjustly accused by Saul. Saul’s obsessive paranoia caused him to rally his troops and relentlessly pursue David. Saul had become so compulsive that he put a hit on David’s life. He wanted the young man who had helped soothe his tortured soul through music, his own son-in-law, killed. We can only imagine how torturous this must have been for David.

Uncharted Waters

April 16, 2024

As I was tapping away on my laptop, the ring of my cell phone was startling. Dr. Fong was on the other end of the line. I had been waiting for the results of a specialized MRI completed a few days earlier. We had played phone tag the previous day and because he had not tried harder to reach me after-hours, I was not concerned. But the words “I wasn’t expecting this” and “referring you to a neuro-oncology subspecialist” had me listening more intently and sitting a bit straighter in my chair, scribbling as quickly as I could to write down the information.