Be Like Sheep

“A Psalm of David. THE LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. Yea, 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. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.”    Psalms 23 NKJV

Have you ever really stopped to think of how nice a life sheep have? It may seem strange to consider, but since the Bible is full of verses telling us that we are like sheep, are compared to sheep, should be like sheep, and best of all God is our shepherd, I think it appropriate that we should spend a little time examining sheep. If I were to write a book titled “your best life now”, it would be pretty short because after all, according to the Bible all we have to do is be like sheep! This Psalm by David certainly appears to support that idea by stating first of all that the Lord is our shepherd.

David is just one of the figures in the Bible who, like us, experienced many trials in his life. Yet he also had a habit of writing Psalms about what he was feeling when going through hardships,  much like many of us keep a diary or journal. The book of Psalms is a window to David's feelings about God during different times in his life, and it is from one of his most famous Psalms that we find all we need to know about being comforted during trials. Even though most people, both believers and non-believers, are familiar with the 23rd Psalm I think many have never really looked at it point by point and really thought about what David is telling us. So allow me to share just a few of my thoughts about this passage for your consideration, and you too spend this week thinking and praying about what God might want you to learn from His words.

“THE LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” 

So we get the best one first; God will provide all our needs. Since I'm sure most of us spend a considerable amount of our daily lives worrying about tomorrow, God has already promised to take care of our needs. If so, why do we worry? Is it because we don't believe God, or is it because what we think we need is somewhat different than what God thinks we need?

“He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.”

Ever lie down in a pasture and just stare up at the clouds? It may sound funny but I did that a lot as a kid, and let me tell you from experience that there is nothing so peaceful as doing that. The word for restore in the Hebrew means to return or go back, and I often find myself looking up at the clouds today and thinking back to those times when I had not a care in this world. Why still waters? Did you know that sheep won't drink from a running stream? They need still waters in order to drink. God says He will lead us to green pastures and still waters but the real question is do we follow where He leads or do we insist in going our own way?

“He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me.”

The Hebrew word for paths is “ruts” or a very well worn path. If you have ever driven on a dirt road with ruts you know what it is like to try and turn out of them. It's pretty difficult and takes some effort to get the wheels to turn and then get enough grip to ride up and out of them. On the other hand, if they are well worn and deep you can actually take your hands off of the wheel and just let the car go and the wheels will stay straight and follow wherever the road takes you. Here we are told that the paths of righteousness are like that. It should be easy for us to do what is right, and hard to turn towards evil. Even though we might be tempted to turn because we see ourselves being led towards what appears to be the “valley of the shadow of death”, remember two things. One, we are being led by God and two, it is just the “shadow” and not the real thing. If we keep our eyes on God He promises us we will walk “through”, which means we come out the other side!

“Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

Now here is the part we are all interested in. In times of trouble we all have one thing in common, and that is looking for something to comfort us. Here we are told by David that in these situations we can be comforted by God's rod and staff. If you look closely into the life of a shepherd, you will find that he normally carries two things with him at all times when leading his flock, a rod and staff. The staff of course, is the long branch with the hook on the end which the shepherd uses to direct those sheep who tend to want to wander, in the direction he wishes to take them. The rod, on the other hand, is used to defend the sheep from anything that might seek to do them harm.

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.” 

God wants our enemies to see how He chooses to take care of us, so He blesses us in such a way as for others to see that He is providing for us. The Hebrew phrase to anoint literally means to grow fat or prosper, so the picture here is that God goes out of His way to make sure that those who might wish us harm see that He is providing us with all that we need. So much so that He uses the picture of a cup running over to illustrate His generosity.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life.”

I have often heard mercy defined as not getting what we deserve, so when I read this part of the Psalm I get the feeling that we are being told that getting what we don't deserve, "goodness", and not getting what we do deserve, "mercy", follows us all our lives if we but choose to allow God to direct our path. I think the reason this verse says “follow” is that these two benefits are a result of making the right choice, and not trying to go our own way and pursue things that God already says He will provide us. 

“And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.” 

Are you familiar with the song that says “better is one day in Your house than thousands elsewhere”? Our promise is that we will spend eternity with God in His house, and that promise is one that should give us all the comfort we need when the going gets tough. Eternity with God is the very best gift we could ever receive, and it is available to anyone who chooses to allow God to come into their lives. If you are reading this and have never made the decision to accept Jesus Christ into your heart and accept the free gift of eternal life He has offered you, I urge you to do so right now. You can do that by praying this prayer and accepting the gift of eternal life God has offered you by the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.

Father, I know I am a sinner in need of salvation. I believe you sent your Son Jesus to die on the cross for my sin, and I ask you now to forgive me of my sins. I want to receive your gift of salvation so please come into my heart and help me to live and follow you as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name, Amen. 

These are but just a few of my thoughts on this Psalm, and my hope is that you spend your week considering these verses and enjoy the comfort God promises us when we follow after Him, the Great Shepherd. Be like sheep, it's a great life.

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Slow and Steady

"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."  Isaiah 40:31  NKJV

I have mentioned more than once that I participated in athletics from a very early age.  Physical fitness has always been a priority in my life and in one way or another I have kept that commitment throughout my lifetime.  Yet as anyone of a certain age will tell you, growing older presents challenges that in all honesty, most do not anticipate.  The body I now possess simply bears little resemblance to the one I had in my youth.  Although I have never abandoned working out, it seems that change is inevitable.  This past January I embraced a new approach to my personal fitness that while relatively simple, has produced some very encouraging results.  I do, however, have one complaint and that is that this program can best be described as “slow and steady”.

I am happy that I have begun to lose weight but having to wait 6 months to see results is hard for someone as impatient as I am. Lose 10 pounds in 10 days!  Truthfully, how many times have you seen an ad like that and looked to see what the miracle method might be?  The unfortunate reality most of us have found in life is that just about any endeavor we embark on will take time to accomplish if we want the final product to last.  Trying to speed up the process or looking for shortcuts only serves to either weaken the end result or cause us to give up because of our impatience to see results.

According to the author of my fitness program, the only way to not only achieve, but maintain the progress I am making is to think long term and be satisfied with slow and steady progress. If we choose to apply this approach to spiritual fitness, I would have to say that I believe this advice to be very appropriate.  In order for believers to grow and maintain their level of spiritual gains and to become the strong disciples the Father wishes us to be, choosing a method that uses the slow and steady approach will produce the lasting results we desire.

I have posted the following study a couple of times in the past, and truthfully have taught it often during my ministry because it contains what I believe to be the basic principles of spiritual growth necessary for all of us.  Any exercise program that promises to transform your look will contain certain steps that they believe are necessary to insure you get the results you are looking for.  Believe it or not, the Word of God does the exact same thing by teaching us the steps we need to follow to transform our spiritual bodies into the shape God has intended them to be.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."     Romans 12:1-2  NKJV

So we choose to give our bodies to God as a gift, and as Paul tells us, it needs to be holy and acceptable. But just how do we accomplish that? Well according to Paul, it is by transforming. The Greek word for "transformed" used here is "metamorphoō", from where we get the word "metamorphosis", which means “to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure”.  I thought today we might look at how transforming our spiritual bodies could follow some of the same principles as transforming the physical.

One of my favorite memories of raising daughters was the time one of them looked at some pictures of me taken when I was an athlete in college. Rather than saying how good I looked or what a fine example of physical fitness I was, her comment was; "why don't you look like that anymore?"  So it was at that tender moment I decided maybe I should pay a little more attention to my personal exercise and fitness program. Of course, coincidently at the same time this happened I was busy teaching about Paul's advice to new believers and as I began to lay out my own fitness program, I couldn't help but notice that the rules I came up with for physical fitness were very applicable for spiritual fitness. So let me share with you my three steps to getting in shape, spiritually first of course, but then the physical as well.

Desire. Now I know this might seem to be at first glance a simple, if not entirely logical first step, but I would like to make the point that it depends entirely on how you define desire. I rather like the biblical definition myself.

"as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,"       1 Peter 2:2  NKJV

The word used here for "desire" is "epipotheo" which is translated “to long for, or to pursue with love”. Most importantly, however, is the fact that it is a verb. Now I would be the first to admit I have forgotten most of what I learned in English class, but I do remember what a verb is. It means action, doing something. To desire something in the biblical sense is not to just sit on the couch and wish for it, but to act upon that desire and pursue it. You have to make the effort. This is our first step to spiritual fitness; to truly desire to transform ourselves. What is it that we should desire? Paul says it is the "milk of the word", which to us as believers is knowledge of the scriptures, the word of God. This brings us to the second step.

Acquire. In order to begin to grow spiritually, we need the raw material which will make us strong. Just as our physical bodies need protein as part of our diet, our spiritual muscles need the protein we get from the word of God.

"Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding."   Proverbs 4:7  NKJV

Solomon tells us that as believers we need to "acquire" wisdom and "understanding". The Hebrew word used here for "get" is the verb "qanah", which means “to get, acquire, obtain”. Anyone who has ever tried to get in better physical shape understands the need to carefully monitor what we take in for nutrition. Certain things will help us grow the way we want, just as certain foods will help us grow as we don't want. The Bible makes it clear that in order to get in spiritual shape we need to acquire the knowledge and wisdom to be found in the word of God in order to become stronger believers.

Taking in the right spiritual food, though, won't help us accomplish our goal without the third and most important part of our program.

Perspire. Unfortunately this is the part of the program most people fail at when trying to transform their appearance. It starts out with exercise every day, then three days a week, then one, then "I just don't have the time". Exercise is an absolute when trying to get into shape, and it is no different when it comes to spiritual fitness.

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;"     Philippians 2:12  NKJV

You will never guess just how hard I had to look to find the words "work" and "out" used together in the Bible, not to mention the fact that they are two words and not one? Believe it or not, in the Bible it is one word translated as two and it is the Greek word "katergazomai", which means “to work out”, or “to do that from which something results.” When Paul tells the Philippians they need to "workout" their salvation, he is simply telling them that as believers, it is time for them to stop relying on his (Paul's) help since he has left them, and to begin to rely on God's help through the power of the Holy Spirit to live their lives in such a way as to glorify God. And, as you should have expected by now, the word “workout” in the Greek is also a verb.

In order to transform our lives into a gift to God which He will find pleasing, we must embrace the concept of action. The Christian life is a life of doing, not wishing. I looked at a number of different programs to get in physical shape before settling on the one I now use, and my primary criteria was answering the question, can I do this without burning out?  When embarking on your personal spiritual fitness journey I believe it important to ask the same question.  Set achievable goals and choose a program you will stay with over the long haul.

Desire, acquire, and perspire. Three verbs, three steps to becoming the believer God expects us to be. I will admit that my own spiritual fitness journey has been a long one yet without question it has been rewarding and well worth the effort I have put in to it.  Although there have been times when it became more difficult, the slow and steady progress has always been there thanks to the encouragement I received from God along the way.  

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.   1 Corinthians 9:24-25 NKJV

God made the choice to save us, but it is up to us to make the choice to accept it. My prayer for you today is that if you have never made the decision to believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again for you, you would choose to do it right now. Invite Jesus to come into your life and forgive your sins, and begin to experience the joy that comes from having a relationship with a living God, and the knowledge that He has promised us eternal life with Him in Heaven if we only believe.  Pray this prayer and accept the gift of eternal life God has offered you by the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.

Dear Father in heaven, I believe in your son Jesus. I believe that He died on the cross for my sins, that He rose up from the grave, and that my sins are forgiven.  Forgive me of my sin, help me to walk with you, and thank you for saving me. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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Awful and Wonderful 2

"Then the elders of the congregation said, “What shall we do for wives for those who remain, since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed?” And they said, “There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, that a tribe may not be destroyed from Israel. “However, we cannot give them wives from our daughters, for the children of Israel have sworn an oath, saying, ‘Cursed be the one who gives a wife to Benjamin.’ ”Then they said, “In fact, there is a yearly feast of the LORD in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.” Therefore they instructed the children of Benjamin, saying, “Go, lie in wait in the vineyards, “and watch; and just when the daughters of Shiloh come out to perform their dances, then come out from the vineyards, and every man catch a wife for himself from the daughters of Shiloh; then go to the land of Benjamin. “Then it shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to us to complain, that we will say to them, ‘Be kind to them for our sakes, because we did not take a wife for any of them in the war; for it is not as though you have given the women to them at this time, making yourselves guilty of your oath.’ ”And the children of Benjamin did so; they took enough wives for their number from those who danced, whom they caught. Then they went and returned to their inheritance, and they rebuilt the cities and dwelt in them."      Judges 21:16-23  NKJV

Forgive me if I mention this too often but I love studying the Old Testament and the stories it contains.  I’m sure it has much to do with my fascination with history but I can still remember grade school where I was a terrible student who spent most of his time staring out the window until the teacher got around to the subject of history.  At that point in time I became a model student with the attention span of an adult.  Yet my love of the Old Testament goes beyond just enjoying the stories, but also ties directly to my study of eschatology in the Bible.

“Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”  1 Corinthians 10:11. NKJV

The apostle Paul wrote these words about the children of Israel during Old Testament times and states plainly that we should heed those events as we live in what many believe is the end of this age.  I also recall listening to Chuck Missler teach from the Old Testament and often say that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.  He quite often brought up this point when talking about the rapture being hidden in the Old Testament.

To reiterate, those of you who are familiar with this site should be aware that I am a firm believer in the doctrine of imminency, or the belief that the rapture could occur at any time and is not reserved for a certain date on the calendar.  That said, one can’t ignore the fact that there are certain days on the Jewish calendar where events have happened throughout history which seem to exhibit a certain “rapture” connection.  One of these also occurs in the month of Av and I for one find it an extremely interesting holiday and since last week we spoke of the “awful” part of Av, today we will look at the “wonderful” part.

I think most believers would agree that our hope, the event for which we are all watching and waiting is the rapture of the Church. I'm sure most of us too, are familiar with the Church being referred to as the “bride” of Christ. Many of you are also probably aware of how the events surrounding the rapture follow precisely the pattern of a Jewish wedding. Since Jesus is Jewish, it is expected that His wedding to His bride, the Church, will follow the pattern and traditions associated with Jewish weddings. But there is one question I personally have always had with this idea and it is this; does it matter at all in this picture that we the Church are not, strictly speaking, Jewish?

Years ago when I first met Chuck Missler and began to listen to his teachings, another thing he said which has always stuck with me was “pattern is prologue”.  While there are many examples of this throughout scripture, it is probably never more obvious than when applied to the relationship between Christ and His Church.  Many of Jesus’ parables referenced the Jewish wedding ceremony and Paul refers to the Church as the bride of Christ.  Taking all these things into account, I had to wonder if there was a point to be made about a wedding between Jesus, a Jew, and the Church, a gentile?

I don’t recall exactly when I first began studying the Jewish feast days, but I do know it was quite some time ago.  Yet it wasn’t until 2010 that I first became aware of the holiday in Israel called Tu B’ Av, and wrote my first article about it. Quite often it is referred to as an unknown holiday because most have never even heard of it; much less understand the traditional beliefs associated with it.  It isn't even listed on my Jewish calendar along with all of their other holidays, which makes me wonder why it is so "forgotten"? If you look it up on the internet, you will find that most sites call it a "minor" holiday in Jewish culture, but for reasons I want to share with you, I think it's entirely possible this might be the most important holiday for the Church that you've never heard of.

First of all, Tu B'Av was declared a celebration by the first generation after the forty year wilderness wandering from Egypt during the Exodus. If you recall, God commanded that an entire generation must die because of their sin before a new generation could enter the Promised Land. After forty years, seeing the full moon told the new generation that the appointed time had passed, and they were able to enter the land that God had led them to. Remember the Jewish calendar is lunar, so the months are calculated by observing the phases of the moon, and the full moon always occurs on the night of the 14th (don't forget the new day starts at sunset). So this new generation declared this day a new day of celebration.

Secondly, the Jewish Talmud, which is a collection of ancient Rabbinic writings, teaches that on this day, Tu B' Av, the tribes of Israel were allowed to intermarry. The rest of the year, it was required that you marry only within your tribe, but on this one day every year, women were free to marry whomever they wished from any tribe. For this reason, and because it also marks the end of the wheat harvest in Israel, many believe this is the day that Ruth married Boaz. If you remember that story, Ruth was not a Jew, but a Gentile. Yet as a distant relation, she and Boaz, who was Jewish, were allowed to marry. Their marriage occurred at the end of the harvest, and since on this day, marriages to others were allowed, it’s entirely possible that this was the day of their wedding.

Third, as a result of a civil war between the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of Israel, only 600 males survived the conflict. The leaders of Israel decided they would allow these men to take wives from "the daughters from Shiloh". It seems there was a celebration at the beginning of the grape harvest at Shiloh where the daughters would go into the vineyards and dance. The surviving men were told they were to hide in the vineyards and catch themselves a wife from the girls who came out to dance. In later years this day became known as a traditional day of love and courtship, where girls would exchange white clothing so that prospective husbands would not know who was rich or who was poor.

Fourth, Tu B' Av is the last holiday of the year in Israel. Since the New Year begins on Rosh Hashanah, which is roughly just a month and a half after, this is the last holiday as well as the last harvest of their calendar year. Being the last of the holidays, it is a time of celebration both in looking back, and looking forward to the New Year that is approaching. This day is also considered to be the time where planting of crops or trees was to end for the year. During the time of the Second Temple, Tu B' Av was proclaimed as the beginning of the grape harvest which continues until Yom Kippur.

Fifth, prophetically speaking, Tu B' Av could well picture the future marriage of Christ with His church.

"In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."               John 14:2-3 NKJV

In the Jewish culture, after the engagement the groom goes to prepare the home in which he and his wife will reside, and it is up to his father to decide when the home is ready and the son is allowed to return for his bride.  Another interesting fact is that the full moon is considered to be an auspicious time for a wedding and as we already know, Tu b Av does indeed occur on a full moon.  

So now we understand there is a holiday in Israel that many outside of Israel are unfamiliar with which is a traditional day celebrating love. It is a day many choose as their wedding day, and historically is the only day that Jews were allowed to marry outside their own tribes. It comes at the conclusion of the wheat harvest at the end of summer, and along with being the last celebration of the year, because of the allowance to intermarry it also perfectly pictures the future marriage of Christ with His Church.  Taking all of these things into consideration, I think it appropriate to label Tu B’ Av as a wonderful holiday.

Many look at this day as a perfect time for the rapture of the Church to occur, and in all honesty, I would have to agree. But as we all know, God has His own timetable and as far as we know, He hasn't made it crystal clear. Yet with all the clues we do have, and all that has been happening lately in the world, many are convinced that this truly could be the day. Who knows, but since Tu B' Av starts the evening of the fourteenth of Av at sunset, which this year occurs Tuesday evening the 28th of July, I would be lying if I said I wasn't going to be watching the skies more than usual. The day is approaching when we will be taken to be with our Lord forever. I'm praying it will be soon.

Tisha B’ Av and Tu B” Av are two extraordinary days on the Jewish calendar which just happen to occur during the same month.  Awful and wonderful just one week apart.  Am I predicting something to happen in the next couple of weeks?  No, yet one can’t escape the obvious conclusion that something may likely occur at some point in the future, especially on these two days.

If you are reading this today and have never made the decision to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I urge you to do it right now. Simply admit to God that you need His forgiveness because you are a sinner,  be willing to turn away from your sins, believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, and invite Him to come in and control  your life through the Holy Spirit by praying a simple prayer like this;

Father, I know I am a sinner in need of salvation. I believe you sent your Son Jesus to die on the cross for my sin, and I ask you now to forgive me of my sins. I want to receive your gift of salvation so please come into my heart and help me to live and follow you as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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