The Lord is my Shepherd

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 names sake
Psalm 23:1-3

This is such a familiar scripture for so many of us and yet because few of us have had any experience with actual shepherding we miss so many of the nuances of the passage. I’m reading a book by W. Phillip Keller called A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 and it is opening my eyes to the concept of contextual reading of the scriptures. When David wrote the 23rd Psalm the readers or hearers of his day would understand the correlations between them as followers of God and the sheep that so many of them had daily contact with. Jesus used common every day illustrations that were so very relevant to the people of His day but are somewhat lost on us today. If we don’t take time to delve deeper into the context of the day when it was spoken or written, we could miss out on some really enlightening lessons. Let me give you an example, what do you think people will think of in a few hundred years when they read about Twitter or texting or iPods or one of a zillion techo-terms that we use today in our language. They won’t know who Seinfeld is or what tailgating is so what kind of trouble would they have understanding what we were referring to in our books. I want to challenge you to dig a little deeper when you are reading the Bible, study it, go online, read what other students have come up with, you will probably begin to see the scriptures in a whole new light! -pc

One Thing I Do Know

“One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see” John 9:25In this Gospel passage the religious leaders ask Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents causing him to be born blind?” To the religious elite, the man doesn’t seem important except to make a philosophical/theological point. Jesus in contrast had compassion on the man and healed his blindness. Organizations, governments even churches too often become insulated from the needs of the individual and get caught up in the agenda rather than the person. This mentality holds the hurting at a distance, far enough to keep us from getting our hands dirty. Jesus, He who created the universe has the ability to see the big picture, but is still willing to use His own hands to bring hope, help and healing. “Lord, give us your hands to heal this hurting world, today!”

pc

New Life?

July 30, 2009
“Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless one is born again, he cannot be in God’s kingdom.”
John 3:3 (in response to Nicodemus)
Have you noticed how often Jesus and the apostles refer to the new life that we can experience in Jesus? Why would Jesus say this if the people weren’t missing out on something important… like life, but surely they were alive if they were listening to Him? Over and over again we are reminded that the life that we experience in Christ is different than the life we experience outside of the life of Christ. We are told to be born again, saved, rescued, transformed and many other examples of the radical life change we can experience when we are totally immersed in the love and life of Christ. What is holding you back today? Let’s walk wholly in His life!

-pc