AT HOME IN THE FLOCK OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.

1 Peter 2:25

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Here’s an undeniable truth.

No person can walk a perfectly good and right life when left on their own to do so. Everyone is woefully inadequate in their ability to lead and guide themselves to the kind of living God expects and without His direction and protection, they are completely exposed and vulnerable to Satan’s attacks, attacks that activate a person’s innate sinfulness and initiate transgressive behavior.

This truth is why we find the Bible associating people with sheep. Sheep are in deep trouble unless they have a shepherd because without someone to lead them, they will do things like fall into a deep hole, walk over the edge of a cliff, or become easy prey for any number of predators who would love to have them for dinner.

Conversely, when they are in a flock and under the watchful eye of their shepherd, they will only go where he leads and will be cared for and protected at all times.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the shepherd/sheep relationship as a model for the way He associates and interacts with those who choose to believe and follow Him. Here’s what He said in chapter 10:

“I am the Good Shepherd; I know My own sheep, and they know Me, just as My Father knows Me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to My voice, and there will be one flock with one Shepherd. Vv.14-16

When any person places their faith in Jesus as Savior, they become a part of His flock, the flock of the redeemed and saved. They are there because they know their Shepherd and their Shepherd knows and loves them, so much so that He would be willing to sacrifice Himself for His sheep and we know Jesus did just that on Calvary’s cross.

We also see through Jesus’ words that His flock is not yet complete. There is room for expansion as He continues to look for stray sheep to bring into His sheepfold where they will join the one saved flock under the auspice of the one Shepherd of salvation.

As we turn to the final verse of 1 Peter, chapter 2, we find Peter reminding his readers, “God’s chosen people” who were “living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia) (1 Peter 1:1), that they were a part of Jesus’ flock. Look again at His words here:

Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. v.25

This verse reinforces the Shepherd/sheep relationship that Jesus speaks of in the Gospel of John. For before they came to Christ, the chosen of people of God that Peter wrote to “were like sheep who wandered away”. The same applies to every single Christian believer, past and present, and the place they were in before believing in Jesus.

All that changed once the lost sheep found their Good Shepherd Jesus. For after turning to Him, they joined His blessed sheepfold and came under the refuge and shelter of the very Guardian and Saver of their souls.

Friends, today we are at home within the same flock as the Christian believers joined more than 2,000 years ago. It’s an immense herd of Jesus believers but there is still room for so many more and the good news is that the Shepherd is always seeking new sheep to join his sheepfold where they will spend a glorious blessed eternity within His loving care.

Thanks be to God for the gift of His Son!

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.