Monthly Archives: August 2012

Shepherding Part X – The Shepherd’s Words

by tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly.  The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd.              – Ecclesiastes 12: 10 – 11 (NASB)

The military is an institution that operates on acronyms.  My present employer is much the same way.  One of the first acronyms I learned was KISS – Keep it simple, stupid! Many times I will try to make things more complicated than they need to be.  At times I find myself suffering from “analysis paralysis” because of it.  To my detriment, sometimes I approach studying God’s Word with the same desire to make it more complicated in places where it really isn’t.

As I continued my personal study of Biblical shepherding I came across the above introductory verse for this post.  As I studied it I found myself once again trying to make it more complicated than it is.  However, once I stepped back and approached Ecclesiastes 12: 9 – 14 again the lessons for me practically jumped from the page.

First, in verse 9 we see “the Preacher” teaching the people so they would have knowledge.  Shepherds should similarly teach God’s people so they will also have knowledge.  In fact, this is not an option but a responsibility (Ephesians 4:11, 1 Timothy 3:2).

Second, the Preacher sought to teach the people truth based on the words of God (verse 10) and also warns us to prioritize God’s words over those found in “many books”.  This lesson is especially relevant to me personally and maybe it is for you as well.  I find the amount of time I have available for reading is more limited now with my new career.  When I have had limited study time in the past I have been guilty of supplementing books about the Bible with Bible reading instead of supplementing Bible reading with books about the Bible.  We have to get our study priorities right or we will miss something very important and end up not teaching the truth or what I think is more likely we will not be astute enough to teach the whole truth.

Third, from verse 11 the Preacher relates that God’s words should drive us to act just like goads drive cattle and nails are driven by a hammer.  Early in His ministry our Lord and Savior reminds us of the consequences for both acting and not acting on His words in the parable of the wise man (Matthew 7:24 – 27).  James warns us “faith without works is dead” (2:26).

It is our duty to act on God’s commands (vs. 14).  Too many times my experience in the Church has been we are good at teaching God’s Word but fall short at putting it into action.  The purpose of the knowledge is meant to lead us to action, not to impress others with our knowledge, especially if that “knowledge” is gained from books other than the Bible.  Not that sharing knowledge is bad, but we must balance talking the talk and walking the walk, not being devoted completely to one or the other.  We as shepherds should lead by example just as our Lord Jesus Christ led His disciples.  The next time you read the gospels notice how many times our Savior first teaches disciples and then those teachings become action.  Similar instances exist throughout the Bible.  Yet, too many times we confine our teachings and actions to activity within our buildings instead of within the community.  Our congregations must do better, and will only do so if they are led properly.

So, back to the KIS principle (I am dropping the “stupid” part).  In summary, the lesson for me from Ecclesiastes 12: 9 – 14 is to teach God’s Word to His people and use both Word and deed to inspire them to action.  By doing so we can fulfill the whole duty of man – knowing what God’s commands are and then keeping them so we may fulfill the “equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12).

May your blessings exceed mine today and all your days. – DEM

Shepherding Part IX – The Best Offense…

by tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him. The LORD is their strength, And He is a saving defense to His anointed. Save Your people and bless Your inheritance; Be their shepherd also, and carry them forever.  Psalm 28: 7 – 9 (NASB)

In my last post I mentioned I was retiring from the Army.  Well, I am working again thanks to God’s blessing.  It appears I now have to actually work for my paycheck and long hours are ahead.  I will endeavor to keep posting to my blog, but due to time available I will probably be down to one post a month.  Since I don’t have many readers this should not be much of a deal to anyone, but I thought I would warn the few of you out there taking the time to read my posts.

Football season is fast approaching, once we finish enduring preseason games.  When it comes to football conversations you will often hear the phrase “defense wins championships”.  You may also hear the phrase “the best offense is a good defense”.  Personally, I’ve always enjoyed watching a good defense and good defensive players in action – provided it is a team I like!

Additionally, in military doctrine being in a prepared defense is considered the strongest form of maneuver, meaning your enemy would be required to field a minimum of a 3:1 superiority to defeat you.  However, it is not the preferred form of maneuver because it means you have surrendered the initiative to the enemy and are looking for an opportunity to consolidate resources, reorganize, and go back on the attack.

The concept of defending is not new.  The idea of defending against attack is woven throughout the scriptures.  Sometimes the references are to defending against physical attacks, as often found in the Old Testament.  Sometimes the references are to defending against spiritual attacks.    It is this vain we find the last three verses of our shepherding scriptures above, which are laced with language about God defending His people.

As shepherds, we are still required to defend God’s people (Acts 20:28).  Prior to becoming a shepherd I knew this to be true but seldom experienced it.  However, in a little over a year I have come to see first-hand the lengths Satan will go to attack our defenses.  For example, Satan presents temptations to attack God’s plan for marriages to be loving, honoring, co-dependent, and utterly fulfilling for both husband and wife (Genesis 1, Ephesians 5, 1 Peter 3).  Satan attacks God’s Will for the Church to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28, Mark 16) by convincing us as long as we assemble and worship we are doing all that God wants instead of just part of it.  Satan also attacks our efforts to stay united in love and faith (John 17, Ephesians 4, Colossians 3) by finding the slightest disagreement and doing his best to amplify it into a divisive issue.

Also notice the last verse of our scriptures.  I am struck by the words “carry them forever”.   For me it brings forth the image of a shepherd carrying a sheep.  Maybe the sheep was lost, they have a long way to go, the shepherd knows the way, and so he carries the sheep back.  Or maybe the sheep was injured (physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually) and the shepherd must carry the sheep and tend to the sheep until it is able to walk on its own.  Whatever the reason, the sheep must be carried and the shepherd is the one doing it.  There is also a word of caution here, in that the Psalmist said to carry the sheep “forever”.  While God can do that easily, the challenge to us is to remember that practically every reason mentioned above requires the strength and endurance to shepherd, sometimes for an entire lifetime.

So the lesson for today is meant more as a reminder than a compelling revelation.  As shepherds we are to defend God’s people against Satan’s attacks, carry them through the difficulties and tragedies of life, and do so with love, care, strength, and endurance.

May your blessings exceed mine today and all your days. – DEM

Shepherding Part VIII – The Only Constant?

by | Leave a comment

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing…”  Genesis 12: 1 – 2 (NASB)

Today is the first day of my Army retirement.  It is a significant transition in my life so I am going to digress slightly from my book-by-book study of shepherds and look briefly at applicable lessons from the life of Abraham.  I don’t think it is much of a stretch to discuss Abraham’s life within the boundaries of a shepherding study.  After all, Abraham had shepherds and probably did some time shepherding his father’s flocks while growing up.

Abraham and Sarah’s fascinating story of faith begins at the end of Genesis 11 and is set somewhere around 2000 B.C.  Abram (Abraham) is 75 years old and Sarai (Sarah) is 65.  Sarah is a beautiful woman even at this age (and older), however she is beyond normal child-bearing age.  In fact, though her beauty is emphasized in the scripture, she is introduced to us in Genesis 11:30 as “…barren; she had no child” (NASB).  The record begins with Abram and Sarai living in the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent during a time of turmoil.  The Sumerians have controlled the area from their capital city of Ur (south of present day Baghdad) for over 700 years, until overthrown by the Elamites.  This in turn creates the opportunity for the descendants of Noah’s son Ham, known as Amorites, to move east and occupy the area where Abraham lives with his father Terah, near Ur.  Abraham is Aramean, one of the descendants of Noah’s son Shem.  His family appears to be nomadic, much like the Bedouins living in that part of the world today.  We are introduced to Abraham (Abram) and Sarah (Sarai) in Genesis 11:31 – 32 when Terah (Abram’s father) takes his family from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan.  After traveling approximately 600 miles they arrive at Haran and for some reason settle there (Gen 11: 31-32).  Abraham’s father, Terah, dies in Haran and Abraham becomes the family patriarch (head shepherd, if you will).

The Bible goes on to record several significant events in Abraham and Sarah’s lives.   First, Abram receives God’s Promise (Gen 12:1-9) and charge to move from Ur to Canaan.  Shortly after they arrive in Canaan a famine drives them to Egypt and Pharaoh’s court,  where Abram survives lies about his relationship to Sarai.  Next, Abram and Lot split to resolve land disputes between their herdsmen.  The split proves to be disastrous for Lot, as he is captured during a war between five kings, including Sodom and Gomorrah, on one side and four kings on the other.  Abram rescues Lot, other captured people, and their goods.  Sometime later, Abram and Sarai decide to “help” God with his promise and the debacle with Hagar and Ishmael ensues.  When Abram is 99 years old, God makes his covenant and renames both Abraham and Sarah.  Abraham and Sarah then move to Gerar, lie about their relationship again almost causing Abimelech to commit adultery.  Shortly after surviving this incident Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah and Ishmael and Hagar are banished to God’s care.  Then Abraham’s defining moment comes when he prepares to sacrifice Isaac as commanded by God.  Abraham’s faith is rewarded and Isaac is spared.

So what are the lessons from Abraham’s life that are applicable to me on my first day of military retirement?  First, God provided Abraham the same vision that is applicable to us today.  God’s vision for Abraham was if he was faithful he would be blessed and his descendants would be a blessing to others.  This same vision is consistent throughout scripture as given to David (1 Chronicles 17, 2 Samuel 7), reiterated by the prophets, and manifested in Jesus Christ.  Jesus goes on to clarify God’s vision by giving us the mission to make disciples of those God puts in our path every day.  The neat thing is God knew each Christian and each congregation would be different, with different gifts, and therefore would have to figure out our part in fulfilling our disciple-making mission.  Sometimes, just like Abraham, figuring out our role takes a leap of faith.

My leap of faith to retire, with no guarantee of a job when we (trust me, my wife had as much input to the decision as I did) made the decision pales in comparison to the leaps of faith Abraham took in his life.  Still, I took that leap of faith because I knew God has used everything in our lives to prepare us to make this decision.  Even before we took that leap of faith God blessed us with a great congregation, the honor of serving the congregation as one of their shepherds, a great place to live, a great family, and many more blessings.  Now, we are blessed with a good solid job.  God has ALWAYS provided.

Second, Abraham and Sarah embraced change.  There is no doubt Abraham and Sarah experienced several changes in their lives.  Some they handled better than others.  They did not cope with changes well when they tried to control the situation and remove God from the equation (Pharaoh, Abimelech, Hagar and Ishmael come to mind).  With regard to Hagar and Ishmael, Abraham further compounds the problem by abdicating his leadership role and giving Sarah complete control of Hagar and Ishmael’s fate.  From these examples we learn the time to delegate leadership responsibility is not in the middle of a tumultuous situation, but when things are relatively calm and more predictable.  Shepherds must also discern when their actions are a result of not trusting God and seeking to control the situation according to their understanding instead of God’s will.

On the other side of the coin, Abraham and Sarah handled some changes well.  The 300 mile trek from Haran to Canaan and then to Egypt could not have been easy, nor would it have been easy to nearly sacrifice your son.  So how were they able to do it?  One way was they relied on family.  They experienced almost every event, both good and bad, together.  Coping with change is so much easier when the fear and anxiety of the unknown is shared among both our physical and spiritual family.  We can use each other to remind us of the blessings to come when we follow God’s will.  My wife and I are very good for each other in this regard.  My fellow shepherds and ministers are also great supports, as are some members in our congregation.  Abraham and Sarah also relied on previous experiences.  The move from Haran to Canaan was probably easier to plan, prepare, and conduct because Abraham and Sarah had been through it before when moving from Ur to Haran with Abraham’s father, Terah.  We too should draw on our own experience, the experience of our seasoned members, and the experiences of other shepherds to help us cope with tumultuous times.

Most importantly, Abraham and Sarah were most successful and blessed when they relied on God and the vision (His will) He gave Abraham.  There is a saying, “the only constant is change”.  While this statement is meant to assist us in coping with change, it is patently false in light of scripture.  It would be more accurate to say the only constant is God.  Hebrews 13:5-8 is just one of many passages illustrating the constancy of God, His Word, and His Son.  The entire Bible is one long narrative of God’s plan of redemption that has not changed.  And since no two changes are exactly alike, it is an oxymoron anyway to say that change is constant (and being a retired Military Intelligence officer, I know a thing or two about oxymorons!).  Changes do constantly occur, but God is the only constant for all of them.  It is up to us on whether we will seek to discern His involvement.

So the next time you encounter a significant emotional event of change in your life, remember the lessons of Abraham and Sarah.  Let us ask ourselves how the change will fit into God’s vision and mission for us.  Let us realize God will provide and bless our decisions if they are consistent with His will.  Let us embrace the change by recognizing it is another opportunity within God’s plan, God has provided others to assist us and even experience the change with us, and recognize we cannot abdicate our responsibility to shepherd through the changes.  Finally, let us realize God is there to lead us through every change, every step of the way, if only we will allow him to do so.  If we do these things, God will bless us.

May your blessings exceed mine today and all your days. – DEM