June 19,2011,
FAT SHEPHERDS
I hope that this page can become a place where I can share my personal thoughts and insights God is giving me. It will be a simple outlet to be a good steward of the gifting's God has given me by His grace. If your a big-time blogger, podcast listener, or watcher, or blog reader I hope you enjoy this post:Lately I've been reading through the book of Jeremiah, I thought it would be a good book to keep me humble in the hard times during our ministry here in Taiwan. If you don't know much about Jeremiah, he was a prophet called by God and told that God would give him the power to bring down nations, but..........no one listened to him! God's idea of what that meant was different than Jeremiah thought. Just read Lamentations sometime to see what Jeremiah felt like. In my reading of Jeremiah I came across a passage about shepherds in Chapter 3:15,"“‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding." When I read this passage I immediately thought about God's indictment towards those evil shepherds in Ezekiel 34 which goes something like this: The word of the Lord came to me: 2 d“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! gShould not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 hYou eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 jThe weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 mSo they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. 6 My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them." When I read this passage I usually think back to the time of the Samuels where there were priests who were helping themselves to the offering plate instead of giving it to God. But this particular time God allowed me to see something different. God's indictment against these shepherds is that they have not FED THE SHEEP. He says they have eaten but they haven't given anything to the sheep. They have been clothed and taken care of but they haven't ministered to those in need. What about us? What about me? I'm a fat shepherd. Last Sunday before church I was preparing for the sermon and I was beginning to rush through it when God reminded me of this passage. You see that week, of course, I made time to feed myself, spiritually, whether it be blogs, podcasts, etc, but I wasn't doing a very good job feeding the sheep. God loves the sheep, and we as shepherds should too. So are you giving out what God has been giving you, or are you just getting fat. Is it all about you? God has called those of us who are shepherds to be shepherds FOR the sheep, not for ourselves. So next time you are reading blogs, listening to podcasts, etc, think if you are giving this out to others, or just getting fat. These things are good and used rightly, are beneficial to us as believers, but we are fed so that we can feed others. God help us be shepherds who FEED the sheep with knowledge and understanding and not just grow fat!
