Jesus Our Shepherd

at 07/01/08 10:55PM
Last week we had our Vacation Bible School at our congregation and I taught the 3rd and 4th Grade Bible class throughout the week. As I studied for the lesson on “God is our Provider” I was thinking about the Scriptures I would use and I thought of Psalm 23:1, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” This led me to do some research on shepherds during Bible times and I found some interesting things about shepherds that enhanced my understanding of some Bible verses.

“The Lord is my shepherd...” Shepherds were usually the youngest boy of the family who would not receive an inheritance. Most of the times, shepherds were young, unmarried boys. Shepherds had a 24 hour job and never at any time left the flock. They were with their sheep at all times. In the morning, oftentimes carrying a sack of food with them, they would lead the sheep to pastures of grass for food and places of water for drink. They were constantly mindful of where the sheep were and were always on the lookout to make sure none strayed. If a single sheep strayed, they would search and search until they found it. At the end of the day, the shepherd would lead the sheep home and would count the sheep one more time to make sure they had not missed any sheep that had strayed that day. This reminds me of Matthew 18:12, “If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and search for the one that is straying?”
A shepherd also provided protection for the sheep. A person once visited Israel and found a sheep pen. He noticed that the pen was missing a gate and questioned the shepherd about it. The shepherd replied that he was the gate for the sheep each night. He slept in that opening to keep the sheep in and the wild animals and thieves out. Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved.” John 10:7-9
To protect the sheep, the shepherd was watchful for wild animals and robbers who wanted to steal the sheep. A shepherd was prepared to fight off these threats and even die in doing so. Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11.
Just as the Bible compares Jesus as a shepherd, the Bible compares us to sheep. “Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who made us and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Psalm 100:3. Sheep do not know danger and were not created with claws or teeth or anything else to intimidate or scare off prey. They are defenseless in an attack and are therefore dependent on their shepherd for safety. In the same way, we cannot save ourselves. Just as the sheep are dependent on their shepherd, we are completely dependent on Jesus for salvation. In Jesus alone is our only hope for eternal salvation and we must be completely dependent on Him to lead us. Jesus also said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." John 14:6
In studying about Jesus our shepherd, it helps to more fully comprehend the love, dedication, and sacrifice Jesus shows toward us being our Good Shepherd. It is up to us to decide if we will accept Jesus as our shepherd and the salvation He offers.
  • cyber_space_cadet
    That was a really good read. I had heard some of that before, but not all. I thought the part about the gate (and how the scripture is worded) was really interesting. Thanks for sharing that, Morgan.
    by cyber_space_cadet at 07/02/08 5:12AM
  • ndawg87
    I really liked the part about the boy watching the sheep 24 hours. Knowing that Jesus is always watching us gives the feeling of true inner peace. Thank you for the thoughts! They were great!
    by ndawg87 at 07/03/08 7:31PM
  • craigdehut
    I am very excited to see what God decides to do with the book. The possibility of helping someone who may be going through difficult times really excites me. He does amazing things, if we all would just let Him!
    by craigdehut at 07/03/08 11:37PM
  • candyhere
    This is a really good post, Morgan! I like how the shepherd is the gate. The last time JR taught the HS class we went into detail about the responsibility of shepherds and then compared that to Jesus. It was really interesting and I enjoyed reading your post! I like the part about the shepherd being the gate and that no one got through him without him knowing. It reminds me of John 10:1,9, “...he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.... I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved....” Really good thoughts! I appreciate you writing this up for us to be encouraged and strengthened by it.
    by candyhere at 07/04/08 9:19PM

Our Reverence Towards God

at 06/01/08 8:00PM
“God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence by all those around Him.” Psalm 89:7
Reverence is defined by Vines as “to put to shame, to feel respect for, to show deference to, caution” The word “reverence” has also been translated from the Greek word “Phobeo” where we get the word “phobia”. Therefore reverence also means “to fear”. In Esther 3:5 reverence means “worship”. In Hebrews 12:28 reverence means “sense of shame, modesty”. In Ephesians 5:33 reverence means “to fear, to treat with reverential obedience”. Also in Hebrews 12:9 reverence means “to respect”. Our preacher recently had some sermons on “reverence”. He preached it in a gospel meeting this past spring and it had a positive effect upon that congregation. After the gospel meeting, they had a men’s business meeting and decided that the men would wear ties when waiting on the Lord’s table to show their reverence for God. When our preacher preached the series at our congregation, I was so encouraged by it that I wanted to share some of my notes and some things I’ve been thinking about in regard to the subject of “reverence”.

In our lives as Christians, our reverence defines our relationship with God. In reverence we realize that Christianity is about God not about us. When we make Christianity about us, we will not have the proper reverence to God that we ought. When we lack proper reverence, we bring God down to our level to make God small like us. The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 4:7, “Exercise yourself toward godliness.” The word “godliness” in this verse is translated to mean “reverence”. So God tells us that we need to exercise toward reverence. We all understand that exercise involves work on our part. Therefore, we need to be working toward reverence. We need to recognize the awesomeness of God and see Him on His throne as Isaiah did in Isaiah 6:1-5. We need to study His Word and we need to see the need for sacrifice. To do this, we must learn self-control.

Reverence will affect every area in our life. You know, a lot of times we like to make a priority list in our life. We will say our priorities are as follows in our life: 1. God 2. Family 3. Work 4. Friends 5. Interests, hobbies etc... Yet when we properly reverence God, He will be first in everything. He will be first in our relationships, in our interactions with family. He will be first when we are at work. Also, He will be first and affect how we treat our friends. Our reverence to God will affect every area of our life.

Our reverence (or lack of it) will reflect in our worship to God. Do we treat His Word as holy in the way we worship? Or do we think the Bible is a matter of our own opinion? “Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” Hebrews 12:28 The word “serve” in that verse means “to worship”. God demands that we worship Him acceptably with reverence and godly fear. If we have a proper reverence to God, we will not try to twist the scriptures to make it fit our own agenda. Rather, we will view His Word as holy and follow the divine instruction. Nadab and Abihu come to mind when I think of an example of someone who did not have regard for God’s commandments in worship. Leviticus 10:1-2 “Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took a censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.” The Lord then spoke (vs 3), “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.” The commandments of God (The Bible) is not open for our own interpretation to do what we want.

Do we show reverence to God in what we wear to worship Him? Reverence means that I will never be casual in what I wear to worship. The word casual means “cascading” which is “falling or tumbling”. Casual means fallen standards. Our culture we live in today is very casual. The standards are falling and tumbling down but do we show the same attitude in our dress to worship God? What we wear needs to indicate that we are giving God our best we have to give. Even Joseph changed and shaved to see Pharaoh. Will we give God any less? We should never be casual in our conduct or dress when we worship God. We should do our own personal best when comes to worshipping God. Our preacher had pointed out that he knew of a man who only wore overalls but when it came to worshipping God, he had a pair of overalls he only wore to services. They were his best pair. I think we can see that this individual truly had a heart to want to give God his best. When we go to a wedding or funeral or celebration of somebody, in respect for those people, we will clean up and put on clothing that is more than our casual clothing. Will we not do as much for God?

In studying about reverence, it helps our focus in this life in respect to God. It will affect every aspect of our life so that we will be pleasing to Him. This should be our ultimate goal. “I will worship towards thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” Psalm 138:2
  • craigdehut
    Thanks for the great thoughts Morgan! It's been a bit too long, I was starting to miss these! I hope that everything is doing well! Will you guys be at the Whitsitt's Volleyball Day?
    by craigdehut at 06/02/08 11:22AM
  • ryguy
    What you said reminds me of things Gary Henry has said before. Reverence for God should show up in every aspect of our lives, no matter how small! In my worship, schoolwork, social life, my choice of words when I make a stupid mistake on the volleyball court. It's really a whole-life transformation!
    by ryguy at 06/02/08 11:32AM
  • ryguy
    Oh, and does this mean you're getting back on pleo?
    by ryguy at 06/03/08 12:23PM
  • blu_id_gurl
    hey who is this?
    by blu_id_gurl at 06/03/08 11:04PM
  • craigdehut
    Yup, Lord willing, I'll be there for volleyball. I missed it last year, so I'm pretty excited to be able to go! I hope that you guys can make it!
    by craigdehut at 06/04/08 3:17PM
  • craigdehut
    Believe it or not, we actually went to the store, recorded it, and edited the commercial together in one afternoon! :) We're really happy with how it turned out!
    by craigdehut at 06/05/08 8:26PM
  • cyber_space_cadet
    Great thoughts!
    by cyber_space_cadet at 06/14/08 11:04AM
  • missynopet
    Morgan, i just wanted you to know that, I love you. You are an awesome friend. Are you returning to the pleo world?
    by missynopet at 06/14/08 10:38PM
  • ndawg87
    Morgan, this is the most awsome article I have seen in years. So good it should be put in an Christian booklet or something similar to it. It has done so much to enhance my spiritual self. Thank you!
    by ndawg87 at 06/29/08 7:29PM

For my friends on pleo...

at 02/05/07 2:37PM
As you all know, Im not on here very much but I have appreciated all of your biblical discussions and friendly comments. :o) With work and Bible studies, I havent been able to update pleonast. Thanks for the e-mails letting me know how some of you are doing. Your faithful Christian lives and the things that you are doing are an encouragement to me. :o) You all are in my prayers.

Philippians 1:3-4; 1 Thessalonians 5:11-24
  • missynopet
    you're not leavin are you????!!! = * (
    by missynopet at 02/06/07 8:01PM
  • ryguy
    You've really put up a lot of good spiritual thoughts on here Morgan! I guess we'll have to keep in touch the old fashioned way...email! ;)
    by ryguy at 02/07/07 9:23PM
  • the_extreme
    Lucky Irish Day!
    by the_extreme at 03/17/07 1:51PM

I'm working my way up to 3...

at 07/30/06 10:15PM
I ran a mile. Yes...that's right. I ran a mile. Let me tell ya, for an asthmatic, that's saying something.
  • lindseyd
    I'm so sorry I didn't get to say goodbye this last weekend!
    by lindseyd at 07/31/06 12:35AM
  • joe
    I'm sorry I didn't get to say hello this weekend! :)
    by joe at 07/31/06 2:29AM
  • ryguy
    WOW that is! we played ultimate frisbee after the singing on saturday (if you don't know what ultimate frisbee is....it's just running back and forth constantly, chasing a frisbee)...i was out of breath within the first game :P
    by ryguy at 07/31/06 1:28PM
  • lizabeth
    That is great!
    by lizabeth at 08/01/06 1:12AM
  • c1fishygentleman
    I will pray for her. super job on the running! I watched alot of the world cup soccer a few weeks ago and watching those guys run straight for about 95 minutes is pretty crazy.
    by c1fishygentleman at 08/05/06 3:05AM
  • ryguy
    yeah i'm glad my asthma is mild or i wouldn't be doing stuff like that
    by ryguy at 08/06/06 10:31PM
  • craigdehut
    Hey, have you bought that computer yet? Hope the advice was helpful. :)
    by craigdehut at 09/27/06 5:33PM
  • ryguy
    I just saw you and your sister in the paper!
    by ryguy at 11/23/06 10:37PM
  • craigdehut
    Sorry we weren't able to see you over the holiday! Hope you had a good one! :D
    by craigdehut at 01/03/07 11:09AM

It's been a great summer so far :o)

at 07/12/06 8:45AM
Well, I know it's been awhile but I figured I better update quickly. In fact, I only have 10 minutes until I head off to work but I wanted to update real quick! I have been doing many exciting things. A couple things: I have the opportunity to teach American Sign Language classes to children! Another is I have been studying the book of Acts with a Methodist right now which seems to be going well. God is truly amazing in how He is guiding me in my life. Sorry this is a short update. There is so many more things to share but I have to leave. Hopefully I can update soon. All of you have been great to talk to on here. God be with you. :o)

~Morgan
  • lindseyd
    Wait, where do you work?
    by lindseyd at 07/12/06 10:14AM
  • craigdehut
    Yay! An update! Sounds like you're definately keeping busy! I would love to hear how that study of Acts works out; what a great opportunity!
    by craigdehut at 07/13/06 2:09PM
  • lindseyd
    Sounds like God is giving you some great opportunities! How are you liking everything?
    by lindseyd at 07/24/06 10:46AM