I Am...Your Restorer!

I am the good shepherd (John 10:11, 14)...Part 3

Not only does a good shepherd lead...

                A good shepherd provides...

                And a good shepherd restores our souls.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me to lie down in green pastures

He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul...

(Ps. 23:1-3a)

I have three friends who love to restore old cars.  Once classics, now damaged on the outside, rusted with time, and internally exhausted – done!  They beat, pound, weld, sand, scrub, pull apart, replace, wash, spray, paint, wire, bolt, and connect and keep on doing more of the same – until, voila!  What seemed hopeless is new again and its value is restored – actually, more than restored.

People are hard on cars over the years.  People are hard on people.  Too often enough, the wear and tear of life, aren’t the only reason we need to be restored.  Sometimes, the way people treat us, hastens the battering and the bleeding and the wearing out of the soul.  I frequently sit knee to knee, and look eye to eye with some of these people.  I have been one.  Restoration of old cars is an expensive, long, and tiresome process.  So is restoring a soul.

But Jesus...He is in the restoration business.  That’s in his job description.  People are far too valuable to bring before some novice, hobby-loving repairman.  People deserve better.  To begin with, Jesus has already purchased everything we will need to be completed.  It’s been paid for with his blood.  We don’t have to put a dime into fixing ourselves, and couldn’t afford him if we had a dime. So...it’s a done deal.

He has all the right tools – love, grace, mercy, patience, forgiveness, gentleness, kindness are just a few.  He knows when, where and how to use them.

He has the time – He’ll stay with us as long as it takes, never leaving us or forsaking us.

He knows how to best care for us with exactly what we need – after all, he created us.  Who better, then, to do the restoring?

Oh, and he has an instruction manual to help us along the way – so we don’t have to have a complete over haul, ever again.  The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul (Ps 19:7)! 

He thinks of everything!  Now, while on the road of life, we can look for the warning lights, change the oil regularly, and do some daily maintenance that will keep our souls running like energizer bunnies... J

Here’s the real message of restoration!

Only God can turn a mess into a message

A test into a testimony

A trial into a triumph

And a victim into a victorious warrior!

Come to your good shepherd.  Be restored.

I Am...Your Provider!

I am the good shepherd (John 10:11, 14)...Part 2

Not only does a good shepherd lead...

            A good shepherd provides.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me to lie down in green pastures

(Ps. 23:1-2a)

By name, our God is Jehovah Jireh (meaning, I AM...the God who provides).  The Hebrew word for “want” is chacer: to lack, to be in need.  We may not have all we “want,” but we can be assured our needs are taken care of on a daily basis.  My biggest problem is that I get my needs and my wants all mixed up.  It’s so easy to do when you live in our instant gratification society.  So, in order to get perspective, I’ve had to ask myself: what does God say?  Not Abraham Maslow.  Not the government.  Not my next door neighbor.  If my shepherd promises to give me what I need, then maybe I need to examine what my shepherd thinks is important.

In Genesis 22 – God provided the lamb.  As sheep, our shepherd became the lamb that took away our sins!  We NEED salvation.  He provides.

Throughout the Psalms & Proverbs as well as in Matthew 6: God provides food, clothing, shelter...and we do not need to worry.  He provides.

In 1 Corinthians 10:13, He provides a way out of temptation...  I have an escape.  Thank you, Lord...I definitely need that provision!

In Philippians 4:13,  God provides us with strength.  In Romans 8, we’re reminded that we have unlimited power for “the one who raised Christ Jesus from the dead dwells in me!”  I can do all things!  An amazing provision!

In Isaiah 61, God provides good news: healing for the brokenhearted, freedom for captives, release from darkness, a comfort for those who mourn, and a crown of beauty out of t he ashes of our lives...  I can be a Resurrection Woman!

In Ephesians 2, God reminds us that, while we were once far off, now we are brought near, and adopted into a new household:  a community designed to be a family.  I am never alone!

Also in Ephesians 2:10, God provides for us a “good work” that he predestined us to do “in Christ Jesus.”  I have purpose!

In Ephesians 3, we have been granted full confidence to approach the throne of grace!  I am heard!  I take advantage of this provision often!

In Revelation, we have the hope of heaven.  I have a future and a hope!  God knows we need this kind of “vision,” for without it people perish!

In Hebrews 12, God provides a cheering squad that helps us endure the toughest of times.  Yep – need that, too!

I could go on and on...thus far I am overwhelmed at what I have been given!  I am truly blessed.  My Shepherd provides above and beyond all that I could ask or even imagine. Praise, Jehovah Jireh – “I Am” the One who provides!

I Am...the Good Shepherd!

I am the good shepherd (John 10:11, 14)...

While I haven’t spent a lot of time around sheep, I do know a few things about them.  What I know makes me resent this “I Am...”  If Jesus is the good shepherd, then by common sense deduction, I am a sheep.  Forget the soft cuddly little animal that decorates nurseries.  What a misrepresentation of the real deal.  Everything I know about sheep begins with the letter “s”.  They stink.  They are stubborn.  They are stupid.  The last thing I want to acknowledge about myself is that I might be a sheep.  In reality, however, it is an accurate comparison (well, my smell isn’t so awful, but my behavior can be...).  So, yes, I need a shepherd...desperately!

I already know that it’s going to take more than one brief blog to dialogue about Jesus as our shepherd. For the purposes of this week’s reflection, we will only look at one attribute of a good shepherd.  A good shepherd is a good leader:

“...the sheep listen to his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them...and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.  They will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice (3b-4).”

Sheep do that, you know...they follow their own shepherd.  They might be in a field filled with other sheep from other folds, but, because they have spent so much time with their own shepherd, they recognize his voice.  When they hear that voice, they follow.  They separate out from the rest of the sheep, and they go after their shepherd.  Because they have spent so much time with their own shepherd, they trust that he will “lead them beside quiet, restorative waters (Ps 23:2b-3).”  They won’t trust other shepherds to do the same.  Following is an issue of trust...always!

When Jesus speaks this “I am” statement, his singular vision, his primary purpose, his truth for me to grapple with is this:  Will I let Him lead?

You see, a lot of times, I look to Jesus as a friend, a confidant, an advisor, an encourager, a counselor, a “life-coach” (if you will), a computerized GPS.  While he is very much those things along the way of life, he. first and foremost, desires my determination to allow him to do what he does best – LEAD.   The problem is I want a bit of a say in where we go.  I want a head’s up for the journey ahead.  I really am saying something like this to my shepherd, “Oh, I’ll follow............but, with some consideration.  Just give me a little idea of what’s up the road.  Let me deliberate a little bit.”  Jesus, the good shepherd, doesn’t want our consideration.  He doesn’t desire deliberation.  He plans for our participation.  We can trust that while the up may sometimes seem steep and rocky – the grass at the top will be healthier and we will ultimately be happier (more blessed).

Blessed am I when I don’t just consider following my good shepherd, but surrender to him with willing participation!

I Am...the Door!

So, Jesus said to them, “I am the door... (John 10:7, 9)

In a section of Scripture that mostly refers to Jesus as The Good Shepherd (next week), we can’t move forward until we stop at these words, “I am the door.”  He is: the way in, the opening, the gate, the entrance.  If you come in any other way, you don’t belong (in fact, you would be a thief or a robber).

Obviously, Jesus is referring to being the only way to salvation...the only way “in” to heaven.  He is the only way “in” to a relationship with the Father.  Yet, I think there’s more; there’s more to being a door.  Not only did the door allow entrance, the door kept out that which should not go inside.  The door was the filter, the guard that kept good protected, as well as defended, yet kept out the bad.  If Jesus is the door, then He, too, is the filter; and the Bible makes it clear that as The Filter, He is love.  He is good.

So, unless we create another way in, evil (as in the thief/robber) cannot be present in the sheepfold.  Yet trials, hardship, struggles, and suffering sometimes hit the sheep in the pen.  If Jesus is The Filter, how come?  Why?  After all, we just said it, He is love.  Those are the questions we often ask.  Yet, The Filter can’t be what He is not.  He has to be good.  He has to be love.  The door simply is what it is.  So, reason stands that if this is true, those things that are allowed in that seem bad are really good. 

Whoa!  Wait a minute! We can’t call bad good!  Why not?  Is bad not redeemable?  If it can’t be redeemed, then can Jesus be The Redeemer?  Bad always becomes good when it passes through the door.  It is transformed in the midst of the filtering process.  Because bad is transformed into good, it also becomes transforming.  The sheep are changed.  True, they may be broken down, but, always for the purpose of being built back up.  Bad becomes good because of the transforming redemptive quality.  It has been used for Redemption’s sake.

There is nothing...no circumstance, no trouble, no testing that can ever touch me until, first of all it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me.  If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment.  But as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret.  For I will rest in the joy of what my Lord is!  That is the rest of VICTORY!

I Am...The God of Nevertheless!

“I interrupt this series…” Well, sort of.  While this isn’t an “I Am” statement of Jesus (like those we’ve been diving into), this is an “I Am,” nevertheless.   As I was reading through Psalm 106 this morning, my eyes were stopped twice by one word.  It is a sweet word.  A hopeful word.  A cleansing word.  A word promising a better tomorrow: a do-over!  It is a word that really can only, wholly be fulfilled from the heart of a God of lovingkindness.  NEVERTHELESS.

Their hearts were hardened…NEVERTHELESS.

They rebelled…NEVERTHELESS.

They provoked God to wrath…NEVERTHELESS.

They served idols…NEVERTHELESS.

They played the harlot…NEVERTHELESS.

They even sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons…NEVERTHELESS.

They became unclean in their practices…NEVERTHELESS.

They grumbled…NEVERTHELESS.

They were jealous…NEVERTHELESS.

They sinned, committed iniquity, & behaved wickedly…NEVERTHELESS.

They forgot God’s abundant kindnesses…NEVERTHELESS.

They craved, they lusted, & they tempted God…NEVERTHELESS.

They envied…NEVERTHELESS.

They exchanged their glory (God) for the image of an ox…NEVERTHELESS.

Yes, there were consequences.  Some died; experienced disease; were swallowed up; carried off to foreign lands as slaves; provoked God’s anger, and, He even abhorred His inheritance…NEVERTHELESS!

He heard their cries.

Looked upon their distress.

Remembered His covenant.

He was sorry according to the GREATNESS of His lovingkindness.

Many times He would deliver them.

NEVERTHELESS…

They received salvation that He might make His power known.

He redeemed them.  Rescued them.  Gave them new beginnings and fresh starts. 

Praise the Lord!  O Give thanks to the Lord for He is good.  His lovingkindness is everlasting (verse 1).

MY PRAYER:

May the “NEVERTHELESS-es” in my life always lead me to NEVER AGAINS!

I Am...the Light of the World, 2!

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world.   Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12

I was just re-visiting last week’s “thought.”  It just dawned on me there is one bug that doesn’t like light – the cockroach.  So, that got me thinking about how those who “love the darkness” (cockroaches, spiritually speaking) respond when they are forced into the light?  What happens to the sin-steeped soul that steps into THE LIGHT?  I’m thinking I know, as there have been times (sorry to pop any naive bubbles) when I have tried to avoid the light from exposing my own sinful nature.  I react very much like a cockroach and try to escape quickly into hiding once more.  The dark “feels” much safer.  At least, during those times, that is my perception.  If I’m a cockroach, I don’t love the light.

So, I have been drawn back to John 8 asking the Lord for a little more “light” on this dilemma.  Sometimes it’s shocking to me how God answers those kinds of questions.  Do you know what story precedes this passage?  The woman caught in adultery!  After picking my jaw up off the floor when I realized this fact, I began to ask myself why this story, right here, sandwiched in this place?  Think about it.  This woman with no name was caught in the very act of adultery.  She was drug from the bed in a darkened room out into the daylight to stand before the SONLIGHT.  There she stood.  Naked.  Exposed.  From the inside out.  Whatever Jesus wrote in the dirt, caused the others to run for cover (maybe he exposed the “cockroachedness” of their sinful hearts), but the woman stayed.  She could have run, but I’m thinking she was tired of running.  Sometimes, even amidst the painfulness of the exposure, we’re glad we finally got caught.  We’re glad we can stop running.  Somehow, there in the face of THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, she saw mercy. 

“Woman, where are your accusers?” 

“Gone.”

“Neither do I accuse you.  Go and sin no more.”

The very thing that we shy away from when we are in sin (Light) becomes the very thing that now covers our sin (Light). Who would have thought?!  Only in the way the mind of God works, could we ever find the irony of total healing.  If we don’t step into the light, there will be no answer for our hidden shame.  If we don’t step into the light, we cannot be covered.  If we don’t let the light expose and cover, we will not find freedom to “go and sin no more.”  Victory is only found in the LIGHT. 

The LIGHT is not to be feared...but treasured.  Not to scurry away from into hidden dark corners of our hearts, but to run toward as fast as our feet can carry us.  GO!  Sin no more.

(A) He is THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD  +  (B)  I am covered and set free.  =  (C)  I can live life to the full in that freedom, no longer a cockroach (maybe a lightning bug?)!

I Am...the Light of the World!

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world.   Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12

We have lived a lot of places where it’s quite common to lose electricity.  About 90% of the time, it seems to happen at night.  It has to be one of Murphy’s Laws: When electricity goes out, it will be after dark.  No normal human likes darkness.  It’s difficult to navigate in the dark.  It’s impossible to find what you’re looking for.  It’s easy to get hurt.  Evil seems to be more “present.”  It’s a known fact that being in the dark is a much more frightening place.  A quick internet research shows that psychologists tell us the reason people are afraid of the dark is because “sounds lose their connection and uneasy suspicions are created.”  Personally, I don’t care what reason they come up with psychologically, or scientifically, I just know I do not like the dark.

That’s why in my house, we keep flashlights within quick, easy reach.  Every room is equipped with oil lamps.  The cupboard is full of candles.  When it comes to losing electricity, I earn the Girl Scout badge for being prepared.  All it takes is just one little light, and my heart stops racing, my mind settles down, and I am at rest.  If you think I’m bad now, you should have seen what I was like as a little girl...

One little light makes a difference.  Light is warm as it embraces us.  Light gives direction and puts everything back into perspective.  Light eliminates fear.  Light reveals what is around me, enabling me to stay relatively safe.  I’ve read that light is a natural, proactive source that wars against depression.  Light drives out evil.  Everyone is attracted to light – even bugs.

Jesus isn’t just one little candle lit in the dark.  He is the light of the world.  That’s a lot of light!  Even the sun can't light the whole world.  Think what that kind of light can accomplish in us when we allow ourselves to step into it! 

Probably what leaves me most speechless is that THE LIGHT places HIS LIGHT inside of me.  THE LIGHT taught, “You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (Matt. 5:14-16).”

This, too, is my prayer...So be it! 

(A) He is THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD  +  (B)  I am LIGHT  =  (C)  I can make a difference in my world.