I have a shepherd

Have you ever wanted a "big brother"? Someone who could defend you, take care of you and be there for you when you needed someone bigger and stronger than yourself?
I have. I don't have a big brother in the natural, but I am happy to say that I have the best "big brother" I could ever have in the spiritual realm; His name is Jesus, and he is not only my big brother, but my SHEPHERD. David had found this out, and he says in Psalm 23:1;
"Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want."
Since God is no respecter of persons, He is also my shepherd, and I shall not want. What does that mean to me in my everyday living?
What is a shepherd? What does a shepherd do, what are his characteristics?
According to Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary, a shepherd is a person who takes care of sheep. The verb to shepherd means to guide or direct (people) as if they were sheep.
David had been a shepherd from his youth, and he describes his experience thus;
"And David said unto Saul, Thy servant was keeping his father's sheep; (he was a shepherd) and when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant smote both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God" (1 Samuel 17:34-36).
A shepherd watches over his sheep, conquers intruders and makes sure his sheep are safe, protected, fed and nurished. That's how my shepherd takes care of me, that's how your shepherd takes care of you.
The essential thing, however, is to stay near to the shepherd. If I run away from the shepherd, I run away from his protection and care; I am on my own.
Today I thank the Lord for being my Shepherd, and I am determined to stay close to Him.

Seeing the invisible

Have you ever seen the invisible?
"What do you mean?"
I mean exactly what I asked; Have you seen the invisible?
"How can I see something or someone who is invisible? Doesn't 'invisible' mean that it cannot be seen?"
Yes, it means that it cannot be seen with our natural eyes, but it doesn't mean that it cannot be seen with our 'unnatural' eyes.
Let me explain. We have natural eyes that see the natural world around us. We see colors, shapes, etc. If you're physically blind, you cannot see. The Bible tells us of several people whom Jesus healed of physical blindness.
However, the sight or blindness I am talking about here, is the spiritual blindness. Jesus reprimanded the pharisees for their spiritual blindness. They were not physically blind, but spiritually blind, and didn't even see it themselves.
"Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"  Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. (John 9:40-41). They believed they could see, but Jesus rebuked their being blind, just like the people in Revelations;
"You say, `I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.` But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked" (Rev 3:17). They thought they were ok, but they were not, they were blind.
Moses got a totally different testimony;
"By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible" (Heb 11:27). Moses saw him who is invisible! Moses saw into the realm of the unseen. And the same "seeing the invisible" is available to us. We just need to take our "spiritual glasses" on; we need to read God's Word and ask God to give us "sight".
When we see the invisible world, and see that it is more real than the seen world, that's when being a Christian becomes interesting.
I encourage you today to dig into the Word of God, become aquainted with the Invisible and begin seeing the invisible and The Invisible.

Is cooking bad?

Strange headline? Yes, I know. But I want to get your attention. And to answer the question; no, cooking is not bad. Cooking is good. Good cooks are always welcome, and good food is a blessing!
However, there is (at least) one situation in the Bible where Jesus rebuked the cook for cooking. Let's read from Luke 10:39-42,
"And she (Martha) had a sister, by name Mary, who took her seat at the Lord's feet and gave attention to his words. But Martha had her hands full of the work of the house, (she was cumbered about much serving) and she came to him and said, Lord, is it nothing to you that my sister has let me do all the work? Say to her that she is to give me some help. But the Lord, answering, said to her, Martha, Martha, you are full of care and troubled about such a number of things: Little is needed, or even one thing only: for Mary has taken that good part, which will not be taken away from her.
Jesus and His disciples were visiting Martha and her sister Mary. Two women in the house, and you would expect both women to make preparations for the party. But only one cooked, cleaned and set the table. Unfair? In our minds, yes. It seemed unfair that Martha did all the work when there were two women present. What was Mary doing? She sat at the Lord's feet. Think about that! Sitting down at Jesus' feet while her sister was doing all the household chores! No wonder Martha was angry and wanted Jesus to reprimand Mary.
But to everyone's astonishment, Jesus commended Mary for what she did. He praised Mary for her choice of action, and He rebuked Martha for her cooking.
Why on earth would He do that? What was praiseworthy about Mary's sitting at His feet? Mary gave attention to his words. She listened to what the Master said, and Jesus praised her for that.
Didn't Jesus want to eat? Wasn't He hungry after a long walk in the sun? Absolutely, there's no reason to believe otherwise. However, Jesus looked past His own physical needs and the needs of His friends, and He knew that His words were (and are) food for our souls. Mary had chosen to feed her spirit before she fed her stomack, and that was good in Jesus' eyes.
There is, however, another side to this story. What about Martha? What she did, was good; feedingJesus and His friends was a good thing to do. But was that what Jesus wanted her to do right then and there?
Good things can be distractions from God's plan! 
Serving is a good thing, but if God wants you and me to do something else, serving is a distraction. Jesus wanted both Mary and Martha to sit at His feet and "eat" His words first, and then He would have provided something to eat to satisfy the physical hunger afterwards.
Are you busy working for God? Are you doing good deeds and keeping yourself busy cumbered about much serving? Do you want other people to help you fulfill your plans and ideas? Maybe God has a better plan for you? Maybe His plan for you is that you sit at His feet and give attention to His words?
I don't know your situation, but I know that I can very easily be cumbered about much serving. But today I want to remind both myself and you that sitting at Jesus' feet and giving attention to His words is the good part. Sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to His words, will  give me the direction, peace and joy I need to live this day in His presence and in His will.

How to walk in love

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8).
God wants us to and expects us to love each other. "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). God is love, and He expects us to live in love. But how do we do that?
First we have to establish what love is and what it is not. Love is not a feeling. Love is an act. Love is to do. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that He gave ... To love is to give, it's not to receive. Receive is good, receive is great, but to show love, we have to give. What should we give?
First of all we should give ourselves to the Lord. God gave His Son to us and for us, and we should give ourselves to Him. However, there's also another side of this. If we're to walk in love, we must walk in love towards other people. And that means loving them, and treating them as we would want them to treat us.
We started this text with Love covers a multitude of sins. What does that mean for you and me in our everyday lives? It means that if I love someone, I don't gossip about him or her; if I love someone, I protect their reputation as I would my own. If I love another person, I wish everything good for him or her and I let their needs and wants go before my own needs and wants.
That's real love, that's the giving that God showed us. He gave himself, and He expects us to do the same. We can do it in God's power in the Holy Spirit.
"This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother"(1 John 3:10). Loving my brother is a sign that I am a child of God.
Can I do it? Yes, because "... hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us" (Romans 5:5). God's love is poured out in our hearts, it's up to us to give that love "right of way" in our lives.

Who are you living for?

I hope today's headline makes you curious. "Who am I really living for?"
Let's ask the question another way; Who could you be living for?
I believe you could be living for yourself, your family/other people or God.
There's nothing wrong with taking care of other people. It's good to take care of and fill other peoples' needs. It's not so good if your primary goal in life is to live for yourself and fill your own needs and your needs only. That's called selfishness, and the Bible has something to say about selfishness.
"But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger" (Romans 2,8). Wrath and anger awaits the selfish person. Not fun!
Living for God, however, is a whole other story. Living for God means to be filled with His love, and let His love go from you to other people. Your primary goal in life is to please Him, and in so doing you also bless and take care of other people. God's love, which "... hath been poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit that hath been given to us (Romans 5,5), is a living, ongoing force in your life that brings life, health and prosperity to your life and the lives of those around you.
Want that life? It's free - for you. Somebody paid the price, His name is Jesus. He paid so you and I could take it for free.
Who are you living for? Decide today that from this day forward you will live for God.