My Sheep Hear My Voice

There are so many voices out there, especially in this great information age.  It is impossible to not hear them.  One cannot drown out the sound of strident voices, seductive voices, voices of apathy, voices of doom and voices of hope.  It seems with every passing year the voices get louder and more urgent.  All of the voices are desperate for someone to follow them.  But all of these voices are merely pied pipers, waiting to lead us to our doom.

There is only one voice to follow, the voice of the one who knows us, who knew us before we were born. That was made clear centuries ago when he said in John 10:27

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

The voices of today don't care to know us.  They just want us to follow.  It is not our welfare they are concerned with.  They just want us to follow.  It is not our lives they are concerned with even though they promise, that for our sake, they would march into hell.  There has only been one person who was willing to march into hell, and he has already done so.  What other voice would we follow?

The Ten Commandments

The Christian life calls us to a constant re-evaluation of what other gods we have besides the one true God, and what we are taking that isn't ours.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me

Sometimes I think that if Christians would spend just fifty percent of the time that we spend extolling the virtues of our church, our denomination, even the version of the Bible that we use, on extolling the merits of the Lord, we wouldn't have to worry about filling our churches or bringing people to salvation. The people would come in droves. Even Gandhi once said, 'I might become a Christian if I ever met one.'  Each one of us must fight in very subtle ways the temptation to take what God has given us freely and turning it into our own possession. Mine. Mine. Mine. I did it. I made it. I must. I will.

Why do you think that Jesus included the story of the wealthy farmer in his parables? I'll build bigger barns, I'll..." Jesus says, Oh, no you won't. This night your soul will be required of you.  Before we talk about "my testimony", "my witness", "my goals", "my desire", "my anything", we need to consider the consequences. Is that what happened to Lot's wife? Did she turn her back once more to look at "her" city? From Adam and Eve, to Moses and the Egyptian, to David, to the Pharisees, we see the results of what happens whenever we take matters into our own hands.

Thou shalt not steal.

We take what is not ours in such subtle ways. Like Adam and Eve in the garden, we operate out of an assumption of scarcity, rather than plenty. God told them that they could have everything in the garden, it was all theirs, except for that which was His and His alone. Everything they could ever want or need was provided. But they wanted what was not theirs. As if they were afraid that God would not provide for them, they had to have the knowledge so that they could take care of themselves in case God forgot about them. Do we as Christians do this today?

Take for example the Christian sales person who works hard to obtain the best territory because it pays the best commission. There may be another person in the company with a larger family, with the need for a larger income. But that doesn't matter. All that is important is that we go for the most, that we take care of ourselves. Surely, if we don't, no one else (does this imply God) will.

As another example, consider the Christian who has spent months witnessing to another person at work to no avail. One day a new person comes to work. They never say anything about being a Christian, but the non-Christian asks them if they know of a good church. They attend the new employee's church and after becoming aware of what was missing in their lives, commit themselves to the Lord. The first Christian, instead of rejoicing that another has found the salvation that God provided through his son Jesus, becomes angry at the interloper for taking his "soul", the one he was going lead to salvation.

It's all so temporal, fleeting. Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. The only thing man can claim is mortality, the very thing he wishes to disown. Jesus said "He that loveth his life shall lose it." The apostle Paul said "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth within me." Can this possibly mean that we are to own nothing, not even our own good efforts?

Bowing Down

It was such a simple thing. He bowed his head in prayer before he ate his simple sandwich in the company lunchroom. But it told me so much and it brought back memories of many things: memories of being ashamed as a child, of what people would think of me if they thought I was religious, and the picture of my grandmother sitting on the side of her bed praying on the morning she woke up completely blind. His gesture said. ‘I am not afraid; I am not my own provider.’

These are terrible times; many times the battle seems lost. We need to acknowledge that God is our provider. That it is He who has made us and not ‘we ourselves.’

What would happen if every Christian in America decided today that they were going to publicly bow their heads and acknowledge that God is their provider?

The time for flailing is past. The enemy's approach is stronger and surer, and he surrounds all of us, the darkness cutting off the light, we weary, we weaken, our resolve gone. "I can't do it." we cry. "Lord, I've failed you, I can't do it. The enemy is too strong."

Then he calls to us, “Come to me. This is not your battle, it is mine”, he says. “Lay down your weapons, take up mine. My love can pierce the darkness, my blood can make the broken whole. The enemy is great and mighty. Here take the weapons I have given you, then stand. It is I who will do the fighting, just stand!”

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:10-11 NKJV