We Know the Voice of Our Savior

We Know the Voice of our Savior and Obey!

John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:"

A piece I wrote back in 2011 describes vividly to me the passage in John 10:27. Knowing it was true was wonderful enough, but seeing it fleshed out in life was a special blessing.

November 2011
On our recent trip to Israel, I met an actor in Nazareth village who portrayed a shepherd who was tending his goats. As we approached the coral that the shepherd was guarding, we reached in to pet the goats that were clustered as close to their shepherd as they could get. He was on the outside of the pen while they poked their noses through the slats to reach him. Some of us ladies walked up to the pen, but by then the goats were walking away from the front of the pen. One of the ladies called out to the goats to come back. She spoke several times only to be completely ignored by the goats. The Shepherd saw what was happening and spoke two words in Hebrew to the goats and they instantly responded and returned to the front of the coral where the shepherd stood. The goats appeared not to hear the strange voice at all. The voice of the woman was so unfamiliar that they didn't even lift their heads to turn and look at her in curiosity.

How often do we turn our attentions away from the voice of Christ to listen to the voices of the unsaved or wrong teachers? We look to man first and when their teaching fails, we clamor to hear from God, He is our second choice rather than our first.

This episode with the shepherd reminded me of the Words of our Lord when He said "my sheep know my voice and they obey." In this real life picture of the goats obeying their master we see not only obedience but immediate obedience and great joy in that obedience. The goats loved to be with their shepherd. We watched as the shepherd opened the coral door to let them out and walk away from the pen. The goats stayed so close to the shepherd that he could barely take a step. They stepped on his feet and jumped up on him to stay close.

I loved this real life message that God was showing me. The Lord Jesus Christ wants us to be as those goats. Clamoring for every moment with Him, following Him no matter where He goes, keeping our attentions on Him every moment. The goats did not just follow Him because He commanded, but because they loved Him. There was no hesitation in their obedience because they loved to please him.

We should be so in love with our Savior that it is His voice we listen to first and all other voices that are not familiar to His commands and directives are ignored, given no attention at all. Do we live in the confidence that we can hear His voice to the point of knowing the difference between His commands and the false prophets and teachers? Do we keep our head straight ahead, heeding not the

Israel Trip Page 2 of 2

unfamiliar voice of the world or those who do not understand what God has told us?

If we love Him, we take our instruction from Him and only listen to those who walk closely with Him. We listen only to those who know His Word and are obeying it. When someone comes along to divert our attention from Him by human knowledge, we should pay them no mind whatever and even correct them that they may not influence us.

The more we remain silent and do not address wrong teaching, the greater chance we have of being sucked into the lies of the evil one. We must mentally fight the deception and verbally refute it when it comes at us. The longer we ignore a problem the more likely that problem will grow into worse and worse disobedience.

If we desire to be close to our Savior, we must stay close to His Word daily and intimately in conversation with Him. As long as the goats stayed very close to the shepherd, they were safe with no chance of being deceived or harmed. We have a lot to learn from that shepherd and his goats. We can love our Shepherd as deeply and completely as those goats loved their shepherd, but to do so, we must set aside our own desires and pride, to trust Him completely.

Let's follow the Shepherd; He has all the answers to everything perfectly!!!

Faith and Works

To listen you may have to copy and paste the address below. You will not regret what you hear!

http://btdownloads.edgesuite.net/sermons/2014/2014_05.25.14_How_Faith_Works.mp3

The Thief on the Cross had a Work

The Thief on the Cross Had a Work

Those who think the thief on the cross had no works, might have to rethink it, I did. I have always thought of the thief on the cross as having no works until I the light bulb went on this morning as I pondered it all. The thief on the cross had one very important work as he hung there, he witnessed to the other thief.

Luke 23:39-43
"39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.”

40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said to Jesus, “LORD, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”

43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

Images Can Lie To Us

Images Can Lie To Us!

It is a violation of God's Word to make any artistic images of Christ, so the artists in past centuries who did this were disobeying God on two counts.

Acts 17:29 "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."
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Since we are commanded not to make images of God, then we should never have a picture of a man pretending to be Christ.

My husband would be angry with me if I put a picture on the wall of another man, not him, and called that man by his name.

God is a jealous God, He does not want us to worship, by admiration, a picture of a man, but He wants us to worship in Spirit and in truth. If truth is important, then calling a depiction of Christ, that is not Him, is the same as lying.

John 4:24 "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

If there is a picture on the wall of a man depicting Christ, all we have to do is to ask one question; "is that man in the picture really a picture of Him." If the answer is no, because no one took one of Him, then we are lying in claiming he reminds us of our Lord.

When we yearn to look at a picture, to have something we can see with our eyes, to have faith or to fall in love with Christ, then we lack faith.

2 Corinthians 5:7 "(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)"

I love my Lord, I have never seen Him, but I know of Him by His Holy Word. That is good enough for me.

When An Arguer Entices You To Fight

A person who is continually angry in discussion is one who has bitterness in their heart. We have probably all met people who cannot calmly discuss a matter unless they are the center of attention or everyone in the room agrees with them.

These people will use harsh tones of voice while speaking so long that no one else can interject into the conversation. When someone attempts to voice their side or opinion, this person will cut them off raising their voice to be in control.

"Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:" Proverbs 22:24

When An Arguer Entices You To Fight

I have encountered this a lot with certain people, when it happens I excuse myself from the conversation and begin to pray that the person will see their own bitter heart. Confrontation does not work with controllers, they get louder and meaner when they cannot have the floor.

God has called us to peace, when we encounter this, we don't have to stay friends with these people, we can walk away and begin to pray for them.

If the Lord has ordained that they be in our lives, out of our control, then we can choose not to engage in conversation with them while serving them as any slave would be expected to do with a master.

The hardest lesson I had to learn in my life, has been that I don't have to make anyone else listen or understand. God can take care of teaching the unteachable. He can give us peace in the midst of a war.

Let the manipulative person talk, we do not have to engage, often these people are looking to cause a fight, don't indulge them by entering into the battle.

In a way, the arguer and fighter is attempting to draw us into a battle, it makes them feel superior if they can cause us to do or say something ungodly.

Proverbs 1:10

"10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not."

The subtlety of the enticement is covert, but it nonetheless just as damaging as following a sinner into an ambush of the innocent as the following verses speak of in Proverbs 1. May the Lord give us discernment, when to engage in conversation and when to walk away, when to pray and when to speak.

Ignore the Foolishness of the Liberals

God told parents to take care of their own children, we as a culture should encourage and teach parents to do the right things. If they want to indulge in an activity that can produce a child, then they need to be ready to raise that child.

Don't let any liberal tell you that if you are not adopting children then you should accept abortion. That is the silliest thing I have ever heard.

Parents Are Responsible For Their Own Children

There is a form of manipulation among the liberals that is diabolical. They want abortion, the right to murder children, so they attempt to guilt others into accepting abortion by making them feel responsible for the child if it is not aborted.

No one else is responsible for someone else's children. We are a culture that kills them because their parents don't want them, but they refuse to take on the responsibility of their own actions.

We have adopted children, but they were not our responsibility, we wanted to help, but we were not obligated to do so. To manipulate others into accepting abortion by trying to make them feel responsible for the actions of others, is irrational.

Every parent needs to care for the children they produce. If someone wants to indulge in immoral activity, then they should be ready to be responsible for their actions when a baby is the result.

Killing people is not the answer to a situation that is created by those who cannot control themselves.

God meant for babies to be the result of a loving marriage relationship, dedicated to life long commitment, not only to one another but also to that child. We must teach the highest standard, not the lowest.