20 minute read
Consider This
CONSIDER This A living example of shepherds’ care
The Woodworth family had the opportunity to visit a sheep ranch. The experience allowed Dan Woodworth to draw parallels between shepherds and sheep and how the Shepherd Jesus cares for his flock. Here, Irene Woodworth is feeding a lamb that was only a day old at the time. (Courtesy photo)
By Dan Woodworth
Have you ever seen and heard of a real living experience that has given you an astonishing inspiring insight into a clearer revelation of the Living Word of God? I am excited to share a story with you about some sheep and some shepherds.
On Saturday, January 26, My Most Beautiful Beloved Bride, Inspiring Irene, our Sensational Spectacular Son, Courageous Compassionate Chris, and I arrived just around noon on a sheep ranch about 60 miles from Boise. We were invited by a Faithful Friend to visit with her (she lives in a different state), her parents and some of their relatives to have lunch with them. We had no idea of the adventure that would unfold before our eyes!
We had a delicious, home-cooked ranch-style lunch and then talked about every topic you can think of. Our time of sharing was rich and rewarding. They gave us a tour of their big, beautiful home and we kept telling stories to each other.
Right before sunset we were invited to check out their sheep. We had never been that close to sheep on a ranch. We saw some rams in a pasture and then the main herd in an enclosed pen. Then the Mag nificent Mother of our Faithful Friend, one of the Sacred Shepherds, showed us the mother sheep who were pregnant and those who had little lambs. We were able to pet them. What an Empowering, Encouraging Experience!
My Sweetheart was asked if she wanted to feed a little lamb, who could walk on her own and was only 24 hours old. The little lamb was placed on my wife’s lap and she fed her with a bottle of specially formulated milk. That little, newborn lamb was hungry!
We discovered that her mother had twins but only had one udder. She would only feed both at the same time if she had two udders. So this little lamb was rejected by her mother. The Sacred Shepherd saved that little lamb by providing food and shelter for her. I saw in real life how our Sacred Shepherd, Jesus, cares for us, His sheep. We were all astonished and amazed watching the role of the Sacred Shepherd with the sheep. I began to see the Word of God revealed in front of me! I have memorized and I have been meditating in Psalm 23 and 91 for several months. Listen to the Living Words of Life in Psalm 23:1: The Lord is my Shepherd. I have no lack. I don’t need a thing. I have everything I need.
We did not grow up on sheep ranches like the children of Israel did. We observed the reflection of Jesus and His Sacred Sheep in this “liv ing” inspiring illustration of real sheep with a real shepherd! He always Provides and Protects His Sheep!
The sheep that we observed have enemies. Coyotes will attack these sheep if they are not protected. The Sacred Shepherds have “Guardian Dogs” who attack and kill coyotes who attempt to attack the sheep. Those dogs were very friendly to us. But they are relentless when it comes to predators attacking “their” sheep. Listen to the Living Words of Life in Psalm 91:1-6: You who sit down in your Daddy in Heaven’s presence, spend the night in His shadow, say this: “Daddy in Heaven, You are my Refuge! I trust in You and I am Safe!” That’s right — He rescues you from hidden traps, shields you from deadly hazards. His huge, outstretched arms protect you — under them you are perfectly safe; His arms fend off all harm. Fear nothing — not wild wolves in the night, not flying arrows in the day, not disease that prowls through the darkness, not disaster that erupts at high noon.
Can you see Him as our Provision and Protection? Can you also see the Sacred Shepherds that we visited as Providers and Protectors of their sheep?
I have been meditating about how our Sacred Shepherd, Jesus, protects us from our enemies just like those Guardian Dogs act as shepherds protecting their sheep from enemies such as coyotes, disease and disaster.
I thought, “Lord, what are our enemies?” He revealed to me that they are doubt and fear. How does He protect us from doubt and fear? He graciously gives us Faith and Love! The spiritual “coyotes” of doubt and fear will eat us alive and destroy us if we do not have Faith in our Sacred Shepherd that works through His Living Love!
Think about that! Galatians 5:6 reveals His Protection against doubt and fear:
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only Faith that works through Love.
Our human effort is worthless! When we have Faith that works through Love, we have His Perfect Protection! Our spiritual enemies of doubt and fear are torn to pieces when we function like those Guardian Dogs that tear to pieces any coyote trying to destroy their sheep! Those sheep trust their shepherds. They know they are always safe. Why don’t we let those shepherds teach us as His Sheep how to trust Our Sacred Shepherd, Jesus! Our spiritual enemy, the defeated devil, only has two spiritual weapons: doubt and fear. When doubt and fear try to attack me, like those coyotes trying to attack those sheep, I activate Faith that works through Love!
I say, out loud, with the authority that Jesus has given me, Psalm 23:1:
Lord, You are My Shepherd! I have no lack! I don’t need a thing! I have everything I need!
I say, “you lying doubt, I cast you out with my Faith in Jesus!” (Mark 11:22) “You lying fear, get out! Perfect Love casts out all fear!” (1 John 4:18) I keep saying those Resurrection Words, just like those Guardian Dogs destroying those coyotes, until those spiritual enemies of doubt and fear are destroyed! We, as His Sheep, have allowed those “coyotes” of doubt and fear to eat us alive and destroy us! Those Guardian Dogs kill those coyotes because they know that they are Shepherds over those sheep! They know that those coyotes will kill those helpless sheep unless they attack and destroy them! Likewise, those Shepherds are our teachers! We were not created to shrink in fear! We were created to Soar in Faith! Living Love Destroys Shrinking Fear!
We have allowed the culture of the world, the culture of doubt and fear, to destroy the Church. We need to see those enemies like coyotes, who will destroy us, unless we attack and destroy them! Listen to Our Overcoming Living Lord through the Apostle Paul, in Ephesians 1:23: And He placed all things under Christ’s feet and gave Him as Head over all things to the Church, which is His Body, the Fullness of Him who fills All in All!
Let us glorify Him as our Shepherd! We are His sheep and we will defeat all doubt and fear with Faith in Him working through His Living Love! n Dr. Dan Woodworth earned his Doctor of Ministry (DMin) degree from the King’s University in Los Angeles in 2009. His passion is to encourage and empower people with the transforming power of hope and healing to become all they are created to be. He and his beautiful bride, Irene, have planted three churches. They are in the process of creating a cross/cultural, cross/generational healing community solving pressing problems in Boise and beyond. He may be reached at dan@danwoodworth.org, or visit his website at www.danwoodworth.org. Dan Woodworth
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THE GREATEST Command A new focus on choosing to love
By Daniel Bobinski
It’s time to talk about love. If Christians are going to have any impact in the healing of a divided country and the salvation of our families’ and friends’ souls, we need to follow the biblical command to love one another. That includes loving our enemies, too.
This is true for Christians everywhere. Actually, it’s of the utmost importance. After all, when an expert in Mosaic Law asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest command?” Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and all the Prophets hang on these two commands.” (Matt. 22:37-40, NIV) These verses came into focus for me 30 years ago after earnest prayer. I was just a few years into my Christian walk, and I was asking God, “I know there are 613 laws in Scripture — is there a priority order? What goes at the top of the list?”
Before long, the Lord led me to the above verses and as I read them I became profoundly aware of two things.
First, the question about the greatest command was posed by an “expert in the law” (some versions say lawyer), and it was a “gotcha” question.
The way Jesus answered surprised me. Jesus was famous for answering “gotcha” questions either with questions of his own or with parables. That didn’t happen here. Not only did Jesus give a straightforward answer, he also provided a second answer. He called it the second greatest commandment, and said it was like the first!
Nobody asked Jesus about the second greatest commandment. He volunteered it! To me, that means it has great importance.
The second profound awareness came from verse 40: “All the Law and all the Prophets hang on these two commands.” It was like those words came off the page at me. All the Law. All the Prophets. Also, the word “hang” grabbed my attention. All the Law and all the Prophets hang on these two commands. The picture that appeared in my head was like that of a mobile hanging above a child’s crib. One strand hangs down, and on that strand are attached supports for other strands, and on those supports hang even more strands.
I pictured the two greatest commandments next to each other, fixed to the eternal covering that is our Lord, and all of the Law and all of the Prophets were hanging from them. Everything depended on those two commands.
Surely, this answered my question about the highest priorities in the 613 commands! Still, questions remained. Love the Lord? Love our neighbors as ourselves? How does one do that? On the surface, a scriptural search leads to what looks like circular reasoning. When he asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus said it’s, “Love the Lord your God … and love your neighbor as yourself.” Then, in John 14:15, Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” What? The greatest command is to love, but to love we need to keep his commands? It’s like looking up the word turnip in the dictionary and finding it says, “See rutabaga,” then looking up rutabaga, and finding it says, “See turnip.” There had to be an answer, so I dug deeper. I pulled out my concordance and found that in the Greek, Jesus was using the word agape in all these verses. (aa-GAA’-pey). And, I was grateful to learn that the apostle Paul gives us a definition of agape love in 1 Corinthians 13. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (NIV) Notice that everything about this definition involves verbs — things we do, not things we feel. I don’t think there’s any place in Scripture where God commands us to feel. Agape love is a love of choosing.
I continued to pray over this commandment to love, asking God to show me how I could live it out. After all, I could be impatient. I could become easily angered. On my own, following Christ’s command to love the Lord and love my neighbor as myself was going to be tough. Then I came across another verse: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). And yes, the Greek word for love in that verse is also agape. It struck me that since God is love, and because I had already invited God to dwell within me, then the seeds of agape were already inside me. I simply needed to tend the soil of my heart to let God’s agape love manifest in my thoughts, attitudes, and actions.
I’ll tell you it’s a lifelong process, and each time I teach this material, I learn more. But as I said up front, it’s time to talk love. I firmly believe God has called me to do several things, and one of them is tell people about His love. And so, as you read my column in future issues of this magazine, for as long as it takes, I’m going to take a “deep dive” and explore how we can all live God’s agape love better in our lives.
It is, after all, the greatest and the second-greatest commandment. n Daniel Bobinski, M.Ed. is an award-winning and best-selling author, and a popular speaker at conferences and retreats. Reach him at daniel@eqfactor.net or (208) 375-7606. Daniel Bobinski
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“I GET TO!” ® …Begin My Forgiveness Journey
By Joan Endicott
Why does forgiving seem so darned hard? Sometimes it can seem like it all depends on the degree of the offense. If someone owed you one hundred dollars and they didn’t repay it, it might not seem as hard to forgive as if they’d cost you a million-dollar deal, right? Maybe.
One of the most profound examples of forgiveness I’ve ever heard was when I was in Junior High and was blessed to hear Corrie Ten Boom speak at the Easter Sunrise Service at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon.
This is Corrie’s story, from her book, The Hiding Place, where she shares her memory of being confronted, after the war, by one of the very cruel guards from the Nazi concentration camp where her sister Betsie had died.
“It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. I spoke in a church in Munich, sharing the message, ‘When we confess our sins,’ I said, ‘God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever.’
After the service was over is when I saw him, working his way toward me–a balding heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones.
It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin.
Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp where we were sent.
Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: ‘A fine message, fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!’
And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course–how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?
But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. It was the first time since my release that I had been face to face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze. ‘You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,’ he was saying. ‘I was a guard in there. But since that time, I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein’–again the hand came out–‘will you forgive me?’
And I stood there–I whose sins had every day to be forgiven–and could not. Betsie had died in that place–could he erase her slow ter- rible death simply for the asking?
It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. ‘If you do not forgive men their trespasses,’ Jesus says, ‘neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.’
I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily ex- perience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality.
Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.
Still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgive- ness is not an emotion–I knew that, too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.
‘Jesus, help me!’ I prayed silently. ‘I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.’
Then woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
‘I forgive you, brother!’ I cried. ‘With all my heart!’ For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.”
It’s one thing to hear of someone’s incredible experience, and then quite another to actually implement it yourself. Like feeling 100 percent committed to starting your healthy eating plan right after you’ve
just topped off your favorite delightfully delicious meal with a decadent dessert, have a full tummy and you’re ready for a nap. Forgiveness sounds like a great principle until someone hurts you deeply, right?
After hearing Corrie share her story that early Easter morning in Portland, I felt I did understand forgiveness more. I was grateful, as I thought of various people I’d been hurt by or was mad at, and happy that I felt ready and empowered to forgive them. Then later…when I thought about the person who had violated me for years, I had that normal, very real physical reaction: nauseated, feeling like my heart was pounding so hard it would leap right out of my chest, I felt claustrophobic in my own skin, fear gripped it’s hands around my throat and unjust waves of shame washed over me. As you’ll recall from my previous story about the shame-filled response I got when I did tell of being molested the first time at five years old…then, additionally, the subsequent abuser threatened me and hurt me enough that I knew he meant it. (At one point, in an instant rage, he chased me, jumped on top of me and began choking me with his bare hands. I was freed only because my sister heard and ran to my rescue, jumped on his back and began hitting him hard on the head.) I felt alone and like I needed to figure this out by myself. So, naturally, I chose to just not think about it. After all, when I did think about it, everything felt wrong, so not thinking about it must be the solution, right? Then…when I was 30 years old and our oldest child, our sweet little Nathanael was 5 (the same age as I was when I first experienced abuse), I began a very personal journey–a painful internal wrestling match of memories and emotions I’d thought were right where they belonged, in the past. As a mama with two little boys, I realized that at certain ages and stages in their lives, I was naturally going to think back on what life was like for me at that point. God used that to let me know it was finally time to rip the bandage off that old wound and take an honest look at it. Yes, it was quite painful to rip off the bandage that had been there long enough to become part of my skin. Once I did, I saw a raw and real gaping wound filled with pain, heartache, sorrow and rejection–an infection in my soul that could only be cleaned out by God’s holy, healing hand.
I was ready! The Lord wanted me to be willing, and like Corrie, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I began the journey of forgiveness. Next time I’ll share that journey, my myths and misunderstand- ings–what forgiveness is and isn’t–and how I found freedom through forgiveness. n Grab your FREE “I Get To!”® book at JoanEndicott.com and sign up for her FREE blog videos on self-compassion. etc. Joan Endicott is an Award-Winning Keynote Speaker, Author of “I Get To!”® founder of GIANT-Slayer Coaching and “WOW!” Women Owning Their Worth©. Her coaching reaches over 30 countries. Follow her on FB and IG–she posts encouraging words daily! Joan Endicott
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