Tag: Shepherd

In the Thicket

~ Chuck Griffin ~ Leave a comment

Micah 7:14 (NLT)

O Lord, protect your people with your shepherd’s staff;

    lead your flock, your special possession.

Though they live alone in a thicket

    on the heights of Mount Carmel,

let them graze in the fertile pastures of Bashan and Gilead

    as they did long ago.

By Chuck Griffin

This particular verse in Micah arises as part of a lament over sin and a longing for better days.

We can process this desire to be led back to the good life on so many levels. As a people, we can always look to aspects of a national past we believe to be better, the good old days, although we do have to be careful. People have a tendency to remember the good and forget the bad.

My wife and I like movies from the 1950s and early 1960s, the ones that fill the screen with images just a little too early for us to have seen with our own eyes. Think of the New York City street scenes in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” or Doris Day at the Automat, or Cary Grant in a finely tailored suit. How nice it would be to go back in time and experience all that—without polio, the Korean and Vietnam wars, racism, sexism bordering on misogyny, and those ever-present clouds of cigarette smoke, of course.

We can have similar longings on an individual level, too, desiring that “better time,” whenever that might have been—maybe when we were in high school, or first married, or when the kids were little. If we get stuck in that longing, the here-and-now can seem very much like a briar-filled thicket.

We cannot go back in time, and we probably would not want to do so, were we to think it through. What we can do is take the best of our past experiences, as a people or as a person, and find a way to carry what we learn from them forward. That’s where this verse from Micah becomes useful.

Followers of God know that the best of times always happen in conjunction with a deep relationship with God. When we are with God, we are tapping into promises of eternal joy, timeless truths that color any present moment for the better.

Whatever thicket we find ourselves in, God can lead us out, usually through fellowship with others who follow God. The Great Shepherd has even gone to the cross so we can forever escape the deadly consequences of sin.

Lord, as we walk with you, give us great optimism for the future, knowing you are leading us toward fertile pastures. Amen.

Psalm 23: Holy and Fearless

~ Chuck Griffin ~ Leave a comment

By Chuck Griffin
LifeTalk Editor

Our devotionals yesterday, today and tomorrow are all from the 23rd Psalm, “A Psalm of David,” considered in small meditative bites.

Verse 3b
He guides me along right paths,
    bringing honor to his name.

As his sheep, we follow his lead, behaving as the shepherd would have us behave. Sometimes the concept of Christian holiness is made to sound complicated, but it really is that simple.

We are known as his flock, and we do not want to embarrass him by wandering down paths not leading to eternity. For thousands of years, he has shown us his will through his word, recorded in the Holy Bible. This is how he tells us left or right, stop or go.

Yes, the noise of the world sometimes makes his call a little harder to discern, but if we take time to focus on Scripture in a thoughtful and prayerful way, we will know what to do.

And when we follow the right paths, people do notice. They are astonished when the harm they were expecting from us does not occur, or when they receive unexpected goodness.

And when they seek to know why we behave in such an unworldly way, we earn the right to tell them, “Because I stay in love with God—you can too!”

Verse 4
Even when I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
    for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
    protect and comfort me.

Our shepherd is so loving, we can forget how strong he is. He has all the tools and weapons he needs to fend off the most terrifying threats.

The rod, a type of club worn at the belt for quick access, proves our shepherd’s willingness to go on offense when we are threatened. Evil will be crushed. The staff can be used with devastating effect in a fight, too. It also is a tool of rescue, capable of lifting lost sheep out of the most difficult circumstances.

We are reminded of the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ. The truth he spoke acted like a bludgeon against the lies and deceptions of the world, and the day will come when Christ’s truth shreds evil like the keenest of blades. The cross became his tool for lifting us out of despair and death and into eternal life.

With a shepherd like that, why would we ever be afraid?

Lord, guard us in this life and lift us into the next, and may anxiety never keep us from heeding your call. Amen.

Psalm 23: Content and Rested

~ Chuck Griffin ~ Leave a comment

By Chuck Griffin
LifeTalk Editor

This Sunday, Lord willing, I will preach on the 23rd Psalm at Holston View United Methodist Church. I want to invite you to spend the rest of our week meditating on this “Psalm of David.” To jolt our thought processes a little, I’m using a less-familiar translation, the New Living Translation.

These meditations are based on devotionals I wrote for Luminary UMC in April, during the early days of the pandemic continuing to affect us. If you want, you can split each day into two devotionals, one for morning and one for evening.

Verse 1
The Lord is my shepherd;
    I have all that I need.

What a beautiful opening. But is this what we really believe?

One of the most difficult mindsets to achieve in this life is contentment, the ability to say, “My needs are covered.” And as the psalmist is trying to tell us, there is but one place to find contentment.

By calling the Lord “shepherd,” we say we trust God to care for our needs. We declare that what he gives us will be enough.

We understand the folly of listening to other voices, worldly shepherds telling us, “It’s really better over here. Happiness is on my side of the fence.”

False shepherds call to us for their own selfish reasons. Perhaps they need our votes or they need us to consume for their own profit, regardless of whether our consumption is good for us. Follow them, and in the end we likely find ourselves used up and alone.

It is best to be content in the care of the one who loves us so much that he will seek us out wherever we are.

Verses 2-3a
He lets me rest in green meadows;
    he leads me beside peaceful streams.
    He renews my strength.

Certainly, the shepherd urges us forward from time to time, for our own benefit and for the larger benefit of the kingdom. (Never forget, our shepherd is also a king!) Following him, we can grow tired. But there always is rest.

The need for contemplative rest—Sabbath—is built into the very fabric of the universe. And if we trust God’s plan, we can gain much from the times of rest we are offered.

There is sustenance in God’s word, as rich and spiritually nutritious to us as green meadows are to the sheep. By consuming what we find there, we grow. We also drink from the stream of life when we open ourselves to his grace, poured out through a variety of openings. Our prayers, our time in communion, and our fellowship with one another are just a few examples, and enough grace pours forth through these encounters to soak us thoroughly.

In the right cycle of service and rest, we grow spiritually stronger over time, even as our physical vigor fades. God always is willing to give us more than we have given. We simply must remember to stop and receive.

Lord, help me to recognize when you place opportunities for contentment and rest before me, and allow me to grow in my delight of you through the influence of your Spirit. Amen.