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Shepherds, Sheep, Goats, and Wolves...

Have you ever wondered why God would chose to use shepherds, sheep, goats, and wolves to describe His Kingdom? What can we learn from this picture? If you have never thought about this before, don't worry you are normal! Why is Jesus called the Great Shepherd and the Lamb slain? How are we like sheep? How do we distinguish between sheep and goats? Once we do, how do we treat them? Are these the kind of wolves that huff and puff?

This blog is simply a place for me to organize my thoughts. My goal is for this to be readable and entertaining without becoming preachy and boring. I am not a trained theologian, so if you disagree with something I post, please leave a comment.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

We are told to be a Discerning People...Matt. 7:1-6

"Judge not , that you be not judged"...I think that this first post needs to address the fact that it is right and good for us to distinguish between shepherds, sheep, goats and wolves. While it is right and good this scripture points directly to the fact that humility is a large part of distinguishing.

We live in a time when everyone does what is right in their own mind, and interestingly enough I have heard this verse used to substantiate that thought process. I would like to argue that nothing is further from the truth. Christ does indeed say here that we are not to Judge but this also assumes that we are to discern between right and wrong. At the end of this passage Christ says not to "give to dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs." My question is how are we to know who is a dog or a pig. Also He tells us to remove the speck from our brother's eye, but only after we have noticed the log that is in our own eye. We are to discern between right and wrong with scripture at the foundation of our discernment.

I once watched a television show about these two children who were getting to meet their 'hero.' One was a young boy who had a terminal disease and his hero was Tracy McGrady, an NBA superstar. The other child was a young girl who had lost both of her legs in an accident and her hero was a woman who had also lost both of her legs and competed in the special Olympics (sorry I don't remember her name). Both the woman and Tracy were both very kind and did extraordinary things for the girl and boy respectively, but it was very obvious that Tracy was much more uncomfortable with the situation. You see he never had a terminal illness and as a result he cared for the young boy but he did not understand what he was going through. At the same time the Olympian was very comfortable because she knew exactly what the girl was going through and how hard life was without legs. Can you see this story's application to the text. The woman understand the log that she had and as a result was able to effectively help the little girl. I think this is what Jesus was teaching here, we can't help others until we understand that we too need help!

All of this to say that my posts in this blog are going to be straight forward and honest. I may say some things that seem harsh but I hope to do so with a tone of humbleness. I hope that if you disagree that you will leave a comment so that we may sharpen each other as iron. If you agree with something also please leave comment so that I may be encouraged to continue posting. God bless,

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