I will not fear

I was going to send a blog like normal this week that I had prepared and I still may but I read a section from Five Minutes with Jesus by Shelia Walsh and I thought others besides just me needed to read this so I’m sharing this. 

I will not fear

Allen Emery was in the wool business, and once when he was on a business trip, he actually spent the night in the fields with a shepherd and his flock.  When the frightening howls of wolves filled the air, the shepherd’s dogs growled, the sheep stirred anxiously and the shepherd threw some more wood on the fire.  When the flames leapt up, Mr. Emery saw thousands of points of lights in the fields beyond him.  He was surprised to realize that he was seeing the eyes of the sheep: each one turned not toward the danger that threatened them, but toward the source of their protection the shepherd. 

            The Twenty-third psalm, the most beloved and well known in the psalter, is rich with imagery of a good shepherd’s care for his sheep.  Verse 4 says.  “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  I will fear no evil, for you are with me; for your rod and your staff, they will comfort me.” 

            The “valley of the shadow of death” was not simply allegorical for the psalmist.  The phrase referred to a very real place in Israel, know as the Wadi Qelt today.  The Wadi Qelt is a deep ravine along the travel route between Jericho and Jerusalem.  In antiquity, it was notoriously dangerous, pocketed with bandits and, like many wadis in Israel, prone to flash flooding.  (This treacherous route was most likele the setting for Jesus’ parable about the good Samaritan.)  Is it any wonder the Wadi Qelt earned the nickname “The valley of the Shadow of Death”? 

            But the psalmist said that even when he travels through this, the most dangerous of places, he does not fear because his Good Shepherd is always with him.  The psalmist proclaimed that, although he faced very real and imminent dangers, his heart was at peace.  He knew his loving Shepherd, the source of his protection. 

Where is your focus today?  On the terrors that stalk you, or the only One who has the power to save you?

Keep your eyes on the Good Shepherd, and your heart will be at peace.

Five minutes in the Word

“I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd.  I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” 

John 10:11-15

When Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  And he began to teach them many things. 

Mark 6:34

Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. 

Psalm 95:6-7

There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 

1 John 4:18

“Do not fear for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”

Isaiah 41:10