Baaaaaaa

I woke up at 2:30am literally speaking "My sheep hear my voice" out loud. What's that about? My experience with sheep is limited to Bubba (left), my fairy god-daughter's 4-H lamb, who died 'suddenly.'
Anyway, lying there, I imagined what that really looks like, Jesus as shepherd, us as sheep. What a beautiful picture. Here's what we can know & believe!

• Christ is a good shepherd caring for us, not a hired servant who'll walk away because he's not paid enough! Jn 7-14
• He speaks to us. Jn 10:27
• He leads us. Jn 10:3
• We can know & recognize His voice. Jn 10:14
• We go the wrong way or something attacks? He'll leave the flock for 'one' sheep & be ecstatic to get it back. Luke 15:4-7
• He'll lay His life down for us. Jn 10:15
• We're valuable to Him. Worth much more than a sheep! Matt 12:12

Listen for His voice. Without Him, we are like sheep without a shepherd & we won't survive long!

2 Life-Changing Books

http://www.theholeinourgospel.com/

http://www.theholeinourgospel.com/

I'm reading The Hole in Our Gospel, by Richard Stearns, President of World Vision, an organization I love. The book has numerous takeaways, but one that stands out is God's patient wooing process of each of us. His time is not our time and we have no idea what He is preparing us for. When asked "How do you want World Vision to be perceived twenty-five years from now?" Richard replied:

If it could be said of us that we gave the poor a voice, that we provoked the rich and the powerful to action and that we gave hope to people trapped in hopelessness, I would be deeply gratified. My favorite Bible passage is from the book of Job. It would make a wonderful epitaph for World Vision:

Whoever heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me commended me, because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him.

The man who was dying blessed me; I made the widow's heart sing.
I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.
I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger.
I broke the fangs of the wicked; and snatched the victims from their teeth.


Read more: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/05/ten_or_so_quest.html#ixzz0QE8mxpOt

Walk Down Another Street

I believe this poem is from a Tibetan book and a great illustration of life. I'm showing it to every teenage girl I know :)

I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in. I am lost . . . I am hopeless. It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I'm in the same place, but it isn't my fault.
It takes a long time to get out.

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it, I still fall in.
It's a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

I walk down another street!