#88a Who moved my sheep? (23may06)

‘….Turn ye even to Me with all your heart………
For he is gracious and merciful’
Joel 2:12-13

“Who moved my cheese” was a very popular book in this world of ours where many strive to climb up the totem pole of life.

I was bequeathed this book eons back, but have never looked beyond the cover jacket.
I have not taken even a small peek -a- boo at the book, so do trust that there is no plagiarism and any similarity of ideas, if at all, is a quirk of pure coincidence, or more likely, as Christians believed, an Act of God.

‘…in the volume of the book(ie the Bible), it is written of Me(ie Jesus Christ) to do Your will, O God’
Hebrews 10:7

In the more honorable days of old, where one’s verbal commitment is more watertight than any well crafted legal agreement, the spirit of both parties’ intent, often takes precedence over the written form.

As a believer of Jesus Christ, we are commanded to faithfully follow as the Holy Spirit leads us, in our daily walk. For God places the Holy Spirit in those who believe, to help and lead us, till the day Jesus Christ returns.

In the television series “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” some of us with the more matured grey matter, might recall that the then suave and dashing Robert Conrad(also of Wild Wild West fame), played a starring and heroic role in the story set in World War 2. It was about the American air squadron, who did a great job sending the Japanese Zero planes to minus oblivion in the Pacific war theatre.

I used to sing or rather croaked the children’s rhyme, “Baa Baa Black Sheep” to my children when they were young docile lambs, happily led by us adults.
Today, as young teenagers, and indeed, today’s teenagers in the hothouse of our beloved education system, definitely have a much higher content level stored in their still absorbent brain.

At best, for many of us, our kids are now co-partners with us, and not the sheep we used to know, at the end of the tethered line.

‘How can you believe, who receive honour from one another, and do not seek the honour that comes from the only God?’
John 5: 44

A friend whom I met at church yesterday was just sharing with me his own experiences, as I commiserate about how difficult it is to get our children(once they reached secondary school age of 13+) to understand and share the same commitment that we have in wanting to know and follow God.

It is a phase that will pass and the children will gain a renewed and most important, self-driven desire to truly seek God with all their hearts.
His children are now in their late teens and near young adulthood.

I do believe Him(ie God) rather than just him(my friend) for God truly wants to make us right, even if our minds and will, right now are not right where He wants us to be.

‘My soul wait thou only upon God;
From Him cometh my salvation’
Psalm 62:1

What makes me desire to be the willing, docile sheep, who in the eyes of the world, is quite out of the norm to want to follow the Will of God, willingly??’

‘Then Job answered the Lord, and said,
I know that thou canst do every thing. And that no thought can be withholden from Thee..’
Job 42:1-2

This morning, as I did the ½ hour bible session with the young boys(who have recently accepted Christ as sovereign in their lives) in my son’s school, the chosen topic “Quiet time with God” looks fairly out of place, juxtaposed in the boisterous din of a boys’ school.

Yet, truly, for many of us, God is secondary, as the wiles and ways of Satan’s world cast an alluring web over us. Often, it is when our world collapses beneath us, when all goes asunder, that truly, we become more willing to try out God’s way, for when there seems no other way.

Job was a good man. He seemed to do everything right. And from our human understanding, one cannot begrudge his initial frustrations with God for allowing his woes.
Yet, Job in this verse truly understood that God is sovereign.

Who are we to question??

Yet thankfully, unlike the human shepherd, who ultimately will take the fleece off the sheep, or worse, turned it into lamp chops, our God’s only desire for us is to be like Him, to be made ready to be with Him in His kingdom.

Satan, has through his wiles and deceit, make us questioning sheep, questioning what was meant to be good for us, and desiring what is bad for us( unless time in the cauldron with the devil is what you desire)

‘Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ..’
Colossians 2:8

God wants to move us back into his fold. But, you must be a willing sheep

‘Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.
He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved’
Psalm 55:22

God Blesses

Eng Hieang