Good Shepherd

Left Handed in a Right Handed World

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I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Matthew 10:16

Being born left-handed I painfully remember the upside down feeling of learning to write. At Hamilton Elementary, all children learned their penmanship right-handed. Nothing seemed to work for me. I gripped the pen the wrong way, I held my paper upside down, and on my report card every quarter appeared the inevitable F. Undoubtedly My teacher thought she this would help me in the long run but I could never shake the feeling of being wrong side up and different.

Being wrong side up and different is what Jesus is preparing us for when He sends us out to the world. He tells us we are going out like sheep among wolves. There is no real competition when it comes to a fight between sheep and wolves. Wolves have bigger teeth, are stronger and can run circles around sheep. Nevertheless the master sends us out. But we have one thing the wolf doesn’t- a shepherd!

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For some of us in the church after we get into our first wolf-fight, our tendency is to sign up for the “How to fight like a Wolf” seminar. We think if we could just try a little harder, change our tactics or develop a quicker response, we would finally come out on top. But that wasn’t our Lord’s idea at all. What Jesus wanted was for us to be ready for the wolves, by walking right behind Him. Being strong and well protected by our teeth will never compare to having the protection of our Shepherd. We are no match for wolves, but they will run away as fast as they can, when they come face to face with our Shepherd. Then we can walk calmly through the valley even when our world seems upside down!

Waits Past the Door

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Waits Past the Door

He the Good Shepherd we must learn to trust
Through the valley of shadows and fears
His is the word and a rod and a staff
That comforts in weakness and fears

Then to His banqueting table prepared
Where a cup full of blessing awaits
While my enemies watch His sure mercy pours out
Jesus comes and He never forsakes

Last we will travel to Father’s own home
Where a place that He purchased is ours
He commands us fear not, enter in by its gate
There forever life waits past the door

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 
John 14:2 KJV

          Past the Door by Peter Caligiuri           
                             copyright 2021 all rights reserved                               
Use by author's permission only

Jesus is Our Peace

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Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27 KJV

After we received the news that my wife’s sister was given only weeks to live, I spent the night tossing and turning. It was not that I was not a Christian or that I did not know God’s promises of peace but transferring that peace from my head to my heart was something I just did not know how to do in that moment. And then Jesus came. No, I did not hear a voice or see any shining light; but suddenly I just knew that my shepherd was walking alongside me. Suddenly the rod and staff of His word comforted my heart.

“My peace I give you.” Imagine the peace which Jesus had when He slept in the storm, or when He meekly accepted arrest in the garden of Gethsemane. That is the same peace that He is now giving to you and I. We are not just getting a cheap imitation or a lower cost version. Jesus is giving us the real thing. He has promised us the exact same peace that He had with the Father. Notice also, that Jesus told us that He wasn’t giving this peace to us in the way the world gives. He won’t offer us something temporary, or ask for us to give it back. His gift is eternal and unconditional just like our salvation!

Maybe your battle is different than ours, but wherever you are He will come. He knows everything we are facing and He tells us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” And then His peace becomes ours!