{"id":426,"date":"2015-02-26T13:12:34","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T13:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/?p=426"},"modified":"2015-03-03T18:40:42","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T18:40:42","slug":"the-lord-is-my-shepherd-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/the-lord-is-my-shepherd-8\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lord is my Shepherd (8)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“He leads me beside quiet waters”<\/em><\/p>\n

A Good Shepherd does not lead you into danger.\u00a0 He leads you to where you can find peace and rest.\u00a0\u00a0If green pastures represent God’s provision for us the “quiet waters” represent His peace that calms our soul.\u00a0 David is not just talking about giving the sheep a drink of water.\u00a0 He is talking about leading the sheep to where they can experience security and serenity.\u00a0 A rushing river can provide water to drink but not without potential peril.\u00a0 Sheep can become agitated easily.\u00a0 The sight and sound of the moving water\u00a0raises\u00a0causes anxiety in sheep.\u00a0 The Good Shepherd is also concerned about the safety of His sheep. \u00a0If a sheep were to slip into the current it could\u00a0quickly be swept away.\u00a0\u00a0Therefore, He leads you to “quiet” or “still” water.<\/p>\n

For us in our metropolitan area it is the difference between walking on the shoulder of a busy highway with the cars zooming by or walking on a trail through a quiet park.\u00a0 It changes how you feel.\u00a0 It changes how you think.\u00a0 Just talking about it begins to relax you.\u00a0 We say things like, “Yes, that’s what I need.\u00a0 Just 5 minutes peace”.\u00a0 We\u00a0close the door and take a deep breath.\u00a0 We close our eyes and, like Brer Rabbit,\u00a0we go to our “happy place”.<\/p>\n

At the cross Jesus not only proved that He was the Good Shepherd but He won the victory that can bring you peace.\u00a0 To follow Him is to lay down in green pastures even in a dry and weary land.\u00a0 When we follow Him He leads us\u00a0by quiet waters in the midst of a noisy, and sometimes\u00a0dangerous, world.\u00a0 He is the Good Shepherd.\u00a0 That’s what He has always done.\u00a0 He was always calming the raging seas.\u00a0 He brought peace wherever it was needed.\u00a0 Isaiah said:<\/p>\n

“But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace<\/strong> was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed”<\/em> (Isaiah 53:5)<\/p>\n

Today let Jesus lead you to the quiet waters.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“He leads me beside quiet waters” A Good Shepherd does not lead you into danger.\u00a0 He leads you to where you can find peace and rest.\u00a0\u00a0If green pastures represent God’s provision for us the “quiet waters” represent His peace that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lenten_blog_2015","category-all_posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}