{"id":512,"date":"2015-03-09T18:38:04","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T18:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/?p=512"},"modified":"2015-03-11T00:17:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-11T00:17:40","slug":"the-lord-is-my-shepherd-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/the-lord-is-my-shepherd-18\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lord is my Shepherd (18)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“For you are with me.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Good Shepherd stays with the sheep. \u00a0 You are not alone. \u00a0Someone to be with you…fellowship. That means \u00a0a lot. \u00a0In order for us to experience the abundant life that God has designed for us we must be able to be in His presense. \u00a0 That’s how God designed it and He proclaimed it at Christmas by sending Emmanuel…God with us! \u00a0Then we are reminded \u00a0in our Lenten walk…the cross has made that relationship possible. \u00a0 Through the sacrifice of \u00a0Jesus all barriers to enjoying God’s presense have been removed. \u00a0They have been Nailed to the cross. \u00a0We have free access to fellowship with God! \u00a0Therefore…we will not fear!<\/p>\n

It is when we begin to wander that fear begins to creep in.<\/p>\n

I am reminded of the Israelites when they were on the edge of the promised land and they were afraid to go in. \u00a0The 12 spies had gone in and come back with a report. \u00a0Ten said do not go. \u00a0Two said go and God will do what He promised. \u00a0The people sided with the 10. \u00a0God was so upset with them that the ten spies who brought the bad report dropped dead. \u00a0The Israelites decided to go but it was too late. \u00a0The fellowship had been broken. \u00a0Trust was no longer there. \u00a0God’s presense was not with them and they were soundly defeated. \u00a0God being with us makes all the difference in the world. \u00a0But we must choose to remain in His presence. \u00a0But, beware, that doesn’t happen all of a sudden.<\/p>\n

Remember Peter after Jesus was arrested. \u00a0He followed Jesus to the courtyard which is more than most but it says in Mark 14:54, “Peter followed at a distance.” \u00a0Putting distance between you and the Savior sets one up for failure. \u00a0It was only a matter of time (very short in this case) and Peter had denied even knowing Jesus.<\/p>\n

Are you experiencing fear right now? \u00a0Why? \u00a0If God is with you you should not fear. \u00a0 Maybe you have allowed a little distance to come between you and Jesus. \u00a0Take time today to close the gap…get in close and tighten up the fellowship that casts away every fear.<\/p>\n

Blessings!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

“For you are with me.” The Good Shepherd stays with the sheep. \u00a0 You are not alone. \u00a0Someone to be with you…fellowship. That means \u00a0a lot. \u00a0In order for us to experience the abundant life that God has designed for … 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-512","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\/512","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=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":540,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}