{"id":580,"date":"2015-03-20T11:51:11","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T11:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/?p=580"},"modified":"2015-03-21T10:50:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-21T10:50:37","slug":"the-lord-is-my-shepherd-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/the-lord-is-my-shepherd-26\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lord is my Shepherd (26)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“…in the presence of my enemies.”<\/p>\n

Continue to imagine with me our scene at the table that Jesus, our Good shepherd has prepared for us. \u00a0It is your favorite meal and He has bid you to come and sit and enjoy it. \u00a0So you did. \u00a0He blessed the food and you have begun to eat. \u00a0It is more wonderful than you could have imagined. \u00a0Everything is perfect. \u00a0As you eat you look up and notice Jesus watching you with a grin of satisfaction. \u00a0You have never felt more blessed.<\/p>\n

As you eat you begin to sense someone else in the room. \u00a0You look and slightly to your left is someone standing. \u00a0You are startled but not afraid. \u00a0After all Jesus is there. \u00a0You look a little closer and you recognize the person. \u00a0“What are they doing here?” \u00a0You stop eating and you look over at Jesus. \u00a0He is still smiling. \u00a0His eyes move down directing your attention to the setting next to you. \u00a0You hadn’t noticed it before. \u00a0You were so blown away at what this dinner meant to you that you didn’t think about others being invited. \u00a0You now realize that there are many empty place settings. \u00a0You look back at Jesus and He nods because He knows what you have discovered. \u00a0 This dinner is not just for you…many are invited.<\/p>\n

This is good, \u00a0but now your thoughts turn back to the one standing near you. \u00a0“I am glad others are invited, but him?” \u00a0This is the person in your life that seems to always be against you. \u00a0They are the proverbial “thorn in your side”. \u00a0The bully…the negative voice…the critic…the rain on your parade…the enemy. \u00a0This person can bring you down and steal the joy in any situation. \u00a0And now they are here in the room to do it again!<\/p>\n

You look back at Jesus. \u00a0His eyes are still filled with love and another verse comes into your mind, “love your enemies”. \u00a0 “No…no…not now…not here. \u00a0This is my moment!” \u00a0 Another verse…”you cannot love God and hate your brother”. \u00a0 You have stopped eating and started pouting. \u00a0Jesus has sat down beside you on your right. \u00a0“Remember”, He whispers, “you were my enemy when I first invited you to this table” and the verses began to flow through your mind about God’s great love for you…a sinner. \u00a0What He did for you on the cross. \u00a0You begin to understand that this dinner is not about you. \u00a0It’s about Jesus.<\/p>\n

When you look back up into Jesus’ face He nods His head toward your left. \u00a0He is urging you to interact with the person. \u00a0What will you do? \u00a0You are not sure. \u00a0You are a little afraid, but Jesus is there. \u00a0So you pull the chair out next to you and you invite this “guest” to join you.<\/p>\n

We are blessed to be a blessing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“…in the presence of my enemies.” Continue to imagine with me our scene at the table that Jesus, our Good shepherd has prepared for us. \u00a0It is your favorite meal and He has bid you to come and sit and … 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-580","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\/580","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=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":586,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions\/586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}