{"id":584,"date":"2015-03-22T01:45:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-22T01:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/?p=584"},"modified":"2015-03-24T12:52:04","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T12:52:04","slug":"the-lord-is-my-shepherd-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/the-lord-is-my-shepherd-27\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lord is my Shepherd (27)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Since we have been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!”<\/p>\n

Throughout this Lenten journey we have been meditating on Jesus as the Good Shepherd but, in the last few days we have found that we are also being reminded that we are lost sheep. \u00a0In fact, we are sheep that have willingly gone astray. \u00a0We had a part in this separation from our Shepherd. \u00a0We rebelled against His loving leadership and declared independance from Him. \u00a0We didn’t need a shepherd. \u00a0We were fine without Him…or so we thought. It is hard to think about being God’s enemy. \u00a0I realize that, \u00a0“I once was lost but now am found”, but I never thought of myself as hostile toward God. \u00a0The Scriptures tell us otherwise. \u00a0Our sinfulness is in direct opposition to the will of God. \u00a0The bottom line is that we were all enemies of God, “but God demonstates His own love for us in this; \u00a0while we were still sinners (enemies) Christ died for us”.<\/p>\n

Do you see it? \u00a0We should not move away from this verse in the Psalm until we do. \u00a0You were the enemy in the room looking at the table prepared for those who believe. \u00a0You did not choose to be there but, you were still invited. \u00a0You did not want to sit down and eat but you saw others eating and enjoying it. \u00a0You were skeptical but then you saw someone that you knew and they asked you to join them…and now Jesus prepares a table for you in the presence of His enemies and yours.<\/p>\n

The cross is what makes this possible. \u00a0The verse above is clear…we were reconciled “by the death of His Son”. \u00a0All of the barriers that disqualify us from coming have bee removed because of the sacrifice on the cross. \u00a0Our sins have been forgiven and we who were once enemies are invited to be friends. \u00a0 This is important to remember as we go back to our verse. \u00a0Now we can see that the presence \u00a0of our enemies is not only for our benefit but for the benefit of those who are still fighting against the Gospel. \u00a0God allows them to see you at the table so they might observe in you the blessings of following God.<\/p>\n

So, don’t be too quick to judge who should be at the table. The Truth is that God invites all who will come. \u00a0Who is in your life right now that you can invite to the table?<\/p>\n

Thank the Lord today that He went to the cross so you could go to the table. \u00a0Now, \u00a0look around and invite others to join you…and don’t be surprised if those who you know as enemies decide to join you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Since we have been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much … 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-584","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\/584","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=584"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":592,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}