{"id":629,"date":"2015-03-30T11:20:14","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T11:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/?p=629"},"modified":"2015-03-31T17:35:41","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T17:35:41","slug":"the-lord-is-my-shepherd-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/the-lord-is-my-shepherd-35\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lord is my Shepherd (35)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“…and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Good Shepherd gives His sheep a home forever. \u00a0Our Shepherd is not just a worker whose job it is to take care of the sheep. \u00a0He is not a hired hand that will punch out at the end of the day and go home. \u00a0We are not off on a farm somewhere and the shepherd checks on us periodically. \u00a0We are in His house! \u00a0Our Shepherd is home and we are with Him! \u00a0The Hebrew word here describes more than a building in a neighborhood. \u00a0It is more than four walls and a front door. \u00a0It carries a much more intimate meaning than that. This word is used when speaking about family and belonging.<\/p>\n

David has saved the most precious and comforting thought to sum up this beautiful Psalm. \u00a0All of the verses lead up to the reality that we are part of the family. \u00a0As His sheep we belong to Him. \u00a0This goes beyond just meeting needs. \u00a0It is more than feeding, grooming and protecting the sheep. \u00a0This is talking about relationship. \u00a0It is saying, “I am now a part of the family”. \u00a0This meets the deepest need we have as human beings…the need to “belong”. \u00a0To know that you are part of a nurturing family is important to God.<\/p>\n

Family has been the DNA of humanity since the Garden of Eden. \u00a0God said that it was not good for man to be alone and created family. \u00a0The family is the thread in the fabric of our world. \u00a0It was true then and is still true today. \u00a0God created us for fellowship with Him and with a family. \u00a0David gives this description of God in another Psalm,<\/p>\n

“A Father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling. \u00a0God sets the lonely in families…”<\/em> (Psalm 68:5,6)<\/p>\n

In this world that has been broken by sin, many families have failed to provide this and so many are lonely searching for a place to belong. \u00a0This is what Psalm 23 promises. \u00a0No matter how alone you feel…no matter how lost you may think you are…there is a place for you in the home of the Good Shepherd. \u00a0You were made to live in His home and to be a part of His family. \u00a0He will take care of you and meet you greatest need…the need to belong.<\/p>\n

This is the message of the cross. \u00a0Our sins are forgiven and God calls us to come home. \u00a0We can come into His presence today as part of His family…right where we belong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“…and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” The Good Shepherd gives His sheep a home forever. \u00a0Our Shepherd is not just a worker whose job it is to take care of the sheep. \u00a0He is not … 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-629","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\/629","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=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions\/637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}