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Vol. 11 No. 8 August 2009 |
Page 5 |
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Vol. 11 No. 8 August 2009 |
Page 5 |
Mark McWhorter
Have you ever been outside in the early morning when it was cool outside? Then when the sun came up and its rays hit you, you immediately felt warmer. Or maybe you live in a place where it snows a lot. Even when it is still cold enough for the snow to be on the ground, if you stand still where the sun’s rays can be on you, you will feel warmer.
The sun’s rays also help plants grow. Without the sun’s rays the plants could not grow. The proper amount of sun makes the plants very healthy. People even need sunlight. The sunlight activates some chemicals in the body that then help make the body healthy.
In Psalm 84:11 we read, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
God is the Sun of our spiritual life. He gives us exactly what we need to live the proper and healthy spiritual life. There is something we have to do to receive the grace and glory from God. We must walk uprightly.
The only way to know how to walk uprightly is to study our Bible. We must get the wisdom from it to do what God wants us to do. So keep reading your Bible, and if any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.
Mark McWhorter
Psalm 23:2b reads, “He leadeth me beside the still waters” Psalm 23: 3b says, “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” If you watch a shepherd and his sheep in Palestine, you will notice that the sheep always follow the shepherd. The shepherd will walk in front, and the sheep will go wherever he goes.
I read an account in a book recently about an English guide and his tourist group. The guide had told the tourists about this aspect of the shepherd and his sheep. One day the group saw a man driving sheep up a road. The tourists asked the guide why this shepherd was driving his sheep. The guide went to the man driving the sheep and stated that he thought shepherds never drove sheep. The man said that was correct. Well, the guide asked why was he, a shepherd, driving these sheep. The man stated he was not a shepherd, he was a butcher. He was driving the sheep to slaughter.
Jesus is our Shepherd. He leads us to those things that are good for us. He leads us to what will help us grow spiritually. He will never lead us to destruction and slaughter. Study your Bible. Learn all you can about the Good Shepherd. Then obey Him, and if any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.