“Woe be unto the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! Saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:1).

You remember the story of Little Red Robin Hood? She was speaking to the wolf who tried to disguise himself with her grandmother’s cap. Red Robin Hood kept mentioning body parts of the wolf until finally she said, “What big teeth you have.” Of course the reply came back from the wolf, “All the better to eat you with, my dear.”

There are a lot of shepherds out there who rather eat the sheep instead of feed and teach the sheep. The True Shepherd will come one day and sue for malpractice. God’s people are to be teachers and learners at the same time. Many are hirelings who flee at the intrusion of anything. The wolves in disguise cover themselves in religious overtures but reveal themselves for what they are in the day of trouble.

May we remember that God will set up in His kingdom teachers who will lead and not drive, visit and not be self-serving, and learners instead of just talkers. One of the reasons for the mess that many local churches are in is because of many who talk Bible but who do not incarnate the Word of God.

True Shepherds will feed the sheep so that they will not fear, nor be dismayed, neither lacking in their lives. Yes, Red Robin Hood saw correctly, but she was slow to see before it was too late.

“And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled” (Genesis 31:22).

Jacob’s father-in-law was a full-length mirrored-image of Jacob himself. Laban was a deceiver, a conniver, a cheat and he worshipped at the image of other gods (Genesis 31:10). Jacob was a deceiver, a conniver, a cheat, and he worshipped the true and living God, but he did not see himself as God saw him. So the Lord gave him a reality check for several years. Sometimes it takes a long time for people to get rid of themselves.

Do we realize that God places within our person those to whom we work with, talk to, come into contact with, who come alongside of us to make us miserable. Why? It could be to reveal to us what we are really like. When their glaring faults are detestable and obvious to us we can be sure that we have also have a flawed character trait that we are blind to. Our assessment of them is really God’s assessment of us.

We become our biggest enemies. Even if we did not have the sinister minister of deceit, Satan, in the world, the flesh we have will continue to deceive, corrupt, and judge. So how does God get this out of us? He places a Laban before us to reveal and causes us to feel the burn of what we are like to others.

After the third day Laban came for Jacob. But God revealed to Jacob it was time to leave and go home to the house of God where he first met the Lord. Laban never learned what it meant to bow before the God of Jacob. Laban never changed.

Jacob bowed at the feet of the God and he learned to allow God to surgically remove the blemishes, the faults, and the blindness of his own life. His crookedness, maneuvering, judgmental flaws were washed away over time and God removed much of what was holding him back.

Thank God for the third day. One day God will take away all that holds us back from being what He is like. One day we will awaken into His likeness.

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (I John 2:1).

If you and I walk in the light we have victory over sin. We are to be open, honest, sincere and the light of God shows us where we are and what we are. It is unfortunate today that churches and Bible classes have been invaded with insincere people.

To walk in the light means to be honest with God, with ourselves, and with others. When we immediately sin we are to confess it to God and claim His forgiveness. And if our sin injures another person or persons, we need to ask forgiveness too.

A congregation was singing, “For You I Am Praying” and one turned to a man and asked “For whom are you praying?” The man was stunned and answered, “Nobody, why do you ask?” The man answered and said, “Well I heard you singing ‘For You I am Praying’ and I thought you meant it.” “Oh, no, said the man. I’m just singing.”

Pious words, pious talk! A religion of words! Instead of being doers of the Word we are more talkers of the Word. We must walk what we talk. Language and life must go together.

God is the Lifter of the Head

“And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.”                                         –Genesis 40:20

The Lord Himself is the lifter up of the head (Ps. 3:3). So many times we depend upon people to help us, but their help never comes. Psalm 60:11 says, “Give us help from trouble; for vain is the help of man.”

It was the third day that the butler and the baker were lifted up and out of imprisonment to be placed before Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s birthday meant salvation to the baker and condemnation to the baker.

Poor Joseph was left in prison–he who had done nothing amiss (Gen. 40:15). It was two years before the butler remembered Joseph before he would be freed. And God is the One who brought the situation to mind once again.

God is with Joseph as he waited upon His God (Gen. 39:21). Joseph had his own dream and we have God’s promise, He will never leave us. The experience of Joseph led him to serve others even while waiting in prison. God will allow each of us to wait upon Him so that he may “put iron into our souls” (Ps. 105:17-22).

Remember the power of the third day. God raised His Son and He will raise you and me up as well. If the Lord controls us, it makes little difference who commands us. God gives victory in the place of defeat, honor in the place of shame, health in the place of sickness, and restoration in the place of a fall.

“There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:18).

In Noah’s day the creation of the Creator chose to choose against God. They lived as if He wasn’t there. They were devoid of God. They were detoxing themselves from all that reminded them of the true and living God. They unanimously voted God off the island, eliminating Him completely from earth’s equation. Humanity hung by a thread of a thin, godly line. Though outnumbered by millions, Noah’s little family is the “why” God held back His judgment for 120 years.

We see a sneak preview of things to come, an advance viewing of humanity in the last days. That generation was a God-hating breed, and their kind has returned in this generation. Noah’s contemporary message was ignored by the masses and the messenger was maligned and hated. They ate, drank, and pursued relationships without the acknowledgment of God at all.

God was not in their human hard drive, erasing Him from their collective conscience and culture. They produced after their own kind, making more degenerates, just like them. They flocked together, sinned together, and hated together. Rejecting the words of a man who gave them the Words of God, they chose to suppress the truth and avoid all witnesses.

We as Christians are, by nature, salt and light, we’re also masters at hiding in the salt shaker and hitting the dimmer switch. We must allow God’s Spirit to lift us and load us for love. For it is God’s people who again are postponing inevitable judgment. Noah’s world did not begin without God, but it sure ended up that way.

Look around. Which way do you think we’re headed?

And what are going to do about it?

“But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).
A much needed group of people do not attend the prayer meeting because it’s–forgive me for saying it–boring. They pray about the same things the same old way. We believe as Christians that our prayer life ought to be Scripture-fed, Spirit-led, worship-based praying. Yet, why do we not sense and see greater praying and great pray-ers?
The observation of many is that the evangelical church does a great deal of complaining about the decay and demise of our culture, the low level of political discourse, and the advancement of religious darkness. Helpless as we are to stem these ominous tides, yet incredibly as it sounds, we still do not humble ourselves and pray. We lament that we have not seen revival, but we are not yet desperate enough to seek God for such an outpouring of God’s Spirit.
I want to ask you to open your Bible and read its truth. As you study the passage begin to seek God in prayer. Offer to God these Scripture truths back to Him in prayer. Pray the Scripture back to Him. Concentrate in your efforts to use the Scripture as you pray.
Don’t allow the “ministry of the Word” to become shallow to you. And please do not allow prayer to become superficial. The foundation of what we are and what we do is “prayer and ministry of the word,” even as the early church leaders did, according to Acts 6:4. We can change our church and our world! When we learn to pray effectively and fervently.