November 19, 2014
Keeping Watch Over the Flock
I talked with a woman who
told me she has attended the same church for nine years and even though it’s the
denomination of her youth, in this particular church she still feels like a
visitor. Because this is one of the churches I’ve visited, I knew exactly from
whence she came. Interestingly a few weeks ago she began attending another
church and she said, “I’ve been moved to tears by the outpouring of fellowship
and biblical teaching.” The simile of a shepherd and flock with the church
comes to mind. “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful
attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a
crown is not secure for all generations” (Proverbs 27:23-24 NIV).
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Gail;
-----In the past couple years I’ve probably overused a saying: the most important thing to know at any moment is the situation you’re in. The importance of knowing my situation sitting at my desk writing this may not seem so significant. The importance of knowing that the place where I’ve crawled into my sleeping bag for a goodnight snooze is actually in the middle of a blind curve on I-70 is somewhat more significant, mortally. But immortally, the significance of the reality of my relationship with Jesus Christ is no greater in that sleeping bag than it is here at my desk, because this situation at my desk is involving communications with others through your blogspot that will affect their thoughts and beliefs, however minutely or greatly. I hope and pray they are up building affects, but I have no guarantees. So the best I can do is make sober assessments of every idea I lay out as to its possible affects, building into each more possibilities of edification than misdirection, thus, attending the Bible in my expressions as much as I can, knowing the situation I am in.
-----Likewise, when Paul wrote the Philippians to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;” (Phili 2:12b) he was not telling them to make believe whatever they wanted about the conditions in which they would be saved. His “fear and trembling” reference highlights that point, “…for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Phili 2:13) -----The situation we are in while working out our own salvation is one of humbled meekness and subservience to God, with alertness for our own errors. He is the major investor in our partnership, therefore, His will for that partnership is to His pleasure and for our attention. It calls for a particular frame of mind.
-----Happily, Paul defined that frame of mind: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” (Phili 2:1-8) In my forty-five years in the Lord, I have joyfully received one assurance after another of the truth of God’s Word. Through good reasoning and sound logic, the principle of emergence became to me an assurance. It can not be missed by simple observation that this mind of Christ Paul defines is that of truly serving the actual needs of those sharing the situations in which you are. What I mean by emergence is that this is the mind of the sheep multiplied into the mind of the shepherd. The same pattern of thinking the sheep have the shepherd uses. Otherwise, the sheep wouldn’t know his voice because he would really be the wolf.
-----Thank you for presenting this simile in Proverbs. I never noticed it. A bit of your thinking has emerged in mine. Certainly this shepherd of Proverbs attends the condition of his flock only as an emergence from his attention to the condition of his own mind. For the most important thing to know is the situation you’re in. And the shepherd is in one of extreme accountability to the Mightiest God.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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