Sheep Need a Shepherd

Jesus said: If you place a stumbling block in the path of one of these little ones, it would be better for you if you were never born”. Recently I have come down rather heavy in my criticism of atheists who are “placing a stumbling block” in our children’s way by undermining their faith in God through writing biased textbooks and setting curriculums that deliberately exclude the mention of God creating the universe and everything in it and promoting the idea that it all happened by “chance”. It annoys me because it is the deliberate preaching of atheism which they have no right to do. Atheists have a right to believe whatever they like but no one has the right to impose their beliefs on children unless they present fairly the other side of the debate as well. Because of this biased approach several generations of young people have now grown up without the knowledge that God is responsible for all we are and all we have.

 This lack of knowledge prevents them from looking to Jesus for guidance, and He wants to guide us as a Shepherd guides his sheep. Indeed, when referring to us, Isaiah said: “we all like sheep have gone astray and turned each one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all”(Isaiah 53:6).  You may think that a sheep on its own, away from the shepherd, would have a great time, but no. My folks had a sheep grazing property near Cobar in western N.S.W. and later near Bourke; the first had a paddock that was 14 thousand acres and the second had a paddock of 11 thousand acres. If one sheep was missed in the muster you might think “lucky sheep” to have all that country to itself but that wasn’t so because it would grow too much wool and become wool blind, it would then get blown, it would wander into seedy grass and the spiky seed would make it itchy, lice would attack it and so on. Sheep need a shepherd to look after them. When viewing the crowds Jesus said: “They are like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:26). Later He said: “I am the good Shepherd, I know my sheep and my sheep hear my voice and follow me” (John 10:27). He also said: “the Good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John10:11), and of course He did just that so that “whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but inherit eternal life” (John3:16).

One result from all this Atheistic teaching is that our Government and other so called Christian governments around the world are forfeiting their Christian identity by replacing Christian behaviour with “Political Correctness” and passing laws that are directly opposed to the Bible’s instructions. In Daniel’s day, (back in Old Testament times), the people of Israel who God had been blessing tried leaving God out of the equation too and God sent a heathen nation, the Babylonians (Daniel1:1) to take their country and keep them captive for many years. So there is a precedent to the situation we are now creating. The question in my mind is “who will God allow to take over our country?” At a quick glance it looks like the Muslims because they are already fairly well established and are determined. However there are a lot of Chinese, Indonesians and Indians not far away either, so who knows? But we better move quickly if we don’t want this to happen.

The only way we can stop this is if our nation turns back to God and seeks His help. The Old Testament is full of instances where this happened and saved the day for Israel and God doesn’t change. However I don’t think our nation realises the seriousness of the situation. So what are the alternatives? Well there are a couple of things you and I can do: We can pray and hope that the “Rapture” or the second coming of Jesus will soon eventuate. That would certainly save the situation for anyone who is ready. However that is a long shot as God is not in any hurry to do that as 2Peter3:9 indicates. Still it is worth a prayer request. However the blessed assurance we do have is that even when the Babylonians took the people captive the “Good Shepherd” looked after His own sheep (Daniel 1:6&7). To fit into that category of “sheep” we need to repent of our sin, believe in Jesus and be following Him by building our lives on His word. Thus we can be assured of His protection and claim the promise from Psalm 91 that even though “a thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand it shall not come nigh thee”.  Now look back at that picture and imagine you are that sheep holding Jesus hand because that is exactly how it should be, and you have the power to make it happen. Wow!

Best wishes, Tom.