Saturday - October 25, 2008

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Psalm 23



The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.


2 Timothy 1:1-7



Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to
the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

To Timothy, my dear son:
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.


I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear
conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.
Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with
joy. I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in
your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded,
now lives in you also. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame
the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power,
of love and of self-discipline.


(NIV)
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The Strength of the Sheep

by
Tim Trumper


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For you are with me. (Psalm 23:4b NKJV)

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Americans are very upbeat -- born optimists, in fact. As a Briton I
find this optimism very refreshing, but let's not mistake it for
faith. Whereas optimism is humanistic ("I'm strong; I can do it!"),
faith is theistic ("I am weak, but God can do it!").


David may well have been an optimist. You've got to be to fight a
giant! Yet as we listen to the outflow of his heart, we discern that
his reliance was not on his own bravery but on the presence of the
Lord. "I will fear no evil; for you are with me."


David not only knew his Lord, he knew his Lord was with him. Sheep
are comforted when the shepherd is near, for the shepherd knows us
personally. How reassuring is the remembrance and felt experience of
the presence of the shepherd! It sucks up our fears. Oh, they remain
a possibility, but they need not fill our minds or shape our actions.
So let's exercise faith. Through it the Lord frees us from enslavement
to fear. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear," wrote Paul to
timid Timothy, "but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2
Timothy 1:7).