What the Bible says about Jesus

The True Light "In him, (the Lord Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world,…the world didn’t recognize him." John 1:4,9.
The Good Seed and the Weeds The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seeds in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. Matthew 13:24,25.

Monday, March 31, 2014

The BDS Perversion of Reality | FrontPage Magazine

The Washington Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo reported on March 22, 2014, that “Pro-Palestinian activists at the University of Michigan have had the cops called on them for threatening pro-Israel students and staging a sit-in over the student government’s refusal to back an anti-Israel initiative to divest from the Jewish state. The threatening rhetoric used by these pro-Palestinian activists is part of a wider campaign by the University of Michigan’s pro-Palestine group Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), which is part of the virulently anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”
 
The ultimate goal of the BDS movement is the destruction of the Jewish State. The intent is to weaken it through de-legitimization, economic sanction, and isolation. What the anti-Semitic radical-Left is seeking, while in cahoots with the Arab-Palestinians, is to bring down Israel through lawfare instead of warfare. The Arabs and Palestinians have tried wars, terror, and economic boycott, and failed. At this stage of warring against Israel, the BDS movement is using the language of human rights which the West is addicted to, and is placing the Palestinians on top of the so-called Third World anti-colonial struggle. Defending the Third World (regardless of its abuse of universal standards of human rights) is sacrosanct to the political-Left in the West. Israel therefore becomes a triple “sinner.” It is considered by the BDS activists as too powerful, too western, and too Jewish. Continue reading

Friday, March 28, 2014

How do we measure success?

Written and published by Jean-Louis.3/2012
 
"An act of love that fails is just as much a part of the divine life as an act of love that succeeds, for love is measured by fullness, not by reception." Harold Loukes.

Have you ever felt a little sad or ignored when your hard work for the Lord was not producing fruit that was tangible in the lives of people you serve? Have you wondered if there was something wrong in your methods or even that the Lord was not blessing your efforts and doubted that you were in His will? Have you felt discouraged by the apparent failure of your ministry?

Or your self-inflicted criticism could turn into an understandable self-justification into accepting a self-imposed defeat and throwing down the gloves. "After all the Lord has not blessed me with the gift of evangelism", you might argue. Look at all the successful ministries with crowds waiting in lines to participate in the latest human-crowd-baiting nets operations.

Not all fishermen are in the fishing business equipped with huge nets and fleets of boats to carry all the catch. Big fishing ministries might not start with the initial call, blessings of God  ending up with the final rewards for faithful service but you surely can if you are fishing for God, with God and in whatever pond, river or sea the Master has called to be.

"But wait a minute, what about me?" you might retort. All I have is two hands, one mouth and the Word of God to help me. My friend, you have all you need to be, maybe not as an apparently successful captain of a fishing boat fleet, but as a faithful angler because God has called you to cast your bread on the waters and not to worry about the size of the catch.

Conversely, you might be gifted by the Lord to feed the fish instead of catching it. We are not in the business of killing the fish. The fish is already dead. Sure, physically, it jumps, swims, eats and reproduces just any normal fish. So why are we surprised when the fish escapes the hook and swims away?

Do we think the hook is as important as the bait? Are we sorry that the fish got away? Maybe we have it backward in our attempts to draw people to Jesus.
We should rejoice when the fish gets away with the bait, the Word of God, the real food that will one day give them life and imperceptibly but surely help them to get closer to the day when the Word of God will produce its work of new birth and eternal salvation. Then, they will grow bigger and stronger and reproduce.

Paul in I Corinthians said that one plants the seed, another waters it according to the task assigned by God. “Neither he who plants, nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose and each will be rewarded according to his own labor”. I Corinthians 3:7-9.

To go back to the initial quote above, if your service to God and your fellow human is an act of love accomplished in faith and obedience to our Lord Jesus it might seem to you as a failure because of the seeming lack of immediate results, it might be that the person that was the object of your love did not receive it, but that does not take away your unwavering commitment and your acting in faith and love. It just might be a matter of time. Sooner or later, up or down the stream of life, another angler will build on your faithful work and bring the fish home hopefully without the wounds of unscrupulous fishermen using false bait and using big hooks and harpoons that hurt the fish.

Take the example of the great missionary to India, William Carey whose biography I recommend reading: “ after seven years of tireless toil in India Carey still did not have a single convert!” However he trusted in the Word of God for his life and he quotes it in the text of a historic sermon in Isaiah 54:2-3: “Enlarge the place of your tent and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings. Do not spare, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes! For you shall expand to the right and to the left and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make desolate cities inhabited.” And this is exactly what he did.

Paul, Apollos, all the disciples and great men of God throughout history can be used as good examples to emulate (see the list in hall of faith in Hebrew 11).

However the best and supreme example of somebody who acted with the highest disinterested kind of love who could have been seen as a failure was our Lord Jesus-Christ. He spent the 33 years of his short life being rejected. He was not attractive or beautiful in his human form, had nothing that would make man desire him, a man full of sorrow, despised. Talk about a failure in the eyes of the unbelieving world. He was oppressed, afflicted, and did not complain. He was betrayed, died through the false testimony of lying witnesses. He dies the death of the worst criminals. And he did it for the love of his Father and love for you and me. He labored and was faithful even to his death but not in vain, because look at what beautiful inheritance -- salvation from eternal death and the promise of the Spirit and eternal life with him -- he won for the millions of believers who trust in him. This is the great victory brought by his sacrifice on the cross.

If you trust him with your life he can turn your apparent failures into victories. Don´t look at instant results judging your performance by the way people react to your sharing the truth with others. “Watch your life and your doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. I Timothy 4:15,16.
God is a good and tender loving Father who likes to reward his faithful and obedient children with surprises big and small in answer to our prayers.

This is what the Word says concerning fullness, love, faith and works. “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, Col 1:19; For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form and you have been given this fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. Colossians 2:9, 10.
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Gal. 5:6.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.. It is the Lord Christ whom you are serving. Colossians 3:23.

Jean-Louis.

THE PROMISE. To my brother in Christ Alex Tinson

Written and posted by Jean-Louis. 3/2012

For us today, God´s promise still stands
He will act in power through our hands
Come rain, come snow or even hail
The gates of hell will not prevail
He said it to Abraham and to his church again

The call today is still the same
To go and catch fish in his name
Do not worry if you have the skill
The Master himself will teach you
Be obedient, faithful, and trust him
Your net with a good catch he will fill

Raise up today the standard of love
Rest in Jesus´finished work
Walk circumspect, watch and pray
Now is the time to stand up and fight
In the awesome power of his might

Hear today, Oh Christian under his blood
You will not perish in the flood
Our goal is close, I hear his voice
Calling his own: " My bride, ´tis time
Come up hither, my kingdom enter
Receive the fruit of your labor."

Jean-Louis. March 7 2012

The personal experience of a young Christian believer. Part III. Conclusion.

Written and posted by Jean-Louis. 2/2012

The following Sunday after church, my sponsor friend who had become my spiritual mother leading me to the Lord, and I were eating in a restaurant. We were finishing our dessert and I thought it a propitious moment to show her my newly acquired Bible and shared with her the surrounding events that led to my receiving this precious gift.


While leafing through the first pages containing the personal family information of the owner, she exclaimed: “the name of the owner is the same as the man´s sitting at a table not far from ours. I know that man”. Piqued with curiosity and a little overwhelmed by the strange sequence of fortuitous, incredible events happening in such a short time, I got up and introduced myself. Asking him if he recognized the Bible, his face beamed with surprise mixed with emotional intensity as if he had recognized a long lost friend. He replied: “This Bible belongs to me and my family. We lost it 25 years ago.”


I sat down to explain the amazing story of how it came in my possession. He listened carefully even more awestruck than I was as I related to him an outline of my spiritual journey and the details of my past week´s adventure and God´s providential instruction in leading the way and teaching me in a real and unmistakable manner.

As I told him that I was happy to have found his Bible and handing it to him, he graciously offered me to keep it as a token of God´s loving kindness and care to all involved. He was obviously touched by this testimony of God´s acting on the behalf of his children.


I leave it up to you to see the hand of God in all this and the resulting blessings in the lives of the ones involved. I am sure every one of us was changed in some way. I am also certain that these encounters were the results of personal questions and doubts about the reality of faith and providence of God and answers to prayers.


What happened to that big black Bible? I don´t know where it is right now or how God used it. I gave it to a friend in college as a witness and encouragement after telling him the wonderful story behind it.


Personally, this experience served to solidify in a very real and concrete way the foundations on which my faith is based and provided a pillar of remembrance for times of discouragement, weakness and doubts. Later on as I became more familiar with the scriptures, I found passages and verses confirming my life experiences of the reality and truth of the revelation of a loving Father to his children. I can trust his word as the eternal, unchanging truth, a sure light guiding me on the way. I can trust the Spirit´s promptings as the voice of my Shepherd because and when it aligns and concurs with his written word and is confirmed by several witnesses.


One of those verses is Isaiah 55:10-13: "10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn bush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.” 

 
I thank and praise God my Father and my Lord Jesus-Christ for his mercy, his grace and his enduring loving kindness to us his children and the abundant blessings that he bestows on us every day without any merit on our part. Bless his Holy Name forever.

Jean-Louis.

The personal experience of a young Christian believer. Part II

Written and posted by Jean-Louis. 2/12
  Continued... There as I sat on a bar stool and ordered a drink, the man next to me with the imposing physique of a huge football player asked me in a “basso profundo” booming voice: “Who, are, you? “

Who wouldn´t be intimidated? I certainly was. So with my best French accent, I recited my resume, name, birth place and other data that we usually give total strangers when we are introduced. This went on for a while as the man kept repeating the same question and didn´t seem to be satisfied with my adding each time true, factual answers about myself. But inside, my chest was heaving as I sensed God asking me the same question: who are you Jean-Louis? Are you going to properly identify yourself or are you ashamed of me?

Bear in mind that I had not yet read the verse on Christ being ashamed of us if we are ashamed of Him. 

The Lord Jesus in Mark 8:38 declares: If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

So finally, unable to resist the pressure of the Spirit, I told the man: OK, let´s go sit down in a quiet corner so we can talk undistracted and I can tell you who I really am.
The man replied: "well, that´s better” as if he knew something that escaped me and was setting me up for a strange encounter. 


Up to that day, I had been shielded, being around Christians and had never had to be in a confrontational situation as this. I proceeded to tell the man that I was a new born again believer and shared with him my testimony of how God had brought me miraculously to the US and had changed my heart and my life.

He, in turn shared how he had turned his back on God and felt his life was a wreck without any hope of finding his way back to his relationship with Jesus. He had become a hopeless drunk. He even passed me a bad check in exchange for a few dollars so he could buy liquor.

After a long heart to heart conversation, I told him about the grace and mercy of God and that if he had done it for me, a wretched sinner,  he would do it for him also. All he had to do was to repent of his sins and ask forgiveness and God would accept him back into the relationship and help him to lead a victorious life.

He was truly touched by my words and his countenance brightened up. He told me to wait for him and that he was going to bring me back a present to thank me.
A few minutes later, he walks to the table with a big black bible and hands it to me as a gift for having taken the time to listen to his story and given him a ray of hope.

To be continued.

The personal testimony of a young Christian believer. Part I.

Written and posted by Jean-Louis. 2/2012
I would like to share with you a personal experience I had with the Lord right after my spiritual new birth which has taught me 4 basic principles which have served to strengthen and sustain my faith. In his goodness and grace, the Lord demonstrated his care and loving-kindness to me by giving me what I call a shot of colostrum in my first steps as a baby Christian along with the spiritual milk of his word. He was preparing me for the weaning that happens as a natural stage in the baby´s growth and the long walk through the desert that was awaiting me.
These principles are:

  • We might be doing a good, spiritual, church related activity or service, but actually Jesus-Christ our head may have something different and better that he wants us to do, that is his will for us at the present time, no matter what the circumstances look like to our human eyes.
  • Listen to the inner guiding voice of the Holy Spirit in you. With time you will recognize it just like you are able to recognize the particular tone of voice of your loved ones.
  • Do not be ashamed of your Lord and Savior Jesus-Christ. and of the Gospel he commanded us to proclaim.
  • The Bible is the true revealed word of God. You can trust it as God will speak to you and guide your walk through its pages with the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
Just a few weeks after I was born again -twenty-two years old at the time - I had been going to a Baptist church and joined the choir as people encouraged me to participate in activities. I was giving my testimony on a Christian radio show, enjoyed reading and learning from the Bible, going to church and being fed by My Father´s providential hand.

I had the same exhilarated feeling as when I first put my foot on the US soil just to celebrate my first Christmas with my American sponsor´s family, that of an immigrant who is starting a new life in the land of freedom where nobody knows or cares about your past and where you can look forward to a new exciting life full of opportunities.
One Thursday afternoon as I was walking to the church for choir rehearsal, I felt an inner prompting to turn around and go to the bar in a seedy part of town where I had been drinking a few weeks ago with a friend of mine before I became a believer. This thought left me confused as I stopped in my track not understanding what was happening.


I had barely started reading the New Testament, was not aware of the Holy Spirit as a teacher, a guide and all of his ministry in the believer´s life. I was afraid of being late for practice and went on a few more steps when the impression got stronger. I thought it strange and a temptation to prevent and sidetrack me from doing my service to my new found God. So I walked on until the third prompting was so intensely felt that I just had to turn around and walk back to the bar.
To be continued.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Beauty for Ashes

Written and published by Jean-Louis. 12/2011

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen– for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Cor. 4:17, 18.

This morning as I was writing a message to a friend, I noticed that we use the letters and number B4A, as short for Beauty for Ashes (a community on Facebook) taken from Isaiah 61:3: "and provide for those who grieve in Zion--to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor".

As I was thinking that alphabetically A comes before B, a verse came to mind from I Corinthians 15 that says: v. 46 "The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual". Suddenly, I saw more clearly the application of both verses about the resurrection in the light of the grand scheme of God. This is about the celebration of the grand finale when the Lord will display His glory and we will share in that glory. The A in the Ashes, the Natural has to precede the B of Beauty of the Spiritual.

Verse 42. "So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[f]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we[g] bear the image of the heavenly man".

But the best thing is that we do not have to wait until the Lord comes back in order to rejoice, be glad and be clothed with the garment of praise.

    ■ We are already clothed with his righteousness, we have passed from death to life, we have died with Him, our sins nailed to the cross and we live in him, for him and through him. Rom 6:8-14

If today you feel like the ashes cover you with their grayness suffocating your life, keeping you from seeing your way out of the heaviness of grief, the suffering of carrying an albatross of guilt as a heavy yoke around your neck, let him take your burden for he cares for you:

    ■ He has already provided the way for you to let the wind of his Spirit blow away those ashes, II Corinthians 1:3-5
    ■ He has provided the hope of standing firm, rooted and established in the grace in which we stand, Romans 5:1-5.
    ■ He has anointed us with his oil as priests who serve him with gladness in our hearts, I Peter 2:5, 9.
    He has clothed us with his garment of salvation and a robe of righteousness as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10-11,
    ■ His name is Emmanuel, God with us who “lives in a holy place, but also with him who is contrite in heart and lowly in spirit, I will guide him and restore comfort to him creating praise on the lips of the mourners…and I will heal them, Isaiah 57:15-19
    ■ His yoke is easy and his burden light, go to him and rest in him, accept and welcome his will for your life.
    ■ His word is true, his promises are sure and he never disappoints those who are hurting, empty, hungry for real food and drink and come to him with humble hearts seeking the comfort that they need.
All these and more are reasons to be grateful, thankful and praising him.

Personally Christmas time and other main family holidays have always been the hardest season for me, I must confess and this year especially away from my family and American friends. I know that it so for a great number of other people who get depressed. What I am sharing with you has filled me with hope, a renewed sense of his wonderful presence and the scriptures that I quoted have comforted me. I hope that they will help you to turn your eyes away from the ashes of the past and enable you to contemplate the Beauty of His Holiness.

We thank you and praise you Lord Jesus for your great love for us and reaching down to us to transform our lives and our heart that is yearning for you, the desire of the nations.

Jean-Louis.

ESCAPE INTO FREEDOM


Written and posted by Jean-Louis 12/2011
http://thelightseed.blogspot.com
 
The cage door opens and closes slowly
Hesitating as in an off-beat ballet
The bird contemplates her fate
To languish a prisoner inside
Or risk everything and escape
The stalking black cat plays dead
Waiting patiently to hear a movement
A flutter of wings indicating
The delicious horror of stumbling


Freedom is so close, prudence calls
To go unnoticed, blend with the walls
The feline dreams salivating with malice
Fright overwhelms the fettered prey
She trembles hoping for a rescue
Wishing for a miracle of deliverance

Suddenly the bird takes fresh heart
Remembering that she is blessed of her Creator
By more than the beauty of her plumage
She starts singing a song of praise
To her Protector rendering homage
And in a flight of notes reclaims her liberty

The enemy scampers off startled
By the powerful war shout
Shouted with invincible joy and faith
In the One who helps us conquer fear.


Jean-Louis.

The Nicholaitans - Of false teachings and practices

Written and posted by Jean-Louis. 11/2011

In Revelation chapter 2:15 John mentions the Nicolaitans twice. This group is formed as a partnership of the Church and the world, through the ordination of a supposedly superior clergy elite class ruling over a supposedly inferior laity, the spiritually uneducated masses if you will. The supposed  meaning in Greek, is derived from Nico and Laitan or the name Nicholau " one who conquers the people".  It begins with a compromise and ends in powerlessness and destruction when the Lord judges and removes the candlestick of such churches. The institution can have the appearance of a functioning organization ruled by men but its life source, its spiritual guidance and dynamic power have been removed as when the glory of God departed from the temple in the time of Ezequiel or “Ichabod, the Glory has departed” was pronounced in 1 Samuel 4:19-22.

Who were these Nicolaitans? It is supposed that this group whose name is derived from a man named Nicolau, compromised with pagan practices in order to allow Christians to associate with popular customs.
Does it remind us of another time in Israel’s history when the people wanted a King like the other nations around them and rejected God´s rule? God told them that their King would lord it over them. This is exactly what happened to the institution of the church through the ages, the clergy, a separate hierarchical class of trained ministers, taking the control of God´s people through different methods that are not from God and are not recorded in His Word. WE are ALL a nation of priests according to Peter, none of us superior to the other. In the last half of the twentieth century, the Church has been infiltrated by the world’s philosophy and has found a most welcome reception in both "liberal" and "conservative" elements in its ranks. 

This is exactly what Paul, Peter and John were warning their flocks about. In Revelation chapter 2, the teaching of Balaam is mentioned in the same paragraph as the teaching of the Nicolaitans. To study more about this, see 2 Peter 2:15 and Jude 11.
Of course, this practice in the churches is not new. Since the absorption of pagan practices in the church under Roman Emperors Constantine’s and Theodosius’ reigns resulting in a syncretism which has permeated the church until now, we have witnessed this phenomenon in the comtemporary "church" that will culminate in the unification of all the apostate ecumenical churches under the rule of Antichrist during the greatest deception ever perpetrated on mankind.

As far as I know, God has not rescinded His commands to the Church. He has not changed one iota of His perfect, pure, eternal, unchanging Word. He still keeps on building His Church on the perfect, indestructible “foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone”. Ephesians 2:20.


Maybe our human hands build buildings imperfectly on faulty foundations that will crack and not support the weight. Not so with the Lord and his Word. Everything He creates and builds is perfect. We do not need to try and improve on it.
Furthermore, there are warnings throughout the Bible for those who would try and change it. Deuteronomy 4:2 declares: “do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you”.

Several other passages give the same command, with consequences added in the case of Revelation 22:19: “And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

Further in 2 Corinthians 10:8, Paul continues with this theme after explaining to us the good use of his authority when he declares: “For even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than pulling you down, I will not be ashamed of it”. We can see from these words that Paul always had his disciples’ best interest at heart.

In conclusion, let us beware of practices prohibited by God in His Word, first introduced by people outside and inside the Church who distort the Scriptures to back up these practices and later on formulate a false theology once the practice has been entrenched through decades or centuries of traditions in the lives of people. 

True Christian practices should always have as their basis pure and sound doctrine and should stem from biblical principles and the leading of the Holy Spirit who will never contradict His Word. Sound teaching should always precede good practices, not the other way around because the human heart is so deceitful. Let’s leave this type of behavior to the politicians who have perfected it to an art.

The Lost Little Lamb Part 2

The lost little lamb Part II

Written and posted by Jean-Louis http://thelightseed.blogspot.com
Translation from the French version by the author.
To read the French version click: http://thelightseed.blogspot.com/2007/12/leons-de-laire-de-battage.html


John 10:9-18 (NIV) I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

The reality of the horrible incident was still alive in his mind, but fortunately, he calmed down immediately because the herd did not show any sign of being in an imminent danger. His only worry came from hearing the desperate bleating of the little she lamb that was standing in a corner of the enclosure. Throwing a quick glance around him, he could not notice any visible danger. Yet, instead of being reassured by his presence, the poor lamb continued her desperate crying. He reasoned that she was calling to her mother. But, strangely nothing nor anybody prevented her from rejoining the flock. She could have been guided on her way by responding to the others´ bleating in echoing her own.

When the young shepherd came close to her, she started jumping and running in the opposite direction. That led him in a totally useless chase, because every time he tried to run after and catch her, she would bound aside and escape him. Since he did not have much else to do, he tried several times in the afternoon to go after and capture her without success. The sun was setting and goats and sheep were on their way back to the barn. But the little lamb, stubborn as a mule was still refusing to join the flock. She spent the whole night outside bleating loudly calling for help.

This little game lasted three whole days. From time to time, the shepherd was attempting to gain the confidence of his little friend by talking to her gently and softly, but she tenaciously refused the helping hand that she so desperately needed. He loved all the animals in his charge and decided that he would bring back to safety no matter what the cost. The only thing he could not understand is that his older brother has given him this responsibility without asking the help of the children or his neighbors. Maybe he thought that since she was going to be sold or her meat put in the freezer a few weeks hence, she would find the way back by herself. After all why run after this obstinate animal that was not worth the time or physical energy that were so precious to him?

The shepherd that enjoyed solving problems resolved that he was not going to be satisfied until he returned the lamb to her mother.
On the third day in the afternoon, he thought of an idea that seemed to be feasible and could be successful. He drew from the stock of his childhood memories several episodes of cartoons in which the hero and the villain try to escape from a hot pursuit . Certainly you remember the scenes. While they are in a free fall after having jumped from a high cliff, they continue running with their legs in the air as if they were trusting the ground support on terra firma. Of course, back then, the comical scene elicited a lot of laughter. But this simple and innocent return into childhood was providing a serious answer to his problem. He elaborated a rescue plan that would put an end to the unexpected interruption in his monotonous life.

Taking advantage of the lamb being stuck in a marshy corner at the bottom of the pasture, he chose this propitious moment to put his plan into action. Facing her and moving his arms to make her move in his direction, he was getting closer to her, step by step in the soggy muck that was reaching his calves close to his knees. The little lamb frozen with fear was preparing to bounce as usual and right at the moment when facing him launched into the air. The young shepherd let himself fall backwards in the mud catching the lamb in his open arms, while she, imitating the characters in the cartoons was trying to run, beating the air with her short legs without any firm support. She, taken aback was caught in the tender trap of the shepherd´s protective arms. He, bursting into a celebrating laughter and shouting rejoicing cries of victory alerted the rest of the family that wondered what could have happened. 

It goes without saying that he was covered from top to bottom with foul smelling mud but it did not seem to bother him a bit. He has completed the task entrusted to him by his older brother. Not letting go, he got up and grabbing the lamb´s legs he strapped her around his shoulders, talking to her tenderly and scolding her gently.
Finally, a glorious twilight marked the happy homecoming reunion of the little lamb with her mother. Needless to say the ewe was happy to see that her run away progeny had not forgotten how to suckle at the mother´s breast.

Dear reader, if you still don´t know the Lord Jesus, here is your personal invitation. Click on this post address that will show you how to be saved or born again.
http://thelightseed.blogspot.com.br/2011/04/how-can-i-be-born-again-spiritually.html

If you are looking around for your way back to God, if you feel despondent and at the end of your strength tired of struggling against insurmountable odds without success, listen to God´s voice calling you to give you life abundant and eternal. Confessing your sins and renouncing the things that caused you to stray away from your shepherd, simply ask him and he will respond because he has promised to do so.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV) 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
John 7:16-18 (NIV) 16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.


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Jean-Louis

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