Category: The Shepherd Publications

MORE THAN A NEW MINDSET
God’s word declares “…Behold, I make all things new.” Revelation 21:5. It’s a New Year and everyone craves for something new. In the nature of God also, He delights in doing new things, thus, He declared “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing;…” Isaiah 43:18-19. The mind is powerful. If we expect things to turn around in the New Year as God has promised it must begin with a completely new mindset. We must align our mind with God’s promises and forget the old.

THE BEST RESOLUTION
The usual practice for many in the New Year is making of resolutions. A New Year resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western World but also found in the Eastern World, in which a person resolves to continue good practices, change an undesired trait or behavior, accomplish a personal goal, or otherwise improve their life at the start of a new year. Based on research, the most popular New Year resolutions are about self-improvement (living healthier 23%, getting happy 21%, losing weight 20%, exercising 7%, stop smoking 5%, reduce drinking 2%).
Based on the experiences of many, resolutions are easy to make but hard to keep. That is why people who make resolutions fall far short of their self-expectations.

MORE THAN GOLD, FRANKINCENCE AND MYRRH
A chaplain was ministering to a soldier in the hospital and said, “You have lost an arm in the great cause.” The soldier replied, “I didn’t lose it—I gave it.” That exactly, is what Jesus did. He did not lose His life either. He willingly gave it for our redemption.
It’s a season of Christmas, a popular time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Whether this is correct or not, many agree that Jesus was actually born around this time in history. He lived on earth for thirty three and half years. Just as we rejoice at His birth today, His birth brought great rejoicing at that time too. At the time of His birth in Bethlehem of Judea, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem to worship and present Him with gifts.

THANKING GOD ON PURPOSE
A cartoon pictured a little boy kneeling in prayer. Obviously disgruntled with the results of his prayers, he was saying, “Aunt Harriet hasn’t gotten married, Uncle Hubert hasn’t any work, and Daddy’s hair is still falling out… I’m getting tired of praying for this family without getting any results.” In another story, a little boy was asked to pray for dinner. Before he bowed his head to pray, he looked at the dish. Then, closing his eyes he prayed, “Lord, I don’t like the looks of it, but I’ll thank you and eat it anyway.”
Many do not see reasons to thank God when it appears there is nothing to thank Him for.

TIME TO TARRY
It was David H. Bickersteth that wrote: “Come ye yourselves apart and rest awhile. Come ye aside from all the world holds dear, for converse which the world has never known, alone with me and with my Father here, with me and with my Father not alone. Come, tell me all that ye have said and done, your victories and your failures, hopes and fears; I know how hardly souls are wooed and won; My choicest laurels are bedewed with tears. Then fresh from converse with your Lord, return and work till daylight softens into even; the brief hours are not lost in which you learn more of your Master, and his rest in heaven.”
Songwriter David Bickersteth captured vividly the charge of Jesus to His disciples while on earth. “And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.” Mark 6:31. The disciples alongside Jesus Himself have been busy so much that they had little or no time for

SACRIFICING FOR MISSION
David Livingstone was a Scottish physician (Medical Doctor), a pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of the late 19th-century Victorian era. He said, “Send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. Sever any ties but the tie that binds me to Your service and to Your heart.” He spent thirty-three years in the heart of Africa. He endured much sufferings as he labored to spread the Gospel and to open up the continent to other missionaries.
Livingstone once remarked: “People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay?…

EXIT!
I realize sometimes that I was a member of a particular group on Facebook but cannot remember how and when I found myself there. All I noticed was that I get updates and posts from that group almost on a regular basis. I do not seem to be convenient reading many of those posts, but I decided to remain there just to watch and make some personal observations. The group has to do with dating and love. One will wonder seeing those posts and comments that reveal the corrupt and immoral state of the undegenerated mind.

OVERCOMING GUILT
Andrew was seven when, one winter morning he left the house to catch the school bus without his coat. His mother called after him, but he ignored her. Finally, his father began calling, but Andrew could see the school bus coming up the road and didn’t want to miss it. He turned and watched from the school bus stop as his father raced toward him with Andrew’s coat in his hands. Moments later, Andrew’s dad crossed an icy patch on the sidewalk; his feet flew out from underneath him, and he hit the ground hard, his head making a loud cracking noise as it hit the sidewalk.

SPIRITUAL DISTRUPTION
One of the most gifted speakers in church history was John Chrysostom. His denunciation of the lavish extravagance of the rich, ruling class, and his condemnation of human excesses infuriated many, including Empress Eudoxia who arranged for him to be exiled. When he was told of his fate, Chrysostom responded: “What can I fear? Will it be death? But you know that Christ is my life, and that I shall gain by death. Will it be exile? But the earth and all its fullness is the Lord’s. Will it be the loss of wealth? But we brought nothing into the world, and can carry nothing out. Poverty? I do not fear. Riches? I do not sigh for. Death? I do not shrink from.”