I Just Wanna Be a Sheep

Caution:  This is one of those posts that is written more for me than it is for you...for me to pen out what God has been placing on my heart.  I hope you get something from it besides my rambling words.  Something from Him for you.

Do you remember that song from children's church or church camp?  I know if you camped with me at Twin Pines you remember this song.  If not, click here and listen to it.  This blog may make much more sense if you hear the words first.  Yes, it is a children's song but there is so much Biblical truth in it that God has used while He's been working on my selfish little heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpYgYoNGM38

I envy you folks who can take a word or concept and make that your theme for the year.  I'd love to do that, to have that focus and intent.  I'd love to be able to see exactly what it is God wants from me so I can work on it proactively.  Instead, I'm in the other boat.  I make mistakes and he shows me, loudly and clearly, what I need to work on...and then I work on it...often times kicking and screaming like a brat.  (if you're one of those who can figure out a theme before you totally fail, please give me some pointers...I'd love to learn)

Late last year I read a verse that just smacked me right in the face.  It was one of those moments where I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God was pointing his Holy finger right at me.  Like almost-touching-my-nose-Heather-Dubrow-shake-it-up-and-down-finger-pointing.  The verses were part of a very famous part of scripture (The Love Chapter, 1 Corinthian 13..."love is patient, love is kind."  If you've ever been to a wedding you've heard these verses) but these particular verses I (and I think many of us) just skip over and head right to the verses we all know.  Here are the first three verses of the chapter:

"If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophesy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing."

- 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Sometime I like referring to the Amplified Bible because it breaks things down just a bit more for us who need it.  Here's this version of the same passage:

"If I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion such as is inspired by God’s love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody). Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God’s love in me), I gain nothing."

So where does this song come into play?  God used this song to show me exactly what He wants of me in the very clear way that I needed.

I need to be a sheep.

  A Christ follower.  What is a Christ follower, a Jesus lover, an obedient servant?  It's spelled out very clearly for us all throughout scripture but here was my focus verse:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all soul, and with all your mind.  This is the great and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  One these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

- Matthew 22: 37-40

I need NOT be a Pharisee, Saducee, or a goat.  I (I am pointing my finger at myself) and many of us "Christians" have lost track of this somewhere along the line.  Too many times, I  (we) have started caring too much about the law.  About what version of the Bible we read.  About what songs are appropriate for worship.  About what style of songs are appropriate for worship.  About where church gatherings should be held.  About what we should wear to church.  About who is allowed inside of the church.  We (Christians) have turned into the very people Christ warned his followers against.  

"Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. 'The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God's Law.  You won't go wrong in following their teachings on Moses.  But be careful about following them.  They talk a good line, but they don't live it.  They don't take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior...Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals...."

- Matthew 23: 1-4 (MSG)

"To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:  'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: 'God, I thkink you that I am not liek other people - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'  But the tax collector stood at a distance.  He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and siad, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'  I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.  For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

- Luke 18:9-14

"For no person will be justified (made righteous, acquitted, and judged acceptable) in His sight by observing the works prescribed by the Law.  For [the real function of] the Law is to make men recognize and be conscious of sin [not mere perception, but an acquaintance with sin which works toward repentance, faith, and holy character]...[All] are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy), through the redemption which is [provided] in Christ Jesus..."
- Romans 3:20,24 (AMP)

Did you catch all that?  That's some heavy, heavy stuff.  I really don't want to be a Pharisee.  But I think - I know - sometimes I act like one.  

So, what are you telling me here, God?  

Love more.  Love Better.  Love Bigger.  Just Love.

Seriously?  I do love well.  Just ask my kids.  Ask Jordan.  Ask Annie.  Ask Tina.  Ask any of my friends.  I know how to love well.

Love those who you have trouble loving.  Not those who are easy to love.

Sigh.

I know I need to love better.  To love more.  In some instances, just to actually love and not be mean or irritated or hurt or defensive.  Since that time various passages of scripture have really knocked me on the head and in the heart.  They were all related to love, loving better, and loving all (everyone, not only the lovable, not only the likable, not only the lovely, not only those who also loved me, not only those who were "good people"...everyone).

It's really easy to love when someone is lovable.  It's really easy to love when someone treats you well.  It's really easy to love when someone fits the mold of a "nice person."  It's really easy to love when someone loves you back (how you think you should be loved back).  

But what about all the other someones.  The someones who are hard to love.  Maybe even the someones who don't want to be loved.  Maybe the someones who don't deserve to be loved...wait, that's the Pharisee in me talking.  That's hard.  I wish I could tell you that I've fixed this problem of mine.  I wish I could tell you that I've turned the corner and I'm ready to work on something else (that has yet to be revealed to me).  I can't.  It's hard to love when it's hard to love.  My head knows what I need to do.  But this is a matter of the heart.  This isn't a matter of just being obedient and following a rule.  I'm much better at the "thou shalt not kill" sort of commandments.  This one is hard.

I do know this.  I can pray everyday for Christ to fill me with His love so I at least have a fighting chance of loving others the way I need to love them.  Because let's face it - if I'm loving them with my love, I'm still failing.

What do you think - Wanna be a sheep?  Baaaaaa