Yesterday, driving through Wyoming, I saw men on horseback herding sheep. This led me to reflect on our Good Shepherd. We, like sheep, tend to wander. We walk blindly into danger. But our Shepherd is there to bring us back each time, to take us out of danger. His sheep know His voice and follow Him. The true Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
My God instructed me to love even my enemies. Through His example of perfect love, sacrificing even His own life to save mine, I am given the capability to follow that instruction. What would have been impossible before I became a follower of Jesus, now becomes possible. He gave me an example to follow and changed my heart, so that I would want to follow his example.
There is this mistaken impression out there that the God of the Old Testament is greatly different than the Jesus of the New Testament. I would like to show how they are the same.
The Loving God
Jesus is known for instructing people to love one another. He tells his Hebrew followers that they should not only love their neighbors, but also their enemies.
Gender Points to God
(And maybe that is why Satan seeks to destroy it.)
If we are to believe the theory of evolution, we must accept a fantastic notion: apes evolved into mankind. Let us consider a male ape. Some genetic mutation occurs which somehow makes a beneficial change to his genetic code, making him into a human. Now in order for this change to be propagated to the next generation, THE SAME mutation must happen in the female, because as we know, chimps and humans cannot interbreed.
I think the God who created us knows the best way for us to live. What would happen if the world was following God? When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, He said to love God. Next after that, He said to love one another. All of God's commandments can be boiled down to those. (Note: the following isn't an exhaustive list of God's instructions to us, but I tried to pick the major ones. I'm sure I missed a lot of good stuff.)
Why did God create mankind? Do we have a purpose in life? The prophet Isaiah, speaking for God, said this:
Isaiah 43:18
“Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder things of the past.
19 “Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert.
