Hello and good morning! Welcome to another 5MC, thanks for playing along and hanging out with me today. Great news, we have sofas! Many lessons were learned yesterday but the most important, the one that resonates, the one that stands the test of time…the greatest love that a husband can show his wife? Putting together Ikea furniture for 9 hours. Marge found these 2 big Ikea buffets that she loved, and I said, well, how bad can it really be to put them together? Wow, there were so many pieces laying all over the house, it looked like a carpentry shop exploded. But, we did finally get it done at 11 last night. It looks great, it works right, it’s straight & we had no leftover parts…great success!
A side note & life lesson on this project before we get into today’s 5MC. As I unboxed all the parts and hardware for these 2 buffets and laid them all out carefully, I was dismayed at all the different pieces. I had no idea what some even were, much less what they specifically did. I knew they all had a vital purpose, but it was unknown to me. I grabbed the directions and thumbed through. The directions had 46 different steps that covered over 50 pages…ouch. Is this War & Peace or an assembly manual? Dan’s normal thought process…wouldn’t it be easier to just kinda look at this stuff, wing it and somehow just figure it out? On this particular project though, I was forced to realize how deep I was in over my head. I realized my need and dependence on this direction book to make sure I ever had a hope of assembling these 500+ pieces into something that is useful, beautiful and of benefit to the owner. Let me say, this is a picture of what God’s Word is in our lives. On our own we have no hope of figuring out how all the pieces go together. On our own we have no hope of assembling something that will be of beauty, benefit and usability to the owner. We are built to serve and give glory to our maker and without His assembly instructions we can make a real mess of things. Believe me I know…so many times I have, using my own knowledge, built things wrong only to have to take them completely apart & rebuild them all over again the correct way using the instructions. What a life lesson and what a great segway into our 5MC.
This morning I met God in my ‘whisper spot’ and we started John chapter 10 and right out the gate is Jesus speaking of being the Good Shephard. As I read through God showed me 2 things that He has been mentioning to me a lot lately…His Voice and my relationship with Him. In 10:1 – 10:18, I counted at least 6 mentions of relationship and 5 direct mentions of His Voice & His call. I mentioned yesterday that I’m reading ‘The Whisper’ right now in preparation for a home group study next month and it deals with how to hear God’s voice. This passage talks specifically of this. Verse 10:3, “The sheep hear His voice, and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out.” Wow, I love this verse so much. It’s so clear here about How God relates to us and us to Him. It’s a relationship. How do you build a relationship with someone? You spend quality time, you talk, you get real.
The sheep hear His voice. How do you hear God’s voice? Well first, you need to be listening. Are you actively listening for God’s voice? Do you EXPECT to hear God’s voice? God is not unattainable or unavailable, He is ready to meet you and talk. He calls His own sheep by name. Double wow. He calls us by name. The God of all creation knows us by name. He created you and has the hairs of your head numbered. (Luke 12:7) God knows the struggles, hurts and pains that you are encountering today and he wants to talk to you about them. He desires a relationship with you. 10:14 says I am the good shepherd, I know my own and my own know me. He made you, He knows your name and desires a loving relationship with you.
This passage is so fundamental to the Christian walk. If you are a child of God, He desires to speak to you, for you to hear Him and to have a deep, close, personal relationship with Him. He is the Good Shephard and we are His sheep. We need his direction and his protection, and He will provide it. Left on our own, as sheep, we will we go astray. Isaiah 56:3 affirms this, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way.” We just need to admit that we are selfish, arrogant and prideful and we think that our way is better than God’s. (does Dan REALLY need the instruction manual?) I’ve made a decision in my life and accepted that I am a sheep. God is my shepherd. I desperately need to hear His voice so that He can lead me to bountiful pastures (10:9). Left on my own I will go astray and become separated from the flock where the wolves are ready to snatch and scatter (10:12)
Be still, be in his Word and hear His voice. He is your shepherd and wants to protect you, love you and lead you. Be the sheep and let Him.
Share the love today brothers and sisters, the world needs it!
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