“Shepherd the flock of God which
is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly,
not for dishonest gain, but eagerly; nor as being lords over those
entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter
5:2-3)
Rebecca Ondov recently wrote an article for the “Daily
Guideposts 2009,” pages 331-332, citing one of our Scripture
verses for today. In that article she wrote about the “rage
that (had) boiled inside” her. Here
is her description of why she became so angry:
“I reached into the stall and gently
ran my fingers over the bony horse’s hide. Three emaciated
gray-and-brown horses crowded the stall. They could only be fed small
amounts of low-energy food at a time because rich food would kill them.
Some of the herd had starved to death before the sheriff’s department
seized more than thirty others and brought them to the Hamilton,
Montana, fair-grounds. Local veterinarians and a number of us volunteers
were nursing them back to health.”
“As I scratched the horse’s
forehead, an inquisitive man wearing a tan cowboy hat peered into the
stall. ‘What kind of person would willingly starve them?’ I nodded my
head in agreement and was going to say some unkind words when my spirit
arrested me and a still, small voice said, ‘Look at the people around
you. Many of them are starving to death spiritually. Will you have
compassion and feed them?’”
“I blinked my eyes and looked at
the folks crowding the fairgrounds. I’d never thought about people being
spiritually emaciated. I could apply the same guidelines to their
spiritual hunger as we did to the horses: If someone was spiritually
starving, I could give him or her a teaspoon of God’s love.”
“That afternoon a business
contact mentioned that his son was soon to be stationed in Iraq. Even
though I wasn’t familiar with his beliefs, I asked if he would like me
to pray for his son. It was a morsel of God’s mighty Word.” The
author, Rebecca Ondov, concluded with a prayer: “Teach
me, Lord, how to make opportunities to feed Your sheep.”
The assumption made by most in the body of Christ is
that the church is a building, a place to attend for weekly or bi-weekly
events. These events, called “church services” are to be conducted, most
think, by a person called a “pastor,” and perhaps a few other people.
When today’s Scripture says “Shepherd the flock of
God…” it does not occur to most people that the verse not only
speaks to the man who conducts those church services. Those words in
Scripture are sent by the Holy Spirit of God to you, to me, and everyone
else. Each in our own way, we are to “shepherd the
flock” of God.
Through the touch of the Lord, Rebecca Ondov understood
that she has a part in all this, and each one of us is also intended to
understand. It’s fascinating that someone will have a gift, a call from
God, and others will form around them, building a church. He stands in
front of the congregation, with a gift of encouragement, or perhaps
teaching, or possibly evangelism, and a church forms around them, with
members trying to do what he does. In many cases, denominations have
sprung from such a person, with successive generations in that group
attempting to copy the ones who came before.
It's important to note that ALL in Christ are gifted for
service in the church. Peter’s letter, which contains today’s Scripture,
was to “the pilgrims of the Dispersion” in
cities everywhere. It was written to the “elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of
the Spirit…” (1 Peter 1:2-3). If you have placed your trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ, you do not need to merely copy other Christians
and behave as they do. Instead you are to look to the Lord and respond
to His unique call on your life.
Especially you are to love, “since
you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in
sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure
heart” (1 Peter 1:22). That love will take differing forms
depending on God’s call in YOUR life, since the gifts given are not
precisely the same for us all. We are being made into a “royal
priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people…” We may seem
to differ, and we do, but our thoughts and actions are to “proclaim
the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous
light” (1 Peter 2:9). The common denominator is the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus, expressed for the Lord and also for His
people.
Rebecca Ondov and others reasonably cared for those
horses in Montana who were starved and made to suffer. And like Rebecca,
we are to look up out of the suffering of this world and see that we are
being made to be the hands and feet of Jesus on this earth. God will
grant us insight, love and strength to do what must be done, each of us
performing our own little part in the great tapestry God is weaving
through individuals within humankind. We reasonably become concerned
about the injustices we see, and are to ACT as God enables us. “This
is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the
ignorance of foolish men” (1 Peter 2:15).
The whole human race is like those horses, starving
for the Son of God, “who Himself bore our sins in
His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for
righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
The last words of that verse in 1st Peter were a quote from Isaiah 53:4.
The whole world needs to know and receive Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
whose great act in saving us was predicted through Isaiah the Prophet,
hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
We are to “have fervent love for
one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins” (1 Peter
4:8), and blessedly this “love” is not
accomplished in our own strength. We do not simply squeeze up our faces
and determinedly make the decision, “I will love today!” though our
decisions are part of it. We are gifted by Almighty God, enabled to
serve one another with the love that comes through grace from Him alone.
“As each one has received a gift, minister it to
one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1
Peter 4:10). As Rebecca gently fed those horses tiny bits of food, we
are to help one another.
Father, like the veterinarians who taught others
how to feed and care for those horses, show us how to love, to gently
minister to one another with the gifts You have given each one. Thank
You. We praise Your Holy Name. In Jesus Name. Amen.
