One day I was reading a popular text from the book of Psalm. As I read, “The LORD is my shepherd,” I stopped there. The passages that follow are not strange to me; I have read them hundreds of times. What follows is all dependent on the statement I had just read. But did I really follow the LORD as a shepherd? The reality is, there were many things in my life that I followed at different times.

The first thing that I followed was my self. I am not talking about the life before confessing Jesus as my Lord and King; I am talking about a time I was in the pulpit teaching others about Christ. All week long I would study and prepare a message with nice little cute quotes. I loved the “Amen brother” and other comments from the congregation, and then the back patting and “Good word” during the after service procession. That brings me to the next thing I followed, ministry. Not a servitude ministry, but an ego building “Look what I know about God,” time of knowledge worship. Along with the ministry worship was the worshipping of signs and wonders. These signs shall surely follow you, didn’t register as I followed after signs.

God had called me and I was answering with an example of ministry that did not come from following the LORD. The LORD was not my shepherd. A shepherd lives in the field with the sheep. A shepherd knows when the sheep are cold or hot, hungry or thirsty – a shepherd knows the needs of the sheep because a shepherd suffers all the things the sheep suffer. That is why the next line of the Psalm can read, “I shall not want.” All the rest of the Psalm goes into more detail about the statement, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Jesus was with me in that way (never leaving or forsaking), but I was following the gifts and not the giver.

This is real and not some “Look at me” gospel. When my eyes went back to Jesus, God took me to the cross, and in the tomb, and out the other side to the resurrected Son of God. When you follow the shepherd, you are with the sheep led to the death and resurrection of the shepherd. You become part of the suffering and death and part of the raising to Glory. You don’t have to seek glory when you live in the Glory of the Son of God. You do not have to manufacture feelings of the presence of God, when you dwell in heavenly places with the Son at the right hand of the Almighty Father. You no longer follow signs when you follow the One the signs point to. And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

© 2011, Tim D. Coulter Sr.