“Where the Brave Shepherd Has Gone Before” by Phil Russell

“Where the Brave Shepherd Has Gone Before” by Phil Russell

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Piety

“Almighty ever-living God, lead us to share in the joys of heaven, so that the humble flock may reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. (Collect Prayer)

Study

Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.” John 10:27-28

 “Vision of a great multitude.” Revelation 7:9

Action

For the Lord has commanded us, “I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth.” Acts 13

“We are his people, the sheep of his flock.” Psalm 100

Jesus said that his sheep know the voice of the Shepherd; they know him. 

Know Him.  Know Him....... Trust Him, Wait for Him.

Depend on Him willing to (________________________) for the Shepherd.

How do you fill in that blank?

Just one Sheep. Just one “soul” was I.

My son, Michael had died; I was in the darkest moment of my life. I was suffering from a paralysis of Grief.  Tears like rivers flowing. It was Lent 2017, just a week or so after he died. 

I was reading John 11.  Lazarus death had occurred, Jesus just arrived and “Jesus wept.”

I read it and the tears once again began to flow.  I lay there on my bed reading the passage and I put down my Bible. I said (prayed?) to the Lord, “Lord, I have nothing left but tears!”

In that very moment; the voice of the Shepherd, gently said within my soul, “I’ll take them give them to Me.”  I did. Now not sure if it was just those tears of my Grief; or was I weeping because I had just heard the Voice of Love (the Shepherd) speaking to me?

I know it was both.  But…Who was I, that my Lord should come so close and so intimately to me? I understood in that “prayer” all that He spoke of as Shepherd. 

I had read, years ago, an account of how a Shepherd would find a Sheep on its own back, in distress, not being able to turn itself upright.  Because of the way the Sheep’s Body was configured, they were “paralyzed” from being able to turn over again.   The Shepherd would wrap both of his arms around the sheep, one below under the back and one around its stomach.  Gently rocking the sheep back to stable footing.  The writer of this piece, a Shepherd himself, went onto say that when the sheep was standing uprightly the Shepherd, held steady to the Sheep; waiting both for normal breathing and sure-footedness to return to the Sheep.

Baaa!

“Crying, Salvation to our God!” Revelation

“All, we like Sheep have gone astray.” Isaiah 53:6

“No one can take them out of my hand.” John 10:28

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for your love as...... Good Shepherd!

In the “World” we’ve heard the question asked: “Who’s your Daddy?”

So, Jesus, our Shepherd has said to us: “If you (to Philip) have seen me, you have seen the Father also.” John 14

And lest we forget the Words of last Sunday’s Gospel.

“Feed my Sheep.”

“Feed my Lambs.”

“Feed my Sheep.”

So, we GO! Onward…Ultreya!