shepherds are losers and sheep are winners. Why? Because He created us humans to be dependents, not independents. Pride is only a problem of shepherds. And self-righteousness. And feeling superior to others. And irritation, impatience. And control-freakness. And fear. And discouragement. Why? In the right-side-up kingdom of this world, we shepherds think we know what’s […]
but only to clueless sheep. Jesus has nothing to offer other shepherds/independents, those who are wise in their own eyes, leaning on their own understanding. In fact, Jesus frequently thwarts the attempts of His sheep who are shepherd-wannabes, trying to make their lives work, trying to find happiness, on their own. Jesus created us to […]
is the curse of the human condition since Adam and Eve. Humans live in denial of how consumed we are with human accomplishment, somebodiness. Not just pre-believers, but we believers too. Materialism is only one facet of the problem. Believers of modest means are also eaten up with feeling good about self, having some performance […]
Excerpt pasted below, from the prayer letter of a missionary couple I’ve been praying for, who spend lots of time building intimate friendships with pre-believers in an edgy section of London. –WeakDave, trying to encourage believers to spend time with pre-believers To read past email updates from WeakDave, or free subscribe: gospelfriendships.icontact.com or search for GospelFriendships […]
trying to be an independent/CEO/orphan/shepherd, is extremely heavy, burdensome. A Curse, weighing down the sheep: we get stressed, exhausted, from having the weight of the world on our shoulders. Why do we sheep do this? We believe a lie, that we’ll be happier functioning as shepherds/somebodies, rather than lowly sheep. Common. Ordinary. Nobodies. Losers, by comparison. […]
and wooing me onto LIFE in Jesus. How? By lovingly thwarting my attempts at independence. It’s harrrd when my plans/agenda are thwarted, but it’s good harrrd, needful harrrd, because the biggest deal in town, is being retrained to live and work out of communion with Jesus. DependentDave. DumbSheepDave. Ahhh. Whatever it takes, Lord. I want […]
a lot of the time, because the world, flesh, devil want me feeling alone, that it’s up to me to make my life work, leaning on my own understanding, being wise in my own eyes, as I attempt to engineer happiness for myself and others, solve the problems before me, make decisions, captain my soul, […]
but it’s possible to try and follow His principles/teaching. There’s a vast, night-and-day difference between following Jesus, and trying to follow His principles. All earnest Christians I know, myself included, work hard at following His principles. And some nonChristians I know, really like some of His principles and try to follow them. But neither Christian […]