a glimpse of heaven's love

Psalm 23:4c “…Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”                     In studying the Bible, you will find many analogies; but one very popular one is the analogy of the sheep and their Shepherd.   If you have had the chance to read some of my previous postings, you have found how comforting this truly is.   And this phrase—Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me—is equally as comforting. Think for a minute of a shepherd.   There are many jobs a shepherd must do, but primarily their job is to protect and to guide their sheep.   Sheep, unfortunately, can be very dumb and willful…not a very complimentary thing to say about us, as sheep!   The shepherd must be very protective, as well as being very caring, compassionate and longsuffering.   First of all, let’s define the rod and the staff .   The rod can be likened to a club.   It is the shepherd’s primary tool for protecting, as w...

Psalm 23:3b "...He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." In just the verse previous it says, "He leadeth me beside the still waters."  Well, again, God is leading us...but in this case He leads us in the paths of righteousness.  What does that mean?  Well, first of all, I believe I've heard it said on more than one occasion, "A good definition for 'righteousness' is Right with God-ness ."  In other words, righteousness is a right standing before God . We cannot have a right standing before God without having confessed to God that we are a sinner, and in need of Christ's  finished work on the cross.  That is really a whole new subject...but it is, in fact, where it all begins.  If you do not know Christ as your personal Saviour, please reference "salvation" in my postings.  There are many, many references that will be a help to you.  This posting is primarily for Christians, and the remind...