Happy Easter Friends,

Today is good Friday.....and it is indeed very good.  Its incredible to think that Jesus could have been so selfless and loving to go through all that He did all those years ago.  I hope today you are blessed, happy and secure in Him.  Did you get or have any Easter chocolate to celebrate?  I got my kids some eggs etc......they love it of course, but they're still a bit young to really understand what Easter is about.  But as the years proceed, I will explain it to them in more detail.

On Tuesday, I bought a sheep from the local cattle auctions.  I had been wanting one for a while to help me as a lawnmower around my place and also as a kind of pet for the kids.  Anyway, it was great to finally pick one up, and as you can imagine, the kids are delighted.  They named it "Woolley" after a sheep in a christian story book I often read to them.    It was quite a struggle getting the collar on it at the saleyards, but once I had tackled it properly, it stopped resisting and let me collar and tie it for the trip home.  It was quite an experience.

Anyway, the whole sheep experience has got me thinking about us as God's sheep.  The Bible does describe us in this way.  Even the old testament refers to this in Psalm 23 where it says that "The Lord is my Shepherd" etc.  So obviously there are a lot of things about sheep which we can relate to in our spiritual walks with Jesus.

Sheep can often be quite stupid or daft.  If you want them to go in one direction, you have to push them in the other because they always resist and do the opposite of what you want. (it certainly seems like that anyway)  And as believers, I have noticed how often we tend to oppose God's plans and do what we want instead.  It is very sad because we only hurt ourselves when we do this.

Sheep often follow each other without thinking about it and can often lead each other astray.  A shepherd will often have one sheep who is a "friend" or very trustworthy sheep and this sheep is sometimes called a bellwether.  This bellwether wears a bell and this sheep can be trusted to follow the Shepherd.........and then all the other sheep will often follow this sheep.  So by proxy, the shepherd is able to lead all the sheep to the places he wants.

God is looking for people who will be bellwethers......people like you.  He wants to find trustworthy individuals who will be His close friend and obey and follow him.  When other sheep see a person like this, it is then easier to follow Jesus the chief Shepherd because they have an example to follow.  So this Easter time as we consider all that Jesus has done for us.................would you consider doing something for Him?  Would you consider being His bellwether?  Jesus would love to have you as his close and trusted friend and to lead you to places of good pasture for your benefit and the benefit of many others

Great blessings again

Cheers

David