Pastor’s Blog
No Lack: Psalm 23:1
God claims to be a shepherd. He designed sheep in his creation to be looked after by a human being. Nobody has said, "You know, God is kinda like a shepherd," hoping their analogy is pretty accurate. Rather, God himself has said, "What you see in a good shepherd doing his job, see that in me."
And it's a metaphor of course. We don't need green pastures or still waters or a comforting rod and staff. Rather, we need things like those, the providence and protection that a shepherd provides. God metaphorically leads us to green pastures and peaceful waters, metaphorically directs us through gloomy dark valleys inhabited by jackals and wolves.
Pavement: Revelation 21:21
Here’s a joke someone told me once: A Christian died and stood at the entrance of heaven. An angel said to him, "You didn't hear? You are allowed to go back and bring one thing from earth to have for eternity." The person was whisked back to his earthly home and, thinking long and hard, finally settled on exchanging his life savings for a block of gold. He put the gold in a suitcase and went back to heaven. The angel was curious, "What did you decide to bring?" The man opened his suitcase and showed the angel his precious and heavy block of gold, which had not been easy to earn. The angel got a quizzical look, stepped back, looked the man in the eye, and said, “You brought pavement?“