God's Grace Ministries

Chillin’ Out

Psalm 23:2

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures …

The Lord refers to His people as sheep. Sheep are a different kind of creature than any other animal on earth. Other animals can be trained and trained well, but not sheep. You can train dogs or cats to jump through hoops and leap; you can train snakes; you can train elephants and lions; but it is difficult to train a sheep. As a matter of fact, you can take your dog or cat on a trip and let him out a hundred miles away; if you have stopped a few times and let him out, he can make his way home. But you can get a sheep and he will wander in the back yard and won’t have enough sense to come back to the front. The sheep is a dumb creature. And yet the Bible calls us sheep. Ye are my people, the sheep of my pasture.
God makes us, as sheep, to lie down. A sheep will not lie down if it is frightened. Fear is a terrible emotion. Fear keeps us from resting. Many of us have a lot of fear in the back of our minds. Old folk are afraid that time is running out; young people are afraid that too much is confronting them while they are young without having life experience to handle those things. Some people won’t go to the doctor for fear he will detect something and they don’t want to know about it. Sick folk are afraid there is not a medicine to heal them of their disease. Married folk are afraid they may find out their spouse is unfaithful. Single people are afraid they may not get a spouse. Parents are afraid the child might mess up. Children are afraid that parents may not understand them when they do mess up.
So fear is in the minds of a whole lot of people, but the Lord wants you to know that he knows how to handle your fears. The green pastures spoken of here refer to safe areas with little huts for the shepherds and pens and food for the sheep. God takes your fears away and makes you cozy and comfortable in a beautiful green pasture.

Bro Larry’s Fireside Chat
IS YOUR MIND RIGHT?
Text: Phil 2:5
5)Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

The word for followers in the Greek language is where the English word mimic is derived from. It means to imitate, or to act like. To become an actor. In some of those Oscar Winning presentations and the actors receive an award for their performance in a lot of ways they become the very person they are portraying. They do an intense study of that person. They begin to walk and talk like that person. They imitate the mannerisms of that person. They began to move like and become so much like that person that if we didn’t know any better you would begin to identify the actor as that person. To achieve that level of success it takes a very high level of commitment. Saints should be award winning actors but we should not be putting on an act. We should do an intense study of Jesus so that we become so much like Him that there is no mistaking our identity. We should say what He said, behave like He would, live like He lived. I know that this is a lofty goal but it should be ours. I know you don’t feel like being like Jesus every day. There are morning you wake up you don’t feel like smiling or talking. You don’t have anything good to say. You dread facing the activities of your day and the Word of God tells us too “put on Christ.” The issue for us is we try to feel our way through life. As difficult as it may be sometimes we still have our God given ability to chose. You can chose to be nice or smile. You can chose to say something nice or speak well of someone. Putting on Christ is not a feeling but a mindset. Often times we focus on the deity of Christ that we lose sight of His humanity. I’m sure in His humanity there were good days and bad days but the Will Of The Father took precedence. We have to determine to act differently than we feel.
Putting on Christ is a daily mindset—a daily, hour-by-hour determination. So wake up and declare that you have the mind of Christ! God bless you all!!!