ShepherdLeader.com

Because real bloodshed is so uncommon in our society, I think that the sight or the mention of blood does not have many points of contact in our actual experience. We read of the suffering and shed blood of Christ and so often, at least for me, it does not make as deep an impact as I feel it should....

Everyday for the past nearly two weeks, I have driven past a building with the words "Rod of God Ministries" emblazoned across its front. I considered it a distastefully unfriendly name for a ministry, but upon reading this devotion I can see the potential beauty of that name (which is to ...

It's amazing to me that a dog will give up its life to protect sheep. It's not always appropriate to ascribe human traits to animals, but I can't help seeing a noble sense of duty and selflessness in that. What does a dog gain from sheep? Why would it give its life for animals who don't even appreci...

The line in this devotion that struck me most was, "A good shepherd has to be shrewd, but he also has to be there ." In the last 5 years I have become increasingly involved in ministries outside my own church, sometimes as a speaker but increasingly as a consultant. This has taken me away ...

What really jumped out at me during this devotion was the citation of David’s testimony in 1 Samuel 17:34-35. “When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck...

As I read this devotion, I was struck by how relentless the pitched battle is between shepherds and wolves. Every night vigilance matters because the wolves don't take any breaks. "On a good night the wolves lose the battle. When the dawn arrives, they give a distinct, haunting howl. They will ...

Whenever I ask the man in a couple how things are going, he usually forms his response by checking whether his partner happens to be angry with him or not. If she’s mad at him that day, things are not going well. If she isn’t made, things are going OK. That reveals such a shallow analysis. It’...

I remember a time in college when a bunch of my friends and I were hanging out and someone commented, "This whole college thing would be so great if it weren't for the classes." I laughed at that, but it reminds me that sometimes we get so turned around that the central things of life come...

As I read this devotion I found myself wondering how it is possible for a shepherd to know every sheep and goat in his flock by name and appearance. All sheep and goats look the same to me. Sure, I might note that one is dark and another light, one mottled and the other all one color. Those are broa...

When I hear the word "staff" I immediately think of it in the sense of the employees of the church. Our church currently has a staff of 9, and this devotion made me wonder if our staff plays a similar function as the shepherd's staff: "providing gentle assistance, direction, and encou...

It was not the words of this devotion that struck me first - it was that photograph. Looking at the picture of three sheep huddled on the ground next to one another, for all the world looking like they were smiling - if that is even possible for sheep - evoked such an immediate image in my mind of w...

As I read this devotion, I was greatly encouraged by a thought. For years we’ve observed that new believers represent a very small percentage of our numeric growth. The vast majority of people who have come to Harvest over the years grew up in the church. To grow up Korean-American is to grow up i...

Over the course of my years at Harvest, many parishioners have left the church. Because we are a young congregation made primarily of professionals, the group tends to be highly mobile and transient. Many have left because their work led them to different cities. But not all who left were called awa...

I’ll remember Gladys (not her real name) for as long as I live. When we were still a very young church plant, she was among the first to respond to an altar call and receive Jesus as her Savior at one of our Sunday services. It was a moment of great joy and celebration at our church, and with open...

The longer I pastor and the more I learn about sheep, the more I marvel at what an apt analogy that was for God to use to describe his people. My congregation members seem to have an inexhaustible list of ways to damage themselves, and I am not so different from them in this. I sometimes quip to our...