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by Bill Lawrence, President of Leader Formation International
 

Think of it.

YAHWEH is MY Shepherd.

The Creator of the universe, the Covenant maker, the Cross bearer is MY Shepherd.

How can it be that the One who made multiple universes, who created Man, who brought nations into being, who established major covenants, who lay in a manger, who bore the cross, who arose from the dead, is MY Shepherd? He cared for me when no one else cared for me. I, had neither mother nor father until I was five years old, had no money, and possessed little or nothing for many years of my life. I had no possessions, those who cared for me only had what we needed from week to week, yet He guided me through green meadows and along still waters and even through the valley of the shadow of death in and out again into wonderful meadows and canyons into blessed places of life. That is still true even now during these many years. How can that be? How can the sovereign YAHWEH be MY Shepherd? And YOUR Shepherd too. No one is greater than OUR Shepherd.

Yet He is.

He is radically committed to me and is guiding me through time into eternity. And He does the same for you if you have put your faith in Him. Do you know that? Do you live with that reality in your heart? Are you seeking His guidance? Are you trusting Him for eternal life? Are you calling for His wisdom through His word and from others who seek Him out?  Do you count on Him as YOUR Shepherd? Do you say,

YAHWEH is MY Shepherd?

Is this true of you today?

I AM Who I AM

by Bill Lawrence, President Leader Formation International

Psalm 23:1; Ex 3:14

YAHWEH is His name.

I AM is from eternity to eternity. He has no beginning and no end. He simply is I AM.

No one has formed Him. He has neither mother nor father. He created all mothers and fathers. They didn’t create Him. No one created Him. As He said to Moses, I am who I am. I am I AM.

He is the Maker of all His covenants. That is how we know Him. This is how we depend on Him. He never changes. He is holy. Righteous.  Pure. Without evil. What He says He will do. He never breaks a promise. He never fails a covenant. He keeps His word. I AM is ours. He is always with us. At times He may wait until the last minute, even the last moment, even the last mili-second, but He will do what He says He will do without holding back or turning aside or failing to keep His word. Count on Him  even when you can’t see what I AM is doing. He will deliver. He is always acting for your benefit. Trust Him always.

The biggest problem you have with Him is that you want Him to do things He never said He would do. You become ANGRY when you expect Him to do what He never planned to do or said He would do. You demand that He keep promises He never made and you become furious when you claim He failed you when I AM is doing everything He promised He would do for you and never does anything He did not promise to do. Learn to know what His promises are, not what your desires are. There are major differences between His promises and your demands. It’s interesting that your demands often mean more to you than His promises. Why is that?

Trust Him! Yahweh—I AM—is His name. I AM is who He says He is. He does what He says He will do. ALWAYS!

By Bill Lawrence, President of Leader Formation International

There’s only one LORD who is my Shepherd today and every day. That is a decision I have made and a decision I believe you must make the same decision today.

There is no other LORD. There’s no other lord like THE LORD. There may be many Lords in many places, but only one LORD in time and eternity!

You cannot look at any other LORD that you can point out as my Shepherd. It’s not like there’s some other lord that’s like this LORD. No other lord matches Him. There are other lords who claim to be equal to Him or that you make lord over you, but you cannot point to another lord and say he or she is my LORD and speak the truth. That is a false appointment. When we do that we am creating another LORD, an idol, a false leader who meets false needs and makes us successful only to lead us into eternal emptiness. That lord will fail, and your—our—commitment will fail. There is only one who can be THE LORD, and we must turn to Him and Him alone.

When Jesus called Peter Satan He wasn’t merely saying words. He was making a serious statement. He was saying that Peter was blinded by Satan and missing our LORD’s true identity. If Peter could be blinded by Satan in a moment of darkness, couldn’t we or some we serve?

So how are you doing with this false claim if you have done this? Are you giving yourself to some false LORD? Why are you doing this? Does this false LORD claim to give you some form of success, some wealth, some position of power? When that happens, and that does happen, sooner or later you will have emptiness and futility and failure and shame. Do you recognize this and turn from it to THE true LORD? Or hide it and act is if it’s not there? Know what you have done before it’s too late.

What about today? Who is your LORD today?

Is THE LORD your LORD today?

Bill Lawrence, President of Leader Formation International

Sometimes the common can become too common. Certainly, this could be true of Psalm 23, one of the best-known passages of God’s word among us. Unless you consciously live with this psalm as your wisdom, your resource, your insight, and your daily desperate dependence on the LORD, it could become so common that it will lose its vibrancy. The LORD is the Covenant making, Covenant keeping LORD, the One who will meet every need in your life as you trust Him daily in radical and desperate ways. You must make this psalm alive in your life because you will have personal realities you never faced before, relationships you never experienced before, business deals you never made before, shortcomings you never struggled with before, hopes you never considered before, growths you never wrestled with before, even failure you never confronted before.

Life will be different, ups and downs, opportunities that challenge you which are new and you won’t know how to respond to them. But your Shepherd will guide you through it all. If you walk with Him you will be in green pastures beside still waters, yes, yes, and the shadow of death will cover you at times, but your cup will overflow before the full tables of bounty before your enemies, but always in the presence of YAHWEH. He never leaves you. He is only gone from you if you leave Him. Be certain to keep this psalm in your heart in fresh ways constantly.

This is your daily way of life if you make Psalm 23 in the heart of your life.

by Bill Lawrence, President Leader Formation International

It’s still early in 2023, the start of a new year with the left-overs of old commitments, old obligations, old problems, old factors from 2022 and earlier years. There’s a new and fresh walk with the Shepherd that has challenges and calls and opportunities and options before all of us. The great question we must answer is what will we do to serve as His shepherds when we lead His flock?

Do we have plans for these realities? Do we have solutions for past pains? Do we have plans for vital opportunities? Do we have supporters for our challenges? Do we have resources for all of these demands? How do we face all that is before us? Are we just going to walk away from the painful struggles before us—only to realize that they are not going to walk away from us? What will we do with the issues we don’t want to face but won’t go away? Have we even thought about them? Do we have goals for them? Or did we suddenly discover we have one problem—one big one—we weren’t even aware of until we received an unexpected call at the start of the year. How unfair can life be? Bad news during a fresh time. Give me a break! But life doesn’t give us breaks. Life only gives us reality.

Life is unfair. That’s why we must think of Psalm 23, a psalm that David wrote as a description of his experience. His life certainly was unfair with a father and brothers who did not care for him or King Saul who turned on him so he had to run for his life, and when he was king he faced war after war as well as a son, Absalom, who turned on him. He lived in constant turmoil and knew little peace, but he knew YAHWEH, his Shepherd. Think of how beautifully he described his walk with the Lord in Psalm 23 and see how this relates to your life. Do you realize how the Shepherd works in your life when you walk with Him? He spoke of green meadows and still waters and how his needs were constantly met, of fearing no evil because he always had his Shepherd with him, so death was never more than a shadow for him. His enemies never overcame him because his Shepherd had a celebration banquet in the very presence of his enemies, so they could never touch him. And he had the eternal reality of living in his Shepherd’s house forever. What could be greater? And that is true for us too.

Come with me and live this psalm and different passages also in 2023 with many leaders in God’s word as we learn how the Shepherd guides His flock in the reality of time into the certainty of eternity.

Let’s walk together through green pastures, beside still waters, in the shadow of the valley of death, before the table of our enemies, into the house to His very eternal life.

                        YAHWEH is MY Shepherd . . . I will dwell in the house of YAHWEH forever.