Are we sheep or goats?

Matthew 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

In this prophecy, the Lord tells us that there will be a judgement. He tells us that there will be two types of people at that judgement. Sheep and Goats. The sheep make it to enjoy everlasting joy with their Lord. The Goats are doomed to everlasting punishment. The difference between the two? One set obeyed their Lord's commands and reached out to others. They were service oriented. The other set cared only about themselves and didn't reach out to others. They were ME oriented. 

Yes, in order to become a sheep in the first place we must be born again (John 3:3-8, Acts 2:38) for we are all born as goats. But, are all of us that claim to be sheep really sheep? Or are some of us goats? 

Matthew 13: 24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Apparently, not all of us who say "Lord, Lord" will enter in. (Matthew 7:21) So other than being born again, what are some of the differences between sheep and goats that might help us to see what we are and change (with God's help) if necessary? 

First of all, both sheep and goats are pretty dumb animals. However, sheep know their dumb and need a shepherd. Goats resist authority and try to go it their own way.

Secondly, sheep love their shepherd and follow wherever he leads them. Goats are in it for themselves and only willingly obey their owners when it is for their own benefit (in their eyes). 

Sheep know their masters voice and will only listen to him. Goats are subject to many voices for they follow whatever voice suits what they want to do. 

Sheep are humble and gentle. Goats are always looking for a fight to prove who's right- meaning trying to show that they are right and others are wrong.

Sheep trust their shepherd to provide for them no matter what. Goats only trust themselves and do their best to show how "self-made" they are. 

Sheep usually are content to stay in the pasture their shepherd has provided for them. Goats are always looking for greener pastures. In their eyes, the grass on the other side always looks better than what they already have- until they get there. 

Sheep's wool is good to make others warm and comfortable. Goats have no wool and only a few folks can stomach goat's milk. 

Sheep study their shepherd and recognize him afar off. Goats study only what's right in front of them and usually ignore their master. 

Sheep are accepting of new members of the flock- even helpful. Goats usually try to show a new member of the flock just how high they are and how low the new member is. It's about control.

So, church, let's examine ourselves. Are we sheep? Or are we goats?

I'm declaring my independence day!

2 Timothy 3:12
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.


Ephesians 4:14
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;


1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

I'm tired of it. I'm sick and tired of it. This life is very hard-especially living for God. Life is hard enough, but it seems that when a person decides to give their all for Jesus, the naysayers come out of the woodwork.

Living for Jesus is good and honorable. It is holy and righteous in the eyes of God. It all sounds fantastic to the young Christian. When the preacher/teacher begins to discuss living for God, the young child of God gets an almost euphoric feeling. They see things as rose colored and wonderful.

Then, when they begin- through prayer and effort- to implement the changes in their life that the scriptures declare they need to, it's "Katy bar the door" from their "friends" and "loved ones." Then comes the battles.
They begin to hear things like:

                              "Do you think you're better than us?"
                              "That's not how I raised you to live."
                              "It's not necessary to live that way."
                              "Don't you think you're taking this Jesus stuff a bit too far?"
                              "Well, Jesus loves us all and we don't all have to live that way."
                           
My personal favorite is when you've never said a word to the person about how they live. All you've done is change how you live. Then, they get mad at you? Ever heard this one? "How dare you tell me that I'm living wrong!" The truth is that your lifestyle is stepping on their toes without you ever speaking a word.

I've been living for God for nearly 22 years, now. I've made many mistakes in that time. I've stumbled and fallen along the way. I've hurt some folks along the way- unintentionally.

I've worried and lost sleep sometimes over the opinions of people that I love and friends that I care about. I've suffered from that very human disease- trying to win people's approval. Let me tell you that this has added more than a few gray hairs to my head.

Folks will share a scripture that they think contradicts what God has shown me, and I go through a time of worry. Am I wrong? Did I mishear God? I begin to pray and search it out. Sometimes, I discover that I was wrong and my understanding changes. Other times, I discover that the person who gave me the scripture was wrong in their understanding. I then gently try to explain the correct understanding- usually to an increasingly angry person.

This causes more stress to me. If the word of God tells us how to live. If the word tells us something different than how we've been living, don't get mad at the messenger. We need to change our lifestyles to adapt to the word of God. Not the other way around.

I'm tired of the finger pointing. I'm tired of the nay-saying. I'm tired of worrying about the opinions of others who have no heaven or hell to send me to (no matter how much they may personally wish me to go to either place).

Therefore, today- as we celebrate the July 4th holiday- I'm declaring my own independence.

No more will I concern myself with the opinions of others. No longer will I worry about the finger pointers and Pentecostal fruit inspector's alike. Let the chips fall where they may. As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord in word and deed. If folks don't like how we live, that's their prerogative. If folks don't like the way we look- don't look. Don't like what we say? Don't listen. Have issues with what I write? Don't read it.

Hard times will come. But, we will stand- stedfast and unmoveable. Nay-sayers will come and go, but we will stand for Jesus. It's not that I don't care about you, it's that I care about Jesus MORE than I care about you. I'm not trying to run anybody off, but if I have to choose between Jesus and you, I choose Jesus- every time.

It's a free country and you have a right to move on down the road if you don't like my house (or writing, or Facebook page). I'm done worrying about you. I'm free. Why? Because "he whom the son hath set free is free indeed."

Independance Day?

I realize what this day means. I truly realize the freedoms and responsibilities we have been blessed with as Americans. However, I must also admit that this day just doesn't seem the same for me as in past years. I won't bore you with a long rant, but I can tell you some of the reasons why.

It's scary to me that the average younger American has no real idea what this day is really about beyond fireworks, parties, and frivolity. Many have no idea that the declaration of Independence was signed on this day in 1776, much less what it says. Our dumbed down institutions of enforced indoctrination that we call public schools, do not teach them. Instead they're told how unfair and horrible our founding fathers (and documents) were. If the schools really taught what the Constitution says, our Government would cease to be able to do many of the things it does.

I don't feel like celebrating because I see our foundational freedoms being stolen and emasculated. Instead of freedom of speech, the politically correct have changed perverted this basic right into freedom from speech. But not all speech, mind you. A movie or TV show can use words that would blush a sailor, but we can't say JESUS in public (unless we're using his name as a curse word).

It used to be that the undergirding principle of personal rights was that "My rights stop where your rights start." Now, it's become, "Your rights stop0 where I believe my rights should take me. We used to be a country of fellow servants, now it's me first and we're reaping the benefits of it! A wise man once said, "If the people ever figure out that they can vote themselves the candy that they want for themselves, it will be the end of our republic." My friends we are almost there!

The bottom line is this: We took the children from our homes to "better educate them" and we took the mothers from the homes to "better our standards of living". Then we took God out of schools so as not to "offend" the few who don't believe in him. Now we've raised a generation of people who don't believe in God or absolutes. The results? Families are disintegrating; drug use, sexual promiscuity and deviance (can you say LGBT's?), and crime have skyrocketed; and our Government is heading speedily towards all out government control of everyone and everything! Our common sense and moral compasses have all but vanished!

The only hope that any of us have is a return to the foundational documents of our republic, the Bible that these documents were based upon, and, most importantly, the God of the Bible and all the universe- Jesus!

May we all get right with him (John 3:3-5, Acts 2:38) before it's too late!