No, it’s not. If it were it wouldn’t say things like, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” and “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies” (verses 4-5).
Heaven doesn’t have any shadowy valleys. Our enemies aren’t up there hanging around God’s tables. The shadows and enemies are here on earth.
That’s the reason we need Jesus here with us. This world is a perilous place! We don’t have what it takes to navigate it alone. We need Him to lead us through all the dangers, crises and shortages the devil creates so that we can come through them all abundantly BLESSED.
“Will Jesus really do that for us?” you ask.
Absolutely! He assured us of it time and again. As He said in John 10: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep...and they shall hear my voice” (verses 10, 14-16).
Notice in those verses Jesus didn’t say He’d be our Shepherd someday in the sweet by and by. He said, “I am” your Shepherd. Present tense. Right here and right now.
He also said He’s a good Shepherd—a Shepherd who is so personally interested and involved with His flock that He “calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out” (verse 3). A Shepherd who “goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice” (verse 4).
JULY '14 : 5
