BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Sheep won’t follow a mean shepherd. They can’t be driven like a bunch of cattle. They have to be led by someone they’re willing to follow—and, praise God!—that’s the kind of Shepherd we have. He’ll never try to drive us. He’ll never force us to do anything. He’s very kind and gentle. He’s full of love, mercy and grace. He’s constantly calling out to us and saying, “Come on, Kenneth, come on, Susie, come on, precious ones, the green pastures are over here. Follow Me and I’ll lead you into them.” Sadly, however, much of the time Jesus’ sheep are too busy bleating about their troubles to hear Him. Every once in a while they might pay enough attention to think, Is someone calling me? But then they go right back to saying, “Baa! Baa! I’m so thirsty! I’m so hungry!” I know because I did it myself. I wasted years of my life either ignoring, or flat out running away from, my Good Shepherd. As a result, I made life much harder than it needed to be. But Jesus, in His great love and mercy, never gave up on me. He kept on speaking day after day. He kept on leading and encouraging me to follow until I finally committed my life to Him and said the words that changed everything: “Yes, LORD. I hear You and from this time forward I will obey Your voice. Whatever You say, I will do. I am Yours, Sir, to command.” Don’t Try to Figure It Out “Brother Copeland, I think it’s great that you made such a quality commitment to The LORD. But to be honest, I’m afraid to do that. There’s no telling what He might ask of me. He might send me someplace like China or Africa, and I don’t want to go there. Even if I did, I don’t know how I’d manage to do it.” That’s the beauty of having The LORD as your Shepherd. You don’t have to worry about those things. If He wants you to go to China, He’ll lead you there by putting within you a desire to go. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). He’ll also supply you with all the power, wisdom and resources you need to make the trip. (See Matthew 6:33.) You don’t have to figure out how everything is going to come together. Figuring things out is not your job. Your job is just to listen to Him and obey, trusting Him to go ahead of you and prepare the way. That’s what the Israelites should have done when God first tried to lead them into the Promised Land. They should have just listened to Him and trusted Him to take care of them. But, as you probably know from reading the story, they didn’t. They decided instead to listen to the doubters who said: “[This]...is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:32-33). When the Israelites heard those words, they panicked. They couldn’t figure how grasshoppers could defeat giants. So instead of going into the land and enjoying the green pastures and still waters God had prepared for them there, they trudged around in the wilderness crying and weeping for 40 years. ******ADVERTISEMENT******* 2014 Word Explosion Columbia, S.C. » Sept. 25-27 Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center 1101 Lincoln St. Columbia, SC 29201 Speakers: Kenneth Copeland Gloria Copeland Bill Winston Chaplain A.L. Downing Preregister today & receive a coupon at check-in for $10 off any purchase of $30 or more at the KCM book tables. kcm.org/events 1-800-600-7395 (U.S. only) +1-817-852-6000 Admission is FREE! Schedule is subject to change without notice. ************************************ JULY '14 : 7

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