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Pat O'Brien

Does the 23rd Psalm apply to you?

God loves His children...He protects and provides for them, but you have to be a member of the Family first!

Contrary to popular belief that Christianity is a religion I will argue that it is not!  Here's why:  Religion is man's attempt to get to God.  Christianity is God coming down to man...it is a "relationship".
 
I have heard the 23rd Psalm evoked many times by people who have never had a relationship with God, except when their backs are against the wall.  Take a moment to look closer at this beautiful Psalm as it describes God's "relationship" with His children.

1    The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

     He is my constant attendant, all my needs, all my wants according to his mercy are there....my "relationship is complete"!

 

2    He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.

          A Sheep will not lay down in any pasture unless it has been fed and it feels secure.   Likewise the same is true with God’s children. 

   

3    He restores my soul;  He guides me in the paths of righteousness.  For His name’s sake.

        I am human, He is Devine…I am prone at times to depart from his way.  Does he leave me to wander around?  No he brings me back and He restores me.  Why…”for His Name Sake”, that is His purpose!

 

4    Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,  I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

          Life is treacherous even when we don’t see it.  God’s Grace keeps us on the “straight and narrow”.  When we depart from it, His discipline is a correcting force. 

         

5    You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.

          My relationship with the Lord leaves nothing to guess about.  Just as the “symbolic anointing of oil” I have been set aside, consecrated!  I am His; my enemies can’t lay a finger on me!  I am not dangling at the end of a rope....twisting in the wind”!

 

6    Surely goodness and loving-kindness will follow me all the days of my life,

    And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

          This is eternal salvation….it is forever.

 

One of the most beautiful descriptions of a loving God is found in the first book of the Bible in Genesis.  We are told in the narative that God would "walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening".  I don't know about you but I am looking forward to that.  But I don't have to wait until heaven to experience that kind of companionship.  God gives His children that same experience when we draw close to Him and get to know Him. 
 
Friend, what is your relationship with God? You can come to know Him in the person of Jesus Christ.
 
The Bible teaches us that God seeing his creation living in a sin sick world needed a Redeemer.  Yet God being the "Just God" that He is also needed to address the debt that sin has caused mankind.  The New Testament teaches us in the Book of Romans that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  And, that the wages of sin is death.  Our Redeemer paid those wages on the Cross.  He is none other than the Son of God, Jesus!  By your recognition of that fact that you are lost, and that you stand condemed you need a Savior.  You can be saved...Christ is the answere to your delema. By accepting Him as Lord, confessing your sin and asking Him to come into your heart, all the truths described in the 23rd Psalm will apply to you!  You become a child of the King!
 
Rejection of this truth has already condemed you!  Without Christ in your life you have "no hope".  In this case the facts stated in the 23rd Psalm don't apply to you..your out in the cold friend....your not a member of the family!
 
 

Pat O'Brien Ministries
408 1/2 E Mc Donald Ave.
Man, West Virginia
25635
USA