THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD 

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”, this psalm is often read at the graveside, but this psalm is for the living. We learn from it that God does not abandon us to suffer want.  If we keep in mind that God provides for all of our needs and keep faith in Him, then we can work towards fulfilling our needs and we will not be doing so in vain. If on the other hand, we do not believe that God provides for us, we stop helping ourselves and then of course we suffer want. As long as we are striving to accomplish the thing that we want, we continually receive God’s help, new ideas are given to us, new ways to solve problems; but if we give up from lack of faith, God cannot help us because we are not open to the help that is available. God gives us all more than we deserve on this earth, all we need to do is accept what is offered and we will succeed. No one is left destitute unless that is what they are aiming for.

OUR LIFE PATH

We are often led in a particular direction in our lives, all for the betterment of our spirits or to fulfill our destiny.

When Joseph was sold to the Egyptians by his brothers, the brothers bore the guilt of their crime, but at the same time, Joseph was placed in a position of helping his family during the seven years of famine, without Joseph’s help they likely would have starved. On the other hand, by having his family move to Egypt, the twelve tribes ended up in bondage for four hundred years, which was also part of their destiny, perhaps to teach them to keep to Christ’s rule while among other peoples of perhaps as a punishment for turning away from God; only God who set their destiny knows the answer.

As we search through our lives, we can see the turning points that allowed us to follow our destiny and so although like the leaders of the twelve tribes, we perform actions that we think will improve our life, these actions sometimes turn out to be a trial to us. If we but work our way through the trial, we will have learned something by following our destiny.

  THE REIGN OF CHRIST

 When Christ left this earth to return to heaven over two thousand years ago, he won the battle over Lucifer and re-opened the gates of Heaven to all the fallen spirits. Many who had been ready to enter the Heavenly spheres, and who had been waiting for the gates to open, now entered with Christ at their lead. Since then there has been a steady stream of people entering Heaven. But when Christ returns to earth to rule for a thousand years, Lucifer will be bound for all of those years. Without the influence of Lucifer, how much easier will it be to progress toward God. With all temptation from Lucifer’s realm removed, spirits will still have to work out their salvation, but with no one to impede their progress this should be a second opportunity for many spirits to follow Christ into Heaven. The second coming of Christ will also be the second surge of spirits toward the Heaven spheres.

SPIRITUAL DROUGHT

In some parts of the world there is no thought of God, no knowledge of Christ, no understanding of the reason for their existence, it is a spiritual drought. In other parts of the world, people think of God but do not understand their relationship with Him, and their understanding of Christ is null and void. The teachings they follow contain no love; they understand God to fulfill their wishes and punish the rest of the world, and they are happy to assist in the punishing.

In our own country, we have many who believe in God and have some understanding of Christ but they make no effort to grow spiritually, thinking that just knowing about God and Christ is sufficient. Still others know about God and Christ but never question the information that is imparted to them by their churches and so their beliefs are only rudimentary and they only repeat the information without any understanding. Where the understanding of God and Christ is shallow, so is the commitment to their spiritual life. God gave us all free will which includes the free will to search for truth and to question everything, without this there is no understanding and not much hope of success.

PERSISTENCE

Most of us in our lives on earth have sinned against God to the point of severe rebellion and some of us have given up on our salvation thinking that there is no way we can reach Heaven after this life, forgetting that God is the ultimate forgiver of sins. Are we not the fallen spirits and did God and Christ not allow us as many lives as possible to regain our former life of splendor in the heavens? Did God not offer his only begotten son to come to earth and to live amongst us in Lucifer’s realm and to die for us before waging a war against Lucifer to free us? Is this not a forgiving God?

If we give up on our life we will not reach the first level of Heaven after we leave this earth so should we not make every effort to move ahead so that we may begin our next life on a higher plane, giving us an opportunity to make it the next time?

Although we are repentant for our sins, let us never give up on our goal of salvation, each life counts, each day counts and God will continue to forgive us as long as we are trying to improve. So persistence is the key, the rewards are greater than we can imagine and with God and Christ leading us on, there is always hope.