The One Who Goes After the one…

 

~The One Who Goes After the one~

“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
~Matthew 18:12-14 NKJV~

The one, and then the one, and then the one… this is how Jesus takes care of us, we are not just part of a collective we are ‘one’ to him, one unique loved individual.

Jesus tells the story of the Shepherd leaving the 99 to go after the one, and if we do nothing  else then at least we can all do something for one, and then another one.

This is how I live my life, in my encouragement, support, mentoring, caring and loving on others. I don’t consider it a small thing to help one… One is who Jesus died for… each one of us.

Many people have never been made to feel they are ‘one’ to anyone… They get the love they can get from who they can get it. In this busy world how many suffer from a lack of even consistent parental love.

The only One who can truly give us this amazing perfect love is The One. He came for each one of us… He shows us how to love. We learn from his example.

Are you the one that has got lost? Or have you gone astray? Were you abandoned? Or left behind? Maybe you think no one is coming for you but The One is right there waiting.. Longing for you to come to him so that he can love you in a way that only God the Father can.

Are you one that has been gifted to be an ‘under shepherd’ in some way. Under shepherds are just ordinary people who mentor others, encourage them, support them, care, pray, help, show love.. 

We can all be under shepherds. One of the meanings of under shepherd is… A person who protects, guides, or watches over a person or group of people.

The world can do with limitless amounts of under shepherds and I am so thankful for all those that have been under shepherds throughout my life, and those that still are today.

We can’t all help thousands of people but we can follow Jesus example in our worlds and go after the ‘ones’ that come along are path. If you help one person you potentially help a whole family. The smallest acts of kindness can make the hugest impact on the life of one who is in need.

Of course we are all different and unique and we can help those people in the way WE can; but it’s encouraging to see that the Shepherds’ love led him to go to the mountains. I’m sure glad he went to the mountains for me.

God has a plan of inclusion for all of us. No one is not invited. What we can do is pass on the invitations to His house. Some are ready now to join the party, others are thinking about it. Some are completely undecided and may stay home. And still yet others have no plans of attending.

God spreads his arms open wide to all. And as Gods hands and feet, his voice, his care we call to those around us to come. To come in a spiritual sense but also to come and just be loved… A meal, a phone call, a moment where love is shown, are all parts of the ways we can help the one and the one and the one.

I want you to know that you are one very special one to The One… and that we can all do something for one another… Accept His warm gift of love and give it back to the ones that come to you…

~Cam Richmond~

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Laying Aside Every Weight…

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us… (Hebrews 12:1 NKJV)

Let us lay aside every weight….

When I think of something that weighs me down the immediate thought that comes to mind are expectations. I carry loads of expectations. A lot of expectations may be considered normal, simple, easy, every day practices, obvious even but that doesn’t mean that people will live up to my expectations.

People are human, real, flawed, weak, earthen vessels, breakable. What’s important to me even if I consider it important may be of no significance to someone else. People grow up with and learn different sets of values, their family and community may not have modelled the the things that I value and therefore come to expect.

The weight of expectations will undoubtedly cause you to stumble and fall. It will give rise to offense and hard heartedness.

Often I put this weight down but then unbeknownst to myself I find I have picked it up and am carrying it again. It’s such a familiar weight and we’ve probably got used to carrying it and adjusted our balance to compensate. It might take awhile to stand upright and not take expectations every where we go.

We need to ‘lay aside every weight’. We can’t run the race very far at all if we are carrying baggage. A race calls for us to have on us only what is necessary.

I picture elite athletes. They often wear specially designed suits to make them even more aerodynamic, lighter, less hindered, do to run with a backpack on is completely non productive for us, it tires us out, and wears us out before time.

Strip off the things that are bulging in our pockets, in our backpacks and handbags. Put on your comfy pants and trainers. Then you can run.

Two other words jump out at me ‘hinders’ and ‘entangles’. What is hindering and entangling me? I need to throw it off!

There is a race marked out for us and these things are like vines hanging in our way and we have to pull them down, get them out of our way so we can travel unhindered on that path in front of us.

So what is hindering me today? Let me think about it a moment. What needs to be cleared off my path…

I think the main thing is fear, but day by day with God at my side I face things that come up.

There are things in our past, in our histories, in our families that hinder us for sure! How we choose to see these things and if and when we decide to work through them will determine how long, if at all it will be a hinderance.

Reactions can be a hinderance! What about me? What about me?? This can be a huge hinderance.

I think we need to dismantle these things. De-construct their framework piece by piece. When we go it like this rather than in a hurry to sweep it out the door we can see lies for what the really are!

When we dismantle something we get to see what it’s made of, how it was made when we see it for what it is then we can be aware of the snare.

~Cam Richmond~

Please find more writing and inspiration from my via my Facebook Pages:

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Consistently Consistent…

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8 NKJV)

Consistency, inconsistency and God.

We look to people to maintain equilibrium in our lives but really how can they?

We are born to earthly parents and we are dependent on them from birth and what other pattern are we likely to learn other than dependence.

We learn that behavior determines acceptance and approval and our family of origin determines the largest portion of who we will become and what responses and reactions will be.

I don’t think it’s till we finally discover that we have a Heavenly Father, a divine parent that we can begin the transition from an earthly dependence to a heavenly eternal secure sure dependence.

And, unfortunately by then often we have learnt not to really trust those we depend on and so we make God prove himself and we test him in it.

You may be like me and have taken a LONG time to learn it just won’t ever be the case to find consistency in people. It doesn’t matter who they are… it doesn’t matter if they are a parent, spouse or best friend. They’d have to be God to remain consistent in a way that would help us.

We, or perhaps it is just I, take for truth the word of the people we love, the people we work for, family and friends.

Funny…. family have to love us, friends choose to love us. Perhaps that’s why I’ve found that when a friend lets me down it affects me even more.

Don’t be annoyed at yourself for being dependent on people. It’s a natural human instinct. We just need to transfer that trust onto the one who is the same yesterday today and forever. The one who will be predictable and not disappoint.

People are all round changeable whether they mean to be or not and so in this area of our lives we need to begin the process of unlearning and relearning. Taking our hands off people and placing our hands in the hands of the one that is perfectly faithful. The one who longs to parent us and show us his wonderful plan.

Another thing we have learnt to do is trust in ourselves and to dismiss what our parents teach us or suggest or advise us in. Our parents are guided by the love and their fears so we are right at times to question their judgement.

However God is only guided by LOVE. His desires and plans for us our always going to be the best so this is another area of transferring our dependence onto him and knowing his plans are only motivated by a hope for our good.

Thank you for this insight Father. My divine parent. In the truest sense of the word you are dependable!!!!!!

~Cam Richmond~

Please find more writing and inspiration from my via my Facebook Pages:

www.facebook.com/lightforlifepage

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