SHEPHERD
¶ Heading back out into the Winter of My Years, I find myself three weeks out from under the warm Light of the Glory of God that, on Christmas Day, did fill Isaiah’s fine old Lodge For the Wayfaring Man with the laughter, and camaraderie of my Kindred Kind, who were themselves but Wayfaring Strangers just passing through. However, the further I get down the road toward that City Not Made By Man it is as if the luminaries have dwindled. It is as if the moon has been confounded and the sun ashamed. (Isaiah 24:23, ¹wcv&²) For it is not light and it is not dark…. (Zechariah,14:6, ¹wcv&²)… and the temperature seems to have, for a seasonal stretch, fallen into the depths of the Antarctic, freezing the hearts of men in their foggy little Castles In the Air as if some great thorny Thicket In The Sky had entangled them in place.
¶ It seems as though I have ridden into the barren, deforested flats of a prophecy riddled with the brambles and thickets of heresy, superstition, idolatry, and ignorance, yet here and there, out across its desolate, sin-swept plains, like ancient, massive, weather-beaten warriors of an age spent long ago, standing with dignity and honor, ancient, Old Oaks of Righteousness, scattered and solitary though they be, lift their massive barren boughs unto the Lord.
¶ And so it is, out on these barren, sinswept flats, beneath a solitary Old Oak of Righteousness that I must, for a spell, seek Shelter From The Storm.
¶ Therefore, in the midst of the storm, like an old, weathered Oak of Righteousness, I seek to sink my roots deep into the foundational Truths of the Root of Jesse, storing them in my heart, so that when the storm subsides I might move on out into the Deep. (Hebrews 6:1,¹wcv&²) For I must transcend those ever-changing Castles In The Air, built by the vanities of men, to rise above the aery cloudlike formations of vain hopes and dreams and be lifted by the Winds of the Spirit above my own failures so that my journey will not be in vain.
¶ And so it is by Faith I build my Shelter From The Storm, adding to it Virtue, and to the excellence of Virtue I must obtain Knowledge, Revelation Knowledge. Why? So I might Know For Sure the Will and the Word of God and recognize His Voice. To these, like a fine blade, I must be Tempered so that I might hold my edge and not become dull. Thus we have Temperance! And so it is, even in the face of an oncoming deadly winter storm that will turn to stone the hearts of men, with Patience I build my Shelter. For I do, indeed, want it to Stand in the strength of Godliness against the coming storm, for without true Godliness there can be no Brotherly Kindness, and it is in Brotherly Kindness that the Power of God does RULE and flex His Strength. Yes, It is all of these together that give birth to the Love of God which is Unconditional, which is, in turn, the POWER of GOD in our lives! DIVINE POWER!!! And it is “According to this Divine Power that He gives to us in the HERE and NOW², ALL THINGS that pertain unto Life and Godliness. It is through the Knowledge of Him (alone²) that He will take us (through this storm²) to glory, victory, and excellence… It is by these THINGS, and these THINGS ALONE², that we might make our election sure… and NEVER FALL” (2 Peter 1:4,10, ¹wcv&²)
¶ Then, even in the midst of the storm, IN THIS AGE, “A door will be opened to us into the ABUNDANCE of the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ….whereby He has given to us EXCEEDINGLY GREAT and PRECIOUS PROMISES that we might become partakers of His Nature, Divine Nature…” (2 Peter 1:11,4, ¹wcv&²)
¶ And oh, how we are indeed in need of such abundance for “We are headed into a Thicket of Times of which the likes of have never been, nor will they ever be again.” (Matthew 24:21, ¹wcv&²)
WILDERNESS SPIRITS by Will Callery / William & Cynthia Pub. Co. ©2013 BMI
Painting by Andrew Wyeth – “Sheep Herder”
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¹wcv / My Emphasis / Version (Always taken from the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, & Arabic translations and connotations)
² / My Insert(s)
Letters From Over Yonder, The Deep Fetch, The Covenant, and Ain’t It So are published by William & Cynthia Pub. Co. ©2024 {All Rights Reserved}
