Bible is best fresh and not reheated

The bible is a dish best served fresh. And savoured from its original ingredients. We out not to outsource our main spiritual meals to the level of processed food. Of course some food is better than no food unless it has been hybridized with the thoughts of the world.

We are not like birds where we need our spiritual preacher parents to pre-chew our morsels. Its time for us to take on that role for ourselves and discover the delight beauty and intimacy the father has for us amongst the visceral realities of walking out from under his protective umbrella, especially in the old testament.

My brother, growing up, used to playfully take my arm and not quite so gently wallup myself with my own arm, and then exclaim “stop hitting yourself”. Oddly this seems to encapsulate the majority of the Old Testament.

Time and again God reeducated them on the physics of His spiritual gravity yet in some strange carnal compulsion they couldn’t seem to help themselves and continually walked of the proverbial building and felt the very visceral effects of those decisions, and by extension those around them, often as innocent bystanders.

Selfishness undoubtedly affects others. One does not go down alone. Inevitability in the way God designed us, as compared with sheep, we and they are communal creatures.

The world has a twisted belief that we are our own island. But it is surely the illusion if separateness. Its like we are all in one big pool for which we cannot observe the bottom of. We each sit on our prospective rock we thinking we are the king of our own rock island, some of us had a small posse with us on our rocks.

But should one pull the plug on the pool we would see we were all connected. And should one person pee in the pool, it affects us all. Even if its just a little bit of pee. It still counts. Small sins and big sins are not delineated by size but by toxicity. A small toot can clear a room as much as a big toot can. In the end sin is akin to manure. Theres no sugar coating it as much as the world says its decadent. It is, for sure thats the skin of the truth in the lie. For decadent means decaying. Just like spoiling the child results in poor succession planning. Which is another major component that the old testament folks missed the mark. Enormous dynasties were lost in treturous bloodshed due to the next generation that took the throne. Much of it civil wars between Gods own chosen ones, essentially boiling down to family feuds.

There is so much to learn from the Old Testament should we be able to see past the hack hack ahhh type thugness where they tried to solve issues with their fists instead of cleaning up their lifestyle and enjoying the protection God promised to provide should they have chosen to partake in.

I guess that is why we are referred to as sheep. Not just because of the volume of seemingly inevitable manure, but because God wants to be our Good Shepherd. Just like He did in the beginning of it all here on earth.

So much so He sent his own son to prove it to us. Yet many have dismissed His most precious gift, the best He could bring to us. The scapegoat to bring us back to him. To shine a light for His wayward sons and daughters to return back to the safety of the sheepfold.

I hear the cries of so many parents for whose children they pine for. Day in and day out it does not leave their being until all is made well.

This is true for our Heavenly Father, and how much more-so knowing all things.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee Isaiah 26:3, says the plaque on the wall, which is where this soliloquy started. (What am I looking at).

The sheep know His voice and the voice of a stranger they will not follow – I muse as verses from the Chapter of John 10 come to mind.

The good shepherd.

The GOOD shepherd.

Not the mean shepherd, not the sloppy shepherd. Not the grumpy shepherd, nor The lazy shepherd, Not the oblivious shepherd, or the absent minded – where did i leave that sheep shepherd.

The Good shepherd.

The attentive shepherd.

The mindful shepherd.

The loving shepherd.

The graceful shepherd.

The kind shepherd.

The meek shepherd.

The protector shepherd.

The lead me beside still waters shepherd.

There is victory promised when we follow the Good Shepherd’s lead.

2 John 5:4

For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

Sylvia Fox Bevan

Morning writing on the prompt

What am i looking at – writers nest

April 8 2025