The Voice One Follows

By Connie Wakefield

Young people, wanting to be different -- like all their friends -- pierce and tattoo themselves almost beyond recognition. Women of various ages, longing to look like anorexic models, share tips with one another on how to expel unwanted nourishment.

American television pushes the envelope so far that it wallows in pigsties; and homosexuals, frequently with support from people in high places, now demand their rights to legally marry and raise children together, and even to serve as Boy Scout leaders.

Political and business corruption is so rampant that we now assume, with valid reason, that most powerful people cannot be entirely trusted. Crime dominates our neighborhoods with violence in the streets, drug producing labs down the block, and pornography operations, even in the suburbs. Unborn babies are killed by the thousands.

Meanwhile, we battle over prayer in public places and the use of God’s name in our founding documents. Even our established right to freedom of worship has been twisted to protect dangerous cults, while blocking Christian concepts from being mentioned in schools and nativity scenes from appearing on public property.

If America truly is the Christian nation we proclaim, why has God forsaken us? It’s as if Paul were speaking of us when he said: “...men are without excuse. For although they knew God they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.... Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.... Therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts....” (Romans 1:20-24)

America’s people have wandered far from her Shepherd.

In his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, W. Phillip Keller states that a man or woman who says “The Lord is my

Shepherd...implies a profound yet practical working relationship between a human being and his Maker. It links a lump of common clay to divine destiny....” He goes on to reiterate a biblical principle all Christians should know: “So there remains the moving realization that we have been bought with a price, that we are really not our own and He is well within His rights to lay claim upon our lives.” That means our relationship with Christ takes precedence over and governs all other relationships. He must be the Lord of our goals, our actions, and even our thoughts. Fall as we may -- and we do -- the embedding of His Word in our hearts is what makes us truly His. Jesus said: “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching” (John 14:23-24).   True Christianity is not a one-sided relationship, with God doing all the giving and us doing all the taking. Clearly, while grace provides forgiveness of sin and ‘the right to be called children of God,’ acceptance of the gift of salvation also means more than a lip-service commitment to our Shepherd.

A friend recently mentioned an informal experiment, conducted to determine if sheep actually recognize and follow only their own shepherd. As a flock grazed unsupervised in a pasture, their usual caretaker approached from the distance. Upon seeing him, the entire flock immediately ran to greet him, leaping joyfully at his presence and ready to follow wherever he led. A little while later, he departed. Then a stranger approached. Upon seeing him, the sheep appeared alarmed and ran from the stranger. This striking example of behavior parallels Christ’s description of His true flock: “He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out...He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice ” (John 10:3-4).

Christ’s analogy of His followers to sheep unexpectedly emphasizes other passages, like “...be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16) and “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing” (Matthew 7:15). Clearly, we’re called to careful discernment between His and other voices.

Keller’s book goes on to compare his own efforts as a sheep owner to the loving care of Christ for His flock. Sheep are comforted by their shepherd’s ability to hurl a club-like stick, called a rod, used to ward off predators threatening the flock. Also used for warning and discipline, the rod can get the attention of a sheep wandering from its owner’s protection.

Keller tells of a particularly strong and beautiful ewe he once owned. His description of her gives the impression of a clever animal, possessing an unyielding determination to have her own way. As with all his sheep, he loved and cared for her with great attention to detail. All her needs were well met, and her comforts were tended. This ewe, however, seemed always to want something else.

Though she was consistently led to the best pastures in the safest areas, she made a habit of breaking away and wandering off. She found ways through and around fences, often ending up in places open to lurking predators or dangerously close to the sea, where she fed on poor quality foliage. The ewe taught her own lambs how to escape the boundaries and led other sheep to do the same.

One senses the pain Keller must have endured when the obvious decision finally had to be made. His pleasure in caring for the beautiful ewe and the value of her lush coat could not compensate for the risks she posed to the rest of the flock. In the end, her own stubbornness cost her her life.

How much like that ewe are many of us? Oblivious to the dangers of human wisdom and the enticement of our own desires, too easily we graze the world’s offerings, ignoring potential consequences. What do we know of poisonous grasslands and wolves in sheep’s clothing, from which our only protection is the Word of God?

For some, the hurled rod of God’s discipline provides enough alarm to bring them back to the fold. Others, arguing their God-given right to exercise free will, again and again break past divinely set boundaries in search of something else. Craving freedom, power, excitement, and self-gratification, while giving in to emotions of jealousy and anger, they easily wander past boundaries set by God in the Bible. Worse, they lead others in the same destructive patterns.

Merely believing in Christ is not enough. From Scripture we know that even demons recognize Him. He tells us that those who listen to His voice and obey are the true sheep of His flock, and that Voice is made clear through the words of the Bible. Any voice that doesn’t mirror His words is the voice of a stranger, whether it comes from a scholar, a preacher, a group of friends, a loved one, or even from within one’s own self-serving heart.

The bottom-line question each of us must ask himself is, Who is really my shepherd? The answer depends on the voice one follows.

Connie Wakefield is a freelance writer located in St. Louis, MO. Bible Quotes from NIV book quotes from: A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, by W. Phillip Keller Copyright 1970 by W. Phillip Keller, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan.