{"id":50844,"date":"2024-05-28T22:16:47","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T02:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/?p=50844"},"modified":"2024-05-29T07:21:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T11:21:03","slug":"we-have-a-shepherd-lets-have-coffee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/2024\/05\/we-have-a-shepherd-lets-have-coffee\/","title":{"rendered":"We Have a Shepherd  {{Let&#8217;s Have Coffee}}"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/LHC-5_28_24.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-50849 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/LHC-5_28_24.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"384\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 450px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 450\/384;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The recent sermon was from John 10, where Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd and we His people as sheep. It&#8217;s a wonderful passage reminding us of the salvation, protection, and provision we receive from Jesus as we walk with Him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I found myself curious to learn more about sheep.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sheep form relational bonds. They are social animals who enjoy being in a flock with other sheep.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sheep are defenseless animals and have no means by which toprotect themselves.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sheep have good hearing but poor vision, therefore, often cannot see where they are going. This is the very reason they respond well to voices.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sheep have excellent memory. Combine this with the above fact and you have the very reason they can memorize up to fifty human voices.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sheep cannot right themselves from certain positions. Left alone, they would die in about one hours time.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sheep are nervous, timid and easily frightened animals. When fearful, they react and run even if they do not know where they are running.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What is it about this creature which makes us so much alike, and causes Jesus to call us &#8220;sheep&#8221;?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">We have a strong desire for a best friend, someone to hear our innermost thoughts and share our burdens.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">We are often defenseless, bearing injuries from circumstances and relationships.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Many times we, as well, have no idea where we are headed in life. Perhaps we have even wandered aimlessly at times.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">We possess the ability of memory, holding onto both the good and the bad. We even hold onto memories we would have been better off to let go of.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">We can find ourselves in predicaments and positions which we cannot right on our own.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">And who of us, has not been known to run even when we have no idea where we are running?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px; text-align: justify;\"><em>\u201c<span id=\"en-NIV-18432\" class=\"text Isa-40-11\">He tends his flock like a shepherd: <\/span><span class=\"indent-1\"><span class=\"text Isa-40-11\">He gathers the lambs in his arms <\/span><\/span><span class=\"text Isa-40-11\">and carries them close to his heart;<\/span>\u201d (Isaiah 40:11, NIV)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We are always close to the Shepherd&#8217;s heart for God tenderly cares for both our the needs of His people. He protects the weak and vulnerable from those who would prey on them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We have a Shepherd who leads us where we will be protected and safe. He will fight for us. Our needs will be provided. He will go before us to lead the way, calling so we will hear His voice. He does not leave us alone but pursues us when we have gone awry. He brings His peace when we are fearful so we will not run amok.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>We are in greater need of a shepherd than we ever could realize.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Jesus is our Shepherd and gratefully, <\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>He calls us His sheep.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Savior, Like A Shepherd Lead Us\" width=\"1080\" height=\"810\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zLgwMrYCWVE?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There probably aren&#8217;t many of us who like to wait. It tends to make us feel like we are wasting time or flat out stuck. In her post <a href=\"https:\/\/lisabrittain.com\/2024\/05\/18\/waiting-is-an-action-word\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><strong>Waiting is an Action Word HERE<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, Lisa Brittain may just change your perspective, fill you with encouragement, and help you to patiently wait.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Lets-Have-Coffee-use-copy-2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-49371 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Lets-Have-Coffee-use-copy-2-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Come, sit a spell. Bring your coffee, your posts, and your thoughts. If you link up, kindly visit those who have drawn up a seat around you.<\/p>\n<p><!-- start InLinkz code --><\/p>\n<div class=\"inlinkz-widget\" style=\"width: 100%; margin: 30px 0; background-color: #eceff1; border-radius: 7px; text-align: center; font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;\" data-uuid=\"618dd0d2d41f4c6f9c3f407e8329a5ce\">\n<div style=\"padding: 8px;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 15px;\">You are invited to the <strong>Inlinkz<\/strong> link party!<\/p>\n<p><a style=\"padding: 5px 20px; background: #209cee; text-decoration: none; color: #efefef; border-radius: 4px;\" href=\"https:\/\/fresh.inlinkz.com\/p\/618dd0d2d41f4c6f9c3f407e8329a5ce\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Click here to enter<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"display: none;\"><script async=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/fresh.inlinkz.com\/js\/widget\/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef\"><\/script><\/span><br \/>\nImage by <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/hazelucyxuan-3557624\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=2944575\">hazelucyxuan<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=2944575\">Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent sermon was from John 10, where Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd and we His people as sheep. It&#8217;s a wonderful passage reminding us of the salvation, protection, and provision we receive from Jesus as we walk with Him. I found myself curious to learn more about sheep. Sheep form relational bonds. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","wds_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6023],"tags":[1529,7338,1657,6014,2981],"class_list":["post-50844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lets-have-coffee","tag-isaiah-4011","tag-jesus-our-shepherd","tag-john-10","tag-lets-have-coffee","tag-sheep"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/LHC-5_28_24.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50844"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50861,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50844\/revisions\/50861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneviola.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}