Title: Made For More (Soul Care) Pt. 4
All Scripture taken from the New Living Translation
We are continuing our series titled “Made For More.”
We’re going to switch things up a bit and be inward focused today. So far, we looked at how we can play a role in God’s never-ending story of reconciling a broken humanity back to its Creator.
We’ve explored the power of saying “yes” when it comes to joining God in His story of reconciliation, and last week we looked at how we can love without conditions.
Today, we are going to look at a very important aspect of a Christian’s life that might often get overlooked, and that is the subject of “Soul Care.”
Soul care is something the Vineyard Association encourages its pastors to be accountable for. I like this because if we are not spiritually healthy, if we are not in a good place spiritually, then things can derail quickly (Actually it’s gradually, but the crash seems sudden!).
Soul care means nothing more than simply this: We are a three-part being – mind, body, and spirit – and they’re all connected!
Our mind is our intellect, and that is our soul. God speaks to our spirits, our hearts. This is the inner-most part of our being, the deepest part of who we are. And if one or both are out of sync, it will affect our body, our health!
But let’s face it, our mind is where all the crazy happens, right? Thoughts run rampant. We have a hard time shutting it down, restless nights with lots of thinking, or we can’t think straight because of all we have going on.
So how do we balance life? How do we still parent, work, be a good spouse, study for school? How do we continue daily and simultaneously have a clear mindset of joining God in what He is doing?
We cannot fully commit to the Kingdom if we ourselves are not fully in sync – our mind, body, and spirit.
I teach out of the New Living Translation, so this may sound a little different than what you’re used to.
We’re going to look at a Psalm that is the perfect picture of soul care. King David wrote this Psalm. He was a musician, poet, king of Israel, a warrior, and described as a man after God’s own heart. King David wasn’t perfect, but he knew God’s presence well!
Psalm 23 is a great passage of Scripture to meditate on when we want to focus on our spiritual wellness. This Psalm can breathe life into our spirits and speak encouragement to us.
Let’s get right into it and read verse 1:
Psalm 23:1: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I have all that I need.”
Jesus is our Shepherd, and He is everything we need. One of the things that can never be taken away from us is our relationship with Jesus. He will never leave our side. We often stray from Him, but He never leaves us!
John 10:11: “I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd sacrifices His life for the sheep.”
The Shepherd feeds, leads, and meets the needs of the sheep. The Shepherd serves the sheep for the sheep to survive, and we are the sheep.
Philippians 4:19 tells us that “God… will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” There is nothing that we need that God cannot supply. Jesus provides all we need.
Listen to what Ezekiel prophesied when God spoke through Him:
Ezekiel 34:15-16: “I Myself will tend My sheep and give them a place to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign Lord. I will search for My lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again.”
Our Creator in heaven has promised to always take care of those who put their faith in Him. This is a promise we can meditate on!
As we continue to read Psalm 23, we will see four things Jesus does as our Shepherd:
Psalm 23:2-3: “2 He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. 3He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.”
With Jesus as our Shepherd, we have rest, peace, renewal, and guidance. Learning to rest allows us to receive the blessings God wants to pour into us. Often, we place our identity in the wrong things such as our career, our family, being a parent, or maybe even in a hobby, and we wonder why we feel worn out.
Psalm 127:2: “It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to His loved ones.”
A lot of our unneeded stress and worry in life is because we don’t know how to rest, we don’t realize how important it is to relax and rest. Rest is so important that God made it one of the 10 Commandments. It is a day that we are to rest and focus on Him.
Exodus 20:8-10: “8 Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God.”
Rest falls under the category of a spiritual discipline; it’s important. It is in resting in Jesus that we find our strength, spiritual, mental, and even physical renewal!
This picture of green pastures and peaceful streams indicates the calmness and peace of God when we are fully content in our relationship with Him!
Psalm 23:3: “He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to His name.”
This strength we’re talking about here is spiritual. In the NKJV, it’s “He restores my soul.” Once we are content with the rest and peace we find in Jesus, He begins renewing our strength, restoring our soul.
When we are exhausted with life, weary, sad, troubled, anxious, worn down, Jesus restores the life we’ve lost. When God’s Holy Spirit brings correction, when we have a repentant heart, when we draw closer to God, our strength is renewed, our souls are restored. And in this renewal, we are led along paths of righteousness, meaning our relationship with Jesus is one where we don’t wander. God Himself is leading us along the right path as we trust His leading.
Psalm 19:7: “The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul.”
The constant care of our Shepherd keeps us focused on the path He paves before us, and in doing so, this brings honor to His name. The honor God receives comes when others see the change in us, the life in us.
Psalm 23:4: “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.”
The darkest of valleys, or the valley of the shadow of death, this is referring to a season of change, a struggling chapter in life. From the very least to the very darkest of hours we may experience in life, we have to keep our eyes focused on Jesus, our Shepherd.
Even though valleys like these can be deep, dark, lonely, and
scary, the outcome can be fruitful as our Shepherd, Jesus, leads us through them. We can find comfort in the rod, which represents strength and protection, and the staff represents the grace and guidance of Jesus.
Psalm 121:7-8: “7 The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. 8 The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.”
Hebrews 13:5-6: “5 For God has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.’ 6 So, we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?'”
To know that we have a Savior in Jesus, a Shepherd who is ready to protect us from danger, correct us from bad decisions, stay close to us, and rescue us when we stray should be a great comfort that leads to the renewal of our soul, our spirit man.
Psalm 23:5: “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.”
The visual I get in my head from this verse is one of my all-time favorites that keeps me in sync with being highly favored by God.
First off, do you notice how everything in this Psalm is inward focused? The Lord is my Shepherd, He leads me, He renews my strength, He protects and comforts me, He prepares a feast for me, my cup overflows with blessings.
Even in the most challenging of circumstances, when the world is closing in around us, when attacks seem endless, and we don’t know what to do, this is a verse to hold on to because with Jesus we lack nothing. He supplies our every need and is always looking out for our well-being. We are forever protected!
Hebrews 4:16: “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
It is in this place of rest that Jesus can bring good out of the darkest of situations, and we see that our cup really does overflow with the goodness of God. In the middle of his battle and worry, one of Job’s friends tells him:
Job 36:16: “God is leading you away from danger, Job, to a place free from distress. He is setting your table with the best food.”
It is at this table we are offered a “King’s feast” of all our favorite foods in the face of our enemies, and we are comforted and anointed by the presence of God’s Holy Spirit.
Lamentations 3:22: “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease.”
When all this falls into place and we have it settled in our hearts, in our spirits, that this is who our Jesus is, a loving Shepherd who takes care of all our needs, He protects us, leads us, anoints us, and secures a place at the table with Him, then we know:
Psalm 23:6: “Surely Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”
This is a promise we can hold onto!
I’ll end with this: Soul care cannot take place if we are not focused on Jesus and honoring Him as best as we can with the way we live, think, act, and talk. We cannot expect any of this to take place if we are not in God’s Word on a regular basis, reading it, studying it, and meditating on it, living it out.
Psalm 34:8: “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in Him!”
A Father’s Protection
A father takes his son into the forest, blindfolds him, and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience because each lad must come into manhood on his own.
The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!
Finally, after a horrific night, the sun appeared, and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.
We, too, are never alone. Even when we don’t know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.
If you liked this story, pass it on. If not, you took off your blindfold before dawn.
Moral of the story: Just because you can’t see God, doesn’t mean He is not there. “For we walk by faith, not by sight!!!
The Twenty-Third Psalm
Fahan Presbyterian Church
The story is told of an actor who was known for his readings and recitations from the Classics. He always ended his performance with a dramatic recital of Psalm 23. Each night, without exception, as the actor began his recitation — “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” — the crowd would listen attentively and then rise with thunderous applause, in appreciation of the actor’s ability to bring the psalm to life.
One night, just before the actor was to offer his customary recital of Psalm 23, a young man from the audience spoke up. “Sir, would you mind, if tonight, I recite Psalm 23?”
The actor was surprised by this unusual request. However, he invited the young man to come onto the stage to recite the psalm, curious to see how the ability of this youth weighed against his own talent.
Softly the young man began to recite the words of the psalm. When he was finished, there was no applause. There was no standing ovation as on other nights. All that could be heard was the sound of weeping. The audience had been so moved by the youth’s recitation that every eye was tearful.
Amazed by what he had experienced, the actor queried, “I don’t understand. I have been performing Psalm 23 for years. I have a lifetime of experience and training — but I have never been able to move an audience as you have tonight. Tell me, what is your secret?”
The young man humbly replied, “Well sir, you know the psalm…but I know the Shepherd.”
Why Christians Should Have No Part in Halloween
The celebration of Halloween originated with the Druids, an order of priests and sorcerers in ancient Europe. The Druids worshiped the natural and supernatural worlds. According to their Celtic calendar, October 31st was the last day of the year – New Year’s Eve. On this day, they held the festival called Samhain which marked the start of winter and honored Samana the Lord of Death.
Druids believed that on this one night Samana allowed demons, ghosts, and other spirits to wander about freely. In hopes of frightening these creatures, the Druids recited special chants and lit bonfires. They also made offerings of special foods to appease these evil spirits. Even more significantly, Druids disguised themselves in masks and costumes so the spirits of darkness would not recognize them and do them harm.
You don’t have to look very hard to see many of our own Halloween traditions in these early druid rites. Even today, Satanists celebrate Halloween as one of the two high holy days. It has also become one of the four greater Sabbats – a Sabbath day for modern-day witches and warlocks.
Because we have for so long believed Halloween to be an innocent season of fun, we have unknowingly exposed our children to a spirit of fear and to the occult. Halloween is a day that honors and glorifies Satan.
From the beginning, people have believed that invisible spirits were closer at Halloween than at any other time of the year. Furthermore, they believed that evil spirits could help them predict the future. Many of the Halloween activities practiced today were originally used as methods of divination (Jeremiah 27:9; Galatians 5:19-21). In fact, much of our “innocent Halloween tradition actually comes from Satanically inspired rituals!
Bobbing for apples was a method of fortune-telling. The winner of the contest was advised of certain things such as who they would marry, what occupation to pursue, etc. Broomsticks, according to legend, were used by witches to fly on to meet with the devil on Halloween. Black cats were thought to be witches themselves as well as being a witch’s constant companion. Jack-o-lanterns can be traced back to an Irish folk tale of a man named Jack who was not allowed into heaven because of his sins; nor was he let into hell because he had played two tricks on the devil. So Jack was condemned to walk the earth with a lighted coal in a pumpkin.
Simply put, Halloween glorifies everything God has called an abomination. It is a day that honors Satan and his forces of darkness. And as a Christian, you have no business celebrating or participating in it!
God’s Word gives us clear instructions:
- Abstain from all appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22).
- Neither give place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27).
- Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them (Ephesians 5:11).
- The acts of the sinful nature are…idolatry and witchcraft…drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).
- The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8).
- Choose this day whom you will serve (Joshua 24:15).
Christians should teach their children that:
- There is a spiritual world filled with goodness from God and evil from Satan (Ephesians 2:1-10).
- Life with Christ has power over darkness (1 John 4:4).
- Those who celebrate Halloween either are unaware of its roots or are intentionally promoting a world where evil is lauded and viewed as an ultimate power.
To counter the evil influence of Halloween, we need to celebrate the reality of the heroic efforts of Christian saints over the evil in their day. Many leaders in the past – and present – have fulfilled the mandate of destroying the works of the devil through their sacrificial commitment to Christ and His Kingdom. Even more importantly, teach your children that this power belongs to them as well. Let them know that, as Christians, we are on the winning side.
Teach them to celebrate good over evil and the triumph of God over Satan; to celebrate God’s protection, provision, and purpose for our lives – rather than applauding the spirits of death and wickedness which Halloween promotes.