RECAP OF Chapter 7
- Sherry Braswell
- Jul 23, 2020
- 19 min read
Good Morning Sisters,
Last night was so very special. I don’t think I’ve ever felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in that way. Indescribably wonderful and deeply intimate. His presence was so tangible. My physical body was quivering by the end of our call.
This chapter pierced the very heart of what it means to be a Christ follower, especially in the tumultuous times we are living. What great comfort we take in knowing that we have nothing to fear as HE is with us. He is our Good Shepherd and will turn ALL things around for our good and His glory.
His return is imminent and He is preparing His bride. The suffering and hardship we face in this life are transforming us into His image. As I was preparing to teach this week I was led to listen to a FB live teaching by our sister Jen Goeking. She compared our lives as Christians to the forming of a pearl. The Lord has had me meditating on the beauty of this truth all week and it ties in perfectly with chapter 7. The pearl represents a wonderful picture of the purchase of the church in preparation for the Kingdom of God. He pursues us as a man courts a woman to be His bride willing to spill His own blood as her purchase price. The intimacy which this teaching brought cannot be described in words.
So as I sit in my kitchen writing this I am flooded with HIS PEACE and LOVE. If you were unable to join us I encourage you to listen to this message and share with friends. OUR KING IS COMING and there are so many lost souls to be reached, many within our own families.
I look forward to praying with you tonight on our prayer call. Victoria Schenck will be leading. Victoria is a sophomore at NC State. If you have teens I encourage you to get them on the call.
Meeting Recording:
Access Password: y2.E8NE8
Women of Faith Study
“A Shepherd’s Look at Psalm 23”
Wed. 7/8, 7/15, 7/22, 7/29
7-8 pm on Zoom
Wed. Link:
Password: 196078
Prayer and Praise
Every Thurs & Sun in July
7/9, 7/12, 7/16, 7/19, 7/23, 7/26, 7/30
7-7:45 on Zoom
Thursday link :
Password: 778244
Sunday link:
Password: 922285
Love, Sherry :-)
Notes on Chapter 7 “Yea I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me.”
“Pain chisels us into the person we’re designed to be. The pain and rejection we go through prepares to help someone else.”
I want to share two devotions that I wrote on trials and adversity.
Devotion #1
Adversity...a GREAT thing!
“Difficulties are meant to rouse you, not discourage you. The human spirit is meant to grow stronger by conflict. Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records. Let your test become a testimony! Always remember.... A wounded deer leaps the highest.” Rex Crain.
Don’t curse your adversity, EMBRACE IT! It is deep within us that we find our gifts, that we find all of the great strength that God has empowered us with. We won’t naturally reach down inside of ourselves to embrace this power because it is painful and it causes us to grow and stretch. So God must use our circumstances and adversity as a tool…a tool that forces us to tap into His explosive power.
I believe with my whole heart that the adversity we are facing now as Americans is a GOOD THING…a GREAT THING! It will force us to get back to what made our country the great nation it is. It will force us to throw out apathy and laziness and embrace creativity and strong work ethics. It will force us to appreciate what our forefathers died to give us. It will force us to put God back into our country and back into our lives. It will force us to teach and educate our children about our great history and the resilience of the American spirit. It will force us to appreciate our liberties and freedoms and never take them for granted. It will force us to bring back traditional family values and live with gratitude and selflessness. It will bring us closer to our Creator…closer to the One and only ONE that can give us peace and make us whole and complete.
Kent and I know adversity well. She has been our best friend for the past few years. The best part is that we have changed our perspective on her. Rather than curse and complain about her we have learned, through God’s wisdom and His word, to not resist her…but welcome and embrace her. She has provided us the opportunity to grow and become closer as a couple and as a family. She has provided YOU…a family of friends we otherwise would never have known.
One of my favorite stories in the Bible of God’s sovereign power is of Joseph. I can really relate to Joseph because he had a lot of adversity in his younger life…from the ages of 17-30 his life was riddled with hardship and challenges. First off, he was rejected by his own family. Out of jealousy his brothers sold him into slavery. He was sold to the Pharoahs head guard and God used this opportunity to make him the Prime Minister of Egypt. How’s that for God’s power?! What Satan meant for Joseph’s harm God turned it around for his good. And when he encountered his brothers again rather than being full of anger, resentment and bitterness for what they had done to him he forgave them and loved them. He allowed God to vindicate him. He knew that these negative emotions would block God’s power and that for the blessings to flow He must forgive them. Because of Joseph’s faith and his positive attitude he changed the destiny for millions of people.
And as Joseph looks back at the series of events of his life he can clearly see that God was there every step of the way directing his path the entire time. (“Acknowledge God in all of your ways &andHe will direct your path.” Proverbs 3:6). He was there for Joseph in the very same way He is for YOU today!
He wants to turn your adversity into opportunity too. But He needs your cooperation.
This means NOT complaining, NOT cursing your life and NOT belly aching about how bad things are. It means SPEAKING God’s positive words out of your mouth many times per day regardless of HOW you feel. Your feelings have little to do with it…they are fickle and will change a dozen times in one day!. God’s word is true and never changes so SAY IT NOW and SAY IT MANY TIMES EVERYDAY…”Thank You God for the adversity in my life. Thank you for using it to strengthen me and elevate me. Thank you for going through it with me and using it for my good. I am expecting you to show favor on me and I am expecting you to direct my path in all that I do.”
Matthew 17:20 promises “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed say to this mountain MOVE and it will move…nothing will be impossible for you. God…I believe your word is true and I’m expecting my mountain to move.”
God wants to work in your life. He wants to use your adversity to elevate you, but you will block His power if you live in the land of complaining and unbelief. And you’ve got to think beyond yourself and think about your future grandchildren. What God is doing in your life right now just won’t affect you but future generations to come. You and I can only see the small picture...small snapshots. Remember God wrote the movie, edited it and has seen it from its beginning to its end. There is great comfort in that!.
Sisters, this life is very short and the only treasures we store up are in Heaven. This is why these words today have such meaning. Your eternal life is so precious. Everything on this Earth…your money, your success, your material possessions…ALL OF IT…is temporary! So you see…this is WHY it is so important to embrace adversity…because it creates the things that are lasting and have eternal value.
Devotion #2
Trials
James 2:2-3... we're supposed to consider it joyful when we encounter trials of any sort as the proving of our faith brings out endurance & steadfastness & patience.
At the moment of your new birth, when you received Christ, the nature of God was planted on the inside of your spirit. Little seeds that everything that God is (his character, all of the fruit of the Spirit) was planted on the inside of you. It's ALL in you! Believe it or not, you are patient! It's a little tiny seed buried somewhere beneath your flesh. Patience is a fruit of the spirit that only grows under trial. Patience has everything to do with being steadfast, disciplined, committed, sticking with things and not giving up! When anything gets hard our flesh wants to quit and run away.
Patience and faith are like muscles. The less you use the more it atrophies and the weaker it gets. The more you use it the stronger it gets and the more you can do.
We don't need less problems, we need more strength. We don't need less opposition, we need more faith, more spiritual muscle on the inside of us. We need to be able to say "I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me!" If you can believe when you're going through something and if you can open your mouth and say "I hate this but I believe it's going to work out good. God, this doesn't feel good and I don't like it but I trust your word that you will work something good in me as a result of this. So, I'm going to put a smile on my face & I'm not going to murmur & complain. You do what you want to do in my life." When you start to do this those seeds that were planted on the inside of you began to grow. There will come a day when you are so glad that you didn't run away from things that were hard. You will learn to go through things with God and come out in victory on the other side. We all want to be conquerors but don't want anything to conquer. We get so down and discouraged about going through hard things. The good news is that you're going through with Jesus with you and you're going to come out on the other side! And when you come out of the furnace you won't even smell like smoke! Who could possibly imagine some of the things you went through earlier in your life and where you're at now?!
We are pregnant with so many good things on the inside of us.
A woman going through childbirth (labor) experiences pain and joy at the same time. The joy of bringing a child into the world overcomes the pain (as she will do it all over again) of the labor. Women will even pray for their labor to start. Are you praying for your spiritual labor to start?
Are you tired of being up and down...happy when things go your way and sad and depressed when they don't? Ask Jesus to do something in you... let your labor start.
Trials bring out a lot of things in us before they bring out the good stuff that's in there. Trials are not evidence of God's displeasure or anger. They develop us and they train us to use our faith.
Food for thought as we dive into this chapter.
Do you want to go to higher ground with God?
Do you want a greater intimacy with God? I think the question to that must be “yes” or you would not be on the call tonight.
We often get the erroneous idea about how all of this takes place. We want to go higher with God without having to go through the deep valleys to get there. As with ordinary sheep management, so with God’s people, one only gains higher ground by climbing up through the valleys. Any good sheepman knows that the best way to the mountaintop are the paths that wind through the dark valleys. Please note here that the verse states “I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” It does not say I die there, or stop there, but instead “I walk through. ”The word “through” is important. The psalmist doesn’t speak of going into the valley, as if it were a box canyon or a final destination. He talks about going through it, showing that he expects to emerge from its shadows into the light on the other side.
It’s common to use this verse to console someone who has lost a loved one. But even here, for the child of God, death is not an end but merely the door into a higher and more exalted life of intimate contact with Christ. Death is but the dark valley opening out into an eternity of delight with God. It is not something to fear, but an experience through which one passes on the path to a more perfect life.
Death is a doorway into our eternal home. Death means separation. Our spirits are separated from our earthly bodies. We get our new body that is created to live in Heaven. You exchange your corruptible body for your incorruptible one. It’s an exchange of clothes. Death opens the door to your true home.
This verse marks the halfway point in the Psalm. It marks the time when the sheep man will take their flocks onto distant ranges, up in the mountains, during the summer months. The sheep are totally alone with their shepherd during these months. They are completely dependent on him for their survival. There are lots of dangers to the sheep, but their shepherd is with them and leads them. It is a rough, steep trail up the mountains, The shepherd takes it at a pace for the slowest sheep to keep up. The shepherd takes the flock up through the valleys of the mountains because there is fresh water and forage available, and it is the easiest route. But there are predators like coyotes, bears, wolves and cougars that will prey on the flock. There are also rock slides, avalanches and many other natural disasters that could destroy or injure the sheep. One of the worst threats are the chilling storms that can quickly form and sweep through the valleys from the mountain peaks. If the sheep get soaked and chilled they could die of exposure. They are thin-skinned animals, easily susceptible to colds, pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses. But it’s in these valleys where the grass grows the best.
The shepherd knows that it’s in these valleys where the sheep can find strength and sustenance and gentle grazing despite all the threats around them.
It is the same for us as Christians...to know that even in the dark valley, our source of strength and courage can be found in Christ. When we look back on our life we can see how He has guided us through the most difficult times of our lives.
Storms of life will come. Predators will attack. The rivers of life may threaten to drown us but because HE with me, I shall not fear. It is the one who learns to live this way that is able to encourage and inspire the weaker ones around Her. Too many are shaken up, frightened and panicked by the storms of life. We claim to have confidence in Christ., but when the first dark shadows sweep over us and the path looks gloomy, we go into a pit of despair and doom. Sometimes we want to lay down and die. This is NOT who God created us to be. 10% of life is what happens to us and 90% is how we choose to respond to it. When we look back and see how faithful God has been in the past we have hope for our present and our future. Jesus told us that we would have valleys in life. John 16:33 says “in this world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.”
So the question is not whether we will have many or few valleys. It’s not whether those valleys are dark or merely dim with shadows. The question is how do I react to them? How do I go through them? Am I responding out of faith or fear? How do I cope with the trials and calamities that come my way?
With Christ I will face them calmly.
With His gracious Spirit to guide me I face them fearlessly.
The Gift of the Lord’s Presence.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death: This is the first dark note in this beautiful psalm. Previously David wrote of green pastures and still waters and paths of righteousness. Yet when following the LORD as shepherd, one may still walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
David used this powerful phrase to speak of some kind of dark, fearful experience. It is an imprecise phrase, yet its poetry makes perfect sense.
· It is a valley, not a mountaintop or broad meadow. A valley suggests being hedged in and surrounded.
· It is a valley of the shadow of death – not facing the substance of death itself, but the shadow of death, casting its dark, fearful outline across David’s path.
· It is a valley of the shadow of death, facing what seemed to David as the ultimate defeat and evil.
Notably, David recognized that under the shepherd’s leading, he may walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It isn’t his destination or dwelling place. Like the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, David might say that all of life is lived under the shadow of death, and it is the conscious presence of the LORD as shepherd that makes it bearable.
This line is especially suggestive when we read this psalm with an eye toward Jesus, the Great Shepherd. We understand that a shadow is not tangible but is cast by something that is. One can rightly say that we face only the shadow of death because Jesus took the full reality of death in our place.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death: This line from the psalm – and the psalm as a whole – has proven itself precious to many a dying saint through the ages. They have been comforted, strengthened, and warmed by the thought that the LORD would shepherd them through the valley of the shadow of death.
Near death, the saint still calmly walks – he does not need to quicken his pace in alarm or panic. Near death, the saint does not walk in the valley, but through the valley.
“Death in its substance has been removed, and only the shadow of it remains…. Nobody is afraid of a shadow, for a shadow cannot stop a man’s pathway even for a moment. The shadow of a dog cannot bite; the shadow of a sword cannot kill; the shadow of death cannot destroy us.” (Spurgeon)
“It has an inexpressibly delightful application to the dying; but it is for the living, too…. The words are not in the future tense, and therefore are not reserved for a distant moment.” (Spurgeon)
I will fear no evil: Despite every dark association with the idea of the valley of the shadow of death, David could resolutely say this because he was under the care of the LORD his shepherd. Even in a fearful place, the presence of the shepherd banished the fear of evil.
We might say that the shepherd’s presence did not eliminate the presence of evil, but certainly the fear of evil.
For You are with me: This emphasizes that it is the presence of the shepherd that eliminated the fear of evil for the sheep. No matter his present environment, David could look to the fact of God’s shepherd-like presence and know, “You are with me” and “I will fear no evil.”
Significantly, it is at the dangerous moment pictured in the psalm that the “He” of Psalm 23: 1-3 changes to “You.” The LORD as Shepherd is now in the second person. The personal pronouns I and Thou enter the conversation. It becomes a most intimate discourse of deep affection between the sheep and his shepherd.
When do you get the closest to God? When do you seek Him the most? During the good times or the bad?
I was very inspired by Jen Goeking’s FB live teaching on the pearl. It’s amazing. You will never look at a pearl in the same way.
How is a pearl made?
What the Bible says about Pearl
(From Forerunner Commentary)
Our English word pearl is derived from Sanskrit, meaning "pure." The biblical concept of holiness carries the idea of purity with it.
The pearl is an interesting study. Unlike other gems, pearls are produced by a living organism, an oyster, as the result of an injury. It usually begins forming around a grain of sand or an egg of some parasite that invaded the oyster. The oyster protects itself by layering the irritant with nacre—mother-of-pearl—until, out of pain and suffering, it forms an object of great beauty. The offending particle actually becomes a gem of great worth!
So it is with us spiritually. We are an irritant, a botch, a scab on God's creation because of our nature and our sins. But because He loves us, we are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, and gradually we can become a thing of beauty, clothed with the righteousness of Him who bought us.
We can make a number of other comparisons between pearls and other objects used as teaching vehicles in the Bible, such as the mustard seed. Both begin as something quite small but achieve different results. The mustard seed grows into the largest of herbs, but the pearl remains small. What is the lesson? Size does not determine value.
We can make a second comparison with ourselves. The pearl is first embedded in a mass of live but corruptible flesh, then separated and cleansed from its surroundings so that it can appear in its purity and beauty. So it is with the church. It is surrounded by, deeply embedded in, this corruptible world, and must be separated from the world before it can make a proper witness. As long as the pearl (church) remains in the oyster (world), it is of no value.
The production of the pearl is a gradual, even tedious, process. Slowly, the oyster adds layer after thin layer of nacre until the pearl is transformed. So it is with the church. For nineteen-and-a-half centuries, it has been in the making. If we add all who will be in the first resurrection from the time before Christ, then God has been working and adding to its lustrous value for almost six thousand years! All of this has occurred, and the world has hardly noticed, if at all, that this awesome process was progressing right under its nose.
In essence, the formation of the pearl is happening in secret. Colossians 3:3 says that our "life is hidden with Christ in God." Jesus tells His disciples: "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19). The world does not know where God's truth is transforming people into beings of glorious beauty. They are now just as we were before God revealed Himself to us. They are blind to the beauty of holiness. In fact, they are not merely blind, but as this verse shows, hostile to it.
Drawing the comparisons further, we know the oyster is at home in the depths of the ocean, a scavenger living off the garbage that sinks to the bottom of the sea. Revelation 13:1 shows the beast rising out of a sea: "Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name."
The Bible often uses a sea to represent multitudes of people, sometimes multitudes of enemies. Revelation 17:15 says, "And he said to me, 'The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.'" Isaiah 59:19 reads, "the enemy comes in like a flood." God must take the pearl, the church, from among the ungodly just as the oyster must be lifted from the muck and mire of the sea bottom.
Psalm 18:4-6, 15-16 expresses this analogy beautifully:
The pangs of death encompassed me, and the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears. . . . Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were uncovered at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.
So the church, an object of beauty to God, is presently hidden from the world because they do not really know true value when they see it. But it will not be that way for long.
The first four parables of Matthew 13 are darkened by an ominous cloud. In contrast, the last four cast light on the assurance of a positive future for the saints. In this second of the chapter's third pair of parables, Jesus reveals more secrets to His disciples regarding the high value God places on the church. The Parable of the Pearl (verse 45) particularly reveals the high cost to God of acquiring potential members of His Kingdom.
Until we are baptized members of God's church with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we cannot understand the full meaning and purpose of God's plan. As Asaph writes, "When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me - until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end" (Psalm 73:16-17). This parable helps us understand God's perspective.
Between the Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Parable of the Pearl, we can notice this distinction: The Treasure is made up of units of precious things, such as coins and gems of various kinds, although they are collectively one treasure. The Pearl, however, is a single object. These two illustrations - both of which conclude at the same place, the completion of the purchase - represent different aspects of the same truths: the costliness of the Treasure or Pearl, and the joy of the Purchaser.
The merchant is seriously and deliberately searching the world to secure the best and costliest gems. It is his livelihood, and he is diligent to travel extensively because he knows his efforts will be rewarded when he finds the best and purchases them. Since Christ is the One who seeks the sinner (Luke 19:9-10; John 6:44), the merchant cannot represent the members of God's church (Romans 3:11). The Shepherd seeks the sheep, not vice versa.
The use of the word "seeking" (Matthew 13:45) helps identify the merchant as Christ, as it means "to depart from one place and arrive at another." Jesus did this Himself to pay the price for the pearl. He departed from heaven and arrived on earth to complete His mission (Philippians 2:6-7; II Corinthians 8:9). He gave up everything - He sold all - to possess us!
Unlike other gems, pearls are produced by a living organism, an oyster, as the result of an injury. It usually begins forming around a grain of sand or an egg of some parasite that invaded the oyster. The oyster protects itself by layering the irritant with nacre (mother-of-pearl) until, out of pain and suffering, it forms an object of great beauty. The offending party actually becomes a gem of great worth.
In a similar way, spiritually, we are an irritant, a parasite due to our nature and sins (Romans 3:23-26). However, because God loves us, we are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, and gradually, we can become a thing of beauty, clothed with the righteousness of Him who bought us (Romans 3:24-26; Ephesians 2:13). As long as the pearl - the church - remains in the oyster - the world - it has no value. In fact, the pearl has no real intrinsic worth; its value resides in the immense cost paid for it.
God's grace is essential in understanding this parable (II Corinthians 9:15; Romans 6:23). The merchant is willing to buy the pearl at an exorbitant cost. No one can buy salvation or the Kingdom of God or eternal life for himself. Grace would not be grace if one were able to barter with God (Luke 7:41-42). According to Scripture, we have no righteousness, no talents, no goods, nothing that is of any value in purchasing such a priceless gift from God (Isaiah 64:6). Peter's denunciation of Simon Magus clearly shows that no one can buy what belongs to God (Acts 8:17-24).
Further, we do not choose Christ but He selects us (John 15:16; Luke 19:10). Since He is the merchant, the price paid was His life, and the church is the pearl. The church is one body (Ephesians 4:4), composed of those He has sought out through the ages to be a habitation of Christ by His Spirit and who will be His bride at His return.
The Pearl presents a wonderful picture of the purchase of the church in preparation for the Kingdom of God. It is encouraging to know that Jesus does not seek us in reluctant fulfillment of duty. Nor is He groping in the dark, hoping that we will respond to His plea, but He seeks us out with an efficient, organized, pre-planned goal in mind. He pursues us as a man courts a woman to be his bride, willing to spill His own blood as her purchase price (Acts 20:28). What greater price could have been paid for the church than the life of Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice?
Comments