I was working on this a few nights ago, and developed a bad case of writer’s block. I couldn’t get past the first line which at times I thought was perfect and other times I just wasn’t sure. When I went to bed, I prayed as I drifted off to sleep, asking God to help me with the thought I was trying to convey. I had a dream, and when I woke up I realized the Lord had answered my prayer.
In the dream I was on a farm, walking along a hillside toward a barn. I noticed a few dogs that had surrounded and was barking at an injured bird. I shooed the dogs away and picked up the bird. It had been burned on one side. I held it up to eye level. Our eyes locked just long enough for me to sense that it was hoping I would help it – long enough for me to feel that if I did, it would get better.
I couldn’t have said it any better myself . . . and the Lord knew it. It’s a fitting story for the text that had caught my attention. In Acts 20, listen to what Paul tells the leaders of the church at Ephesus.
“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard.”
It’s not a ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality. It is a ‘fittest keep watch and be shepherds’ mentality. Paul just happens to be talking to leaders here; he called a special meeting for them. He was encouraging them to do what he did himself. As he traveled about, this is a big part of what he did.
As much as he did to point people in the right direction, there were always those who came in behind him to point them in the wrong direction; not too terribly different than how it is today. How many go into church on Sunday and here a good representation of the gospel and by Monday or Tuesday it is neutralized? By the end of the week, at least spiritually, they are like the injured bird surrounded by barking dogs.
We may not have as many to care for as Paul did, but we can all at least keep watch over ourselves. We must keep watch over ourselves. And then, whether over 2, 20 or 200, we are to be shepherds. This, at every level, is our mission.
Hunger and Thirst 
I’m so glad you shared this, that He gave you the words and that dream to provide us with a visual. There have been several things come up and out lately that this truly lies within the heart of what to do. I can’t watch over everyone. But I can watch over a few, the ones He has given me to.
God bless you and yours as you watch over your flock.
Sometimes I wonder why I need so much direction – but I do. It seems my mind thinks of endless possibilties. His speaking settles it all out. I think you expressed a similar thought recently.
Brings to mind the thought that a good overseer, watchman, helps prepare others to be good watchmen as well by showing and leading them to the tools to accomplish just that.
When we push others to trust in God and not us – that is giving what they need to survive. While supporting them as they build that foundation in Him.
Rachel
I know we all sense that what God is doing in us and with us is for a purpose beyond ourselves. Little bits like this help me to see at least a portion of what that purpose is about.
>>We must keep watch over ourselves.
“Pastor” should be a verb, and not a noun or a title. We should watch over ourselves, indeed, Mike.
By the way, I find it quite spectacular that our Father spoke to you in a dream.
Didn’t the prophet Joel say something about that, back in the old days of The Scriptures? 🙂
There is a part of God that protects us from our enemy and yet another part that seems as if He pushes us into the ring with him. Little by little until we learn how to whip him. There is a story in Luke 10 that caught my attention one day. The 72 returned and were all excited that ‘even the demons submitted to them’. It was new to them. Jesus’ reply . . . ‘I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven’.
I believe He wants us to see him fall. To understand that we are victors over him . . . that we might then help others to see it.
As far as the dreams . . . they don’t happen often, but they are cool when they do. He doesn’t waste them.
Hello Mike,
My name is Eden and I am the (sort of) editor of Idylls For the King, a new Christian literary blog/journal. I would like to invite you to have a look at the site.I don’t know if you would be interested in or write this sort of thing, but If you would ever like to submit poetry, fiction, or song lyrics you have written, please just send me an email and I will make you a contributer. Blessings,
Eden
http://idyllsfortheking.wordpress.com
I will check it out.