Today's encouragement comes from Mark 6:34, where we read these words:
"And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things."This text (above) is very instructive, because in it we see what compassionate ecclesiastical "shepherds" do. Instead of psychoanalyzing people, truly-called church shepherds follow the lead of the church's Chief Shepherd (Jesus), and they *teach* people. Why is preaching/teaching the key to shepherding? Be-cause heavenly instruction, in the context of the church, leads to gracious gospel order in the lives of God’s children.
When these people (above) left the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ that day, they went home with a perspective and an understanding that they had lacked, before they found Him. Now, their lives would never be the same, since they had been perfectly "shepherded" by the Lamb of God.
[Puritan quote of the day: "He that is at peace in himself, will be peaceable to others, peaceable in his family, peaceable in the church, peaceable in the state.” —Richard Sibbes, in, "The Soul's Conflict with Itself"]
