If you’re a Western buff like I am, then
stored in your memory bank are vivid pictures of rowdy cattle drives.
Visions of dusty cowpokes, whirling their lassoes and spurring their excited
horses, flash across your mind’s eye. Who can forget the whistling,
shouting drivers or the crack of their whips as they drove the thundering
herd through sagebrush-dotted landscapes?
Sometimes those old movies featured range wars between
the cattlemen and the sheepherders. All-out conflicts would arise over
land, water and fences. To many of us those were the "good old
days".
Allow me to compare what is taking place in the Christian
world today with the difference between the cattle drive and moving
sheep. The difference between the two is simple: cattle must be driven
whereas sheep can be led.
In beautiful Psalm 23, verse 2b, it states, "…he
leadeth me beside the sill waters." In verse 3b we read, "…he
leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake."
And in John 10:4,5 Jesus said, "And when he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they
know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from
him: for they know not the voice of strangers."
We are living in the time foretold by both the prophets
of old and the Lord Jesus Christ. Repeatedly God’s people have
been warned to beware of hireling shepherds and wolves among the flock.
And yet today, more than at any other time since the birth, death and
resurrection of Christ, have there been so many false prophets, hireling
shepherds and wolves among God’s sheep.
The result of this onslaught of perversion against
the truth is rebellion against the doctrine "once delivered to
the saints," confusion, delusion and destruction. We are living
in the time "when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after
their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching
ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall
be turned into fables." (2 Timothy 4:3,4)
One of the telltale signs of a hireling shepherd is
that the people begin to lose their "freedom to follow". Instead,
they are subtly "herded" into a conformity mentality under
the guise of "unity". Because critical thinking is belittled
and scoffed at, they quickly turn off their brains and run with the
herd. Eventually, they are brought into total control under the harsh
whip of lies and deception. And, down the line, they find themselves
under a heavy yoke that is impossible to bear.
This yoke of bondage can be made up of do’s and
don’ts (legalism); fear and guilt, (control) and lust for self-importance
in "God’s Kingdom," (self-righteousness and pride).
Whenever a person comes under the heavy yoke of a
false prophet, hireling shepherd, doctrines of demons and/or the falsehood
of working one’s way to heaven, then that person has been removed
from God’s sheepfold and placed in the herd. Surely life is hard
when you are a cow!
If you recognize that you have been chased down, roped,
hog-tied, branded and whipped into submission by heretical teachers
and/or teachings; if you feel like a cow, and your burden has become
too heavy to bear, why not come back to the Shepherd and Lover of your
soul? Jesus’ invitation still rings true, "Come unto me,
all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my
burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)
