Pastor’s Corner: “Knowing the Shepherd”
My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me (John 10:27).
There is a story is told of a famous actor who was at a social gathering one evening. A minister asked him to recite the 23rd Psalm. The actor, a famous and eloquent star of stage and screen, agreed on one condition — that the minister, a man in his eighties who had served God faithfully and humbly for half a century, would also recite the Psalm. The minister agreed, and the actor began his recitation. Oh, the words came like beautiful music, and everyone was enthralled as he gave his magnificent presentation. When he finished, there was a hearty applause.
Then the minister stood. He was not eloquent; he was not gifted in that way. The preacher’s voice was rough and broken from many years of preaching, and his diction was anything but polished. But as he recited the classic psalm, a holy hush fell over the audience, and tears began to fill their eyes. When he finished, there was no applause. Only silence. The actor stood to his feet and said, “I have reached your ears, but this man of God has reached your heart.” When someone asked the actor what made the difference, he replied, “I know the psalm, but he knows the Shepherd.”
Coming out of the depths of his heart, the minister’s words, though the exact same words as spoken by the actor, had a special anointing of the Holy Spirit, which made the difference. God’s Word, the Bible, can be read or recited mechanically, sometimes very eloquently, but unless the words carry the anointing of the Holy Spirit they are without life. Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63, NIV).
“Some of these people have missed the most important thing in life—they don’t know God” (1 Timothy 6:21 TLB). There are 18 inches between your head and heart. But, unfortunately, some people will miss heaven by those 18 inches. They know God in their heads but not in their hearts. They intellectually believe the Gospel, but they’ve never let it change their hearts.
You might know string theory, chaos theory, or quantum physics. But if you don’t know God, you’ve missed the purpose of your life. At the end of your life, God will give you a final test. Here’s the good news: It’ll be an open-book exam. All the answers are in the Bible! On that test, God won’t ask you if you got straight As. He won’t care about how well you did in your career. He won’t ask to see your bank account balance. Instead, he’ll ask you this: Did you get to know me? Did you build a relationship with my Son whom I sent to Earth to die on the cross for you?
In His Grace,
Pastor Hamilton