The Lord communicates with us more through His Written Word than by any other means.

The Bible is so important in the Christian’s life, that we are told in 1 Peter 2:2 that we are to “Desire the sincere milk of the Word”. In the Greek, the word “Desire” in this verse means to “Intensely Crave”. We can certainly see from the wording in this verse, that The Lord is trying to get our full attention as to just how important that the Bible is to the Born-again Believer in Christ. In the 21st chapter of John, Jesus asked the Apostle Peter 3 times, “Peter, do you love me?” Jesus said to Peter, if you love Me “Feed My Sheep”. This was so important to Jesus, that He repeated “Feed My Sheep” 3 times.

That was the only time that Jesus repeated Himself 3 times in Scripture. In this verse, the word “Feed” in the Greek means to “Tend to as a Shepherd; to graze”.

It is quite unfortunate that the Church today has not had a good understanding of the “ proper function of a Shepherd”. It seems that many Christians today think that one of the main functions of the Shepherd is to feed the Sheep. This is not true. Shepherds who have sheep as their livestock, “do not feed their sheep”. They either already have grazing pastures or they lead their sheep to grazing pastures in which “ the sheep feed themselves”.

The 2 main functions for God’s Shepherds in the Church are: The Shepherd should always be attentive that the Sheep are grazing in rich green pastures, which is God’s Written Word: And the Shepherd should always be very alert concerning false doctrine that may creep into the Sheepfold.

We as Christians have probably seen many times a Pastor bring forth a Sermon with great excitement, and yet the very next day or a few days later, we don’t even remember the Sermon. The reason for this is: The Holy Spirit did not prepare that Spiritual meal for us. This is why that we often don’t remember the Sermon. As that Pastor was reading and meditating upon God’s Written Word, it was The Holy Spirit who prepared that Spiritual meal for the Pastor, which then produced excitement in that Pastor’s Spirit as he brought forth his Sermon.

The Holy Spirit prepares our Spiritual meals for each one of us as we read from God’s Written Word and meditate upon it, which then causes God’s Word to get deep down into our Spirit.

So, we have seen a good example of why that it is not the job of the Shepherd to feed the sheep. That job belongs to The Holy Spirit. This is why that Jesus was so very concerned when He told Peter to tend to My Sheep as a Shepherd by leading them to graze in rich green pastures, which is God’s Written Word.

As Christians, it is so very important for each of us to graze in the rich green pastures of God’s Written Word. As we graze in God’s Word, The Holy Spirit knows which nutrients are needed in each Christian’s Spiritual meal. When The Holy Spirit adds the proper nutrients to our Spiritual meal from God’s Word, that is when God’s Word gets deep down into our Spirit.
                                                                                            Grace and Peace, Alan Finch

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