Dear Fellow-laborers in the Kingdom of God:

Sometimes I must seem like a cracked record, always repeating and emphasizing the crucial responsibility of speaking God's Word, even the Gospel for Him. But this week, as I prepared a Sunday School Lesson  based on the Pentecostal-CharismaticCurriculum Commission's lesson, the message and charge God gave to Ezekiel leaped out at me. 

"So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
"Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from  your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth." (Ezekiel 33:7-12). 

I have pointed out since at least 1972, in Talk To Ministers in the old Up Way for Christians Magazxine that we have the responsibility to preach the Gospel truthfully and honestly and that by so doing, we touch every area of the lives of those to whom we minister.

In the 33rd chapter, God has likened His ministers and prophets to watchmen on the wall, upon whom their city depends to warn of approaching danger. In the 34th chapter, he moves to a new analogy. God's ministry and prophets are to be like shepherds who faithfully care for God's flock. 

We know that Jesus speaks of Himself as The Good Shepherd who even lays down His own life for His sheep. It is clear from both Jesus' teaching and from David and Ezekiel that the Lord expects His shepherds to be faithful in their ministry to the sheep  entrusted to them.  The Psalmist, David, gives us a beautiful picture of a good shepherd and his leadership in the 23rd Psalm.  In the first verse, David identifies who the Shepherd is. He is none other than the Lord. 

So what is the result of the Lord being his Shepherd? He declares that he will not lack or want for anything needful because the Shepherd . 

Yours for Jesus' sake,

Bro. Sam