Many Jesus followers assume living with God obeys a simple formula:
Believe in God + Do good = Receive God's blessings.
There are at least a couple of pieces of the puzzle that are missing. One, there is an enemy who wants to defeat us. Two, we are like sheep. Life and safety comes from staying close to the shepherd.
To defeat us, the enemy works to get us to wander away from the shepherd. He can try to convince us that there is greener grass that way. He will mimic the shepherd's voice to get us to go this way. Go anywhere, anyway, but where the shepherd is going.
And we are often fooled because we have developed a way of understanding the shepherd and a way of understanding "animal husbandry." Often, we are correct. We know something about grass. So, grass becomes everything a person needs to know about raising sheep. Water and wool have nothing to do with sheep. So, we veer off just a little from where the shepherd is going. Of course, if we keep going, we wind up miles away from where he is.
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