Guest Speaker – Shane Yarrow shares story on forced adoption
Our Year 10 students had the opportunity yesterday to hear from Shane Yarrow, who shared his personal story of being separated from his mother through forced adoption in Australia.
Devotion
Term 4, Week 8
'The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.'
Perhaps you memorised Psalm 23 as a child. The vivid visual images remain with us lifelong. Author Hannah Whitall Smith said, ‘What we all need is just to get back into the nursery again, and take up our childish verses once more, and, while reading them with the intelligence of our grown-up years, to believe them with all our old childish faith.’ As adults we become jaded, losing the simple joy that stress-filled lives require. We need to remember these three things:
1) Who our shepherd is – ‘The Lord’. He is the source of everything we will ever need, beginning with salvation. Jesus said: ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep’ (John 10:11 NKJV).
2) What the shepherd’s job is – protector and provider for the sheep. And He knows how to handle wayward, headstrong, vulnerable sheep and care for them. Long before Jesus came as our shepherd, the Father said, ‘I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey … And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David … he shall feed them and be their shepherd.’ (Ezekiel 34:22-23 ESV).
3) What the sheep’s job is – to trust the shepherd completely. Attempting to do His job will exhaust and defeat us. We must believe ‘with all our old childish faith’ that Jesus is a dependable, committed, and capable shepherd – and then act like we believe it. Knowing that His goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives lifts our present worries and dispels all our future concerns.
SoulFood: 2 Chron 9-12 John 11:28-37 Ps 102:18-28 Pro 27:13-16
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright 2023. You can access this devotion from the Vision Christian Media website: https://vision.org.au/the-word-for-today-reading/
Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Other News
Devotion – Put God between yourself and the foe
Faced with an enemy he couldn’t conquer on his own, King Asa prayed, ‘… “Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.” The Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. …’ (2 Chronicles 14:11-12 NIV).
Devotion – Know when to let go
Persistence, determination, commitment, and recognising the ‘right time to throw away’ are all commendable qualities, whether it’s setting aside time to pray and read every day, eating dinner with your family, finding a better job, or losing weight, etc.
