Preparing For the Dominican Republic + the Global Conference

A Psalm of Thanksgiving. Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations. Psalm 100:1-5
Church or Tabernacle
Reading this Psalm today, we may recognize this place of ‘entering in’ as the church; our place of joyful shouts, gladness, praise, and song. However, the people of this day likely pictured the Tabernacle, or perhaps later on, Solomon’s Temple. I raise that issue because of this sentence from the Psalm…

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture (we) Enter into His gates with thanksgiving

Sheep in the Temple

Were sheep ever allowed into the temple? Well the short answer is ‘Yes, thousands upon thousands were allowed in,’ however none of them ever made it out alive. That should certainly give us pause.

We might than ask why then, as Christians, would we allow the Good Shepard Jesus to lead us to our death, and then somehow be thankful for it? In all honesty, most of us would probably prefer to be led to the green pastures and still waters of Psalm 23. That is of course until we realize that our Good Shepard is also the Lamb of God; the slaughtered lamb spoken of by the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 53:7).

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter…

Altered at the Altar

The Bible teaches us that Jesus, ‘for the joy that was set before, Him endured the cross’—the cross (for Him) being an altar of sacrifice. After His crucifixion and ultimate resurrection, Jesus was not the same; He was in fact, altered on the altar. The joy of green pastures and still waters await those willing to endure a symbolic, albeit real ‘altar-ing’.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Romans 6:5-6

Jesus our Good Shepard leads us to the altar for He knows once we are altered there; we will come away with joy in our hearts, thanksgiving upon our lips, and an ability to serve Him with gladness. In stands to reason if we are not experiencing this abundant life (and although we might be in the courtyard of the Tabernacle), we have likely not yet given ourselves over to the altar. How can there be rebirth, if the old has not died?

As Compassion advocates from around the world gather in the Dominican Republic next week, let us consider our position in the courtyard of God’s Tabernacle. I stand within the gates…Does my outlook, stance, and character reflect that of the Psalmist?

Please visit Compassion International’s “One Passion/One Purpose/One Voice” Blog.