Once my friends, about 8 of us were told by our boss about sheep stuck deep in some blackberry bushes on a hillside.

This bush has many sharp thorns in it and it is easy to get tangled in it, or stuck fast. When we got there we found that the sheep was stuck solid. So in we went, cutting and slashing away at the blackberry bush to get the sheep out. We dragged the fighting sheep out and we were slashed and cut from the thorns. My arms were scratched, slashed, and bleeding from many places, and in some places thorns were embedded.
We led the sheep far away and then we stood between the sheep and the thorn bush in a line and to both sides of the sheep to try to stop her running back into the blackberry bush. Behind the sheep and on both sides of the sheep were the great open spaces. And with all our guidance and setting the sheep free, and showing the sheep the way to freedom, what did the sheep do with its new liberation!
The sheep charged at us full on and side stepped a couple of us like a great sportsperson and ran straight back into the tunnel it has made in the blackberry bush at full speed digging itself in deeper than before. We just stood there totally amazed, stunned and shocked at the total foolishness of the sheep and the fact that it was now buried so deep that it would take so much to get it out now. So we had to help it out once again.
Galatians Chapter 5, verse 1: Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again
Imagine the feeling God gets when He sees us go back to the old life after all His careful teaching and loving guidance. God spends years teaching us and guiding us and what do we do? Sometimes we think that it is comfortable just to do as we have always done – the trouble is what we have always done was what God is trying to lead us away from – the life of misery and sinfulness.
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This is what Jesus had to deal with, with the general public of that time. And today we have this same mentality over parties, party mates, misuse of alcohol and drugs, and sexual looseness.
God tries again and again to lead us away from this kind of foolish lifestyle and we jump in full on, head first, even after seeing the devastation and bloody carnage of car accidents by drunk and drugged drivers, in real life, or on the news, or in the newspaper. Even with all the evidence of marriage breakups, violence, blackouts, and so much more we still jump in full-on foolishly into the next party, the next event and sometime soon we are at another funeral, or talking of lost mates, and the ways that are fully accepted in a society which rules the world with acceptance of lust and drunkenness. Jesus wants to lead us from what is accepted, and what is human tradition and fantasy that is accepted by the masses.
God calls for us to be independent and different and together as an example for the world to see and want to follow.
We must ask ourself “Do we think for ourself, or do our mates do it for us?” We need to ask ourselves this. “Are we worried about letting mates down so we then go out with them and jump of the cliff with them, or will we follow the teachings of Jesus and live a life of control, genuine fun and acceptance.”
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Joshua Chapter 1, verse 9: Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
The sheep jumped back into the tunnel of hell and that is the example we shouldn’t follow.
If your mates have a date with death and carnage, you don’t have to hop in the car and ride with them. You do have a choice, the sensible choice of saying a big confident, “No!” And showing your “old mates” a good decent example that may just save their life in the future. Do the right thing and don’t let yourself down. The pain isn’t worth it.
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Psalm 48, verse 14: For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.
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All the best from
James M Sandbrook.
March 29, 2012.