Psalm 8:1; add 31:1-3a

My Shepherd met me in His green pastures and laid me down in Acts. Acts 20:35 arrested my attention, as it always does:

Acts 20:35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

I’m intrigued by Paul’s account of what Jesus said at the Last Supper because the statement does not appear in any of the Gospel accounts.*

It’s likely Paul picked this up from Jesus Christ during the three years he was tutored by our LORD in the Arabian desert (See * and Galatians 1:1, 15-20). (It is also possible the Spirit gave to Paul a summary of the lesson Jesus was teaching during the Last Supper.)

Along the still waters, I reflected on what Jesus said at His Last Supper: “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). I remind the Church at each observance that Jesus “blessed,” that is, gave thanks to His Father for the bread that He said represented His body being given up to the cruel Cross for. us. In connection with this, Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

I went into the valley and knelt in the shadow of His Cross, ashamed of my many expressions of ingratitude. He said, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1), to lay down our lives for Him (1 John 3:16 (consider John 3:16 — Selah!); see John 10:15; 15:13; 12:25; see Luke 17:33; Matthew 16:24-25; and notice the connection Jesus makes between His call to the disciples and this principle of dedicating our lives to Him (Luke 9:23-24).

He spoke: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

At the table, His voice of many waters called for the rivers of living water to move through my life into this world (Revelation 1:15; 14:2; see John 7:38-39). Goodness and mercy attended me as I followed Him into His harvest.

Praying for revival! 🙏

Going live asap:

https://rumble.com/v7cu2s2-shepherds-pasture.html

[*Paul was converted “on the road to Damascus” (Acts 9:1-18). After he was baptized, he began preaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Christ (Acts 9:19-22). According to Galatians 1:15-20, it was three years from his conversion to his first meeting with any of the Apostles. Either the 3 years is what is meant in the expression, “after many days” (Acts 9:23), or sometime before Acts 9:26. His supporters let him down by bucket and sent him to Tarsus (Acts 9:30). After the three-year period, Barnabas went to Tarsus to bring Saul (Paul) to  Antioch (Acts 11:25). Apparently, Saul (Paul) did not go directly to Tarsus, but into Arabia, which lay south-east nearby Damascus. Sometime during this period, Paul experienced what he describes in 2 Corinthians 12:1-5.]