The Lord is My Shepherd

Image from https://philmoser.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/lord-is-my-shepherd_t_nv1.jpg

Five years ago, we used to read "Springs in the Valley" (by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman) as our devotion guide.  I can still remember one of the devotions on Psalm 23: 1: "The Lord is my shepherd". The author explained the verse this way:

"The Shepherd is responsible for the sheep; not the sheep for the Shepherd. The worst of it is, that we sometimes think we are both the Shepherd and the sheep, and that we have both to guide and follow."

After reading those sentences, I was reminded by a few lines most of us might have heard at church or from some Christians.

"I am the biggest tither in church. Without me, there will be no one to support our church."

"I am the head of the Children's ministry. Without me, the children's ministry will be crippled." (I didn't know that the Children's ministry has two legs! hehe...)

"I am the only guitarist in our church. Without me, the worship team will not be complete."

"I am the most important person in our church. Without me, our local church will cease to exist." (Hmmm...Must be some sort of Diotrephes!)

I believe I don't have to write down more examples but I know that you get my point.  Some Christians believe that the church revolves around them. Now, given the above quotes, two scenarios came to mind. First, the one saying them has an ego as huge as the Great Wall of China (From the urban legend that the Great Wall can be seen from the moon. This is NOT true.) In other words, there must be something wrong with the person saying these things, not only spiritually, but sad to say, even mentally.

Second, if what the person said is indeed true (that the church will cease to exist without him), then, there must be something wrong with the local church. It might NOT be a church of God. A true, Bible-believing, God-built church has Jesus Christ as its foundation - not any MAN. If the existence of a church revolves around a person or around a few important people, we must think twice about such church.

Here is a quote I got somewhere (though I forgot where. This has been in my phone for a long time already):

"Your choices will not determine whether God winds up where He wants to go. He will arrive at His destination either through you, around you, over you, or inspite of You."