Dear Ones,
Hope you are enjoying the sunny weekend but staying cool. It’s in the 90’s here today but 100 when we came home from the lake yesterday. We had a wonderful time with Al’s sister with so much sharing, insights, laughter, coffee and more coffee.. and now she is on her way back to Michigan. I am doing some catch up now but with a full heart.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Lately I have felt the Lord trying to get my attention and to focus on Him as my Good Shepherd.  I have come across scriptures that seem to stand out from my Bible reading and have sensed He has much He wants to teach me of His love for the sheep.  recently I was in Luke 15 as Jesus responded to the Pharisees and scribes when they complained that Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them. But Jesus told them the Shepherd would gladly leave 99 sheep to look for the one lost sheep and would lay the lamb on His shoulder when He finds it. Luke 15: 6b-7(NRSV) says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” When we were a lost sheep, the Lord searched for us and pursued us and forgave us and welcomed us into the fold. But I wonder if we have forgotten what it was like when we felt lost and apart from Him. For so many years I have known the Lord, but I also remember those days of wanting to give my all to him but holding back…it was not a peaceful feeling and like living in two worlds. But what joy when responding to Him one night at camp and I took the leap; no longer a sheep hiding from my shepherd but found by Him. Around us are people lost and trying to find happiness in a world that can never give them what they are searching for. They don’t know the Shepherd will feed and satisfy their hunger, protect them and nurture them, give them a sense of peace and rest.  Do we have, do I have, a heart that loves enough to risk what their reaction might be, to point the way to the Shepherd? To tell them they need only confess their sins and ask the Shepherd to forgive them and to surrender their lives into His loving hands?  Let us ask the Lord for compassionate hearts and a boldness to proclaim Him by the way we live and by our words.
Challenge for today: Think of those you know that do not yet know the Lord and pray for opportunities to share Him. 
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy