Jan 13, 2011

Roaring Lambs?

Roaring lambs...

That's the title of a book written by Bob Briner.  

What in the world was the guy thinking when he wrote that? Roaring lambs? That’s nonsense! If his intent was to get people's attention with the title, it worked. 

Roaring lambs. That just doesn’t fit. It’s an oxymoron. Lambs don’t roar. Lambs bleat.  Baaaaa! 

It’s lions that roar. But roaring lambs?

And the more I kept repeating these two words, Roaring Lambs, the more it made such wonderful sense to me. That’s it! That’s exactly right. Roaring lambs, I love it!

The reason why I love the phrase “Roaring Lambs” is because that’s who we are. The Bible mentions us as sheep many times. One of the most beloved Psalms describes us as such – Psalm 23. Jesus said that He was the Good Shepherd and that we were His sheep.

For most of us who never grew up around a farm, we have this romanticized picture of a cuddly innocent looking sheep. But just ask anyone who has ever been around sheep. They may be innocent looking, but they are also smelly, dumb, needy, and did I mention stinky? 

Here’s the thing about sheep. When God created all the animals, the sheep got gipped. They have no horns, no claws, no fangs. They are not very fast, they have terrible hearing, they are pretty much blind, and to top it off they are stupid. You couldn’t design a more helpless pathetic creature than sheep. 

Some animals roar, or screech, but lambs, they get to bleat. Baaaa! How threatening is that.  Oh, no the big bad wolf is after me, Baaaaa!

Do you get it? That’s why we are called sheep. But we don’t need the Bible to tell us how weak and helpless we are against the methods of the devil. How easily we fall into temptation. I amaze my self by how easily I can get tripped up by sin. 

We can have hundreds and thousands of positive interactions with someone and when they commit one injury against us, we forget all the hundreds and thousands of positive interactions and all of a sudden he’s a jerk because of that one comment or that one incident. It’s amazing how one thought or one image can trip me up so that, when I am not alert to the enemy’s schemes, that image or thought so quickly leads to lust and fantasizing. 

We are completely helpless against the methods of the enemy. We are meek, lowly, and easily dismissed creatures that are far from a threat to the enemy or the status quo. 

Oh, we like to think of ourselves strong and tough. And we get so enamored with physical strength. But the enemy doesn’t fight us like that. The weapons of the enemy are such that we have no defense or offense against it. 
  • Just look at all the strong and tough guys who get tripped up by drugs.  
  • Just look at all the strong and tough minded who can’t resist gossiping. 


So when we look at the enemy’s methods we think, we’ve got to be strong! We’ve got to stay in shape because the enemy is formidable! The enemy is coming and he is real and he is relentless! We need to be strong!

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The strength of the enemy is true, but we’re still just sheep.

We’re just sheep!  But wait until those sheep put on the armor of God. Then these sheep ROAR! Because we are going in the strength of His might.

Read all about it in Ephesians 6:10-18.

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