![]() ![]() When you wander away from him, God seeks you (Luke 15:4-7). ![]() This means God knows you intimately and cares for you in a deeply personal way. Yet, if we pause for a while to reflect, we will marvel over the fact that God is not just our shepherd, but also your shepherd and my shepherd. That which is true of God's people corporately is also true for each one of us individually.īecause Psalm 23 is so familiar, we can easily take for granted its extraordinary good news. Yet, Psalm 23 focuses on God's care for the individual: "The LORD is my shepherd, I have all that I need" (23:1). In some psalms, God is envisioned as the shepherd of the Israelite people: "Please listen, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph's descendants like a flock" (80:1, also 28:9). If we allow Scripture to shape our experience of God and the way we talk about that experience, then we'll avoid the extremes of individualism and communalism. They can be so focused on building a church and making a difference in the world that they forget the extent to which our faith is deeply personal as well as essentially communal. They put so much emphasis on the corporate dimensions of faith that they neglect the individual. Etc." There is a tendency to neglect completely the profoundly communal dimension of biblical faith, to overlook the fact that God is creating a community of people for himself and his purposes.īut, sometimes the critics of hyper-individualistic Christianity swing too far on their reactive pendulum. Indeed, in many churches these days, you can sing songs of intimate love for God that communicate only in the first person singular: " I love you. One of the most common criticisms of contemporary Christianity in America is its excessive individualism. The LORD is my shepherd I have all that I need. ![]()
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