Dogs of Peace

I've been waking up at 3am the last few mornings. Usually what I do when I can't get back to sleep is pray. I've been really trying to not talk so much but listen to God instead...He obviously has more important things to say to me than I do him. This morning was particularly interesting...I'll try my best to explain what I think he was getting at...somewhere in my praying I slipped into a dream, I think.

Sheep. I have always loved sheep. I have not been around many and I've been told that they tend to smell bad and are not very smart. Well, the same can be said about teenage boys and I usually have a yard or house full of them and love them too. I was once at the home of a friend who told me his mother was cooking lamb chops for dinner...being a huge Sherry Lewis fan, I was having no part in that. (To those of you who are too young to know who she is google her, she had a little friend named "Lamb Chop") I told him I had to leave. I know the people of the Bible ate sheep as well as used their wool for clothing and skin softener, the latter two don't bother me but killing them just makes me a little queezy not to mention very sad. Anyway, I had sheep in my dream but they weren't the main event...no, another animal was the champion of this dream. We had a shepherd, I am certain, now that I think of it he was Jesus, makes sense, he is the good shepherd. But, he had helpers. They were beautiful border collies who weaved in and out of the herd moving them around with great precision. The shepherd walked behind and the dogs did the work....I believe this dream was God's voice to my ears.
I have some very good friends who are those "Dogs or Peace". They are the ones I call on to ask for prayer, usually it's a request for someone they may not even know but they go to work for me. They work together and don't even know it. I have had some very specific requests lately and I see God moving in big ways and directing my sheep herding friends to go left or right, to visit someone who's about to go over a steep embankment, to stop and be still or to be bold and tell the truth in love. It's a beautiful picture of what the kingdom of God really is all about. It's not a church with a tall steeple, or beautiful architecture or the people who go to these establishments to "see and be seen". It's about the sheep....those of us who are smelly and not too smart. It's about all of us who are searchers, dreamers, failures and successes. The shepherd loves us all and the "Dogs of Peace" help guide us home.

This is a song that came to mind when I woke up after the dream.I wish I could have found it to download, it's a rock song but beautifully done by a group of studio musicians who call themselves "Dogs or Peace". The album is called Speak, if you can find it in the back of some record bin or on the net get it. The words of this song are simple but...hey, so are sheep.

Out on the mountain
The Shepherd is watching
Those running from all reason
We can help them see Him

We can do our part
To change the hearts
Of everyone who's
Out there running
Storms are coming
Out there on your own
You call the Spirit
Angels hear it
The dogs of peace will guide you home

We're merely servants
Bowed before the Master
Humbled that He'd choose us
We're amazed that He could use us

To do our part
In changing hearts
Of everyone who's
Out there running
Storms are coming
Out there on your own
You call the Spirit
Angels hear it
The dogs of peace will guide you home

We can do our parts
In changing hearts
Of everyone who's
Out there running
On your own
You call the Spirit
Angels hear it
The dogs of peace will guide you home

To Billy, Teresa, Kelly, LeAnn, Les, Michael, Melda, CarolAnn, and all I have missed...thank you. Keep up the good herding.