God used the sheep and shepherd analogy throughout the entire Bible as His favorite description of His relationship with us. Jesus told us, "I am the Good Shepherd;I know my sheep and my sheep know me " Jn 10:14
Sadly, the sheep and shepherd Scriptures just don't seem relevant to many in today's fast paced, high tech world. But this message is more relevant now then it's ever been! Our world is in a mess! We're ruining our pastures, just as all sheep do without a Shepherd. Our pastures and rivers stink with pesticides and allergies and sicknesses are increasing at an alarming rate. Even our atmosphere is affected. Need I mention that all our core values are at risk? We are in a mess because of our inherent greed, selfishness and lust.
We wouldn't be in this mess if we realized God gave us the Bible as our operating manual and He gave us His Son Jesus to shepherd us personally. The Good Shepherd easily guides and teaches His sheep safely through thickets and thorns, over precarious pathways and brings them to rest when they need it.
As I quoted in the book, "But rather pursue God and do things His way, people everywhere, all over the world, have plunged headlong into the deceptive pursuit of the here and now and have decided that accumulating worldy goods and pleasures is their best bet for finding happiness."
Believe me...no one in Sheep World accumulating the barn's treasures could ever be as blessed as a sheep who knows his Shepherd!
Our Shepherd longs to shepherd every single one of us, personally. If we ask Him to shepherd us, He will! Jesus specifically told us, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
It is urgent that mankind specifically ask Jesus to be their Shepherd and to seriously start reading our Operating Manual, the Bible! God knows all about us...He wants us to know all about Him!
For those sheep that already follow the Shepherd, give thanksgiving! "On your feet now--applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourselves into his presence. Know this: God is God, and God, GOD. He made us; we didn't make him. We're his people, his well-tended sheep. Enter with the password: "Thank you!" Make yourselves at home, talking praise. Thank him. Worship him." Psalm 100 The Message Bible
I had my 29th radio interview this week - with more to come. Pray I get the message out!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
GETTING THE WORD OUT!
I just finished 28 radio interviews that have gone out all over the Nation through a wonderful media company out of New York, N.Y. and several from Thomas Nelson Publisher. It felt great to be connected with all those early morning commuters going to work.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
All Praise and Honor to The Good Shepherd!
I just want to say, loud and clear, this book is the Lords! All honor and glory to Him!
The Lord opened up the sheep and shepherd scriptures for me and revealed things that I didn't know! He encouraged me to continue serving my flock when I thought it should be over (He knew I still had lots to learn). It was His idea for the book to be published! He opened closed doors (tightly closed doors) and pushed me through with my mouth hanging wide open!!! When I was told I had to write a Proposal, I had to ask, "What is a Proposal?" My Shepherd actually helped me write the Proposal for the book. Together we wrote for two months! Two wonderful months!!! Of course it was accepted. In fact, the 1st Publisher said it was, quote, "perfect". What a Shepherd! I think He chose me for this job because I was such a novice...I had to totally depend on Him. I had to! I think He is happy to have His little sheep book finally getting out there among the people who so need Him...and I pray they will also realize He needs them! That's pure love!
The Lord opened up the sheep and shepherd scriptures for me and revealed things that I didn't know! He encouraged me to continue serving my flock when I thought it should be over (He knew I still had lots to learn). It was His idea for the book to be published! He opened closed doors (tightly closed doors) and pushed me through with my mouth hanging wide open!!! When I was told I had to write a Proposal, I had to ask, "What is a Proposal?" My Shepherd actually helped me write the Proposal for the book. Together we wrote for two months! Two wonderful months!!! Of course it was accepted. In fact, the 1st Publisher said it was, quote, "perfect". What a Shepherd! I think He chose me for this job because I was such a novice...I had to totally depend on Him. I had to! I think He is happy to have His little sheep book finally getting out there among the people who so need Him...and I pray they will also realize He needs them! That's pure love!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Women of Faith Support "Heaven Has Blue Carpet"!
My Editor sent me this note:
The Women of Faith Representative tells me the WOF have fallen in love with your book, and they've picked it as one of the select few to be sold on the concourse tables at their conferences. Congrats!
The Women of Faith Representative then sent me this note:
First, let me congratulate you on an AMAZING book. I loved every moment I spent reading it. In fact, I was so engrossed in the manuscript that I had to print it out and take it home with me to finish at night. You are a wonderful writer, and your stories are so touching and heartfelt. Well done! The Women of Faith are very excited to carry your book on the concourses this fall!
Women of Faith endorsers who will be on the cover of my book:
Sheila Walsh, Women of Faith Speaker and author of, Get off your Knees and Pray
Marilyn Meberg, Women of Faith speaker and author of Love Me..Never Leave Me
Dr. Thelma Wells, president of A Woman of God Ministries, speaker, author, and mentor
I met Sheila Walsh!
I was blessed to meet Sheila Walsh at the 2008 Women of Faith Infinite Grace Conference in Tampa, Fl, August 15, 16! She is absolutely beautiful inside and out! She spoke a powerful "now" message so poignantly to her audience, you could have heard a pin drop.
The conference was wonderful. These women of God had us laughing non-stop for two solid days! Of course, the messages also brought us to tears and deep soul searching. What an invigorating and healing weekend away for women! And did I mention the talent these WOF have? It blew my mind!
I'm in the planning stage for our family's yearly Ladies Get-A-Way (4 daughers, two daughter-in-laws & myself). Guess where I want to go?
The Women of Faith Representative tells me the WOF have fallen in love with your book, and they've picked it as one of the select few to be sold on the concourse tables at their conferences. Congrats!
The Women of Faith Representative then sent me this note:
First, let me congratulate you on an AMAZING book. I loved every moment I spent reading it. In fact, I was so engrossed in the manuscript that I had to print it out and take it home with me to finish at night. You are a wonderful writer, and your stories are so touching and heartfelt. Well done! The Women of Faith are very excited to carry your book on the concourses this fall!
Women of Faith endorsers who will be on the cover of my book:
Sheila Walsh, Women of Faith Speaker and author of, Get off your Knees and Pray
Marilyn Meberg, Women of Faith speaker and author of Love Me..Never Leave Me
Dr. Thelma Wells, president of A Woman of God Ministries, speaker, author, and mentor
I met Sheila Walsh!
I was blessed to meet Sheila Walsh at the 2008 Women of Faith Infinite Grace Conference in Tampa, Fl, August 15, 16! She is absolutely beautiful inside and out! She spoke a powerful "now" message so poignantly to her audience, you could have heard a pin drop.
The conference was wonderful. These women of God had us laughing non-stop for two solid days! Of course, the messages also brought us to tears and deep soul searching. What an invigorating and healing weekend away for women! And did I mention the talent these WOF have? It blew my mind!
I'm in the planning stage for our family's yearly Ladies Get-A-Way (4 daughers, two daughter-in-laws & myself). Guess where I want to go?
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
BOOK REVIEWS HAVE BEEN GOOD!
Publisher's Weekly Review
Heaven Has Blue Carpet by Sharon Niedzinski
When Niedzinski, a suburban Michigan housewife and mother of six, moved into a century-old country farmhouse, she naively ordered a flock of Columbia sheep to match her New England Countryside decorating theme. Thus began 16 years of indoctrination into the finer arts of sheep care that included breeding rams, flushing, and the snip,dip, and clip ritual. To her children's dismay, Niedzinski used the dinner hour to regale her family with the grittier details of shepherding, including cutting off newborns' tails, adopting "bummer" rejected lambs into her blue-carpeted home, and accepting that a sheep's destiny is the slaughterhouse. But this is a Christian living book, not a farmer's almanac. To that end, each chapter winsomely approaches the similarities between shepherding and its spiritual parallels found throughout the Bible, where a loving shepherd is needed to guide, protect, and shelter humanity. Niedzinski so beautifully depicts her foray into shepherding that readers might be tempted to order a flock for their own spiritual instruction.
Note by Sharon:
I received many letters of congratulations from the staff at Thomas Nelson Publishers for Publisher's Weekly Review! All praise goes to the Lord God Almighty!
Discipleship Journal
Helping You Grow In Christ
DJ Picks
BOOKS
Heaven Has Blue Carpet
Sharon Niedzinski/Thomas Nelson
When suburbanite Sharon Niedzinski moved to the country with her family, she decided a flock of sheep would look picturesque in the nearby pasture. Enter a steep learning curve and hard, daily work to serve the flock. Yet the sheep remained oblivious to her existence: They wouldn't look her in the eye, ran away when she came into the pasture, and trampled her to get to the food she carried. At least caring for orphan lambs was a joy. If a book about sheep and lambs sounds too precious for your taste, have no fear. These informal sketches include enough straight talk about lambing and foot rot to add a heavy dose of reality. After reading Heaven Has Blue Carpet, I not only know a lot more about sheep, I also have a greater appreciation for how much my Shepherd cares for me.
Reviews by Sue Kline and Connie Willem
Heaven Has Blue Carpet by Sharon Niedzinski
When Niedzinski, a suburban Michigan housewife and mother of six, moved into a century-old country farmhouse, she naively ordered a flock of Columbia sheep to match her New England Countryside decorating theme. Thus began 16 years of indoctrination into the finer arts of sheep care that included breeding rams, flushing, and the snip,dip, and clip ritual. To her children's dismay, Niedzinski used the dinner hour to regale her family with the grittier details of shepherding, including cutting off newborns' tails, adopting "bummer" rejected lambs into her blue-carpeted home, and accepting that a sheep's destiny is the slaughterhouse. But this is a Christian living book, not a farmer's almanac. To that end, each chapter winsomely approaches the similarities between shepherding and its spiritual parallels found throughout the Bible, where a loving shepherd is needed to guide, protect, and shelter humanity. Niedzinski so beautifully depicts her foray into shepherding that readers might be tempted to order a flock for their own spiritual instruction.
Note by Sharon:
I received many letters of congratulations from the staff at Thomas Nelson Publishers for Publisher's Weekly Review! All praise goes to the Lord God Almighty!
Discipleship Journal
Helping You Grow In Christ
DJ Picks
BOOKS
Heaven Has Blue Carpet
Sharon Niedzinski/Thomas Nelson
When suburbanite Sharon Niedzinski moved to the country with her family, she decided a flock of sheep would look picturesque in the nearby pasture. Enter a steep learning curve and hard, daily work to serve the flock. Yet the sheep remained oblivious to her existence: They wouldn't look her in the eye, ran away when she came into the pasture, and trampled her to get to the food she carried. At least caring for orphan lambs was a joy. If a book about sheep and lambs sounds too precious for your taste, have no fear. These informal sketches include enough straight talk about lambing and foot rot to add a heavy dose of reality. After reading Heaven Has Blue Carpet, I not only know a lot more about sheep, I also have a greater appreciation for how much my Shepherd cares for me.
Reviews by Sue Kline and Connie Willem
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
THE BIG DAY IS ONE MONTH AWAY!
The book, Heaven Has Blue Carpet, will officially be released October 12th! No sitting around enjoying that fact though... I'll be giving 16 radio interviews Wednesday and Friday, October 15th and 17th over our telephone, thanks to PTA Satellite from New York, NY. Seriously, what a privilege to be able to talk about, "Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep!" Hebrews 13:20
In the book of Mark, Jesus "saw many people and He was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things."
There are just too many people out there who don't know The Shepherd exists! Nor do they have a clue that the Son of God is, at this very moment, longing and yearning to love on them. He lives to shepherd every one of us, especially through the rocky circumstances in our lives. Our Shepherd also leads His sheep into the rest the whole world is looking for!
David describes the coveted rest Jesus provides for His sheep in Psalm 23:
"God my Shepherd! I don't need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.
Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I'm not afraid when you walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure.
You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.
Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I'm back home in the house of God for the rest of my life." Psalm 23 The Message Bible
Jesus is real. He can always be counted on. He is One Top Notch Shepherd!
In the book of Mark, Jesus "saw many people and He was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things."
There are just too many people out there who don't know The Shepherd exists! Nor do they have a clue that the Son of God is, at this very moment, longing and yearning to love on them. He lives to shepherd every one of us, especially through the rocky circumstances in our lives. Our Shepherd also leads His sheep into the rest the whole world is looking for!
David describes the coveted rest Jesus provides for His sheep in Psalm 23:
"God my Shepherd! I don't need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.
Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I'm not afraid when you walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure.
You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.
Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I'm back home in the house of God for the rest of my life." Psalm 23 The Message Bible
Jesus is real. He can always be counted on. He is One Top Notch Shepherd!
Friday, June 13, 2008
"Keep Yourself in The Love of God" Taken from the book, "Come Away My Beloved" by Frances J. Roberts
By setting your soul through deliverate choice of your will to pursue the worship of God by praying in the Spirit, thou shalt find thy faith strengthened and thy life bathed in the love of God.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Thomas Nelson Press Release
HEAVEN HAS BLUE CARPET
A Sheep Story by a Suburban Housewife
Sharon Niedzinski and her family never expected their lives to change so quickly. It all started with an unsolicited call from their realtor--their dream farm had come up for sale. A new life in an old farmhouse seemed like the perfect adventure. As Niedzinski fixed up the house, she looked at the green pastureland outside, and a new theme emerged: "New England Countryside." She ordered a flock of white Columbia ewes to match the Waverly plaid wallpaper, curtains, and blue carpet. She had no idea what she was in for.
Heaven Has Blue Carpet (Thomas Nelson, Inc., ISBN# 978-0-8499-2004-2, October 2008) by Sharon Niedzinski details one woman's impulsive foray into sheep herding and how it provided an unexpected education in God's shepherding love for His people. While dealing with orphan lambs, tail cuttings, and foot rot, Niedzinski began to experience firsthand the amazing truths buried in the many Scriptures referencing God as our Shepherd. Through hilarious, heart-tugging stories, the author tells how those truths radically changed her life and brought her closer to our hard-working, sweat-stained, real-life Shepherd--Jesus.
"Though our family is now scattered, we all carry within us the invaluable and reassuring lessons we learned from the sheep," writes Niedzinski. "We discovered who we are (we really are like sheep), who owns us (Father God has adopted us), who takes care of us (Jesus our Shepherd), who gives us our spiritual life (The Spirit of God Himself), and where we are going (an imperishable inheritance waiting for us in Heaven)! If someone would have told me when the sheep first came that I'd be forever thankful, I would have told them they were crazy! But I am. I praise and thank the Good Shepherd for giving me that flock of pigheaded, mulish, hoggish, yet loveable nincompoop sheep!"
Sharon Niedzinski founded and served in 3 Christian ministries, in Aglow International, and ministered to women in weekly home groups for over 30 years. She continues to write, to speak, and to minister God's love to the brokenhearted and oppressed. Sharon and her husband Ron enjoy their six children and 21 grandchildren.
SHARON NIEDZINSKI IS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW
A Sheep Story by a Suburban Housewife
Sharon Niedzinski and her family never expected their lives to change so quickly. It all started with an unsolicited call from their realtor--their dream farm had come up for sale. A new life in an old farmhouse seemed like the perfect adventure. As Niedzinski fixed up the house, she looked at the green pastureland outside, and a new theme emerged: "New England Countryside." She ordered a flock of white Columbia ewes to match the Waverly plaid wallpaper, curtains, and blue carpet. She had no idea what she was in for.
Heaven Has Blue Carpet (Thomas Nelson, Inc., ISBN# 978-0-8499-2004-2, October 2008) by Sharon Niedzinski details one woman's impulsive foray into sheep herding and how it provided an unexpected education in God's shepherding love for His people. While dealing with orphan lambs, tail cuttings, and foot rot, Niedzinski began to experience firsthand the amazing truths buried in the many Scriptures referencing God as our Shepherd. Through hilarious, heart-tugging stories, the author tells how those truths radically changed her life and brought her closer to our hard-working, sweat-stained, real-life Shepherd--Jesus.
"Though our family is now scattered, we all carry within us the invaluable and reassuring lessons we learned from the sheep," writes Niedzinski. "We discovered who we are (we really are like sheep), who owns us (Father God has adopted us), who takes care of us (Jesus our Shepherd), who gives us our spiritual life (The Spirit of God Himself), and where we are going (an imperishable inheritance waiting for us in Heaven)! If someone would have told me when the sheep first came that I'd be forever thankful, I would have told them they were crazy! But I am. I praise and thank the Good Shepherd for giving me that flock of pigheaded, mulish, hoggish, yet loveable nincompoop sheep!"
Sharon Niedzinski founded and served in 3 Christian ministries, in Aglow International, and ministered to women in weekly home groups for over 30 years. She continues to write, to speak, and to minister God's love to the brokenhearted and oppressed. Sharon and her husband Ron enjoy their six children and 21 grandchildren.
SHARON NIEDZINSKI IS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW
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