Herd and Follow

 Your statutes are wonderful;
therefore I obey them.
The unfolding of your words gives light;
it gives understanding to the simple.
 I open my mouth and pant,
longing for your commands.
Psalm 119:129-131

Psalm 119~ It "herds" me...

Yes, "herds". Like herding cows.

When I was a kid growing up on a dairy farm, we used to herd the cattle to the barn for milking. In the summer, several of us would go up the road to "cross the cows" from one pasture to the other. Armed with sticks, we would circle around behind the cows so we could "herd them" toward the gateway that we would open for them to cross the road and go through the next gateway which would lead them to the trail made by daily "cow travel" and then on to the barn. We left one person on each side of the trail (on the road) to make sure they didn't do a 45 degree turn onto the road instead of into the second gate.

Because it was a daily walk for the cows, once we got them on the trail, only one or two people would follow them to make sure they continued all the way to the barn and didn't get distracted by grazing temptations.

Psalm 119 herds me to the Word of God.
Where God speaks.
Today I have heard (no pun intended) the Lord speaking about several things. One was regarding a message that He is unfolding to me. It is about following. It occured to me (via God's voice) when following the work-out instructor on my Firm video yesterday that "following" is a daily activity of the human race.
Everyone is following someone and someone is following us.

We bloggers "follow" one another.
We have sidebars that say, "follow me on twitter."
Or "follow me on facebook."

We also follow rules (or not)
follow lines
follow signs
follow news
follow cars
follow a course
follow a plan

We are clearly followers.

So yesterday the "follow" message was planted.
I then expressed a "Life Lesson" on Facebook about being
careful that the one you follow is imparting good things
so you in turn will impart good things to your followers.

Today after turning off my video, the Today Show was on
with their summer Friday concert series featuring Lady Gaga.

and the "follow" message continued....

I had heard the name "Lady Gaga".
 Oddly, when getting my nails done earlier in the week, a catchy song came on the radio.
I inquired about it, and found out it was, none other than, yup. Lady Gaga.
Hmm.
So out of curiosity, I didn't jump in the shower right away but continued to watch her sing. And dance. Loved the sound. Loved the artistry. But then. Her outer wear came off and there she was in the middle of the square in a white bra with a cross on the front of each breast. It didn't take long to see in this beautiful, talented woman a disregard and irreverence for God.
So I shut off the TV.

Soon after, sitting with my Bible, I was lead to a Psalm of David~
Psalm 101 (emphasis mine)

1 I will sing of your love and justice;

to you, O LORD, I will sing praise.
2 I will be careful to lead a blameless life—
when will you come to me?
I will walk in my house
with blameless heart.
3 I will set before my eyes
no vile thing.
The deeds of faithless men I hate;
they will not cling to me.
4 Men of perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will have nothing to do with evil.
5 Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret,
him will I put to silence;
whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart,
him will I not endure.
6 My eyes will be on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
he whose walk is blameless
will minister to me.
7 No one who practices deceit
will dwell in my house;
no one who speaks falsely
will stand in my presence.
8 Every morning I will put to silence
all the wicked in the land;
I will cut off every evildoer
from the city of the LORD.

I heard Him again, loud and clear:
I should sing about Him. I should not look at vile things.
I should have nothing to do with people that have perverse hearts;
nothing to do with evil.
My eyes should be on the faithful and blameless of the land.
[Verse 8 is another message for another day.]

In light of the message I was getting and the enormous crowd
gathered to watch the lady in New York, I decided to investigate her a little more.
A little tentative about digging too much after Psalm 101's message...

I began to watch one of her music videos, and not too far in, had to turn if off
due to offensive (vile) material.
Then:
Apparently Lady calls her fans "monsters" or "little monsters".
On her website was a video interviewing her New York concert-goers about
"What it means to you to be a little monster".
So I watched the video. Here is a quote from a young man:
"The fans that love her love her, and we'll follow her until the day we die."
...and I thought, "where is she leading them?"

*gulp*

And I hear the Savior say, "Come follow Me." 

*For more on 30 days of hearing God speak, visit Sandy's blog*