1st time: Feed my lambs.
2nd time: Tend my sheep.
3rd time: Feed my sheep.
The first thing Jesus asks of Peter is to feed his lambs.
Lambs are sheep who are of less than a year old.
The lambs must be fed first, then afterwards go and take care of the sheep. Discovering what the sheep needs, then go and feed the sheep likewise in the areas it needs feeding in.
All lambs consume the same type of food.
Lambs require a lot of milk, and after the first month some semi solids.
For the first several weeks of its life, all a lamb needs for nourishment is its mother's milk.
This milk is the feeding of love to the lambs.
The first milk that a ewe produces after lambing is called colostrum. It is very nutritious and contains antibodies that help lambs fight off diseases during the early part of their lives.
The promises of God must be fed to the lambs to protect them and their faith.
The ewe only produces colostrum for 24 hours. It is essential that lambs consume adequate colostrum. An amount equivalent to 10 percent of their body weight is recommended.
The promises of God must be fed everyday. You must connect with them everyday.
Lambs will start to nibble on solid food (hay, grass, and grain) soon after birth. By the time they are 4 to 6 weeks old, they may be obtaining as much as 50 percent of their nutrients from sources other than their mother's milk.
At least 50% of their source of nutrition is still the milk, the tender loving unconditional care of the mother.
Only after about a month of constant feeding, then the lambs will begin to nibble on solid food.
This is the meat. To consume a bit of meat to strengthen their knowledge of God.
Young lambs, 1 to 2 weeks old, are often started on creep feed. Creep feeding is when supplemental feed (usually grain) is offered to nursing lambs. Creep grazing is a similar concept whereby lambs are given access to cleaner, more nutritious pasture. A barrier must be set up that will allow lambs to enter the creep area, but not the ewes.
Creep feed must be palatable and highly-digestible. Lambs are not born with a functioning rumen. They are not able to digest whole grains. They require grains that are easy to digest. Cracked corn and soybean meal usually form the basis of most lamb creep rations. The ingredients are balanced to provide a high protein (18-20 percent) diet. Lambs do not eat a lot of creep feed in the beginning, but it gets them in the habit of eating.
This creep feed, or this meat is supplemental. It does not replace the milk that the lamb needs, but it supplements the milk. Lambs are not born with a functioning rumen. Lambs are not able to straight away ruminate the food and process the nutrients. That is why the first foods provided to the lambs are easy food, easy meat. The pasture is clean, more nutritious, and highly digestible, easy to understand. The lambs, young children of God require easy to consume food, and will slowly consume and learn from it.
Learn from it? Learn what?
Learn the habit of eating.
The lambs need access to the more easily understood texts in the Word of God.
Sheep eats fresh forage. We must provide fresh forage whenever possible. The freshest forage, or the most nutritional grain must be given so that they can grow from it.
We must provide fresh word, fresh grain, for our sheep.
Now, we have lambs which have slowly become sheep.
We must continue feeding our lambs (now sheep).
But before feeding the sheep, you must tend the sheep. When you tend the sheep, the sheep learns to trust you, the shepherd. Only after trusting the shepherd then can the sheep know the Shepherd's voice and uses that as a call to food. This trust on the shepherd must be developed.
The lamb's focus is food. The sheep has developed the ability to recognize the source of the food.
This is only through tending. after tending the sheep, even chasing the sheep back into the pen, guiding the sheep to waters and pastures, then can we start feeding the sheep. And when the sheep has reach maturity, then it will grow and be fruitful and multiply.
As with people, water is the most important "nutrient" that sheep need. How much they consume depends upon their age, size, and production status (and level), as well as temperature of the water and the amount of moisture in their feed. Sheep consuming wet grass or wet feeds (e.g. silage) won't drink a lot of water because they are getting plenty of water from their feed. Conversely, they will drink more water if they are eating dry hay or dry, mature grass. Sheep don't like to drink dirty water.
Water is the Holy Spirit.
Sheep needs food. Food like grass, or feed. If these foods are wet with water, they won't need to drink as much water. But they will still need water.
We must provide water, we must provide a touch of the Holy Spirit to our sheep.
We must also teach our sheep how to access water.
How to access water by themselves.
So we not only feed them, lead them to clean, still waters, they who are hungrier can feed and drink themselves too.
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Help me love you, I only have affection for you. But help me love you.
-huangxi
