Devotionals by Raul Ries
SUNDAY September 20, 2026
The Shepherd of Our Souls
For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
1 Peter 2:25
Our Lord Jesus Christ is our watchful Shepherd. He is the God who sees us from His heavenly dwelling place. He is watching over us every single day, hour, minute and second. Peter used the analogy of a shepherd and his sheep from the well-known Scripture Isaiah 53:5-6:
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
What does this Scripture mean? As sinners, we were all going astray. In other words, our lives were going in the wrong direction; we were on the path that leads directly to hell. Jesus warned: “...wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it” (Matthew 7:13).
Sheep are very dumb animals. What do they do that makes them vulnerable? They wander and get lost––they go astray. When I was in Israel, I noticed two Arab shepherds in Bethlehem who had hundreds of sheep. Their sheep were combined. The two of them finished talking and they started walking toward a fork in the road. The shepherds called to their own sheep, and the sheep separated because they knew the voice of their shepherd. We must come to know our Shepherd’s voice.
Who is our Great Shepherd? It is Jesus Christ, the Guardian of our souls! He will go after us when we are like lost sheep. Jesus finds the one who has fallen into a ditch, picks him up, places him over His shoulder, and carries him back to the flock. Even though we go astray, the door to the sheepfold remains open to us; we can return to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
As the children of God, the sheep in the Divine Shepherd’s care, we should be known as the most contented people on earth.
~W. Phillip Keller~
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About Raul Ries
Raul Ries is the Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Golden Springs and President of Somebody Loves You Ministries. After his miraculous conversion in 1971, Raul began to read and study the Bible extensively even though he had a limited education. In 1974 he began a home Bible study with seven other committed individuals. Soon, he started to preach and counsel youth during the noon hour at his former high school, Baldwin Park High. Calvary Chapel West Covina grew out of Raul's home fellowship, as well as his Kung-Fu studio, and was soon meeting weekly at an old converted Safeway store. In 1993, the congregation moved to Diamond Bar and occupied a 101,000 square-foot corporate building on 28 acres. Calvary Chapel Golden Springs (as it is now called) draws between 10,000 - 12,000 in attendance weekly.
Author of several books, including Fury to Freedom (the story of his early life and dramatic conversion), Raul Ries has also produced three films: Fury to Freedom (feature film dramatization of the book); A Quiet Hope (a riveting and stirring documentary detailing seven soldier's accounts of the Vietnam War and its aftermath); and A Venture in Faith (a documentary of the history of the Calvary Chapel movement).
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