A Sheep Remembers

Testimonials

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1. 

   Laura Ayscue – January 3, 2022

   This is a gem! Very accessible and easy to read, and at the same time filled with robust theology. The book is an anthology of sorts because of the wonderful quotes from other great men and women of God and the old, I wish I could say, familiar hymns. I bought 20 copies to give out to younger people with the hopes their curiosity would be stirred to read some of the other men he quotes, or find the hymns he references. It’s a great beginning Banner Book. It’s wonderful for the long-time saint as well. Meditating on the care and love of God for his people, and hearing of how that love is particularly applied to one saint’s life is always a great encouragement to keep along the old paths until we see our Savior face to face.

2. 

   Daren Blake – April 11, 2022

   What a wonderful work. We featured this volume this month at our church bookstore and it has quickly become a favorite to savor and to give to those you love and want to encourage. Calhoun’s book should be on every believer’s bookshelf–it’s that rich. A refreshing volume that is precious in the truest sense of the word. Read it–you’ll see the sheep and the Shepherd afresh.

3. 

   Bill PENCE – June 28, 2022

   Ligon Duncan writes a warm Preface for this wonderful devotionally written book by one of my favorite professors at Covenant Seminary, where he taught for 30 years. I had two church history classes with him early in my time at Covenant, and he was also the speaker at our church years ago for a men’s breakfast. Duncan writes that the Lord called Dr. Calhoun home just as this book had been safely delivered to the publisher.
   Calhoun, who describes himself as a preacher and teacher, tells us that the twenty-third Psalm is probably the best known of all the chapters of the Bible and among the most memorable words ever written in any language. In this book he tries to explain the words of Psalm 23 as David meant them, but also in the fuller light of the New Testament, a light that the psalmist partially saw. Psalm 23 is about the Lord Jesus Christ.
   For each chapter, the author has selected a version of the twenty-third Psalm or a hymn that is based on the psalm. The chapters of the book are divided into four parts: commentary on the verse or part of the verse that is treated in that chapter; writings from shepherds that help us to understand sheep and their ways; prayers, quotations, and stories illustrating the theme of the chapter; and, in the last place, his own testimony. Although I enjoyed this entire book, it is that final section that I most enjoyed and looked forward to.
   He writes that it was during the fall semester of 1987 that his doctor called to tell him that he had a relatively rare form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma (mantle cell lymphoma), a cancer almost always fatal within five years. Even today less than ten percent of people with mantle cell lymphoma have lived ten years. Occasionally his cancer would be in remission for a year or two, but it always returned. He would live more than 33 years after being diagnosed with an incurable cancer.
   This book reads like a devotional, sprinkled with readings and hymns. You might want to consider reading one of the relatively short chapters each day.
   Below are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
   • Psalm 23 is not instruction in the law of the Lord. It is not exhortation. From its first word to its last, it is a testimony of the Lord’s love and faithfulness to his people.
   • God not only saves us when we are lost sinners, but he restores us when we are wandering Christians.
   • It is God who chooses my path, and even when that path leads to a ‘valley of deep darkness’ it is the right path for me.
   • God does not promise that we will face no evil; he promises that we need fear no evil.
   • When things are going well we may be content to talk about the Lord; but when we approach the valley of the shadow of death, and the sky darkens and the thunder rolls, we hurry to speak directly to him.
   • God doesn’t promise to take away our troubles, but he promises to bless them.
   • For Christians, pain is productive. It takes wings, goes somewhere, and does something. It glorifies God. It sanctifies us. It blesses others.
   • God is in our darkness. And in his own time and in his own way he will change the night into day.
   • Heaven will be amazing, astounding, overwhelming, but it will not be strange. It will not be like going to a foreign country, where we don’t know the language, the customs, or the people. It will be more like coming home after a long (or, for some, not so long) journey in a distant land.

4. 

   Timothy Daugaard – July 15, 2022

   I came across this book in the summer of last year, and I was reading it around the time that my dad passed away this past October. The testimony of Dr. Calhoun’s experience living in the valley of the shadow of death for so long and of the faithfulness of his Good Shepherd to him there–the Lord used this so mightily to comfort me and my family during this period of loss and sorrow that it inspired me to purchase and give away to friends as many copies as I could afford.

   My favorite quote from the book (difficult to choose!) has been the words of J. Wilbur Chapman, on page 59,
   “Not always beside the gentle streamlet flow, but sometimes by the foaming torrent; not always over the delicate grass, but sometimes up the stony mountain track; not always in the sunshine, but sometimes through the valley of the shadow of death. But whichever it is, it is the right way and it is the way home.” I commend to you A Sheep Remembers as one of the best books I have ever read.