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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“I am the Good Shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me—just as the
Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down My life for the sheep.”
John 10:14-15
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
The opening verses of
John 10 provide a wonderful picture of Jesus, our Savior. That picture is
painted through an analogy as Jesus discusses a matter familiar to the people,
shepherding, and then places Himself in the picture as the Good Shepherd, caring
for sheep (His disciples).
Today is the third
devotion in a four devotion series. In the first devotion, we looked at Jesus
being the Gate through which His sheep enter to find their way to salvation and
life eternal with Him and God the Father. Yesterday, we learned that Jesus was
the sacrificing Shepherd, so dearly loving His sheep that He was willing to lay
down His life for them. And this brings us to this message, a message that
reminds us how Jesus wants to have an intimate relationship with everyone who
chooses to place their faith, belief, trust, and hope in Him as their Good
Shepherd and Savior. Look again at His words here from verses 14 and 15:
“I am the Good
Shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me—just as the Father knows Me and
I know the Father—and I lay down My life for the sheep.”
Jesus didn’t just see
His association with His sheep as superficial. Rather, He has a deep concern
for every person that is in His flock.
In other words, Jesus
cares. He cares about every minute detail of His followers’ lives. He showed in
the scriptures that He cared for the needs of others and provided for them
miraculously. He showed how He desired to take away the afflictions of people
who simply had faith that He could do it. He comforted the hurt, mourned with
the grieving, and showed empathy and compassion for the disadvantaged.
Just as God the Father
knew His Son and cared for Him deeply, so too did Jesus know His disciples and
care for them.
But look again at the
scriptures and you’ll see that this matter of knowing was reciprocal. Jesus
knew His “sheep” and in turn, His “sheep” knew Him. Before He shared the truth
that sheep would only follow their particular shepherd because they knew His
voice. This is why many different flocks could be kept in a single sheep pen.
There was no worry about the wrong sheep going out with the wrong shepherd
because only the sheep who belonged to the shepherd who was calling would go to
Him. They knew their shepherd, just as he knew them.
Translating this over to
Christians and their relationship with Jesus, one of the main ongoing
initiatives believers should undertake is constantly wanting to know Jesus more
and more. After all, in order to be a Christian, we need to be Christ-like and
if we’re going to be Christ-like, then we need to know who Jesus was and how He
lived so we can model our life after His.
Thanks be to God that we
have a Good Shepherd in Jesus who always wants to teach His “sheep” more and
more as they follow Him. He is always seeking to build a stronger bond with
those who place their trust in Him.
He is indeed the
Relational Shepherd and as a result, His “sheep” are cared for perfectly
because everything that Jesus does is perfect.
Tomorrow, we’ll finish
this series by looking at Jesus as the ever Inviting Shepherd. See you then!
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
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