The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd

Dear Champions,
 
The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is John 10:14,27-28 I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me . . . My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
 
A sheep is a stupid animal, and they follow one another and lose their direction continually in a way that cats and dogs do not.  But even when they are found they are never happy to be found.  It is extremely difficult to round up a lost sheep and bring it home unless you have a dog to scare it.  The lost sheep rushes to and fro so that even when you find it, you must seize it, cast it down, tie its four legs together, put his hind legs together, put it over your shoulder and carry it home struggling.  The sheep never feels loved when it is being loved, and it never feels safe when it is being made safe.
 
In John 10 Jesus says, I am the good shepherd.  The hired hand when he sees the wolf coming; he abandons the sheep and runs away, but I lay down my life for the sheep.  Jesus is the only shepherd who became a sacrificial lamb.  Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.  Jesus is saying that you can be sure that He will do anything for you because He lost His life and everything so that He would not lose you. There is no better way to intimacy with God than to have something horrible happen in your life that makes you really doubt God s love and go to Him anyway and say, By God s grace, Thy will be done.  When it is hard, pray anyway.  When it is hard, obey anyway.  When you feel like you are being ceased and thrown unto the ground, just say, Thy will be done, and it will push you into an intimacy that you never had because you will have to get to know Him as a shepherd.  If you have been wounded and you say, Lord, I want you to heal me, but it does not look like you are getting healed, then there is only one way through it.  You must say, Evidently God you want a wounded me in this world to do certain things and to be a certain person and to get certain things done that I could not get done unless I was wounded.  What are those things?
 
To say Thy will be done by the grace of God is a way to intimacy with God.
 
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining