Wow – did this week ever get away from me! First I never got around to sending out Monday’s Memory and then I forgot all about today’s epistle until Monica reminded me. While I can say that life had some surprises that made a busy week even busier, that sounds too much like an excuse. So I will simply say that other activities were of higher priority for me over the past seven days. So, instead of laboring you with my own words, I invite you to spend some time today with Jesus and his words.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may life and have it abundantly.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (John 10. 7-18)
With so much political talk being confused with the Gospel these days I encourage you to set all of that rhetoric aside … and spend time considering what these words of Jesus mean for your time here on earth and your life after time has passed away.
