John 10:1-6
1 ¶ “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
2 “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 “And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
5 “Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.
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This seems like a new message, but it is a continuation of the previous message where Jesus told the Jews, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.”
He just goes at it another way to see if they can help them to understand. Jesus tries to help the Jews understand because He loves them, not because He wants to prove them wrong.
I always need to remember that, and more than before know that I do, it is because of His love for His children, all of His children. I never want to discuss with anyone about Jesus in hatred or anger.
He wants us all to remember who we speak for and how much love He has for all of His children, even those who are gay, sexually confused in another way, in a cult or any other sort of group that leads others astray, those who believe abortion is a good thing, to those who think they are good people and deserve to go to heaven.
I once was in this group and Jesus loved me enough to send people to love me, pray for me, speak Truth to me and they all did it with love! It was the love that drew me in as I was getting none of it from the world.
So Jesus tells them there is a way to get into the sheepfold and those that use the door are the Shepherd’s sheep and those that climb over the wall are not, yet. When we enter by the door and become His sheep, we become shepherds of the sheep, loving and gathering the sheep together.
When He opens the door, He calls out to His sheep, by name, and He leads them out to graze, or feed, like reading the Bible or going to church. When He leads them out, they follow Him because they know His voice.
Sheep in a flock, led by a shepherd are so connected to that shepherd, much the way Angel loves me and is in-tuned to my every move so that when I move she moves. So when there are many flocks in one place, a shepherd can keep his flock close to each other by His voice, the other sheep don’t understand Him, but His sheep do.
Jesus used this illustration for the Jews to understand, but they didn’t get it. Much like me, I didn’t get it for about 2 years of people loving on me, but then I did and it was all and still is amazing, no matter how much spiritual warfare we experience.
Had an amazing day Saturday, connecting with Linda Reinhardt and some other gals for her birthday we could finally celebrate that was December. 2, but someone was always sick so we finally were all well and we celebrated. Then I went to see Kimberly Sanders, Danielle Sanders, Patrick as they gathered with friends to have a memorial for Alex, Kimberly’s son, who recently passed away. It was awesome to see all of them and see Christina, who used to be married to Tony Jacobs, Cami, Kim Sandburg and others. Nice day seeing friends and remembering sweet Alex, who I used to babysit and spend a lot of time when he was a young boy to man.
