WATCHWORD:
1 “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! 2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.” 6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, 7 so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. John 10:1-9
Meditation:
Just and Loving
“If God were not just, there would be no demand for his Son to die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness for his Son to die. But God is both just and loving. Therefore, his love is willing to meet the demands of his justice.”
What do you make of that statement by theologian John Piper? For me, it means that Jesus died in payment for our sins, and that is a clear measure of God’s love, justice and forgiveness. Our sins, paid in full. The Resurrection stands as a completed promise of life eternal.
In the course of your Christian walk what has been the persisting image of Jesus, in your mind? Are you captivated by “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells you so?” Of perhaps by “What a friend we have in Jesus”? Have you reshaped the image of Jesus so that it is more comfortable for you when you talk to others about him? Or, is our image that of agony on the Cross? Jesus as our Lord and Savior. How do you explain “Jesus as the only way to the Father” to those you engage in faith conversations?
Randy Alcorn, in his devotional Face To Face With Jesus, makes this statement: “Jesus is notoriously uncooperative with all attempts to repackage and market him. He’s not looking for image enhancers. We’re to follow him as servants, not walk in front of him as a PR entourage. If we take one attribute of Christ—his love, for instance—and divorce it from the other attributes, including his Holiness, we end up worshiping our own distorted concept of love instead of true God.”
What is the point? Maybe part of the point is that it’s hard for our poor human brains to get around the concept of a God that created everything, who loves us. That’s a gigantic thing to try to digest and in the process of trying to understand concepts like a Triune God, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and things that we read in the Bible, we find that it’s just big. Too big to grasp.
And then to try to understand this idea that God is just and loving. What does that mean in our everyday life. What does it mean when we go out and we come in, and interact with our neighbors, far and wide? I can try to grasp the lessons that Jesus taught while he was here because so many of those fit nicely into my little world and make a lot of sense. But when I fit those same lessons beyond my comfortable space and out into the the chaos of today’s strife-filled world, I find it hard and, oh, so complicated, when it should be simple.
We need to go back to the scripture. We need to go back to the words: “I am the gate whoever enters through me will be saved…” That is the point of all this. Luther cut to the chase when he declared we come to Christ through faith alone. He is the Way. Period. We need not stress the rest, the meaning of eternal life and so many other thoughts that seem to tax our human minds. Remember we are forgiven and we are blessed. That is just the way it is. Amen.
Bulletin Board:
There are times when it is up to me to say grace at mealtime, and sometimes I struggle and fall back on “God is great and God good, and we thank him for this food…” or sometimes just, “Bless this food and us who eats it.” But, now, I have one I really like, and I pass it on to you:
We thank you God, for Food in a world where many walk in hunger.
For Faith in a world where many walk in fear.
For Friends in a world where many walk alone.
We give you thanks. Amen.
Prayer for God’s Will in Us:
Father, we thank You for loving us. We wouldn’t have it any other way than the way You made it. We don’t want convenience and comfort and coziness and easy. We want character. We want Christ-likeness. We want you, Lord Jesus, to fulfill Your great purpose for our lives. This is our prayer in Jesus name. Amen.
