April 2008 Miscellaneous notes from my “John study”
10:9 I am the Door. Any one who enters in through Me will be saved – will live; he will come in and he will go out [freely], and will find pasture. 10. The thief comes only in order that he may steal and may kill and may destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance – to the full, till it overflows. (Hmmm… so attending a particular “ church” or following a particular pastor with a “reputation” or name like “Abundant Life” or whatever can be dangerous if one is given the impression that that is the way to have abundant life… if one is pointed to the person, or the programs, or commitment to the group, rather than truly pointed to You, Who are Life! (How careful we must be about how we present ourselves – and about giving into the temptation to try and usurp Your place! Oh dear…) … through you is freedom and is real, nourishing food: You are the bread of life! … through other people, organizations, rules and regulations, theologies, are dried up pastures, slavery, destruction, death … You offer Your life, and those who accept it come freely; others “steal” by deception, force, control, false promises, etc… )
10: 11 I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd risks and lays down his [own] life for the sheep. (Yes!)
10: 12 But the hired servant – he who merely serves for wages – who is neither the shepherd nor the owner of the sheep, when he sees the wolf coming deserts the flock and runs away. And the wolf chases and snatches them and scatters [the flock]. 13. Now the hireling flees because he merely serves for wages and is not himself concerned about the sheep – cares nothing for them. (Words of warning to pay attention to. We need to open our eyes, and see ourselves and others as they really are – true shepherds or merely hirelings, working for wages, and ready to run if things get unpleasant or we want higher wages… we are all to care for one another… and when that caring stops (or never truly existed) the back door sucks out the sheep as quickly as they entered the front, so to speak…
Of course the question is, then, whether they actually really came in through the Door at all, whether they really were the true sheep… kind of like assuming everyone who enters a “church” door is a sheep… the truth tends to come out when they go out the door and immediately wander off away from the lead of the Good Shepherd for the rest of the week… oh, we do need to examine ourselves! Are we really listening to Your voice and following You at all times? Or are we listening to other voices? Or even following our own paths? …
“the wolf chases and snatches them and scatters [the flock]” – is that what happens when a church splits? (At least sometimes; I suppose that other times, one group is simply continuing to follow You, while the other group is running off – perhaps after one of those false or hired ones who are not really shepherds at all……)(or vice versa...) Father? Jesus? Holy Spirit?... I used to read passages like this and they seemed so simple… at first just like little stories, then I understood that they were analogies… but now You are showing me, prompting me, to see more, to see what it really means, how it really works out, how it is lived out (or not) even in my own life (not to mention the life of the “church” … or Your church…)
10: 14 I am the Good Shepherd and I know and recognize My own, and My own know and recognize Me. Oh, I want so much to be one of Your own… and to always recognize You, and listen to Your voice only. Please help me, dear Holy Spirit. Please fill me today, this moment, even as I get ready to go to school, to do things at home with the family, and whatever, wherever You place me today, O dear God, please be at the center (well You are always there… but I seem so easily to get off-centered… what does that say about me as a sheep? Oh, please help me)…
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