Jesus ~ Good Shepherd

Good Shepherd:

“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 is not the owner of 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 is not concerned about the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd,

and I know My own and My own know Me,

even as the Father knows Me

and I know the Father;

and I lay down My life for the sheep…

“For this reason the Father loves Me,

because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.

No one has taken it away from Me,

but I lay it down on My own initiative…”

~ John 10:11-18

Jesus chose to die,

otherwise

no one would have had the power to kill Him.

God’s goodness

is good

beyond my ability to comprehend.

“My sheep hear My voice,

and I know them,

and they follow Me;

and I give eternal life to them,

and they will never perish;

and no one can snatch them

out of My hand.

“My Father,

who has given them to Me,

is greater than all;

and no one

is able to snatch them

out of the Father’s hand.

I and the Father are One.”

~John 10:27-30

Jesus ~ Faithful Witness

Faithful Witness:

“My covenant will I not break,

nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. 

Once I have sworn by my holiness

that I will not lie unto David.

His seed shall endure forever,

and his throne as the sun before me. 

It shall be established forever as the moon,

and as a faithful witness in heaven.’”

~ Psalm 89:34-37

“Grace be unto you, and peace,

from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come,

…and from Jesus Christ,

   who is the faithful witness…”

~Revelation 1:4,5

A witness is someone

who is there when something happens,

who can verify its having taken place.

A witness is someone

who has first-hand experience or knowledge.

A witness is someone

who is able to stand solid,

bearing up under the weight

of the burden of proof.

A witness is someone

who is a threat to those who conspire

against the truth.

A witness is someone

who is responsible to hold someone else accountable

for promises made intentionally.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,

the evidence of things not seen…

Through faith

we understand that the worlds

were framed by the word of God,

so that things which are seen

were not made of things which do appear.”

~Hebrews 11:1,3

Jesus

is full of the substance of faith,

for He is witness to everything

which is inside and outside of the realm of time and space.

Jesus

is witness to, and can verify evidence of, things not seen (by anyone else)

because He was, and is, and will be there.

Jesus

offers us the gift of faith,

the substance, the evidence,

the Truth verified.

“Wherefore seeing we also

are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us lay aside every weight,

and the sin which doth so easily beset us,

and let us run with patience

the race that is set before us,

looking unto Jesus…” 

~Hebrews 12:1,2

Jesus ~ Emmanuel

Emmanuel:

“’Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son,

and they shall call His name Emmanuel,’

which translated means ‘God with us.’”

~ Matthew 1:23

(prophecy in Isaiah 7:14)

When I tell my son,

“Thanks for going to the store with me”,

he often responds,

“Thank you for going to the store with me, Mom.”

When Jesus relinquished His godly grasp,

emptied Himself

and was made in the likeness of man,

His being with us offered us His Love

and met our every need

by fulfilling God’s perfect plan of redemption;

He came to be with us. 

 “God with us” seems to be intended purely

and solely for our pleasure and benefit.

“The Lord takes pleasure in His people…”

~Psalm 149:4

“It is God who is at work in you

both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

~Philippians 2:13

“Let the Lord be glad in His works…

Let my meditation be pleasing to Him.”

~Psalm 104:31,34

“See how great a love

the Father has bestowed on us,

that we would be called children of God;

and such we are.”

~I John 3:1

Perhaps Jesus came

so that we could be with Him.

Jesus ~ Door

Door:

“So Jesus said to them again,

‘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 hear them.

I am the door;

if anyone enters through Me,

he will be saved,

and will go in and out and find pasture’”.

~ John 10:7-9

I dug around to find my purse and keys

deep down in the belly of the shopping cart

which was filled with bags of groceries and children of various sizes and volumes.

Grabbing the van door handle,

while mentally preparing how best to transfer the masses,

and prioritizing the list in my head of the other things

that I would need to accomplish while I was in town,

and mulling over a deep conversation I had had with a friend recently,

and trying to calculate when the baby was last fed

and reevaluating how much of my list was realistic

before she was ready to eat again,

I flung the door open…

Frozen, I stared at the unfamiliar pink sweater

on the passenger seat.

Wait… this van didn’t smell like French fries,

and I knew that I didn’t forget the diaper bag this time…

Why wasn’t it on the floor between the seats?

As the fog in my brain cleared, I felt the children tugging at my sleeve

and saying something about the van…

*GASP*  Horror!

It wasn’t our van!!!

Talk about an adrenalin rush!

I couldn’t get away from that strange vehicle quick enough.

After the kids were finally buckled in,

the groceries stacked in the back,

and my key fit into the ignition of our very own van,

I breathed a huge sigh of relief…

Jesus is the Door,

the right Door,

the only Door through which I may enter into His rest.

The experiences of joyful elation I have felt upon drawing near to Him

offer intense feelings of relief,

especially after I face the Truth,

and that which is not true is revealed.

In contrast,

a life bombarded by distraction, by temptation, by sin

harbors looming uncertainty, lack of fulfillment

and a key that won’t fit.

Upon entrance through the one true Door

there is safety, security

and hope.

Jesus ~ Deliverer

Deliverer

“…and so all Israel will be saved.

Even as it is written,

"There will come out of Zion

the Deliverer,

and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

~Romans 11:26

To Deliver is…

to set free… (deliver from evil)

to take and hand over… (deliver a package)

to hand over… (deliver a prisoner to the sheriff)

to assist in giving birth… (deliver a baby)

to speak or sing… (deliver a presentation)

to aim to an intended target… (deliver nuclear warheads)

to produce results… (deliver the best gas mileage)

intransitive verb

to produce the promised, desired, or expected results

In every instance,

there are three factors:
1) something to be delivered,

2) a destination or intended result, and

3) a deliverer.

Until the deliverer

takes action

to transfer the item to its recipient,

there is separation, isolation, independence.

Once the item has been

liberated, emancipated, released,

the promised, desired, or expected results

are possible

via delivery.

I have experienced Jesus as my deliverer;

I was delivered from hopelessness and death

to be received into God’s kingdom for all eternity,

…but there is more to deliverance than just me.

Jesus is

the One Delivered

“…although He existed in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

but emptied Himself,

taking the form of a bond servant,

and being made in the likeness of men. 

Jesus is

the Deliverer

“Being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross. 

Jesus is

the Destination

“For this reason also,

God highly exalted Him,

and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus

every knee will bow…

and that every tongue will confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.” 

~Philippians 2:6-11

The Son of God,

in humble obedience,

became all three!

Jesus ~ Counselor

Counselor:
“For a child will be born to us,

a son will be given to us;

and the government will rest on His shoulders;

and His name will be called

Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” 

~Isaiah 9:6

“For the teraphim (household gods) speak iniquity,

and the diviners see lying visions

and tell false dreams;

they comfort in vain. 

Therefore the people wander like sheep,

they are afflicted,

because there is no shepherd.”

~Zechariah 10:2

Counselors are very influential.

Seeking counsel is a task to be taken very seriously.

Jesus ~ Creator

Creator:

“He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn of all creation. 

“For by Him were all things created,

both in the heavens and on earth,

visible and invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities;

all things have been created through Him and for Him.”

~ Colossians 1:15,16

Mimes…

so imaginative and entertaining.

They communicate stories in such an amazing way;

fascinating minds, stirring emotions, piquing curiosity.

Mimes use no word, no props,

…nothing.

Well, not exactly nothing.

The word “nothing”, taken literally,

conveys an artificial message;

it can only be applied metaphorically.

For example…

“What are you doing?”… “Nothing.”

Well, you’re breathing, aren’t you?

“There’s nothing like a home-cooked meal.”

People often enjoy restaurant foods which taste like Mom’s cooking.

“What’s in the empty jar?”… “Nothing.”

I’ll bet it has air in it.

True portions of nothing only existed (so to speak)

before the creation of the universe;

 “The earth was formless and void…”

~Genesis 1:2

 even so..

“In the beginning, God…”

~Genesis 1:1

God did not scrape together so many ingredients

to whip up a batch of constellations

as if making cookies from scratch.

There were no ingredients,

no chemicals to react,

no Protista to evolve,

nothing big to bang.

God did not discover, or realize, or detect, or encounter,

or reproduce, or build, or construct the heavens and the earth

by using anything containing mass or matter which previously existed.

God spoke.

God originated everything,

generated everything,

caused everything to begin.

He created all things

from nothing…

…nothing, that is, except God Himself;

God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

the Three in One.

God spoke

and it was,

and it was good.

 “Then God said,

‘Let Us make man in Our image,

according to Our likeness…’”

~Genesis 1:26

“…Christ Jesus,

who, although He existed in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

but emptied Himself,

taking the form of a bond-servant,

and being made in the likeness of men…”

~Philippians 2:5-7

…and when I stand in awe and whisper, “Thank You, Jesus!”

He, and He alone, can honestly reply,

“It was nothing.”