I AM: Discovering the Nature of Jesus!
Saturday, March 20, 2004
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, as another week draws to a close, I thank You for Your wisdom and guidance in the past week, and look forward to receiving Your continued love, grace and power in the week to come! Thank You for being a “24/7” God, who never leaves me nor forsakes me. Thank You for looking for me no matter how lost I’ve become, and for willingly laying down Your life that I may live for ever. Fill me with You Holy Spirit this day that I may glorify You in every thought, word and action. Glorify Yourself in my life. This I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God's Word Today
John 10:11-20
11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will leave the sheep because they aren’t his and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. 13The hired hand runs away because he is merely hired and has no real concern for the sheep.
14“I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice; and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
17“The Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may have it back again. 18No one can take my life from me. I lay down my life voluntarily. For I have the right to lay it down when I want to and also the power to take it again. For my Father has given me this command.”
19When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him. 20Some of them said, “He has a demon, or he’s crazy. Why listen to a man like that?” 21Others said, “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
Thoughts...What Do We Do With Jesus?
At the conclusion of Jesus’ interaction with the people in today’s Scripture, after He had told them that He was the Good Shepherd and that He would lay down His life for the sheep, the people decided one of two things: Jesus had a demon or was crazy OR Jesus was something special! After all, before this conversation, Jesus had healed a man who was blind from birth—quite a feat!
While most of us have followed Jesus for a long time, and would find it difficult to understand how anyone could consider that Jesus had a demon or was crazy, it goes back to a theme that we have carried throughout this study of Jesus’ “I Am” statements: Anyone who said the things that Jesus said was either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. In a way we have to give the folks who listened to Jesus credit—at least they understood the radical nature of what Jesus was saying. The drastically differing conclusions they drew were based on whether they could conceive that Jesus, was indeed, the Son of God, the Messiah, or whether they dismissed that thought and went on to the other possibilities—liar or lunatic!
In our day, it seems that somehow many, many people are able to avoid making ANY decision about Jesus. They don’t consider Him a liar, or a lunatic or Lord. They just don’t think about it. Their lives are so busy with trying to make it to the top, or keep their heads above water, or make another buck, or whatever it may be, that consideration of who Jesus is and what He did, just takes get to the “front burner.” What about us, though? I know that we’ve committed our lives to Jesus, you probably wouldn’t be reading these comments if you hadn’t—or at least you’re seriously considering Him as Your Savior and Lord—but is that evident in our daily thoughts, words and actions. Many times in the “My Prayer” section of these daily readings I ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit so that our thoughts, words and actions would reflect His will, or would glorify Him. That’s what happens when the Holy Spirit IS in control of our lives. We become different. What we do with Jesus, eventually becomes evident to others, not just ourselves. At first the changes take place on the inside. We may feel more love for God and others, or we may experience true forgiveness, and the release of shame and guilt that we’ve held onto for a long time. We may become more joyful, or less sarcastic and cynical about life. Eventually, those internal changes move to the outside, where others can see them.
So let’s consider a few “accountability” questions to determine what we are really doing with Jesus. Have you asked anyone about their faith, or asked them to participate in a faith-based activity such as Sunday worship, a life group, attending the Passion of the Christ movie, or anything like that in the past six weeks? If you answered, “No,” to that one, then its likely that others aren’t really keenly aware that you have decided for Jesus.
What about your attitude toward life and others? Are you optimistic? Do you tend to trust others and expect the best from them? Do you keep on attempting to make friends and influence people to become more who God created them to be? Have you complimented anyone, thanked anyone, or encouraged anyone in the last several days? If not, then it’s unlikely that folks would consider you to be following the Good Shepherd.
What about your attitude toward things—material goods, money, worldly valuables? Do you tend to horde things or give them away? Are you giving a significant portion of your time, talents and money to the work of God in and through New Life, and other Christian ministries and organizations? When it comes to commitments our checkbooks and calendars don’t lie. What would someone learn about your priorities and attitudes toward things by taking a quick look at your calendar and checkbook?
When it comes right down to it, it really isn’t what we say about what we’ve done with Jesus, but what we’re doing with Him! If He’s Lord of our lives then we and others ought to see!
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