John 10:7-18\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0<\/i>So Jesus again said to them,\u00a0\u201cTruly, truly, I say to you,\u00a0I am the door of the sheep.\u00a08\u00a0All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.\u00a09\u00a0I am the door. If anyone enters by me,\u00a0he will be saved and will go in and out and\u00a0find pasture.\u00a010\u00a0The thief comes only to steal and\u00a0kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.\u00a011\u00a0I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd\u00a0lays down his life for the sheep.\u00a012\u00a0He who is\u00a0a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and\u00a0leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and\u00a0scatters them.\u00a013\u00a0He flees because\u00a0he is a hired hand and\u00a0cares nothing for the sheep.\u00a014\u00a0I am the good shepherd.\u00a0I know my own and\u00a0my own know me,\u00a015\u00a0just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and\u00a0I lay down my life for the sheep.\u00a016\u00a0And\u00a0I have other sheep that are not of this fold.\u00a0I must bring them also, and\u00a0they will listen to my voice. So there will be\u00a0one flock,\u00a0one shepherd.\u00a017\u00a0For this reason the Father loves me,\u00a0because\u00a0I lay down my life that I may take it up again.\u00a018\u00a0No one takes it from me, but\u00a0I lay it down\u00a0of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and\u00a0I have authority to take it up again.\u00a0This charge I have received from my Father.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
11\u00a0I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd\u00a0lays down his life for the sheep.\u00a012\u00a0He who is\u00a0a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and\u00a0leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and\u00a0scatters them.\u00a013\u00a0He flees because\u00a0he is a hired hand and\u00a0cares nothing for the sheep.\u00a014\u00a0I am the good shepherd.\u00a0I know my own and\u00a0my own know me,\u00a015\u00a0just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and\u00a0I lay down my life for the sheep.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cSo you follow Jesus? Why do you do that?\u00a0\u00a0If you can give me one good reason I will give my life to Him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, He is my shepherd that loves me and takes care of me.\u00a0\u00a0He leads to areas of blessings and He watches over me on every path.\u00a0\u00a0He provides food, blessing and cool drink for me.\u00a0\u00a0He gives me a safe place to rest, and keeps guard over me during the night.\u00a0\u00a0I have no fear at night because He stands guard over me.\u00a0\u00a0Really I am in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore I knew Him as my Shepherd, before He took over as my Savior, my Guardian and my Master I had fear about my eternal future.\u00a0\u00a0No I sleep in deep peace and rest without worry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPreviously I trusted only on the goodness of mankind and the system of mankind in the world.\u00a0\u00a0I had fears of my future and confusion on where and how to walk.\u00a0\u00a0I worried about the things of life.\u00a0\u00a0Really, I had no security but myself and honestly I often thought about how insufficient I was in so many ways.\u00a0\u00a0Really, disaster who had my name on his list, I was powerless against.\u00a0\u00a0Sure, no one knew I worried.\u00a0\u00a0I didn\u2019t look afraid.\u00a0\u00a0But I was both.\u00a0\u00a0I was ripe for the picking by evil.\u00a0\u00a0That was a scary thought I just tried to avoid thinking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Good Shepherd gave me the message of loving me and taking care of me.\u00a0\u00a0He said to follow Him and my future would be safe.\u00a0\u00a0So I did and you know all His promises?\u00a0\u00a0Day by day He has shown He is faithful in every way.\u00a0\u00a0He loved me before I knew Him and He proves it to me every day as His blessings are fresh every morning. And what is crazy, this physically invisible Shepherd lets me see Him every day and has taught me to hear His voice.\u00a0\u00a0So when He says He died for me, more and more I know that is true because more and more I know who and what He is.\u00a0\u00a0I trust Him more and more.\u00a0\u00a0I now know without a doubt He loves me and is absolutely trustworthy.\u00a0\u00a0I am not afraid.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m not worried.\u00a0\u00a0He is always with me and taking care of me.\u00a0\u00a0Always.\u00a0\u00a0I live in peace.\u00a0\u00a0For me, trusting the Good Shepherd is absolutely the best and only way to live.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFather God has always known the Son and the Son has always known Him and the Son is my Shepherd.\u00a0\u00a0The Son not only would die for me but He already has.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s why I love and serve the Shepherd who has, before I was born, loved and served me.\u00a0\u00a0Let men choose to live as they decide.\u00a0\u00a0As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo do you want to give your life to the Good Shepherd?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, you cheated, you gave me more than one reason!\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s talk about it some more.\u00a0\u00a0I feel like a fish being reeled in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, let\u2019s see if the Fisher of Men, who is the Good Shepherd, can finish reeling you.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I like that, let\u2019s do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n
Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has\u00a0shown you, Oh man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; and what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of you, but\u00a0to do justly, to love\u00a0mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.<\/i><\/p>\n
Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John 10:7-18\u00a0–\u00a0So Jesus again said to them,\u00a0\u201cTruly, truly, I say to you,\u00a0I am the door of the sheep.\u00a08\u00a0All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.\u00a09\u00a0I am the door. If anyone enters by me,\u00a0he will be saved and will go in and out and\u00a0find pasture.\u00a010\u00a0The thief comes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[100,94,1874,17],"class_list":["post-2983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-john","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2984,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983\/revisions\/2984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}