Max's Weekly Musings
Vol. 11, No. 25, for the week of August 24 - 30, 2008
John 10: 14 - 29

It has been several weeks since I last wrote a Musings.  During that time Marlys and I were privileged to spend some time with our grandchildren.  We had a great time with them.  Now, this weekend, Merideth and Dan and the girls are coming up from Rochester and we will be making our annual Labor Day weekend trek to the Minnesota State Fair.  This is a culinary delight.  I have never been any place where the people get creative on how to put food on a stick.  One of the new features this year is actually a tator-tot casserole on a stick.  Can hardly wait to see what that looks like.  There is always a sea of humanity on the grounds.  Reminds me of the masses of people I saw those times I was in India.  I wonder if the streets in heaven will be as crowded? 

Well the Democrats have defined their candidates for the upcoming election.  Hard to believe it is a mere 9 weeks away.  Next week the Republicans will determine their candidates.  Then the gloves come off in earnest and the sprint to the finish will begin.  This is one of the most important elections that I can remember.  How we need to bathe our choice in prayer, seeking God's will.  But, as I reflected yesterday, I just told God that I was still glad that He was working everything according to His will.  It is so great to know that we can trust Him. 

I want to direct our attention back into that wonderful tenth chapter of John.  Listen as Jesus proclaims Himself to be the Good Shepherd.  What was the work of the Good Shepherd?  How does it relate to you and to me?  Great questions...so let's begin.  First, verses 14 and 15 reveal this truth that Jesus Christ knows who are His sheep.  We read: I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father... The shepherd had to know all the particulars of each of his sheep: their genealogy, their defects, their temperaments, their likes and dislikes.  He embodied this knowledge when he named his sheep: "thorn nibbler" and "the wet one" (the sheep who always seemed to find the water holes) and "black eyes".  I remember when my grandfather had a herd of dairy cattle - Brown Swiss they were.  Every cow in his herd had a name.  My grandfather knew his cows.  He understood each one.  I remember once being in the barn and when I stepped too close to one particular cow, my grandfather would say, "Max, better stand back.  That one loves to swing her tail around."  I think these two verses reveal two wonderful truths for us.  First, God knew all about the Lord Jesus Christ.  Nothing in Jesus was hidden from His Father.  God knew His thoughts, His desires, His actions, His speech.  Second, the Lord Jesus knows each of us.  This fact is becoming more precious to me the older I get.  God truly knows me and understands me...even when I don't necessarily understand myself.  He knows my past with its mistakes and failures.  He knows my present with its longings.  He knows my motives which often become misunderstood.  He knows my fears and anxieties.  I continually take comfort in those precious words of the Apostle Paul: No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it (1 Corinthians 10:13).  To summarize what Paul says, "Jesus knows where the 'end of my rope' is."  Nothing we ever do or say surprises the Lord Jesus.  Oh, my friends, if we could just know Him as well as He knows us.  But He has given us that privilege of knowing Him, but it just doesn't happen, it takes a lot of time and hard work.  I am so thankful that we can serve a God who is not completely shrouded in mystery.

But there is a second work of the Good Shepherd.  It is found in verse 16: I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.  I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. There may be and will be many folds.  However there are some who feel that unless you belong to their particular fold you do not belong to the flock.  What a wrong thought!  Jesus never said there would be one fold, but there would be one flock with one shepherd.  The question is not "to what fold do you belong?" but "are you part of the one flock?"  Within this verse I also see two precious truths.  First, It is only in Christ Jesus that the world can become one.  When I was younger I used to collect postage stamps from around the world.  I was especially intrigued with those from the British Commonwealth countries.  They were all separate nations, yet they were all under one queen.  Christian unity is not based on obedience to any one particular church procedure.  It is based only on loyalty to the person of Christ.  It makes not difference to what church we belong.  The only requirement to be part of the one flock is to have received Christ as Savior.  The second truth is this: Jesus wants us to go and win these lost sheep.  The sheep cannot be gathered in unless someone goes out to bring them in.  This is the tremendous challenge to the Church.  We are not to bring them into our fold, but we are to bring them into the one flock.  It is not about our territory...it is about the Lord's kingdom.

A third work of the Good Shepherd is found in verse 27: My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  Jesus is always talking with us as we do to our children.  He encourages us.  He soothes our troubled spirits.  He communes with us.  He speaks to us through prayer and Bible study.  He speaks to us through the conversations with others.  A song comes to mind.  In March 1912 C. Austin Miles was seated in the darkroom of his home where he kept his photographic equipment and his organ.  He opened his Bible to his favorite chapter, John 20, to the meeting of Mary and Jesus.  He became so impressed with the reality of Jesus and His talking to Mary that he wrote the following words of that great hymn: And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own; And the joys we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.

The final work of the Good Shepherd is found in verses 28-29: I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.    These verses have caused much controversy over the years, especially as they relate to the thought of eternal security.  It seems to me that Jesus is plainly saying that His sheep shall never perish.  Yes, we may wander from Him.  Yes, we may lose all joy and comfort.  Yes, we may even fall under the rebuke of men.  But Jesus is ever seeking His own to bring them back to Himself.  Jesus' body cannot be dismembered.  he cannot forfeit that which has cost Him so much to purchase.  You may be a very lame, timid, worthless sheep, but you were purchased by the Shepherd's blood because He loved you so much.  And because He loves you He will keep you. 

Allow me to close this Musing with one of the most precious promises in the Bible.  It is an anchor upon which my soul rests daily.  And I pray it becomes that for you as well.  It is found in Romans 8:37-39, which read: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  And all God's people said, "Amen!"