Brown's Daily Word 6-4-09

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for the gift of another day, filled with His promises, and paved with His grace. Sunita returned from Rwanda yesterday, back to Washington safe and sound. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful time during our mid-week service of study and fellowship. When we come before Him, seeking Him, He infuses us with His joy.
In the Gospel according to John, Jesus said that he is not only the shepherd, but He is also the gate for the sheep. At first this sounds confusing, until you understand that in biblical times the shepherd would take the sheep to a cave, or lead them into a sheepfold that was created by thick briars on all sides. Both the cave and the briars had an opening where the sheep could go in and out. The only problem was that predators could go in as well, so the shepherd would lay down in the opening at night and literally become the gate. Nothing could go in or out without going through him. It could be a dangerous position to be in. He would literally lay down his life for the sheep, and many shepherds lost their lives in this way from an attack of predators. The whole life of the shepherd is lived to do good to the sheep. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Jesus, the good Shepherd, has come to give us life. The Christian life is a relationship. It means loving our Shepherd, following Him, listening to His voice, staying near Him, and trusting Him. Jesus never gave an altar call, or asked for a show of hands of those who believed in Him. That would have been too easy. What he did say was, “Follow me.” Those are some of the simplest and yet most difficult words ever spoken in the history of the world. Becoming a Christian is not just a crisis event, it is an ongoing relationship with Jesus, that results in a new way of living.
Donald Miller, in his excellent book, "Searching for God Knows What", tells about going to a Bible college where he taught a class. Speaking to this group of Bible students, he told them he was going to present the plan of salvation, but he was going to leave out one key element, and they were to listen carefully so that at the end they could tell him what it was. He began by saying that mankind is sinful and separated from God, and he pointed out many of the sins of the culture — euthanasia, abortion, homosexuality, drug use, etc. He talked about the need to repent, and backed it up with several scriptures. He used a real life example of a bridge being out, and how a man shot flares just over the top of cars to get them to stop and not drive over the bridge to their death. He again quoted Scripture that talked about the wages of sin being death, and how we were to avoid spiritual death at any cost. He talked about the beauty of morality, and told the story of a man who avoided being unfaithful to his wife when faced with the opportunity, and how his marriage blossomed after that and became better than ever. He talked about heaven and how wonderful it would be — streets of gold and gates of pearl with a beautiful river running through it. He said all this could be theirs if they only believed, repented and honored God. Not only would heaven be theirs, but real meaning and fulfillment would be realized in their lives right here and now. He then asked the students what was left out of the story. There was absolute silence in the room. Now these were students who had grown up in evangelical churches. They attended a Bible college where they had studied theology. They had read the Bible and taken classes in both Old and New Testament, and only weeks before they had taken an evangelism class and knocked on hundreds of doors in an attempt to lead people to Christ. Miller said that the students sat there for several uncomfortable minutes. Finally he wrote, “None of the forty-five students in the class realized I had presented a gospel without once mentioning the name of Jesus.” If there is anything the story of the Shepherd and the sheep tells us, it is that the Christian life is not about going through a few steps so we can avoid hell and get to heaven; it is about a relationship that takes place between the Shepherd and His sheep. It is not about getting into the fold, for that is never mentioned. It is about following the Shepherd. Jesus said, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). In Jesus the Winsome Shepherd,
Brownhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jEXDPzqo2g