Brown's Daily Word 9/29/15

Thanks be to Jesus, the giver of life for this new day.  It appears that the colors of the fall season are approaching fast furious, yet with fullness of the promises of the Lord.  The Lord blessed us with a marvelous Monday.   I  visited some beautiful people along my way.  I drove around the countryside gazing at the beauty of the Lord.  I came by a beautiful apple orchard, full of apples with divergent colors and shapes.   In the evening Alice and I walked on the side walks of the town.  It is getting dark before 7:30 PM.  Praise the Lord for the lights that illumine the sidewalks.  We often walk down the riverside.  We heard many flocks of Canadian geese making melodious sonnets, praising the Lord and getting ready for the Southern migration for the winter days.  I am amazed how the Lord has created them with a built-in GPS so they can travel thousands of miles without ever being  lost.  Jesus is our GPS in the world in which we live.  He declares to us, "I am the way the truth and the life".

 

   One of my favorite authors ,  F. Scott Peck began his best selling book "The Road Less Traveled" by writing, "Life is difficult.".   Another Christian author said with humor, "Life is hard and then we die".  Some sales persons convince to buy something they are marketing  by saying:"Life is not a dress rehearsal, you only get to live it once."  Others have described our existence by filling in the blank with: a rat race, a bowl of cherries, amino acids, a series of choices, a paycheck, the weekend, a party.  Why is that we always want to reduce life in size?

    For many, life is nothing more than the time spent between birth and death, the drudgery of existence, the boring monotony of the routine, or the hope of having enough to take them through until the end.  These  people have bought a lie.  Their lives been stolen from them.  There are many avenues down which we can travel that lead not to life but to destruction.  While we would never call these pursuits thieves and robbers they are just that.  In their diabolical and methodical ways, they attempt to destroy our attempts at life.  Many people try to find life to only discover despair.

    True life is not found in mere pleasure.  "No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied; no matter how much we hear, we are never content" (Ecclesiastes 1:8, LB).  In the pursuit of pleasure eventually the law of diminishing returns takes hold.  It takes a bigger thrill, or a bigger event to bring another high.  But it never lasts.

    Life is not found through performance.  One Wimbledon tennis champion thought all his life that winning at Wimbledon would result in life has such as he had never known.  He said following his championship, "The thrill of victory lasts about fifteen minutes."  Many believe the myth that says success produces life. The truth of Scripture states, "Man is always working, never satisfied".  (Ecclesiastes 4:8, GN).

    True life is not found in possessions.  In fact, life is not found in pleasure, performance, possessions, position, or pursuits; it is found in the person of Jesus Christ.  Time after time Jesus said that He is the Giver of life, the Author of life. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25).  Later in John's gospel He stated, "I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6).  Yet, the most powerful statement he made regarding life was: "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).  The "I" is emphatic, meaning that life is found in none other than Him.  Life is entered by none other than Jesus himself.

    For us to understand how this life is entered we must understand that a special relationship exists between a shepherd and his sheep.  For example, Jesus said, "I am the gate for the sheep" (John 10:7).  That's just what a shepherd is to his sheep, particularly one who is devoted to his sheep.

    I read about  George Adam Smith, an Englishman who traveled extensively in the Middle East, who came across a sheepfold and said to the shepherd, "That is where they go at night?"
"Yes," said the shepherd, "and when they are in there, they are perfectly safe."
"But there is no door," said the Englishman.
"I am the door," replied the shepherd.
Sir George looked at him and asked, "What do you mean by the door?"
The shepherd answered, "When the light has gone out, and all the sheep are inside, I lie in that open space, and no sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body; I am the door."
When Jesus said he is the door of the sheep, he meant that the fold has only one entrance; life has one source; spiritual nourishment is obtained one way; Heaven can be entered through one entrance.  The single means of access to all which is life is Jesus.

 In Jesus our LIFE,

    Brown

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