Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd!

“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—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 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. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will 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. I and the Father are one.” – John 10:14-18,27-30 NIV

I had a couple of dreams or a quite long dream last night or from this early morning. My dream was about the last days of my life. I, somehow, got cancer or something. Thus, I had to say farewell to my New Zealand church family. When the Pastor Amanda Pilbrow hugged me with the tears on her eyes, she told me that she loved me as a brother in Christ Jesus I think, and she told me that she will remember me forevermore. This was probably because she knew my services for God and what I had done for His glory. In addition, Emily Hamill or someone nudged her because she thought that Amanda was making the situation more sad. Amanda’s compassion made me cry and burst into tears. Furthermore, when I woke up and turn my laptop on to write a devotional, I have been strongly impacted about eternal life as John 10:28-30 is Youversion’s verse of the day for today.

Nevertheless, the eternal life is available for everyone as long as we have faith in Jesus Christ (John 11:25-26). “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10) The main reason why we are able to have eternal life is that God has already exchanged our final and eternal from the death to the life by sending His beloved Son, as an image of Himself, into the world to crucify Himself on the cross for our sins (Romans 6:23; Hebrews 2:14-15). God has desperately wanted to restore us back to His kingdom, due to His steadfast love, since sin has separated us from there (John 3:16-18; 1 John 4:9-10). This is because all of us actually have been created by God to be His image (Genesis 1:27) and His children (Ephesians 1:4-6). Furthermore, knowing Jesus Christ intimately is eternal life, basically, due to the fact knowing Him intimately is biggest part of believing in Him (John 17:3). How can we believe in Jesus Christ intimately if we do not know Him at all? This is part of the reason why we have to read and listen to the word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is centered on Him and the Kingdom Life (Psalm 119:1-3). “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) In addition, the reason why I am writing devotionals and wanting to be a Christian Writer is that not only they are the will of God for me, it is because I want others to understand the word of God and take it seriously as the word of God helps us to build the relationship with God (Philippians 1:27-28). “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. (Romans 3:21-31)

All of us are able to live physical lives on our own if we wish them to but they can be ultimate hard and a great burden for us. However, if we want to produce our spiritual lives, then all of us have to be together until the end of the age, as we are able to carry each other’s burdens and if somebody is caught in a sin, we are able to restore them gently (Galatians 6:1-2). Proverbs 27:17 states, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” The main reasons why we have to be together until the end of the age are each one of us take a part of body of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27) and the temple of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; Ephesians 2:19-22). “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:4-5) Furthermore, every follower of Jesus should take the Great Commission seriously (Matthew 28:18-20)—to evangelize who Jesus Christ is on God’s behalf (2 Corinthians 5:11-21). It is our work to preach the gospel of Jesus to others and then it is God’s work to make them convincted through the Spirit of God. Although I do not know how to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in a person, I preach it through writing. Because of this, I am very grateful (1 Peter 4:10-11). I remember the fact that I used to sleep very late or wake up very early to write devotionals for others. Jesus Christ has wanted us to unite with one another so much. Because of this, He prayed,

“My prayer is not for them [Jesus’ disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:20-26)

Although believing in Jesus Christ is the primary key to have spiritual and eternal life, we also should surrender our lives to God (Romans 6:3-23). The main reason for this is that everything actually belongs to Him (Colossians 1:16-20). I know that surrendering every part ourselves is difficult, especially those of us who has not born in Christian families. Unless we do our surrendering part, the devil crawls over us, somehow, to ruin our spiritual lives—to make us worldly-centered and to make us to turn away from God (1 Peter 5:8-9).  When we become worldly-centered, we automatically become enemies of God, due to the fact that we may stop the power of the Spirit of God to work within us (James 4:4-5). For instance, I was kind of worldly-centered by having an addiction of television because I knew that I had something else to do for God’s glory, instead of watching television a couple of times. Thus, I repented before God, saying “Break me from television!” However, my repentance did not work a couple of times, due to the fact that I did not put it into practice until I chose to crucify from the passion of watching television. The main reason why I chose to crucify it is that I want to live for God’s glory forevermore and wanted to be an obedient child of God until the end of the age.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)