Thursday, November 5
The abundant life Jesus spoke of in John 10:9 includes our salvation. But it also means Freedom. “If anyone enters through me, he will…go in and out.” If suddenly there were no shepherd, the sheep would be terrified to leave their pen. Sheep are a rather unique species. They don’t have sharp claws, horns, or teeth. They aren’t particularly smart. Heck, let’s just say it: Even by animal standards, they’re dumb. (We tell blonde jokes. I’m convinced that pigs, chickens, and cows tell sheep jokes.) They’re weak and stupid, but unfortunately for the sheep, very tasty. It would be terrible to be a sheep living on one’s own. But the presence of the shepherd (who is the door) brings freedom. He can ward off the predators, so that the sheep can go in and out of the fold in safety.
Here is one of the great fallacies of Christianity: People believe that in order to become a Christian, one must give up his freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth. A sheep might think, “I don’t need a shepherd. I want to be free. I want to schmooze with the wolves or go hunting with the grizzly bears anytime I please.” A small child may wish he had the freedom to stay up as late as he wants, eat candy and Doritos and play video games all day, and never go to school. We all know that kind of “freedom” leads to death.
In the same way, before we met Jesus, many of us held back, thinking, “If I say yes to Jesus, that means my life isn’t mine anymore. I have to walk the line that He sets for me.” Quite true. But you and I weren’t really free before. We were slaves to the expectations and approval of others, to the world’s standards of success. We were slaves to our own desires, and that produced addiction, heartbreak, and relational chaos. But when we enter through the door of Jesus Christ, He frees us to live the lives He created us to live, protected from all of that destructive stuff. But only if we follow the shepherd.
I knew a young man once who was fired from his job at a church for moral failure. When the pastor of the church confronted him, he asked him why he did it. The kid’s excuse was that he was tired of seeing other young men his age have all the fun, because they didn’t follow the rules he did. All of us can see the flaw in that kind of thinking. Yet that tendency to go out through another door, to find freedom apart from our Shepherd, is in all of us.
“Heavenly Father, you know how susceptible I am to the lies of this world, and my own flesh. I pray for wisdom to see your way as the only way that leads to freedom, so I don’t stumble and take others down with me. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
