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Posts Tagged ‘John 10’

Careening Through Fog

Posted in Choice, Christ, Faith, Hearing from God, tagged , on November 28, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Recently and close more than 140 cars piled up in an accident. Fog was so thick one could see no more than ten (10) feet ahead but they were traveling at highway speed anyway.

In a sense we are all like that. None of us can see what is in front of us in time yet we can not stop. Like it or not we are careening forward in that fog making decisions only guessing what will happen next and hoping for the best.

But while we have no eyes to see the future we were made to hear. Jesus said,

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” (John 10:27)

We have the capacity to hear God. When we give ourselves to Christ we begin to “hear” his peace in our inner being.

Christ’s sacrifice not only saves us into eternity, it removes the figurative “wax from our ears”. We start learning to “listen” to his peaceful urging how to live, when to act, when to wait, what to do.

As we learn to listen we crash less and discover God sees, he cares, and he speaks.

Prayer: Jesus, like your apostle John leaned on your chest at the last supper to hear your heartbeat, so I desire to “hear” you moment by moment.

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Pastoral Pyramid Scheme

Posted in Church, Leadership, Parables, tagged , on August 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Set these persons over the people as officers of groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. Let them sit as judges for the people at all times. They should bring every major dispute to you, but they should decide all of the minor cases themselves.” — Exodus 18:21b-22

Moses, on the advice of his father-in-law, built an authority structure like a large pyramid — leaders of tens, fifties, hundreds, thousands with Moses on top. If someone had a need they would go to their local leader, working tougher issues up the pyramid as needed to Moses.

But the Church is NOT intended to be like that, though many are. Jesus had a different model.

But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice …. they know not the voice of strangers. — John 10:2-5

A cursory reading leads one to think Jesus is referring to himself as the shepherd but he is not!

Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. — John 10:7

If Jesus is the door who, then, are the shepherds? Our pastor’s, of course. And how should they lead? By example and by knowing their sheep by name. You can’t do that with a pyramid!

The New Testament model for Church is not a pyramid but a relationship with individual members. If your pastor doesn’t know your name find a real pastor. If you think God called you to pastor get to know your sheep not just your leaders. Eat with them, visit them, live with them, love them. You’ll be surprised at what you discover.

— fritz@langgang.com

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Human Sacrifice

Posted in Bible Characters, Sacrifice, The Wesleys, tagged , , on March 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Abraham …bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar … But the angel of  the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” …  “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” …  Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram … and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. – Genesis 22:9b-12-13 (NIV)

Why such a story like this in our Bible? A man being told to kill his son on an altar – the idea is repugnant to us today!

But human sacrifice was often demanded by the gods and religions of Abraham’s day.  What could be more dear to a man than his only son, and what could show his devotion more than sacrificing that son on an altar.

But the God of the Bible is different; Abraham had to learn that and so do we.  In this one event God established two (2) critical lessons:

  1. God doesn’t want human sacrifice like the other gods (demons) required. He’s not interested is us giving him some thing, no matter how dear, he wants us to give him ourselves.
  2. God institutes the concept of substitution.  God, himself, provides the substitute – here it was a ram for a son, but later it would be Christ tasting death1 for us that we may go free.

So, how was the sacrifice of Christ NOT human sacrifice?  Because it was Christ’s self-sacrifice.  Jesus was not the victim2 but the instigator and voluntary participant. He was on a mission – not to satisfy some whim of a deity but to free mankind from the bondage of sin.

Charles Wesley, an Anglican priest, brother to John Wesley and co-founder of Methodism expressed it this way,

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.3

– fritz
1 – Hebrews 2:9
2 – John 10:17-18, Matthew 26:53
3 – Hymn, “Oh For A Thousand Tongues” by Charles Wesley

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