Tag: christianity

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Our Good Shepherd

John 10 is a powerful passage and picture of the love Christ has for us. Jesus is our Shepherd, the one who cares for us, protects us, guides us. He is our Good Shepherd for he will not forsake us, no matter what. We have confidence that we will be with him always and this theme is carried on later in chapter ten as we are told that we cannot be snatched out of God’s hand.

Beyond the imagery of Christ as Good Shepherd, Jesus issues another “I AM” statement in verse nine, “I am the door.” This calls to mind the unique role that Christ has in our faith. There is one flock and one shepherd (v16). We can only enter by Christ, for those who do not enter the door are thieves and robbers (v1).

But in a way the roles of shepherd and door are closely related. This was written about fifty years ago by Eric Bishop and he relates a story he heard while while traveling in the Middle East:

In the afternoon I set out to see the sights about the village. Not far away I came to a mound of earth piled up in a large circle, like a crude rampart, and on the top of the mound all around the circle was a heap of dry thorns. As I stood wondering what this might be one of the villagers approached me. “Salaam,” I said, “please tell me what this enclosure is for.”

“Oh, that is for the sheep,” he replied. “They are brought in here for the night for safety.”

“Good,” I said, “but why have the dry thorns been piled on top of the wall?”

“That,” he replied, “is a protection against wolves. If a wolf tries to break in and attack the sheep, he will knock against the thorns, and they will make a noise, and the shepherd will wake up, and drive off the wolf.”

“That is fine,” I said, “but why does the wolf try to climb over the wall? Here is the entrance to the enclosure; it is open. There is no door to keep out the wolf; he could easily enter here.”

“Oh no,” said my guide, “you do not understand. That is where the shepherd sleeps, the shepherd is the door.”

And then I understood something that had often puzzled me. It became clear to me why Jesus had in John 10 called Himself first the Door and then immediately afterwards the Shepherd. Since He is Shepherd He is also the Door.

Eric F.F. Bishop, “The Door of the Sheep – John x.7-9,” Expository Times 71 (1960): 307-309.

Truly Christ is the Good Shepherd who has laid down his life for us. Take time to contemplate that painful reality as we slowly go through passion week.

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Roadmaps to the Ancient World

Reading about all the peoples and places of Genesis can be a bit overwhelming for we who live thousands of years later. Even if you are versed in the geography of the Middle East, the map now looks very different than it did then. If you’re interested in getting a better grip of what the land looked like and where Abraham was and was going, take a look at some of the maps I’ve found online. Many of your Bibles probably include some great maps for reference as well, so don’t forget to check inside the back covers.

Bible Maps – Has lots of links to a variety of sites that host maps for the Bible.

Biblemap.org – An interesting approach where you put the book and chapter, and it’ll show you an overlay of the relevant places over Google Maps.

If you’ve found great resources yourself, pass them along and I’ll include them above!

 

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The Forest from the Trees

We have had some great Bible study during our most recent church-wide study, most of which focused on short passages or individual verses. When you do so you can take great time to linger in that passage and pour over every detail. But that shouldn’t be the only method of study.

When we take the Bible a tiny chunk here or a verse there, we can at times miss the greater context of the passage. We need to be able to see the forest from the trees. We will better understand the flood by reading about creation. We better understand the building drama and tension of John when we read it start to finish.

Friend of our church, Dusty Ellington, posted some tips about reading the Bible that I would encourage you to take a look at, and his first step is this:

Read through the book in its entirety, seeking to understand it as a whole and trying to follow the line of thought. As you read the whole book, be aware if you see things you haven’t noticed before or if you recognize parts that may not have been emphasized in your prior exposure to the book. Also, does reading the whole give you have a sense of the basic structure of the book?

It is a good reminder to couple slow, meditative reading of small selections with the sort of reading that helps us to build up the big picture of each book and the big picture of God’s love for us.

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Going Back Again

Sometimes when I would go hiking in college with friends, we’d figure out a new trail to try out. I lived in the Shenandoah Valley and regardless of which direction we set out, there were beautiful mountains and forests to welcome us and always new paths we could find. But often we would go back to the same spots and same trails. We’d been there before and knew it was a great climb or a great view. Having gone through it once never meant we were finished with it. Having the familiarity actually helped in some ways since we were less concerned about losing the trail and making the correct turns and instead focused on conversation or the beauty of creation. We knew the stunning vistas that awaited and that built up the anticipation.

When we’d return to well-worn paths the trails were not always the same as we remembered. If the path took us up to see a cascade in the fall, as the colors were changing and the air smelled like dying leaves, when we came back in winter it was new. It was the same trail, but the water had halted its violent path down the mountain, and it was frozen and smooth. The leaves were gone so the sky opened up above us. It was the same trail but it offered something entirely new for those who would journey back again. You can’t use a mountain stream as a slip n’ slide in the fall.

Even if I went with different friends the experiences would change dramatically. The perspectives were different, the conversation changed, the pace may be slower.
If we slow down our pace in all things, I think we will be open to see the subtle differences in life that bring freshness to our experience. I chose Genesis and John to begin our reading because for many these are familiar passages. They are paths which have already been walked. But let that be a joy, not a chore. We are not the same people as we were when we first read. Our circumstances are not the same. Our companions through this journey may be entirely different. What new thing is God showing you as you read? How are you experiencing the Bible as a living Word, not stale and old, but dynamic and fresh?

Feel free to share below in the comments.

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About Focus Passages and Small Groups

To go along with the readings, each week there is a focus passage that will be highlighted in the This Week section of the site. We’ll have time during the Reading Groups to talk about whatever has been assigned for the week, but we will make sure to spend time on the Focus Passage as well.

Small groups are able to use these as handouts for their groups, if you would like. You may prefer something more like a workbook for your meetings, but if your group or some of your group are reading along, this may work well.

I’ve put up the first three weeks if you want to see what the future holds. Here they are:

Week 1 Focus Passage John 3

Week 2 Focus Passage Genesis 22

Week 3 Focus Passage John 20.

One more note about how to best coordinate your reading with a small group. Take my group as an example. We decided we want to do this Year in the Bible together and use the Focus Passage handouts. But our group meets at 7am on Tuesday morning, which doesn’t afford us much time to have read the rest of the Scripture for that week. So what we have decided is that when we meet, we’ll go over the readings that go along with the previous week. If your group meets later in the week, you may find it works to keep in sync with the current week’s assignment.

As always, if you have questions about this or any other detail, let me know. It may be a great question that others have as well, and I’ll then post the answer here to share with everyone.

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In the beginning

“In the beginning…”

This is how both of our readings for this week begin. Genesis is the account of creation, John is the account of Jesus. But these accounts are not too different. In the beginning God created heaven and earth, and Jesus Christ, the Word of God, was there for that beginning. Christ is before all beginnings, he was with God, and he is God.

John is a book that presents the case that Jesus is truly divine. That he is one with the Father. John makes his reader decide on this fact. It is unavoidable in his gospel. Do I believe Jesus? Who he says he is, where he has come from? Or don’t I? To John, this is the question the must be answered.

If we believe John’s account, that Jesus was there in the beginning and that all things have been created through him, how can we read Genesis the same way? Or for that matter, how can we interpret the Old Testament in any way that ignores Jesus? Jesus Christ is the Son of God who is eternal. There was never a time he was not.

So in the beginning of Genesis, there is God creating all things. But it is God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let that truth help inform your reading and understanding of all of God’s Word. In the beginning, as God created this world, he already had in mind that he would come and live among us. God knew, before creation, that he would come and die for us. Knowing that, knowing the pain and sacrifice that was certain, God created the heavens and the earth–and everything in it. God did so because he loves us, and he loves us at all costs.

Read John to discover that cost, the cross. Read Genesis to see the way God governs all things, even so long ago, to lead to the cross and bring humanity back to himself through that sacrifice.