Last night, we had our Bible study with people from our church. We are currently in a study of the seven "I AM" statements Jesus made. We have been reading them from the perspective of John. The one we studied last night was "I am the Good Shepherd". Jesus talked about two different shepherds, the Good Shepherd and then the hired hand. He said that when the hired hand sees the wolves coming to attack the sheep, they will run away and look out for themselves instead of the sheep they are keeping watch over. The Good Shepherd, on the other hand, will stay and lay down his own life for the sheep so that they will be protected. One thing that stood out to me was that the Good Shepherd sticks around. Jesus has shown us that example because he promises never to leave us. We were all challenged to look at two different perspectives, being the sheep and being the shepherd. Are we going to be the sheep who are wayward and don't listen or will we listen for the Good Shepherd's voice and follow strong after him? And are we going to be the shepherd who runs away or the one who sticks around and will lay down ourselves for others?
Since Brian and I have been in ministry, we have seen many students who have had people who were acting as "hired hands" in their life. I was challenged last night to not be that type of person. I often find myself telling someone, "Oh we should totally get together" or "I will be praying for you, and let me know if I can do anything" but then I never follow through. Jesus always follows through and I want to show our students and just people in general that I am a person that will do that as well, so that I am a living example of Christ.
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