Who Are We Following

 

Who Are We Following

The New Testament is a favorite of mine.  Not only is it a favorite, because it is about Christ's life, but also because of the imagery that Jesus used while teaching.  In John chapter 10, Christ is at a very challenging time of his life.  He knows his time is short and he has much teaching that he still wants to do.  His family, mainly his brothers, invite him to The Feast of Dedication (today we know it as Hanukkah), tempting him to go to Jerusalem to teach and perform more miracles. They do not yet believe in who he is, so are not looking out for his best interests.  If Christ were to go to the feast, he would surely be taken and killed.

Despite these challenges, after his family leaves, Christ does go, but not to celebrate, but to teach in the temple.  He went to do good works and bring more souls unto his father. While he was there, he was able to teach, but he was also rebuked for his teachings and almost stoned to death. Before he slipped away from his accusers, he gave one of the most beautiful teachings in all of the scriptures.  He gave us the story of the Good Shephard.

Christ starts by saying, that anyone who has to clime over the gate is not the shepherd, but a thief.  Right away, my mind starts thinking, who is trying to steal the sheep and why?  There is but one answer, Satan is trying to steel the sheep and we are the sheep that he wants for his own.  Why does Satan want us so badly?  There may be many right answers to this question, but I believe the answer that fits best, is that he does not want us to be happy, nor does he want our Father in Heaven and Savior to be happy.

If Satan is climbing over the gate to get to us and breaking past all our defenses, of good parental teachings, going to church, saying our prayers, and reading our scriptures, what are we to do?  When Satan, through some devious plan, puts pornography on our computers, drugs in our schools, and hate into our hearts, what are we going to do?  When Satan has us by his razor teeth and we are all but spiritually dead, are we lost?

God knew that we would be taken by the Devil and made his.  God had a plan.  A plan that started oh so long ago, even before we were born on this earth.  The plan was his son, Jesus Christ.  Another name for him, is the Good Shephard.  He is our brother and has born us all on his backs from the very beginning.  He knows us and we know him.  He calls to us and we hear him and because we hear him, we go to him.  When we are stuck on a high rock, we jump into his outstretched arms.  When we are trapped in the brambles, he breaks through the thorns to free us.  When Satan has us in his grasp and we are calling out in pain, he comes to us.  Christ casts away that dark one and carries us back into his light.

I have seen sheep be carried away from the fold of the Good Shephard, because they did not go to Christ when he called them.  Then when they were ravaged in agony of Satan's power, instead of calling to their Savior, they continued to turn away from him and suffer.  Christ is standing there, with his arms outstretched, just waiting, but they never jumped, never even spoke his name.

Who are we following?  Are we following our Shephard, Jesus Christ, or we following the Big Bad Wolf, Lucifer?  What do we spend our time focused on, is it Christs' words, is it loving our fellow man, is it turning our hearts to him?  If we are not doing these things, then we are not following the Shephard, we are not following Christ.

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

As Christ taught the people in Jerusalem about who he really was, he had a large following.  The people were divided, some said he was possessed by a devil and others said he must be a prophet, because of his good deeds. Most in Jerusalem did not see him for who he truly was, so they tried to kill him that very day.  Christ had just testified that he was the one to choose when he would die and that his time was not yet.  Fulfilling his own words from moments before, Jesus safely slipped through the angry mob and went to the Jordan River, where John the Baptist once taught.

There Christ was, along the Jordan and who should come unto him?  His sheep.  May we turn and follow our Savior Jesus Christ, our Good Shephard.

Obedience-The First Law of Heaven

Obedience-The First Law of Heaven

I am attending BYU-Idaho and this is my first semester.  As part of my religion class studying The NewTestament, we were asked to write down three lessons that stood out to us and then pick one to go into more detail on.  One of my three lessons is Obedience, the first law of heaven. I choose this, because this is a saying my dad would always use when my sisters and I lived at home as kids. It bring back good memories and helps bring the right ton to the topic of obedience. 

John 2:5  His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

I love this scripture, especially when you take it out of context, but first lets look at it the way it was intended. In the account of John, this is a very powerful and personal miracle that Christ performs for his mother. Jesus and his disciples were invited to a wedding celebration.  In the middle of the celebration, the guests are thirsty, but there is no more wine to be had. Mary turns to her son, in full faith, and asks him to fix this problem. Christ performs his first somewhat public miracle.  He turns water into wine and he shows his Godly power, even though he was not ready to.  He does this, because he loves his mother and is an obedient son.  

Christ had a mission to carry out. His ministry of preaching repentance to the Jewish people had only started. I would imagine he wanted conditions to be right in order to continue bringing many to repentance and unto his father. If word got out that he was more than just a teacher, but a man of miracles, that ability to teach would be halted. With this all at stake, Jesus listened to his mother, explained his position, then, Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. Despite this, he still proceeded to perform the miracle. Christ showed us of his perfect obedience to his mother, a promise he made many years before as a boy, at the temple in Jerusalem.

To take a look at my focus scripture, it says His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.  Looking at this, by itself without the background story, it sounds like Mary is talking strait to us.  Telling us to obey whatever her son, Jesus the Christ, should ask us to do.  I love how forward that is.  As a mother, she knew exactly who her son was.  She had pondered those many things in her heart and been given witness to his Godhood. She knew and in knowing, she had no doubt that he would do this for her, because of the love that is Christ.  I dare say, Mary wanted each of us to have that same knowledge of his love on our behalf.

If we are to take that scripture as if she is saying this to us, that would mean, we must be the servants.  What would servants of Christ do? They would share the pure love of Christ. We should all want our family, our friends, and complete strangers, to listen to him, to Jesus, the Son of God, and follow him. As his servants, we should be sharing the word to follow him in complete obedience.  Obedience is one of those interesting principles to teach.  It is better to teach by example than it is by words. That is exactly what Christ did. I know as we turn our hearts and wills over to Christ, in full obedience, we will be blessed beyond measure with peace and joy.