Good News #158: Because I Am Jesus’ Sheep, I Hear His Voice, Guidance, Direction and Encouragements!
As with any literary piece, it pays to pay attention to punctuation marks when reading Holy Scripture.
If we’re not paying attention, we could easily mistake a statement for an instruction. This happens when we isolate scripture and take it out of its context… and most especially, when we read the bible to look for instructions instead of getting to know our Saviour…
John 10:27 is a classic example — Some have read this as if Jesus is addressing His sheep and instructing them to hear His voice — This would have been the case if not for the absence of a comma.
In the absence of a comma, Jesus is, as a matter of fact, stating a powerful truth — that is, His sheep hears His voice… and with this stated truth comes the unstated — that is, He doesn’t lack in speaking over His sheep words to direct them, guide them, warn them, encourage them, cheer them on… words that they need for the moment…
When we, born again believers in Christ, get into a mess, it isn’t that the Lord lacked in guiding us… it is that we heard His voice but either we didn’t recognize it or we deliberately did not heed it…
What’s amazing is we all get ourselves in a mess over and over again… YET our Lord rescues us over and over again… because He is that good…
And like The Good Shepherd that He is — He doesn’t beat us up… He uses His power and His word to comfort us… protect us, rescue us and put us back in the right path again…
Psalm 23:4 puts it this way — Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Shepherd’s rods are used against the sheep’s predators — lions, wolves and bears…
These rods are never used against the sheep.
Shepherd’s staffs (which come with a hook at the end) are used to pick and pull sheep out of ditches and pits they fall into…
These staffs are never used against the sheep.
The gospel is this — Jesus, our Good Shepherd, is The Word of God… He will never lack speaking the words you need in your walk in life… to guide you, to lead you out of harm’s way, to protect you, to keep you in the good path…
He is speaking to you every moment of your life… Heed His voice.
✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
John 10:27
