Snakes…eek!
One night I was teaching Bible class and one of the ladies spoke about about how scared she gets when she sees dogs running loose in her neighborhood. It reminded me of a friend who is deathly afraid of snakes.
Snakes like to swim too
One day a snake was swimming merrily along in her swimming pool. Her children were also swimming in the pool. As a mother, you have a few choices on how to react. You can go about it calmly or you can respond the way I do when I see a frog – scream and freak out!
When she saw the snake swimming in the same pool water as her children, she completely freaked out and ran in the house, leaving the children swimming with the snake. From behind the closed sliding glass doors, she started yelling at them to get out of the water.
Why does mommy look mad?
Picture the kids looking confused, moving their little heads from side to side trying to figure out why mommy’s face looks angry as they tried to figure out what she is saying. They couldn’t hear her voice. They were having a fun time in the water, clueless to their uninvited slithery visitor.
The whole truth and nothing but the truth
In John 10:7-14 it says, “So Jesus said to them again, “I tell you the solemn truth, I am the door for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.”
Jesus continues, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not a shepherd and does not own sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and runs away. So the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them. Because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep, he runs away. “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.”
I’m not saying my friend didn’t care about her children. But fear overtook her common sense and she ran for safety. She didn’t do it on purpose, but she had become stricken with fear.
My footnote says, “In the sheep pen, the shepherd functioned as the gate. It was important that he be there to let the sheep in and protect them. Christ is our protector and he is the gate to God’s salvation for us. Some people don’t like that, and they resent the fact that Jesus is the only access to God. But Jesus is God’s son so why should we seek alternative ways or devise a different approach to God?”
Don’t stand behind the closed sliding glass door yelling for people to come in. Open the door, invite them in and let Jesus do the rest.
Let’s pray
Lord, thank you for being the good shepherd and always looking out for us. Sometimes I’m as dumb as a sheep and I need you to lead me. I appreciate your patience with me. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
In His Service
Jeanette Duby, The Teaching Lady
#sheep #satan #bible #jesus
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