{"id":24900,"date":"2015-03-18T00:20:50","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T04:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=24900"},"modified":"2015-03-18T06:30:42","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T10:30:42","slug":"the-good-shepherd-is-selfless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/03\/18\/the-good-shepherd-is-selfless\/","title":{"rendered":"The Good Shepherd is Selfless"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Recorded in the Gospel of John, our Lord made seven statements referring to Himself as I AM<\/em><\/strong>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

I AM<\/strong> The Light of the World
\nI AM<\/strong> The Bread of Life
\nI AM<\/strong> The Door <\/em><\/span>
\nI AM<\/strong> The Good Shepherd
\nI AM<\/strong> The True Vine <\/em><\/span>
\nI AM<\/strong> The Way, The Truth, and The Life<\/em><\/span>
\nI AM<\/strong> The Resurrection and The Life<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Each week during this season of Lent, here on the Seeking Him<\/em> blog, we will be focusing our devotionals on a different aspect of Jesus\u2019 revelation of Himself as I AM<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 The aim of Lent should be to prepare our hearts for the remembrance of Jesus\u2019 sacrifice\u2014His trial and torture, the Crucifixion and His death\u2026and above all, the celebration of His Resurrection from the dead. \u00a0We pray that this will be a great encouragement to each of you who read them. \u00a0And that all of us will consider the significance of Jesus\u2019 words and, through them, be helped as we remember and are thankful for all Jesus went through during the last few weeks of His life on this earth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n

I AM<\/em><\/strong> the Good Shepherd. \u00a0The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
\n<\/span><\/span>The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep.
\nSo when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.
\nThen the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.
\n<\/span><\/span>The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
\n<\/span><\/span>I AM<\/em> <\/strong>the Good Shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me\u2014<\/span>
\njust as the Father knows Me and I know the Father\u2014<\/span>
\nand I lay down my life for the sheep.<\/span><\/p>\n

John 10:11-14<\/span><\/p>\n

From the beginning of time people have laid their lives down in order to protect the sheep. \u00a0When Jacob left Laban to go back home (taking his wives, servants, flocks and herds, and household goods), Laban became furious. \u00a0Not because Jacob left secretly, but because he had a good worker, someone who cared for the flocks, leaving:<\/p>\n

Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night,
\nand my sleep fled from my eyes.
\nGenesis 31:40<\/p>\n

Jacob lost many nights of sleep to make sure the sheep were well cared for. \u00a0Sheep have to be watched because they wander away. \u00a0They have to be sheared at the right time because of the closeness of their wool. \u00a0If it is not shaved at the right time or they can easily become infested with parasites and die.<\/p>\n

If God cares enough for the sheep to have those kind of shepherds like Jacob, how much more will He care for us…? \u00a0God’s love is so immense<\/em>. \u00a0It is so full of goodness, and will help us overcome our feelings of inadequacy. As long as we lay our feelings down at His feet, we will be able to overcome them. \u00a0God loves us so much.<\/em> \u00a0The fact that He sent His Son to die on the Cross is\u00a0evidence of His great love.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 * <\/span><\/p>\n

Father, help us to have faith in Your Word. \u00a0Forgive us when we doubt. \u00a0Help us build our faith and trust You will always be there even more than when Jacob was there for his sheep. \u00a0In Jesus’ name, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recorded in the Gospel of John, our Lord made seven statements referring to Himself as I AM\u2026 I AM The Light of the World I AM The Bread of Life I AM The Door I AM The Good Shepherd I AM The True Vine I AM The Way, The Truth, and The Life I AM […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3367,1287,8601,425,8577,3174,1071],"class_list":["post-24900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-genesis-3140","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-john-1011-18","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-tina-marin","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-6tC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24900"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24977,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24900\/revisions\/24977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}