John 11:10  It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.

How illuminating it is for our lives that Jesus is the light of the world! Without light there is only darkness. And as Jesus teaches in the passage above, those who walk in darkness stumble. Were it not for Jesus shining His light upon us through His death and rising again we would still be walking in that darkness of sin. By God's undeserved love, however, we can assert with Isaiah: "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9:2)

Even as the sun gives light to the moon and the moon reflects that light to us who are His children and we reflect that light. We are the light of the world. We reflect His light to those with whom we live.

What a contrast! "You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8). Our source of power as lights in this world comes from the light of the world, Jesus Christ. Even as the moon cannot shine unless it receives light from the sun and reflects that, so we cannot give light to others unless we receive and reflect from the Son of God the light which He gives to dispel the darkness of sin and to guide people on their journey in life.

With the psalmist we affirm: "The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear?" (Psalm 27:1).
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

John 10:27-28 My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.

Of all the people you have met, who has the strongest hands? Pastors shake and hold numerous kinds of hands, and many of the clergy would agree that farmers have some of the largest and most powerful hands of anyone around. Evidently, their daily work builds incredible strength in their hands.

The Lord reminds us that as His sheep nothing and no one can snatch us out of the almighty and loving hands of our Good Shepherd. He is the one who gave His life for us, the sheep, when He died on the cross of Calvary. He is the one who rose from the dead and defeated Satan, sin, and death. His conquering and caring hands assure us of a life with meaning and purpose that is for today, but goes on for eternity.

Jesus Christ has us in His powerful grip. We can know and trust in the one who holds us and strengthens us as we listen to His voice and follow Him. His Word becomes His loving and guiding voice as we listen to it, study it, meditate on it, and memorize it. What a comfort to know that with Jesus as our Good Shepherd, nothing can snatch us out of His mighty hands.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

John 10:14-15  I am the good shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me - just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father - and I lay down My life for the sheep.

My Shepherd knows me. This is the first great realization of the heart. That I, of all people, am Jesus' little lamb! I belong to Him. I am not some insignificant nameless number at the bottom of the corporate barrel. My Shepherd knows me even as I know Him. Our relationship is mutual.

Second, my Shepherd knows me in the same way He knows His Father. And They are one! This means that the life of God = Father, Son/Shepherd, and Comforter - iis life in me. The heart of God is in my heart. The Holy Trinity has chosen, as my Shepherd said, to come and make a home in...me!

Finally, my Shepherd laid down His life for me. He knows me as I am. He knows that I love to wander. He knows that I am by nature sinful and unclean. He knows that I am frail unto death. He knows all this! And as a result, He laid down His life - for me - that I may be His own. There is no greater love than the love of my Good Shepherd for me. And for you. There is no greater love than the love of our God for all the lost and wandering sheep of the world, including me.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

John 10:11  I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

The Associated Press reported that in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a youth shaved his head as a sign of love and support for his mother. His mother always had beautiful hair but had lost it because of cancer treatments. However, when the young man went to school, some of the students beat him up thinking he was trying to be a skinhead. Support for his mother ended up giving him a black eye!

Young and old alike support others in a variety of ways. They shave their heads. They walk or jog in a rally. They protest. They sit by a bedside holding a friend's hand.

Few, however, give their life for another. It is the greatest act of love someone can show. Yet that's exactly what God did. He who created us perfect was saddened to see us flagrantly disobey Him; nevertheless, He did not give up on us. He continued to love us enough to lay down His life for us on the cross. He died in our place, rescuing us from the consequences of our sin - death. He did it so that we might "have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). It is what a good shepherd does for his sheep!
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

John 10:9 I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. He will come in and goi out, and find pasture.

A Jewish survivor of the Dachau concentration camp related this story. He was a university professor in Berlin during the early years of the Nazi regime. He had always considered himself a German first and had served proudly in the military during World War I. He had never dreamed that the Nazis would come for him.

On the night when he was arrested, a friend of his who was still an officer in the military sent him warning that his family was going to be arrested that night. He hurriedly packed his family up and sought refuge at the American Embassy in Berlin. But when he got there, the gate was locked, and he was arrested on the road out front while diplomats looked on from behind the gate. He never saw his family again after that night.

Many years later he tracked down a friend of his who had worked with him at the university. He was surprised to find out that his friend was now a Christian. His friend, also being hunted by the Nazis, had managed to make it to the gates of the church, which he found open. The church, through the underground, helped his friend to safety. And this church proclaimed the truth of Jesus to him. In this church, his friend found life, both on earth and forever.

Jesus is the gate, and the gate is never locked. We are often chased by the minions of the devil. Sin, temptation, greed, and lust seek to consume us. But in Jesus, we know that we have safety from these soldiers and that through the gate is salvation.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

John 9:3 This happened so that the work of God might be displayed.

Cause and effect, also referred to as the "law of the Medes and Persians" (what goes around comes around) is and has been through the centuries one of the tried and true counsels of wisdom passed on from the old to the young. "Don't do it. It'll come back to haunt you." And there is human truth in this counsel. Divine truth, however, runs deeper.

Conventional "wisdom" dictates that blindness, birth defects, or any human tragedy reveals in its malfunction the reality that "what's going around is coming around." To this Jesus says emphatically no!

Every human situation is redeemable in Christ. Every tragedy, every difficulty, every hard edge can and does bring us to a place where the "work of God might be displayed." That place, for you and for me, is at the foot of the cross. There God was reconciling the world in Christ. There God delivered healing and salvation in His Son. There what goes around and what comes around are stripped of their power to destroy. And what remains is life eternal in Christ Jesus.

If you have been laid low by some terrifying agony, take it to the cross. There the work of God will be displayed in your life.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

John 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Born Free is the title of a book and movie that describes the plight of lions and their captivity at the hands of human beings. As the title suggests, these lions were born to be free as the rulers of the jungle.

Many people today, expressing their desire for individual rights, claim that they have been born free. Citizens of the United States claim "inalienable rights" as defined in the Declaration of Independence.

Yet, in reality, we are not free. Sin binds us in its chains, making us confess with the apostle Paul, "for what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing" (Romans 7:19).

All of us have times in our lives when we feel the binding frustration of sin hold us back from being all that God wants us to be. Where may we turn? Ultimately, it is God's Son, Jesus Christ, who alone sets us free. His death and resurrection assures us that we cannot be bound by our sins. He carries our sins to the cross so that we are forgiven.

God assures us that through our faith in Jesus Christ we are reborn to be free: free to live with Him today and forever; free to love as He has loved us; free to give our lives away in service to Him and others.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,