Get ready to start a journey…a journey through the pages of the Bible and the pages of your life.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd
He knows what I dread.
He knows what I fear.
He knows when I fail.
He knows what I dream.
He knows my pain.
He knows what makes me anxious.
He knows what makes me angry.
David Colonna has a heart for children and teens. After serving several years as a teacher at a Christian school, David began serving at a local church in Virginia with desire to make disciples.
Jesus used the name, door of the sheep, as a spiritual description of the only way a person can enter a relationship with God. Only Jesus can open the door to the secure provision that he has for you. Jesus is the “gatekeeper” who invites you and allows passage into the safety of the “pen.”
Darkness describes a heavy blackness that hides a person’s path. It stops progress, leaving a person paralyzed. Motion is halted in the drape of darkness—light illuminates. The path is made clear. Brightness allows movement.
Jesus said, “Feed the crowd.” The disciples said, “What are you talking about?” The group that day consisted of around 10,000 men, women, and children gathered to see and hear Jesus. The disciples had neither the food nor the money to provide a meal for such a large throng.
When Nathanael called Jesus King of Israel, he gave Jesus the same name as God, declaring him to be God. Also, Nathanael was giving Jesus the name Messiah, the Anointed One. He was describing Jesus as the One Israel had been waiting for. Jesus is the One you’ve been waiting for as well.
The day after John the Baptist introduced Jesus as the Lamb of God, John stood with two disciples when Jesus walked by. John repeated his introduction, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36). John’s disciples left him to follow Jesus. John 1:38-39 explains what happened next:
The Israelites were given specific instructions. Sacrifice a lamb, spread the blood of the lamb on your doorposts, and eat the lamb as your last meal before leaving Egypt. In the final plague on Pharaoh, the angel of death swept through the land, killing all the firstborn, but he passed over the houses with the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. The Passover meal became a yearly remembrance in Israel. Centuries later, John the Baptist introduced Jesus as the Lamb of God.
John gives the word logos new significance by using it to describe Jesus himself. Logos is not simply a combination of letters but the expression of a message. When John calls Jesus “the Word,” he is saying that Jesus is both the mind and the message of God.
Andy and Sue Cecala on the journey of learning that their daughter was gay, holding to biblical convictions, and demonstrating unconditional love.
Zechariah and Elizabeth were a godly couple who longed to have children. But they were well along in years. That dream had died years ago. Then, one day, an angel suddenly appeared to a startled Zechariah and told him that Elizabeth would have a son. They were to call his name John. John the Baptist would be the one who prepared the way for Jesus.
Mary was frightened and confused. The angel Gabriel suddenly appeared and told her that she was going to have a child. Mary asked the obvious question, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” In Gabriel’s amazing and mysterious answer, he explained that the entire Trinity would be involved in the miraculous birth.