[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Are good shepherds leading our nation’s flocks in ways that protect the 99 while they reach out to the lost one, or are we suffering from bad shepherds who use the so-called offended or oppressed one as an excuse to harm the 99? June 3 2016″ _builder_version=”3.0.63″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” border_style=”solid”]
In Luke 15: 4, Jesus says, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine … and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” Thus our focus should be on “recovering” one that has strayed from the safety of the flock that is under the protection of a righteous shepherd. The goal is to bring the lost strays back into the safety the many enjoy. Jesus goes on to say in Luke 15: 10 “… I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Heavenly beings rejoice over those who repent on earth. They see the devastation and death that sin works in our lives, and they rejoice at the recovery from the guilt and ruins of sin, people realize when we turn to the love and protection of God.
The people abusing the power of the American government are playing on our sympathies for the lost one to twist the principle Christ gives us, by elevating as underdogs the ones who should be encouraged to return from offbeat behaviors, habits and lifestyles the Bible calls sin, but which we are told are rights that the 99 need to conform to and accommodate. They intentionally are compromising the 99, under the guise of giving rights to the one.
In John 10: 1- 2 Jesus says “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.”
A door is an appropriate way to enter into a home. Metaphorically it is the proper way of doing things. The evil and misguided people, who abuse government power, pass laws in the middle of the night, and just before holiday weekends when few people are able to attend sessions and pay attention to what is going on. Or worse yet they bypass the doorway of the legislative process and write executive orders to effect what they know cannot pass by majority vote of our elected representatives.
In John 10: 9-11 Jesus said 9I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Thieves and robbers avoid the door, and climb through political windows to implement sinful and destructive policies. Christ is the true door of redeemption that lifts us up in liberty.
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