We are the sheep

"I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice. I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
"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. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

I love being one in Jesus's flock! Sheep, let us not trust any old hand and let us avoid the theif that comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

Daniel's Visions

In addition to being a neat book about how normal guys stand up for God and God helps them through hardship, Daniel has a lot of prophecy about the end times. Today there was a lot about horns battling each other, and strange beasts - I don't know about you, but I find that impossible to understand. So did Daniel. But there was one passage that spoke in plain English.

"...There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge."

I've always wondered if you go straight to heaven when you die, and here it sounds like we just sleep in the dust until the End, then we all are judged together. Not necessarily of course, but wouldn't it be neat to suddenly wake up to everlasting life?

I also thought about Daniel - he's just some smart kid who was brought to Babylon as a captive, and God gave him this vision instead of anybody else. You think about the other people who have seen great visions - Isaiah, who volunteered; and John, who was the disciple that Jesus loved! But Daniel sure didn't ask for these visions - in fact he didn't like them too much. It's neat to see who God can choose to do his work. Daniel wasn't anything better than the other guys he with with, but God gave him wisdom beyond all the other wise men and showed him these visions about things that would happen thousands of years later.

Drive em out!!!

We got a new verse memorizing curriculum type thing where they give you verses to memorize and you get prizes and awards for doing it. This week I have a verse I never really noticed before in Deuteronomy...

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, "Destroy them!" ~ Deuteronomy 33:27

This one gives me a cool visual - it's like Lucy in Prince Caspian standing across the bridge with her little knife facing a million Telmarine soldiers. I jazzed it up and made the Telmarines attack in my visual. Then... ASLAN comes with a whole army of centuars!!!! He roars and says to the centuars and the water god, "Destroy them!!!!"

It's great to have a God that will do that.