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GOSPEL REFLECTIONS VLOG

SEVERELY SHORT-SIGHTED — That’s Why We Need A Shepherd

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What if you couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of you, and that everything beyond that is totally blurry?  That would be very hard to do anything useful on your own, right?  Fortunately, God has gifted us with eyesight that can see, at best, up to 250 feet clearly.

But sheep aren’t so lucky.  They literally are short-sighted, and cannot see beyond 10 to 15 feet in front of them.  They have very wide vision, like a super-wide-angle lens; and this is because their eyes are on opposite sides of their head.  But still, they cannot see far.  They’re easily distracted, but they hardly have any idea where they are or where they’re going. That is why sheep have a notorious reputation for going astray, and just wandering around and often getting lost.  And Jesus had several parables about sheep getting lost, like for example in Luke 15:3-7, where He talks about a shepherd going after the one lost sheep.

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DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING TO?

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You know, if you ask me, I don’t think the Pharisees were bad people.  I think they meant well.  But they just didn’t get it right, even though they seemed pretty convinced that they were on the right track and that they were doing the right things.  That’s what I think.  Maybe it got to their head, and they felt superior, and they didn’t expect anybody to know better than them.  But can you blame them?  I mean they studied scripture, they followed tradition, they had strict code of conduct and rules, and they were careful to observe them.  Scrupulous, even.  Right?

But it took Jesus to point them out to everyone and said, on so many occasions, “Don’t be like the Pharisees.”  One of those occasions, we find in the opening of Matt 5:20-26, where Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness surpasses those of the Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  And after saying that, Jesus started giving examples after examples of the things that changed the way people viewed about what it takes to enter the kingdom of heaven.

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HAVE COURAGE — Serving Jesus Means Going to War

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There’s something striking about the way Jesus invites people to serve Him. You’d think He would try to make it sound attractive — easy, comfortable, maybe even rewarding in material ways. But He doesn’t. He doesn’t sugarcoat it. He doesn’t promise smooth sailing.

In John 16:1–4, Jesus is giving instructions about what He expects His disciples to do after He leaves.  He expects that they will continue to promote the kingdom of God, but He warns them and says: “They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.” And then He says: “I have told you this so that you will not fall away.”

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ETERNAL LIFE BEGINS WITH WHOM YOU KNOW

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In John 6:51, Jesus says: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever”.

When most people hear the phrase “eternal life,” when they think about “living forever”, they think of something distant… something that kicks in after death. Maybe it sounds like floating in the clouds forever, or just… not dying. Let’s be honest — that doesn’t sound all that exciting. To some, it sounds boring. Or irrelevant when it comes to making life choices. Right?

But what if we’ve misunderstood what Jesus meant? 

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DO YOU REALLY KNOW JESUS? Close ba kayo?

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In John 7:25-30 Jesus accuses the crowds in Jerusalem that they do not know God.  He says, “You know me, and you know where I am from … but the One who sent me is true, and you do not know Him.” 

This is a personal insult to them, because the Jews believe that of all the peoples, they are the ones who know Yahweh, who know the one, true God.  Yet, Jesus says to their face, “naaaah, you don’t really know Him.  But I know Him!”  This is yet another one of the reasons why the people of Jerusalem wanted Him arrested and killed.

Can we take a moment now to reflect on what Jesus was saying to these people in this passage.  “You do not know God.” 

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