“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father,who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and theFather are one.” -John 10:27-30. ESV.
The context of this Scripture is an occasion when Jesus was in the Temple at Jerusalem,walking in the colonnade of Solomon (John 10:22). Some Jewish leaders said to Him, “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (John 10:24). Jesus reminded them that He had told them, and they did not believe, because they were “not of his flock.” Then,using the familiar shepherd/sheep relationship, Jesus proceeded to tell all who heard (and us, through John’s gospel) that those who are believers in Him (his sheep), know and follow him, and have eternal life, and will never, ever perish, and are forever in the Father’s hand, because Jesus and the Father are one.
What joy to face every day and a new year knowing that a believer belongs to Jesus,the Good Shepherd, and that no one or no occasion can pluck the believer (the sheep of the Good Shepherd) from the Father’s hands.
A year brings forth many unexpected happenings, life-changing, hard to bear at times, yet if we have the faith Christ talked about in John 10:27-30, we know,assuredly, that all is well and all will be well.
The year 2017 brought a deep, deep sorrow into my life. On November 16, 2017, my only son, the Rev. Elton Keith Jones, died with a massive heart attack. He had been diagnosed with heart difficulties more than three years previous, and was under cardiologists’ care. Like both his father and his mother, he had propensity for heart difficulties and was seeking to live life in accordance to physicians’ instructions and precautions of one who has an “ailing” heart. But on that Thursday morning, death came suddenly. The strength that has borne me through this deep, deep sorrow has been the firm assurance from Scripture that he was safely in the fold of God and all is now well with him, given the eternal life promised by Jesus Christ, God’s Son. These words, and others, assured me of Keith’s eternal home, with all illnesses gone and with him safely in heaven where all is joy, peace and rest.
When sorrows come, God is with the believer. When faith needs to be strengthened—and practiced—God is there, the Rock, the Encourager, the Good Shepherd, in attendance and loving.
With this assurance, I face 2018, knowing that there is not a sorrow God does not bear, not a trouble He cannot lift. I pray that those reading this can come to such a renewed perspective and faiththat God Himself binds up our wounds and leads us to follow Him, whatever the circumstance we face. As at Lazarus’tomb, when Jesus physically raised him from the dead, he said: “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:41). Future resurrection and glory also await all those who hold steadfastly to the belief that Jesus is God’s Son, the Savior of the world, the Resurrection and the Life. Amen. - Ethelene Dyer Jones 01.07.2018.
