My Shepherd, the Lamb of God

Some reflections on the Bible Discussion I just led in the hostel. I woke up yesterday morning with the strong feeling that I should prepare on the topic of the shepherd and his sheep. I had tentatively planned on doing a different topic but was thankful for this bit of inspiration from above! So, when this evening rolled around I was excited to share and discuss this topic with whoever the Lord had planned to hear it. Even though we invited many guests who were hanging out in the cafe the group consisted of me, Christian (a German staff member), Benjamin (a manager), and Jerome. Jerome is a new cleaner at the hostel, he started working and living in the hostel yesterday. He is originally from England but has been rooming around for 6 years now. I was so thankful to have him at the discussion and put aside any expectations of having a larger group knowing that it is God who is ultimately responsible and more then capable of bringing as many people as He wants to bring. So, I started the time with brainstorming together the different characteristics of a shepherd and of sheep. Then we turned to the Bible - there are so many references to this topic, in both the Old and New Testaments, for the sake of time I choose just a few. Starting in John 10:7-13 we looked at the contrasts Christ sets up between Himself as the gate in contrast to the thief, as well as Himself as the Good Shepherd in contrast to the hired hand. To get a better picture of our position as sheep and how the Good Shepherd views us we then looked at Luke 15:3-7. What an amazing image - Christ seeking us out, lifting us up out of the pit and onto His shoulders, and rejoicing over us as we step into His fold. So, these two passages pointed to Christ as our shepherd but what about Jesus as a sheep, the sacrificial Lamb of God - for this we turned to Isaiah 53:6-7. How crazy that He stepped down from the throne and into our position as sheep so that He could make us righteous before the Father by His blood alone. 1 Peter 2:24-25 tells of this as well. While sharing these verses and talking about them together God gave me the courage to ask Jerome directly what He believes about all of this personally. He went on to explain that he has been reading the Bible but has a hard time trying to figure out why Christ would die for His sins and why something that happened so long ago would be true for him today. This man is seeking and open to hearing God's word - now just pray that he could set his questions aside so as to accept the free gift of grace by faith in Christ alone. We closed the time by reading Psalm 23 - to think that what David writes of awaits all those who trust in God and dare to acknowledge Him as their Good Shepherd is just insane because I know I am not worthy of such love, joy,and peace yet on the otherhand I am worthy because of the blood of Christ that was shed for me. . . and you! One final thought that really both encouraged and challenged me by bringing the Bible Discussion time full-circle was the picture of my life as a cup that overflows. This is in Psalm 23:5 and it ties in so well with John 10:10 where Jesus says that, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full". Does your cup overflow, are you experiencing the full and abundant life that Christ came to freely give to us? It is my prayer that Jerome and all sheep that are still lost would come to experience this full life and it is my prayer that I and all sheep within the loving fold of God would come to experience more and more of this abundant life that He has promised!