
Devotional Scripture
Jude 1:3-4
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
In John 10:7, Jesus said that He is the “door of the sheep.” What did He mean? Well, a sheepfold during Jesus’ time had no real door which could be opened and closed. The door was just a make-shift opening. In this kind of sheepfold, after the sheep had entered in, the shepherd would sleep at the entrance. The shepherd effectively became the “door” of the sheepfold.
As our door, Jesus keeps out everything evil that He has redeemed us from. Because He shed His blood for us, we are covered and protected within the sheepfold by a blood-stained door. Remember that on the night of the first Passover in Egypt, the destroyer could not enter the houses of the Israelites because of the blood of the lamb on their doors (see Exodus 12:13, 23). This is why we partake of The Lord’s Supper as often as we do! As often as we do this, we make Jesus, The Lamb of God, the doorway over our lives! Disaster, destruction and death must pass over us because of the protection we have through His blood!
However, if we do not partake by faith, we allow the enemy to creep in unnoticed! Then, we put not only ourselves at high risk for a sneak attack, but the entire church as well! True faith in Christ Jesus is a confession of the heart (Romans 10:10). We must first examine ourselves individually before we can ever hope to be effective, fruitful members of the body (1 Corinthians 11:27-30). It is only when Christ is allowed to actively live in our hearts that we become Unified Faithful Contenders!!
Jude 1:3-4
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
In John 10:7, Jesus said that He is the “door of the sheep.” What did He mean? Well, a sheepfold during Jesus’ time had no real door which could be opened and closed. The door was just a make-shift opening. In this kind of sheepfold, after the sheep had entered in, the shepherd would sleep at the entrance. The shepherd effectively became the “door” of the sheepfold.
As our door, Jesus keeps out everything evil that He has redeemed us from. Because He shed His blood for us, we are covered and protected within the sheepfold by a blood-stained door. Remember that on the night of the first Passover in Egypt, the destroyer could not enter the houses of the Israelites because of the blood of the lamb on their doors (see Exodus 12:13, 23). This is why we partake of The Lord’s Supper as often as we do! As often as we do this, we make Jesus, The Lamb of God, the doorway over our lives! Disaster, destruction and death must pass over us because of the protection we have through His blood!
However, if we do not partake by faith, we allow the enemy to creep in unnoticed! Then, we put not only ourselves at high risk for a sneak attack, but the entire church as well! True faith in Christ Jesus is a confession of the heart (Romans 10:10). We must first examine ourselves individually before we can ever hope to be effective, fruitful members of the body (1 Corinthians 11:27-30). It is only when Christ is allowed to actively live in our hearts that we become Unified Faithful Contenders!!