Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Tuesday after Rogate

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: St. John 10:6-10 (NKJV)

6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them. 7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”

Devotion

“All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers…”

No one comes to God except through Jesus Christ and the faith that believes in Him. All those who offer, or have offered, any sort of righteousness or salvation apart from the promised Savior are servants of the devil and his lies. Whether it is the false teachers of the Jews, who claim to know and serve God the Father while rejecting Jesus, or the diabolical religion of Islam, which mocks Jesus as a secondary teacher and advocates violence against Christians, or any other religion that disregards Jesus Christ as God incarnate, these religions are those of thieves and robbers.

God values the lives of all people who are part of His creation. He loved, and still loves, the world and gave His Son so that all might believe in Him and be saved. But Satan has fought long and hard, since the very beginning with Adam and Eve, to steal as many men and women away from God as possible.

The world is blessed by God’s continued mercy in the fact that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is still preached and taught. The true “Door” to salvation is Jesus Christ crucified. He laid down His life for His lambs and for all the world so that we might be saved from the death of our sins by His grace, through the faith that He creates in us by His Spirit. Thanks be to God!

We pray: God the Father, thank You for showing us Yourself and Your infinite mercies through Your Son, Jesus Christ, and blessing us according to Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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