John 10:7-21

John 10:7-21 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  There's a lot here, and we could take a single verse every day, but in putting all the text here, I hope you get the overwhelming sense of how devoted God is to you.  This isn't a fair-weather commitment, the type where Jesus is going to make a run for it if the wolf growls near the fence -- the hired hand would run for his own life at that point, but the shepherd, the one who owns the sheep, will stay and defend the sheep.  The shepherd has bought the sheep at the precious price of the life of the Savior, and the shepherd isn't willing to lose them to whatever might threaten them.
  So if you're wondering what your life is worth, consider the price that was paid for it.  You have been bought at a price -- and the price was the life of Jesus Christ.  It was paid willingly, freely, and you have nothing to fear now.  As a sheep in a world filled with threats, we come up with plenty of things to be scared of, but our shepherd is committed to us.  The shepherd has come that you may have life, and have it abundantly.
  Rachel and I talk a lot about what that abundant life looks like.  It's hard to know -- at times it seems like it's only clear for everyone else, and we wonder if we're choosing rightly.  The Good News of this passage is that even if we're uncertain of where the flock is heading, and even if we're not sure of where we stand in the flock, what matters is that the Shepherd has bought us with a price, and we are part of the one flock under one shepherd, and nothing can change that, because our shepherd is the strongest force in the universe, and God has chosen to be for us!