In writing this blog post, I was going to just put up a picture of a door and put up the verse from John 10:9 where Jesus says,

When I went to Biblegateway.com to make sure I had the quote correct, I looked at several versions of the Bible and was surprised to see: “I am the GATE.” Doing some research, I found that the word in the Greek – Thura – means DOOR or GATE. The definition and usage can be:

• a door or gate where sheep go in and out of the sheepfold
• the open door is also used as – the opportunity of doing something

It doesn’t really matter whether it is door or gate, however, looking at the passage in John and coming from a farming area, I guess I like to think of the gate outside the farmer’s pasture where the sheep are kept safe. I visited sheep on a friend’s farm once and kept thinking about how they follow the leader. They listened to the shepherd/farmer. As soon as he opened the gate and called, they came running. They knew it was time for food (which my granddaughter, Micayla helped to feed to them).

Years ago I studied a book by Chuck Swindoll where he talked about the sheep and the shepherd.

• Sheep are totally dependent upon their shepherd. We are like the sheep – we need a leader: The Good Shepherd (Jesus Christ).
• The flock was kept in a sheep pen in the country. This was a rock circle with a small opening. The shepherd slept across the opening, acting as the gate to keep the sheep in and the predators out.
• When the flock was kept in the city, they would be mixed with several other flocks in a large sheepfold. The doorkeeper would guard the door during the night. The shepherd would return in the morning and call their sheep; each sheep knew their shepherd’s voice. The shepherd would lead them out to pasture.

Jesus is telling us that He is The Shepherd of His sheep (us), and The Door/Gate for the sheep. Salvation is possible only when we go through The Door/Gate believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior through believing in The Shepherd. In John 10:10, Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

What a glorious promise – we have abundant life with Christ when we enter The Gate. There is safety, grace, spiritual nourishment and life everlasting on the other side.

Praying you go in and out and find abundant nourishment, safety, peace and everlasting life in Christ’s pasture ~ Faye