September 19th, 2006
THE CHOCOLATE GATE SCANDAL: PART VI
Today is the day for the appointment at the medical school. I am still dealing with the issues I mentioned yesterday, but I have new thoughts. I’ve had such questions: will God heal me? Will he take my pain away? Am I looking at my illness the wrong way? There are plenty of perspectives that I can look at things. And one thing that really helped oddly enough is a website I visited yesterday dealing with the “Trinity Project”. For those of you who don’t know, Trinity James was a female porn star who left the business to pursue a life as a Christian. She is married and now has a child, but her husband has now left her and her bills have piled up beyond her means. And needless to say, she has given up hope and is going to re-enter the pornography industry. And as sad as that may seem, it has helped put my life into perspective. Life as a disciple isn’t promised to be simple and easy. Michelle (her real name) had expected everything to be given to her on a silver platter, she expected her life as a Christian to be roses, and that life wouldn’t be difficult in the slightest, from what I gathered from her postings. And if it is supposed to be easy and roses and streets paved with gold and all that, then sign me up! Of course But where she gives up, I feel the need to push forward. Also, this is the last edition of the Chocolate Gate series… just a heads up.
John 10:1-18
“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.
Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
In these eighteen verses, gate is used five times. Here are previous uses of the word “gate” that I’ve looked at in the text thus far:
sha‛ar (noun)
THE CHOCOLATE GATE SCANDAL: PART VI
Today is the day for the appointment at the medical school. I am still dealing with the issues I mentioned yesterday, but I have new thoughts. I’ve had such questions: will God heal me? Will he take my pain away? Am I looking at my illness the wrong way? There are plenty of perspectives that I can look at things. And one thing that really helped oddly enough is a website I visited yesterday dealing with the “Trinity Project”. For those of you who don’t know, Trinity James was a female porn star who left the business to pursue a life as a Christian. She is married and now has a child, but her husband has now left her and her bills have piled up beyond her means. And needless to say, she has given up hope and is going to re-enter the pornography industry. And as sad as that may seem, it has helped put my life into perspective. Life as a disciple isn’t promised to be simple and easy. Michelle (her real name) had expected everything to be given to her on a silver platter, she expected her life as a Christian to be roses, and that life wouldn’t be difficult in the slightest, from what I gathered from her postings. And if it is supposed to be easy and roses and streets paved with gold and all that, then sign me up! Of course But where she gives up, I feel the need to push forward. Also, this is the last edition of the Chocolate Gate series… just a heads up.
John 10:1-18
“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.
Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
In these eighteen verses, gate is used five times. Here are previous uses of the word “gate” that I’ve looked at in the text thus far:
sha‛ar (noun)
- Gate, gate (of entrance), gate (of space inside gate, i.e. marketplace, public meeting place)
- Gate of city, town
- Gate (of palace, royal castle, temple, court of tabernacle)
- Gate of heaven
- An opening, that is, door or gate: - city, door, gate, port.
pulōn (noun)
- a large gate: of a palace
- the front part of a house, into which one enters through the gate, porch
- a gateway, door way or a building or city; by implication a portal or vestibule: - gate, porch.
pulē (noun)
- A gate (of the larger sort) in the wall of either a city; a palace; a town; the temple; a prison
- The gates of hell (likened to a vast prison)
- Metaphorically the access or entrance into any state
- A gate, that is, the leaf or wing of a folding entrance (literally or figuratively): - gate.
Now, there is another one to add to the list. In this scripture four of the five are the same. In verse 3, it is unclear to me what was used for gate, outside that it was implied due to the opening of something for the sheep, thus a gate. Makes sense to me.
John 10:1-2, 7, 9 gate:
thura (noun)
- A door, the vestibule, used of any opening like a door, an entrance, way or passage into, in a parable or metaphor
- The door through which sheep go in and out, the name of him who brings salvation to those who follow his guidance
- “An open door” is used of the opportunity of doing something
- The door of the kingdom of heaven (likened to a palace) denotes the conditions which must be complied with in order to be received into the kingdom of God
- Door; a portal or entrance (the opening or the closure, literally or figuratively): - door, gate.
I am the “door of the kingdom of heaven”; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.
I have my appointment to go to, so I may be adding to this later today… hopefully I will be admitted into the hospital and not get to until a few weeks or so. We’ll see.
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