“Do the chickens have large talons?”
Ask a devoted Napoleon Dynamite fan what that means, and they’ll quote you the entire scene where poor Napoleon gets introduced to work on a chicken farm.
Chickens don’t have large talons. Neither do sheep. They don’t have fangs, spines, or quills. They can’t outrun a predator. They can’t even look threatening to an enemy. As Tim Challies puts it:
A dog will bark and growl and show his teeth to warn you away. A lion will roar. A rattlesnake will shake his rattle. A cat will arch his back and hiss. The best a sheep can do is baaa…. It is for good reason that no one relies on a guard sheep to keep their property secure. Sheep can’t fight, they can’t run away, and they can’t scare away…Put a sheep in the wild and you’ve just given nature a snack.
It’s good to keep that in mind when you find out that Jesus called us his sheep.
When Jesus used this image, he wasn’t cooing over how warm and soft and cuddly we are. He was saying, “Come to me and stick with me because otherwise you’re just a snack for the enemy.”
In John 10, Jesus called himself the Good Shepherd. We must respond to that with humility and joy.
First, the image says something about us which we must humbly accept. On our own, we’re defenseless. We may have an alarm system for our homes, train in martial arts, and keep a pistol in our nightstand. But against the real enemies of our soul, we’re helpless.
Second, the image says something about Jesus which we must joyfully accept. He is powerful enough and loving enough to preserve us through every threat. The Shepherd can defend us. What’s more, he knows us by name and leads us into life.
Have you humbly admitted your need and joyfully trusted the Shepherd who gave his life for you? Read John 10, and then study it with me at 10am this Sunday on campus or online at Hillcrest Church! It’s part of our ongoing series through the “I AM” statements that Jesus used to describe himself.
--Tom
My new novel comes out in nine weeks! It’s based on the true story of a minister who faced down a violent bootlegging gang in the Piney Woods of East Texas to become known as the pistol-packing preacher.
A big part of launching a book involves “Advance Reviewers.” These are people who agree to read a free copy ahead of publication and leave an honest review the week the book comes out.
Find out how you can be an Advance Reviewer by clicking here.
I’m calling the Launch Team, “The Pistol-Packing Preacher’s Posse.” We ride in nine weeks!
Each week in this space, I provide links to articles and podcast episodes that I recommend you check out for yourself.
I was going to write my own review of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, but instead, I point you to two reviews that are more than sufficient: Brett McCraken and Joseph Holmes.
Reading the Bible in School Is a Good Thing. For The Atlantic, Adam Kirsch says that everywhere you look in American history, you will find the language, stories, and concepts from the Bible. Thus, he says, it belongs on public school reading lists.
Freddie deBoer explains why Pangram won’t work as a “one-shot gotcha machine” for detecting whether writing has some percentage of AI-generated material. Personally, I find the whole crusade tedious. If an author sought some help from an LLM to shape her thoughts into a better reading experience for me, the reader, I don’t care. In fact, I’ve suffered through a number of articles that could have used the editorial review an AI agent can provide. But if you want to make it your mission in life to call out writers whom you suspect might have used the assistance of AI, deBoer has some good cautions against citing Pangram results in your crusade.
Chilling: Allegations persist that China harvests “donated” organs from prisoners in vast detention centers.
Kyle Smith on Sophie Cunningham (she with the pointing finger that launched a thousand memes): “Off the court, she lets Jesus point the way. On a 2024 podcast with Arizona pastor Travis Hearn, she said she was single and added, ‘My number one thing is I want someone to push me toward Christ.’ She said she is ‘not shy’ about telling any potential suitor, ‘I want you to lead our house, lead me, lead our future kids to serve and love a good, good God.’”
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