Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Monday, September 21, Titling John 10

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

I title Chapter 10: "The Ten-der Hearted Good Shepherd "Ten-ds" His Sheep and Dies For Them". This is an easy way to remember that all the teachings on the Good Shepherd reside in Chapter Ten. The reason for adding "Dies For Them" is explained in the "Memory Helps".

This chapter contains one of my favorite verses (about how many verses have I said this?). But this one you have heard me repeat many, many times. It is one of the first verses I memorized, maybe just weeks after salvation, and made me understand the "eternality" of my salvation right from the start:

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand" (27-28).

No one had to tell me that I was eternally secure in my Savior. I didn't even know that there was a big disagreement in the church about that at the time. All I knew was the Jesus took me out of darkness and brought me into His marvelous Light. Forever.

And one of the best things I learned right away was that there was nothing I could do to save myself. During that wonderful period when I was discovering the Bible for the first time in my life, I also memorized about nine other passages given me to get started. The following one gave me rest:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). This, coupled with yet another:

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:23-24).

It took many years later for me to understand how this happened, but at the time I just had the words of God, with the deep assurance of the Holy Spirit telling me that God has "declared" me righteous. He called me to be one of His sheep, and all I wanted was to hear His voice call my name. Nothing else mattered.

Later I realized how dumb sheep are, and through many experiences that proved that I was one of those dumb ones. And I saw how Jesus took me out of my failures every time. I've always sensed His Presence since the time of my rebirth, and have never NOT sensed His presence. I've suppressed it from time to time when I strayed and sinned, but when He said "I will never leave you nor forsake you", He has been true to His word.

Once Christians are saved, they are so thankful that it is easy to fall into the "works" trap, trying to prove your righteousness before God. But our righteousness is as filthy rags, as it says in Isaiah, and only through Him can we be righteous. What helped me here, much later, was finishing the verse in Ephesians: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (2:10).

Works HE prepared! I walk, set my affections on Him, and He guides my steps. "When he has brings out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers" (John 10:4-5).

I heard that at the time, many shepherds might have worked together from the same "sheep" pen for nightly protection. But they could distinguish their sheep, and the sheep knew their shepherd, because they knew His voice. We are the same.

Here is what we do. We wake up to the sound of His voice. We walk daily, no matter what we do, listening to His voice. And He guides our steps. And works? He has plenty for us. Just listen. It is a living relationship. You are His if you are born again, and He has great purpose for you, His very own "workmanship".

What must we do to work the works of God? "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent" (John 6:29). So believe, and He will lead.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps

"The Ten-der Hearted Good Shepherd "Ten-ds" His Sheep and DieS For Them".

In our phonetic system "10" would be either the T or D sound representing 1, and the "S or Z" sound representing Zero (as you see, the Z in Zero is our mnemonic). So all we have to do is add vowels and create a word that can only mean 10.

As you can see, I added "Dies" at the end because "D-ie-S" is a "1-0" word with vowels as fillers. That gives me yet another memory layer to remember the contents of this chapter. It's not necessary here because the "Ten" works so well on its own, but you will see the genius of the system as we get to the numbers that are not conducive to helping us remember a chapter by the number.

Linking verse numbers:

Keep filling out the flash cards!