I am the Good Shepherd

Notes of meeting on 14 October 2014

Picture of workers in the vineyard tending the vines ,clipping back the leaves ready for the final ripening of the grapes to be gathered for the wine press.
The workers were diligently working and singing.
I the distance was a great cloud of dust coming up from the ground. It came rolling nearer and nearer to the vineyard.
People were fidgeting and becoming distracted from their work and began to become fearful. As the dust arrived it brought with it masses of serpents to annoy and bite the heels of the workers. The people seemed to run this way and that to get away from the irritating creatures.
Suddenly the workers all looked over to the Vineyard gate as they heard the beautiful love song of the King who was walking through the gate dressed as a shepherd with His Sacred Heart exposed.
As the workers listed to His song and beheld His face they no longer took notice of the serpents and they withered away.
Jesus said "My little flock when Satan sends his cohort to distract and annoy or even to hurt you, know this I have the heart of a shepherd who knows each of his sheep. your name is written in My Heart. look to Me and fear no evil for I Myself will fight off the intruder. I will bind up the hurt and soothe your fears for you are mine and I have paid the price for you. Look to Me and Satan will have no dominion over you. My little flock, beloved of mine, do not fear, turn to your loving Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep. Look to me for I Myself will tend you My loyal little flock."
Each sheep of the flock had a cross inside a white heart upon its forehead.


Luke 17 v 5 - 10
The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith.'
⁶ The Lord replied, 'If you had faith like a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea," and it would obey you.
⁷ 'Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, "Come and have your meal at once"?
⁸ Would he not be more likely to say, "Get my supper ready; fasten your belt and wait on me while I eat and drink. You yourself can eat and drink afterwards"?
⁹ Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told?
¹⁰ So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, "We are useless servants: we have done no more than our duty." '

Psalm 16
¹[In a quiet voice Of David] Protect me, O God, in you is my refuge.
² To Yahweh I say, 'You are my Lord, my happiness is in none
³ of the sacred spirits of the earth.' They only take advantage of all who love them.
⁴ People flock to their teeming idols. Never shall I pour libations to them! Never take their names on my lips.
⁵ My birthright, my cup is Yahweh; you, you alone, hold my lot secure.
⁶ The measuring-line marks out for me a delightful place, my birthright is all I could wish.
⁷ I bless Yahweh who is my counsellor, even at night my heart instructs me.
⁸ I keep Yahweh before me always, for with him at my right hand, nothing can shake me.
⁹ So my heart rejoices, my soul delights, my body too will rest secure,
¹⁰ for you will not abandon me to Sheol, you cannot allow your faithful servant to see the abyss.
¹¹ You will teach me the path of life, unbounded joy in your presence, at your right hand delight for ever.

John 10 v 7 - 18
⁷ So Jesus spoke to them again: In all truth I tell you, I am the gate of the sheepfold.
⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep took no notice of them.
⁹ I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: such a one will go in and out and will find pasture.
¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.
¹¹ I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.
¹² The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and runs away, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep;
¹³ he runs away because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep.
¹⁴ I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me,
¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep.
¹⁶ And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and I must lead these too. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be only one flock, one shepherd.
¹⁷ The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
¹⁸ No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will, and as I have power to lay it down, so I have power to take it up again; and this is the command I have received from my Father.