Rooted in Ink · "I Am the Good Shepherd" · The "I Am" Series, Part 4

In 2005, one sheep in a Turkish village jumped off a cliff. The other 1,499 followed it. 450 died — the only survivors were saved because the pile of bodies beneath them became a cushion. Nothing was chasing them. No wolf, no danger. They just followed.

That's the animal Jesus compares you to in John 10. Not a lion. Not an eagle. A sheep — dumb, defenseless, with no sense of direction, prone to wander off a cliff in a perfect environment for no reason at all. This week, Jamie and Crystal pick up exactly where they left off with "I am the door," reading John 10:11–16 in full (ESV and NIV) and tracing the Good Shepherd back through Ezekiel 34's warning about false shepherds, Isaiah 40's tender prophecy of one who "gathers the lambs in his arms," and David's own testimony as a literal shepherd who killed a lion and a bear to protect his flock.

But this episode doesn't stay comfortable. Jesus draws a hard line between Himself and the "hired hand" — someone who's paid to watch the sheep but runs the moment a wolf shows up, because he doesn't actually love them. Jamie and Crystal apply that directly to teachers and leaders who tell people what they want to hear instead of the truth, and they ask a question most people avoid: are you actually following Jesus, or is Christianity just familiar to you?

They go straight at the objection almost everyone has asked at some point — "how could a good God send people to hell?" — and argue it's the wrong question entirely. They unpack the single most sobering line in the whole conversation, Matthew 7's "depart from me, I never knew you," and explain why that should unsettle you more than anything in Revelation. And they make a claim that will not sit quietly with everyone: that Christianity is the only faith where "the verdict comes before the trial" — where you're declared not guilty before you've done a single thing to earn it, while every other religious system asks you to do enough to outweigh your failures.

It's a conversation about sovereignty, surrender, and what it actually means to know a shepherd instead of just knowing about one — and it closes with a genuine, unhurried prayer for anyone listening who isn't sure which fold they belong to.

If this one challenges you, that's not an accident. Come sit with it.

Scripture referenced: John 10:11–19 · Ezekiel 34 · Isaiah 40:11 · Psalm 23 · 1 Samuel 17:34–35 · John 3:16 · Matthew 7:21–23 · Matthew 25:1–13 · John 19:30

Keep your mind rooted in truth and your heart anchored in Christ. Stay rooted.

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