Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me

Good morning. Jesus is getting ready to give an illustration in which He uses more metaphors to describe Himself. He who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a Shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. There are those who try to persuade members of a church to follow them instead of the Pastor. They of course do it surreptitiously. (I never have an occasion to use that word. I still remember the first time I heard an explanation of what that word means. It was in high school during gym period. Instead of having physical activity, we heard a lecture by someone. They said that you can remember what that word means by the last three letters of the word - sly. It is something that is done on the sly.) The sheep know the shepherd’s voice. He also knows their name. This implies an intimacy between them. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. (where He leads me, I will follow.) A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers. If we know the true voice, we will not follow strange ones. It reminds me of what I read one time about bank tellers. They don’t teach them all the different types of counterfeit bills. They make them handle real ones over and over again to get used to the feel of them. A counterfeit bill would just not feel right. If we listen to His voice over and over again, we will know when a false voice is speaking to us. Father thank You that we know Your voice, and You know us by name. Speak to the reader today so that he/she will know what he/she is to do.