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I Am Because You Are September 25, 2025 Devotional

by David Joynt on September 25, 2025


JOHN 10:1, 10a | 1 Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.

10a The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

It may be that Jesus is referring to previous false messiahs who had come before Him, claiming to be sent from God. Previous claimants believed, or pretended to believe, that they would lead revolutions against the Romans and usher in a new age. Two examples are     Judas the Galilean, and Judah, son of Hezekiah, and both were killed by the Romans.

 

Still today both religious and nationalist fervor can be manipulated by the confused or the unscrupulous to lead others astray.

 

Have you ever encountered false leaders in a religious setting?

 

 

Gracious God,

Raise up humble servants to lead Your people. Let them be faithful to You and to Your word. Grant us discernment when we encounter false claims and false figures.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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