Family and Friends,

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Luke 15:4-7)

 What man of you,

having an hundred sheep,

if he lose one of them,

doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness,

and go after that which is lost,

until he find it?

 

And when he hath found it,

he layeth it on his shoulders,

rejoicing.

 

And when he cometh home,

he calleth together his friends and neighbours,

saying unto them,

Rejoice with me;

for I have found my sheep which was lost.

 

I say unto you,

that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,

more than over ninety and nine just persons,

which need no repentance.

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Our Lord Jesus Christ while He was here below was continually in pursuit of lost souls.

He was seeking lost men and women, and it was for this reason that He went

down among them, even among those who were most evidently lost,

that He might find them.

He took pains to put himself where He could come into communication with them,

and He exhibited such kindliness toward them that in crowds they drew near to hear

Him.

I dare say it was a queer-looking assembly, a disreputable rabble,

which made the Lord Jesus its centre.

I am not astonished that the Pharisee, when He looked upon the congregation,

sneered and said, “He collects around him the pariahs of our community,

the wretches who collect taxes for the foreigner of God’s free people;

the fallen women of the town, and such-like riffraff make up his audiences;

He, instead of repelling them, receives them, welcomes them,

looks upon them as a class to whom He has a peculiar relationship.

He even eats with them.

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“If you men would each one of you go after a lost sheep, and follow in its track until you

found it, how much more may I go after lost souls, and follow them in all their

wanderings until I can rescue them?”

The going after the sheep is a part of the parable  which our Lord meant them to

observe: the shepherd pursues a route which he would never think of pursuing if it

were only for his own pleasure; his way is not selected for his own ends, but for the

sake of the stray sheep.

He takes a track up hill and down dale, far into a desert, or into some dark wood, simply

because the sheep has gone that way, and he must follow it until he finds it.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, as a matter of taste and pleasure, would never have been found

among the publicans and sinners, nor among any of our guilty race:

if he had consulted  his own ease and comfort he would have consorted only with pure

and holy angels, and the great Father above; but he was not thinking of himself, his

heart was set upon the lost ones,

and therefore he went where the lost sheep were;

“for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

~Spurgeon

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Perhaps we can get a glimpse into the heart of God by looking at an earthly family.  If a

child turns up missing, the mother and father are distraught and at their wits end.

The police are called, and a search is made  and every possible clue is followed until the

precious child is found.  They do without sleep and work tirelessly to find their precious

child.

Never mind that there are other children in the family.  One is lost!  One is

precious.  One is loved.  The family is incomplete until he is found.  Ninety and nine is

not enough when one hundred is completion.

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Jesus said:

I am the Good Shepherd:

the Good Shepherd

giveth His life

for the sheep.

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This picture of the Good Shepherd

is from the Catacomb ceiling in Priscilla, Rome,

from the second half of the third century.

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Perhaps you are the one lost sheep.  

 

It is impossible for the Seeking Savior

and the Seeking sinner

not to find one another.  

Come home,  

Jesus has been seeking  you for a long time!

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Prayer:

“Jesus, I surrender,

and cease my running from you.

Forgive me and come into my heart today.”

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Thank you for stopping by and please pray for America the Beautiful.

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