From the desk of
®
JOHN BRADSHAW
April 2023
Dear friend in ministry, In the Bible, God tells us again and again how precious a single soul is in His sight.
There is joy in Heaven when one sinner repents.
A shepherd finds a lost sheep and is so happy that he “calls together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, ‘Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost!’“ (Luke 15:6.) One sheep found, and the shepherd in the parable was overjoyed. When a woman found a lost coin, she called “her friends and her neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost!’” (Luke 15:9.) In both parables, Dr. Luke records Jesus as saying there is joy in Heaven when one sinner repents. Later in the same chapter, a father hosts an impromptu party upon the return of his rebellious son, a young man who had brought shame to his family. “And bring the fatted calf here and kill it,” the father said, “and let us eat, and be merry;” (Luke 15:23.) He was overjoyed that his son was back from the dead, as he put it. He had been lost, but now the young man was found. We can imagine that kind of joy. That’s the kind of joy God experiences when one of His children turn to Him in faith. Kim was one of God’s lost sheep, one of his prodigal daughters. She recently attended an It Is Written evangelistic series in Loma Linda, California, conducted by It Is Written Evangelism Director, Wes Peppers. Kim had grown up in church, but had almost completely