The Lost Sheep | A Christian Song About Christ the Shepherd | Ellen G. White

From Carrie: “The Lost Sheep” is a Christian folk song about Jesus as the Good Shepherd, inspired by Ellen G. White’s Christ’s Object Lessons, chapter 15, “This Man Receiveth Sinners,” especially the section on the lost sheep. This song reflects Christ’s love for the wandering sinner, His search for the lost, His compassion for the wounded, and His joy in bringing the lost sheep home. Selected passages from Christ’s Object Lessons: “As the shepherd loves his sheep, and cannot rest if even one be missing, so, in an infinitely higher degree, does God love every outcast soul. Men may deny the claim of His love, they may wander from Him, they may choose another master; yet they are God’s, and He longs to recover His own. In the parable, the shepherd goes out to search for one sheep—the very least that can be numbered. So if there had been but one lost soul, Christ would have died for that one.” “The sheep that has strayed from the fold is the most helpless of all creatures. It must be sought for by the shepherd, for it cannot find its way back. So with the soul that has wandered away from God; he is as helpless as the lost sheep, and unless divine love had come to his rescue he could never find his way to God.” “The shepherd who discovers that one of his sheep is missing . . . counts and recounts the flock. When he is sure that one sheep is lost, he slumbers not. He leaves the ninety and nine within the fold, and goes in search of the straying sheep. The darker and more tempestuous the night and the more perilous the way, the greater is the shepherd’s anxiety and the more earnest his search. He makes every effort to find that one lost sheep.” “With what relief he hears in the distance its first faint cry. Following the sound, he climbs the steepest heights, he goes to the very edge of the precipice, at the risk of his own life. Thus he searches, while the cry, growing fainter, tells him that his sheep is ready to die. At last his effort is rewarded; the lost is found. “Then he does not scold it because it has caused him so much trouble. He does not drive it with a whip. He does not even try to lead it home. In his joy he takes the trembling creature upon his shoulders; if it is bruised and wounded, he gathers it in his arms, pressing it close to his bosom, that the warmth of his own heart may give it life. With gratitude that his search has not been in vain, he bears it back to the fold.” “Thank God, He has presented to our imagination no picture of a sorrowful shepherd returning without the sheep. The parable does not speak of failure but of success and joy in the recovery. Here is the divine guarantee that not even one of the straying sheep of God’s fold is overlooked, not one is left unsuccored.” “By the lost sheep Christ represents not only the individual sinner but the one world that has apostatized and has been ruined by sin. This world is but an atom in the vast dominions over which God presides, yet this little fallen world—the one lost sheep—is more precious in His sight than are the ninety and nine that went not astray from the fold. Christ, the loved Commander in the heavenly courts, stooped from His high estate, laid aside the glory that He had with the Father, in order to save the one lost world. For this He left the sinless worlds on high, the ninety and nine that loved Him, and came to this earth, to be ‘wounded for our transgressions’ and ‘bruised for our iniquities.’ (Isaiah 53:5.) God gave Himself in His Son that He might have the joy of receiving back the sheep that was lost.” Scripture references: Luke 15:1–7; Matthew 18:11–14; Isaiah 53:5–6; John 10:11–16; 1 Peter 2:24–25 May this song remind us that no wandering soul is forgotten by the Shepherd. Christ seeks the lost, receives the wounded with compassion, and rejoices when they are brought home. #thelostsheep #goodshepherd #christiansong #christianmusic #christianfolk #faith #spiritofprophecy #egw #egwwritings #ellengouldwhite #adventist #seventhdayadventist