“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” — Luke 15:4
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One out of 100 is one percent. The term “one-percenter” is often used in socioeconomic discussions, describing someone in the top one percent of a population by wealth.
However, in Luke 15:4, the shepherd’s pursuit of the “one-percenter” sheep reminds us of God’s care and concern about the eternal destiny (Heaven or hell) of everyone on an individual basis: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?”
Further in Luke 15, Jesus tells two other stories of something that was lost and then found: a coin and a son. A lesson of these parables is that a person who is not a follower of Christ is lost, and that a person who has a relationship with Christ is found because of the loving and persistent pursuit of a God who cares about our eternal destiny.
Where are you? Lost (without Christ) or found (with Christ)? These two possible relationships with Christ and the eternal implications are clearly stated in 1 John 5:12: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” The life spoken of here is eternal (Heaven).
If you aren’t sure that you have Christ in your life with the promise of Heaven, you can receive Him into your life right now. Romans 10:13 says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
— Jeff Totten, Detroit Tigers chaplain
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