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Written by Jocelynn Goff, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries

“Lead Me to Some Soul Today” is a song I grew up singing at church. I can still hear the Downtown church of Christ in Kansas City, MO, back in the mid 1960’s singing this. We started meeting in an old grocery store on a neighborhood street. We would sing this song, pray for souls, and then go door to door, inviting them to come to church, asking if they’d like a personal Bible study, and what needs they had. I remember many being curious at first, and after seeing the truth, they committed to become a Christian.

This is having the same heart as God and partnering with Him in His desire as we see in 1 Timothy 2:3b-4 “…God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (NIV). It was also the apostle Paul’s desire, as we see in Romans 10:1, “Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.” This was important to God and to the apostle Paul, so it should be our prayer as well.

Then the question is, how do we accomplish this? Prayer is first, and then a realization that there are many ways to be a witness for Christ living in us. A personal example of this is with our neighbor, Jackie.

Jackie lived across the street from us in Baton Rouge, LA. Shortly after we moved into our house, I went across the street to meet our neighbor and invite her to the neighborhood ladies’ Bible study on Thursdays. She blew cigarette smoke in my face and said she wasn’t interested. She said to come back when school started, as her son would be at school and she’d have more time. I thought she was the most disinterested person I’d ever met. However, I dutifully went each of the next several years at the beginning of the school year. Each time, she blew cigarette smoke in my face and found different excuses. The next year, I decided I was not a glutton for punishment (I have a strong dislike for cigarette smoke), and besides, she wasn’t interested. I had given up on her and started praying for another neighbor.

However, that was the year she came to my house! She asked me if we still had the neighborhood ladies’ Bible study. I replied yes, and then she ran back home. The next day she came back and said she’d like to know more about where I go to church, but not right then. We arranged for her to come back the next day and we’d have a conversation. Prayers covered this unexpected openness. The next morning came, and we sat at the kitchen table. I had just taken a sip of iced tea and was opening my mouth to begin speaking when in the door came some friends from church who said, “Hi, I’m hungry. Feed me.”

It was our friend Edith with her 2-year-old son, and a screaming baby, along with an engaged couple. Edith was our Puerto Rican friend who, along with her husband, we’d studied the Bible with a year earlier. As part of the Kingdom relationship, our families shared dinner every Monday night as we prayed together, continued Bible study, and twice took our two families on summer vacations together. I was glad to see Edith, but this was bad timing in my opinion. My thought was, “God, do You know what You’re doing? My neighbor was finally interested, and here you have our friends troop in for a meal.” I offered different sandwich choices and whispered to Edith, “I’m trying to study the Bible with my neighbor. Can you take the sandwiches and leave soon?” They did leave soon, but so did Jackie. I thought this was a failure. However, as Isaiah 55:8 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.”

I thought Jackie was not interested when, in fact, she was very open and searching. She had applied for numerous Bible correspondence courses. Also, unknown to me, she and her family had frequently observed us from their kitchen window. They saw us leave for church, have brothers and sisters over for dinner, and host volleyball games. They saw the Kingdom in action when our house flooded. Then that day when we were supposed to have our first Bible study, she witnessed the relationships in Christ in each others’ homes. She admitted she’d never experienced anything like the family of God living in relationship with Him and each other. She was hungry to know more and know Him. We studied further, and she did become a Christian. Yes, it started with knocking on her door, but it was so much more because of living out faith in front of her.

Are you prayerfully living out the song, “Lead Me to Some Soul Today,” and seeking to have the same desire as God and Paul to have all people come to know the truth? May God bless all of us as we remain in Him to bear fruit.

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Written by Amanda Miriam, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in João Pessoa, Brazil

Dear sister, it is with great gratitude that I share with you some of my reflections based on the theme that I was given. I recommend that you have your Bible in hand, pray, and ask the Lord to speak to you through His Word. We have a precious theme here.

In chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke, three parables are presented. They speak about the lost: the sheep, the coin, and the son. But before we delve into the parables, the text speaks about who was present while Jesus was teaching. In verses 1 and 2, the audience is basically divided into two groups: the tax collectors and sinners, who were the "listeners," and the Pharisees and teachers of the law, who were the "critics."

The group of "critics" thought it completely absurd that Jesus sat at the table with tax collectors and sinners. They considered themselves worthy, superior, and above sinners, yet they were incapable of hearing what Jesus was saying.

My prayer is that we may be among those who hear what Jesus has to say, those who know exactly where they were when they were found by the Lord, and the high price that He paid so that we might be restored and brought back with great joy to the Father's house. Once restored, our mission is to go and take the gospel to every creature; our mission is not to criticize or choose who will or will not hear about Christ. We need to go and seek with compassion and joy those who are lost, without pride or superiority; the gospel is for everyone.

Three situations were presented: the man who went in search of the sheep, the woman who swept her house looking for the coin, and the father who had to wait for the return of his son, who decided to leave. What happens in our hearts while we search? What comes to our minds while we wait? Verse 22 says that the father, full of compassion, received his son back. There are various contexts in which our mission of "go" (Mt 28:18-19) will be fulfilled; we will seek the lost in different situations, but the Word reveals to us that prayer is a powerful tool in all of them. First Thessalonians 5:17 says: "Pray continually" (NIV).

Matthew 17:14-21 tells of the healing of a demon-possessed boy. The boy's father came to Jesus, pleading with Him to heal his son, since he had already sought help from the discipleswho were unable to heal him. Jesus healed the boy, told the disciples that faith the size of a mustard seed could move mountains, and concluded by saying, "However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (NKJV).

Regardless of the situation and who the lost soul you are seeking may be, pray! We need to nourish our faith with the Word of Truth and with constant prayer so that we may have compassionate hearts that are not critical or resentful.

Sister, can you think of someone you've repeatedly tried to bring to Christ? If you haven't yet experienced the joy of witnessing that encounter, persevere in prayer. Can you think of someone in your home who isn't yet in Christ? Persevere in prayer. Is there someone who has left the Father's house and you're waiting for them to return? Persevere in prayer.

If you can, take some time and pray once more for those whom God has placed in your path and who need to be rescued. May we persevere, and may the Lord guide us every step of the way in this mission.