“It Is Written” Director John Bradshaw Speaks at PUC

Pacific Union College welcomed renowned pastor John Bradshaw to speak for the Colloquy Speaker Series on Thursday, November 17. Bradshaw is the current speaker and director for “It Is Written,” an international Seventh-day Adventist television program viewed by millions of people around the world. He has held over 100 evangelistic series spanning across six continents.

Bradshaw’s message to PUC students, faculty, and staff centered on the importance of God being the focus in their lives. “Jesus, recognizing our best is not good enough, didn’t leave us to wallow in our inadequacy,” he said, a line encapsulating his entire sermon. Bradshaw pointed out that while we are far from being perfect, God is continuously working in and through each us. “Those were comforting words,” said Jonathan Oliveros, an aviation major. 

“The only power ever devised that has the capacity to take an unholy thing and make it a holy thing… is the Holy Spirit,” Bradshaw asserted. His affirmation of hope echoed throughout the PUC Church sanctuary. He explained it is by the Holy Spirit’s power and influence in our lives we can live a Christ-like life. “We as Christians must accept the Holy Spirit to influence and move in our lives so we may be identifiable as Christians.”

Bradshaw believes it is by the Holy Spirit we are given new hearts. With renewed hearts, he encouraged students to build our relationship with Jesus Christ upon solid rock, not sand. Through an analogy about the Millennium Tower, a 58-story skyscraper in San Francisco, Bradshaw conveyed the importance of everyone building a relationship with Christ on solid ground. This tower contains some of the most expensive apartments in the city, priced from one to 10 million dollars. Experts have discovered the building is leaning and has sunk 16 inches since it was built. Even with the most advanced engineering techniques, the Millennium Tower is sinking because it was built on a weak foundation.

Bradshaw continued by saying our relationship with Christ is weakened if we choose to build our relationship on shaky ground. We begin to lose trust in God because of a weakened relationship causing us to rely on our own abilities, instead of relying on Christ who has the power to provide us with what we need.

In closing, Bradshaw encouraged the congregation to rely on Christ and not on one’s own abilities. “Your best will never be good enough,” he said. “It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit and an unshakeable relationship with God that will enable us to be the Christians God has called us to be.”