The Sinner’s Friend

A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24.
Jesus is the sinner’s friend, His heart is ever open, ever touched with human woe; He has all power, both in heaven and upon earth.
In the person of Christ we behold the eternal God engaged in an enterprise of boundless mercy toward fallen man.
Christ came to this world to show that by receiving power from on high, man can live an unsullied life….
He could say to whom He pleased, “Follow Me,” and the one addressed arose and followed Him. The spell of the world’s enchantment was broken. At the sound of His voice the spirit of greed and ambition fled from the heart, and men arose, emancipated, to follow the Saviour….
He passed by no human being as worthless, but sought to apply the healing remedy to every soul…. He sought to inspire with hope the roughest and most unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character as would make them manifest as the children of God.
Often He met those who had drifted under Satan’s control, and who had no power to break from his snare. To such a one, discouraged, sick, tempted, fallen, Jesus would speak words of tenderest pity, words that were needed and could be understood. Others He met who were fighting a hand-to-hand battle with the adversary of souls. These He encouraged to persevere, assuring them that they would win; for angels of God were on their side and would give them the victory.
The Sinless One pities the weakness of the sinner….
Men hate the sinner, while they love the sin. Christ hates the sin, but loves the sinner. This will be the spirit of all who follow Him. Christian love is slow to censure, quick to discern penitence, ready to forgive, to encourage, to set the wanderer in the path of holiness, and to stay his feet therein.
The Faith I Live By p. 98
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Prayer Requests
—-update— Everything is fine, it was just a lymph node. It had blood flow through it. The doctor said it was benign. Thank You Jesus! J
—-Prayers for my mom please. She has a detached retina & is having emergency surgery at UAB in the morning. It’s pretty serious & we are all anxious for good results Marion
—-Please pray for Eileen today as she is having a procedure on her back today. Rose
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Dear Friends,
One day, when my mother was walking to town, she noticed a man sitting on a makeshift bench in front of a gas station. He was playing a guitar and singing a country-western ditty that she liked. The music as well as his blond hair and blue eyes attracted her and before long, she found herself standing beside him. He welcomed her admiration. Before long, he asked her for a date. She was thrilled. As she got to know him better, he seemed like one of the leading men in the movies that she was so fond of attending despite her mother’s pleading to the contrary. Within a year, she married my dad. My grandmother was heartbroken, but she interpreted it as anger.
My mother had made a very poor choice because his character was not good, and he was an alcoholic. My dad realized that his mother-in-law did not like him, so he tried everything he could think of to change that. He bought her her favorite candy, he picked flowers and brought them to her, he did a lot of little things to help her around the house. He even went to church with her because he thought that if he did, she would begin to like him. Sadly, my grandmother made a gigantic error in judgment. Instead of being happy that he was going to church, she was upset because he refused to wear a tie. If she only would have welcomed his church attendance as a way for him to learn the gospel message and allow himself to be changed by the power of the Holy Spirit, what a different life both he and my mother would have had.
Finally, after attending a few times and hearing my grandmother complain about how embarrassed she was that he was not dressed properly, my dad decided that there was nothing to this “religion stuff” and never attended again. My grandmother had the opportunity to show him the kindness and forgiveness of God, but she did not. Through her unloving, overbearing example, she turned him away from the Saviour Who was the Only One Who could have changed my dad into the kind of son-in-law that she had hoped my mother would marry.
So it is with each of us. We have the opportunity to give to those around us a correct picture of our Great Redeemer. If we, who claim to be His followers, treat others in an unloving, overbearing, unforgiving way, they will come to view God as the same as we. They will think that He in aloof and uncaring just ready to “zap” them if they make even one mistake. They will think that they must do good deeds to make Him love them, to keep Him from being angry with them. Some even try to keep the commandments to placate Him, but somehow they never attain righteousness, they are never good enough. They think that he causes them troubles and enjoys their distress.
How sad! Is God up there just waiting to punish us? Does He enjoy our distress? That’s what the devil would like us to think, but our Loving Creator is not like that at all. He loves each individual as if there were no other person in the entire universe. How tenderly He cares for us and longs for us to want Him in our life. He assures us, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Jer 31:3; Eze 33:11; Isa 1:18; Matt 11:28-30
Our Dear Saviour told a parable that reveals our Great Creator’s love. “A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Luke 15:11-24
Notice that the father is watching, longing for his son’s return. And when that boy “comes to himself” and realizes his folly; the father freely forgives him. He does not chastise him for not cleaning himself up before he comes back, no! He welcomes him with rejoicing. Should not we do the same? Should we not in a kind and loving way point them to the One Who is standing there waiting to removed their filthy unrighteous garments and clothe them with the spotless robe of His Own righteousness?
How grateful that wandering son is. He sees his father’s love for the first time. He sees how much he has hurt his father and he feels lower than he did when he was feeding the pigs. He no longer wants to do the things that hurt his loving father. He wants to please him and do those things that will make him happy.
It is the same with us today. When we show others God’s great love as revealed in His Holy Word, they will see how much they have hurt our Dear Father in Heaven. They will long to be forgiven and to have a change in their lives. They will pray as did David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.” Ps 51:10-12 He has promised, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Eze 36:26,27
May we lead others to our Loving Father in Heaven. May we give them the opportunity to receive the same forgiveness we, ourselves, need. May we rightly represent the One Who loves us so.
Rose