April 29 Esight, 2010

“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”—Matthew 5.48Wow, Its good to be back!!! After being sick, then traveling to Southern Louisiana for a camp meeting, (which was the first time I have ever had to preach after losing my voice, – they turned up the mic and I did all my presentations in a whisper – what a blast!) I am finally getting the chance to return to a weekly writing schedule. After my last e-Sight, which I doubt anyone has a fresh recollection of, I received quite a few e-mails in response to what I shared. Some replies took issue with me saying that God loves us just the way we are, including all of our mistakes while others were concerned with me saying that love never leaves us the way it finds us, but immediately begins transforming us into its own very image. I have no doubt that what I am about to share this week will result in my inbox receiving a few more emails. However, I believe it is necessary. Yet, rather than reopening the age-old debate of whether or not we, as human beings, can really be restored into God’s image of love, let’s spend our time this week looking at what the Bible defines this transformation to be. Follow Jesus’ words closely.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5.38-48).

Now let us read Dr. Luke’s version:

But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6.27-36).

Now let us read from Paul.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3.14-19).

Did you catch that? Filled with all the fullness of God? Really? What does that even mean? And after discerning its meaning, how is THAT ever going to happen for me?

I believe that Eugene Peterson, on this point, has some insight to share.

“Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that” Ephesians 5:1,2, The Message.

You see, being like God (Ephesians 5:1) is not something we accomplish by trying. Rather, it is quite the opposite. We can only love as God loves when we begin to see how deeply, how fully, how unequivocally, God loves us. All we can truly do is allow God to show us how much He loves us, and that love itself, once experienced, is so powerful that it will do all of the transforming that is needed. By love is love awakened.

“Love is the basis of godliness. Whatever the profession, no man has pure love to God unless he has unselfish love for his brother. But we can never come into possession of this spirit by trying to love others. What is needed is the love of Christ in the heart. When self is merged in Christ, love springs forth spontaneously. The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within–when the sunshine of heaven fills the heart and is revealed in the countenance” (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 384).

It is incredibly good to be back.

I wish you God’s best this week.

April 9 Esight, 2010

noneWe are sorry to announce that there will be no weekly E-sight this week, due to Herb being out of the office sick. He thanks everyone for your prayers and your emails, and he looks forward to resuming the weekly messages again next week. Have a blessed weekend!

We wish you God’s best,

The staff at Renewed Heart Ministries.

March 31 Esight, 2010

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water . . . Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here” (John 4:10–16).Last week, we made the claim that the living water Jesus was offering to the woman at the well was actually an encounter with the other-centered, non-condemning, selfless, genuine love that only comes from God Himself (see 1 John 4:7). We gave a series of evidences for this, but the strongest evidence is that when the woman finally did ask for it, in order for Jesus to actually give it to her, He had to bring up the subject of her husband. Why does the conversation abruptly take this twist? What was Jesus up to? I think it’s quite simple and obvious if one thinks about it for just a moment.

At the end of the dialogue with this woman, she runs back to her village and states, “Come meet a man who told me everything bad I’ve ever done.” What Jesus actually told her was that she had been married five times and, to put it bluntly, the man she was living with currently was just what my folks would have called “shacking up.” I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to talk to complete strangers about their marital past before, but I would imagine the last response to be expected would be for them to get excited about it (if it was much like this woman’s) and for them to go run off to all their friends so they could come and meet you, too! It’s a very odd story, to say the least. What on earth is going on here, and what does it have to do with Jesus’ gift of living water?

John tells us that the law came through Moses, but grace and truth were realized through Jesus (John 1:17). Grace and truth. Both. Put yourself in this woman’s shoes for just a moment and imagine how you’d feel as Jesus recounts all the mistakes you’ve made in your past. But something is different. As he lists all your mistakes, His expression never changes, the look in His eyes does not drift into disappointment, He doesn’t pull away, there is no censor, only acceptance, forgiveness, compassion and pure, non-condemning love. You begin to realize that He really does know everything there is to know about you, and, yet, He still passionately loves you with all of it. This kind of love is “living water!” When I grew up, people used to tell me, “Love is blind.” And although I understand what they meant, I don’t need a love that’s blind! I need a love that knows everything there is to know about me and yet loves me nonetheless for it. A love that knows the truth about me, but the worse that reality is, the more His grace abounds. I need a love that is not just full of truth, but grace and truth. What this woman saw was the same reality Paul later encountered, too, that where “Sin abounds, Grace does much more abound” (Romans 5:20). What this woman encountered was the deeply intimate embrace of an all-enveloping love for her very soul, just the way she was. And do you know what the beauty of this kind of love is? Though it loves you just the way you are, it never leaves you quite the same as when it found you. It immediately begins to transform its object into the same exact image of itself. It becomes a fountain inside us, flowing out toward others as well. We immediately begin to want to be able to love like that! And when that takes place, then we begin to realize what “Salvation” really is. We, at that point, pass from death unto life, and enter a world of extravagant love, amazing grace, and an intimate relationship with the most beautiful Being in all the universe, a Being others before us have defined as — Love.

March 25 Esight, 2010

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life.” – John 4:13, 14Recently I asked an audience a central question about this passage; what was the “living water” that Jesus mentioned? I received a myriad of answers, all of which left me wanting more. None of them fit. Maybe that’s because truth is often so simple that we miss it. We have a tendency to make things more difficult than they need to be. The most adamant of the answers I received was “eternal life!” However, I want you to notice carefully that the living water becomes a fountain inside us, a fountain that springs up and overflows from within us, leading to eternal life. The water and “eternal life” are not the same thing.

So, then, what is this living water?

Well, it has certain qualities:

1) It can only be received from God Himself.

2) Once received, it satisfies so deeply that our insatiable “thirsting,” our deep sense of need and void, is met and filled permanently.

3) It then becomes something inside of us that flows from us to others.

4) And lastly, it grows and develops into Eternity itself.

Hmmmmm. Do you know it yet? Have you guessed it?

David too found that his “soul” was “thirsty” and that nothing in this world could satisfy it (see Psalms 63:1). Later, however, he found that every desire and longing he had ever felt was fully satisfied by this same “living water” (see Psalms 145:16).

Do you know now? Compare the following verses to the qualities listed above.

1) Love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God . . . for God is love. (1 John 4:7, 8)

2) . . . And to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19)

3) We love, because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

4) We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. (1 John 3:14)

The living water is love! Genuine, other-centered, selfless, self-sacrificing, self-abandoning love. It hopes all things, believes all things, and bears all things. It only stems from God Himself, who embodies and exemplifies this kind of Love. Once we taste it, it satisfies so deeply that we truly feel we were created to drink it. Next, it immediately springs up and flows outward, toward others, changing us into its very image. It is at that point, when we have been converted from self-centeredness to other-centeredness (see 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15), that we have passed from death unto life.

There is one more unmistakable proof that Jesus referenced God’s love when he spoke of the living water. This proof is evidenced in what Jesus said next to the dear woman at the well. However, we will save that discussion for next week. See if you can figure it out before then. Happy pondering!

I wish you God’s best this week.

March 19 Esight, 2010

” . . . and through them is my glory revealed.” —John 17:10Over and over again, Jesus sought to teach us that the way we relate to others will directly affect what others think God is like. It becomes too painfully obvious when one realizes that there are masses in the world today who want to have nothing to do with God, not because they’ve had a bad experience with some heathen but because they had a bad run-in with someone who claims to follow God. Recently, I was walking down the main street of the little town I live in, and I saw the bumper sticker that has become all too popular: “I’m not afraid of God but of those who claim to be His people.” Jesus, on the other hand, encouraged us:

“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

In the gospels, Jesus contrasted the imagery of light and darkness. Darkness is the root of all rebellion. Darkness is the lies that have been perpetrated and believed concerning the character of our Heavenly Father (the presentations for more on this.) Light, on the other hand is the truth seen in the life of Christ about the character of the heavenly Father that dispels the darkness/lies. Follow closely:

“Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life’” (John 8:12).

“I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” (John 12:46).

“For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).

But Jesus did make a qualification:

“While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world” (John 9:5).

Did you catch it? “While I am in the world . . .” What happened when He left? It’s quite simple. He left the work He had begun of illuminating hearts with the light of God’s character of love to be finished by those who believed in the love He was revealing—us. Again, how we act, how we treat others, will, either for the good or for the bad, directly influence what others think about God.

Jesus not only called Himself this, but He also said:

“You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14, emphasis added).

“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1, In the book of Revelation God’s people are wreathed in the familiar sources we know as light).

Whether for better or for worse, those who claim to be God’s people will always color the perceptions of others as to what God is truly like. It was for this reason that Jesus prayed for us so intently at the end of His life here: “I pray for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, because they belong to you. All that is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine; and through them is my glory revealed” (John 17:9). Thoughts worthy of meditating on for sure. This next week, let’s mix things up a bit and show the world that God is love.

March 10 Esight, 2010

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand—John 3:35.”In the light of the Saviour’s life, the hearts of all, even from the Creator to the prince of darkness, are revealed. Satan has represented God as selfish and oppressive, as claiming all, and giving nothing, as requiring the service of His creatures for His own glory, and making no sacrifice for their good. But the gift of Christ reveals the Father’s heart . . . It declares that while God’s hatred of sin is as strong as death, His love for the sinner is stronger than death. Having undertaken our redemption, He will spare nothing, however dear, which is necessary to the completion of His work. No truth essential to our salvation is withheld, no miracle of mercy is neglected, no divine agency is left unemployed. Favor is heaped upon favor, gift upon gift. The whole treasury of heaven is open to those He seeks to save. Having collected the riches of the universe, and laid open the resources of infinite power, He gives them all into the hands of Christ, and says, “All these are for man. Use these gifts to convince him that there is no love greater than Mine in earth or heaven” (White, The Desire of Ages, p. 57).

It’s been over a decade since I first read the above statement, but it still moves my heart every time. Especially that last part:

“Having collected the riches of the universe, and laid open the resources of infinite power, He gives them all into the hands of Christ, and says, “All these are for man. Use these gifts to convince him that there is no love greater than Mine in earth or heaven.”

Could it really be this simple? The primary point of the incarnation (and theologians tend to make it way more complicated) was that it was simply one giant gift for the purpose of proving to us that what was really in the heart of the Ruler of the Universe toward us was one thing and one thing only—the greatest Love ever to be in existence.

In my mind’s eye, I begin to see the Father behind the scenes of every event of Jesus’ life, enabling, devising, orchestrating—moment by moment—situations for just this purpose: to show us His love. Every act of mercy, touch of healing, or word of kindness, everything Jesus gave, had first been given to Him by the Father for us. So much so that at the end of Jesus’ life He could say with confidence, “I have made you known on the earth; I have finished the work that you have given me to do” (John 17:4).

It is said that if you really want to get to know someone, look at how they act when they think no one is watching. Actions truly reveal what is in a person’s heart toward you as nothing else can. I want to encourage you this week to take some time to go back over some of your favorite events in Jesus’ life and, instead of this time thinking of what they reveal about Jesus, let your heart wander beyond all of that to see what type of person the Father must be as well.

I wish you God’s best this week.

March 3 Esight, 2010

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3.5-6Born of water and the Spirit? What’s interesting to me is that we usually associate this verse immediately with baptism, but I believe Jesus may have been trying to make a much deeper point.

Follow closely—in the first few verses of the Bible, there is some very interesting language used.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” Genesis 1.1-5

The earth itself was born from the Spirit moving over the surface of the waters. At that moment, God cried out, “Let there be light.” Over and over, Jesus used this imagery of light shining in the darkness. The darkness is all of our darkened misapprehensions and misconceptions of God and what type of God we perceive Him to be. It’s the lies we have been told and that we have believed concerning Him and His character. The light, on the other hand, is the truth concerning God’s character of love as revealed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God’s Son.

Keep following:

“For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God [His Love] in the face of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4.6

It is at the moment when the Spirit is hovering once again over the “waters” of our heart, which is without form and void, that God cries out, “Let there be light.” But it’s not literal light, like we see emanating from a light bulb. It’s the revelation of God’s love for us, shining from the life and death of Jesus Himself, in contrast to the darkness of lies we have believed about Him.

When we are “born” of this experience, born of “water and Spirit”, we cease to be simply born of the flesh, conceived of human design and origin. We become born now of the Spirit, of this new revelation of God and the truth regarding His character. Naturally, we are of the flesh—very selfish, very self-centered. But to be born of the Spirit, to be born from a revelation of God and the truth of His love, radically changes us from the inside out. It transforms and converts us from being selfish to “no longer living for ourselves but for Him who died for us and rose again.” 2 Corinthians 5:14,15. Love has awakened love.

Something to ponder this week: being born again is much more than just saying a sinner’s prayer or taking a giant bath in the front of some church. It’s a radical orientation shift that comes through encountering God for who He really is.

I wish you God’s best this week. Happy pondering.

February 24 Esight, 2010

Two days later there was a wedding at Cana-in-Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, as were Jesus and his disciples. They ran out of wine at the party following the wedding, so Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine left.” He answered, “That is no concern of mine. My hour has not yet come.” His mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Nearby were six stone water-jars similar to those used for Jewish rites of purification; each could hold twenty to thirty gallons of liquid. Jesus said the servants to “fill the jars with water,” and they filled them to the brim. “Now draw some off,” he ordered, “and take it to the master of the feast”; and they did so. Oblivious to its source, the master tasted the water, which had now turned into wine. He hailed the bridegroom and said, “Everyone else serves the best wine first, and the poorer only when the guests have drunk freely; but you have kept the best wine till now.” – John 2.1-10Wow, water into fine wine…this miracle isn’t just about “chemistry”, though. I recently received a note from a friend expressing the difficulties in “showing” the Father’s character of love to those around us. And I, no doubt, will confess that to take a self-centered human being (And we are all self-centered; I am convinced that genuine other-centered love is truly beyond the capability of any of us without something greater than ourselves, outside of ourselves, awakening and enabling that love.) and turn them into a revelation, a conduit so to speak, of God’s other-centered love is no less a miracle than taking well water and turning it to wine.

But we continually need to be reminded:

“Love is the basis of godliness. Whatever the profession, no man has pure love to God unless he has unselfish love for his brother. But we can never come into possession of this spirit by trying to love others. What is needed is the love of Christ in the heart. When self is merged in Christ, love springs forth spontaneously. The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within—when the sunshine of heaven fills the heart and is revealed in the countenance”(Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 384).

Did you catch it? We can’t love by simply trying to love. Love comes from God (See I John 4.7 NASB and REB). Only by His love for us is love in us awakened. (The Desire of Ages p. 22) True love is as fundamentally different from our natural state as wine is from water. To restore us into the image of that love would, at least for me, be more like turning muddy water into fine wine. This miracle of unconditional love is indeed so beyond the possibility of human origin and rare that, when manifested, it makes even the most ardent Atheists stop and take note. True love is so far beyond any of our capability that John stated that everyone who does love, only does so because they have been born of God. We love only because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19 and1 John 4.7)

So, it becomes obvious to the careful reader that what is needed is less “trying” to love on our part, and more “letting” ourselves be loved by Him who did not count heaven itself a place to be desired if we could not be with Him. Only by “believing” and personally “experiencing” His love for us can love spring up in us, like a fountain of living water, and flow out to those around us. He can do it, if we only let Him.

I wish you God’s best this week.

February 15 Esight, 2010

And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51).I have a quick thought for you this week.

I was reading last night the first chapter of John, in which Jesus uses the imagery of a great gulf fixed between us and God. A mystical ladder, upon which angels are descending and ascending, crosses that gulf, descending from God Himself to us; to our surprise, the ladder is God Himself. (See also Genesis 28:12)

I had to stop and ask, what really was this separation between humanity and God? I know that for our own preservation, there needed to be physical separation between us and God’s glory after sin. But relationally, I wonder how much of the separation is truly of God’s creation and how much is our own. I know that sin produces an intrinsic separation between us and the great Lover of our souls. But has God really ever pulled back? Relationally? I believe that our sin, rather than making Him pull back, implores Him from deep within His own heart to press in closer. The greater our need, the greater His desire to save us. He does not abandon us in our moment of need, but on the contrary, He empties Himself completely to meet our need. Sin created the separation and God threw Himself across the chasm to bridge it!

“Though sin had produced a gulf between man and his God, a divine benevolence provided a plan to bridge that gulf. And what material did He use? A part of Himself. The brightness of the Father’s glory came to a world all seared and marred with the curse, and in His own divine character, in His own divine body, bridged the gulf. . . The windows of heaven were opened and the showers of heavenly grace in healing streams came to our benighted world. . . Had God given us less we could not have been saved. But He gave to our world so abundantly that it could not be said that He could love us more . . . God has exhausted His benevolence . . . in pouring out all heaven to man in one great gift. Only in comprehending the value of this offering can we comprehend infinity. O the breadth and height and depth of the love of God! Who of finite beings can comprehend it?” (White, Our High Calling, p. 12).

“God’s love for the world was not manifest because He sent His Son, but because He loved the world He sent His Son into the world that divinity clothed with humanity might touch humanity, while divinity lays hold of divinity.” (Ibid.)

Think of the imagery the God (in human flesh) used. Himself, a latter, for us! When sin created a chasm, a separation between us and Him, He used Himself to bridge the gulf, and whispers to each one of us, “Here, take my hand; I will hold on to you, and I will bring you back home.” What an incredible God!!!

“Let earth be glad, let the inhabitants of the world rejoice, that Christ has bridged the gulf which sin had made, and has bound earth and heaven together. A highway has been cast up for the ransomed of the Lord. The weary and heavy laden may come unto Him and find rest to their souls. The pilgrim may journey toward the mansions that He has gone to prepare for those who love Him” (White, That I May Know Him, p. 82).

I wish you God’s best this week.

February 8 Esight, 2010

. . . And the one who comes to Me, I will certainly not cast out.—John 6:37Or as Peterson paraphrased it, “Once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go” (John 6:37, The Message).

I remember a sermon when I was just a kid in which a question was asked: Does our relationship with God depend on our holding onto Him or on our believing that He is still holding onto us?

My oldest daughter returned from a ski trip yesterday. I taught her how to ski when she was just a little girl, and she’s loved it ever since. But when she was very small, she once slipped off the ski lift. I think of that experience each time she and I hit the slopes. She had lifted the bar early, and then she forgot it was up; when she fell, I caught her by the hood of her ski coat. I was holding onto the back of the lift chair with one hand and her ski coat with the other. When the ground got close enough, we both counted to three and jumped. We landed, and there were no injuries. Today we laugh about it, but neither of us thought it was too funny then.

I’ve often wondered what would have happened if her safety that day had depended on her holding onto me, rather than on my holding onto her. The story would not have ended the same, I’m quite sure. Yet how many believe that their eternity depends on their holding onto God. I don’t think that’s how it works at all. I think it’s dependent on our believing that He is still holding onto us.

It was taught by the Jews that before God’s love is extended to the sinner, he must first repent. In their view, repentance is a work by which men earn the favor of Heaven. And it was this thought that led the Pharisees to exclaim in astonishment and anger, “This man receiveth sinners.” According to their ideas He should permit none to approach Him but those who had repented. But in the parable of the lost sheep, Christ teaches that salvation does not come through our seeking after God but through God’s seeking after us. “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way.” Rom. 3:11, 12. We do not repent in order that God may love us, but He reveals to us His love in order that we may repent. (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 189)

Certainly I believe that we can take ourselves out of the hands of God. But if any are lost in the end, it will be their choice, not His. On that day, those who enter into life will look into the eyes of God and simply say, “Thy will be done.” But all who are lost will encounter God Himself, Who will look into their eyes and say to them, “Thy will be done,” even though it is against everything He desires for them.

The love of God still yearns over the one who has chosen to separate from Him, and He sets in operation influences to bring him back to the Father’s house. The prodigal son in his wretchedness “came to himself.” The deceptive power that Satan had exercised over him was broken. He saw that his suffering was the result of his own folly, and 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.” Miserable as he was, the prodigal found hope in the conviction of his father’s love. It was that love which was drawing him toward home. So it is the assurance of God’s love that constrains the sinner to return to God. “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.” Rom. 2:4. A golden chain, the mercy and compassion of divine love, is passed around every imperiled soul. The Lord declares, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” Jer. 31:3. (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 202)

I wish you God’s best this week.