TRANSFORMING LOVE AND ACCEPTANCE
 
        Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.  John 6:37
 
    We've often heard the idea that conversion is an immediate, complete, absolute, final change of life--that we'll have no more problems from then on, no more weakness, no more failures.  And when problems do arise, then we think we haven't really been converted.  But remember this: conversion is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit on the human heart, producing a change of attitude toward God; instead of being against Him, now you're for Him.  Conversion creates in the person a new capacity for knowing and loving God--it's the turning-around point, the beginning, but that's all it is.  And we're told we need to be converted every day, not just once and for all.
 
    The first time Mary of Magdala heard Jesus speaking, she couldn't believe the words of comfort.  Religious leaders accepted only the good, moral churchgoers--not sinners, harlots, and thieves!  It was almost more than she could stand.  With her broken heart, she pressed through the crowd after the outdoor service, and right there in the open, she poured out her heart to Jesus and told Him of her burden.  Jesus accepted her.  He prayed for her with strong prayers, seeking His Father's presence in her behalf.  And Mary was converted right there on the spot.  Her load of sin and guilt left her.  Conversion, as usually happened, came when she was desperate enough to give up on herself entirely.
 
    We'd like to say that the story ends there.  But the truth is that Mary failed, evidently shortly after Jesus left town.  She stayed where she was, the same crowd was around, the same voices whispered to her in the marketplace.  When Jesus was not in town, she found it difficult to hold on to the peace she had found from hearing His words and from being with Him.  But she still had that change of attitude toward God, and her capacity for knowing Him was still down inside.  And the next time Jesus came through town, she poured out her troubles to Him, and again He worked in her behalf.  He accepted her again.  The Bible records that Jesus cast out seven devils from her.  But He always accepted her, as He always accepts anyone who comes to Him.  It was in this attitude of loving acceptance that Mary's heart was broken anew.

GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARY
 
        Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Matt. 11:28.
 
    In the village of Bethany lived two women, Mary and Martha, with their brother Lazarus, who evidently was the breadwinner for the family.  Father and mother must have been gone.  Both women were well known, but Mary was more outgoing than Martha.  She felt at home with the crowd.  Everybody liked Mary.  And whenever there was a banquet or church potluck Mary was always there to make people feel at home.
 
    One day, one of the church leaders, named Simon, began to notice Mary in a special way.  He decided deep down inside that he was going to get better acquainted with her.  And he did.  Mary suspected nothing, at first.  She was friendly to everybody.  With the help of the archenemy, Simon was able, little by little, to lead Mary into sin.
 
    She wasn't able to hide it forever, and gradually it became known around town that Mary was a "loose" woman.  Things got so unbearable in Bethany that Mary packed her few belongings and left town.  She traveled down Mount Moriah to a town called Magdala.  She later became known as Mary of Magdala.
 
    There Mary began to make some "easy" money.  It turned out not to be so easy in the end.  She found some people who were willing to pay her price, and oddly enough, she even found a degree of acceptance among these--people who became her friends and came back again and again.  But the load got heavier and heavier on her shoulders.  She found the easy money turning to bitterness.
 
    One day a traveling preacher came to town.  He stood in the streets of Magdala and began to tell people things that had never heard before.  In those days, no one accepted publicans and harlots and thieves.  But Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  Rest?  For Mary, who had been lying awake at night?  She heard words such as, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).
 
    For the first time in her life, Mary saw a glimpse of the true character of God--of His love, which was revealed through Jesus--and she realized that God would accept her.  She no longer had to run away from a God she feared.

  HOPE FOR THE DELIBERATE SINNER
 
        I will arise and go to my father.  Luke 15:18.
 
    In the parable of the lost son we have the story of someone who was in the fold, decided--planned--to go out and be lost, went into a far country by his own choice, then knew he was lost and knew the way back.  And the father followed him all the time--with his binoculars, shall we say--and was out looking for him on the day of his return.
 
    And so through this parable, Jesus is demonstrating the goodness and kindness of the Father, and He is saying, "For any type of person, we are out looking.  We're out looking for you."  The truth is that that is God's business and the great plan of salvation.  The God who allowed you to be born, about which you had no choice, is not a God who is going to leave you wandering and lost, whether we know the way back or whether we don't.  He is going to stay with us until the moment of truth in our lives when by our own conscious intelligence and our reasoning we can accept Him or reject Him.
 
    Like the prodigal son, we are running away from self-surrender.  We are running away from the moment of truth in which we face ourselves with the realization that we are incapable for life and for handling the things of eternity.
 
    One way we run away is by just plain busy-ness.  We feel we have to keep busy, whether it is with books or studies, work or pleasure--just keep busy, occupied.  It's possible for this to become a convenient route for running away.  And all the time God is following, staying close, helping when we don't know it.
 
    Then there is the pseudoreligionist who wants to forget God but does not want to give the impression that he wants to forget God, and so he spends a great deal of time discussing and dissecting and analyzing God and Christ and religion.  There are probably as many ways of running from God as there are people who are running.
 
    But when we realize that He is out looking for us, we can arise and go to the Father.  He will meet us a great way off.  "If you take even one step toward Him in repentance, He will hasten to enfold you in His arms of infinite love."--Christ's Object Lessons, p. 206.

 HOPE FOR THE IGNORANT SINNER
 
        And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.  Jer. 29:13
 
    In Romans 3, Paul says there are people who are inescapably lost in their inability to seek God.  In fact, he said, "There is none that seeketh after God" (verse 11).  If we will seek Him, we'll find Him when we have searched for Him will all our hearts, but none seeketh after God.  Then where does the seeking begin?  We are supposed to seek, but none seek.
 
    " 'If a woman has ten silver pieces and loses one of them, does she not light the lamp, sweep out the house, look in every corner till she has found it?  And when she has, she calls her friends and neighbors together, and says, Rejoice with me!  I have found the piece that I lost."  In the same way, I tell you, there is joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents' " (Luke 15:8-10, N.E.B.).
 
    In this story Jesus is telling us, through the symbol of the coin, that it is possible to be lost and not to know that we are lost, and not to know the way back.  And the One goes out and looks for this lost coin.  In the lost-coin symbol, it was lost in the house instead of out in the mountains somewhere, and perhaps we could go so far as to say it was lost within the church.  Or lost in the family.  And it's lost among the rubbish and the rubble of an ancient Middle East dwelling, but the search continues because it is still a piece of silver.  It's still of value, and the value of one soul can never be overestimated in the eyes of Heaven.
 
    "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me..."  How?  "With all your heart."
 
    It is the sense of need that makes the difference.  It is the great finding point.  It is the point when we find Christ and the point when Christ finds us.  "The Lord can do nothing toward the recovery of man until, convinced of his own weakness, and stripped of all self-sufficiency, he yields himself to the control of God.  Then he can receive the gift that God is waiting to bestow."--The Desire of Ages, p. 300.

  HOPE FOR THE HELPLESS SINNER
 
        There is none that seeketh after God.  Rom. 3:11.
 
    "The tax-gatherers and other bad characters were all crowding into listen to him [Jesus]; and the Pharisees and the doctors of the law began grumbling among themselves: 'This fellow,' they said, 'welcomes sinners and eats with them.' "  Now that was a great truth.  This man, Jesus welcomes sinners.  They didn't know what they were saying, but they were saying something of great worth.  And Jesus "answered them with this parable: 'If one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the missing one until he had found it?  How delighted he is then!  He lifts it on to his shoulders, and home he goes to call his friends and neighbors together.  "Rejoice with me!" he cries, "I have found my lost sheep."  In the same way, I tell you, there will be greater joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent' " (Luke 15:2-8, N.E.B.).
 
    Sheep. A sheep knows that it's lost when it's lost, but it does not know the way back.  One sheep is the smallest number of sheep that can be lost, and it will wander helplessly and perish unless it is brought back.  In the story of the sheep, Jesus makes it clear that salvation does not come from our seeking after God, but from God seeking after us.  We may not always know the way back.  We may not even know that we are lost.  Yet God goes out looking.
 
    We are not after an evasive God.  We are not trying to find, somewhere, a God who is trying to elude us.  That is not the kind of God we serve.  We serve, and we believe in, a God who followed Adam when he was running away. A God who followed Jacob when he was running away.  A God who followed Jonah when he was deliberately running away.  A God who followed Saul of Tarsus as he ran from those scenes in Jerusalem that had almost broken his heart.  Instead of us seeking and trying to find God or to find Christ, as a rule we are in the process of running away from Him.  To begin with, and sometimes even after we have accepted Him at first, we do some running, too.  And He keeps running after us.  God is always the One who takes the initiative.  And He is seeking each one of us today.

HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS SINNER
 
        Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.  Matt. 8:2.
 
    There was a man who was a lonely figure in the country of Palestine in the days of Christ.  He had been driven from the city, from home, from friends, from all loved ones.  He had no more friends; he was a wretch of humanity, dirty, disheveled.  His clothes were in rags, his skin was eaten away, and parts of his body were gone.  He was a victim of one of the most loathed diseases of all the East.  He had leprosy!  He sat by the roadside publishing his mournful condition by crying, "Unclean, unclean!"  But he heard of Jesus, of how He'd raised the dead, opened blind eyes, forgiven people's sins.  Ah, sin was what plagued his heart.  Could Jesus somehow do anything for him?
 
    This man thought and pondered and planned and hoped, until one day he began creeping along the road toward a lake shore.  He was looking for that large crowd around Jesus.  As he came to the crowd, some of those on the outer fringe saw him.  They fell back in horror and began to rebuke him, to get him to leave.  This happens many times among human beings today.  Remember this: it is human nature that a person who desperately needs attention, and seeks it, repulses other people.  But never does he repulse Jesus Christ--never!
 
    As this man came to the edge of the crowd, he was rebuked, but he could not be stopped.  The crowd fell back in fear, but as the they did, a way was made for him to get to Jesus.  This poor man came into the presence of Jesus.  As he came, he fell on his face in front of Him, right there on the ground.  He said, "Lord, if You will You can make me clean."
 
    He had tried everything!  He had tried doctors, he had tried willpower, he had tried "trying."  He tried friends who had finally deserted him.  He had tried everything he knew of, until there was only one choice left for him.  "Lord, if You will You can make me clean."  Immediately the words came from Jesus' lips, "I will; be thou clean."  And he was made whole from that very hour!
 
    A heart still incapable of goodness but capable of love is accepted.  God accepts the person, not for what he is, but for what God sees he can become, through the indwelling of Jesus Christ.

 SORROW FOR THE BROKEN HEART
 
        Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?  Rom. 2:4.
 
    Jesus came to demonstrate to His disciples, and to all of us, the love and forgiveness of our heavenly Father.  He wanted to show us that God does not condemn us--that's the work of the enemy.  He wanted to show that God is constantly working in every possible way to get as many people to accept His love as He possibly can.  His lovingkindness leads us to repentance, as it did in the experience of Peter.
 
    Peter stood by the fire and they pointed the finger at him.  He said, "Oh, no.  No, I'm not either."  And they said, "Yes, you are."  Finally, he began to curse and swear and to deny that he ever knew Jesus.
 
    Right in the middle of his cursing and swearing, he looked across the way and saw Jesus looking at him.  In that look was no anger or resentment or hurt feelings.  There was a look of pity, of sorrow.  As Peter looked upon the face of Jesus, a flood of memories began to come back.  He saw himself by the sea when Jesus called him to follow Him.  Again he saw himself in the hassle over the Temple authorities and tax coins, and Jesus went to his aid and got him out of the jam.  Once more he saw himself out in the sea.  Jesus is reaching down and pulling him up out of the angry waters.  And again, just a few hours earlier--he could still see it--walking the Garden with Jesus, and He had said, "Peter, Satan is determined to have you, but I've prayed for you.  I've prayed for you."
 
    And all these memories came flooding in.  Peter was transfixed on the spot.  Suddenly, as he stood there, he saw another hand raised to slap Jesus, and he realized that that was the same as his hand, and that he had dealt the hardest blow to the heart of Jesus that night.  Blindly he turned from the fire and rushed out of the courtyard gate, out of the city, across the brook, into the Garden.
 
    There he groped around in the darkness until he found the place where Jesus had been praying.  He fell on his face and wished he could die.  He was really sorroy.  He had broken the heart of his best Friend.  Peter's was real repentance.

 BUT, GOD, I'M A GOOD MAN!
 
        Behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?  Matt. 19:16.
 
    Here is a behaviorist.  And he had a lot of company.  In John 6, a whole group came and said, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?"  Jesus said, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent"--immediately transferring them from behavior to relationship.
 
    This man said, "What good thing shall I do?"  And He saith unto him, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."  Oh-oh.  Now we're in trouble.  It sounds as though Jesus is shifting into a behaviorism pattern Himself.
 
    Jesus knew that no one could keep the commandments in his own strength.  He knew that we don't get to haven by keeping the commandments.  But that's what He said.  "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."  The rich young ruler asked, "Which?"  "Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal," and so on.  And the young man said, "All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?"  Here is the strong man, the behaviorist.  He is a good liver.  Wouldn't think of doing anything wrong.  And then Jesus reveals what He was really after with this man.  "Jesus said unto him, If you wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor,...and come and follow me."
 
    Jesus didn't always come right to the point with people who were searching for truth.  In fact, He was pretty clever in His approach, not for the sake of cleverness, but because He had wisdom that came from His Father and His connection with His Father.
 
    What shall I do to enter into life?  Keep the commandments.  I have.  Oh, yes?  Let me give you one more.  He gave him one more, and the man hung his head and began kicking his toe in the dust.  Jesus was trying to demonstrate to this man that he was a strong, successful, external moral behaviorist, and that he had nothing within.  He was helpless.
 
    Now, that is the point to which each of us must come when we genuinely come to Christ.  We have to admit that we're helpless to do anything in our own strength, except give up trying to do something apart from Christ, and come to Him, just as we are.

FAITH EQUALS TRUST
 
        He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.  Heb. 11:6.
 
    "Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.  And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.  But he answered her not a word."
 
    Have you ever been ignored?  How did you like it?  It's surprising that she stayed around.  "And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us."  She's bothering us.  Why don't you get rid of her?  Jesus' first words, apparently going along with the disciples, were, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  "Then came she and worshipped him."  Worshipped Him?  Do you worship the people who ignore you and say they didn't come to help you?  And she said, "Lord, help me.  But he answered and said, It is not meet [right] to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs."  But this was the opening she had been looking for.  "She said, "Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table."  If I am a dog, I am entitled to some dog food.
 
    Jesus must have had a twinkle in His eye during this whole conversation.  She must have seen it.  "Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.  And her daughter was made whole from that very hour" (Matt. 15:21-28).
 
    How do you define "faith" in this story?  Taking God at His word?  If she had taken God as His word, she would have been gone long before He got to the "dogs" part.  Do you define faith in terms of believing?  Believing what Jesus said?  You can't.  It doesn't fit.  Faith, in her case, was disbelieving what Jesus said.  Faith was not taking Him at His word.
 
    So you come to the definition of faith as Jesus used it.  It is the real definition of faith.  One word: trust.  The book Education, page 253, says, "Faith is trusting God."
 
    The premise is that Jesus is completely trustworthy.  If you don't believe that, you don't know Him yet.  The person who is not quite sure that he can trust Jesus is the one who doesn't know Him.  Faith comes, not to those who seek it, but to those who seek it not, who seek only to know Jesus.

TODAY I MUST ABIDE AT THY HOUSE
 
        For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.  Luke 19:10.
 
    "And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.  And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich" (Luke 19:1, 2)
 
    Jericho was known for its publicans and its tax collectors.  It was the place where a Jewish man could turn traitor to his own people, give up to the Romans, and thereby make a good living.  It was a place where a man could become rich, because he was given a portion of his collections.  And if his collections were greater, so was his portion, and if his dividing of the portion was fraudulent, so was his increase in riches.  So it was with Zacchaeus, chief among the publicans.
 
    Zacchaeus had heard that Jesus was coming to town.  Already Jesus had sent His Spirit before Him.  And the heart of Zacchaeus had been touched.  He was desperately concerned with the possibility of seeing this Man from Nazareth, and the Bible says he wanted to see who He was.  Who He was.  It doesn't say he wanted to see what He did, or what He said; he wanted to see who He was.  He was interested in getting to the heart of the matter.  It's one thing to know something about what Jesus said; it's another thing to know who He is.
 
    "And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature" (verse 3).  Imagine seeing this man Zacchaeus, who ordinarily would walk with all of his five-foot dignity down the streets of Jericho with as much composure as possible, running for a tree with the street urchins.  Obviously, in seeking Jesus he had forgotten himself.
 
    "When Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.  And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully" (verses 5, 6).
 
    In inviting Himself to Zacchaeus' house, Jesus was simply accepting the invitation that had alrready gone out from the heart of this publican.  He was meeting him where he was; He was making it easy for him to come down out of his tree not only physically but spiritually, and to find the solution to his great problem.