As we contemplate the unselfish love of God, our hearts well up with gratitude, praise, and thanksgiving....

In the parable of the shepherd seeking for the lost sheep is a representation of the tender patience, perseverance, and great love of God. As we contemplate the unselfish love of God, our hearts well up with gratitude, praise, and thanksgiving. We praise Him for the priceless gift of His only begotten Son. There is no animal so helpless and bewildered as is the sheep that has strayed away from the fold. If the wanderer is not sought for by the compassionate shepherd, it will never find its way back to the fold. The shepherd must take it in his arms himself, and bear it to the fold....

The Pharisees were ready to accuse and condemn Jesus because He did not, like themselves, repulse and condemn the publicans and sinners.... They thought that the law would justify them, and they would not consider the compassion and mercy that Jesus presented in His lessons as necessary to be brought into their practical life.... Christ never invited the wicked to come to Him to be saved in their sins, but to be saved from their sins....

Christ did not ordain the plan of salvation for any one people or nation. He said: “I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”...
 
Let every desponding, distrustful soul take courage, even though that individual may have done wickedly....You are not to think that perhaps God will pardon your transgressions and permit you to approach into His presence, but you are to remember that it is God who has made the first advance, that He has come forth to seek you while you were still in rebellion against Him....

If the ardor and enthusiasm encouraged as necessary to the success of attaining worldly things is not commendable in seeking the salvation of the lost, which has a twofold object-to bless and to make us a blessing-what is? Through conversion we are personally placed in vital connection with Jesus Christ, who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.—Signs of the Times, January 22, 1894. FH 126


A person may not be able to tell the exact time or place, or trace all the chain of circumstances in the process of conversion; but this does not prove him to be unconverted. Christ said to Nicodemus, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8. Like the wind, which is invisible, yet the effects of which are plainly seen and felt, is the Spirit of God in its work upon the human heart. That regenerating power, which no human eye can see, begets a new life in the soul; it creates a new being in the image of God. While the work of the Spirit is silent and imperceptible, its effects are manifest. If the heart has been renewed by the Spirit of God, the life will bear witness to the fact. While we cannot do anything to change our hearts or to bring ourselves into harmony with God; while we must not trust at all to ourselves or our good works, our lives will reveal whether the grace of God is dwelling within us. A change will be seen in the character, the habits, the pursuits. The contrast will be clear and decided between what they have been and what they are. The character is revealed, not by occasional good deeds and occasional misdeeds, but by the tendency of the habitual words and acts. SC 57



How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? Matthew 18:12 (King James Version)