Unlimited: Come Just As You Are
Jul 15, 2020 1842
Invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame…Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come (Luke 14:21–23, NLT).
Do not wait to make yourself any better. Do not try in your own strength to get back some of the ground you have lost. Christ came to save sinners, and if you will come just as you are, you may be sure of a loving welcome.
There is a story of a great monarch who was accustomed on certain set occasions to entertain all the beggars of the city. Around him were placed his courtiers, all in their rich clothes; the beggars sat at the same table in their rags of poverty…
One of the courtiers had dirty marks on his silk clothes, and could not wear them… “Well, well,” said he, “so long as I may see the king’s face and sit at the royal table, I can go in with the beggars.” So he put on the rags of a beggar and was welcomed to the king’s table.
My friend, it is the same with you. You have spoiled the silk robes of your purity, you can only come to God as a poor sinner. But as such he will welcome you and you will sit at his table, though not in rags, for he will clothe you anew in his own righteousness. Only yield your heart to the Gospel message and you will be welcomed in.
– Louis Albert Banks (adapted)
Eli’s Reflection: Consider your life, with its successes and failures, joy and sadness, spiritual highs and sinful lows. What events in your life would you put under each of these headings? Now fall on your knees and surrender all of yourself to God. Thank him because he accepts the totality of you, just as you are.
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