With God at Dawn: Christ Came to Seek the Lost, March 12

 God Seeks and Calls Us

For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke 19:10.

The lost coin represents those who are lost in trespasses and sins, but who have no sense of their condition. They are estranged from God, but they know it not. Their souls are in peril, but they are unconscious and unconcerned. In this parable Christ teaches that even those who are indifferent to the claims of God are the objects of His pitying love. They are to be sought for, that they may be brought back to God.... The coin, though lying among dust and rubbish, is a piece of silver still. Its owner seeks it because it is of value. So every soul, however degraded by sin, is in God’s sight accounted precious. As the coin bears the image and superscription of the reigning power, so man at his creation bore the image and superscription of God; and though now marred and dim through the influence of sin, the traces of this inscription remain upon every soul. God desires to recover that soul, and to retrace upon it His own image in righteousness and holiness. The woman in the parable searches diligently for her lost coin.... So in the family, if one member is lost to God, every means should be used for his recovery. On the part of all the others, let there be diligent, careful self-examination. Let the life-practise be investigated. See if there is not some mistake, some error in management, by which that soul is confirmed in impenitence.—Christ's Object Lessons, 193, 194.

Notwithstanding the defects of the people of God, Christ does not turn away from the objects of His care.... God will do justice for His own elect.—Christ's Object Lessons, 169.