John 15:15 I have called you friends...
Proverbs 18:24 There is friend who sticks closer than a brother.
G. Campbell Morgan "My Friend"
My Friend is faithful. He is true. He is tender. He is strong. He is faithful to me, never deserting, never tiring of me. It was Shakespeare who sang, "Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds." (Sonnet 116)
John Newton
“Christ a Redeemer and Friend Of Sinners”, Matthew 11:19, Luke 15:2
Poor, weak, and worthless though I am,
I have a rich almighty friend;
Jesus, the Saviour, is His name,
He freely loves, and without end.
He ransom'd me from hell with blood,
And, by His power, my foes controll'd;
He found me wand'ring far from God,
And brought me to His chosen fold.
"Christ a Friend", Romans 5:7
One there is, above all others,
Well deserves the name of Friend;
His is love beyond a brother’s –
Costly, free, and knows no end;
They who once his kindness prove,
Find it everlasting love.
Which of all our friends, to save us,
Could or would have shed his blood;
But our Jesus died to have us
Reconciled in him to God.
This was boundless love indeed!
Jesus is a Friend in need!
Julian of Norwich Revelations of Divine Love
This blessed friend is Jesus; it is his will and plan that we hang on to him, and hold tight always, in whatever circumstances; for whether we are filthy or clean is all the same to his love.
First (1560) Scots Confession
God is friendly minded towards sinners.
William Gurnall The Christian In Complete Armour
Christ died to make us, (who were) enemies to God, friends with him, and he lives now to bring God and us, being thus made friends, to meet in one heaven together.
Alexander Maclaren
His hope for outcasts is boundless, because He knows that every sin can be cleansed by His precious blood. Therefore, Christianity should know nothing of desperate cases. There should be no incurables in our estimate of the world, but our hope should be as boundless as the Master’s, who drew to Himself the publicans and sinners, and made them saints.
David Clarkson
Our Lord took our frail nature upon him and was exposed to want, poverty, hunger, cold, weariness, pain, death, grief, anguish, trouble, and fear. He knows all of our infirmities (and) is touched in his soul by our sufferings. He desires to help and comfort us out of his wonderful love. He feels as we feel at the sufferings of a very dear friend.
Francois Fenelon
Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one's heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them: show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and others.
J.C. Ryle
Practical Religion, 1878, “The Best Friend“
https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/ryle/Practical%20Religion%20-Ryle.pdf
(Christ’s) love shines forth in His "reception of sinners." (Luke 15:2) He refuses none that come to Him for salvation, however unworthy they may be. (Matthew 11:28) Though their lives may have been most wicked, though their sins may be more in number than the stars of heaven, the Lord Jesus is ready to receive them, and give them pardon and peace. (Romans 5:8) There is no end to His compassion: there are no limits to His mercy. He is not ashamed to be a friend and to help those whom the world casts off as hopeless. There are none too bad, too filthy, and too much diseased with sin, to be admitted into His home. He is willing to be the friend of any sinner. (Matthew 11:19) He has kindness and mercy and healing medicine for all. Know that "Christ is willing to become your friend.” (1 Corinthians 1:9)
The Upper Room, Being a Few Truths for the Times, Chapter XI John 6:68 “To Whom?”
https://www.ccel.org/ccel/ryle/upper_room.xiii.html
Nothing but an almighty personal Friend will ever meet the legitimate wants of man's soul. Metaphysical notions, philosophical theories, abstract ideas, vague speculations about “the inner light” may satisfy a select few for a time. But the vast majority of mankind, if they have any religion at all, will never be content with a religion which does not supply them with a Person to whom they may look and trust.
Rev. Lincoln A. Ferris in God's Minute: A Book of 365 Daily Prayers Sixty Seconds Long for Home Worship
May Jesus be guest and chiefest friend at our fireside, the listener to every conversation, counsellor in every day of doubt, light in every hour of darkness, refuge in any time of storm, solace in the night of grief.
Rev. James Smith in Daily Readings
He who was our God, became our brother. He who created us, became like us. And he did so that he might show his love to us, sympathize with us, and deliver us. As our brother, he became responsible for our debts, and he paid them. He engaged to restore us to our Father’s image and to set us before his face forever, and he will do so. In all our seasons of adversity in this world, he shows a brother’s love. He visits us. He counsels us. He comforts us. He supplies us. He stands by us when all else forsake us. He makes up all our losses, sanctifies all our crosses, bears all our burdens, and carries all our cares. He has always a brother’s heart. He performs a brother’s part. He is our nearest of kin, and he performs the part of a kinsman well.
F.B. Meyer "Christ Our Friend"
John 15:15 I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known unto you.
A friend will reveal himself. All the world may suppose that it knows a famous man, but after all, if he calls me his friend, I expect to get closer to him and hear from his own lips items of confidential information. Thus it is with the Lord Jesus. He manifests Himself to those who love Him, and keep His word, as He does not to the world.
A friend will interest his friends in his undertakings. It is a joy to Christ when those whom He loves are able to take a share in His world-wide redemptive schemes. For us, of course, it is a high honour, but it is as great a pleasure and delight to Him as it is for some loving soul to have the pleasure of working with that other twin-soul, to which it is attached. It is wonderful that Jesus is glad to have us as His fellow-workers.
A friend will be interested in our failures and successes. Not otherwise is it with our Lord. When He sees some peril menacing us, does He not make the trial-hour one of special intercession? If we fail, He meets us with the same tender affection, not alienated from us, but only intensely sorry, ready to point out the cause of our failure and to encourage us to try again. If we stand our ground, He meets us as we come forth from the fight, glad for us, eager to refresh us in our weariness, careful to heal any wound that we may have received.
Such is the Friendship of Jesus. He is always the same, His love never wanes, its manifestations are never remiss. Is it not worth while to make every effort so to keep His commandments that our entire abandonment to Him may induce His entire abandonment to us?
Heavenly Father, we pray that Jesus Christ may become dearer to us. May we love Him as a personal Friend, and hide ourselves in the hourly consciousness of His presence. May we have no taste or desire for things which He would disapprove. Let His love constrain us not to live unto ourselves, but to His glory. AMEN.
The Lord Jesus stripped Himself of everything save Love, that He might more readily meet each human soul on its own level. Being in the form of God, and equal with God, He emptied Himself, humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, for our sakes. He descended so low as to put the Everlasting Arms beneath the most hapless and hopeless. He desired to get so low, that none could get lower. He was set on proclaiming His Gospel so that even the dying thief might enter Paradise, and that not one prodigal in all the human family should think that he had sunk too low or gone so far as to be excluded from the hope of salvation. "He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him." Hebrews 7:25
A.W. Tozer Knowledge of The Holy
The whole outlook of mankind might be changed if we could all believe that we dwell under a friendly sky and that the God of heaven, though exalted in power and majesty is eager to be friends with us. To the frightened He is friendly; to the poor in spirit He is forgiving; to the ignorant, considerate; to the weak, gentle; to the stranger, hospitable.
Casting Crowns "Jesus, Friend of Sinners"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipwEtvWL_3c
“Long Did I Toil” John Quarles & Henry Lyte
Long did I toil, and knew no earthly rest;
Far did I rove, and found no certain home;
At last I sought them in His sheltering breast,
Who opens His arms, and bids the weary come.
With Him I found a home, a rest divine;
And I since then am His, and He is mine.
Yes, He is mine! and naught of earthly things,
Not all the charms of pleasure, wealth or power,
The fame of heroes, or the pomp of kings,
Could tempt me to forgo His love an hour.
Go, worthless world, I Cry, with all that’s thine!
Go! I my Savior’s arm, and He is mine.
The good I have is from His stores supplied,
The ill is only what He deems the best.
He for my Friend, I’m rich with naught beside;
And poor without Him, though of all possessed.
Changes may come—I take, or I resign,
Content, while I am His, while He is mine.
Whate’er may change, in Him no change is seen,
A glorious Sun that wanes not nor declines;
Above the clouds and storms He walks serene,
And on His people’s inward darkness shines:
All may depart—I fret not, nor repine,
While I my Savior’s am, while He is mine.
He stays me falling; lifts me up hen down;
Reclaims me wandering; guards from every foe;
Plants on my worthless brow the victor’s crown,
Which in return before His feet I throw,
Grieved that I cannot better grace His shrine,
Who deigns to own me His, as He is mine.
While here, alas! I know but half His love,
But half discern Him, and but half adore;
But when I meet Him in the realms above,
I hope to love Him better, praise Him more,
And feel, and tell, amid the choir divine,
How fully I am His, and He is mine.