Do Yourself a Favor…Read This Post in Its Entirety

I can totally relate to the prodigal son after he squandered his wealth (Luke 15: 11-32).  I resonate with the feelings he had when he was eating with the pigs, thinking he could back to the father as a slave.  SOmetimes I waited a few days or even weeks before talking to Him because I [...]

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Two Ways of Running from God

God’s intervention comes to two different kinds of people, because as Jonah’s story shows, there are two ways of running from God.  All of us fall into one of the two categories. One way of running is probably more obvious to you than the other.  It’s represented by the pagan sailors, especially as Jonah would [...]

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The Forgiveness of God is Gratuitous Liberation From Guilt

The forgiveness of God is gratuitous liberation from guilt.  Paradoxically, the conviction of personal sinfulness becomes the occassion of encounter with the merciful love of the redeeming God.  ”There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents…” (Luke 15:7).  In his brokenness, the repentant prodigal knew an intimacy with his father that his [...]

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Tearing a Father’s Life Apart

This younger brother, then, is asking his father to tear his life apart.  And the father does so, for the love of his son.  Most of Jesus’ listeners would have never seen a Middle Eastern patriarch respond like this.  The father patiently endures a tremendous loss of honor as well as the pain of rejected [...]

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Demonstration of the Lavish Prodigality of God’s Grace

Act 1, then, demonstrates the lavish prodigality of God’s grace.  Jesus shows the father pouncing on his son in love not only before he has a chance to clean up his life and evidence a change of heart, but even before he can recite repentance speech.  Nothing, not even abject contrition, merits the favor of [...]

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Careful Obedience is a Rebellious Strategy

Do you realize, then, what Jesus is teaching?  Neither son loved the father for himself.  They both were using the father for their own self-centered ends rather than loving, enjoying and serving him for his own sake.  This means that you can rebel against God and be alienated from him either by breaking his rules [...]

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How to Avoid Jesus?

In her novel Wise Blood, Flannery O’Conner says of her character Hazel Motes that “there was a deep, black, wordless conviction in him that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin.”  This is a profound insight.  You can avoid Jesus as Savior by keeping all the moral laws.  If you do that, then you [...]

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We Do Not Have a Pharisee for an Older Brother

While Act 1 of the parable showed us how free the father’s forgiveness is, Act 2 gives us insight into its costliness.  The younger brother’s restoration was free to him, but it came at enormous cost to the elder brother.  The father could not just forgive the younger son, somebody had to pay!  The father [...]

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Forms of Prayer as a Way of Discerning Deepness of Relationship with God

These three kinds of discourse are analogous to forms of prayer that have been called “petition,” “confession,” and “adoration.”  The deeper the love relationship, the more the conversation heads toward the personal, and toward affirmation and praise.  Elder brothers may be disciplined in observing regular times of prayer, but their prayers are almost wholly taken up [...]

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The Anger and Superiority of Elder Brothers

The anger and superiority of elder brothers, all growing out of insecurity, fear, and inner emptiness, can create a huge body of guilt-ridden, fear-ridden, spiritually blind people, which is one of the great sources of social injustice, war, and violence. – Tim Keller, Prodigal God, copyright 2008, page 67

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