My wife and IBased on the story of the “Prodigal Son” Luke 15:11-24
Luk 15:11-24 NKJV Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. (12) And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. (13) And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. (14) But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. (15) Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. (16) And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. (17) “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! (18) I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, (19) and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ‘ (20) “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. (21) And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ (22) “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. (23) And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; (24) for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
The father in the story is a man willing to allow his son to leave home and make his own way in the world. He allows the son to have his inheritance, and then lets him go into the world to make his own mistakes and perhaps his own fortune. This was a working man, much like we are today, farmer and rancher providing a living for his family by practicing agriculture. Not only did he take care of his family, but also those who were the hired hands, they too had plenty of food for their families.
We live in a world where too many men will make babies, but then abandon their duties as fathers. I read a story a couple of years back about a guy who had 11 children with 10 different women. He did not marry any of them. He also did not support them and the children, not a very godly man at all. 1st Timothy 5:8 says this about a man who will not take care of his own:
But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1Ti 5:8 NKJV).
It behooves us as Christian men to care for our families, to be men who will not shirk our duty to bring up our children in the faith. Not by forcing them to go to church, but by being an example, bringing them to Church and to Sunday School. Teaching them by our example as men of faith. A godly Father is a man of Faith, both to God and to his family. That faith manifests itself in everything we do, it is an example for our children, that they too may live godly lives. In today’s society, many folks who claim to be Christians, do not attend Church on a regular basis, they do not bring their children to church but they are faithful to bring them to baseball, football and soccer practice and games. Over the years I have noticed that there are many in our churches who itch to have the service end, in the fall and winter months it is because the Cowboys or the Texans are playing at noon and they don’t want to miss any of the action. Of course I enjoy a good football game myself, but most of the real drama comes in the 2nd half of the game.
Then of course there is always baseball, basketball and hockey during the other parts of the year. Is that really God’s will for our lives? It seems to me that a godly man is Able to Discern God’s will in all the situations of our lives. No matter what may be going on around us, if we prayerfully seek God we will be able to see and understand what it is He has for us. I had friends who decided to go on a mission trip to Africa, they worked for 2 weeks to help in building some homes for people, and also were able to help with the building of a church. Two years later they again felt God’s call and returned to that village to complete that Church building program. As they worked the drums began in the village, and worked their sound further and further away, until they could no longer be heard.
Finally that church building was completed, except for the windows, they had not arrived as yet, they had planned an inaugural worship service, and everybody was excited for the first worship in the new church building. As the time for worship to begin approached, the people began arriving for the service. People came from as much as a hundred miles away, they had walked all that distance just to worship in the new building. They brought their entire family with them. The worship service began and they sang songs of praise to God and they sang outside as well as inside, for there were no more seats inside the building. To make a longish story shorter, it was five hours of worship, they read scriptures, they sang songs, they prayed, and of course the preacher preached for almost an hour. No one left, no one worried about the time, they had come to worship God, not to fellowship with each other but to fellowship with the Lord their God.
I wonder what would happen in our churches if we didn’t worry so much about the things of the world, and instead worshiped and fellow shipped with our Lord. It is interesting that people in this country, used to come to worship expecting to be there for a number of hours. I was at a Church in Mason County and they had buildings there that were for the families of the church to sit down and eat their lunches that they had brought with them. Then they would sing and worship in the afternoon and into the evening. Finally leaving after a day of worship and praise.
Another thing about a godly man, he is Thankful both for joys and trials in life. I think that we have forgotten how to be joyful in the Lord, always aware that God is present in all our situations, always understanding that God will see us through. I like the thought that God laughs with us when we laugh, and hurts with us when we hurt, always there always holding us in His love and care. I am reminded about Paul and his thorn in the side, he prayed for it to be taken from him and God said that his weakness revealed God’s strength. That is a wonderful word for us today, when we are weak we can depend upon our God to be our strength.
2Co 12:9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (NKJV)
Another attribute of a godly man is Happiness – or joy in the Lord, no matter the circumstances he finds himself in he is still happy or joyful. I know it drives people to distraction because I am always laughing and joyful even in the midst of trouble. I know that my God is with me, that nothing in the world can possibly harm me. Yes a bad person can kill me or do physical damage to me, but they can’t harm me, my God is with me and will bring me through. This also goes along with Enthusiastic you should be enthusiastic simply because your life has a purpose. The godly man knows that his life is tied up with Christ, that his purpose is to continue the work that Christ had begun. We are his messengers. We have a commission from the Lord Himself:
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Mat 28:19-20 NKJV)
What greater purpose can there be? Fathers are the spiritual leaders of the home, teaching the children all that God has done and is doing. Fathers are also the leaders when it comes to doing the will of God in their own lives, their children see this and will want to be like their fathers. Godly men will evidence that Christ is a part of their lives in that they will try to be helpers for those who are in need. This too is a part of the ministry of the Christian man, Christ reached out to others touching those who were considered untouchable by the society around them. Not only lepers, but also those who were thought to be, dare we say it, SINNERS!
Jesus was invited to eat dinner at the house of a Pharisee. As they were eating a woman came in and crying she knelt at Jesus feet, washed his feet with her tears, and dried them with her hair. Anointing them with fragrant oil. What a gift she had given him. The host however, was upset, he thought to himself that if Jesus knew who this woman was, he would not let her touch him.
And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
So he said, “Teacher, say it.” “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. (Luke 7:37-46 NKJV)
Jesus then forgives her for her sins, for she was weeping because of her sins. If you do not forgive, then God cannot forgive you.
In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Mat 6:9-15 NKJV)
This brings us to another attribute, Righteousness a godly man is a righteous man. A man rock solid in heart and mind, a man with a growing relationship with his Lord, Jesus Christ.
That relationship brings us into rightness with our fellow-man and with God. One of the verses that has touched me is: because it is written, “BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; (1Pe 1:16-17 NKJV). That word from the Lord kind of sets you back on your heel. Be Holy For I Am Holy, I will become holy, when the Lord returns, but for now, I am still working on that.
Jesus Christ lives in each of us, we are all made in the image of God, and we are forgiven, and have forgiven those who have sinned against us. That just makes us a little bit closer to being holy. It is our God who will clothe us in the righteousness we need in order to come before Him in the throne room of heaven. That righteousness, which is imputed to us by Jesus Christ the one who we have believed upon. As people of God we strive to be Holy in the sense that we try to be like our Savior.
May you all have a blessed and holy day today and all the days of your life, be holy brethren, for our God is Holy!
I hear a report during the program that ISIS today has murdered by fire 45 persons. It is time that our President wakes up and does what is needed. Support Egypt, and Jordan and anyone else who wants to fight against this horrible scourge in the middle east. If we don’t stop these people in the middle east they will bring the fight to us here as they already are in Europe. Is that what our President wants?
Not only does he not identify the Islamic Fascists as Islamic but he will not admit that the people killed were not just citizens of Egypt, they were Coptic Christian citizens of Egypt. If our government is so cowardly that they cannot name the enemy or the ones they are killing, why do we think this government even wants to stop this horror from happening. It reminds me of the situation a few years back during the Clinton administration where we saw the horror of genocide between the Tutsis and their neighbors, the Hutu, who decided to kill as many as they could.
Now we see that our government wants to get jobs for those poor people who are poor and that is why they fight. This is total idiocy, I cannot believe that our State Department is so stupid as to think they can deny that this is a Religious War. These people are killing and raping and destroying because that is what the one they call god has instructed them to do. They hate with a complete and absolute hatred anyone who is not like themselves. I pray that this government will awaken from whatever drugs they are on and begin to actually care about the United States of America. If they don’t, we will be a 3rd rate country with no power to do anything, and may be living in absolute anarchy within the next two years.
I have to admit, I am angry. I see what used to be a great country, becoming a laughing stock. The Russians are laughing at us, Putin is acting because he knows Obama will do nothing or will go play another round of golf. ISIS knows we will do nothing about them, and our allies know they cannot trust us, they know we don’t have their back, we are just a bunch of hot air. Thanks to our President and the fools that surround him including Kerry, Biden and the rest of these nut cases.
Filed under: Church Stuff, God | Tags: Christians, Salvation, Wrath of God
John Wesley spoke about those who wanted to “Flee the wrath” to come. Those were the folks he wanted to bring into the Methodist Societies. These were people who knew the words of the Bible, they had heard preaching, they just did not believe it was for them. Of course there was a time when Wesley didn’t believe it either, not until his Aldersgate experience, when he became convinced that Christ had died for his sins did Wesley actually understand what faith was. It was then that he began to put together the idea that all needed to understand that the wrath of God was a terrible thing.
In the reading this morning in Numbers, we hear how the faith of the people of Israel had diminished to such a point that they were complaining about even the fact that God was providing their daily nourishment. Numbers 21:5 tells us: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” (NKJV)
The people of God forgot who they were, they forgot that without God they would indeed have died in the wilderness, but, more importantly, they would still be slaves in Egypt. When the plague of snakes comes upon them and they begin to die in their sin, they cry out, they do not want to suffer the wrath of God, we hear them then: “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. (NKJV) There is an important lesson for us here. It was the people of God, not some strangers outside the camp, it was the people of God who were rebellious, and who sinned against God and Moses. Please note too that although they asked for the snakes to be taken away, God instead gave them a way out, He did not take away the snakes.
God does not remove the obstacles from the path, instead He gives a way for His people to go through those obstacles, He asks that the people look to His method of salvation instead of their own merits, their own methods. Rabbi Harold Kushner tells of a time when he was speaking in a hospital, and an Episcopal priest who was dying of AIDS asked to see him. This priest told the Rabbi how much his books had helped, then observed that he wished he could preach just one more sermon. He would tell people, “I have to tell them that what I believed is true, really is.
God is there no matter what. God is present in the doctors, nurses and caregivers, and in the friends who come to be with me. When the hospital is quiet and the room is dark, God is here then too. It is really true.” (E. Carver McGriff, Lectionary Preaching Workbook, Series VI, Cycle B, 1999-2000).
In today’s gospel reading we find that God did not send Christ to condemn the world but rather to save it. Then it goes on to state the obvious, that Jesus did not need to condemn, we have already condemned ourselves. “John 3:18-20 (NKJV) “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. “
“The State of the Church 2011” one of the Barna Research statistical measures of Christianity in the US has this to say about church folk. Adult Sunday school attendance has diminished by eight percentage points over the past two decades. On any given Sunday, about 15% of adults can be expected to show up in a Sunday school class.
The most carefully watched church-related statistic is adult attendance. Since 1991, attendance has receded by nine percentage points, dropping from 49% in 1991 to 40% in 2011. Church volunteerism has dropped by eight percentage points since 1991. Presently, slightly less than one out of every five adults (19%) donates some of their time in a typical week to serving at a church. The most prolific change in religious behavior among those measured has been the increase in the percentage of adults categorized as unchurched. The Barna Group definition includes all adults who have not attended any religious events at a church, other than special ceremonies such as a wedding or funeral, during the prior six month period. In 1991, just one-quarter of adults (24%) were unchurched. That figure has ballooned by more than 50%, to 37% today.
The Barna summary included eight beliefs that have been tracked since 1991. Among those just three experienced statistically significant change.
The percentage of adults who can be classified as born again Christians, based on their belief that they will experience eternal salvation based on their commitment to Jesus Christ, personal confession of sins, and acceptance of Christ as their savior, has risen by five percentage points. In 1991, the national estimate was 35% of adults met those criteria. Currently, 40% of adults can be classified as born again.
When asked to choose one of several descriptions of God, the proportion who believe that God is “the all-knowing, all-powerful and perfect Creator of the universe who still rules the world today” currently stands at two-thirds of the public (67%). That represents a seven point drop from the 1991 level.
The biggest shift has been in people’s perceptions of the Bible. In 1991, 46% of adults strongly affirmed that “the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches.” That has slumped to just 38% who offer the same affirmation today.
The World Changers: Baby Boomers
No generation has been as widely chronicled as the Boomers, the post-war group born from 1946 through 1964. At every stage of their existence, this generation has redefined America’s ways of life – including its faith and spirituality. Four of their six religious behaviors and two of their eight religious beliefs tracked in this study have undergone statistically significant change since 1991.
The four religious behaviors that shifted included the following.
Church attendance plummeted by 12 percentage points, dipping to 38% in 2011.
Sunday school attendance by Boomers fell by nine points, from 23% in 1991 to just 14% in 2011.
Volunteering at churches was less likely among Boomers in 2011 than was the case twenty years ago, declining from 28% in 1991 to 18% in 2011.
While the Boomers have never been the generation most likely to attend church, during the past 20 years the percentage of unchurched Boomers has risen dramatically, jumping up 18 points! At 41%, they are now the generation most likely to be unchurched, surpassing the 39% level among Busters.
The pair of religious beliefs that have yielded substantial change in the last two decades are declines in those who hold an orthodox view of God (down six points, to 67%); and a reduction in those who are strongly convinced that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches (down seven points, to just 38%).
We have a problem with cheap grace, with the idea that we can just say we are saved and we are, then we don’t need to go to church nor do we need to read the Bible, or study with our brothers and sisters in the faith. In this nation of ours we don’t really want to flee the wrath to come, we want instead to be told that we are OK, so we can continue in our lifestyles.
We Christians just love to hear John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe on Him, would not perish, but would have eternal life.” What we don’t want to hear, is that after God meets us where we are, He loves us too much to leave us there. That is the part of salvation that we don’t really like, we enjoy our sins, I have even been heard to say that “sin is fun.” It is, we like the positive reinforcement from our peers as we chug-a-lug another beer, or as we make that comment about the young woman walking by, or, the young man walking by. I’m sorry ladies but y’all are guilty too of looking at the opposite sex as something to be used, rather than as something or, better yet, someone who has worth in the eyes of God. We, beloved are all guilty, the Apostle Paul says it best, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” None of us is innocent, we have all been born into a sinful world, and we are all born in the image of Adam, not the image of God. There is a piece of us that is missing, it is a God piece that needs the Holy Spirit filling to bring us back to the image of God.
God abhors sin, in all its forms, the sooner we recognize ourselves in the people of Israel, the better off we will be. Matthew 7:21-23 (NKJV) 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
Let us then hear these words and understand that we are called to a higher calling than we want to admit. I have to say also, that I would rather have 10 solid prayerful Christian persons, than 100 who never open the word, never bend the knee, and come to church only when they feel like it. The third reading today is found in Ephesians, and it speaks well to those of us who claim to be saved, just as those folks in Ephesus claimed to be saved in their day. It is by grace that you were saved, that is God’s wonderful grace, that we do not deserve. We are enemies of God, we are not God’s friends, not until we come on bended knee before the throne of grace and acknowledge our sinful state with a broken and contrite heart.
Because we are all sinners, we have the stain of sin on our lives. This stain cannot be removed by doing good in an attempt to make up for the bad we have done. All of the good works in the world won’t erase the stain of our sin. So stubborn is this stain, that there is only one substance in all the universe capable of removing it; The blood of Christ. Human effort cannot add anything to what God has already provided for the removal of our stain. When Christ said: It is Finished, He meant it! God had finished paying the price for the removal of our sin. How audacious we would be to think we could somehow improve upon what God has already finished in Christ.”
Verse 10 says the rest: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Not only does God recreate you and I, but He has for us work to do. If we are truly His, we will hear His call upon us, we are truly created for good works that we might walk in His ways and be His people.
God loves us too much, to leave us in our sins and our trespasses. I read about this incident a few years ago: In 1992, a Los Angeles County parking control officer came upon a brown El Dorado Cadillac illegally parked next to the curb on street-sweeping day.
The officer dutifully wrote out a ticket. Ignoring the man seated at the driver’s wheel, the officer reached inside the open car window and placed the $30 citation on the dashboard. The driver of the car made no excuses. No argument ensued — and with good reason. The driver of the car had been shot in the head ten to twelve hours before but was sitting up, stiff as a board, slumped slightly forward, with blood on his face. He was dead.
The officer, preoccupied with ticket-writing, was unaware of anything out of the ordinary. He got back in his car and drove away. Many people around us are “dead in transgressions and sins.” What should catch our attention most is their need, not their offenses. They don’t need a citation; they need a Savior.
So let us all realize the wrath to come, and it will come, is for those who will not hear and obey the word of God. Whether you are a member of a church, or you don’t believe in church or God, really makes no difference, if the gospel has not changed your life, and the way you interact with your families and your neighbors, then the snakes are coming. The fiery serpents are out there, and unless we are willing to turn our eyes on Jesus Christ as savior, Lord, Brother, Redeemer, we will not escape the wrath. So, I urge you today, if your heart is not right with God, decide to “flee the wrath” decide to turn your eyes and your thoughts on Jesus, the author and perfector of your faith. Flee the wrath, accept the eternal life that is yours, by the death that was His. Let us together, walk into our future home in eternity, in the glory of God and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Filed under: Church Stuff, Politics | Tags: 10th Amendment, 1st Amendment, Atheists, Christians, Nullification, States Rights
In Congress there are a group of men and women who have formed themselves into what is known as the Congressional Prayer Group. A group calling itself the “American Humanist Association”, has sent a letter to incoming freshman congresspersons to not join with the prayer group.
I find myself quite annoyed because this group wants to censor Christians, but wants to be able to use their own first amendment rights to say what they please. I think it is high time that the Courts stop playing footsie with these haters, and begin to actually read the Constitution rather than using some letter that Jefferson sent to a State Baptist Association. The 1st Amendment is very clear, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to a group of Baptists who were afraid that the Federal Gov’t would pass a law outlawing their church. There were two reasons that Jefferson said what he did. One: the First Amendment says that Congress may not pass any law of the sort. Two This was a States Rights issue since we also have another amendment – the 10th which says that if the Constitution does not give the Federal Gov’t the power to regulate, that power belongs to the States or to the people.
Amendment 10 – Powers of the States and People. Ratified 12/15/1791.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Actually many of the States kept their “State” churches well into the 1800’s and that was their right to do so. They did not however stop people from worshipping as they wished, in most cases. So here we are with a States Rights issue that the courts have perverted and made into a Federal issue with a ruling based on a letter written by a man who had nothing to do with writing the Constitution in the first place. The states have the right to nullify Federal actions which are unconstitutional, including this idiocy about religion and whether or not it can be practiced in public or not.
What do you think? Should the states begin using the power of nullification to right the ship of state?
texasjq2 