JACKS DAILY DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS
(James 4:1-3) “Where do wars and fights come from among you?
James asks us; “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the desires that battle within you?
You desire but do not have, so you kill.
You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.
You do not have because you do not ask God.
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
Today I want to discuss with you the number one reason for unanswered prayers in our lives.
What did James mean when he said, “you have not because you ask not, and when you do ask, you don’t receive because you ask amiss, or with the wrong motives”.
The main reason we experience unanswered prayers is because of wrong motives and wrong focus.
The biggest reason we don’t experience answered prayers is because we are usually asking to satisfy our own desires and pleasures.
And that is because we have the wrong focus in life!
We don’t have because we don’t abide in Jesus… and we aren’t focused on the Kingdom of God and His plan for your life.
Don’t get me wrong… It’s okay for us to ask God for things, but we need to remember the motives behind what we are asking for.
Motivation is what pushes us to accomplish various things in life, but sometimes we are motivated by and for the wrong reasons.
And in most cases, we are motivated by pride and selfishness, looking only for our own satisfaction with little regard for the Kingdom of God and the people that He wants us to be an influence to!
When we want something badly, we will do almost anything to satisfy our desire.
But what if what we seek, is not from a healthy place in our hearts?
(Proverbs 16:2) “All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.”
Pride and jealousy are negative motivators that entrap our minds to seek out our own desires, which are often contrary to the will of God.
Unfortunately most of us ask for things out of selfishness and pride!
(1st John 2:15-17) tells us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life… is not of the Father but is of the world”.
Unfortunately all of us are motivated by “the lust of the eyes”!
We want what we see and therefore think that’s what we need… and unfortunately most people have their affections (or their eyes) set upon the things of this world and not on the Kingdom of God.
We are all tempted and enticed into actions that we know deep down aren’t necessary or right.
(Proverbs 29:23) states, “A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.”
(Matthew 7:7) states, “Ask, and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Let me ask you, have you truly been seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness?
(Matthew 6:33) says “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you”!
Jesus taught in (John 15:1-8). “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser… If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
Did you get that?
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you”.
That’s how you get prayers answered… by abiding in the vine!
If you are seeking things in your own strength and your own desires, then you are not abiding in and with Jesus.
The exact definition of "abide" is to remain, continue, and stay.
So, if we are asking God for a thing while not abiding in Him, and we are continually living for ourselves… we should not expect to receive answers to the things we want, because we are asking to satisfy our own selfish desires and pleasures.
We have not because we don’t abide in Jesus… because we decided to take control and go down our own path.
We lust and strive after things of this world because of jealousy and pride.
So, let me encourage you today to revaluate your motivation in life.
Start with Gods help to abide, to be conscious of, to dwell and to reside as much as possible in His presence motivated by love for Him.
Begin studying His word as if it’s the only reliable source of information for your life, and begin applying it to your life?
Let us give our pride, our willfulness, our selfishness, our desires, and our motives over to God… so that He can show us exactly what we need according to His plan for each of us.
In reality, all we need is God and when we surrender our will to Him we do not need anything else for God knows our needs, and He is faithful to give us what we need, especially when we come into agreement with Him.
It’s okay to ask God for things… but remember the motives behind what you are asking for.
Good day!
(2nd Corinthians 5:1) “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body)… we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands”
For several weeks now I have been teaching on my Sunday “Cowboy Church Live Stream” concerning what happens when we die.
I have been doing so because almost every day, or every other day I find I am talking to people about a death that has occurred in their immediate circle of relationships… and so I have felt inspired to help clarify what is going to happen when we die, so that people are not so confused deceived or terrified.
Every time you attend a funeral or memorial service, you are merely viewing the physical remains of the deceased individual.
You are seeing only the body, which is decaying and decomposing.
You are not viewing the person… only the outer “shell.”
Regardless of how we refer to the remains, whether they are slumbering, at rest, at peace, or how “natural” he or she may look, we are looking at that which is going to be changed and glorified, renewed so that the body can endure eternity.
For the Believer in Christ, the “soul or spirit”, that invisible part of the Christian, has departed to be in the presence of the Lord.
What you are seeing before you is the external “suit of clothes” or, as Paul wrote, the “house” which is “torn down” (2nd Corinthians 5:1)
A funeral service provides us a time to give God thanks for the memory of the person… and for the fact that that body will be raised some day in the future.
One of my favourite lines that I often state once the funeral party gathers at the grave site, is related to that future day when the dead will be raised.
There will be a time when the graves will be opened, and the bodies will be removed in a glorified state to be forever with the Lord Jesus.
Plain and simple, the Christian has no reason to fear death since the future is so full of promised hope and happiness as outlined in the teachings of Jesus and then endorsed by the Apostle Paul through out the New Testament.
(2nd Corinthians 5:5-8) is the great and confident hope of the believer in Christ.
“Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Holy Spirit as a pledge.
Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight… we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord”.
Contrary to most peoples thinking we are not moving from the land of the living to the land of the dead… but we are moving from being dead in our trespasses and sins… to being raised alive in and to eternal life in Christ (Ephesians 1:1-2)
As I said, this is the great hope and confidence of the believer in Christ.
For those that choose to reject Gods offer of forgiveness and redemption thru the work of Christ on the cross… well, there is a different destination for you.
If you get the chance maybe try to catch our Cowboy Church Live stream this morning at 10:00 Pacific Standard Time.
I am completing my series on “What happens when we die” and it would be good for you to hear what the word of God has to say concerning those whom reject Christ in this life and die with out the great assurance given to the believer.
God loves you my friend… He is not willing that any should perish and live in an eternity without Him… but the choice is yours.
Give me a call or contact me if you need to know more about having a secure place in Heaven after you die… believe me the alternative is very disconcerting!
Good Day!
(Ecclesiastes 9:9) "Live joyfully with the wife whom you love."
Our new age American culture fosters “discontentment” and all the miseries and heartaches that go along with it.
“Discontentment” is coveting what we do not have.
Longing for it, believing that if we have it, then we will be satisfied.
To be content is to obey the 10th commandment “You shall not covet”, in the power of Christ and the gospel of grace.
Unfortunately discontentment has become a disease attacking the marriages of the 21st century.
Our live fast love hard die young philosophy of living has brought about a an acceptance of indiscretionary relationships… that have left people jaded and discontent with the spouses and the relationships that they have carelessly and haphazardly entered into.
How ever let me say that God is big enough, powerful enough, to intervene in your life and “make all things new” (Revelation 21:5)
There was something that ignited between you and your current spouse that attracted the two of you to begin a relationship.
Remember what that was and take it before God and ask him to re-ignite it for you.
Ask God to help you remember what that “accelerant” was that caused the two of you to come together and begin to walk together.
Use it once again as the starting point to build on, with God leading the way, your hand in His.
God said, “it is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18)
God wants you to enjoy life with your current spouse… not run off and jump into another relationship that has no promise of satisfaction.
I want to challenge you today to “man up” “step up” and be brave enough to “work on and at” the relationship you have entered into already and don’t allow discontentment to interfere with the “potential” that is right before you.
The word potential, generally refers to a currently “unrealized ability”.
Aristotle wrote, “that which is potential, can theoretically be made actual by taking the right action”
Three things can happen with the relationship you are involved in today that has the potential of being the answer to what you are looking for in a relationship.
But you have to take the right action.
And the first thing you need to do is over come “discontentment”.
We only become “discontent” when we start comparing things we are discontented about with things that we don’t have, those things that “seem” to look and be better than what we have.
That’s one of the reasons John writes “love not the world nor the things of the world” (1st John 2:15-17)
The world only “seems” to have something better… it only “seems” to offer alternatives that will make you happy.
That’s why it is so important for men, and especially husbands to stay away from pornography.
Those images will creep into your mind and the enemy of your soul will keep feeding them until discontentment with the wife you have takes control of you and you begin to desire and covet that which pornography says is available and you should enjoy it.
The truth is that it is a lie from the enemy of your soul.
Three things happen in a marriage that cannot happen anywhere else.
And there is a distinct possibility that God wants to use the current relationship/marriage you are in, to teach you three jewels only found in a marriage relationship.
#1) You get to know yourself.
To grow, you must be able to look at yourself realistically, and the best place to do that is in a marriage relationship.
It causes us to see things about ourselves we never seen before.
It forces us to analyze, and examine ourselves and who and what we are.
In a sense it forces us to grow up and mature.
It lets you be open about your mistakes and shortcomings.
It’s a safe place to fail.
It creates a listening environment where we can find understanding and support.
Its true that the people closest to us influence us, develop us and form us.
When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize, she was asked, “What can we do to promote world peace?”
She replied, “Go home and love your family.”
If you want to change your world, start at home.
#(2) You get to know your character.
A Christ-centered home not only helps form your children’s character, it strengthens yours too.
Character is built on the choices you make and habits you cultivate.
And since your family creates your primary environment, it influences those choices and habits.
Strong families encourage us to make good choices, develop the right disciplines, and pay the price today for success tomorrow.
#(3) You have a safe haven.
It seems like the pace of life gets more hectic every day.
Driving on overcrowded roads is stressful.
The workplace is demanding.
The schoolyard is an increasingly hostile environment.
Where can you find shelter?
If not at home, then probably nowhere!
Theodore Roosevelt said, “I’d rather spend time with my family than with any of the world’s notables.”
His home was his safe haven in the midst of life’s storms… and yours can be too.
The question is… what are you doing to make it that way?
Good Day!
(Proverbs 18:22) "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord."
If you’re over sixty, chances are you grew up in an era where you didn’t know too many divorced couples and the subject was taboo.
But in todays society your children are growing up in a world where divorce is common and marriages fail every day.
If you don’t want yours to be one of them, start practicing these next three principles.
1) Learn to show your love.
Psychologist William James said, “The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”
If we don’t feel appreciated at home, there’s a good chance we won’t feel appreciated at all, because generally speaking, the world doesn’t fulfill that desire.
The best thing you can do for your spouse and your children is appreciate them and love them... not based on their performance, but simply because they’re yours.
(2) Pay attention.
Reverend Theodore Hesburgh, President of the University of Notre Dame, said, “The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”
And that works both ways.
A successful marriage is one that can go from crisis to crisis and keep getting stronger.
“Commitment”, not emotion, is what carries you through.
If you only intend to stay married as long as you “feel” like you’re in love, you might as well quit now.
Like anything worthwhile, a good marriage requires constant attention, respect for each other, and “continued cultivation”.
Never forget that in your “courting days”, your partner was attracted to you because you “courted” each other, you pursued each other, you preferred each other, you held/viewed each other with respect and honor.
You each became a “priority” to each other.
Never let go of that, and if you have, then start again with renewed determination and purpose to pay attention to each other!
(3) Protect your time together.
One of the great devices that the “enemy” of our soul, (satan), uses to destroy our lives is that of “busyness”.
Husbands are working two jobs to pay the bills, and in most cases that means that the wife is working a job some where as well.
When they get home one has to deliver the kids to baseball practice, while the other has to be at the church or at some community event as a volunteer.
The family is split running in different directions and when the day is done they all fall into bed exhausted from the day’s efforts and it all starts over again the next morning.
Running here, running there.
Busy, busy, busy with out any quality time together to encourage one another, to delight your selves in one another, to enjoy one another, to work out “issues”.
Before long you’ve both become strangers and your marriage suffers as a result of it.
If you feel like you ought to be at work, or at some event or some other place when you’re with your family or your spouse, then something’s wrong.
Wake up and realize that there is a problem to be addressed, worked out and overcome.
Never ever feel like your family, or time together with them is a problem or an inconvenience.
They are your priority! They are you first focus! They are more important than any thing else in the world.
It’s time to call a “family conference”, and agree on the need to spend time together and how you can “accomplish it together”, despite the demands placed upon all of you.
God gave you your marriage and your family to be a “haven of rest” for all of you.
A place where you can come in from the cold winds of the worlds adversity and busyness, to rest and find encouragement, comfort, love and respect from and for one another.
To fulfill the emotional needs we all have, that can only be filled by those that we love and whom love us.
If you prioritize and protect those times, your marriage will thrive.
And you will find and obtain “favor” with God.
(Proverbs 18:22) "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord."
Good Day!
(Luke 15:2) “But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’.”
As I wrote yesterday, parables are stories with a specific meaning or message wrapped into or woven into the story.
I am continuing with more insights we can learn from the “Parable of The Prodigal Son”.
In yesterdays study we also saw the Fathers “amazing love” patience and willingness to indulge us even though we don’t deserve it.
Having been brought to such a low state, the bible tells us the prodigal son “came to his senses”, recalling how his righteous father treated even his hired servants better than they way he was living in his poverty and hunger… "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger!" (Luke 15:17)
He thus says to himself, I will return to my father and say three things:
(a) "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you" (v. 18),
(b) "I am no longer worthy to be called your son" (v. 19a),
(c) "Treat me as one of your hired servants" (v. 19b).
Even being treated as one of his father's hired servants would be better than the treatment he is receiving in the gentile world.
So what do the actions of the prodigal son teach us?
They teach us how our own “misuse of freedom” can snare us and destroy us.
If we are bent on walking away from Gods offer of mercy, forgiveness and deliverance from the penalty of sin and separation from Him… going our own way, doing our own thing, then know that things will go badly for us.
(Proverbs 16:25) “There is a way that seems right unto a man but it is the way of death”
(1st Peter 5:8) tells us the chances we are taking with that attitude and we will be humiliated and destroyed in the uncaring world. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”.
The farther we get from the Father's loving care, the worse off we will be, and our best course is to return to God and his forgiveness.
So what was the fathers response to his wayward son?
When the prodigal son returns to his father, something significant happens.
The Bible says, while his son “was still a far ways off in the distance”, the father sees him coming, has compassion upon him, runs to him, hugs him, and kisses him.
This tells me that the Father was continually looking for his sons return.
He hadn’t written him off!
Every morning of every day, when the father got out of bed he was expecting his sons return and would stand at the door looking down the road for a glimpse of his son returning home.
This is a beautiful look at what the real love… the “agape love” and forgiveness of God our heavenly Father looks like.
This is far from the “humiliating reunion” that the son might expect based on his previous audacious and insulting treatment of his father!
The returning son must have been astonished but as he walks up to his father he begins to recite his pre-scripted speech to his father, and he manages to get the first two parts of it out.
He says:
(a) "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you" (v. 21a),
(b) "I am no longer worthy to be called your son" (v. 21b).
But before he can say the third part… before he can ask to be treated merely as a servant… the father interrupts things and takes them in a very different direction.
Rather than treating his younger son as a mere servant, he turns to the actual servants and orders a celebration.
So then, what do the actions of the father teach us?
The first lesson is that the father will not treat a son as a hired servant.
The younger son is still a son!
As a result, his return is something to be celebrated!
He is to wear a fancy robe, a fancy ring, new shoes!
There is to be a fancy feast for everyone, there is to be music and dancing!
Why?
Because "This my son was dead, and is alive again"… "He was lost, and now is found."
This shows us God's reaction when we return from being lost in sin.
He doesn't begrudge us what we have done. He doesn't take us back reluctantly.
Like the father in the parable, he welcomes us, takes us back joyously!
But this is not all there is to the story . . .
There is usually at least one major lesson per parable for each major figure in it, and now we come to the lesson that the older brother can teach us.
The older brother has remained in the shadows of this story until now.
Until now he was relatively un-heard of.
He hadn’t demanded his inheritance.
He stayed faithful to his father. He stayed faithful to the task at hand.
He was busy being about his fathers business, working the family farm, being content to follow in his fathers footsteps even staying obedient to the fathers will.
And now he is angry.
Why should his younger, wasteful, sinful brother receive such a reception by their father?
The older brother is so angry that he refuses to go inside and join the party.
Naturally, his father hears about it and comes to talk to him.
When that happens, we discover that he's not just angry with his brother, but the older son is angry with his father, too.
He points out that he has never disobeyed his father's commands but that his father has never given him a kid (a young goat) so that he could slaughter it and have a party with his friends.
In contrast the younger brother has "devoured the fathers estate, living with harlots" wasting a third of the father's estate…
But when he comes back, now "the fatted calf" that is, the best, most tender and delicious animal, specially raised to be so… is killed and made a celebration for the younger sons return home.
The older brother sees this difference in treatment as a manifest injustice toward him and is angry with his father because of it.
As we will see, he even seems to be worrying about his own security in the family since the father is showing such seeming favoritism to the younger son.
So what is the fathers response to his oldest son?
The father tells the older son three things.
First, he tells him: "Son, you are always with me."
This seems to be a reassurance to the elder son that he has not lost his rightful place in the family, his place is secure his inheritance is secure.
Second, he tells him: "and all that is mine is yours."
This is because the division of property had already taken place.
The younger soon took his third, so the two-thirds that remain will go entirely to the older son.
This means that the current celebration does not represent a threat to the older brother or his inheritance.
Instead, it is a celebration of joy occasioned by the return of the son.
Thus the father thirdly tells him… "It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, but he is alive, he was lost, and is found.”
So what are the spiritual lessons here for us?
From this parable we can draw a number of spiritual lessons:
We can be a genuine son of the Father who is spiritually "alive" yet dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1)
Lost in that we “lose” the protection, the covering, the shelter of our Heavenly Father (91:1-16)
We become as sheep defenseless before the wolves! (Matthew 10:16)
We can turn our backs on our heavenly Father and leave him of our own free will. (Ephesians 1:4-5)
The deception of sin is still a reality even thought we have been born again into the family of God (Romans 7:11)
Mortal sin rebellion, selfishness, self willfulness, will inevitably land us in a far worse state than we can begin to imagine! (Proverbs 16:18)
But that is not the end of the story!
We can, at any time, return to the Father and be accepted by Him with great joy.
In fact, he is ready and eager to accept us back and forgive us, no matter what we've done.
Christians who have never fallen should not resent those who come back (Luke 15:10)
They should share in their Father's joy.
Their own place is secure and their heavenly reward is not threatened.
God loves them (you and I) just as much as He loves those who come back through a dramatic conversion.
When they come to their “senses” as did the prodigal son! (Luke 15:17)
These three stories are given to us by Jesus as his own direct message of Gods unfailing love for each of us.
(Luke 4:18-19)
I don’t know where you are within the examples of these three parables, but I do know you can find a reflection of each of us with in them.
Jesus wants you to know that you are his very own sheep, like the lost coin you are very valuable to him and he will welcome you home with no strings attached.
Please, just come home!
Good Day!
(Luke 15:2) “But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them”
Over the last week I’ve been looking at several verses of scripture that revolve around three different parables or stories that Jesus shared with His followers.
Parables are stories with a specific meaning or message wrapped or woven into the story.
These three parables that Jesus told, beginning with “the importance of the lost sheep” (Luke 15:3), “the loss of a valuable coin” (Luke 15:8) and the parable of “the prodigal or lost son” Luke 15:11)
All have to do with the “importance of people” in the eyes of the Saviour… and how important or necessary it is, that we be involve in His quest to welcome save and set at liberty, the lost in our society.
We’ve already looked at the parable of the lost sheep, and the lost coin, today lets look at the story of the “prodigal son”.
The word "prodigal" is not a familiar word in our culture and its meaning may be a but mysterious to us.
Almost the only time we ever hear it, is in the title of this parable.
It's basic meaning is "wasteful".
It indicates the quality of a person who is irresponsible with money…who wastes it by spending with reckless abandon.
Jesus' parables are all based on “real-life situations”… though they often veer off from the expected course of events in surprising ways.
Those surprises teach us valuable lessons.
We’ve already looked at the parable of the lost sheep, and the lost coin, today lets look at the story of the “prodigal son”.
The word "prodigal" is not a familiar word in our culture and its meaning may be a but mysterious to us.
Almost the only time we ever hear it, is in the title of this parable.
It's basic meaning is "wasteful".
It indicates the quality of a person who is irresponsible with money…who wastes it by spending with reckless abandon.
Jesus' parables are all based on “real-life situations”… though they often veer off from the expected course of events in surprising ways.
Those surprises teach us valuable lessons.
Here, Jesus relates the situation of a father who has two sons… one of whom can't wait for his inheritance.
In Jewish society, there were laws regarding how inheritances were typically divided.
The oldest brother got a double share (Deuteronomy 21:17), while the siblings or brothers got only a single share.
When there were two brothers as in this parable/story… the older brother would get 2/3rds of the estate, and the younger brother would get 1/3rd.
In this parable, (Luke 15:12) the younger son demands from his father "the share of property that falls to me"
That means he is asking for the 1/3rd of the father's possessions that he would ordinarily get when the father dies.
Think about that.
He's asking his father to give him 1/3rd of everything that he owns right now… before the father is dead… when his father would still have use for these possessions.
This is a truly astonishing request, and it would have been even more astonishing in the ancient world.
In a society that highly reverenced parents, it would have been equivalent to saying: "Father, I can't wait for you to die. Give me 1/3rd of everything you have right now".
Despite the breathtaking and insulting audacity of the younger son's request… the father concedes and grants it!
I find this absolutely amazing!
There are several underlying spiritual truths we can glean from this parable or story that Jesus is relaying to humanity both then and now…
And that is the fathers willingness to comply and to meet His sons request even though it is unorthodox, selfish, and out of character… the father because of his great love for his son… wants to give what he can to his son.
It is an example or “sneak peak” as it were of “the amazing love” and patience that our Heavenly Father has towards each of us.
He gives,,, even though we don’t deserve it.
(Psalm 103:10) “He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve”
Jesus talked about this in (Luke 11:10-13) when He said "For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?…
So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”…
This reflects the amazing indulgence that God shows toward us.
Even when we are acting as selfishly as the prodigal son, God indulges us.
He yields what is His, and allows us to misuse it out of respect for the freedom that He has given us.
But He (God) knows that the misuse of our freedom, will have no better results than it did with the prodigal son's misuse of his freedom… and God trusts that we will learn our lesson and come back to Him.
After the younger son gets 1/3rd of his father's estate, he takes everything he has and goes "into a far off country, and there he squandered his property in loose living" (Luke 15:13).
In context this means that he abandoned the Holy Land, the Promised Land, the Land of Plenty… to voluntarily take up residence in a gentile “pagan” country… where he could live loosely, carelessly… living life as he saw fit to live out in his own eyes, without being censured by fellow Jews living all around him.
He wanted to do his own thing…
But eventually the bible says he squandered all that he had until there was nothing left… and soon hard times came.
If he had not spent what he had on loose living (partying, drinking, the pleasures of the flesh, sexual gratification)… he would have had the money he needed to weather the hard times, but he didn't.
Thus he was reduced to a state of starvation and had to subject himself to the humiliation of feeding pigs… which to his Jewish heritage was the lowest of lows.
His friends had all forsaken him now that the money had dried up.
So broke was he, nobody would give him anything to eat, he was starving, and in his desperation we find him on his knees willing to eat the pigs' slop.
Having been brought to such a low state, he recalled how his righteous father treated even his hired servants better than this… "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger!" (Luke 15:17)
He thus plans to return to his father and say three things…
(a) "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you" (Luke 15:18)
(b) "I am no longer worthy to be called your son" (Luke 15:19)
(c) "Treat me as one of your hired servants" (Luke 15:19)
Even being treated as one of his father's hired servants would be better than the treatment he is receiving in the gentile world.
Here is the lesson we are to learn from this story!
(John 3:16) says For God so loved the world that He gave…
He gave us His Son so that we could be free from the ravages, the bondage, the mastery, the judgment and the penalty of sin…
He gives the hope of eternal life… He meets our every need… provision, protection and power to be more than conquerors in this life.
Our Heavenly Father loves us in ways we can’t even begin to imagine…
But if we are bent on doing things our own way, doing our own thing, God will not forcibly stop us...
He lets us do our own thing… do that which we think is right in our own eyes… even though He knows it will go badly for us.
The farther we get from the Father's loving care, the worse off we will be, and our best course is to return to God and His forgiveness.
The bible says in (1st Corinthians 2:9) “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man… all the things which God has prepared for those who love Him”.
Tomorrow we will look further… at this amazing story of the Fathers love for you and I.
Good Day!
This reflects the amazing indulgence that God shows toward us.
Even when we are acting as selfishly as the prodigal son, God indulges us.
He yields what is His, and allows us to misuse it out of respect for the freedom that He has given us.
But He (God) knows that the misuse of our freedom, will have no better results than it did with the prodigal son's misuse of his freedom… and God trusts that we will learn our lesson and come back to Him.
After the younger son gets 1/3rd of his father's estate, he takes everything he has and goes "into a far off country, and there he squandered his property in loose living" (Luke 15:13).
In context this means that he abandoned the Holy Land, the Promised Land, the Land of Plenty… to voluntarily take up residence in a gentile “pagan” country… where he could live loosely, carelessly… living life as he saw fit to live out in his own eyes, without being censured by fellow Jews living all around him.
He wanted to do his own thing…
But eventually the bible says he squandered all that he had until there was nothing left… and soon hard times came.
If he had not spent what he had on loose living (partying, drinking, the pleasures of the flesh, sexual gratification)… he would have had the money he needed to weather the hard times, but he didn't.
Thus he was reduced to a state of starvation and had to subject himself to the humiliation of feeding pigs… which to his Jewish heritage was the lowest of lows.
His friends had all forsaken him now that the money had dried up.
So broke was he, nobody would give him anything to eat, he was starving, and in his desperation we find him on his knees willing to eat the pigs' slop.
Having been brought to such a low state, he recalled how his righteous father treated even his hired servants better than this… "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger!" (Luke 15:17)
He thus plans to return to his father and say three things…
(a) "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you" (Luke 15:18)
(b) "I am no longer worthy to be called your son" (Luke 15:19)
(c) "Treat me as one of your hired servants" (Luke 15:19)
Even being treated as one of his father's hired servants would be better than the treatment he is receiving in the gentile world.
Here is the lesson we are to learn from this story!
(John 3:16) says For God so loved the world that He gave…
He gave us His Son so that we could be free from the ravages, the bondage, the mastery, the judgment and the penalty of sin…
He gives the hope of eternal life… He meets our every need… provision, protection and power to be more than conquerors in this life.
Our Heavenly Father loves us in ways we can’t even begin to imagine…
But if we are bent on doing things our own way, doing our own thing, God will not forcibly stop us...
He lets us do our own thing… do that which we think is right in our own eyes… even though He knows it will go badly for us.
The farther we get from the Father's loving care, the worse off we will be, and our best course is to return to God and His forgiveness.
The bible says in (1st Corinthians 2:9) “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man… all the things which God has prepared for those who love Him”.
Tomorrow we will look further… at this amazing story of the Fathers love for you and I.
Good Day!
In (Matthew 18: 10-14), “If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off”
Jesus taught His disciples a simple story to illustrate a spiritual truth.
Jesus taught about a shepherd who had 100 sheep, and one of the flock wondered off by itself.
The sheep was lost… and the word “lost” as used here is the same word that means “perish” in the original Greek writings.
In other words, the sheep was in peril, in great danger, headed for destruction, because it had left the safely of shepherd’s flock.
A shepherd knows all of his sheep and is concerned about the condition of every one of them.
He decides to go after that sheep and save it, because it went astray!
God knows whether people are saved or lost, he knows the condition of every lost soul and devised a plan to do something about it.
He sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for their sins so they wouldn’t have to be punished.
By coming to earth as a human being, Jesus died on a cross to reconcile us to a Holy God, because we were spiritually separated from Him due to our sinful nature inherited from our natural parents whom inherited a sinful nature from their ancestors as well, all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
That lost sheep in this story may have wandered away from the shepherd, but because the shepherd is a “good shepherd” who loves and cares about His sheep, He went looking for it.
Another shepherd might have counted the 99 and decided it wouldn’t be worth his trouble, and the time it would cost him to go after just one dumb sheep.
But Jesus is not like that.
He is the “The Good Shepherd”, who came to this world to give His life because He cares about us the sheep of His pasture. (Psalm 103) (Psalm 95:7) Ezekiel 34:31))
The shepherd in this story didn’t stop until His mission had been completed and the sheep had been found!
The final words that Jesus cried out from the cross when He was crucified was “It is finished”!
The price or the penalty for sin was paid… judgment for sin was carried out and fully accomplished.
Sin was defeated… never more to have the strength to imprison mankind in its grip and mastery any longer.
The Good Shepherd perfectly fulfilled His mission, and all those who believe in what He did for them by shedding His sinless blood are saved, and guaranteed a home in Heaven.
The sheep that was lost was now found, saved because of what “The Good Shepherd” did for it.
The word “saved” means “to rescue from all harm.”
That’s what Jesus, “The Good Shepherd”, did for all of us delivering us from the penalty and power of sin.
By believing that fact, God declares us righteous… meaning just as if we had never sinned at all… which gives us the legal right to make us fit to enter a holy heaven.
That one lone sheep in this story may have been dumb enough to have wandered away from the flock, but getting it home was the responsibility of “The Good Shepherd” who owned it.
When “The Good Shepherd” found that sheep, he saved it and brought it home where it belongs.
Jesus said in (John 10:28), “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish… no one will snatch them out of my hand”.
True believers in Christ are described by Jesus as sheep… the Lord’s sheep are saved by God’s gift of undeserved grace.
(Ephesians 2:8) says “For by grace are ye saves through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God”
That faith, that trust… is what “secures” eternal salvation for "the lost soul" the lost sheep.
(Psalm 79:13) "But we your people, the sheep of your pasture",
(1st Peter 2:25) "For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd".
Jesus said He came into this world to “seek and to save that which is lost.”
The Bible makes it clear that “the angels in heaven rejoice” over every lost soul/sinner who comes to faith belief and trust in Jesus. (Luke 15:10)
That faith, that trust, is what “secures” eternal salvation for their lost soul.
Because of that new spiritual rebirth, our relationship with Christ restores fellowship between a Holy God and lost sinners.
So my question to you today is, “have you believed”, in the finished work of Christ on your behalf”?
Are you in a relationship with the Good Shepherd?
Or are you still lost?
I did not ask you if you go to church?
I did not ask you if you are a good person?
I asked you, “are you in a relationship with Jesus Christ”?
If so, then you are saved!
But only if you come to the one who can help you, and who died for you to take away your sins.
(Romans 10:13) “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”!
His name is Jesus Christ.
Good Day!