Hey guys...I don't have a devo today..but I do have a prayer request. If you could lift up a friend, Leah, who I once discipled.. She recently told me she wasn't "feeling" Christianity anymore... She wanted to walk her own path.. Please lift her up!

The Invincible Word of God

"Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My Words will not pass away" Matthew 24:35

I think one of the major stumbling blocks to today's Christians is that they do not have a true, abiding, appreciation and love of the Word of God. As such, we have a deficient knowledge of that pure Word. And without a knowledge of that word, a pure walk is impossible. It is absolutely impossible to walk the Christian life without a thorough affection and understanding for God's Word.

It is with that in mind that I'd like to do a little segment on some of the qualities of the Word. It is my prayer and my hope that somebody who needs to read this will indeed read it, and perhaps glean something from the ramblings of a beggar.

The first, and one of the coolest things, about the Word is that it's invincible. God has promised over and over in it that His word will last FOREVER. It's gonna stick around for a while! The Bible you hold in your hands and read is the same Bible that has been around for literally thousands of years! How amazing is that?!

And not only this, but the Bible has been the target of thousands of attacks from those who would bury Christianity. Century after century, God's enemies line up their guns and fire upon His word. Century after century, God's word emerges victorious, and its enemies lie in the dust. I believe it was Voltaire who said that within one hundred years of his death, Christianity would be dead (and the Bible along with it, is the logical assumption.) What I find incredibly humorous is that within a hundred years of Voltaire's death, a Christian organization had bought his house and was printing Bibles within it!

The fact of the matter is, thousands of people have claimed over the years to have buried the Bible and the faith it proclaims, and yet the invincible Word of the Lord rises up to bury its pallbearers.

"You Preach the Gospel, Boy."

I thought I'd post a story I heard in chapel a few days ago. This is (obviously) a true story, and it is a great one. Enjoy!

Recently a student who graduated not too long ago came back to speak in chapel for us. He was, I believe, a missions major who had a heart for South America. After he graduated, he spent some time in South America and now is set to pastor a church, so please pray for him.

Anyway, he told this story about his uncle who was something of a multimillionare. This uncle of his had gone to church most of the student's life, but it was doubtful as to whether or not he was a believer. He had been in the military, and had led a very successful life in the eyes of the world. However, not too long ago he was diagnosed with cancer and became very ill. Just before he died, this fellow student came to his hospital room, and was greeted by his uncle smiling and saying "I just knew you would come. I knew you would come. I have something to tell you."

You see, the very night before, while his wife was out getting some coffee, a nurse walked in to find this man on his face on the floor, crying and sobbing and just pouring his heart out. When the nurse rushed to get him, he begged her to get away from him. He was inconsolable until his wife walked in, when he cried out to her, saying "Praise His name! Praise His name! He is worthy! He is worthy! Praise His name! Sing! Do something! He is holy!" and he just kept saying that over and over. While they had gone to church for quite a while, they didn't know many songs, but they knew Amazing Grace. And so that was what they sang.

When the student arrived, the uncle pulled him close, and said "I have something to tell you. I know I'm dying. I want to say that I have everything I ever thought I wanted. I have a house up in North Carolina, I have a house here by the beach, I have one down in Miami...Houses, cars, etc... But I want to tell you I've wasted my entire life! You preach that gospel, boy! You preach that gospel! There are so many out there who need to know that He is worthy! There are so many who are wasting their lives, not knowing that He is holy! Preach the gospel!"

What a powerful testimony, and what great encouragement! I urge you, brethren to do the same! Preach the gospel, no matter what area of life you are in! If you are a janitor, then preach the gospel! If you are a minister, then preach the gospel! If you work in a fast food place or a deli, then preach the gospel!

A New Manasseh

"He made his son pass through the fire, practices witchcraft and used divination. and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD provoking Him to anger." 2 Kings 21:6

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? This king was the most evil in the entire history of Israel. He did rather unspeakable things in his day, and was wholly committed to doing evil. It's funny, but he preceeded the greatest king in Israel's history. As the verse says, he was committed to witchcraft, spiritism, and infant sacrifice.

It does seem to sound like something rather familiar, doesn't it? As I watch the news and hear the political debates going on in our nation in current times, I cannot help but draw a parallel between Manasseh and today. More and more, people are turning to New Age spirituality, spiritism, and Witchcraft (under the modern name, Wicca). This is a dangerous step to take, brethren. When a nation sells itself to do evil in the sight of God, the timer begins ticking! Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those doomsayers who stand on street corners and prophecy the end. What I am, however, is a guy who looks at the history of Israel and our own history, and sees a connection.

We have even, in today's society, crossed the line and done that which a serious abomination in the Lord's eyes; that of human sacrifice. Don't believe me? What do you think abortion is all about. No, I don't mean that everyone who has an abortion is sacrificing the baby to Baal or Chemosh. The gods of America are far more subtle than that. Our god is convenience, our religion expedience, our sacrifice is the generation to come.

Truth About Love

"Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth" 1 Corinthians 13:4-6

Ahh, Valentine's Day. The day when the sales of roses and chocolate go up exponentially, and this verse is quoted off the cuff. What a wonderful holiday. And, in reality, it is a great holiday when taken in context.

I think the reason it is so commercialized, much like any other holiday, is that most people do not understand the truth about love. I took a small sampling of people and quizzed them about a few questions about their experiences with love, their ideas of love, and the core of love.

The answers I got back surprised me, to say the least! For one thing, I found out that some young people today have had as many as 20 relationships before turning 18! It shows me the nerve that runs through this issue of love. People are turning younger and younger to try and find completion in the arms and companionship of someone else.

I also found via this little survey that people have all sorts of ideas as to what love is like. I've heard it described like glass; beautiful but fragile. Love is like Christmas morning, another person said. Love is an empire to some, and to a couple of people, love is pain. Some of these responses were very poetic and artistic, but some betrayed the very idea I'd like to point out.

It seems to me that too much of the world and its sensationalism has gotten into the true idea of love. Love, to most people, is a ride of emotions, some high, some low, but altogether, it's that warm, squishy feeling you get inside. What is not understood is that there are four "types" of love, and that these four are, at their core, the same thing.

All loves share the above qualities listed in the passage. All of them are rooted first in God, and have their cause in God. All of them are willfull choices we make, which are then accompanied by emotion. I think this is the big idea that trips people up. Most people in the world believe truly that love is fueled by emotions, but in actuality, if one is to take an automotive analogy, emotions are the vehicle in which love drives. Love is actually the fuel that drives the emotions, and not the other way around!

We see this in these attributes. Patient, kind, humble, forgiving. All of these qualities are qualities that you choose to be! They require will and effort and drive, and none of those things come from emotionalism. Now, I'm not saying that emotions play no part, by no means! Emotions are very important, but they are not at the essence of what love is.

Think about it. All loves are really at their core, the same. The love of God is the same as the love of family which is the same as romantic love which is the same of brotherly love. They all share the same characteristics, they all have the same root causes, and they all have the same goal: to glorify God.

In light of this fact, most analogies crumble to dust. If love is beautiful and fragile like glass, it is also shallow and one dimensional. Can we say the same of God's love for us? No! If love is an empire, then it doesn't last forever and is subject to corruption. Can we say the same of God's love for us? No! You see, we have to hold these analogies up to the light of the only pure example, and that is God and His love. If they do not hold up, then they are false.

Another amazing fact about God and love is this, and I'll close with this thought. The Bible calls God our Father. Jesus calls us His friends. Jesus is called our Bridegroom. And the Sovereign Lord says Himself that He loves us with rejoicing and singing. It is only God, and in God, that we find all four loves coalescing in One, Eternal Person.

The Power of I AM!

"So when He said to them, 'I am,' they drew back and fell to the ground." John 18:6

I love this verse! What we see in here is that the soldiers have come to arrest Jesus, with Judas in the lead. What's fascinating is that Judas is leading a Roman cohort. When one looks up this verse, one finds that this word could denote as much as 600 soldiers! Can you imagine? How much of a threat the world finds Jesus! And how pitiful their attempts are!

This is just too amazing when you look at the verse. When Jesus says "I AM," the soldiers drop to the ground. Here are some definitions of the Greek word for fall:

• to be prostrated, fall prostrate
• of those overcome by terror or astonishment or grief
• to prostrate one's self
• used of suppliants and persons rendering homage or worship to one.

Wow! When Jesus reveals who He is by simple words, 600 soldiers drop to their faces either in terror or in worship! What majesty our God has! Some have said, to explain it away, that one soldier tripped over a rock, and hit another, who hit another, in domino fashion! Apparently, the world still finds Jesus as much a threat as it did then, to make such a ludicrous claim. These soldiers were not idiots, they were trained, military men.

I pray that you would consider this verse, and consider the great power and majesty of our Jesus. Let it draw you into adoration today!

Enslaved to Freedom

"Professing to be wise, they became fools." Romans 1:22

I was in Wal-Mart the other day, perusing the music section. One activity I would suggest to anyone for a lesson in both psychology and sociology is to walk around Wal-Mart and just watch people. My youth pastor once said that Wal-Mart is a microcosm for all that is wrong with society, and sometimes I tend to agree with his estimate.

Anyway, as I was walking around the music section, I spotted what I believe was called "The Emancipation of Mariah Carey." Now what I found so amusing about the title of the CD was that on the cover of this CD Mariah was very scantily clad, in something of an erotic pose. She is acclaiming her freedom while enslaving herself to scoiety's image of desirable! What a contradiction!

It got me thinking, however, and it seems to be that this is much like our society. America today lives out Romans 1:22. We proclaim our intelligence and education, we celebrate our freedom from absolutes, and altogether have become slaves to sin and darkness. We have, in the words of Malcolm Muggeridge, "educated ourselves into imbecility."

It is not enough for the Christian today to merely see this and point it out. What must we, as believers, do to stymie the flow of relativism and secularization that we see overwhelming this land? We must first recognize that this is not a surprise to our Creator, nor is it out of His hands. Our Sovereign is in control of all things, even societal trends.

Secondly, it is imperative for us to cry out to God, that He would bring His revival. God alone grants repentance, and God alone renews the heart.

Lastly, we must preach the value and meaning of Christ. I have become convinced that is no longer enough to preach to people that God loves them. They already believe that some god or another loves them. What they need to hear is that the Biblical God of the universe has ultimate value! They need to hear that He alone brings meaning! If all we have as a view of God is love, we have missed out on meaning, because love alone brings no meaning. Ravi Zacharias has said that, in the stages of our lives, we use four things to define meaning: Wonder from our childhood, truth in adolescence, love in middle years, and security in latter years. It is God alone who takes all those things, fulfills them and charges them with value, and brings something worthwhile to this life: Himself!

The Hound of Heaven

I'd like to post up here a beautiful poem that you might get quite a bit out of. It is by Francis Thompson. Enjoy!

I fled Him down the nights and down the days
I fled Him down the arches of the years
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind, and in the midst of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot precipitated
Adown tiatanic glooms of chasmed hears
From those strong feet that followed, followed after
But with unhurrying chase
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat, and a Voice beat,
More instant than the feet:
"All things betray thee who betrayest me."
I pleaded, outlaw-wise,
By many a hearted casement, curtained red,
Trellised with inter-twining charities,
(For though I knew His love who followed,
Yes was I sore adread,
Lest having Him, I should have nought beside);
But if one little casement parted wide,
The gust of His approach would clash it to
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.
Across the margent of the world I fled,
And troubled the gold gateways of the stars,
Smiting for shelter on their clanged bards,
Fretted to dulcet jars
And silvern chatter the pale ports o' the moon.
I said to Dawn: be sudden, to Eve: be soon,
With they young skyey blossoms heap me over
From this tremendous Lover!
Float they vague veil about me lest He see!
I tempted all His servitors but to find
My own betrayal in their constancy,
In faith to Him their fickleness to me,
Their traitorous trueness and their loyal deceit,
To all swift things for swiftness did I sue,
Clung to the whistling mane of every wind,
But whether they swept, smoothly fleet,
The long savannahs of the blue,
Or whether, Thunder-driven,
They clanged His chariot thwart a heaven,
Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o' their feet --
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue
Still with unhurrying chase
And unpertubed pace
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
Came on the following feet,
And a Voice above their beat --
"Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me."
I shought no more that after which I strayed
In the face of man or maid.
But still within the little children's eyes
Seems something, something that replies,
They at least are for me, surely for me!
I turned me to them very wistfully;
But just as their young eyes grew sudden fair
With dawning answers there,
Their angel plucked them from me by the hair.
"Come then, ye other children, Nature's -- share
With me" (said I) "your delicate fellowship;
Let me greet you lip to lip
Let me twine with your caresses,
Wantoning,
With our Lady Mother's vagrant tresses,
Banqueting
With her in her wind-walled palace,
Underneath her azured dais,
Quaffing, as your taintless way is,
From a chalice,
Lucent weeping out of the dayspring."
So it was done.
I in their delicate fellowship was one.
Drew the bolt of Nature's secrecies,
I knew all the swift importings on the wilful face of skies,
I knew how the clouds arise,
Spumed of the wild sea-snortings.
All that's born or dies,
Rose and drooped with, made them shapers
Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine.
With them joyed and was bereaven.
I was heavy with the even,
When she lit her glimmering tapers
Round the day's dead sanctities
I laughed in the morning's eyes.
I triumphed and I saddened with all weather,
Heaven and I wept together,
And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine;
Against the red throb of its sunset-heart,
I laid my own to beat
And share commingling heat;
But not by that, by that was eased my human smart.
In vain my tears were wet on Heaven's grey cheek.
For ah! We know what each other says,
These things and I; in sound I speak,
Their sound is but their stir, they speak by silences.
Nature, poor step-dame, cannot slake my drouth.
Let her, if she would owe me,
Drop yon blue blosom-veil of sky, and show me
The breasts o' her tenderness;
Never did any milk of hers once bless
My thirsting mouth
Nigh and nigh draws the chase,
With unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
And past those noised Feet,
A Voice comes yet more fleet:
"Lo, naught contents thee who content'st nought Me."
Naked, I wait they Love's uplifted stroke!
My harness, piece by piece, Thou hast hewn from me
And smitten me to my knee;
I am defenceless, utterly.
I slept, methinks, and awoke.
And slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep.
In the rash lustihead of my young powers,
I shook the pillaring hours,
And pulled my life upon me, grimed with smears
I stand admist the dust o' the mounded years--
My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap
My days have crackled and gone up in smoke,
Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream.
Yeah, faileth now even dream
The dreamer and the lute, the lutanist;
Even the linked fantasies in whose blossomy twist,
I swung the Earth, a trinket at my wrist,
Are yielding: cords of all too weak account
For earth, with heavy grief so overplussed
Ah! Is they love indeed
A weed, albeit an amaranthine ween,
Suffering no flowers except its own to mount?
Ah! Must --
Designer Infinite--
Ah! Must Thou char the wood 'ere Thou casnt limn with it?
My freshness spent its wavering shower i' the dust.
And now my heart is as a broken fount,
Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever
From the dank thoughts that shiver
Upon the sightful brances of my mind
Such is, what is to be?
The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind?
I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds,
Yet ever and anon, a trumpet sounds
From the hid battlements of Eternity.
Those shaken mists a space unsettle,
Then round the half-glimpseed turrets, slowly wash again.
But not 'ere him who summoneth
I first have seen, enwound.
With glooming robes purpureal; cypress crowned.
His name I know, and what His trumpet saith.
Whether man's heart or life it be which yields
Thee harvest, must They harvest fields
Be dunged with rotten death?
Now of that long persuit,
Comes at hand the bruit;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
"And is they Earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me.
Strange, piteous, futile thing;
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught" (He said),
"And human love needs human meriting;
How has thou merited --
Of all Man's clotted clay, the dingiest clot?
Alack! Thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee, I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms,
All which thy childs mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home --
Rise, clasp My hand, and come."
Halts by me that footfall --
Is my gloom, after all
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He whom thou seekest!"
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me."

Sovereign Over Suffering

"Then the LORD struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David, so that he was very sick." 2 Samuel 12:15

Something of great import has been going on for the past hundred or so years in the church. I say it is of great import not because it is a positive or good thing. I say it because it has so shaped the spiritual landscape of the church as to become perhaps the dominant view today. It is a highly dangerous, and highly irrational idea that most now accept it without thinking twice.

It is the unbiblical idea that God never does anything that we would call "unfair." God, they would say, loves us and so never would make us sick or cause a hurricane to hit our city or cause a terrorist attack to end lives. In short, God would never take or "negatively" affect the lives of "innocent" people. This idea is where we get the idea of infant salvation, it is where we get the idea of "free will" theology, and it is where we get the ideas of universalism, open theology, and health and wealth doctrine.

Brothers and sisters, I wish to say to you that this idea is abhorrent to Scriptures! Search the Scriptures and you will find over and over that God is the one who does as He pleases with His creation, and it is not within our rights to object or question God! This verse, to those who propose the "feel good" God, would be doubly offensive. First, God is causing an illness to befall someone, which God, in their theology, simply does not do. Secondly, and this is perhaps more offensive, God is causing the death of an innocent baby!

What I want to point out today, and I plead with you that you believe this, is that God is absolutely FREE to do with ANYONE as He chooses. To the first offense, that of God causing illness, I say that God does refer to Himself in Scripture as the one who creates light and darkness, who raises up and destroys, who causes good to fall and causes devastation and catastrophe to fall. He does say in Deuteronomy that He will delight in doing us good, but that if we stray from Him, He will delight in bringing us to ruin.

And please do not take this to mean that He only does this when we sin. New Orleans may not have been wiped out because it was a sinful city! If that were the reason, then He should have destroyed Tampa and New York and San Francisco and Brooksville and yes, even Hollis! (heheh) The point is this: God does things not for the reasons we expect, but for His own, totally free reasons. He is sovereign, let's let Him be sovereign without trying to make excuses for Him.

Secondly, as to the point about babies being innocent, that is just plain old hogwash. I love children, and every time I see a toddler I have to confess I get very soft-hearted...but I am under no illusions that babies or toddlers or infants are in any way, shape, or form innocent. David says in his psalm that even in the WOMB he was sinful! Folks, the startling reality of it is that all people, from womb to tomb are desperately depraved. God owes nobody anything.

And so I urge you to not fall into the trap of thinking that God only wants to bless you and that it is Satan that makes you ill and takes your money and sends the bad ol' storms. As John Piper said in one of his sermons, "Satan is the lackey of ALMIGHTY God!" Satan has only the power that God allows Him and ordains for Him. God bless.

Wicked Hearts, Wicked Minds, Wicked Culture

"...as it is written, 'There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God.'" Romans 3:10+11

This is something that weighed heavily on my heart last night. I think it would be quite accurate to say that the average Christian has a very poor and very limited understanding of the wickedness of every person's heart. This results in a poor understanding and a lack of appreciation of God's awesome grace. We do not realize the power and beauty of His grace because we justify ourselves in our own minds. We think that because we are not Hitlers or Stalins, we are not so bad!

Let me share with you what God says about our goodness, lest myself or you forget.

Along with the above passage, the Bible says these things about us:

1. "All have turned aside; together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one." Romans 3:12

2. "Their throat is an open grace, with their tongues they keep deceiving,' 'The poison of asps is under their lips,' 'Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness,' 'Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known." Romans 3"13-17

3. "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Romans 3:18

4. "For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God..." Romans 1:21

5. "...they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image of corruptible man..." Romans 1:23

6. "...they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature..." Romans 1:25

7. "...being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful." Romans 1:29-31

8. "For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy [menstrual] garment." Isaiah 64:6

9. "The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick, who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9

10. "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adultiers, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders." Matthew 15:18

The weight of these verses should fall heavily on you, as it should on me. It is a serious situation in which we find ourselves. I want everyone who may be reading this to understand the complete and utter hopelessness we have apart from Christ. We may say that we are not so bad, but even to SAY that is the sin of pride! You or I may never commit the genocides of Hitler or Stalin, but we are just as evil in our own hearts!

Oh, how we need to fall on our faces daily and cry out for God to show us the seriousness of sin and the depths of our own depravity!

I leave you with first a request that you would do this very thing, and with a very humbling thought. While you or I may never commit the level of atrocities witnessed by despots and tyrants in history, let us never forget that the gas chambers of Auschwitz did not originate within political halls legislative meetings, or even in the lecture halls of Nihilistic, secular professors. They began within the corrupted hearts of men and women like you and me.

Hey all! I'd like to ask whoever who reads this and would like to participate to help out! You see, this Valentine's Day I'm going to do something a little different for devotions. I'm trying to get as many people as I can to fill out this very short, very easy little survey. Once I have all the answers in, I will try and compile it into a research type format and compare it with the Biblical model for love, and then write the devotion on that. To do that, I need data! Here is where you folks come in! If you feel willing, please send the answers to these questions to randphoenix@yahoo.com :

1. What is your name?

2. How old are you?

3. How many boyfriends\girlfriends\spouses have you had in your life?

4. Are you currently seeing anyone\married to anyone?

5. If you could compare love to anything using an analogy\metaphor\simile, what would be your best comparison and why?

6. The Greek language denotes that there are four types of love: family love, brotherly love, religious love, and romantic love. Do you feel that these four are, at their core, essentially the same thing? Why or why not?

And that's it! Thanks to anyone who sends in their info! God bless!

In Christ,
Charlie

The Path of the Prodigal

"And he said to him, 'Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.'" Luke 15: 31-32

What an amazing way to end this story. The father answers brilliantly to his angry son, and it is most certainly a marvel to wonder at. Let us take a closer look at this response.

What we first see is that the father did not get angry with the son. He didn't scold him, he didn't punish him, and he didn't upbraid him. We also see that the father did not condone what the younger son had done. He didn't try and make excuses for the younger son, but rather, just said that celebration had to happen. Do you think the father did not punish the younger son? I'm certain that he did. It would have been only right. But first there had to be a rejoicing over the return!

Also, if you notice, the father didn't deny the legitamacy of the older son's anger. He patiently and lovingly listened, and then made a calm response. He conceded the son's point by agreeing that, indeed, the older son had always been with him and had always labored for him. He also goes from there to reminding the son that all that the father possesses belonged also to the son. He's saying to his son, "Don't worry that he will take it all, son. Don't worry that you will miss out. I love you and will do what is right." How often God needs to remind me of this! How often do I feel His Spirit whispering to my heart "My child, I will do what is right. You are not unloved. I am still in control."

And once again, we see that this son was not just considered away, he was considered dead. The same can definitely be said about us. Ephesians says we were dead in our sins, but were made alive to God. When He overcomes the stubbornness of our wills, we come alive and can truly live for Him as we could never do before.

After all of this, I would like to point out that in Jesus' time, there were several people He could have been thinking of when He mentioned the prodigal son. It was most likely that He was talking about "sinners" and tax collectors, since that happened to be the point of the Pharisee's contention. It is also quite viable to point to the Gentiles as another meaning to the metaphor, as Jesus was talking to Jews. Whichever way, we can definitely apply this to every lost person who becomes a believer. What a great love God has for us, that He welcomes us into His presence!

It is my sincere hope and prayer that this study, as meager as it was, was of some help and some enlightenment to some. All glory goes to the one to whom is worthy, Jesus!

The Path of the Prodigal pt 10

"But he answered and said to his father, ' Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.'" Luke 15:29-30

As we are coming near to the end of this passage, we come upon the response of the older brother to his father. In this response he lays out why it is that he is so angry. There are many things that can be gleaned from this portion of Scripture. As I stated before, it is my belief that this brother was just as far away as the younger son was. This response drives that point home.

First he tries appealing to how many years he has worked and how "faithful" he has been to his father's commands. Now, the problem with this is simply that if he has to keep pointing out how he's done "all this work" for "all these years," it means he certainly has not done any of it from his heart, but rather he's done it seeking something. This happens to us whenever we try serving God from our own strength, and not doing it joyfully.

Then he tries attacking the fairness of his father by saying that he never gets anything. This, he says out of jealousy. Had he been thinking clearly, he would possibly have remembered that when the younger son got his share of the wealth, so too did the elder. But at this point, in his anger and jealousy, he does not think of that, but rather that his father never "throws a party" for him. We can get this way whenever we look at what others have, and not what is on our own plate.

Notice also that the elder son never calls his brother "brother." He calls him "this son of yours" to his father. How much hatred he must be harboring in his heart to disavow the familial relationship he shares! Do you sometimes feel this way? I would be lying if I said I didn't. We see what some people did before they came to Christ, and we judge them for it. What if Charles Manson came to Christ? What if Saddam came to Christ? Would we be so quick to accept them as brothers in the Lord?

And how he even knows what the younger son was doing, I do not know. I think he probably just assumed, having known his brother. But even so, it matters not! The major lesson we can learn from this bit of Scripture is that we cannot judge someone on the basis of what they have done before Christ. If they have truly repented and come to Jesus Christ for salvation, they are our brothers. Period.

I challenge you to look at your heart and see if there is any of this in there. Let God search you and remove the offensive way in you.

The Path of the Prodigal Pt 9

First, I'd like to apologize for the lack of the devotion yesterday. Due to some technical difficulties, for some reason I could not post the devotion onto the website!

"And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.' But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him." Luke 15: 27-28

The servant here is informing the eldest brother of what's going on. The servants says that there is a party going on and that there is great joy. It is a thing of great rejoicing when people turn from their stubborn hearts and turn to God. As in the previous parables, Jesus is showing the joy of Heaven over the saved.

The thing about this joy, however, is that Heaven is not full og song over the saved ones in themselves. They sing because of the saved ones, sure, but not about them. This is something overlooked by some, I believe. What the angels are singing about is always and will always be the might and glory of God triumphing over the wicked hearts of man. The might of God leaves the citizens of Heaven in joyful awe!

In the next verse, we see the son become angry at this news. Now, for some reason the eldest son is angry over his brother's return. The reason behind this will be revealed in later verse, but for now it suffices just at this anger. This anger in the older son leads me to believe that, in his heart, the older son is just as prodigal as the younger. This is what happens when self-righteousness creeps into our hearts. We become blinded to the wondrous work of God going on right in front of our eyes! And because of this, we miss out on praising God for His glory.

It is truly a dangerous thing to be self-righteous. This sin is so insidious. We must every day test ourselves against it. It is my prayer for you that God would so move in your hearts and mine that it would push out the attitude the elder brother had.

The Path of the Prodigal pt 8

"Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things might be." Luke 15:25-26

While the father was rejoicing over his found son, the older brother was still in the field. What intrigues me about this is that the father knew the son was coming from a long way off. This would suggest that the father knew the son was coming for a long time. Judging by the way the father told all the servants about his returning son, it would stand to reason that the eldest son was told about the return of his brother.

However, it is possible that he knew nothing about the situation. If one takes the interpretation that the elder knew the younger was coming, then it is interesting as to why the eldest son is still in the field. Without looking at the coming verses, one can still begin to see evidences of bad blood between the brothers.

In verse 26, the older brother asks why there is a party going on. The fact that the father still had numerous servants seems to suggest that he still had a great deal of wealth even after splitting up the inheritance.