Wednesday: Lost Things 3

"There once was a man who had two sons."

Salvation Wednesday, Salvation Wednesday... Oh how I love Salvation Wednesday.
Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. Do you remember the days of the mid-week prayer meetings, the Wednesday evening church services? My dear mamma would go to those services regardless of how tired she was. I want you to pray about something for me. We have been praying about expanding our work for Jesus at The Bridges and maybe a mid week prayer meeting just might be what we need. We would be competing against Bingo. Jesus Bingo, and what you would win....Salvation. Wow... Pray today for the lost and that Jesus uses we who are saved to get the message to the lost. Pray for John who had toes amputated yesterday. Ongoing prayers, Oliver Ogden who is still going through testing. For Don Saylor and his family, For Anna Troutman, and for jobs for Mark and LeaAnne. Prayers for Vicki and her family.

Lost Things 3: Luke 15: 11- Jesus continued: "There was a man with two sons. 12 The Younger one said to his father, 'father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them.'" (NIV)

Please take time to read the complete story of the Lost Son. You will find it in your Bible in
Luke 15: 11 through 31. It is a great story and I am going to talk now about it, but please check your Bible. In fact you should be checking your Bible on all things I write and all things you hear your pastors preaching about. Just so you know and I have told you this many times, I believe all of the Bible, each and every part and the parts I love the best is when Jesus is quoted.

I want to give you an example of a prodigal son, a person who I know well. It seems this son was raised as one of two sons and was also the youngest of the two. As a boy he was raised by parents who believed in Jesus and taught him and his brother about Jesus. In his younger days this lad was in Sunday school and also many times in church, and learned about Jesus, also went to two weeks of vacation Bible school in the summer. Then as the boy turned into a young teenager he was still taught all of those Christian values and still went to Sunday School and Church and often went with his mother to those Wednesday night prayer meetings. When the boy was 14 years old he got a car and truck and was working for his older brother at a service station, and the job was to open the station on Sunday mornings. Sunday School and church stopped. Still, the young man was at home with his Christian parents. Then the day came when the lad turned 16 and he got to drive that car and truck... a few years later and just out of high school by a few years the man married his love and she was also a Christian girl, raised by parents who took her to church and Sunday school. As their family grew the now full grown man worked on Sundays, and thanks to his wife, the children were taken to Sunday School and church. But this man started to walk from God, not real bad, not doing things that would put one in jail, but just was not living for the Lord. The family fell apart and the man left, leaving a mother with four kids. The man went for what he thought then were greener pastures, you know the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence. While the man never walked away from the obligation of the family when it came to dollars and seeing the kids on weekends, he was not there for them at their tender age. The man got married again and that marriage which he thought would go better was really bad, and then when that lady took off, the man was at the bottom. Now owning a business with his children working for him, this man was to the point of having a gun to his head, thinking about this over and over and talking to the only one that would listen... He turned to God, first asking Him to come and get him. Then confessing his sins and starting back to church. He came back to God, friends helped and helped... God put a wonderful Christian lady in his life and things starting coming together and they got married. With both parents gone the man only had one Father now, and his Father opened wide His arms and welcomed him back. Over the years this man has told that first wife and her family how sorry he was that he left and did not try and work things out. The reasons for the past are not important to this story, the important thing is that you are seeing how THE "Father" welcomes home a lost son or daughter. The man now works for God with the Help of his Christian wife who has stood beside him for over 27 years. The man has had support from men like Tim, Duane, Neil, Doug, Larry and many, many more. He has had a lot of support from a few ladies also like Pamela, Joanne, Leslie and Betsy who with her husband sat with this man, ladies who were just there, family friends and there are so many more that came on later, Like Tom Sansoni and his wife, Joanne's husband Dave was with him. The man's children all love him dearly and have long ago forgiven him. The first wife has also forgiven him and so has her family. The man came to Christ when he was at the bottom, came back, not from the "pig pen", but from crying and crying to God, with the gun loaded and laying on the desk, came back from the dirt of sin. This man was not out of money, what he was out of was Jesus, he walked away from much more than a family; he walked away from God. Now he is back, still a sinner but now saved by grace of God, and singing for God and preaching the word, and has forgiven his second wife for leaving him for another man.

Folks, as I write this story of the lost son tears are running down my face, tears of some sadness, but just tears of thinking about his life and how good people have been and how wonderful and great our Lord Jesus is. You see the child, the youth, the young man, and now the old man that I know so well I see each day. He is the one who looks back at me when I stand in front of the mirror. Some of MY past still haunts me as some people from the past will throw it in my face, but others, those who really know Jesus also have forgiven me and more important GOD TOOK ME BACK...

If the story of the lost son fits you, be you a son or daughter, and you have not fully come back, let's do it now. Will you come back today, love of God will lift you from the pits of whatever your past was or still is. Will you come back today? God's arms are open wide, open wide to receive you, His loving arms will carry you through the tough times of life. And if you are at the bottom remember this, the only way to go is up, and please, please let God be the one to go up to. Please pray this with me, please, I can't pray you into the arms of God; you must do it yourself, you really must. You must do it in faith. Will you pray with me now? God is waiting for us, I am going to renew today, those who love God might just do the same. One more thing, you might need to either change the life of some of your friends or get away from them for a while and pack yourself around those who love the Lord. When you are weak, you need Christian support. Those people I named were those who supported me on the way back, they are not friends from my past.

Dear Father in Heaven, as you know I was lost, really lost, I walked away from You and You took me back. Now, Father, I want to lead a prayer for those who might not be saved, hear our prayers and cries, Lord, and also those who just want to renew. Thanks, Father, for hearing us out, I pray Your will is done. Now Father, our prayer of confession... Dear Father, forgive me of my sins, for I know I am a sinner and want saved by Your Grace. Take me Lord, take me back. I believe in Jesus, I believe in the virgin birth and death of Jesus on the cross, and I believe it was all done for me and others who come to You. I believe that Jesus was risen from the dead and is going to judge me for my sins. Forgive us this day... In Jesus name, Amen.

In closing, my dear friends, please know that God forgives all of us who ask, and today and I do not ask this often, in fact I don't know if I ever asked you to forward anything I wrote in the past... You are always welcome to forward things I write, but today I ask, please if you feel in your heart my story will help others, please share it with them. And please share your blessings also. Thanks for being on this line. I love you all dearly... love ya, dan.