“But while
he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for
him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and
against you. I am no longer worthy to be
called your son.’ But the father said to
his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best
robe and put it on him. Put a ring on
his finger and sandals on his feet.
Bring the fattened calf and kill it.
Let’s have a feast and celebrate.
For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is
found. So they began to celebrate.”
Good
Salvation Wednesday morning, my dear brothers and sisters. Wow, Salvation Wednesday and the day we pray
for the lost, and pray that God will use we who are saved to help bring in the
lost. Other prayer requests for Vicki,
whose knee is not healing and she is in pain.
For Bill Fertenbaugh who lost control of a bungee cord and it hit him in
the eye. Please pray for full sight to
return. Bill and his wife Joni are
prayer warriors on this line and workers in our food pantry, and what a great
couple.
Today, I
feel so blessed, I turn 71 today and am going as strong as I did when I was
70! Which was yesterday. Once again today, I want to make this promise
to God with all of you as my witnesses … I am going to do my very best to work
for God until the day He calls me home.
Dolores and I made that promise to the folks at The Bridges a few months
back and told them as long as The Bridges will have us we will be there to
preach, teach, and sing for Him, and for them.
I have figured out that the secret to a longer life is not to die when
you are young! With that, I better get
to the message.
Luke 15:11 –
Jesus continued: “There was a man who
had 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. 13 Not long after that the younger son got together all
he had and set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in
wild living.” 14 “After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in
that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself
out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16
He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no
one gave him anything. 17 When he came to his senses, he said, ‘how many of my
father’s hired men have food to spare and here I am starving to death! 18 I
will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and
against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son, make me like one
of your hired men.’ So he got up and
went to his father.” “But while he was
still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for
him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 The son
said to him: ‘Father, I have sinned
against heaven and against you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick!
Bring the best robe and put it on him.
Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened
calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and
celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and
is found. So they began to celebrate.” (NIV)
Yes, I am
repeating the scripture in full each day so you can keep following it, but my
message keeps going forward from where we left off the day before.
I left off
yesterday with the son losing all he had and going to work for a pig farmer,
finding out that the pigs were eating better than he was and knowing that his
father, who had wealth, had servants making more than he made and was then
willing to head back home and ask to be forgiven and telling his father he
would be willing to eat and work with the servants. Okay, so let me ask this question, out of all
who have come to Jesus, either for the first time or after taking a walk-about
as in walking away from Jesus, how many came to Jesus at one of the lowest
points in your life? Think about it and
let me answer for me … Yes, as you know I was raised by Christian parents, but
I did take a walk-about, drifting away from God. Then in 1980 I hit a low point in my life,
real low, and that is when I came back to Jesus. Have there been hard times since? Yes, but like the story of the lost son, I
came back when I was face down I the hog pen, so to speak.
I think a
lot of people think that once you come to Jesus you will never have a bad day
or never have pain or anything wrong.
The fact is we do go through hard times, we go through pain, we have
hardships, etc. The difference is, we
have someone to walk with us, someone other than family, we have Jesus, and
with Him, we will never be alone. We
could be out in the woods lost, but we would not be alone, we could be in the
mountains, but we can never be alone… In fact, there is no place you can go and
be alone for He will be with us until the very end of time.
So the story
of the lost son is not about a son and his earthly father, it is really about
all of us and our Lord Jesus. You see,
regardless of how we went out and acted, our Heavenly Father, our Lord Jesus,
will always welcome us home… But again I remind you that He is with us always,
so when we do go out and act poorly, He already knows what we did, so please if
this shoe fits on your foot, then get on your knees and come back to God. In fact, let’s do it right now …
Dear Father
in Heaven, yes, You are with us always, and we, I am sure, do not always please
You, and speaking for myself, I know for a fact, I don’t always please
You. So for me, forgive us, all who ask
in the name of Jesus, and please act on our other prayer requests according to
Your will for those concerned. In the
name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
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