Tuesday 6/18/2013 The Prodigal Son

Dear Heavenly Father, thanks for another day of life here on earth, and thanks for all the prayer support that is coming in from readers on this line.  Please, dear Lord, hear their please and mine also for healing of my body from pain.  Please also keep my mind open and free of clutter so I can keep on keeping on for You.  Now, Lord, please open Your word to me and then, please, Lord, deliver the finished product.  In Jesus' name, I pray.  Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, I am overwhelmed by the prayer support coming in for Dolores and myself.  I hated to add burdens to any of you, yet we are a group of prayer warriors, and right now I feel I need that army of prayer warriors speaking on my behalf.  I was lying in bed and I just had to get back up and get to the computer and work for God.  I pray all of you had a great day.  God has once again pointed out to me a parable from the Bible that fits me well, and that is the story of the Prodigal son.  Of course, ladies, I am sure some of you have been Prodigal daughters. For this parable I am going to the book of Luke.  Let us get started and see if I can wrap this up this week.

June 18, 2013, The Prodigal Son:  Day One.

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, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living."  (NIV)

As I look back to my youth and I was the younger of two sons, I wonder what might have happened to my backside if I had gone to my dad and mamma had I said "hi, may I have my half of the estate now?"  I am sure the answer would have been like, "WHAT ESTATE?"  I also remember one day a few years back when I was working with my daughter Danelle at our ministry food pantry.  It was on one of our distribution days and I can remember saying to her, we are giving you kids' inheritance to the poor and needy.  She told me that was okay, God will take care of us.  Neat, right?

Of course, as we know, the parable is just that, a parable, and the real story is about us being raised up in the way of the Lord and then drifting away.  And yes, I did just that.  My dear mother would see that we, my brother Leonard and I, got to Sunday School and church and I even had to go on Wednesday for prayer meeting.  She also wanted me to sing in the choir and although I would not admit it back then, I really did like it.  I also had to go to Vacation Bible School, and I would think, this is vacation?  But I did learn a lot about how to treat others and how we should love Jesus and obey the commandments.  I did pretty well with that and so did Leonard until mamma died back in 1959 and then it was like a downhill ride for awhile.  Gosh, how I loved my mamma and still do, back then I did not understand that I should not love her above Jesus, but I did know I needed to love her more than I loved my 1950 Ford, my 1947 Oldsmobile Convertible and my 1937 International Panel truck.  Yes, I did understand that, but I did/do have that deep love for those things called vehicles.  I can remember standing at the cemetery when mamma was buried feeling so alone.  There were a lot of people there, but I was all alone, or so I thought.  No one, not even our pastor, came and talked to me about walking with Jesus.  So while I did not squander my money on being wild, I did bury myself in a lot of work, just so I could have nice vehicles.  My brother also was a prodigal son, and he walked away, in fact about ten years ago, when he found out he had cancer, he called me and said he did not think he was going to heaven.  So before he passed away he came back to the Lord, which I had done a lot of years before that.

Parents, please do all you can to raise up your children in the way of the Lord, because we do have a promise, and it is in this story, if we raise up our kids in the way of the Lord and they do a walk-about, or drift from the Lord, they will also come back.  I know right now we have a prodigal son, and we just keep praying that we will see the day he comes back to Jesus.  I have other dear friends who also have a son drifting around and we keep praying for him.  There are times as earthly parents we must let go and let God, so to speak, that we just cannot be with our kids all the time, so we must trust them to God.  I am sure that my mamma did just that before she went home, for she knew she was on her way.

Above all else, folks, I want you to know and understand this, if you have drifted from our Lord Jesus, He not only wants you back, He really wants you back.  Our Lord is more concerned about the ones who are lost than all of them that are already saved.  Brothers and sisters, if you have family members that are lost sons or daughters, or maybe right now you are one of those, how about sending me their names this week, first names will be just fine, and let's list them for all of our prayer warriors to start praying for.  I am going to post two of them today.  One is Matthew, and one is Sean, and those boys need our prayers.  Matthew belongs to Dolores and me, and Sean belongs to Dave and Joanne, both boys belong first to God and have been fully turned over to our Lord Jesus for His care and protection.  So how about it, let's get praying for those lost kids of ours this week while we work on the story of the PRODIGAL SON ...

Dear Father in Heaven, I pray today for all of our lost kids and pray for by name, Matthew and Sean.  Please, Lord, touch them, heal them, and bring them back to our Lord Jesus.  In the name of Jesus, we lift our children.  Amen.

Now folks, send in those names, even if you are not sure.  Of course it could be for not just a child, but even a parent or a sister or brother.  Now go forth and share those beautiful blessings that God has given unto you this day.   Love ya.  Pass it on.

Pastor Dan