GIG 207 - It's All About the Unconditional Love of the Father

Continuing from last week with our look at parables in which we often seem to misidentify the characters, or at least in which we seem to put the spotlight on the wrong characters, this week we take a look at the story that is commonly called "The Parable of the Prodigal Son." Certainly the prodigal son isn't a character who we simply glance over, and most of us can easily identify with him in one way or another, but is he really meant to be the main focus of the parable? We'll share a couple of real-life stories as we discuss how we think the focus was always meant to be on the great love of the father.

gigcast.graceroots.org

Focus on God's High View and Acceptance of You

This week's Growing in Grace program is a spin off of last week's program, and is again inspired in part by another blog post from Steve McVey, Who Accepted Whom? It's common for people to read the Bible and interpret what they read in a self-focused way, putting the responsibility on themselves to find God, to accept God, to come back to God, to perform for God, etc, when in reality God is the one who has reached out to us and performed all the work necessary for us to have a free, loving, intimate relationship with Him.

Kap and I talk about how we need to rid ourselves of an Old Covenant mentality and look at the Bible in light of God's high view of us as His treasured children, and His unconditional acceptance of us and love for us. He has placed us in Christ and He has made us alive together with Him. He has made peace with us. He has accepted us!

Despite the prodigal son's low view of himself, the father ran to him and accepted him with open arms, and paid no attention to what the son thought he might be able to do to gain a small measure of acceptance from his father. He threw a party for him!

We can forget any notion of "our part" in any of the salvation plan and in any part of the living out of this life in Christ. God has not left it up to us to make any of this happen! As if!!! He has simply asked us to believe. Through faith, we are branches on a vine, and we have no life in and of ourselves, but yet being connected to the vine we are privileged by God's grace to partake in the fullness of life in the Vine!

gigcast.graceroots.org

The Prodigal Pup

Our dog Puppa is the nicest little dog... but over the years he's also been quite the rebel. Any chance he gets to sneak out the gate, he's gone. And if you go after him, he just runs. Just when you think you're gonna get him, he takes off again. He used to run to other people who would go after him, but as soon as he figured out that other people return him to us, he quit doing that! He's probably run away at least 10 times per year since we got him in 1999. Yep, he's quite the prodigal dog. Running wild and wastefully throughout the neighborhood, sniffing whatever he can get his nose into.

A couple of evenings ago I came home from work and opened up our gate so I could drive my car into the garage. At the same time, inside the house, Puppa was apparently throwing up and so Tracey rushed him to the door so he'd do it outside. When I walked back toward the house, Tracey told me that Puppa had just gotten loose. The temperature was barely above 0, so I told her that Puppa would be back before we knew it. In this weather, he barely even wants to come outside to do his regular 'business,' and when he does, he's outside for less than the time it takes to microwave myself a cup of hot water to make some tea!

Well, a few minutes went by, and no Puppa. I wondered aloud if maybe he had run into the garage while I was closing it, and I just didn't see him, but Tracey said she'd seen him run down the drive toward the street. So I started to get concerned. Like I said, in these temps, he's usually back in no time. So I went down the drive and looked up the street and around the corner, and didn't see him anywhere. It was dark, and because of all the snow we've had, there's lots of ploughed snow piled high on the sides of the streets, so it's hard to see anything.

All we could think of was how cold and scared he must be. Even in the cold weather, for some reason this time around, his instinct was to run away from the place where he was loved, and where he was safe and warm. Eventually Tracey got in the van to go look for him, while I was walking down the street, calling for him. Then, across the street I looked down the sidewalk, and there I could see him, hobbling slowly toward in my direction. At that moment I RAN to him. When I got to him, I could see that his feet were hurting from the coldness of the icy sidewalk, and when I picked him up he was shivering like I never seen him shiver before.

Was Puppa a prodigal? Sure! I can't see it being anything other than a wasteful use of energy to go out sniffing around in such cold weather! Was he stupid? I'd say it was kind of a stupid thing to do! :) Did I care about any of that? Not at all. I just wanted him home safe and sound. So I carried him home, brought him inside and wrapped him up in a warm blanket, petting him and telling him everything was ok now, and telling him there was never a need to run away again, because he has all he needs here at home. Not that he understood a word of what I was saying!

It was at that time that I realized the similarities (sort of) between this episode and the story of the prodigal son. The only character missing was the elder brother, because Mr. Nibbles the hamster was in his cage sleeping and he didn't care that we were throwing a welcome home party for Puppa!

The love of the Father is great. When He saw us far off, He ran to us and brought us home and didn't even make one ounce of a deal about our prodigal living. Instead He was filled with joy and threw royal robes around us and gave us the keys to His mansion, giving us the full benefits of sons. What a wonderful, loving God we have!

Brought Near - We Are In The Light

Latest Growing in Grace program is ready for downloading/listening. Christ came to take away sin (John 1:29), and we have been brought near to God by His blood (Eph 2:13), not by our works (Titus 3:5). He has taken us out of darkness and we are in the light! Does that fact change when we sin, or when we waste our lives in prodigal living? This week Mike and Joel continue talking about the parable of the prodigal son, his older brother and his father (Luke 15:11-32), and we discuss which one of the three had the proper perspective about both sons’ standing with the father. Sometimes our thoughts, emotions, actions, behavior, etc, may cause us to feel as if we’re not in the light, but we always need to remember that it’s God’s grace that has brought us into the light and keeps us there! With the proper perspective, we’ll grow more and more into who we truly are as children of the light (Eph 5:8-10).

gigcast.graceroots.org

Can Sin Hinder Your Fellowship With God?

Latest GIGCast is up. Can sin hinder your fellowship with God? We take a look at who we are in Christ (the righteousness of God) and we also begin to look at the different perspectives of the three "characters" in the Luke 15 parable commonly known as "The Prodigal Son." In addition to the prodigal son, there are two other people in the story - the older son and the father. Which one of these people had the proper perspective of the whole situation? There's so much good news in the scriptures to dig into! We talk about how sin can truly affect our circumstances, and even our fellowship with one another as human beings - but does that mean it affects our fellowship with God?

gigcast.graceroots.org

"Recklessly Extravagant"

Prodigal - "Recklessly Extravagant"

I don't think I've ever heard the word "prodigal" defined that way, but check out these couple of posts over at Idle Musings of a Bookseller that quote from Timothy Keller's book The Prodigal God. Great stuff!

The Prodigal God
The elder brother

What we need, not what we deserve

The story below happened after midnight on this day twenty years ago (October 2, 1988 - approximately half my life ago). It's not exactly a "prodigal son returns home and is thrown a party" story, but it is a true happening in my life that would eventually play a part in helping me to understand the grace and love of God.

(I first posted this here).

-------------------------

It’s a Saturday night in October of 1988. I’m 19 years old, and I’m ready to go have some fun! I’m grabbing some friends and we’re going road-tripping down the highways and back roads surrounding my hometown of Waverly. But what kind of fun would it be without a case of beer and a two bottles of Mad Dog 20/20? It seemed like the perfect touch to an evening of fun and laughter – until…

Our fun and laughter ended up in fear and screaming after my inattentive eyes missed a “curve ahead” road sign on the gravel road. Amazingly - and thankfully - this part of the story ends with no one getting seriously hurt. In fact, as all our friends drove by the following day to view my totaled car which had been towed from the ditch in which it had landed upside down, they marveled that we were alive at all.

But the most amazing part of this story is yet to come. Something which has impacted me in a far greater way. And it all centers around grace. Back up to the previous year. My pastor-dad and mom had gone beyond their means to purchase this car for me so I would have wheels while I was 100 miles away at college. When I dropped out after only 4 months my parents were undoubtedly disappointed but they graciously welcomed me back home and granted me the continued use of the car and all the other benefits of being a son. I sure had a fine way of showing them how thankful I was, eh.

After sitting with my buddy in the local jail overnight, we were released early Sunday morning. We walked across the river, viewed my smashed up “college” car for the last time and then I slowly and hesitantly walked home, not exactly eager to face my parents. My mom was standing in the kitchen, getting ready for church. I didn’t know what to say. I’m sure my parents were angry. I’m sure they were deeply disappointed. I’m sure they weren’t even sure what to think or say. But five words came out of my mom’s mouth which would eventually have more of an impact on my relationship with God than I ever would have imagined at the time. “We’re just glad you’re ok.”

Disappointment and anger were probably only the beginning of the flood of emotions mom and dad were having, and add to that the fear and worry about their seemingly messed-up son’s future. But whatever dismal thoughts may have been going through their minds, there was something else on the inside of my parents which superseded all of it. Their main concern was to let me know I was loved. They most certainly had every right to go all off on me and let me know how I had let them down, and those thoughts probably tempted them more than I’ll ever know. My neck deserved a good wringing. But they didn’t give me what I deserved. They gave me what I needed.

They confirmed to me that I was still their son. The deafening silence - there were no long talks, no sermons, no preaching – spoke to me more than anything else could have. That said, I still had a lot of growing to do, and it’s not as if I didn’t push the limits from time to time. My life was by no means instantly transformed at the time. It wasn’t until a few years down the line that this experience spoke even more clearly to me about the love of my parents – and the love of God.

I came to a stage in life when I was beginning to learn more about the grace of God – His favor and blessing which is given to me freely, which I have done nothing to earn, and in fact which is given to me despite the fact that the absolute total of what I have “earned” really only amounts to death and condemnation. One day I was thinking about this time in my past when I had been given what I didn’t deserve by my parents. Suddenly the magnitude of how they had responded to my needs rather than reacted to my actions hit me like a ton of bricks and I was swept up in a huge emotional wave. My experience from the past provided me with a clear picture of a loving Father who gives grace to those who need it, not to those who deserve it. And for perhaps the first time in my life I truly appreciated the immeasurable freedom and grace which had been given to me over the years by my earthly parents and my Heavenly Father.

I don’t want to imply that the way my parents treated this matter was the only way. I can’t guarantee that when both my kids become teenagers, my wife and I will respond in the same way to their misdeeds! I hope and pray that by the Spirit of God in us, we’ll raise them with godly love, grace and discipline. But what’s really wonderful is that we have a Father who always knows exactly how to treat us. The good news is that while He is well aware of our faults, He is much more interested in providing for us what we need rather than what we deserve. He proved it with the Cross.

When God Ran

Benny Hester - When God Ran


And the only time... the only time I ever saw Him run...

Was when He ran to me
Took me in His arms
Held my head to His chest
Said My son's come home again
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice
He said son, do you know I still love you?