Parable of the Prodigal Son (pt 6)

Our God is passionately committed to loving us. Did you know that? He loves us in spite of our rebellion and betrayal. He loves us even though we fall short. The book of Hosea expresses this through the story of Hosea and his wife, Gomer. Hosea buys Gomer out of slavery and prostitution, offering a deeper kind of love than she could ever find in the arms of another man. Yet she regularly runs back to that life and away from the love she receives from him. But… he never stops pursuing her.

In the same way, God redeems us from the things that have shackled us. He pursues us, inviting us to be in relationship with Him. And we regularly run back to our old way of life – believing lies, chasing foolish dreams, or trusting other things to be our “savior.” Yet God says, “I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness” (Hosea 2:19-20). Though the book of Hosea uses the metaphor of a marriage to express God’s love for us, make no mistake that it is also the love our Father has for His children. Just as deep, just as passionate, just as faithful. He pursues us, His wayward children, and invites us to come back home… so that we can be with Him. Are you ready to accept that invitation?

• Read Hosea 1-3. How are you like Hosea’s wife/Israel? How is Hosea like God? What does God promise to do?
• Read Hosea 11. What other metaphors does God use to describe His relationship with Israel? Read verses 7-8 again. How does God feel about Israel’s behavior?
• Paul knelt down on his knees in humility and urgency and prayed that his friends in Ephesus would grasp the fervent love of God. My prayer for you is the same: “May you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.” (Ephesians 3:18). 

Parable of the Prodigal Son (pt 5)

Sometimes, I just can’t keep the tears from falling – God’s love is that overwhelming. One night in particular, the reality of His love hit me, and I couldn’t help but fall to my knees. I wept. Not just a tear slowly escaping from my eye, but gut-wrenching sobs that often accompany us in our darkest hours. There are no words in moments like those, for who could speak in the presence of such passionate devotion?

But most of the time, I am numb to His love. I overlook it. I’ve grown to expect it, as if I deserve it. As if I’ve earned it. Not unlike the Pharisees who were listening to Jesus tell this parable of the lost sons.

For example, there was one day Jesus entered the synagogue and saw a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees were standing by to accuse Jesus, to find some fault with Him that would give them reason to arrest Him. Realizing this, Jesus “looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart” (Mark 3:5). This man was going to be healed – he would be restored to the community, able to participate in offering sacrifices and feasts – and all they can think about is how to trap Jesus. They don’t recognize why He came. They overlook the love that He poured on people. They were more concerned with following the rules than being in relationship with Him.

Like the Pharisees, my calloused heart prevents me from receiving God’s love, and it severely limits the quality and amount of love I can pour into other people. What about you?

• Read Exodus 34:6. “Steadfast love” is a phrase used to express God’s faithful, freely given love to His people. How have you experienced this love in your life?
• Read 1 John 4:7-12. How did God show His love for us? How do we show that His love is in us?
• Take a few minutes to meditate on God’s love for us. Then, in response to His love, worship Him through song or by simply telling Him how great He is.

At the End of Slavery

This weekend is International Justice Mission’s Weekend to End Slavery. The live webcast with Gary Haugen and other IJM staff-ers just finished, and people are gathered all over to watch their new documentary, At the End of Slavery.

Great stuff! I LOVE what IJM is doing, and I really like how they’re doing it. They work with law enforcement in other countries and ensure that they are enforcing their own laws. They come alongside the widows and orphans who have their land stolen from them. They stand up for the girls who are trafficked into prostitution. They fight for those who work in rock quarries or rice mills against their will. And they support them as they transition into a life of FREEDOM.

For the past week, they have come alongside 23 slaves who were rescued from a rice mill, facing several challenges along the way. You can see some pictures and read the updates HERE. Keep them in your prayers… From what I understand, this operation is still going on.

If you’re not familiar with IJM or their work, check them out:

• IJM’s website provides an overview of their work, their mission, stories, resources, ways to get involved, and more!
• Tonight’s  webcast for the Weekend to End Slavery will allow you to “meet” some of the staff from IJM and hear their heart about fighting injustice and oppression.
• IJM’s blog provides a place for them to post prayer requests and updates on rescue operations they are currently conducting. They also lead the discussion in what it means to follow God’s call to seek justice (Isaiah 1:17).

Slavery CAN end… will you join the fight?

Parable of the Prodigal Son (pt 4)

“For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death,” Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). Have you ever felt like that? The doctor says, “It’s cancer.” Your spouse says, “It’s over.” Your boss tells you not to come back in tomorrow. Your mom calls and says, “He’s gone.” Relying on God in that moment is, for many of us, an act of pure faith. We simply can’t see past the hurt. The devastation is too much.

But Paul didn’t get stuck in the hopelessness of his situation. He grabbed onto something beneath the surface, deeper than the deadly darkness: “That [their suffering] was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again” (2 Corinthians 1:9-10). In His grace, God can use those “deadly times” to reveal Himself to you in a new way. He can make your faith stronger, your hope more confident. How is God using the darkness in your life to shine His light? All other things will fall short, but He never will. Hold fast to the hope that you have in Him… 

• What have you set your hope on? What do you trust in?
• Read Romans 5:3-5. What produces hope? Why won’t hope put us to shame?
• Read Lamentations 3:19-25. What does the writer call to mind in the midst of hard times? What does he mean when he says “the Lord is my portion”?
• God calls us to remember Him and His goodness even as we encounter tough situations. Take time to praise Him for the ways He has shown up in your life. Like the author of Lamentations, call these things to mind when you face a difficult situation and thank Him for the hope we have in Him.

Parable of the Prodigal Son (pt 3)

I don’t like it… that moment when I realize that I have been fooling myself. Lately, God is stripping things away from me, one by one, and exposing the true condition of my heart. Something has gotten in the way of my relationship with Him. “You’re holding on too tightly to this,” God says, gently prying my fingers away. “Will you let go? Can you trust Me to take care of her? Will you allow Me to provide for you?” He asks me to surrender my job, my friendships, my freedom into His control. It isn’t long before I’m standing before Him with nothing left to offer except myself. He gestures to all the things I have left in His hands and then shields them from my view. It is then that I hear God ask, “If I were to keep all of these, would I be enough for you?”

That’s a convicting question. My friends, there is no doubt that God has great things in store for us. He might bless us with friendships and health, a job and a house. Yet any blessings we receive from God do not compare with the gift of simply being with Him. Nothing else will fully satisfy our longings. God offers us eternal life in His presence. He invites us to make our home with Him. What are you holding on to that is preventing you from fully embracing Christ and entering into the hope that He has to offer? 

• How would you answer God’s question: “Would I be enough for you?”
• Read Luke 5:11 and 5:27-28. What did the disciples leave to follow Jesus? Why is this so significant?
• Read Psalm 73:25-26. What does the writer proclaim in these verses? How do these words challenge you?
• Talk with a trusted friend this week about what God has been teaching you through this series. Pray for each other, that God would show you anything standing in the way of your relationship with Him.

How could you forgive them?

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a class where Steve Saint was speaking. With a warm personality and a great sense of humor, he passed on several great stories and thoughts. But here’s one that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind.

The question came up of how he was able to forgive the men who killed his father Nate, along with Jim, Roger, Ed, and Pete. His response went something like this:

How could I forgive them? I haven’t. To forgive someone, you have to feel like you were really wronged. I never saw my mom or aunts [the other widows] express hard feelings about their deaths. It wasn’t until later that I realized I was “supposed” to hate them for killing my father. By the time that happened, I already loved them.

That response blew me away. How easily we get offended if someone treats us the wrong way! We are quick to anger, quick to bitterness, quick to hold a grudge. Steve’s answer shows us that there was something different in the lives of those families that we must learn, lest our own witness cause damage to Christ instead of testifying to His power, goodness, and love.

These women knew their purpose and were committed to it whole-heartedly. They went to the jungles in Ecuador to share the love of Jesus Christ, and their husbands’ deaths couldn’t get in the way. THAT’S why they stayed.

Does He call us to anything less?

Parable of the Prodigal Son (pt 2)

“I realize how sad He must be when we fail to see Him.” (Shane Barnard)

The Israelites had begun to develop a sense of entitlement. They were God’s chosen people, and that led them to feel superior to other nations. More righteous. More holy. Yet in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses addresses the nation one last time before they enter into the Promised Land. He says, in essence, “Look, you’re not entering this land because you’re so righteous that God decided to give it to you. In fact, you’ve done nothing but rebel against Him ever since He rescued us from the Egyptians.” (See Deuteronomy 9:6-12.) The Promised Land was a gift to them, something that God promised to their fathers, something God wanted to give them.

But I can’t help but wonder… Was the Promised Land the ultimate thing God wanted them to have? Or did God simply use that journey to invite them into His presence? After all, He led them through a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud. He fed them bread from heaven and gave them water from a rock. He directed them in battle against their enemies. Still, the Israelites had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years because they did not trust God.

Though they had experienced Him numerous ways every single day, they missed Him! What is blocking your view of God?

• Though the Israelites were often in God’s presence, they missed Him. Just like the older brother in our story. When is it easy for you to overlook His presence?
• Read Numbers 14:13-14. What had the other nations heard about Israel? Why was this so incredible?
• Read Romans 3:23-26 and 5:15-17. What gifts does God give us? How do they lead to a closer relationship with Him?
• Read Luke 19:10. Ask God to show you your own “lostness.” Pray that He would help you learn to see Him.

Parable of the Prodigal Son (pt 1)

Our church is currently doing a series on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, in Luke 15. It’s a familiar tale… but do we really understand what Jesus is saying?

“It’s not about the project,” our team leader told us. He was right. Our trip to Mississippi was not about the work we were doing to help clean up after Hurricane Katrina. It was about getting us in a place where we could hear from God. I found this all too true in my own life. While I had given God some room to work in my heart, there were still some things He wanted to change, and I had to be broken before that could happen.

You see, any type of wall I put up – whether of pride, independence, or bitterness – limits the way I allow God to work in my life. In Mississippi, God lovingly destroyed those walls and began challenging me with some questions:

- What needs to change in my heart before I can declare, “There is nothing on earth I desire but you” (Psalm 73:25)?
- What will it take to get to a place where I can genuinely say, “Don’t let me go anywhere unless you are there with me” (Exodus 33:15)?
- Am I like the man who was willing to sell everything in order to have God as my treasure (Matthew 13:44)?
- And, as Kelly Byrd asked, “Why, when I can have so much of God, do I settle for little?”

Perhaps I’m more like the older brother than I realize… wanting the “things” of God and yet missing Him in the midst of it all.

• What walls do you have up that limit the way you allow God to work in your life?
• Read Psalm 63:1-8. Look at the heading. When did David write this psalm? How do his words challenge you?
• Read Psalm 84. Why is the psalmist so eager to spend time in the “courts of the Lord”?
• Pray through Psalm 84. If you find that you cannot genuinely say those words, talk to God about it. What is getting in the way?

You can not banish me from my Lord

Read one of Spurgeon’s sermons this morning, and wanted to pass along these words to my family, and any others who are going through tough times. God is with us!

Such is the Providence of God; wherever you are, the eye of God will be upon you — as much upon you as if there were not another person in the whole world. If there were only one, you might think how much God would look upon that one; but he looks on each one of us as if there were no other created being, and nothing else in the whole world. His eye is fixed upon us at every hour, and at every moment.

You can not banish me from my Lord. Send me to the snows of Siberia or Lapland, I shall have the eyes of God there; send me to Australia, and let me toil at the gold diggings, there will he visit me. If you send me to the utmost verge of the round globe, I shall still have the eye of God upon me. Put me in the desert where there is not one single blade of grass growing, and his presence shall cheer me. Or let me go to sea, amid the howlings of the tempest and the shrieking wind, where the mad waves lift up their hands to the skies as if they would pluck the stars from their cloudy thrones, and I shall have the eye of God there. Let me sink, and let my gurgling voice be heard among the waves – let my body lie down in the caverns of the sea, and the eye of God shall be on every bone….

Wherever you may be, whatever may be your case, God will be with you. Whatever period of your life you may now be in, God is with you. His eye is at the bridal and at the funeral; at the cradle and at the grave…. In all seasons, at all times, in all dangers, and in all climates, there is the hand of God.

— Charles Spurgeon, God’s Providence

Just Keep Coming

It has been tough being back in Warsaw. Tough to just “pick up where I left off” when so much has changed. I certainly don’t have it all figured out, but I emailed the team tonight and shared what God has been teaching me. I was going to blog about it anyway, so I hope you’ll allow me to share from that…

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I sense Him saying, “Keep coming to Me… There’s more I want to show you. There’s more I want to teach you. Just keep coming…” We’ve gotten a taste of God. Are we hungry for more? Do we thirst for Him? Or are we satisfied with that tiny little glimpse we got? He has SO MUCH MORE that He wants to show us. It blows me away to know that God uses His Word and His Spirit to tell us what is on His heart. Who are we to know His thoughts? His plans for us? Who are we to hear His soft-spoken encouragement during tough times? Or His hearty cheer as we celebrate and praise? We are nothing, and yet He invites us to draw near to Him. He wants to share His heart with us… Are we willing to sit at His feet and listen to what He has to say?

That in itself has been a challenge to me. I also feel like I’ve been trying to duplicate that experience we had at Victory Temple. I remember His undeniable presence that night, and think that “if I just do this” or “if I just do that,” He will show up again. But God doesn’t work that way. He can’t be reduced to a formula. We can’t recreate that environment here. And even if we were to go back to Victory Temple and attend another service, it would be different. God wants to reveal Himself to us HERE… in a way that is different, but JUST AS POWERFUL.

Take “Beyond the Wall” for example (this event took place last Friday – 12 hours of prayer for our community, nation, and world). There were times we were praying together as a group that someone would just start singing a song, and everyone else would join in. And the Spirit was THERE. He was there that night as we worshipped together. He was being lifted up and glorified. He was also there on Saturday as we served together in the community. We may not have “felt” Him the same way, but He was THERE.

Whether I feel His presence or not, I know that He is always with me. That’s why we need both His Spirit and His Word. The Word shows us the Truth, even if it doesn’t “line up with” our experience. It shows us what is REAL. The Spirit guides us, comforts us, strengthens us… My prayer is that we wouldn’t believe the lies the enemy is whispering into our ears as we seek to serve God here in Warsaw, but that we would draw near to God and allow HIM to speak into our hearts and lives.

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If you’ve been on a similar trip before and have some words of wisdom or encouragement for our team as we try to transition back into life in Warsaw, please email me. :) We’d love to hear from you.

And if you haven’t had a chance to look at our team blog yet, please do. You’ll get to see the projects we worked on, the people we met, and have some idea of what happened while we were there. We’ll be putting up a slide show this week and wrapping things up.