Greetings!
Jim has invited me here to do another post for the Refuge. Thank you again for this privilege, Jim.
Introduction
“The gospel is not at all what we would come up with on our own. I for one, would expect to honor the virtuous over the profligate. I would expect to have to clean up my act before even applying for an audience with a Holy God. But Jesus told of God ignoring a fancy religious teacher and turning instead to an ‘ordinary sinner’ who pleads, ‘God, have mercy…’ ” (Note1.)
The Sitting Room
“Throughout the Bible, in fact, God shows a marked preference for ‘real’ people over ‘Good’ people. In Jesus’ own words, “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Note1.)
“When it is a question of a sinner He does not merely stand still, open His arms and say, ‘Come hither’; no, He stands there and waits, as the father of the lost son waited, rather He does not stand and wait, He goes forth to seek, as the shepherd sought the lost sheep, as the woman sought the lost coin. He goes—yet, no, He has gone, but infinitely farther that any shepherd or any woman, He went, in sooth, the infinitely long way from being God to becoming man, and that way He went in search of sinners.” (Note 2.)
Working On The Foundation God Has Set –Jesus Christ, Himself…
“And what is the point of calling me, ‘Lord, Lord’, without doing what I tell you to do?”
“Let me show you what the man who comes to me, hears what I have to say, and puts it into practice, is really like. He is like a man building a house, who dug down to “Rock”-bottom and laid the foundation of his house upon it. Then when the flood came and flood-water swept down upon that house, it could not shift it because it was properly built. But the man who hears me and does nothing about it is like a man who built his house with its foundation upon the soft earth. When the flood-water swept down upon it, it collapsed and the whole house crashed down in ruins.” (Note 3.)
Set to Music
Thank You, Jesus for everything that You have done –“To Make It Right”!
Note(s)
1. Yancy. Philip Yancy, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997, pp. 54,55.
2. SØren Kierkegaard, Training In Christianity, Princeton: Princeton University Press,1947, p. 20.
3. Phillips. J.B. Phillips, The Gospels, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1952, pp.132, 133, Luke 6:46-49.
4. Third Day, “You Are Mine”
April 14th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I’m not going to hog this thread, I promise! But as I was listening to that song, I was thinking about how hard this whole process is, what some have referred to as “detox.” I think, for me anyway, it can feel safer to stay in control, to try to relate to God on my own, to somehow earn His favor. To just give it all up and trust Jesus, that can be really a very hard thing to do…and actually, somewhat confusing. I guess that’s grace.
Thank-you, Thomas, for once again pointing us to Jesus!
April 15th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Bree,
Thank -you. Again. you are welcome!
Jesus does not want us to come to him because we are afraid not to. Neither does he want us to stay away because we are afraid of him. Jesus wants us to both come to him expecting a blessing and expecting a reward!
Simply because that is who he is and that is exactly what he has in store for each of his friends.
April 16th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Thomas..thanks for your post…It gave me pause for thought… I revisited the story of the Prodigal Son and really looked at it…. The Father allowed him to have what he requested and watched him leave. The son thought he knew what he wanted with his life…(a big party) After the decision he made proved to be a wrong one he decided to return home not as a son but to work for his father …Here is the part that blessed me so greatly…. While he was still far off his father saw him returning and his father didn’t wait for him to get to the front door…His father didn’t wait for his son to ask for forgiveness…..His father knew he would ask for forgiveness and had already granted him that forgiveness…. His father forgave him the moment he saw him coming down the road and ran to meet him…. He didn’t wait for his son to take a bath to remove the smell of the hogs and the dust from his trip home… He embraced him in his filth and greeted him as the son he was….The son had taken the first steps towards returning thinking that he wouldn’t be accepted ….Oh how overwhelmed the son must have felt to have seen his father running towards him…Did he maybe think for a moment his father was going to chase him away? I am sure the son was overwhelmed with a sense of guilt and couldn’t contain his shame…I am sure it bubbled out of him as he fell into his fathers arms….. I am certain the son did ask for forgiveness… How amazing he must have felt when his Dad gave him the family ring and wrapped a robe around his shoulders and called him son….. When I left sgm I felt a lot like the son…I wondered if God would restore the joy of my salvation to me. I wondered if He would still find me acceptable….. How amazed I was to find Him waiting for me with the love and compassion that I so desperately needed. He set my feet upon a solid rock and gathered me under His wing and loved me gently like a mother cuddles her infant. I am so blessed to be out of the legalism of sgm and to have hope again. It has taken 3 years to get to the point that I am now but what a joy! The peace that passes all understanding is keeping my heart and mind in Christ Jesus! My focus has returned to Him and is no longer on trying to be good enough to be His child. He is convicting me of the things that He wants to change in me… I don’t have to be righteous according to anothers opinion of righteousness…Only according to His definition of righteousness… He sought me as a sinner and He will complete the work He started in me! Thank you Jesus!
April 16th, 2009 at 10:10 am
I hear you, Thomas. Oooooh, I could ask questions….but I promised! Darn.
I really like to learn. I want to understand. Much to ponder in those few sentences. First reading “expecting a reward” sounded like it couldn’t be right. It sounds like earning something. But then I remembered, “…He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Something is wrong with my thinking. : ) Yes, some of it SGM. I do wonder, though, about the mind and the heart, heard they are the same thing. Oh, and that belief and faith, the same thing, too. But I tend to make things difficult…
But two comments isn’t hogging, yet.
I will say this, you make Jesus sound very kind. And, yes, of course, in my mind I know this is Truth, always have. “Jesus loves me…” Either I’m still equating Jesus with the church or else I still have messed up views about how we relate to Him. Or maybe even who He is.
I think there’s this: having the knowledge, knowing the Scriptures, I can keep all of that at a distance, sort of. I don’t mean not obeying it. I mean knowing doesn’t seem to equate with understanding, or something like that. That’s not even it. I can read commentaries, books and yet still be missing Jesus–somehow. Maybe the legalism gets in the way… Maybe I don’t need these answers–the why. I do feel like I need to delete a ton of what I’ve come to believe that isn’t right–or even is right but is over-emphasized and ignores other truth. Kind of like starting from scratch.
Martie, thank-you for sharing that. It was very encouraging. I can see that there are things I don’t understand, growing and learning I have yet to do. And it helps so much knowing others have gone through the same thing and have become so close to Jesus. So I have hope. 3 years? That seems like a long time. But I can see I have much to look forward to. I’m so thankful for this way to connect to others who have gone before and point the way straight to Jesus.
April 16th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Bree,
I am glad you gleened something from what I said…. The 3 years part is just how long it took me…Your time may be shorter or longer but it will be God’s timing…. I had a lot of anger and bitterness that he had to erase from my heart and I fought Him hard at times thinking I had a right to be angry because I felt I had lost a part of my life but…. I learned some things that were good during my time with sgm. I was just having to weed out the truth from the wrong interpretation of scripture… I am not completely there yet but the joy I have now is something that disappeared bit by bit while I was at sgm. The secret is letting Jesus be a risen Savior…The work WAS completed on the cross…. But that work included resurrection of the dead…. I am promised eternal life and that life started already! When He convicts me of my sin I am to look at Him and turn my eyes away from me… When He convicts me I acknowledge my sin to Him and if it is against someone else I ask forgiveness… If it is between me and God I ask forgiveness and ask for strength to turn from it. If He tells me to confess to someone else I do…It is called trust and obey… Remember the words to that song…Trust and Obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey… It isn’t trusting others…It is trusting that I hear Jesus voice and He tells me what to do… I hear His voice through His word and through my heart being convicted/ convinced of things that are supported by His word…. Hang in there Bree…You are on the right track…God is at work in you and He WILL complete the work… Don’t get caught in the time game…. Just enjoy the day as it is given to you…. Look for kisses from the King…They are wonderful words from His word that jump out at you or they are something like a beautiful flower or hearing a bird singing a song of joy…. He gives us kisses everyday! He delights in us…. He isn’t sitting on His throne waiting for us to make a mistake so He can punish us…. He loves you with an everlasting love….
April 16th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Martie,
Thank-you again for sharing your personal journey with me. We attended a new “church” last Sunday for the first time since we left our SG church. The pastor said something that sounded so profound (because it relates directly to the detox from SGM). He was talking about looking for joy and happiness in the wrong places, like our own efforts, family gathering, the idea of a fresh start. But he said all of those lead to a dead end. He said we’re like the women (at the tomb) looking in the wrong place for Jesus. We’re looking for the living among the dead. Isn’t that just what you said? It was so uplifting to hear. Refreshing.
I do have trouble being patient. But it does help me to hear about others progressing, even if it may take longer than I’d like. : )
I really love that idea of kisses from the King. I so much want to live my days seeing God as good and loving. I’m seeking Him on the things I don’t understand. I’ve been encouraged (by others) a few times today that the Holy Spirit will lead me into all Truth. I believe that, Lord, help my unbelief.
In Him,
Bree
April 16th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
When a person from a middle eastern background reads the Prodigal Son story, he sees it differently than we do: he is profoundly SHOCKED and SCANDALIZED by the thought of the Father running to his wayward son.
This would never happen in a middle eastern scenario–we Westerners see the son trotting off with half the father’s wealth as naughty or greedy.
Someone from the middle east understands the true meaning of that action in the correct cultural context:
When the son demanded his inheritance, it meant that the son wished that the father was DEAD.
So for the Father to run to the one who cared so little for him that he would rather his Father was dead is scandalous. The only option the son had, in that culture, would be extraordinary self-abasement and groveling–probably longterm enslavement to pay the debt.
Yet instead he finds a Father running to him, not caring about his flapping robes and the neighbors’ wagging tongues and derisive laughter.
Yet isn’t that what our Abba does? In our rebellion and pain, we wander, yet he is always watching and waiting and running to restore us.
Such a God! Such a God!
April 17th, 2009 at 11:54 am
What a wonderful addition to the story of the prodigal son ! thank you RT for sharing that….It makes my undersatnding of the story even more powerful…. We serve such a loving caring forgiving Father…. He loves us so deeply…Our english language just doesn’t have adequit words to express how much He loves us….
Bree, God is at work in you …How excited you must be to know that God loves you enough to lead you to truth!
April 17th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
The One of the best sermons I have read/heard on the “The Prodigal Son” is Tim Keller’s “The Two Prodigal Sons.” He emphasizes that the parable is not only about one son, but BOTH sons. Jesus is using the parable to illustrate that BOTH — the religious Jews and the irreligious Jews need to return to the Father. He says that BOTH kinds of people need the Gospel. This sermon was made into a book, The Prodigal God.
If you want to listen to his sermon, click below:
http://download.redeemer.com/s.....l_Sons.mp3
If you want to read the transcript of it, please email me, then I will send you an attachment. Reading it has its benefits. Very, very, very insightful.
April 17th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Hi all
I thought you might like to read a blog entry on my site. I have done a scathing review of CJ Mahaney’s book, Humility. I call it False Humility, True Hypocrisy. The name of my blog is The Wartburg Watch. Go to http://www.thewartburgwatch.com. click on the word blog at the top of the page. We are doing a look at lots of Christian issues. Neither of us are or have been SGM members but we believe that it is influencing lots of churches.
Blessings
D
April 18th, 2009 at 3:50 am
I juz had’ta see “dis “carpenter who came from the wrong side of the tracks…”
Thank You Jesus fer coming ta get me!
I come from da wrong side of da tracks too!
I am so grateful, Jesus!
Your Sopy ;~)