The Prodigal God and the Older Brother

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You may have heard of the big best seller by Pastor Tim Keller called "Prodigal God" It's based on the beloved well known parable by Jesus usually called "The Prodigal Son." Pastor Keller explains the parable is really all about The extravagant Father who like God is constantly pouring His love on His children.

Lately I've been thinking allot about the older son with the attitude. We often overlook him because we all relate to the younger son who's the big screw up. Who hasn't messed up one time or another?

Sometimes though I can really relate to the older brother.

"Here I am stuck at church! Always the last one to leave. (NOT true, it just seems that way)

When are they going to appreciate what I do?!

Whine whine mutter mutter mutter!"

But thanks to our prodigal extravagant God a wrong attitude is easy to overcome! Notice in the parable The Father goes out to the older brother like he did for the younger. Even though his son is having a one man pity party, The Father knows just what to say to comfort his oldest son.

"You have always been with me and everything I have is yours!"

That's an awesome truth to consider when you realize who The Father is in the parable. And it helps me continue to do the right things and keep the right attitude.

Now if I could just figure out how to not let my right hand know what the left is doing without getting confused. :-)

Insurgency!

It's an insurgency!

It's all about God's love. We all know
God is real. We're witnesses.

One tells another, who tells a friend, who tells a family member, and so on and so on.

And now it's time to take it to the next level in our church. We've
all written down the names of all the people we've witnessed to.

They're our friends, our family members and coworkers and students.

Everyone taking the names with them to a special all church prayer
meeting tonight. That's both the main fellowship and our satellite
church as well.

It's like we're turning a corner as a church. The usual cliches like
"revival" somehow don't seem to fit. Who knows what's going to happen,
but going to be great!

Bit by bit, person to person lives are going to be changed.

It's an insurgency!

Overcoming Besetting Setbacks

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Sinus infection headaches are so the pits. It's not just the debilitating pain and feeling like my head is stuffed with cotton. It's the way the medication drags down my emotions.

The best thing anyone can do in that condition is not to take any of their thoughts seriously. Because everything is just going to be a sucked down the drain of depressed emotions. And if your emotions are already down from a disappointment, depressing medications are just going to make it even worse.

Take it from me, from the book of "been there, done that" it's a chain reaction you don't want any part of. Just let depressing thoughts fly in one ear and right out the other.

Because depression is the pits!

I'm a Witness

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Recently our pastor at Grace Fellowship reminded us that
God didn't call us to be His Lawyer. He called us to be witnesses.
Too many people try to argue everyone into The Kingdom usually
with bad results.

Of course some are really good at being God's lawyer. In fact they've built
an entire ministry around that idea. But even those people admit every one's
not the same as they are so they're going to be used by God in another way.

So I guess the bottom line is, be a witness. No one has to argue about that.
It's like this.

"Hey! I know God is the real deal. This is what The Lord did for me."

People can argue all they want. But they can't deny your story. You know it's true. And deep down no matter what they say they know, YOU know your story is true.

So what's my story?

God is not only the God of the second chance. He's the God of the third, forth and Nth chance. I know it's true. I'm a witness.

My life was a box full of broken pieces. It was a series of false starts and missed opportunities. Some things looked like I got them right and then I'd blow it again. To try and put it all together again right seemed impossible. And it was. For me that is, but not for God.

It was a little over a year ago I decided that I was going to commit to going to a local church. I was really going for it this time, broken pieces, issues, hang ups and all. If something came up, or if I messed up I was going to keep going forward. If people think I've got "freak" issues, so be it.

Besides it wasn't about me. There was my family to consider. And of course there's the fact that no one's getting any younger and what time is left over seems to be accelerating to warp speed!

Thankfully there were no freak issues. (Not yet anyway) And the family is coming along and becoming a part as well.

The tipping point for me was easy to mark. It was when I knew this really wasn't yet another false start. That was the day Grace Fellowship announced the launch date of their satellite church.

We were equal distance from both so for us it was a toss up. But as many of you already know when The Holy Spirit decides something for you, YOU KNOW IT!

All the broken pieces slowly started coming together in a way I couldn't have dreamed. It's not that I've arrived. (NO WAY)

This is the starting line.

LarryK12309
Grace North
Halfmoon NY

Introduction

Larry the Lucky Loser


In the end we're all losers. If you're lucky you don't have allot of stuff
to fret over, because when we die, none of it is going to really matter anyway.


Introduction


If you have any kind of Christian background you've heard of The Beatitudes.
This is where The Teacher espouses all these virtues that are contrary to
what the world believes. Things like being in a state of mourning or
knowing that you're really broke. As opposed to always striving to be
rich with all your desires fulfilled.

To that end I'd like to add "Blessed are the losers for in the end
they'll meet the one who's already won."

God doesn't like poor people more than than the rich. It's just that
poor people tend to give Him more cooperation.

In the same way, it's never good when tragedy strikes. But it's
in those times we see how fragile life is as we gather around and
get closer to God and to our loved ones.

And God doesn't want us to fail all the time. Yet when we do fail
that's when we can really learn what to do next.

"Blessed are the losers for in the end
they'll meet the one who's already won."