Prodigal (recklessly extravagant, having spent everything)
I recently started reading a book titled ” The Prodigal God) my pastor gave it to me as somewhat of an assignment, I’m not one for assignments or homework but he is a Duke fan so I let it slide. At the same time he told me i need to read the book of Ephesians which i have never read. The author of the Prodigal God Tim Keller begins the book by referring to the book of Luke and how Jesus attracted two types of people when he was on earth. First there were the ” Tax collectors and sinners” which i see today as the modern day Gangsters, the homeless, the porn stars, the criminals, just the broken people who were primarily looked down on by society. Second he attracted the “Pharisees and the teachers of law” which i see as the suit and tie dude who goes to church three days a week with his nose high in the air, or the CEO who is afraid of, or annoyed by the homeless person chilling on the street. When Jesus first started his preachings the sinners were drawn to him in fact they flocked to him. This pisssed off the pharisees. Here is a man who is claiming to be the son of God yet he is eating with prostitutes and criminals, which you just do not do at this time in the world. At this time Christianity was new to the world and was considered non religious or rebellious. Tim Keller put it by saying imagine Religious people coming up to these new Christians and asking where is your temple? The christians would reply oh ya we don’t have one of those. So they would ask where do your priests work? The reply would be we don’t have preists either. Getting more and more pissed by each reply they would ask, then what sacrifices do you make? The response is my favorite part of the book. “Jesus himself is the temple to end all temples, the priest to end all priests, and the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. This is so legit to me! I took this to heart Jesus doesn’t care where we worship. It doesn’t have to be in a fancy temple it can be on the street corner, or in the woods, or anywhere it doesn’t matter where you are thats the point. I also took at as he made us all preists we can all teach his word, what qualifies me to go around the world and preach to people in need, Me a dirty tatted up guy who smoked weed, drank, and had sex for most of my life. Only Gods grace! Ephesians 3 4-7 states ” When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of man in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. This mystery is that the gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Jesus Christ thru the Gospel. Of this gospel i was made a minister according to the gift of Gods grace, which was given to me by the works of his power”. So for my friends who are “Good christians don’t forget where you came from and that God chose you, and for my friends who either don’t believe in God or feel like they are looked down upon, if Jesus was here today he would want to be hanging out with you more than anyone else. Somewhere along the way Christians really messed up by trying to put on this front like they had it all together thats not the case at all we needed Jesus because we were broken, and how dare a Christian look down upon another man or women or not associate with someone because of his or her baggage, thats the exact opposite of what Jesus did. Im going to end with this verse which should really make some of you think. In Matthew Jesus enters a temple and is talking to some priests and elders who are questioning his authority and the people he is hanging out with. In chapter 21-31 Jesus said ” Truly i say to you, The tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you do. For John came in his righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did, and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.
