So what kinda person are YOU?
I’ve been through childhood, school, feeling unsure of myself, I’ve be through college, learned many lessons in my 24 years of life… I am sure…just like every one of you. But the thing I think that I have learned the most out of all of it, is that not one of us is any better than the other.
We have all been through life. We have all experienced MANY MANY things that we don’t like to think about or talk about…things that make us ashamed or misunderstood.
We are all kinds of people… from all kinds of places… but God loves each one of us JUST AS MUCH AS THE OTHER.
So far on this race I have learned that …
The homeless… have the most JOY.
The exotic dancers & prostitutes want a second chance but don’t know where to go to find it… they feel ashamed and unwelcome by people…
Prisoners who have made mistakes in their lives but when you tell them about Jesus they don’t understand how one man could love SO MUCH to forgive them for what they have done.
Single moms who have put everything out on the line for their children before themselves and don’t realize by doing that they are already bringing kingdom to this earth.
People who suffer from depression, anxiety, guilt, and
shame …
People who made a mess with their family, friends and children and feel shame and guilt because of it… but don’t know how to change the situation they are in.
People who have been burned by religion, religion, religion… never truly knowing the heart of God.
The mentally and physically challenged …
Families who can’t afford house insurance… and
have to trust in God to feed their hungry stomachs and providing money, even when they have AIDs and do not have enough strength to work to earn money…
People with NUMEROUS doubts and questions and hang ups…
Young, old, rich, poor… We are all the same. We all have worries, we all have our
own unique stories that we have been through.
I LOVE nothing more than to hang out with ALL KIND S
OF PEOPLE.
People who judge by outward appearance instead of asking questions like do you believe in the bible or Go
d?… People who can accuse you of things without truly knowing your heart… GET TO KNOW THEM, SHOW THEM your HEART.
isn’t that what God would of wanted anyways. If that is the way that it seems than thank you VERY MUCH. I will take that as a complement!
Because everybody is invited… I want EVERYONE to feel invited. Jesus LOVES EVERYONE equally!!
Just ALWAYS remember: “its okay to not be okay” OKAY?
Jesus actually LIKES you and WANTS to meet you, not only that he want to EAT with you scripture tells us. Sharing a meal is symbolic with acceptance.
Luke 15
Greatest story ever told… Maybe you’ll learn something new!
This is a story that helps everyone see if you can admit.. “I’m not okay” Jesus says you are actually closer than the people who say “they are okay”. If you can admit that you are not perfect and you are still struggling than Jesus says that you are closer than you think!
This story retells the story of God.
3rd story
PRODICAL SON
There is a father who has two son’s.
Luke ch 14 Prostitutes and tax collectors are eating with Jesus and Luke says that’s not okay.
Prodigal means recklessly extravagant.
It is the reckless love of the father that is truly extravagant.
The younger son wants his share of his estate… essentially saying “Dad I don’t want you… I just want my money”. The dad divided the property/ money between his two sons. Property really means “life”. To lose part of your land was to loose part of you… your life… and add to that, humiliating the patriarch of the family.
No greater pain and heartache in this world than non reciprocated love of a family member.
There is a God and father who understands what it feels like to have rebellious kids…on a MASSIVE level.
God is valued above all things.
vs 15 He decided to get a job but only person who would take him is a man who hired him out to work with the pigs. The pig was a dirty animal in the Jewish mind, lowest of the low. He was so hungry he even thought about eating the pigs food.
“When he came to his senses”…how many times have you been there? Thinking…how did I end up here?
God is the solution, the one to help you overcome your mistakes. I used to find value in how the world saw me, but I woke up and realized there is one man that I need to be with. He truly loves us. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE ANY MORE than you already are. God helps us reintroduce ourselves to the world…
What happened to our aliveness?
We do, do and do and NEVER really live… It’s a “Dangerous Wonder” (Book)
How can we live our life with clarity, Passion wonder and spontaneity…how can we really LIVE?
If Christianity is simply about being NICE I’m not interested.
I am interested for people waking up to the light bulb in their head saying, “I realize I have been created more than this pigsty I am in”.
.
He sacrifices the fattened cow, this is his best for his son… his father understands that he is the only one that can make what is not okay with the younger son, once again okay between the two of them.
The older bro does not think that this is okay, he is upset.
But he is told “your brother has come home and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has returned”.
The older brother says all these years I have obeyed you but you’ve given me nothing… but you kill the fattened calf for the one who has left?
The father tells him…you are still my son, and everything I have is yours, but we must celebrate and be glad because we thought he was dead and now he is alive again.
The older brother thinks in terms of rights over relationship.
There are people who obey God to get things from God. It’s a subconscious mind set and it leads people to believe if I obey God he has to be good to me. It’s far more DANGEROUS than the reckless living of the younger brother because its rooted in rights not in relationship.
Rights vs. Relationship
It says God I’ve been good therefore you owe me. As oppose to relationship thinking God you’ve been good, therefore I owe you my life, everything about me. It wasn’t about rights its about RELATIONSHIP.
Tim Keller wrote a book titled “The Prodigal God”
He states if like the older brother one should believe that God should be good to you and bless you because you have worked so hard to be a good person, then Jesus may be your helper, your example and your inspiration, but you are serving as your own savior.
My sisters and I, we would die for each other. The LOVE that we have for each other because our mother and fathers love allows us to LOVE them… there are not words for how HUGE that LOVE runs. I read this story through that lens every time.
The way I see it…
When the young boy ran away the brother does nothing but whine and complain about him getting half of the inheritance. He does not go after his brother and convince him to stay home. He looses sight of his sta
nding with his father. He forgets or does not take into concern that he is at home with a house and being loved all the time by his father.
How many people, “Christians”, do we know have lost sight of the recklessly extravagant LOVE of God? How many churches are filled with church people instead of change people who do nothing but talk about petty issues. Issues that don’t matter at all… when Gods lost family is out there that are needing a home . How many Christians treat the bible like the bill of rights?
Well here is my commitment again: I’ll be ALL things for all people when Gods heart aches, I’ll be anything, I’ll go anywhere, I’ll be all things for all people if it means that just one more person could come to the loving embrace of Jesus Christ. To be loved and nourished, taken care of.
Paul even said “Ill give up my salvation my inheritance if it means just one more person would come to know Jesus”.
We can become so dumbfounded by his grace we get troubled by it. We have been used and abused
by people in life…
BUT when it clicks in our mind that he wants to serve US sincerely… that love transforms you to never go back to your old life. That’s what the love of God has done for me and I know MANY other people out there…
Make an invitation this week…tell your story… this is what God did for me and it transformed me….
There are many people who see life as a treadmill they are always running but never get anywhere.
It’s raining outside as I write this blog and it gets me thinking about all the people who
I have invested time in and how they don’t have homes or have shelter to cover them when it storms. It just does not sit right in my heart.
Prodigal God.
We cant settle with this …We have only reached a DENT of the people out there who have squandered life and love and just want a second chance but don’t know where to find it.
I never want to settle. The last thing I ever want is to become an “older brother”. I don’t want to become most people in most churches.
Luke 15 tells about people longing to find a place where they belong. Starts with Adam and eve. People who are aimless out in the world, wandering around… Jesus just wonders around talking to people… sinners …. Anyone and everyone.
Scripture says “Foxes have holes. Birds have nests, but the son of God has no where to lay his head”.
There is a DAD/ GOD who has been LOVE SICK for us. He did it all so WE could get HOME.
He was crucified outside the city. Rejected by his own people. His story is our story: “My god my god why have you forsaken me”. He did it so we could go HOME.… then and only then will everything be BETTER THAN OKAY. I want EVERYONE TO BE THERE.
LOVE WINS.
This blog was inspired by a podcast I listened to by Jon Weece, Senior minister of Southland Christian Church, Lexington, Kentucky.
