Grace for the Prodigal Son - Sep. 24, 2008

Posted in Inspirations

The second session of Philip Yancey’s study What’s So Amazing About Grace has a segment about the story of the prodigal son. I knew it was coming. We’d seen a snippet in the first session. I just wasn’t prepared for it so soon. You see, the story of the prodigal son is very personal to me. I’m the parent in the story.

Now, I’m sure that you’ve either read or at least heard of the story of the prodigal son found in Luke 15:11-32. It’s the story of a son who is impatient to grow up. He’s tired of being under his father’s rules and feels he’s ready to take on the world. He argues to receive his inheritance now and wins. With a fistful of dollars and a head full of stubbornness, he sets out to create a life for himself. But is he truly being rebellious or just independent? I think what happens next sheds a little more light on this young man’s character.

Not long after that, the younger son got together all had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth on wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in the whole country, and he began to be in need. Luke 15:13-14

He “squandered his wealth on wild living.” That sounds an awful lot like he really wasn’t ready to be quite so independent.

So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. Luke 15:15-16

Now he’s living in a field with pigs and the pigs are eating better than himself. Talk about an eye opener! Life isn’t turning out as spectacular as he thought it would. It’s good to know that in the next few verses his thought return to his father and the kindnesses his father has shown to even his lowliest servant. It’s time to go home.

I know many of us have our own prodigal son stories of teenage rebellion, but my story is from the side of the parent. I have my own prodigal son, as did my mother and my grandmother. I have a son, Matthew, who is out trying to find life according to him.

Whenever I read this story in the Bible, I understand the anguish the father must have felt when he had to let his son go in spite of knowing he wasn’t ready for the world. It isn’t written on the pages of the story, but I assure you, he knew. And when he learned of the famine in the country, how he must have worried knowing his son was in the midst of it. How many times did he look out the window or down the road and wonder what became of his son? Did his heart leap to his throat every time a stranger came to the door wondering if they carried bad news about his son? I know the prayers the father must have said daily. “Please, God, keep him alive long enough that he comes to know You.”  I know because I pray that same prayer for the son I haven’t seen in almost two years and haven’t heard from in almost a year.

Even though I can identify with the father at the beginning of the story, I always wonder if I’ll have his grace at the end of the story. I have no doubt that if a car pulled up in front of my house, and I saw my Matthew getting out that I would fling the door open wide, race down the walk, and wrap my arms around him. I’d probably even walk him into the house, and we’d celebrate over his favorite foods, but do I have the grace to let him stay if he wanted to? That question has plagued me for a very long time. Do I have the depth of forgiveness and grace that the father showed the son? That Jesus shows us? I’m sad to say that I know I do not. However, there’s more to the story.

The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” Luke 15:21

The son was truly repentant. We often read and hear of the father’s unconditional love for his wayward son, and we cling to the thought that Jesus loves us unconditionally but we gloss over the real repentance we must experience first. His forgiveness is there for the taking, but we do have to ask. I can forgive my son in my heart and desire to extend grace to him, but until he actually wants it, it stays inside of me. For now, I’ll just keep praying and learning and preparing myself to ask for my own forgiveness from my son.

So, I leave you with these questions from Philip Yancey to ponder as your read Luke 15:11-32:

• When has God shown great love to me during a time of sin or waywardness?
• Who are the “prodigals” in my life – in my family, in my circle of friends, in our church fellowship? How can I reach out to them with the grace of Jesus?
• When has someone whom I have hurt or offended shown grace to me?
• Is God’s Spirit prompting me to respond in love toward someone who has wronged me?

Thanks for stopping by today. I think I need something a bit stronger than tea after today’s story. Maybe something with Chocolate?!

Betty

Grace and peace be yours in abundance. 1Peter1:2b

• 2 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Grace for More Than a Moment - Sep. 15, 2008

Posted in Inspirations

I started a new Bible Study this past week. Because of our homeschool and work schedules around here, I don’t get a chance to join group studies very often. You can imagine how thrilled I was when our church offered a daytime study. Although I’m not too sure if I’m as thrilled about the book as I am the group.

We are studying Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace? It seemed a logical follow-up to the Women of Faith Infinite Grace Conference, and let’s face it, we could all use a refresher about extending grace. Besides, who doesn’t love a stirring a capella version of Amazing Grace? However, I found the first session on the DVD, which was really just a teaser of thing to come, a bit unsettling. Some of the topics raised will be hitting very close to home, and some will be quite controversial. I’m willing to hear the speakers out, but I don’t know that I’m going to be in a big hurry to agree with their point of view. I’ll keep you posted as the study progresses.

Anyway, I will share this with you about the first session. It made me think. A lot. First, Yancey asked us to define grace. What is your first response to the word grace? I thought of girl’s name and what we say before dinner. We enjoy the ministrations of a gracious hostess, and leave a gratuity for good service in a restaurant. A lady in our study group envisioned a ballerina and explained that the word grace makes her think of the flowing movements of a dancer or gymnast. Not one of us thought of the church, and neither did anyone in Yancey’s informal survey. Why is that? The church is the one and only place where we should be experiencing grace.

Yancey reminded us that for all of the services that the church offers, a non-church group can provide the same. The church can feed the homeless, but so can the United Way. The church can send supplies to areas devastated by natural disaster, but so can the Red Cross. The church can build homes for the poor, but so does Jon Bon Jovi. Grace is the one thing that is solely the church’s to provide.

So, the second point Yancey really wanted to drive home was why aren’t we offering that grace? I really had to stop and think about that. Is the church, as a whole, not showing the grace it should or is our impression of a lack of grace based on media hype over the views of a few extremists? I really do have a limited scope of things, though. As I’ve said before, I make no apologies for not being a huge global thinker, but I know what I see in my own church, and I know what I see in my pastors, my friends, my family, and myself. And I think that, in some ironic way, that microscopic view of the church on a cellular level is actually the better example of the big picture of grace in the church. I simply cannot agree with an outsider’s opinion of the church lacking grace when I see it embraced, extended, and experienced every day. Furthermore, I also refuse to let the opinion of people who have not felt God’s ultimate example of grace for themselves bother me. However, I find myself a bit more fired up to show the world, one person at a time, that very same grace.

Thank you for stopping by. I’ll be posting more about the study as the weeks progress. Like I said, it looks interesting. Now, how about a little more tea?

Betty

Grace and peace be yours in abundance. 1Peter1:2b

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Tiny Apples - Aug. 21, 2008

Posted in Inspirations

A couple of years ago, when I was just beginning my foray into home canning, I checked out every book the library had to offer. I poured over relishes, chutneys and preserves, savoring the idea of creating these concoctions in my own kitchen. However, nothing dazzled me like the pictures of home-canned jellies. Apple Jelly. Mint Jelly. Candy Apple Jelly. Peach Jelly. These gold, red, and green jellies glowed like precious jewels reflecting the candlelight. Then I read the recipes and blew out that candle real quick.

You see, to make jelly, you chop up your fruit and boil it, peels, core, and all, until there is nothing of value left and then after letting it drain for 12 hours, you make the jelly out of just the juice. Yes, you read that right, jelly is made from just the juice of the fruit. The mush left behind makes great compost or slop for the pigs but not much else. Every time I even entertained the idea of making jelly, I looked at those lovely apples and peaches and just couldn’t bring myself to do what I believed was completely destroying everything good and healthful about the fruit itself.  That is until I was given a box of apples that made even “lunchbox” size apples look like Goliath.

Friends of ours just bought a home in North Carolina that came with about a dozen apple trees. The trees were beautiful but not well tended for the last couple of years. The lack of attention and proper pruning produced an abundance of very small fruit. Our dear friends decided to bless us with a box of these apples when they came back to Florida for a two-month visit.

So, this box was full of these very small apples. I held one in my hand trying to decide what to do with it. Just eating it was an idea except that it would only take two bites to get to the core. In fact, the apple was more core and peel than actual apple. What was I going to do with all these apples? Then I remembered those jelly recipes. These were just the right kind and size apples to create my very own jewels.

Now, if you’ve been reading my blog regularly, you know that God likes to mix a blog of His own into the middle of my story. Today is no different. You see, I used those apples, every ounce of them, to create jars of jelly whose colors glowed and danced in the light like jewels. I chopped them up and simmered them down, core, peel, and all, until they looked nothing like their former selves. When I first looked at the process for making jelly, I thought I was destroying everything of value in my fruit, but I was actually releasing the very best part.

There are times when I feel like those apples, so small physically, mentally, and even spiritually to be of any good to God. If the world took a single bite out of me, I’d disappear. Yet, He can use me. All of me. Even in those moments when I feel so small, so useless. He might have to take those parts of me that I find unusable and simmer them a bit to bring out just the right ingredient and then add a little sugar as a preservative like Psalm 33 and a little pectin to hold it all together like  2Timothy 2:19. He can create a jewel in me. All I have to do is let Him.

Thanks for stopping by. For no particular reason, today seems extra special to me. How about we pop open that last jar of strawberry jam and enjoy a couple of biscuits with our tea?

Betty

Grace and peace be yours in abundance. 1Peter1:2b

• 5 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

<- Last Page • Next Page ->