Dr. Barclay
Something To Think About: We have to have an attitude of love, welcoming everyone back to Christ, and rid ourselves of any attitudes of mockery and doubt.
Luke 15:11-31 Parable of the Lost Son
The younger son is the prodigal who goes off into the world looking for fun and excitement. The older son remains loyal and stays home with the father.
Due to the request of the younger son, the father divides his wealth between his two sons. Before he has died, he divided and gave away his wealth while still living.
After a time of sinful living, the younger son spent all the money the father gave him, he was destitute and hungry and finally gave up doing his own thing and went home and his father gladly received him with great celebration. Yet the older son who had remained faithful to the father was angry and questioned why his father would display such happiness and fanfare, when the prodigal son came home.
Luke 15:31“And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.”
The younger son represents believers in Christ who have gone astray. The older son represents, the pharisees, people who been in church, yet very cynical and self centered. God wants us to welcome everyone back into church and not be indignant or want our own way.
Matthew 23:27-28 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Pastor Caroline
Theme: God hears our prayers.
Do you ever wonder if God hears our prayers?
-Yes-We can rest assure, that God has a plan to fulfill our needs on a daily basis.
Do we recognize what God is doing when we pray?
-Yes-He is doing things for our benefit that we may not realize at the moment, such as keeping us safe in traffic, putting us in contact with the right people and keeping us healthy from colds and flu’s when we need to work.
Psalm 130:5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in His word I do hope.
When we need help and cry out to God, it is important to wait, we need to leave our problems with him and he will look after it.
We need to ask God every day what he would have us do, to further and grow his kingdom.
1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their prayers;
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
And His ears are open to their prayers;
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
When we stay in right standing with God, he will answer our prayers. If we are walking without Jesus, it is because we have stepped away of our own doing. However the Lord is always waiting for us to come back home to him.
No comments:
Post a Comment