When God Ran

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"So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." - Luke 15:20

  The story of the prodigal son is familiar to most.  We associate the compassion of the Father in the parable to the compassion of the Lord our God, and therefore the son becomes representative of you and I.  Dirty, smelly and filled with shame we have struggled and failed time and time again only to return to God, the Father seeking His acceptance.  Flip the pages back though and look at the beginning of the story.  We find the young, arrogant, self-righteous son demanding his portion and freedom from his father’s control.  His father honor’s the request and watches, I’m sure with tear filled eyes, as his son walks away into a world of hardship and pain.  The son chooses to leave the loving comfort that the father was providing.  The safety, the warmth and security of his father’s care discarded and deemed unworthy to this young man. 

We can picture a young man tired of being under his father’s thumb, abiding by his father’s rules, and having to tend to his father’s work.  I’m sure you can relate to his philosophy of desired independence and breaking away to prove to his father and the world that he can do it better on his own, alone, despite their warnings.  Do you think the son was crying as he walked away from his father that day or joyful?  This young man, ready to take on the world, walks away, proud and strong-minded.  He lives it up, wallowing in the lusts of the flesh and mind, and rolling in the mire of unrighteousness, only to find it painful and empty in the end.   Soon he finds himself struggling with the life he so much desired to have. Desperation sets in and we find the son longing to be in the presence of his father once again.

Can you relate to this story?  I can.  I find it representative of society in the 21st century.  We see many youth falling into this mode of longing for something different than what their parents can provide.  Longing for that independence and self-indulgence, to prove that they can make it on their own.  Living out the desires of their flesh, without concern for the impact on others or themselves for that matter.  How long will it take for society and the worldly values to overtake the ingrained values from their family structure?  At what point will we find today’s youth turning back to God, recognizing the error of their ways and seeking acceptance by the One they have intentionally denied?  We have found that so many of them are lost today.  They are led by the enemy to believe that they are unworthy of God’s forgiveness and beyond His acceptance into heaven.  From this perspective, we find them refusing to accept His existence.  By refusing God’s existence, they can continue in their sinful life without any fear of condemnation.

The good news is that God’s compassion, grace and mercy are sufficient for any sin, lust or addiction they can compile.  Regardless of the depths of their destructive nature and lust filled ambitions, the God of the Universe offers up a forgiving grace that is sufficient for their redemption.  His only requirement is the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  Returning to an acknowledgment of God’s presence and authority over life, just as the Prodigal Son did.  In doing so, these individuals will find God’s arms strong, loving and open to embrace them where they are.  This is not a situation where they need to clean themselves up first and then come to the Lord.  No, for you see they could never clean themselves sufficiently enough to stand in His presence.  His love is beyond the surface, beyond the sin and filth that make up our lives.  He loves us for who we truly are inside – His child; and when we return to Him, a celebration will take place in heaven.

Our role is to ensure that this youthful generation knows that they are not lost in God’s eyes.  As they seek for that religion of “acceptance” it is critically important that they fully understand God’s love for them and His limitless grace.  They need to know that there is nothing they can do to make themselves presentable, yet even in their state, God will accept them.  Be conscious of those in your circle of influence and reach out to them where they are.  Share the good news of grace and of mercy with them, so that they are aware of God’s love for them.  You can’t save them, only God can; but you can help them see.  Be blessed.

PRAYER:

Heavenly Father,

  You have given us your amazing grace, that no-one, not one shall fall short of your love.  Help us to be busy about sharing your grace with others and encouraging them wherever they are that your love is real.  Remove condemnation from our mind and heart as we reach out to the world with compassion upon our lips.  Compassion for those in sinful lives, those who are in the mire of the world’s values and living in the lie of the great deceiver, who has told them they are unforgivable.  Give us your tear filled eyes, that we might see them as the Father accepting his lost son home again.  For it is through Your Son – Jesus Christ that we pray – Amen
             

© Sondove Enterprises, 2013
For more Daily Thoughts go to: http://sondove.blogspot.com

Pray, Be Patient, Pray Again

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"It is time for the Lord to act; they have frustrated Your law."    
- Psalm 119: 126

   Man's weakness - pride and patience. We have been raised in a society that says if you want it go get it and worry later about how you will afford or deal with the consequences. Live for today and satisfy the desire of youre heart now, for you never know if tomorrow will come. This self centered thinking occupies the mind of most people raised in the later 20th and early 21st century. When we come before the Lord with requests for change, purpose or direction; so many times we are expecting these changes to be immediate. It is so easy to put aside the reality that the Lord's timing is perfect.

  Lack of visible interaction from the Lord often leads an individual to grow weak in their faith. This desire for immediacy is solved in so many areas of our lives that we become agitated with the things we can't control on our time table. When times are good, it's so easy to take control from the Lord and walk with confidence in our ability against the struggles that come our way. When the tide turns and the times become more difficult, we reach out for the Lord to solve our problems. We expect that He will work them with the same urgency that we would have applied if we had control.

  A few data points to consider the next time you go before the Lord with a prayer request:

        - Jesus Christ walked the earth for 30 years before He called His first disciple. But when the time was right the Lord acted swiftly and with precision for 2 years to influence and touch as many people as possible.

        - David was a teenager when Samuel came and ordained him as the future king of Israel. It was not until he was 30 years old when he was actually made King of Israel.

        - Moses spent 40 years with Pharoah in Egypt, but was continually drawn to compassion for the Hebrew slaves, one could say this was an early sign of how God would use him. After fleeing Egypt, he spent another 40 years in Midian before God appeared to him and chose Moses to lead the people from Egypt to the Promised Land. He followed God's directions to bring the people out of Egypt, and then spent another 40 years in the wilderness leading the rebellious children of Israel. In these 40 years he wrote the 1st five books (Torah) of the bible - revealed firectly from God and also received God's laws directly. Moses like all of us though did not always listen to God and was denied entry into the Promised Land because of his transgressions.

  These are just 3 examples of God's perfect timing and the willingness of these men to abide in His plan and control. We all lack the patience required to truly serve God, because our pride gets in the way. Our desire to control the outcome typically gets in the way of our ability to see God's plan through to fruition. The sooner we come to an understanding that His plan for our life is so much greater than anything we can imagine; and then become comfortable that God's timing will be perfect and will not likely meet my desires; the sooner we can get to work for God.

  You want to know His purpose in life, follow the very next thing He tells you to do and do it - no matter how small or how large it is. Abiding in His directions shows obedience to His will and strengthens our ability to hear from Him.

  You want to know why God's not responding to your prayers, keep praying and listening. God desires for you to trust in His plan, and to give Him control. Trying to solve your problems on your own shows just the opposite. If you don't hear an answer immediately, be patient and keep trusting that He heard you and has already designed a timeline for the solution. Swallow your pride, pray, be patient, pray again - that's my philosophy. I suggest that it will work for you as well.

             

© Sondove Enterprises, 2013
For more Daily Thoughts go to: http://sondove.blogspot.com

Stop and Look Around

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“Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” – Titus 2:12-13

I have always found this scripture to be reassuring and challenging.  Daily we are bombarded with opportunities for unrighteous, ungodly behavior.  The world is filled with lustful desires and tempting distractions, causing each of us to take a step back and ask ourselves, “What if Jesus were with me right now?” 

One of the things they teach you in press training is never say something that you would not want on the cover of the Wall Street Journal the next morning.  Truthful, factual and authentic words must be carefully planned before they ever leave your lips.  It is so easy in today’s fast paced world to say something that you didn’t truly mean, regardless of what the intent might have been.  So it is with our actions.  People get caught up in the moment and one thing leads to another and suddenly they’ve gone too far.  What is it about our desire to impress, to blend in and to create an image of acceptance that drives us to step over that boundary of righteous behavior? 

We are bound by an inherent evil of the flesh and desires of the heart in this world.  It isn’t something that only impacts a select group of individuals, or a small percentage of the populous.  The real question is not whether we are all sinful.  The answer to that is unequivocally yes, it is in every single one of us from Kim Kardashian to Billy Graham, we are all captive by the sinful nature of mankind.  The real question is around our adherence to the convictions of the Holy Spirit and our ability of each of us to deny this nature and seek the righteousness and godliness of our Savior – Jesus Christ.  The more control we give over to the God and the Holy Spirit the easier it becomes to resist the temptations when they arise.  There is where the real problem comes into play.  We look at the lustful desires of our heart and choose to pursue them.  It is a choice we are making to refuse God’s will for our life and pursue that which we know to be against His righteousness. 

There are areas in my life where I have to constantly be reminding myself that where I go, I take God (in the Holy Spirit) with me.  I am dragging the perfection of our King and Almighty Father into the depths of Hell and evil by decisions I am making in my life.  I know I’m not alone in this struggle.  I know that the likelihood is, that as you are reading this you are also scouring through your mind those areas where you know you have given in to the cravings of your flesh and the lustful desires of your heart.  It might be in the area of work, greed, materialism, sex, drugs, alcohol, food and yes even violence. 

Have you noticed that in the valley’s of your life, you probably had taken the steering wheel back with full intent of controlling the curves in your life – only to end up in the ditch.  Today is the day for you to lay it out there for the Lord to deal with.  By confessing it to the Lord, seeking repentance for your thoughts and transgressions you begin down a new path of righteousness with God.  Give Him the steering wheel and I promise that the car will stay out of the ditch.  There is one simple question to ask yourself when you are faced with a decision of unrighteous, ungodly behavior; “What if this ends up on the front page of the Heavenly Street Journal tomorrow morning?”   In most cases, knowing that Jesus Christ is returning at any moment, you should also be asking yourself; “If I were entertaining Jesus Christ would I bring Him to this event (situation or action)?”  If, in His physical presence, you would not choose the same way, than you probably realize that the activity is probably unrighteous and you shouldn’t be taking the Holy Spirit there either.  The right thing to do is take 2 minutes, pray about it and ask God to make your mind clear on the decision that will best uplift His glory.

PRAYER:
Heavenly Father,
We are captured in the sinful nature, passed on from generation to generation.  We are drawn like moths to a light, bees to honey and ants to a picnic; to the temptations of evil in this world.  We are surrounded by temptations of lust, desires, greed, food and so many other areas that we cannot stand without Your strength.  So Lord, we beseech You to build a fortress within each of us to stand strong against the evil in this world; keeping our eyes focused on Your return to bring us home.  Forgive us for our weakness and our choices to pursue our flesh and not Your will in our lives.  Help us to become filled with Your Holy Spirit so that every decision is righteous in Your eyes and represents Your glory to all that we come in contact with.  In Your precious name we pray - Amen

             

© Sondove Enterprises, 2013
For more Daily Thoughts go to: http://sondove.blogspot.com

Do Something

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“if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9

Some of the sweetest words to ever fall upon my ears are the words from a child of mine stating, “Daddy, I believe that Jesus died for me and rose again so I can go to heaven someday.”  The grace of the Lord has fallen upon my family and we are blessed to be able to serve the Lord.  I wholeheartedly believe in the Holy Word of God, written and captured by His disciples and the apostles of the early church, that salvation comes to those who profess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  I rest in that truth and long for the witness and understanding of knowing that my family and friends are likewise blessed with eternal salvation. 

If you woke in the morning and Jesus Christ were standing at the foot of your bed, what would your first reaction be?  Would you fall at His feet and beg forgiveness?  Would you reach for His hand and feel His authority and power sweep through your veins?  Would you raise your hands in praise and worship?  For many people, unless this were to happen, they are unable to accept His existence.  Without the physical proof that this man, Jesus, walked the earth, died and rose again; they are incapable of coming to this point of redemption in their life.  It takes a faith beyond explanation and understanding.  There is no physical proof, no logical reasoning or guaranteed eyewitness encounter.  A follower of Jesus Christ is doing so completely based on the acceptance that there is something after death, and that something is either eternal life in the abyss of Hell, or an eternal life reunited with God the Father in heaven.

For those that deny this faith based belief, can only fall into one of 2 camps. 

1)      They have no belief that there is something after death.  They believe that we only have the here and now for as long as we are on this planet.  Once we are six feet under it is over.  This is a life without hope, without purpose or meaning.  It is a life that is focused on living today and today only, for if tomorrow they were hit by a bus it would matter not.

2)      There is a large group of individuals that refuse to believe that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to an eternal life.  This group of individuals generally believe in a supreme authority and hold onto a belief that this authority has control over the earth and all that is within.   They will believe that a person Jesus from Nazareth likely walked the earth and most believe he was a righteous and even prophetic man, but they cannot accept his deity.  They justify their beliefs by stating that this supreme authority is loving and therefore would allow for many paths to an eternal life, or even a resurrected life (as some would believe). They will deny the words of the disciples and apostles as truth and refute the entire New Testament as the Word of God, because it is too restrictive.

The reality is that they cannot accept the message of grace.  God’s plan of salvation is not complicated, and often times people try to make it so.  Salvation comes from believing and confessing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and believing that He indeed lived, died and rose again.  From that point of acceptance, by the grace of God, we are granted salvation from an eternity in Hell.  But, that is just the beginning.  The new birth represents a new life of living for the One who gave you that salvation.  No, it does not create a perfect human being.  We are still overflowing with a propensity to sin, because of our human nature; but we realize that our sins are covered by His act of compassion on the cross of Calvary. 

The power of following Christ comes from knowing that God’s love is available to every one of us, and is all powerful.  That only by His grace are we saved, not by anything we can do.  To dwell in heaven with God for eternity will require that we become perfect.  He demands perfection, which is impossible to achieve, and therefore He created a bridge to close the gap between His demands and our inadequacy.  This bridge was the sacrifice and death of His Son to cover our imperfections.  This single act is the foundation that differentiates Christianity from every other religion.  There is no possibility to achieve perfection through human works, for we cannot even fathom what the perfection of God looks like.  We are only capable of entering heaven because Jesus’ death and resurrection became the sacrificial offering to cover our sins before we were even born.

True salvation will open your heart for the Holy Spirit to dwell within you, and create a conviction that requires redemption, or turning away, from sinful acts.  The realization of living in sin brings one to the conversion in life that is led by the Holy Spirit, to become more Christ-like in our actions.  Becoming like Christ is an impossible task, for He was perfect in every way, but through continued study of God’s Word and communicating with the Holy Spirit within, we daily get stronger and closer to our Savior. 

This is the message to share with your children, your family and your friends.  For without this decision in life, they will be lost forever; and if you truly love them as you say you do, it should matter to you.  I’m sharing it with you in hopes that you in turn will share it with those you care about.  Don’t be afraid or embarrassed, there is nothing more important in your or their life; is there?   
 

© Sondove Enterprises, 2013
For more Daily Thoughts go to: http://sondove.blogspot.com