Prodigal Grace

As we have been studying Luke 15 and the parable of the Prodigal Son, there was an element that stood out to me. The son found himself destitute and came to himself. He tells himself, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants." Listen to what the son is saying. He has a plan to work himself into the father’s presence. The son is willing to confess what he has done, but also has set the conditions of his acceptance into the household. If I serve you, you will provide for me again. I will earn my keep and have a place in your house. Maybe you will even forgive me someday. It’s a plan. See this young man in his soiled tatters walking along the path; rehearsing over and over the speech which he hopes will get him a place in the father’s house. When his father sees him and runs to embrace him, the son starts to give his rehearsed speech. "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But, before the son can utter what he will do to fix this, how he will be a servant, his father embraces him and calls for a robe, sandals, and the symbol of his son ship, the ring. The father allowed the son to confess his transgression and repent, but prevents him from making it about what his child will do for him, but instead made it about the father’s forgiveness. This Prodigal had a debt too big to pay himself. It was forgiven at a cost to the father. Our debt is sin and it is a debt we cannot pay. But, our sins were forgiven at a cost. They were paid on a rough wooden cross. The blood of a sinless savior washed away our debt. Our salvation does not come from our work, but from grace. Jesus died to pay our debt so we could be in his father’s presence. We are restored by what Jesus has done and not because of what we have done. We give thanks for that gift of grace when we come together to worship around the Lord’s Table of communion.

Person Fear

I have had some fears in my life. When I was younger, I had a fear of loosing my hair. As I got older, I became afraid I would loose my trim, manly physique.(see profile picture) And as I was going through health issues that were making it hard for me to stand and were risking my ability to work, I was afraid of loosing my job. As I would see people in those motorized scooters, I would become morbidly afraid I would loose the ability to walk and have to use one. Well, anyone who has known me for over ten years knows that I did loose my job and during that time I received medical help I needed which caused me to be in a wheel chair for several months. During that time I realized something. The things I had feared most in my life had happened. God had showed me I could deal with my fears. I will admit I quit adding things to my fear list. No reason to test what can be dealt with. Also, in helping me deal with my own fears, Christ showed me how to have compassion for others that are hurting; something I sorely lacked at one time in my life. Maybe that is why the job I have now is working with people coming to grips with their greatest fears. I may not be able to solve their problems, but I can help them come to grips with them. You see, when you look at Jesus among other gods, he is unique. He does not sit in the lofty heights and wag a finger at us. He came and experienced our troubles and temptations personally. In his ministry, he never had a place to call home. He would find himself surrounded by people all the time and would go through times of exhaustion. Ultimately, he was lied about and slandered to the point of execution on the cross. The cross was a feared thing and he feared going through it, but he overcame his fears and because of his sacrifice, gave us a way to salvation. That is why I sometimes see Christ, not only as the great I AM, but the Great Been There, Done That, OVERCAME. I won’t tell you I never have concerns in my life anymore, but with the eternity Christ promised at the cross, I know I can give thanks gladly daily, even during times of great trouble, because of the salvation I received from the foot of the cross. We have come to that portion of the service…..

Justice or Forgiveness

I have often asked, "Could God not have forgiven people without going through the pain and the violence of the Cross?" As nice as that sounds, reality forces me to ask: When is forgiveness not painful? True forgiveness cannot occur unless the hurt is acknowledged and called for what it is. When you look a wrong in the face but choose to accept the hurt instead of returning it on the one who did it, that is always painful. Jesus illustrates forgiveness by telling the story of a servant who owes his master more money than he could possibly repay (See Matthew 18:21-35). The master originally threatens to sell the servant's family and possessions to get some return for the debt, but when the servant begs for mercy, the master is gracious and forgives the debt. Yet the same servant not only refuses to forgive the debt of his fellow servant, but also has him thrown in prison as punishment. Since the second servant could not repay, he was then punished. However, the master chose the way of mercy when he forgave the debt, neither requiring reparation nor inflicting retribution. If God has really forgiven us like the master forgave the servant, we ask, then why all the pain and death of the Cross? In asking these questions, we show a misunderstanding of both justice and forgiveness. Justice can never be achieved by reparation or retribution alone because like the servants' debts, true wrongs can never be repaid. The hurt and pain caused are not reversible. Punishing the guilty person does not undo the hurt either, even if it brings brief satisfaction to the victim, just as the first servant did not get his money back simply because the other man was in jail. Justice must be about much more than balancing out the wrongs of the world. It must be about making things right, about the kind of restoration that does not reverse the pain, but moves beyond it toward something new. And just as wrongs cannot be erased by punishment or repayment, they cannot really be erased by simple forgiveness either. When the master forgives the servant's debt, the debt does not simply disappear. The master takes the loss! He accepts the full brunt of the debt himself. Similarly, when a person forgives, he or she accepts the full brunt of the hurt or injustice rather than returning it on the one who caused it. Although it is painful, this is the way that healing and restoration begin. This is why there is no way to avoid the bloody Cross. And this is why God's love is terrible. Think of what it includes: us, with our best and our worst, with our failed attempts and outright cruelty, with our wrong motives for right actions and our right motives for wrong actions... us, with the mess we have made of the world, with our brokenness and despair, with our rebellions and inadequacies. We are the ones included in and redeemed by the deep and wide love of God. Paul is astonished by this reality when he emphasizes that Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8)! Instead of demanding that we pay what we cannot, instead of punishing us for not paying what we cannot, the God we see in Jesus Christ accepts the loss himself and opens his arms even to those who would murder him. The Cross does not represent God's mercy being tamed by his anger; rather, it demonstrates that God's mercy is much bigger than we think. The Cross is a graphic picture of God's terrible love. Think of all it includes.

Why Blood Sacrifice?

Each week we get together for communion where we remember the sacrifice Christ made on the cross. Why sacrifice, why do we remember blood? When Adam and Eve were in the garden, they were sinless. Due to Satan appealing to Eve’s pride, she ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam not only stood by and watched her, but joined her, thus learning about good and evil, they realized for the first time they were naked and were embarrassed. To cover their nakedness, or sin, God slew and animal and provided it’s skin to cover their nakedness, this becoming the first animal sacrifice for the covering of sin. The Children of Israel conducted animal sacrifice for sin, but it, too was only to cover sin. They could not remove sin. They were told; though that a perfect sacrifice would be provided some day so they would no longer need to continually sacrifice bulls and goats. That perfect sacrifice came in the form of Jesus Christ, the son of the living God. As Hebrews 4:3-4 states: 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Vs 10 goes on to say: we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. It took a sinless savior to pay the price of our sins. It took his blood to wash away the sinfulness of a fallen world. That is why in a few moments we will be passing trays with bread representing the body of Christ and juice representing his blood. This we do in remembrance of Christ and his perfect love for us and his mercy. His blood covers us with his righteousness so we may be in the presence of God when we go to be with him in eternity. Than promise of eternal life also comes from his mercy provided on a rough wooden cross.

Wonderful Irony

God works in wonderful ironies in showing his power. He uses the small to defeat the large, death to give life. This was apparent when the young David overcame the giant, Goliath. A small stone in a sling brought down the daunting giant, then; David took the giant’s sword, the very symbol of his great strength and power and used it to cut off Goliath’s head, defeating him with his own weapon of destruction. Satan used deceit and deception to bring the full force of Rome down on Jesus leading to Jesus’ crucifixion on a cross, Rome’s ultimate symbol of pain and death. Jesus, like David use the weapon that was to destroy him as the very thing to defeat Satan’s plan and the conquer death. In turn, Jesus used the weapon Satan chose to destroy him, the cross, and turned it from a symbol of death to one of everlasting life giving hope to those who believe in and put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have come to that part of our service where we remember the last time Jesus sat and ate with his disciples where he took the bread and the fruit of the vine and made it a symbol of his broke body and blood spilled as a sacrifice for our sins. These emblems we use to weekly remind ourselves of mercy and love shown by a sacrificing savior. If you have made Jesus your Lord and Savior, we ask you to join us as we pass the trays.

Founding Fathers Faith

The Fourth of July was celebrated as a religious holiday for decades after the Declaration of Independence was signed. And why wouldn’t it be? Listen to this part of the Declaration. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. This form of government was started by men of faith in the God of the Bible. John Adams’ son, President John Quincy Adams, Sixth President Stated, : "The Declaration Of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth and laid the cornerstone of human government upon the precepts of Christianity. Noah Webster, Founding Father, scholar, author of the first American Dictionary: stated "The religion which has introduced civil liberty, is the religion of Christ and His apostles. Benjamin Franklin in a letter to the President of the first Constitutional Congress, 1789: " I have lived a long time, Sir, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? George Washington: "Let me live according to those holy rules which Thou hast this day prescribed in Thy Holy Word…direct me to the true object, Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. Bless, O Lord, all the people of this land." James Madison,” We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind to self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves… according to the Ten Commandments of God.", Why do we take time to remember these leaders? Woodrow Wilson, historian and 28th President, "A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, doesn't know what it is today or what it is trying to do… we're trying to do a futile thing if we don't know where we've come from or what we're about." As a nation, we remember each July 4th the people who through belief in someone one more powerful than them selves created this Federal Government. Did you know that Federal is Latin for Covenant? Each Sunday, we take time to remember another covenant started by our Lord Jesus Christ so we, too, do not forget what we are about. This covenant is the Lord’s Supper representing the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and the promise of eternal life with him if we believe in and put our faith and trust in Him, Jesus Christ, our Savior. If you are a believer, you have the freedom to join us in this covenant of communion.

Where are the Crosses?

In the wreckage after 9/11, two steel beams were found, welded by heat into the shape of a cross. Many who worked at the sight found comfort from its presence, but when the city decided to place the cross in the 911 museum, there came harsh protest from the American Atheists organization. And of course they would, because a cross is a dangerous thing. If you drive three and a half hours north of LA into the Mohave Dessert Reserved, then another nine miles into the reserve on an outcropping of rock, was an 8 foot plain white cross, placed there in 1934 as a memorial to the veterans of World War 1. In 2001, a former Park Service employee sued the government, demanding that the cross be removed. This began a nearly decade-long legal battle. A judge ordered that the upper portion of the cross be covered by a plywood box, so that it looked like a blank signboard instead of a cross. The case was battled all the way to the United States Supreme Court. For some reason, a lonely cross out in the remoteness of the Mojave Desert was so threatening that a host of powerful organizations joined the campaign to destroy it. Those organizations included the American Humanist Association, Atheist Alliance International, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, People for The American Way, and the American Civil Liberties Union. And why not? A cross is a dangerous thing. To the lost, it is an uncomfortable symbol. The cross is under siege. 1 Corinthians 1:18 The message about the cross doesn't make any sense to lost people. But for those of us who are being saved, it is God's power at work. You see, the cross cuts both ways. For a believer, it brings you peace, for the non-believer, anger. It can represent eternal salvation or eternal damnation. You see, the cross is convicting, condemning and inviting all at the same time and it declares to humanity the need for a savior, a power beyond ourselves. It points to Jesus Christ who died on a cross and was raised on the third day.