The story of the prodigal son: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2015:11-32&version=NIV Henri Nouwen, in his marvelous little book “The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Meditation on Fathers, Brothers, and Sons”, makes the observation that if you look very closely at Rembrandt’s painting of the return of the prodigal son, there is something funny about the appearance of the […]
The story of the prodigal son: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2015:11-32&version=NIV The free dictionary defines prodigal this way: 1. recklessly wasteful or extravagant, as in disposing of goods or money2. lavish in giving or yielding prodigal of compliments I think we get words like prodigious, product, productive, from the same root. We’ve heard the term ‘prodigal son’ so many […]
The story of the prodigal son: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2015:11-32&version=NIV The son who wished the father would die, who only wanted his money, who left and squandered his whole inheritance, at last came to himself. That’s what it says, “he came to himself.” We tend to think that he squandered everything and then immediately came home, but notice […]
I’ve been waiting eagerly to get to the parable of the prodigal son, as it is the richest and most profound teaching about the father heart of God in all of scripture. Everything up to this point has been leading to this teaching. Let’s start by reading it: ==============================Then He said: “A certain man had […]
Reading Jesus’ parables, it seems God is always losing things! “Now all the tax-gatherers and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” And He told them this parable, saying, “What man among you, […]
Thoughts on this started to come to me after watching “Everything’s Fine” with Robert De Niro. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780511/ In it a widowed father tries to set up a reunion with his grown children, who all cancel. He longs for his children to come and eat together at his table, but it turns out one by one […]
I want to start by recapping the last post’s argument about this. I have to say that this is an important and seminal thought for me. In human experience we have a problem in that the idea of moral and desirable good are split – we are often wanting what we know is wrong, and […]
I want to delve into something today that may at first seem like nit-picky hair-splitting semantics. I think that if you will persevere and read to the end you will find that it is most profound and is deeply foundational to our idea of grace and the real motivation for living the Christian life. In […]
We’re still looking at the sermon on the mount. Read it here: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%205-7&version=NIV Let’s think about this from the perspective of a modern reader. Here is what might really go through someone’s head when they read this. “Poor in spirit … not sure what he means. Mourn … hope that never happens! Meek … I […]
I want to turn aside and take a look at Jesus’ famous teaching known to us as the sermon on the mount. It is one of the most penetrating explanations of God’s laws and ways ever given. I want to examine exactly what it says, and see how it fits with Paul’s teachings about the […]