Philippians 1:11 NLT
May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ —for this will bring much glory and praise to God.
Amen, enough said, let your life produce good fruit. Live an example all the time, wherever you go. Here is a word from Dale Chance:
1.
A person who spends wealth in a recklessly extravagant way.
We’ve all heard the story of the prodigal son. I always assumed that prodigal meant lost and the story was about a lost soul. It is actually about anyone who squanders their spiritual riches. I believe, now, that it is more about misdirected Christians than about the lost sinner.
I gave my life to the Lord about 14 years ago. For the last 6 or 7 years, I would say that I have been a prodigal son. I squandered the riches that my Father gave me. I dwelled in his house, but I didn’t do very much to deserve the lavishness that He bestowed on me.
Luke 15:12
And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
I slowly started drifting away from church. I started running with some friends that weren’t in church. At first, I was sure that I could win them over to Christ. But it didn’t take long before I started slipping towards their life.
I let satan use my own salvation as a tool against me. I let him tell me that I knew I was saved, so one beer wouldn’t hurt me. One weekend away with my friends would be okay.
Luke 15:13
And not many days after the young son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
I slipped slowly and slowly away from the Lord. I started staying out late with my “friends”. I would come home and fight with my wife. I would tell her that my lifestylehad nothing to do with her spiritual walk. That my sins didn’t affect anyone but me. ALL LIES! I was so blinded that I couldn’t see how deadly my actions were to my household. I didn’t have any desire to go to church. I was convinced that there was nothing there for me. I had nothing in common with anyone there.
Luke 15:14,15
And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his field to feed swine.
Pork is seen as the ultimate “non-kosher” animal. The Torah considers an animal kosher if it both chews its cud AND has split hooves. The only animal species that has splithooves and does not chew cud is the swine family. The pig represented hypocrisy, someone who shows themselves as righteous, but is not-so-kosher on the inside.
In the parable of the prodigal son, the swine represents sin. Everywhere you see the word swine, replace it with the word “sin” and it will give a much clearer meaning to how low the prodigal son truly sank.
So, I began to feed my sin (swine). I thought I was still ok because I was saved. I wasn’t going to church, I wasn’t reading the word. I wasn’t being fed. But my sin (swine) was being fed. I was lost. I had no direction. I had no moral compass. I had slipped completely out of church.
Luke 15:16
And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
So, just like the prodigal son, I had went from living lavishly in the house of my Father; a place where I couldn’t even fathom resorting to feeding swine (sin), to feeding my swine (sin), and now I was essentially wallowing with the swine (sin).
Then a good friend asked my wife (Praise God, she stayed grounded in Christ through all of this) to see if I would be willing to go to camp to help out with my son, Jonah, who has CP and needs a little extra help.
I tried my best to find any reason to get out of going (sorry, Michael). Fortunately, I couldn’t think of any. When I made it to camp, everyone was worshiping the Lord and I decided that I had sank far enough. I wanted to return to my Father’s house. His safety. His comfort. I asked God to forgive me. I asked Him to use me. No matter how small the role. Whatever He had for me, I wanted it.
Luke 15:17-19
And when he came to himself, he said How many hired servants of my Father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father; I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
In that moment, I was restored. There was no condemnation (that came way earlier when I was doing my best NOT to listen to the Holy Spirit). There was simply a feeling ofoverwhelming joy. It was as if Jesus simply said, “Welcome back. I have been right here waiting to embrace you.”
I didn’t have to get my life right first. There was no way that I could. Not without the Father’s love and guidance. I simply had to make the decision to return home. I just hadto turn toward Christ and He ran out to meet me. And even though I had a long way to go, it only took one step on my part. God did the rest.
Luke 15:20
And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
Don’t let the enemy beat you down. Don’t squander your spiritual wealth. Use it to advance the kingdom. There is never a place to just stand still. You are either moving forward or you are moving back.
Don’t let the enemy tell you that you are too far away from God. That you can never get your life right. YOU ARE NEVER MORE THAN ONE STEP AWAY FROM GOD!!
And take it from someone who found out the hard way, it isn’t a very far fall from thinking about swine (sin) until you are feeding the swine (sin) and from there, wallowing with the swine (sin). We are called to be separate from the world. We cannotparticipate in the ways of this world and still call ourselves Christians.
Galations 1:10
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
From this day forward, until the end of my days, I choose to be the servant of Christ!
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