In the story of...

..the prodigal son we are to look into how JESUS is teaching these diverse groups.

Luke 15 tells us (ain't it neat how the Bible is the only book that can "tell" us rather than read to us?..anyway as I digress right from the jumping off street...) "Then all the tax collectors and the sinners..(Heavens to Betsy not them! Who is this Betsy anyway?)...drew near to HIM to hear HIM. And the Pharisees and scribes complained saying, 'This MAN receives sinners and eats with them.'"

Oh how I love JESUS! Do you see what eclectic a group HE always has at HIS disposal? Yet also in the Gospels HE is singularly with the woman at the well. No restraints on HIS contact with humanity at large...after all (you know it)  HE is the INCARNATION...and HE loves us for us--certainly not contingent on what we do. I'm thanking HIM daily for this astounding GRACE. For as some writer hath said (every once in a while I divert into old timey English) "The heathen have witnessed to the comfort of a good conscience: 'Be this thy brazen bulwark of defence, still to preserve thy conscious innocence.' And yet to the terror of a bad one: 'No lash is heard, and yet the guilty heart is tortured with a self-inflicted smart.'" GOD came in a bod to prove out  that sin is an insurmountable diversion to a relationship with HIM. Hence the CROSS. It is to be with HIM that HE desires of us. If it was to do for HIM, then we all would remain the most miserable of folk--"with" is a bigger deal than "do." 

On one hand in this parable we have the behavers and on the other side are ...well...me for one...and the other misbehavers. So I  get compelled to ask at various times: "Does GOD even like me?" Or as Andy Stanley, Charles Stanley's son, put it so succinctly: "What does GOD think about when GOD thinks about me?" Our behavior is not how GOD views us (so a big welcomed deep breath for those whom have fallen under this "works" perversion of the Gospel at large). After all if JESUS truly came to rescue me from what I cannot save myself from (although diligently trying until I am beyond blue knuckling) all my feigned piousness in the pigsty with the lost one and his big bro. I mean nobody wanted to come to the party that the DAD was throwing for his lost one except the servants. Strike a message here? The younger wayward son wanted his FATHER to give ear to his speech of "wasn't I wrong and hire me as one of your servants" spiel, yet when ABBA saw him "afar off," HE came running to meet him...not one bit concerned about the preparations he prepared for justifying his woes by telling all his "don'ts." True confession is good for us, because it brings us near to GOD like HE likes us to be. It's where HE does HIS "wet work" well.

On the other hand we have the older sib that wanted his FATHER to know all about his "do's"--don't much care for those either I can attest to--thumping my chest on the regular around in this camp of ill-repute. Still HE is looking for us to love HIM as HE loves us...without fear of reprisal for wrongs that are surely gonna come, and without begging for the attaboys/girls that we so desperately seek after. No not there do we find the solace of our SAVIOR. Only in "seeking ye first the KINGDOM of GOD" do we locate the perfect LOVE that cast out all that worldly love that besets us so.

If you are looking to see if GOD holds sway to those who seemingly are better folk than yourself, then check out that parable in Luke and decide for yourself if the CREATOR of the universe is in a fit over your misdeeds. HE wants you to love HIM back for the gift of life that HE gave when HIS SON (and here I go with that NAME) JESUS CHRIST died for my/yours/and et al sins. HE wants to give you that ring, put that robe upon your shoulders, kill the fatted calf...for at once my son was lost but now he is found.

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I have been at odds lately my friends..suffering from the worst of sins...self-pity. The profundity of my loneliness after Patti-Sue's visit has tried to wretch away my joy. Fortunately I don't generate this joy from the world...it's an other worldly thing that I got going on (Nehemiah 8:10), but still this darkness can almost be like one that can be felt. But PRAISE HIM! I have you guys to write to, and that is an uplifting moment of respite that I can dwell upon at this very crux...thanks for listening...I'm alive and kicking!

later...dougie boy