Today’s Podcast
Today’s Devotional
Today’s background scripture comes from Luke 15.
I want you to stay with Me and enjoy the life I can provide for you. But you have a choice. You can choose to leave Me and settle for the temporary pleasures of the world. Beware, though, those pleasures run out. They satisfy for a moment and then they’re gone. You’ll be left with nothing.
The young man in the parable I told was like that. He thought he could do better than second place on his father’s farm. So, he demanded his inheritance and left. I want you to note the sacrifice his father made for this second son. He liquidated his assets to give his son an early inheritance. The property and business he spent his life building, he gave up so he could satisfy the desires of his sons. The man willingly started over in his old age because he loved his sons.
I sent My son to you to show you a different way to live. He lived with you for more than 30 years and showed you how to live the way I want you to live. Things didn’t impress Him. He spoke with ease to the rich and the poor alike. He came to liberate men and women from the enslavement of things. He came to release you from the captivity the focus on material things can cause.
I know that money is important to help with the necessities of life, but the world has turned its importance upside down. It’s not something you need to hoard. It’s not something you need to worry about. I can give it or take it away. In fact, the gift of giving comes with the gift of accumulating so you can give abundantly. But if you’re tight-fisted with what comes, you will stifle My gift of giving to you.
More important than money is your reliance on Me. Like the son in the parable, you must discover the Father’s house is the place you want to live – My house. I, too, will embrace you with open arms. We will feast together. I will welcome you when you come in repentance to Me. I want you in my household, not as one of the servants, but as one of my children. Wake up from your most harrowing situation and turn to Me.
Today’s Scripture
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Luke 15:11-31
Set – Psalms 7; Luke 15
Go! – Genesis 37-38; Psalms 7; Luke 15
Luke 15:11-31
Once there was this man who had two sons. 12 One day the younger son came to his father and said, “Father, eventually I’m going to inherit my share of your estate. Rather than waiting until you die, I want you to give me my share now.” And so the father liquidated assets and divided them. 13 A few days passed and this younger son gathered all his wealth and set off on a journey to a distant land. Once there he wasted everything he owned on wild living. 14He was broke, a terrible famine struck that land, and he felt desperately hungry and in need. 15 He got a job with one of the locals, who sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man felt so miserably hungry that he wished he could eat the slop the pigs were eating. Nobody gave him anything.17 So he had this moment of self-reflection: “What am I doing here? Back home, my father’s hired servants have plenty of food. Why am I here starving to death? 18 I’ll get up and return to my father, and I’ll say, ‘Father, I have done wrong—wrong against God and against you. 19 I have forfeited any right to be treated like your son, but I’m wondering if you’d treat me as one of your hired servants?’” 20 So he got up and returned to his father. The father looked off in the distance and saw the young man returning. He felt compassion for his son and ran out to him, enfolded him in an embrace, and kissed him.
21 The son said, “Father, I have done a terrible wrong in God’s sight and in your sight too. I have forfeited any right to be treated as your son.”
22 But the father turned to his servants and said, “Quick! Bring the best robe we have and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. 23 Go get the fattest calf and butcher it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate 24 because my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and has been found.” So they had this huge party.
25 Now the man’s older son was still out in the fields working. He came home at the end of the day and heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the servants and asked what was going on. 27 The servant said, “Your brother has returned, and your father has butchered the fattest calf to celebrate his safe return.”
28 The older brother got really angry and refused to come inside, so his father came out and pleaded with him to join the celebration. 29 But he argued back, “Listen, all these years I’ve worked hard for you. I’ve never disobeyed one of your orders. But how many times have you even given me a little goat to roast for a party with my friends? Not once! This is not fair! 30 So this son of yours comes, this wasteful delinquent who has spent your hard-earned wealth on loose women, and what do you do? You butcher the fattest calf from our herd!”
31 The father replied, “My son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
Music by the Booth Brothers from Room for More, “Faithful One” ©2008.
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