Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Psalms 140-142
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 15:11-24
Jesus: Once there was this man who had two sons. 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. 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. He was broke, a terrible famine struck that land, and he felt desperately hungry and in need. He got a job with one of the locals, who sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. The young man felt so miserably hungry that he wished he could eat the slop the pigs were eating. Nobody gave him anything.
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? I’ll get up and return to my father, and I’ll say, ‘Father, I have done wrong—wrong against God and against you. 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?’” 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.
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.”
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. Go get the fattest calf and butcher it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate because my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and has been found.” So they had this huge party.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
That young man reminds me so much of us today. It seems each generation just gets more selfish and self centered. What can I get and how fast can I get it. It doesn’t matter if anyone else is inconvenienced or hurt by my gain, just give me what I want. And give it to me now! We are an instant gratification society and the advertising industry know it in spades. Every ad grabs your attention and is aimed at pleasure. Even the products that have nothing to do with pleasure use images, sounds, and innuendos that aim at the pleasure centers of your brain.
It is an amazingly sinful world we live in and Satan tempts us through our own selfishness. Unfortunately, we too seldom wake up to our fallen condition as the young man in the parable or if we do rather than go back to the father we keep trying to fix our brokenness ourselves. But we can’t, we just get ourselves deeper into the hole we dig for ourselves.
But the Father wants us back. He welcomes us when we come to Him as the young man did, knowing our brokenness and ready to give ourselves fully to Him in servanthood. The father restored his son to his position of honor and sonship. He restored him to his home and laid out a banquet for him. He put new robes on his back and rings on his fingers. He treated the young man as a son because he was. The young man made mistakes. He squandered his inheritance. But he came back to his father.
That’s all God asks of us. Come to our senses and then come back to Him. But we first need to come back to our senses. We need to quit listening to the lies the world screams at us and understand that selfishness is where every sin begins. I want what I want instead of what God wants. And so it begins. Every broken commandment, every lie, every grab of property, riches, relationships for the purpose of gain. Every sin starts with a focus on me instead of focusing on the creator.
We don’t have to settle on the pods the pigs eat, we can eat from the banquet table of the king. We don’t have to wear the rags of guilt, we can be clothed in a raiment of righteousness. We can be everything God wants us to be when we come back to Him and let Him take charge of our lives. When we don’t, when we think we know how to run our lives better than God, we end up just like the younger son in the story. When we understand the Father knows us better than we know ourselves and always has our best in mind, we can follow His commands and know He will do incredible things in our lives. We will spend eternity at home with Him. What could be better than that?
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