I love the story in the Bible of the prodigal son. It shows a loving and forgiving father. It shows a son returning to the father. This is a story that gives hope to so many parents who have their own prodigal child situation. Some parents have children who are estranged from them. Some parents have children who have walked away from God. Some parents have children who have gotten involved in drugs and/or alcohol. That is why I’m sharing this video of a woman named Lin as she tells us her own Prodigal Son story.
The son, named Chad, was estranged from his parents for 20 years. He was involved with drugs, was homeless, and went to jail for a period of time. He was filled with anger and bitterness towards his parents and would not speak to them at all.
The mother, Lin, talks about how God kept giving her encouragement during that time. She prayed for her son faithfully. Romans 8: 28 and Philippians 1:6 were two of the verses that she claimed when she prayed for her son.
“God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, and to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
.”For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6
Lin claimed these verses because she knew her son had made a decision for Christ when he was young. She believed that God would complete the work began in him, and that God would use everything, bad and good, for good in her son’s life. Her son did come back to the Lord, and to the family, answering so many prayers on his behalf.
In closing the video, Lin encourages other parents by saying that God loves our prodigal children more than we do. She tells us we can be confident that God is going to do a good work, and bring it to completion. Now that’s “Good News”!!
I was in the hospital last week, for five days. And–I had a blast. I chatted with the nurses and the staff, finding out their stories, laughing and laughing with them. It was a rare social occasion for me.
On the other hand, my family has been very anxious over my health–we’ve had to face my mortality. My daughters cried, my husband was tight faced, my boys were tender.
You see, once death has visited your family, you know–it can visit again. You always know that–but last week was a slap in the face reminder of that.
I have found myself thinking of the words of the Apostle Paul, found in Phillipians 1: 21-25
“For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do even more fruitful work for Christ, So I really don’t know which is better. I am torn between two desires: I long to go to be with Christ, which would be even better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live. Knowing this, I am convinced that I will remain alive, so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith.”
I started out the week, wondering if I was going to die, and being actually kind of excited about it–about going to be with Jesus. But as the week progressed, and I came face to face with the pain my death would inflict upon my family– I found myself having conversations with the Lord like this, “Lord, I would like to go home to be with You, but I think it would be better for my family if I stayed, however, You know best–You can see the future, I can’t, so Your will be done.”
As of now–His will is that I live, and stay to be with my family–but I wanted to share with you why I am so sure that I am going to go and be with the Lord when I die.
I am sure because my eternal life does not depend on me–and how good I am–my eternal life depends on Jesus–and how good He is.
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthiians 5:21
What does that mean? It means in Jesus–an exchange was made—when Jesus died He took my sin and your sin and everyone’s sin, (He could do this because He was God in Human flesh–so with His one death, He could take all our sins upon HImself), and in exchange He gave us His righteousness. So now God sees all who are in Christ as righteous. Isn’t that amazing–God sees us as righteous–because He gave us His righteousness.
“And the testimony is this, God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has eternal life, he who does not have the Son, does not have eternal life. I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may KNOW that you Have eternal life.” 1 John 5:11-13
“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” John 17:3
When I first read and studied these scriptures–things started to click for me. First–God has given—that is in the past tense—God has already given us eternal life–because when we trusted Jesus to be our Savior–we began a relationship with God the Father, and with Jesus, God’s Son–and that is what eternal life is–it is a relationship with God—that goes on past this life into eternity.
Then I read the reason why this scripture was written—so that we would KNOW we have eternal life—not hope, not dream of, not work for—we may KNOW it!!
God wants us to know that He loves us, and nothing—not even death will separate us from the love He has for us. He wants us to know that He has redeemed us. He has bought us with a great price–the price of Jesus’ death—so that we may have life with Him eternally. I use the word, “may have”, because we each individually need to receive this gift from God. We receive this gift by faith, but prayer is a way to express that faith. I think I said something like this to God: “Lord Jesus I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. Please come into my life and make me the person You want me to be. Thank You for giving me a relationship with you–thank You for giving me eternal life.”
Jesus tells us in Hebrews 13:5 “….I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So once Jesus enters our life, He will never leave, and Jesus doesn’t lie.
Our God loves us with an everlasting love!!! How can we not be excited about being with this God face to face!! I know that someday, we will all die, but death can be something we don’t have to fear, in fact it can be something we eagerly anticipate–as Jesus awaits us!! However, we each have a purpose here in this world–and for now–I hope that purpose of loving others and pointing the way to Jesus will bring us all joy here on this earth.
Access—to the powers that be—very few of us have it–or do we?
When my husband and I were first married, I observed that whenever he would call his dad, (his dad owned his own law firm in Boston, MA), his calls were put right through—-every single time.
However, when we visited the law office, I heard his assistants take message after message, and very few people got right through to my father-in-law.
My mom is a pretty popular gal–and she has many friends, and so much family. This past year, she has been battling cancer. I have noticed that whenever one of my siblings or myself wants to spend time with her—she has all the time in the world for us—-we are a part of her inner circle. However, she tires easily, and so limits her time spent with others.
So what is my point here? My point is that in the same way that my husband had immediate access to his dad, and I have access to my mom, because we are their children—whoever is a child of God–has access to Him as well.
We are God’s kids!! We have access to Him. If we call out to Him–we get right through. He is never too busy for us.
Aren’t those amazing thoughts to dwell upon? He will never stop fighting for us, even when we can’t fight for ourselves. God is our Dad!!! Think about that!! The One who created the heavens and the earth, has created new lives within us, and calls us His Own!!
When our son died 9 years ago this September, something was destroyed in our family. The age of innocence for us was gone. The worst evil had found us—the evil of death.
We will never be innocent of this evil again. It has been difficult to come through this time and find hope, and to trust God.
There is a song that perfectly expresses what I think God has been saying to me, and my family. It’s called: Just Be Held.
There is a line in it that goes, “Your world’s not falling apart, its falling into place. I’m on the throne, stop holding on and just be held.”
This year on my husband and my 33rd anniversary, we saw a beautiful rainbow. It came after a truly violent storm.
As I looked at that rainbow, I thought that God had a message for us in that rainbow. But I did not know what the message was. Then two days later, we found out that our son’s family was in great danger during a hike, but they survived and came back safely to us.
Then our two year old granddaughter came close to peril, but she too was found and brought back safely to us. In addition to all of this, one of our daughters almost drowned, but was saved by our other daughter.
During these times, I sensed the Holy Spirit saying to me, “Remember the rainbow.”
I do not know if in the future, one of my children or grandchildren or husband or myself, may be in peril—but I think “Remember the rainbow”, means that God does know—and He is in charge. He has not stopped being in charge—even when I’m frantic and anxious—He has not stopped being in charge, even when my loved ones are in danger—He has not stopped being in charge—even when I can’t see around the next corner–and I don’t know what is going to happen next.
Remember the rainbow, means God’s on His throne—and I can stop trying to control everything, —I can stop holding on so tightly to everything and everyone, and just be held.
Encouragement for you!! 