It has been asserted by non-believers regarding God and the Bible that the Christian faith is illogical and that any who would adhere to such foolish beliefs is an unthinking, irrational person that cannot prove anything they believe, logically speaking.
This begs the question, is logic something in opposition to, at variance with, adversarial in nature to faith? Are they, in a sense, polar opposites? Or is logic something that may be employed by the Christian or even one who is endeavoring to discover truth and is seeking out the validity of Christianity?
Any one who knows me, knows that I love to hear the testimonies of saints and how they came to know the LORD; how He delivered these lost souls from sin and death and hell and transformed sinners into saints.
Such is the testimony of one Kathleen Scuteri, a beloved daughter of the KING of Kings and LORD of Lords JESUS CHRIST, a veritable Princess in the Kingdom of God! And like all of us, her transformation is not yet complete - there is still work that the LORD has to do in us; nonetheless, we are considered by God the Father as His children, through the grace of our LORD!
Take the time to read this marvelous testimony and praise the LORD for what He has done in the redemption of yet another soul!
What's your favorite novel? TV show? Movie? Music Album? Video Game?
How do you feel when you reach the end of it and its all over? I just got done with a TV series on dvd, and the last 2 hour episode left me feeling sad, and tearful (Yeah, I'm a sentimental ol' mush).
I can remember as a child, my Dad would scold me because it was getting on into the night, and I kept feeding pieces of wood to the fire in the fireplace. Seeing the flames diminish, and the light from the fire getting dim, I felt sad - like the fire was dying, and I couldn't bear to see it go. So I kept feeding it; and when the flames sprang up with new life, I felt elated.
But my Dad got his way eventually and I stopped. I remember going to bed before the fire died, just so I wouldn't see it happen.
I never had a lot of friends growing up; the few I did have, when it came time for them to move to a different part of town or even a different part of the country, on the day they were to finally leave, I'd make myself scarce.
I absolutely hated good byes. I still do. Good byes are a kind of 'death in miniature' and they are painful and leave an emptiness inside the heart. Death itself is like this.
There is something deep within our hearts that revolts against this thing that we call death. It's objectionable. Unfair. It robs us of those we love, and we resent the fact that they are taken from us.
ROMANS 6:23a
For the wages of sin is death;
The LORD Jesus has declared in the Word that if any one should thirst, they were to go to Him and from Him they would receive the Living Waters flowing (literally "gushing, torrential") out of his heart ("belly"):
JOHN 7:37-38
37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Elsewhere the LORD spoke of the blessedness of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled:
MATTHEW 5:6
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
We understand that to thirst for righteousness is to thirst for the LORD God, Who alone may be called the Righteous One Who is the Holy Servant of the Father (ISAIAH 53:11). People the world over since time began have sought to satisfy the thirst and hunger to fulfill the vacancy that we all sense deep within our hearts - that which the KJV classifies as a "vanity" within (ROM 8:20) and the LORD Jesus told us that whoever would seek to satisfy these inner longings of the spirit with earthly things would "thirst again" (JOHN 4:13).
Having complete the first half of this study as we looked at passages in JOHN’s Gospel (JOHN 14; 15) and other Scriptures, examining the source of our love, joy and peace, we now proceed in looking at another aspect of this study by considering the gravity of the cost for our salvation through Jesus Christ and Him crucified . . .
Where was there any frivolous activity in the Garden of Gethsemane when our precious LORD shed His blood, sweat and tears, crying out to the Father for the terrible terror that was before Him, kneeling in fervent prayer under the shadow of that coming Cross?
Where were the fun times when the LORD had His head covered in a sack and then mercilessly beaten with rods by cruel Roman soldiers?
Where were the light-hearted escapades when the LORD was tortured by the Romans with the Cat O’ Nine Tails that was so vicious in shredding flesh from bone, that the victims often died from being disemboweled!?
Where were the good times when the LORD hung on that Cross for six long hours, bearing upon His pure and righteous and holy Soul the entirety of the human race’s sin and all that results from sin (the sorrows, the pain, the sickness and corruption) and the wrathful judgment of Almighty God upon His own Son Who was our sin-bearer?
In the Gospel of John the LORD Jesus Christ said,
JOHN 15:11
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
And in the previous chapter, the LORD said this,
JOHN 14:27
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Again in the Gospel of John the LORD spoke of His love for us:
JOHN 15:9-10
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
With such joy, peace and love, the Christian ought to never feel the burdens of life the way that the lost do; they should never feel beneath the trials and circumstances that this fallen world is prone to; they should never live a defeated life, believing the lies that they will never be free of besetting sins and strongholds that the enemy has snared them in. . . isn’t that right? Or is it?
The evangelization of the world is the Great Commission as commanded by the LORD Jesus Christ before His ascension into heaven (MATT 28:19-20; MARK 16:15-16). The Gospel is going out by various means today: television, radio, Internet, printed materials in newspapers, magazines, newsletters, Gospel tracts, as well as Evangelistic Crusades and street witnessing.
As the Word of God proceeds and reaches the hearts of people, there are different responses and specific causes for each response. In Matthew’s Gospel Ch. 13 (also MARK 4; LUKE 8) our LORD describes these causes and effects for us.
Its worthy of note that of the four different scenarios depicted only one of these brought forth good fruit; in all of the other cases, the seed was unfruitful. This should be a warning and an admonition for us as God’s children, particularly for those just starting out in the faith ("babes in Christ" 1 COR 3:2; 1 PET 2:2). We must make sure that we tend the ‘garden of our heart’ to be sure it is properly tilled, weeded and protected from those elements that would prove detrimental to good and healthy growth.
We have two sons in this story of the prodigal son (singular) and it is my contention that in a very real sense, there were actually two prodigal sons. The younger son made the bold and unwise decision to leave his father, his family and the blessed life in which perpetual relationship, not merely provisional riches were forsaken.
The elder brother is the focus on the second half of this article.
To any that would observe this young man, he was doing everything right. He, compared to his younger brother, exhibited nothing but commendable behavior and was no doubt, readily received by family and friends (and presumably by the LORD Himself) as an honorable man.
Yet just as the Word tells us that man looks upon the outward, the LORD looks upon the heart (1 SAM 16:7); no one really knows the human heart (not even The Shadow!) as our LORD knows the human heart and all of its ways (JER 11:20;17:9-10).
We have all read about the prodigal son, but have we considered that there was actually more than one in the biblical story as told by the LORD in LUKE 15?
First of all, let’s look at what the word “prodigal” means. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, prodigal is defined as:
“Rashly or wastefully extravagant; marked by rash or wasteful extravagance; a prodigal life. Giving or given in abundance; lavish or profuse; one given to wasteful luxury or extravagance.”
That certainly would seem to apply to the younger son of the father in this parable; but what about the elder son who remained with his father? How would he be considered as a ‘prodigal son’?
That we shall see, but let’s have a look at this parable and examine what it reveals.
The Prodigal Son Parable
LUKE 15:11-32
11 And he said, A certain man had two sons: 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. 13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
Just prior to this parable the LORD gave a few other parables, and the two immediately before the prodigal son were the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. In both cases the shepherd and the woman found that which was lost. Likewise the younger son was lost but then was found (LUKE 15:32) and so the end of the stories are blessings indeed.
