Prodigal Returns!

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7 NIV

This verse bothers you, right? It bothers me. Sometimes I ask and do not receive, I seek and do not find and I knock until my knuckles are bloody and the door does not open. Why? I know what you’re thinking:

• I do not receive because I do not have faith. James 1:6
• I do not receive because I have wrong motives. James 4:3
• I do not receive because I treat my wife poorly. 1 Peter 3:7

You’re right, of course … sometimes.

What if I do have faith, good motives and my wife is presently pleased with me? What if I ask then and don’t receive?

What if God is silent?

When I took Greek, the original language of the New Testament, at Dallas Theological Seminary, one professor said that reading the New Testament in Greek was akin to watching television “in color” rather than “black and white”. Today we might say it’s like reading HD. Matthew 7:7 is an extraordinary example of this, so let’s deconstruct it.

• Ask (in Greek, continually and for yourself) and it shall be given to you.
• Seek (in Greek, continually strive or crave) and you shall find.
• Knock (in Greek, continually knock with heavy blows) and the door will be opened to you.

What can be added to the discussion now that we see in HD?

• We can tell from Greek grammar that this verse is not a command, the emphasis is on how to do these things.
• We can tell from the grammar that the three verbs are continuous, that is, we are to keep on doing them, it’s not “one and done”.
• The Greek word aiteit, translated ask, can have a connotation of selfishness, so we can and should ask for what we desire as long as the desire isn’t to satisfy our selfish pleasure (James4:3).
• The word zEteit (seek) isn’t like “hide and seek” in English, it implies reasoning, passion and energy as well.
• There’s more than one word for “knock” in Greek, here krouet is knock heavily with the knuckles. This is also used in Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says that He stands at the door and knocks.

Just a few minutes and the text gushes Greek gold. Pick something you’re passionate about, that you crave and ask for it continually.  Embrace the passions God has given you and do not stop, even if you’re being pushy (see Psalm 6, for example). What meets all these conditions for me?

• Struggling children
• Struggling friends (emotional or financial)
• Struggling productivity (no work or very strenuous work)

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Heaven is for Real is one of those books that I could not put down. In fact, I was already going through passages multiple times before I completed the book. I’m not going to give a lot of detail because that would ruin the book for you and this is one book that you are going to read.

“Do you remember the hospital, Colton?” Sonja said. “Yes, mommy, I remember,” he said. “That’s where the angels sang to me.”

The writing is so absorbing and the topics so compelling that you can not put the book down. Imagine your 3-year-old child saying this to you. What would you do? This is the story of a pastor and his family nearly losing their young son and how God turned the terror into triumph.

As a skeptic, I greatly appreciated the style of the book, that is, that the evidence is presented unpolished. You read the conclusions of the pastor and his wife, but even then you participate in the discussion as they slowly move away from their down denial and astonishment. What will you do with the evidence?

I got the audio version from ChristianAudio.com discounted as a featured selection.

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More than a year ago I was teaching the “mystery” of Ephesians 5 as revealed in the relationships between Christ and the church, husband and wife, parent and child and master and slave. I went diving for it because my overly rational brain cannot deal with a “mystery”,  to me it’s an unsolved algebraic equation or a puzzle not yet pieced together. God was generous and as is so often the case, over time, He showed me through a series of new people I met, what it meant but more on that later … I’m guessing I got it right because when I shared my results online my audience polarized, some saw it along with me and rejoiced and some appeared to openly hate it, but the “mystery” of Ephesians 5 is another blog post and I digress.

I was a romantic when I was young, I read The Girl in a Swing and thought I’d found the great romance in its pages until I stumbled across its tragic ending; in hindsight I know that God was showing me my future. I would continue to believe in a great love but sometimes walk away from it and other times have my love betrayed — that story is here. I was never able to find love without great pain attached to it.

A few months ago I read the Song of Solomon and decided that was my next “mystery” to figure out. I wasn’t having a lot of luck with it, so I read it 99 more times. I bought Paul Wilbur’s “A Night of Extravagant Worship” that featured a song with lyrics directly from the Song of Solomon called “Dance With Me“. I listened over and over and over …

A new Twitter friend recommended a movie that renewed the fires in me once lit by The Girl in a Swing. The novel, followed many years later by 100 readings of the Song of Solomon, many viewings of the video for “Dance With Me” and repeated viewings of the movie did not lead me to think of my relationship to God as my great love though I expected that. Instead it led me to reflect on my great earthly loves like great teachers, great sports moments, my best friend, my kids, and finally the major romantic interests of my life. I did this for months — I’m still doing it, my heart and mind won’t stop.

Why is the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament? I don’t think it’s a parable, I think it’s a biography, that is, I think the lovers are real historic figures. How often does God show us something that matters without using real and flawed people to do it? What God has shown me through real people and events is this:

We are given great loves to instruct us in stages; they are parodies of God’s love. They have real value for us, but they are only shadows. Every great moment that we love, every person we love greatly, for that moment in time mimics God’s perfect love for us. We cannot comprehend it so we’re given shadow figures that dance on our stage and point us to the maker of shadows represented by the lovers in Song of Solomon. The “mystery” of Ephesians 5 is first and foremost the relationship between Christ and the church. The lovers of Song of Solomon foreshadow the perfect love that will be fulfilled when the church as bride becomes one with its Lover. The reason the highly-charged sexual dialogue of this book is included in the Old Testament is because sex itself is being celebrated; sex is also a parody of things to come following the wedding of all weddings. There will be a moment of union and ecstasy following that wedding as we become one with the groom.

Do you remember your great loves? Can you feel them fully right now? Whether they are people or events, meditate on them, cry your way through the video below and then read Song of Solomon. I promise you it will read differently than before. Lose yourself in it while swimming in the memories of great love.

What moment or person in your life most instructed you in great love?

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My stepson, 16 at the time, checked into a local in-residence rehabilitation center almost 2 years ago. His father had just thrown him out of the house he grew up in and he faced legal problems as well for vandalism and probation violation. I’m describing the situation matter-of-factly because there are no appropriate words to describe the chaos, betrayal, violence and volume of the time leading up to this moment. He embraced rehab and has now been sober and sane for almost 2 years. He’s back to the person we knew with all the good and bad that went with it, without the aforementioned. It’s the gift we all want and that I now pray for my daughter, now 18, who is an addict that is not in recovery.

The general platitudes about parenting that you learned from your parents, from Bill Cosby or from anywhere else are not going to work. Being unselfish, helping, rescuing, making bold, courageous moves … they don’t work. I hope you detect the  theme from someone who has and is living the nightmare and seeing the solution:

What you think based on the sum total of all your experiences is not going to work with your child that has an alcohol or drug addiction.

What is needed is a completely overhaul of how you feel and think. You must by faith trust a new way that includes healthy recovery for your child and for your entire family — this is the mission of The Sights and Sounds of Enabling. Much of the information will be new to you but it’s not new information. It’s lovingly expressed and supported by these missional authors. Listen to them, learn from them and then BE them.  I can say it’s worth the wait to have your child back.

The Sights and Sounds of Enabling is just a beginning; I strongly recommend it as a first step to sanity and meaning.

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The Entire Counterfeit Library

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The Entire Counterfeit Library

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The Entire Counterfeit Library

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The Entire Counterfeit Library

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This is day 12, the final day of the Prodigal Prayer Mission by Kathie Saari.

The Plan of Salvation

Meditate on John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

READ AND PREPARE

How to Lead a Person to Christ by Dr. Richard J. Krejcir including

Billy Graham/Bill Bright Four-Step Process (Campus Crusade):

1. God’s purpose: peace and love. God wants you to experience peace and life abundantly and eternally (Romans 5:1, John 3:16, 10:10).
2. Our problem: Separation, God created us in His own image to have abundant life. He did not make us robots to automatically love and obey Him but gave us the gift of free choice. Hence, we chose to disobey God on our own will, which resulted in our separation (Romans 3:23, 6:23). Our attempts through the ages have failed to bridge the gap (Isaiah 59:2, Proverbs 14:12).
3. God’s remedy: The cross. Jesus Christ is the only answer to this problem. He died on the cross, rose from the grave and paid our penalty (1 Timothy 2:5, 1 Peter 3:18, Romans 5:8).
4. Our response: To receive Christ, we must trust in Him by personal invitation (Revelation 3:20, John 1:12, Romans 10:9). Then pray with the person and make sure they receive discipling. And focus on the basics, which include prayer, Scripture, devotional life, accountability and discipleship.

The Roman Road

The Roman Road is a group of Bible verses from the book of Romans that are used to help people to better understand salvation and to lead people to Christ:

1. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
2. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
3. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
4. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)
5. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Romans 10:13)

The first thing you have to realize is that YOU ARE a sinner. Secondly, God loves YOU. Thirdly, without God, you are doomed. Fourthly, come clean, confess your sins to God; and lastly, you are not excluded from salvation no matter what you’ve done.

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This is day 11 of the Prodigal Prayer Mission by Kathie Saari.

Testimonies That Build Faith

Meditate on Matthew 17:20

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Testimony 1

Steve Friskup: A Drinking Man’s Salvation

by Christine McWhorter of The 700 Club

CBN.com – Working as a horse auctioneer isn’t just a job for Steve Friskup; it’s a passion. He also loves calf roiping and spending time with his wife, Robin. But years ago, Steve’s favorite activities were overshadowed by his love for alcohol. “I never was a guy who could just have one drink,” Steve tells The 700 Club. “If I had one, I had two. If I had two, I had 12. If I had 12, then some time in the night I was going to become rich, handsome and bulletproof, all at the same time.”

Steve had his first drink at just 9 years old. His parents were Christians, but alcohol was a big part of their lifestyle and always available in his home. Later, as an adult, Steve discovered alcohol gave him something he had always longed for:

It made me liked. It made me popular. It made me fit in. I may not rope as good as anybody. I may not have as much money as anybody else, but if we’re at the bar, you’re going to like me. That’s just how it is. That need for that attention or something.

But the alcohol didn’t just make Steve popular. It turned him into a man he barely knew. He says, “Anything that alters the way a man thinks and alters his morality — it can’t be good. Alcohol somehow demoralized me. I could see it getting worse and wors. It just dumbed me down to a guy that I didn’t want to be. Every time I sobered up I didn’t want to be that guy. That’s now who I wanted to be and I knew it.”

“Money was a big one. I could spend money on the dumbest stuff. I could buy drinks for everybody. I could gamble, just do dumb stuff with money you didn’t have. You go home and you’re trying to keep the lights on for your wife and your little kids and you just spent the stupid money. I was just making really bad decisions.” Steve’s drinking affected his family the most.

“I used language that a man should be crucified for in front of my children. [It] wasn’t abusive; I was just vulgar. Stuff like that. It’s no good. It was no good. I’ll tell you the worst one. I’ve got two daughters and one of them’s never had a drink that I know of. Pretty sure not. The oldest one can’t say that, because her daddy gave her a drink. Little girls [sic] should have never been given her only taste of alcohol in her live [sic] from her dad. That’s what alcohol did for me.”

After partying one night with a friend, Steve woke up with a hangover and a revelation. He was finally tired of his drunken lifestyle: “I got up that morning, and I was sick with a capital S. It was bad. It was like you hit me right in the forehad with a choppin’ ax. I didn’t have any money left and I just laid there in that bed and I thought, “Now, I’ve got to put my game face on and go auctioneer this horse sale and pretend like I’m fine.” I told that friend I said, “I’m not drinking no more.” My friend kidded me and told everybody, he picked on me all weekend.

But Steve was serious about his new commitment. He just didn’t know how to keep it. On the ride home after the horse auction, he decided to talk to God:

That night I called on Jesus for some odd reason. Nobody’s told me how to pray this prayer. I just called on Jesus and I met Him. You know the first thing that the Lord spoke to me: ‘What do you want?’ I said ‘I want to be a good husband. I want to be a good dad. I don’t want to do another thing away from home that I’m ashamed to tell my family when I get back. Alcohol’s turning me loose to be an idiot and I don’t want it anymore. I want rid of it right now! He said, ‘If you’ll give me all of it, I’ll get rid of that.’ I said, ‘I’m all yours.’

It moves me every time of how awesome it is for a guy like me in a cab of a pickup to have your sins forgiven. Heaven is part of the deal, but I don’t think people realize unless you’ve been an old sinner what it means to be sitting in the cab of a truck and have God tell you that your sins are forgiven.

He drove home that night and began a new life. He began r3ading his Bible and going to church with his family. “It was pretty amazing when you pull in your house and you tell your family,” Steve continued, “Get up. We’re going to church. I just got saved.” You don’t even know what that means. They think I must have snorted something up my nose or something and went crazy.” Steve says he hasn’t had a drop of alcohol since then.

“The fear of the Lord will make a man hate evil. As I’ve grown, I’ve got to where I just despise evil. I’ve gotten that way about the alcohol, because it was so dangerous in my life and i didn’t know it.”

Now, the Friskup home is peaceful, and Steve makes strong decisions for his family. He and Robin are pastors of Muleshoe Cowboy Church in Texas. He says, “It’s just what God’ll do. We run horse sales with grown men walking around telling each other they love each other. That’s just crazy. That ain’t how that goes. But that’s what God’ll do.’

Testimony 2

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this but it seems to me that a lot of people have come to know the Lord at the age of around 20. Maybe it’s just the ones I’ve met? But that is when it happened to me. I was just approaching my twentieth birthday, twenty years ago nw, when someone came right up to my friends and unashamedly told them that he had given his life to Jesus. My friends at that time knew this particular young man and made the most of ribbing him and giving him a hard time. I just listened quietly in the background and when they had finished their taunts I asked him some questions of my own: “What about starving millions? Why doesn’t God do something about it?” and I can’t remember what else. I don’t think his answers impressed me, nor anything particularly of the whole event, but all I know is that at that moment in great simplicity I said within myself, “OK, I believe you, there is a God.”

I had not thought much about it before and I had special intention of ‘going away to think about it’ at that time. However, the next I knew was, wherever I went, whatever I was doing, all that kept going through my mind was, “There really is a God’, ‘there really is someone called Jesus, there really is a heaven and there really is a hell.”

My knowledge of the Bible was pretty much limited to what the cover looked like of a little Gideon’s Testament I had among my possessions (somehow!). My only previous use for this was to press a four-leaved clover inside of it and occasionally tuck it under my pillow at night, in some vain attempt at procuring some comfort from a state of paranoia about my health and death.

My concern for my state of health and fear of death did have some basis in reality. I had severely traumatized y own body by a lifestyle of drug-taking and had on two previous occasions overdose on amphetamine and once at an evey younger age tried to completely asphyxiate myself with my head in a bag of solvent.

Mine is the case of the typical broken-home scenario. I’ll spare the details of the early years, suffice to say that by the time I was 13 I was headlong into crime, girls, self-abuse and the care system, complete with D.C. (detention centre) — the short, sharp, shock treatment. By the time I was 19 I wasn’t looking as though I was going to improve much.

So we come back to my little encounter above. A lone off conversation with nothing especially much to impress, but during the 2 weeks that followed that brief encounter something was still progressing inside of me. In the course of that time that “voice” (not audible but none-the-less very real) did not let up at any moment. It was saying every day : There really is a God, there really is someone called Jesus, there really is a heaven, there really is a hell.”I somehow knew as if by instinct (or the young man told me, I can’t remember) I must repent of all my sins, ask Jesus to forgive me and live a completely different life.

The idea of “giving up” all my vices in life was almost too much to contemplate, but there was something much more powerful growing inside of me that I knew I couldn’t escape — the fear of Hell. I am not saying that the whole purpose of my Christian life now is simply to escape Hell, I am not saying that such a thought is a wonderful motive for giving your life to Christ; but the bottom line for me and my particular thought processes at that time was this: It doesn’t matter how bland, boring, dull and difficult life will be, it will only be temporal — but after that comes the eternal! By comparison there was only one thing a self-seeking sinner could do — turn my life over to Jesus and be saved. Such was my reasoning and such was God’s method of reaching into the depths of me and making me repent of my sing.

The time had come; I knew what I must do, so, alone in my flat one night I decided that I was going to do it. One final thought struck me. It was late in the evening and I had a habit of making resolutions last thing at night about changing my lifestyle. Not for any moral reason, but simply for the sake of my health, which as I said I was somewhat paranoid about. I would make my plans to live a cleaner, healthier lifestyle at bedtime and in the morning would go my way in pursuit of besetting sins. So that evening I said to myelf, “If I really mean this, then I’ll mean it just as much in the morning. ” So I did nothing that night and went to bed.

That was the beginning for me. Needless to say, many are the lessons along the way. Jesus said that He is “The Door”, but He also said that He is “The Way”. One of the most valuable lessons I had to learn as a young Christian was that it doesn’t matter how radical and striking your conversion experience is, unless you continue to walk with God day by day then you are still powerless to live righteously before God. I was greatly helped by reading a book by the title of Abide in Christ. Of course, ultimately it is God Himself who sees to it that you and I will hear the right thing, read the right book, meet the right people at just the right time in order to teach us the things we need to know, as we are able to receive them. Jesus also said that He is “The Shepherd”. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher. God Himself has promised to guide us into all Truth. May He guide you along the paths that to everlasting life, too.

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• Day Nine of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission