Yes, I am still alive. Work has been especially busy and I feel like I am continually behind, including blogging. This is from an upcoming newsletter article for my church.
Last week four of us from church attended the Orange Conference in Atlanta Georgia to experience worship and teaching with 4000 other like minded folks. It was a great conference. The first night we heard a talk by Reggie Joiner about the prodigal son story from Luke 15. That story is so familiar to us in the church that it often looses its power. While many think the main character in the story is the prodigal son, in the context of Luke 15, it presents a contrast of the other two characters: the loving father or the elder brother. Joiner explained that these are two approaches to sinners and invited us to examine our hearts: Are we more like the loving father or the elder brother?
Loving Fathers… Elder Brothers…
Welcome Sinners Condemn Sinners
Are preoccupied with those who are missing Are preoccupied with themselves
Operate from a context of forgiveness Operate from a context of shame
Throw Parties Throw Fits
Keep the lights on as long as it takes Close the door and turn off the lights
During Joiners’ talk, while I like to think of myself as like the loving father, I realized that I have a lot of the elder brother still in me. Too often I judge people more by how they look and speak than by “the content of their character”. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That means before we were cleaned up and presentable before God, God loved us and died for us. If you and I are to become like Christ, that means we must love people, warts and all. It means more than being nice. It means being intentional and taking initiative in reaching out to people who need Christ. The question we all have to ask ourselves if we are disciples of Jesus, are we more like loving fathers or elder brothers?
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