The Prodigal God (Dutton, 2008) Timothy Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, City, begins The Prodigal God with his assertion that the story most commonly named the Parable of the Prodigal Son might be better called the Parable of the Two Lost Sons. The latter name is more inclusive, since the […]
Max Lucado begins Chapter 3 (“Alone, But Not All Alone”) of You’ll Get Through This by observing that we pass much, if not most, of life at mid-altitude. Occasionally we’ll summit a peak. On other occasions, the world bottoms out. Max describes what our version of Egypt is like: “It feels foreign. You don’t know […]
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit- fruit that will last.” -John 15: 6 In Chapter 2 (“Down, Down, Down to Egypt”) of You’ll Get Through This, author Max Lucado notes that Joseph survived his first years in Egypt because he believed that God had […]
As Max Lucado concludes Chapter 1 of You’ll Get Through This, he states that God is the Master Weaver who “stretches the yarn and intertwines the colors, the ragged twine with the velvet string, the pains with pleasures.” God also is the Master Builder who will construct, or bring about, good from evil. Just as […]
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” -Genesis 50: 20 (NIV) Max Lucado begins Chapter 1 of You’ll Get Through This: Hope and Help for Your Turbulent Times with three vignettes about life in the pits, one involving a fifty-seven-year-old […]
In Chapter 7 of The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller concludes his discussion of the ways our lives will be shaped by Jesus’s gospel message as he presents the fourth way to experience a feast. 4. Salvation is communal. Feasts are by definition communal. However, as Pastor Keller notes, we live in a culture where the […]
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”-Hebrews 12: 11 Growing up in the 1960’s, the only part of each semi-annual dental checkup I looked forward to was the Lavoris mouthwash rinse that signaled the […]
Pastor Timothy Keller continues his discussion of four ways to experience a feast that correspond to ways the gospel message of Jesus shapes our lives in Chapter 7 of The Prodigal God. 3. Salvation is individual. Just as we must regularly eat and drink to survive and grow physically, in order to grow spiritually we […]
The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” -Matthew 25: 40 Timothy Keller continues his discussion of four ways to experience a feast that correspond to ways our lives are shaped by the gospel in Chapter 7 […]
In Chapter 7 (“The Feast of the Father”), the concluding chapter of The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller describes four ways to experience a feast that correspond to ways our lives are shaped by the gospel message of Jesus. The first way is discussed today. 1. Salvation is experiential. At a feast our appetite and senses […]
In Chapter 6 (“Redefining Hope”) of The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller suggests that we should read the Parable of the Two Lost Sons in the context of the Bible’s “sweeping theme of exile and homecoming.” Doing so will help us to understand that Jesus’s parable is more than “a moving account of individual redemption. Jesus […]
As Timothy Keller concludes Chapter 5 of The Prodigal God, he asks : “How can the inner workings of the heart be changed from a dynamic of fear and anger to that of love, joy, and gratitude?” His answer is that we have to be moved by the sight of what it cost Jesus, our […]