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 […]
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 […]
In Chapter 5 (“The True Elder Brother”) of The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller reminds us that, prior to the Parable of the Two Lost Sons, Jesus told two other parables in response to the Pharisees’ complaint that He was fraternizing with sinners. Those parables are the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the […]
Timothy Keller concludes his discussion of “elder brother lostness” in Chapter 4 of The Prodigal God by presenting signs four and five. 4. Joyless, fear-based compliance. Obedience simply is duty through and through. There is no joy, love, or intrinsic reward. Compliance is a slavish, joyless drudgery driven by fear. It is complying to the […]
Pastor Timothy Keller continues his discussion of the signs of “elder brother lostness” in Chapter 4 of The Prodigal God. Today signs two and three are presented. 2. A strong sense of one’s own superiority. The elder brother points out how much better his moral record is than that of his younger brother. In Luke 15: […]
As Timothy Keller begins Chapter 5 (“The True Elder Brother”) of The Prodigal God, he states that just as the younger brother’s sin was plainly observable, so too is his spiritual lostness. By contrast, the elder brother’s lostness is more subtle, but equally devastating. The author then presents 5 signs of “elder brother lostness”. The […]