Κύριος Notes

Adoration

Thank you Lord for hope that is beyond my limited view.

Thank you for the reality of your life experienced in me.

Thank you for the peace that comes from a life given to your care.

Scripture Reflections Luke 15
25"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

Lord Jesus--This almost reminds me of a meanwhile back at the ranch story...this is the older sons story. It is a story that every prodigal should listen to and understand.

There are many ways to lose track of what is really important. There is the far country way. A way that I have traveled Lord...a way of bad choices and bad company...a way of pain that leads you to a dead end in some pigsty or another.

There is also a way to lose track of the important by just staying home and working and doing the right thing by the people that matter. It is a way of work and a way of resentment for the work. It is a way of anxious activity without the sense of any good thing being accomplished. It is a way of little rejoicing but many thoughts of what the far country must be like.

28"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

There is anger here Lord...anger of a son that is a hard worker. It is the anger of an older brother that just does not get the value of relationship. It is all summed up in the simple reference to his brother as "this son of yours." Those words must have hurt and hit with such a force.

31" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "

There is reason to rejoice over the return of the lost. The far country Lord is still just a place of pigstys and lose. Sometimes I wonder about the places that are the far country in this time and place. Lines like "What is said in Vegas stays in Vegas" comes to mind...as if there was a weekend pass when it comes to living the life that You have call me to.

Does Vegas look attractive? Yes sometimes...The part I miss is the parting words to the older son..."everything I have is yours."No Vegas is a place of broken dreams and illusions that look like wealth. They vanish in a mirage of pain to those who think they are real. In the middle of doing life the way you want me to Lord there are times of celebration don't let me miss them like the older brother.

Lord Jesus Thank you for this day help me to focus on the grace and the goodness and the mercies that you have showered on this prodigal come home. Thank you Jesus for your grace to me today.