Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

We are plopped down into a world of money.  We deal with it every single day.  And yet, the Lord cautions us about our prone-to-wander hearts.  Don't let the affections that are for the Lord attach themselves to money.  Keep the treasure the treasure (God). Keep the tool the tool (Money).

Here is a new thought for me today.  Though thoughts of money are daily, even hourly now, they WILL CEASE.  I don't think there are wallets in heaven.  There is a Treasure though, and it is the Lord.  So, even though money is a big big part of this life it is not going to be a big part of the next life.  So then, the call is to keep the "anatomical" relationship with money appropriate.  Keep it as a tool in the back pocket.  Keep the affection of the heart for the Lord.

So getting this alignment with money and the Lord is a real thing.  People do this wrong.  Maybe I am one of them.  Listen and see how you are doing.  

Thanks for listening.  Go to BeWithMe.US and subscribe!

Everybody gets time, talent and treasure.
Some get time, talent, treasure and truth.

Whatever we have, we are encouraged by an otherwise dishonest person, to use the Time, Talent, Treasure and maybe Truth to make friends that end up in heaven.  The charge is to get busy.  Find a way.  Make it happen.  Make a plan and execute it.  Get it done.  That is what is meant by shrewdness.  

Be smart like this guy.  Work strategically.  Plan with the end in mind (a friend for eternity and in eternity).  We have something to learn from this wily manager; from this Son of the World.

You probably don't make and keep friends with a "POOF".  You'll have to work at it shrewdly.  Listen and check your plans for friendship.  Eternal friends.  What could be better than that?

BTW:  subscribe at the website:  BeWithMe.Us

Welcome to 7 minutes of Biblical Lemon Ginger, or however else you might be using this podcast as a part of your life.

Crazy story today.  Welcome to the Bible.

It is a parable.  A DISHONEST person is commended.  

Not for their dishonesty.  this is never condoned.

But for something else: Their shrewdness in MAKING FRIENDS.  

By shrewd we understand: Planning.  Foresight.  Thinking ahead.  Strategizing.  Using resources to bring to bear unto that goal.  The philosophy of basically saying:  I'm not sure how, but I am going to figure this out.  I am goin to make a way.  I am going to accomplish this somehow.

It is a call for strategically making friends for the Kingdom.  It is a good charge.  Listen and see if you are shrewd in this good way.

So it is early in the year.  I am going to bless you with my spiritual giantness.  Just kidding, that is not how any of us come.  

Rather, on this day, I will humbly put you and those in the web of your care front and center before a wonderful God.

Fortunately, He's given us some clues to what He is like in the story of the Prodigal Sons.  Remember?  He's embowelled with COMPASSION.  He RUNS to the repentant.  We will then respond to His entreaty.  We will look at where our "feet are". We will highlight our attachments.  We will wonder if we might be a little grouchy.

So, we will use the lessons and the amazings from the prodigal to turn and head a little closer to our Father.  Join me.

I never realized that BOTH prodigal sons get the father who GOES OUT to each of them.

So the older son at this visit is ENTREATED.  It means to be called to his side; to plead, appeal, urge and exhort.  This older son now has a spiritual decision to make:  Do I listen and hear this appeal from the father? Do I agree and admit that I am now the lost one?  Do I have the willingness to receive the call and correction of the father?  

The older son does none of that good stuff.  He doubles down on his lostness by further separating himself from his father and his brother.  He rejects the reorientation of the father's teaching message:

• you are estranged
• all that is mine is yours
• you are always with me.

His response?  Yikes. 
You may not even wanna hear it.  If you do, give this a listen for 7 minutes.
Big news, with the new year we will be starting with #1 episode.  This is #2.  Enjoy)

Do you know where your feet are right now?  It sounds like a stupid question, I know.  But, if you have ever been in the wilderness and have looked down at your feet and realized that YOU DON'T KNOW where you are on the planet, you will never forget that moment. 

It is terrifying.  It gathers your attention in a big hurry.  It opens the DEFCON 4 of woodsmanship.  All the tricks are pulled out of the bag to first IDENTIFY your location correctly.  Then, a plan is initiated to get back to where you want to be.

Our prodigal son story is really a prodigal son(s) story.  The younger son looks down at his feet and realizes he is lost in every way.  He is physically separated; he is relationally separated; he is morally separated, and spiritually separated.  He basically admits so.  "I am lost" is the first realization and he then makes a plan of repentance and rebuilding.

The older son looks down at his feet.  Tragically he is lost, but thinks he knows where he is. Just because your feet are in the same place as yesterday doesn’t mean you’re not lost.  Then he doubles down by separating himself even more from his father and his brother.

Listen as we today "look down at our own feet."

The Prodigal son returns and there is a big party.  Every element of a very special celebration is mentioned:  Food, dancing, music, clothing, and DECLARATIONS.

To understand the full-stop party, I was struck by the declaration.  They viewed him as a child that was dead.  Either really dead or on a one way street to deadness.

Perhaps you know people who have suffered the loss of a child in death or miscarriage or abortion.  Now imagine the re-uniting of these parents in heaven with their now alive child.  Now that is a party I want to see.  This image is the caliber and intent of the party described in Luke 15 of the returned prodigal son.

The kissing and embracing and "falling on their neck" and music and speeches and dancing begins to all make more sense.  So, listen and let's not be the dead guy.  Repent if necessary.  Rejoice if we are home!

What is God like?  Absent the Bible, we will DEFINITELY get this answer wrong.

In our own making, we will create a god of sour disposition. (Recommending Dane Ortlund's Gentle and Lowly)

Better to look to the Bible and find out what He is really like.   Today we find out that in His core, in His center, in "His BOWELS", in His gut we find...wait for it.....COMPASSION.  More good news, it is for us.

Me:  I'm Dirty.  God: You are mine.  I specialize in dirt
Me:  I'm spiritually unclean.  God:  Fantastic, I know what to do.
Me:  I'm morally Dirty.  God:  I have been waiting for you.
Me:  I'm socially separated. God:  I feel especially for those farthest away.  I got this.  I can help.  I RUN TO this.  I am compassionate at My Core.  This is why I got out of bed this morning!

We have a God who RUNS.  He runs to the battle.  He runs to the dirty.  Listen as we hit awe today as He runs to you.

Our prodigal son is a total knucklehead.  He has a zipper management problem, a money problem and most importantly a relational problem with God and man.  He has been DEVOURED by his error.

Our prodigal son is a total hero.  His guts are on full display today.  He proclaims the 3 most important words.  He works on real repentance after realizing what a knucklehead he is.  Of him it is said something worth emulating, "...when he came to himself."   It is like he woke up.  His life and sin and situation were ILLUMINATED for him.  May this be so for us.  

The prodigal then does the hard work of getting his head right, in thinking correctly, in a personal sin inventory.  Then he makes a plan to make things right.  This is brutal work.  He could have chosen differently.  He chose the hard path.  I cannot stop thinking of him as a hero as he resolves in the pig-pen both literally and figuratively.

Listen and see if you know the 3 most important relational words: " I _______  _________."

As we explore the Prodigal Son's ZIPPER MANAGEMENT problem, we will look to Solomon as both a good and bad example.

The good example is in Proverbs 5:15-19.  Ironically, it is written by a younger Solomon.  This definitively shows that he should have known better.  In fact, he DID know better.  It is a passage about marriage and sexual satisfaction.  I am not making this up.  It talks about breasts.  Gotta love the Bible.

The bad example is in 1 Kings 11: 1-8.  Like the prodigal son, Solomon liked foreign women.  It leads to a bit of a progression that is a tragedy of epic proportions:  "Loved foreign women...marriage(forbidden, btw)...turn away heart...Solomon CLUNG to these in love(death grip on a loser idea)...When Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart...Solomon WENT AFTER Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians...Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord."  How'd you like your sexual history to be bullet pointed in Scripture for all the world to see and hopefully learn from?

Solomon ends poorly.  However, our Knucklehead from the Prodigal Son story does NOT! 

He stops taking what is not his.  He starts this process by working and not stealing from pigs and their owner.  Yup.  He is LONGING and HUNGRY.  Welcome to the school of hard knocks.  Let's listen and admire him today.