Day 5 of Love Calls Us Home
Reflecting the Father's Heart
Reading: Luke 15:25-32; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20; Titus 2:11-12
The parable does not end with the younger son's return. There is an older brother standing outside the celebration, unwilling to go in. He has been faithful, hardworking, and present -- and yet he has missed something essential about the father's heart. It is possible to live close to God and still not understand what moves him. The father's heart moves toward the lost. It celebrates the found. And 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 tells us that God has given his people the ministry of reconciliation -- that we are now participants in the same work of calling others home. The church is not a gathering of people who have everything figured out. It is a community of people who have received grace and are now called to make that grace visible to a world that does not yet know the Father is running toward them.
Personal Reflection: Is there someone in your life who is far from God and does not know they are welcome home? Have you become so familiar with the Father's house that you have lost his heart for those outside of it?
Reading: Luke 15:25-32; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20; Titus 2:11-12
The parable does not end with the younger son's return. There is an older brother standing outside the celebration, unwilling to go in. He has been faithful, hardworking, and present -- and yet he has missed something essential about the father's heart. It is possible to live close to God and still not understand what moves him. The father's heart moves toward the lost. It celebrates the found. And 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 tells us that God has given his people the ministry of reconciliation -- that we are now participants in the same work of calling others home. The church is not a gathering of people who have everything figured out. It is a community of people who have received grace and are now called to make that grace visible to a world that does not yet know the Father is running toward them.
Personal Reflection: Is there someone in your life who is far from God and does not know they are welcome home? Have you become so familiar with the Father's house that you have lost his heart for those outside of it?
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