Tag Archives: the parable of the prodigal

When God Sees Grown Adults Act Like Children

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Portions of the passage below are often found on wedding bulletins. While the number 13 is considered an unlikely number to those who study numerology, 1 Corinthians 13 is known as the love chapter of the Bible. However, after taking a closer look at the full context of the apostle Paul’s words to members of the Church at Corinth, there is a call for adults to grow up and stop acting like children.

Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening], 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

As I approach 54 in August, I view the Lord through the eyes of a patient father. Jesus paints God the Father in the parable of the Prodigal in Luke 15 like an old man sitting on his front porch waiting for his son to come home. Free will allows this young man in Jesus’ story to seek pleasure in temporary treasures until his wealth is squandered. Only when this man comes to his senses in Luke 15:16-18 does he put aside his childish ways.

For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect). 10 But when the complete and perfect (total) comes, the incomplete and imperfect will vanish away (become antiquated, void, and superseded). 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside, 1 Corinthians 13:9-11.

While most adults may not want to admit this, we all have a similar story to tell if you’re humble enough to confess your past sins, James 5:16. Testimonies serve as a valuable spiritual tool to lure the lost back from their prodigal ways. May today’s blog speak to your heart so that any loved ones who have gone astray will return home physically and spiritually. The first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem, I’m a grown adult who has acted like a child.”

by Jay Mankus

A Father’s Love

Dr. John Gray refers to men being from Mars and women from Venus.  The distinctions Gray makes in his famous book Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus provides insight into understanding the opposite sex.  Thus, the manner in which women express love is far different from men.  This fact must be considered as Father’s Day arrives since a father’s love takes time to comprehend.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” John 3:16.

As a son of an immigrant, my dad came to this country with the clothes on his back.  Dedication to his work as a chemical engineer prevented me from spending time with my father early on as a child.  Living the American dream requires sacrifice, something I didn’t understand then but I do now.  The resolve my father demonstrated to provide a better life for his family was his way of displaying a father’s love.

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him, 1 John 4:16.

In 1989, Billy Crocket released an album entitled Basic Stuff.  There was nothing basic about the lyrics of A Father’s Love, the hit ballad from this project.  The image this song paints highlight’s the father in the parable of the prodigal.  After exercising freewill, taking his inheritance, this curious son squandered everything his dad had accumulated for him.  Instead of remaining bitter, this father sat on a front porch, hoping and waiting for his son to come home.  May this classic song and blog help you appreciate the various ways earthly dad’s express a father’s love.

by Jay Mankus