Well, its Thursday and I realize I haven't posted in a day or two...Well here goes.
This Sunday we'll be studying the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32. This is one parable I know pretty well. I lived it. Its' probly the most well known, and some would say, the best story ever told. Why? Because of the many different angles that a lesson can be drawn from it. But for our lesson I want to look at one in particular: the younger brother.

When I was a kid we were really poor. We raised our own animals-cows and pigs-for our own frig and even to sell. Pigs are an amazing animal. Of all the farm animals they are the smartest. If there is a hole in a fence that they can get out of they will. They even know how to work the mud over to a spot where it isn't imbedded in the ground so they can root underneath it. They have one of he largest brains for thier size of any farm animal.

But there is one thing. They will eat any kind of food waste you put in front of them. Doesn't matter if it is half eaten, rotten, got bugs...

These are the animals that the younger brother finds himself with in the story. For a jew, these were the worst animals of all. Snakes were given more consideration. To be near one was to be considered unclean, let alone be in the pen considering eating with them! This guy had to have been beyond desperate.

Until he suddenly "came to his senses" and realized how much better off he was at home.

Let me ask, have you realized where you are? Do you know what a pig pen smells like? Do you know that God only wishes you smelled that good because your sin makes you smell worse? Only when we understand our condition and what it is that God provides, will we come to find ourselves on the path home.

Notice also that even though the son went a long way from what the father intended, he was always a son! There was never a time when he lost his sonship. He never said I don't want to be a son...oh wait...now I do. It wouldn't matter if he did....he would still be his son no matter what.

But the father had to of know what kind of trouble the son would find himself and let him go. The lesson the son had to learn would cost the father half of what he owned but he knew what would be the result.

We need to understand who we are in light of who He is, how He has forgiven us and the depth of the forgiveness and grace needed. Its not just pray a prayer, sign a card....There has to be evidence that you belong to Him...live it

Soli Deo Gloria,

Aaron "Tree" Landis
Psalm 1.3