1 John 2: 12 - 14 NKJV
I saw a story on tv the other day about a man who grew up in a religious family upbringing yet chose a life of bad behaviors before returning to his faith. As I watched, I saw many similarities to that life which I myself have followed. Now, I haven't been to the extremes that he has been (drug use, domestic violence and prison) but there have been times where I have strayed from the teachings of the Lord from my childhood. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful that my own mother spoke the word of the Lord to me and made sure that her son knew the Father. I believe that these early experiences have shaped me into the man that I am. However, what was it that made me abandon those teachings I knew to be true and to embark on my own into a world that many consider to be against God? I'm guessing that I needed to experience for myself just what life had to offer as so many before me had done as well. I will say that even though I was off doing my own thing, the teachings of my youth still remained with me. For despite my own best efforts to distance myself from Him, God never left me. In fact, if there were ever to be any seperation between Christ and I, which there isn't, it would be due to my own beliefs and not because Jesus grew weary of me. For despite all of my own wanderings, I am assured that Christ Jesus has always been in me {Galations 2:20}. Although my own thoughts and beliefs may have changed over time, it is Christ who has NEVER changed...ever {Hebrews 13:8}. That is not who He is. God never drives us away, He only welcomes us back unto Him.
20“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21“And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23‘And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24‘for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
Luke 15: 20 - 24 NKJV
One of my favorite passages of our Lords love for us comes from Luke 15 and the story of the prodigal son. In fact, I can relate to this lad in my own experiences in that, despite the sqandering of his fathers riches, I also chose to go my own way. Something in me nudged me to alter my own life path to sample what the world had to offer me. Of course, I have all too often looked back on my own decisions and wondered what could have been. Where would my own faith walk be had I not wandered? How many other lives could I have touched had I walked that straight and narrow path? I think back on something my friend Dennis taught me about the local hawks that populate our area. See, when the young hawk is born, it is cared for by the parents. However, something interesting happens when the young bird comes of the age to leave the nest. The parent stops bringing food to its young. At first I thought this was because there must have been something wrong with the young bird, but I quickly learned that this was its first life lesson. See, the young hawk needed to learn to hunt and get food on its own, and this was the older birds way of teaching its young to live life beyond the nest. So, were my own wanderings of my younger years something look upon as a bad thing? Perhaps, but they also were a large part of my own growth in the Lord. Like it or not, I had to see the world around me on my own. Each of us comes to that point where we wander from the comforts of our own younger days and venture out on our own to find our own way in the world. No, it is not the Father who pushes us forward into a world He knows is against those who follow Him. He is, however, always with us no matter where it is life may take us. We can always be assured of this...we are Gods little ones.
1Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of aGod! Therefore the world does not know bus, because it did not know Him. 2Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
1 John 3: 1 - 2 NKJV
~Scott~
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