EdHart.me
Actually, this morning we come to the Parable of the Prodigal Son, probably one of the more famous parables that Jesus told. It’s a fairly straightforward parable that concludes a trilogy of teachings about the heart of the Father towards his wayward and sinful children. To refresh your memory from last week, we’ve been looking at Luke chapter 15.
This morning we approach the parable of the Great Banquet. This is a continuation of the same event that we studied last week. To refresh your memory, it is the sabbath and Jesus has been invited to the home of a ruler of the Pharisees. While there, he starts off with what is to them is a scandalous action: recall that he heals a man and then challenges them on whether or not such a healing is among the works that should be counted as a violation of God’s sabbath (as opposed to their customs). Then, after exposing their hypocrisy, he proceeds to instruct them in true humility.
We’re continuing a study on the parables of Jesus as recorded in the gospel of Luke and once again, last week it was my turn to teach a lesson on Luke 12:35-48, which is a short passage, but a surprisingly challenging one! Depending on your version of the Bible, you might have a heading before this section that reads “You Must Be Ready” (or something similar) or maybe one that says “The Faithful Servant & the Evil Servant”. So let’s jump right in and study this passage….
I had the opportunity to teach my Sunday school class this past Sunday as we’re going through a study on the parables in the gospel of Luke. Here’s the text of my lesson if anyone would like to refer back to it.
The third and last group we visited with was Friends of Refugees which is a community organization with the mission of Helping Refugees experience an abundant life in flourishing community and from what we were able to see, they are making an impact in Clarkston!
For a few weeks now, I’ve been looking forward to hosting a missionary from Kyrgyzstan on his travels through the U.S. Each time we’ve had the opportunity to open our home, it’s been an incredible blessing. The anticipation leading up to these visits excites my heart and is only matched in intensity by the sense of longing I experience afterwards! So it is with Christian fellowship, foreshadowing the hope we have for the eternal community awaiting us at the end of this present age.
Visiting Clarkston, Georgia was not only an eye opening experience, but a heart opening one as well. After our morning introduction to Global Frontier Missions and their work training and equipping missionary candidates for cross-cultural ministry, we headed to the local office of World Relief, a non-profit organization which provides humanitarian aid, disaster and emergency relief through assistance programs to victims of poverty, disease, hunger, war, disasters and persecution.
Make a lenten cross with it! We started this as a family tradition a number of years ago and it’s become woven into the fabric of our holiday seasons. I love the continuity of celebrating Advent and Christmas with our Christmas tree, decorated with years of family ornaments, then using that same tree through the season of lent leading up to Easter as a reminder of the reason that we celebrate.
So what’s this refugee thing really all about? To find out the answer to that question, a group of us travelled to Clarkston, Georgia to see and hear first hand about this “refugee crisis” from several different perspectives. The first was from Global Frontier Missions, a missionary training organization tucked away in a nondescript basement of one of the many apartment complexes tightly packed into this community. After a brief tour of the facility, we sat down and talked about the history and mission of GFM.
Continuing my study of 1 Samuel today, I was particularly struck by this passage: