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What is a prodigal? Christian Lecturer Dave Harvey defined it as “one who wanders” in his message at the IBCD Conference. The concept of a wanderer and prodigal is not new. Most of us have either read about, know, have been, or witnessed a prodigal.

Since the Garden we are all prone to wander, and too often, we have. We decide that what God has provided simply isn’t enough for us. To make it all the harder, we have an enemy who instinctively seizes the opportunity to amplify that craving. And this is US, you and I, fellow sojourners and believers in Christ! This is why too often leaders fall, marriages fail, and relationships are severed.

The desire to wander is the apex where sovereignty and free will meet.

Harvey described this phenomenon of the Prodigal as “the saint who goes sideways.”

This Prodigal is the Fool described in Proverbs - deeply entrenched in rebellion, the one who dismisses God and replaces heavenly authority with his own. He is right in his own eyes, and no one – not even the holy, loving, powerful God – can tell him differently. The Fool has begun to believe that he is right, that his ways are right, and that everything he does is right.

Wayward is the destination that the Fool pursues, wayward is where the Fool will wind up. Pull back the curtain of a prodigal, and you will find the Fool. For the Fool wants to make choices that have no consequences and to have an autonomy that needs no accountability. The Fool is not particularly interested in the pain of the one who passionately pleads with them; creating a terrible imbalance, for the Fool will exploit neediness and humility.

This may seem terribly depressing, but take heart, God’s grace is far more tenacious than any sinner.

His grace has the power to pull one out of the blackest pit.

If you are struggling to love a prodigal in your life, know that you are not alone, God is relentless in His pursuit of the lost. Harvey said, “God deals with restlessness by exhausting our attempts to rest in anything but Him.”

So, what can you do? Begin by recognizing that the family loves the prodigal far more than they are loved, and because of that, our love has to be rugged. If it is not, if our love does not have teeth, then the prodigal is armed to exploit us.

What is this rugged love? It is never minimizing or denying what is happening; never simply hoping things will fix themselves. Instead, our goal must be to reflect the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is strong enough to face the satanic slope of evil.

Naming evil is important, but more than that, we must overcome evil with good. As the prodigal slips farther and farther from the Father of Light, their world becomes the shadowy realm of reckless self.

Express love intentionally and do not enable sin.

When we love a prodigal, we sometimes imagine stories in our mind about how we will win them back. We imagine ourselves as so loving, so patient, so kind, so understanding -- of course they will be won back! But we must remember that we are not the Holy Spirit. Do you trust yourself or can you trust God? If we confine our ideals of love to something that we can confine, we will find them way too small.

There is a paradox in Scripture which was described as “redemptive release”. God will pursue us as He releases us. He knows that there are times that we must be allowed to chase what we want only to find what we need. Think about it – the prodigal son did not sit around the house playing video games. He had to leave to realize how very much he wanted to be with his father.  

It’s hard to wait, and our Savior is moved by your suffering as you wait for the prodigal and persevere. Really, you have only one of two choices - you can persevere or be poisoned. 

Your hope cannot be in the prodigal but in what the Lord may or may not be doing.

Draw your eyes to our Lord. Let Scripture speak to you louder than any other of the voices muttering in your heart. This relationship with a prodigal may never be reconciled, but you will never lose your relationship with our Lord. God may wait until it seems too late, but we will not know His plans on this edge of eternity. By persevering in faith, you are testifying that He alone is the one worth trusting.

Will you trust Him as you wait for your prodigal to return to the Lord and give glory to Him?  

This is a tiny thumbprint of the takeaways from Dave Harvey’s lectures at the IBCD Conference. If you have a prodigal in your life, I would love to pray with you, share some resources, and walk with you. Please contact me at mccn14@gmail.com

Pilgrim Life with Other Believers

Traveling in a van full of biblical counselors is bound to be an experience where you can learn wisdom and see grace in action. The Lord recently provided me with this treasure trove of blessing as we headed out to California for a conference on how to love prodigals with gracious truth. Throughout the trip, I was conscious that I was surrounded by gifted brothers and sisters and as I reflected on the experience I appreciated anew. They haven’t written books or are not paid to speak to groups of people, but I was profoundly affected just to be with them. I was blessed by their spiritual gifts as well as their practical ones.

It isn’t the platform, but the wisdom of the Word that takes root in the soil of our hearts. How conscious are we to weed out the thorny seeds of pride? Those prickly spikes that cause us to mutter to ourselves, “Yeah, I know that” and shut our ears. Or worse, we wait for the other person to be quiet so we can blast out a response. The truth is that we don’t know. We might have an inkling of salvation, of prayer, of the Gospel, of doctrine, you fill in your favorite blank here, but there is always more to learn. Mary said, “It is when we turn away from God that we turn to our own selfishness.” Each person has something to add or share, a blessing to bestow. But often we miss it because we are too focused on ourselves.  

Mary was full of prayer, full of wisdom, and quick to laugh. She was the one who found us incredibly affordable restaurants that delighted us with delicious food. We enjoyed our meals together no matter what table we were gathered around.  There were breakfasts cooked by rotation in the morning at the house we stayed in, eating out, and on the last day, we were lavishly hosted by three other New Mexican sisters.  I think Pam summed it up in her prayer before the meal when she said, “Oh, Father, what a taste of heaven it is to eat with brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Pam would look for ways to encourage us. She would listen, pray, and watch. Pam is a quiet woman of wisdom. When Vera said, “It takes experience to express the wisdom of Psalms”, it was a vivid description of Pam.   

Vera is a sweet saint who took the time to appreciate the aesthetics around us and call our attention to our Lord’s attention to detail. She was drawn to flowers in particular. How much I would have missed if it hadn’t been for her! Did you know that there are trees that bloom purple flowers? There are stalks of fuzzy green stems, there are yellow flowers with orange triangles, bushes with red leaves and white berries, and I actually saw lemons on the tree! How creative is our God!?  I wanted to take pictures, but it would never have done justice. Vera’s husband, Keith, said, “A photographer can only capture what he sees, but it is God who can see the full picture.” Keith is a retired fire-fighter who protected the little band of women folk under his care. He calmly drove us through the crazy California highways.  We raced each other to get into the IBCD bookstore first each day.

Keith and Vera have provided marriage counseling at their church for several years, but I am struck by their humility. They are so hungry to learn more.

Carmen added a spark to our group. She was the one to see the humor in situations and point them out. She noticed if someone was on the fringe and was quick to serve.  After the first day of the conference, she talked about the prodigal in her life. Carmen shared how hard it is to balance love and truth as she prayerfully sought ways to engage.  She said, “If I am unwilling to look for ways to enter her world, how will she ever trust me?” 

Each person in the van that week had gifts to share, in abundance. By listening, engaging, and simply being aware, God opened my eyes to see their gifts and appreciate them afresh. How can you be more aware and more appreciative of those around you as they share their practical and spiritual gifts with you this week?

Check back next week as we share more about Elizabeth's experience at the 2018 ICBD Conference!

An afternoon by the pool .. a weekend at the cabin .. a lazy day in your hammock, or an evening out on the porch swing ..  these are the essence of leisure, of rest, of summer.  And while I hold firmly to the maxim that “the only two things in life that are not overrated are God, and rest”, I also believe that leisure is most delightfully life-giving when it is nourished by a good book.

As you enjoy your summer, here are three books that you might consider making a part of your plans.  They will give an outsized spiritual return on your investment.  They are short books - easy to pack for travel - with chapters that can typically be read in one sitting.  And yet, they get to the heart of spiritual matters quickly, and invite you deeper into the springs of God’s refreshment.

The Root of the Righteous, by A. W. Tozer:    

Tozer thunders like a modern-day prophet, rousing us from the midst of our sleepy evangelical world.  Several of his works are rightly seen as classics.  The Root of the Righteous is one of these.  May it be well-used of God to stir you, with chapters like “The Great God Entertainment”, and “Faith Is a Perturbing Thing”.  Hear his incisive diagnoses, written in 1955(!), and see if they don’t ring true:  “The present inordinate attachment to every form of entertainment is evidence that the inner life of modern man is in serious decline.  The average man has no central core of moral assurance, no spring within his own breast, no inner strength to place him above the need for repeated psychological shots to give him the courage to go on living.  He has become a parasite on the world, drawing his life from his environment, unable to live a day apart from the stimulation which society affords him.”  May you be drawn to seek Him more, with “Love of the Unseen Is Possible”, and “Something Beyond Song”.

Living in the Light: Money, Sex, & Power, by John Piper:   

It is Piper’s sub-title that really orients you to his approach right away: “Making the most of three dangerous opportunities.”  This is no glum recital of shame-inducing regulations.  In typical Piper fashion, he grounds everything in the glory of God, and in our soul’s search for it’s deepest satisfaction.  He begins with a foundation of what money, sex, and power are all about.  They are gifts from God, meant to be used for His glory and our joy.  Then he addresses the dangers and opportunities of each one, in turn.  In the end, he encourages us in how we can deploy the potentials that are latent in each of these three temptations.  “Money, sex, and power exist ultimately to show that God is more to be desired than money, sex, and power.  That is, paradoxically, how they become most satisfying in themselves.”

Praying the Bible, by Donald S. Whitney:

If you’ve ever felt like you’re completely tapped-out after 5 minutes in prayer, than this may be the book for you.  If you’ve ever felt like your time in the Word was dull, than this will open the door to a new approach.  As Whitney says in diagnosing our prayer doldrums, “The problem is not that we pray about the same things; rather, it’s that we say the same old things about the same old things.”  And really, the remedy is obvious, right?  Where else should we turn, to learn to pray, than to the Bible?!  And whose words and thoughts ought to fill our minds, and guide our petitions, more than God’s?!  In the end, this little book is simple, yet profound.  I find that Whitney’s approach spurs me on with the freedom to follow the Spirit in prayer, while also guiding me by the wings of God’s Word.  It is brilliantly dependent upon both.

What are your favorite Biblical summer reads? Share in the comments!

We love to talk about transformation here at Mountain Christian Church, and truly, it is one of the best, most faith-building parts of Christianity, watching God transform the people around you.

But, to be transformed, we first must be offered up.

This year for the AMPED UP VBS program, I was asked to head up the crafts area, so it was my responsibility to choose which crafts to do, (from a list of suggestions the creator of our VBS program offered), get the supplies either through donations or purchasing, oversee the volunteers, and run one of the craft rooms.

We received several donations, and amongst those was this oddball plastic container of pony beads. Pony beads were on the list of items needed, but these were too few and only three colors. We needed many colors and many, many beads to make the craft work. But everyone has made pony bead bracelets before and we were making bracelets based on binary code, so I decided to purchase some that looked more hi-tech and unique so the kids wouldn’t see it as the same old thing.

I then set aside the oddball container of beads, thinking they were useless.

Day One came and went, everyone made bracelets with the purchased beads. Success!

And in my pile of miscellaneous craft supplies, there still sat the oddball beads.

The craft team got together at the end of Day One, so we could all practice making the craft for Day Two. It was one we knew everyone would love. The kids got to make rock climbers.

By taping straws and a penny to the backside of a paper man, and then running yarn through the straws, they were actually able to make him climb by pulling the yarn in a certain way. Too fun!

While we were reading through the directions - more carefully and thoroughly now that we actually got to make the things - we realized we were going to need some PONY BEADS for that day. We needed to tie them to the ends of the yarn so it didn’t feed itself back through the straws.

Immediately, my mind went to the oddball container. Colors don’t matter here, and each kid only needs two of them, so of course there were plenty, and the smaller beads I purchased would never have worked.

God provided just what we needed.

Thank goodness the person who donated them did, and thank goodness we didn’t just throw them out. So, that “oddball container of pony beads” actually became a lifesaver for our Day Two craft.

Don’t discount those oddballs who volunteer, and don’t stay home because you perceive YOURSELF to be the oddball who just doesn't fit. God has a plan for you! A special place for you to fill. Offer yourself up and watch God transform you, or even better, use you to transform those around you.

(Photo credit to Jasmine Mostrom. Thank you for your amazing contribution to VBS Jasmine!)

We never know who will come to Vacation Bible School each year.

This year’s Vacation Bible School touched the lives of 137 children; 41% (LESS than half!) of the children were from MCC families; and 18% did not have a home church listed. 

Some of the children are really hurting. I heard about one child whose dad is not allowed to come home due to a judge’s order.  Another child kept asking to take extra snacks home to his little brother. Initially we found him putting carrots in his pockets to share with his brother so our sweet VBS snack team decided to pack a bag of food for his little brother daily!  Yet another family was packing to move to another state! The needs were great this year, but God is bigger and we know He has a plan for each of these children.

Especially the last family I want to tell you about. We had two children who were visiting from Texas. What we didn’t know until later in the week was that they lost both of their parents in a horrific car accident in April. With all they had been through, what a blessing it must have been to them to be loved on without being treated differently than any other child.  Of all the VBS's in the country, and of all the leaders in our VBS, one of these children was placed in a group whose leader grew up in the same area that she is from. Wow. The 'coincidence' brings me to tears because it wasn't a coincidence at all. GOD placed them right where HE wanted them to be.

Thank you for supporting VBS. For allowing us to be God's hands and feet to the children HE brought to Mountain Christian Church VBS this year!