Prodigals, Come Home!

"I don't care what you've become! I don't care what you've done! My son has paid for it all on the cross. Now, come home!" ...God.

That's the Good News that our Creator promises us!

Regardless of how much you've ruined your life. Regardless of the scars that will never be removed because of the sins in your life. Regardless of how you might have been hurt by fake Christians. I say to you:

"I serve a living God! Who has sent us a living Savior! And he calls all men to turn from their sins and come back to him. Those who come to him, he will not cast out. Trust in Christ! He is such a Savior! He is mighty to save! Don't let anything stand between you and coming to know him. God is love! And he has provided a Savior! And if you don't come to him, the fault will be yours."  

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The repentant son, thought lost forever, and the father, full of forgiveness.

Our Heavenly Father is waiting for you with open arms. And he's pleading for you to come to him. How can I know that? Because Jesus promised that in the Bible:

Scripture Reference:  Luke 15:11-32

The Prodigal Son, also known as the Parable of the Lost Son:

Jesus is responding to the Pharisees' complaint: "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." 

Jesus tells the story of a man who has two sons. The younger son asks his father to give him his portion of the family estate as an early inheritance. Once received, the son promptly sets off on a long journey to a distant land and begins to waste his fortune on wild living. When the money runs out, a severe famine hits the country and the son finds himself in dire circumstances. He takes a job feeding pigs. He is so destitute that he even longs to eat the food assigned to the pigs.

The young man finally comes to his senses, remembering his father. In humility, he recognizes his foolishness, decides to return to his father and ask for forgiveness and mercy. The father who had been watching and waiting, receives his son back with open arms of compassion. He is overjoyed by the return of his lost son! Immediately the father turns to his servants and asks them to prepare a giant feast in celebration.

Meanwhile, the older son is not one bit happy when he comes in from working the fields and discovers a party going on to celebrate his younger brother's return. The father tries to dissuade the older brother from his jealous rage, explaining, "You are always with me, and everything I have is yours."

Commentary and Life Lessons:

• Typically, a son would receive his inheritance at the time of his father's death. The fact that the younger brother instigated the early division of the family estate showed a rebellious and wanton disregard for his father's authority, not to mention a selfish and immature attitude.

• Pigs were unclean animals. Jews were not even allowed to touch pigs. When the son took a job feeding pigs, even longing for their food to fill his belly, it reveals that he had fallen as low as he could possibly go. This son represents a person living in rebellion to God. Sometimes we have to hit rock-bottom before we come to our senses and recognize our sin.

• The father is a picture of the Heavenly Father. God waits patiently, with loving compassion to restore us when we return to him with humble hearts. He offers us everything in his kingdom, restoring full relationship with joyful celebration. He doesn't even dwell on our past waywardness.

• We see that the older son is clearly a picture of the Pharisees. In their self-righteousness, they have forgotten to rejoice when a sinner returns to God. Bitterness and resentment keeps the older son from forgiving his younger brother. It blinds him to the treasure he freely enjoys through constant relationship with the father.

Sons and Daughters,

It doesn't matter how far you wander from me in this world, what detours you take, how many mistakes you make or how badly you mess up.

When you return, I run to you with open arms, ready to welcome you home.

-- Your Daddy

It's All About Christ

It's not about a church. 

It's not about a religion. 

It's all about Christ!

Why do you need Him? Listen to this powerful message . . .

"The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man Whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead."  Acts 17:30-31

Will you claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

Giving Christmas Coffee

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” —Acts 20:35, NLT

“Why isn’t the coffee ready?” asked Diane.

“I’m sorry,” I said, tempering my voice.” I just got to work.”

“Well, that’s no excuse. It’s your job!” Diane snapped.

Diane was the charge nurse and she definitely lived up to her reputation! No matter what I did, it was never enough.

The week before Christmas, I drew Diane’s name for the office gift exchange. My heart sank when her name glared back at me. What could I possibly give her?

On the day of the Christmas party, I received an e-mail that Diane’s only daughter was in critical condition from a car accident. I grabbed my thermos of coffee and headed for the hospital.

When I arrived, Diane was sitting alone in the waiting room, wiping tears from her face. I inched next to her, pulled the thermos from my purse and offered her a cup of coffee. With a weak smile, she grabbed the cup from my hands and took a sip.

“Thank you. It’s just what I needed,” Diane whispered.

Ten years later I’m still celebrating the miracle of Christmas over a cup of coffee with Diane and her daughter!

Thought: Giving is so much better than receiving when it’s generated by an act of love—especially at Christmas!

—Connie K. Pombo 

Connie K. Pombo is an author, and speaker who now calls Cuenca, Ecuador home! 

She is a contributing author to several anthologies. 

You can visit her at www.conniepombo.com or http://living-and-retiring-in-ecuador.blogspot.com.

Christa McAuliffe's Dream: To Inspire Students to Literally Reach for the Stars

All seven crew members perished when "Challenger" exploded 73 seconds after liftoff. Of course, Christa McAuliffe never got to teach those lessons from space but after all these years, she has reached more classrooms and more students than she likely ever imagined. 

Watch this video tribute:

Suzi Hileman: 'Christina Green, Don't You Die On Me!'

In an exclusive interview with Brian Williams, Tuscon shooting victim Suzi Hileman -- who tried to protect the nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green, whom she escorted to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' fateful event two weeks ago -- speaks out about how she's coping with the loss of Christina.

Nine-Year-Old Boy So Moved by Giffords He Sells His Toys to Help Her

After all the sadness of the tragedy in Tuscon, stories about the heroic acts of so many of those involved emerged. Here's one that's sure to grab your heart and give us all hope. A local nine-year-old Tuscon boy was so touched by the shooting that he sold his toys and his treasured bracelet to send in his get-well card to Gabby Giffords.

Isaac Saldana told The Huffington Post that he and his brother were about to go walk the dog when they saw those reports of the violence. He shared that he was so upset that he decided to take action. What Isaac did was gather up some of his toys and sold them at school to raise money for Gabby. This little boy even parted with a special bracelet that was given to him after his dad returned from "one of his deployments as a U.S. Marine."

"I felt really bad about Gabrielle being in the hospital and getting shot, so I just wanted to help her," he said. Initially, his school was concerned that Isaac was selling his toys to his classmates and took his backpack away. Upon learning about his objective, the school became supportive and made an exception.

Aracely Saldana, 30, said that she had no idea what was going on until until she was contacted by Craycroft Elementary. She said that when she learned her son had raised the money and mailed it to Giffords without her knowing, she was so touched that she teared up. "For him to go out of his way risk getting in trouble to do a good thing -- that was just awesome," she said. "I was crying. I am extremely proud of my children."

Capt. Mark Kelly, Rep. Giffords' husband, spoke about how touched he was when he received the get-well card, along with the $2.85 that Isaac raised. It might not be the largest donation ever, but it's very well the most touching. Kelly had assumed that the $2.85 was the youngster's lunch money. Imagine how much more he will be moved when he learns the true extend of Isaac's gift! 

Mrs. Saldana confided how personal it became to Isaac when he learned of the tragic senseless slaying of Christina Green, also a nine-year-old. At the Tuscon memorial service, President Obama said. "I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us -- we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations."

I would say that little nine-year-old Issac Saldana, by this act of compassion and generosity, has indeed set a high standard for the rest of us -- in order for our country to "live up to our children's expectations."  

"And don't let anyone put you down because you're young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity...Cultivate these things. Immerse yourself in them. The people will all see you mature right before their eyes!" (1 Timothy 4:12,15 The Message).

You can watch the boy talk about what he did in this video from KVOA:

Graham Angered That God Was Left Out of Tuscon Memorial Service

Personally, I thought that President Obama delivered a very moving speech last week at the Tuscon Memorial Service, perhaps the greatest speech of his entire political career. Acting as "Mourner-in-Chief," his speech received praises from even his usual critics on the right. 

However, the Rev. Franklin Graham has voiced his "dismay" over how that memorial service was conducted. Speaking on Tuesday at John Brown University, an ultra-conservative private Christian college in northwest Arkansas, the son of the revered evangelist Dr. Billy Graham, complained that the memorial was not religious enough, specifically not "Christian" enough.

Graham, who was banned from a Pentagon National Day of Prayer event last year for repeatedly disparaging Islam as "an evil and wicked religion," was particularly upset that Native American blessings were said by Dr. Carlos Gonzales, an associate professor of medicine at the university, who is a Pascua Yaqui Indian and fifth generation Arizonan. (Graham called him a native of "the Yuppie tribe or something, I didn't quite get it.")

The president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association criticized that the service did not include an official prayer or the mention of God. Graham lamented at the rapid secularization of America, saying "There was no call for God to put his loving arms around the people who were hurting, the people that were suffering. Why? Why did they take God out of it? Why did they leave him out?" 

Raising his voice in anger, Graham asserted, "Because the world scoffs at the name of Jesus Christ. They scoff when they say that he's the son of God." And he predicted that the scoffing and persecution of Christians will only get worse in the near future. Claiming that just the mentioning of the name of Jesus Christ in public is increasingly frowned upon, Graham warned: "The spirit of anti-Christ is everywhere."

I really am perplexed as to why Graham did not consider the service to be "Christian" enough. After all, many would agree that, at times, the President's speech sounded like a sermon -- citing the consolations of Psalms 46 plus the laments of Job. Additionally, Department of Homeland Security Secretary (and former Arizona governor) Janet Napolitano preceded Obama and read from Isaiah 40, and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder read from the Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians. 

Despite never attending seminary and never receiving a formal theological education, surely even Franklin must know that Psalms, Job, Isaiah, and Corinthians are from the Bible: the Christian Bible. From my perspective, with the exception of the lengthy Native American prayer at the very start of the memorial celebration, the remainder of the program was exclusively Christian. I don't know which memorial Graham might have been referring to as not "Christian" enough. 

Not an advocate of ecumenism or religious harmony, Graham once also made fun of Hinduism's deities, saying that "No elephant with 100 arms can do anything for me. None of their 9,000 gods is going to lead me to salvation." As an evangelist, I truly wish that Franklin had had the benefit of some basic seminary training, specifically Evangelism 101. When sharing the Gospel, as in life, "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." I am saddened to think of all the Hindus, Muslims, and other potential believers who will never listen to him because of the harsh vitriolic remarks that he's said about their religion.

Franklin Graham, who has become something of a shepherd to Sarah Palin (she accompanied him to Haiti last month), is becoming known for rhetoric that is very edgy. While I admire the passion that he has for his religious beliefs, I am praying that he -- along with Palin and all the politicians, on the right and on the left -- would tone it down and consider carefully what they say. As Representative Giffords had admonished, "Words have consequences!"

In light of the recent violence in Tuscon: it's time for us as a society to strive for "civility;" it's time for us to start caring about each other; it's time for us to be kind to each other; it's time for us to show compassion and understanding. United, as one nation with a common cause to do good, I am confident that "yes, we can" become a "kinder and gentler nation." Let's pledge together to use American strength as "a force for good." Let's do away with divisive rhetoric and strive to become "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." I have pledged to do so and to encourage others to do so. Will you, Rev. Graham?