God's Prodigal Family: Old Brother (Luke 15:11-32 (LD 51)

When we ask our heavenly father to forgive us our debts we are also asking that we forgive our debtors meaning those who sin against us.  The reality is that there is a cost involved with forgiveness and we might not always be willing to bear the cost of it.  What is more, the bigger problem is that we might not think that we ourselves need that much forgiveness.  So, what does the older brother or the older son tell us about forgiveness in the kingdom?  Why does Christ tell us that this man had two sons?

God's Prodigal Family: Younger Brother (Luke 15:11-32 (LD 51)

When Christ walked this earth there were two kinds of people with whom he interacted.  There were the sinners who knew that they were sinners.  These are the people who liked Christ’s message because it was clear their sins would be taken away in Him.  Christ also dealt with the pharisees.  These were the people who were righteous and in a position to judge Christ’s work.  When Christ speaks of the prodigal son who recklessly spent his father’s inheritance, how does this son show the folly of sin and the folly of righteousness?

The Kingdom of Suffering and Forgiveness (1 Peter 3:13-22 (LD 51)

The call for us to suffer and forgive those who offend us is a rather difficult challenge.  We as humans want to make sure that we get our pound of flesh.  We think that those who offend us must pay the price or we might want be scared that they will make a habit of offending us.  So, why do we ask for forgiveness and ask that we would forgive others?  What could possibly motivate us to want to fulfill this radical request?

Murder: Forgive as Forgiven (Colossians 3:1-17 (LD 40)

We can think that it is easy not to commit murder because all you have to do is not take someone's life. If it were that easy then we could see the Ten Commandments as a simple to do list of ten things to do each day. However it seems that it might be a bit more complicated than not literally taking a human life. So, how complicated or big is this issue?  How do we know we conforming to the Lord?