Wednesday, January 20, 2016

1-20-2016



 Good Morning All!!   
         Luke 15:23; “And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.
     Everyone loves to celebrate.  We love to join together with our family and friends and celebrate.  We love a good birthday party; we love an anniversary party, a graduation party, a promotion party anything that we can celebrate we will celebrate.  Maybe you even have dream celebrations; perhaps you thought of the party you would throw if you won the $1.5 billion dollar Powerball.  Maybe, somewhere in time, you practiced your acceptance speech for an Academy Award and the awesome party that would follow.  We love to celebrate even if it is a dream.
    Scriptures is packed full of celebrations.  Our verse is form “The Prodigal Son” and the party the father ordered when the lost son returned.  We have the wedding at Cana; we have all of the Passover meals.  We have King David celebrating when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem; we have the Israelites celebrating when the Egyptians were defeated.  The Bible is full of celebrating and not just a cookie and a glass of punch; this is serious celebrating.  The typical wedding feast was seven days, every so often they were fourteen; this is sincere and honest celebrating.
   Our verse tells of celebrating by killing the fattened calf.  This would have been the highest level of celebrating like when you break out the good china or the fancy chafing dish.  This is celebration at its highest level.  So what do they celebrate?  What can possibly bring about this level?  We know what the world celebrates: winning.  The world celebrates winning contests, ballgames, awards and adulations.  What does the Bible celebrate?  The Bible celebrates wins as well; wins for the soul and heart.
    Heaven celebrates when one soul is saved; heaven celebrates the healing of the soul.  Heaven celebrates when you rest, comfortably in God’s arms.  Heaven celebrates when your faith lightens your life for those around you.  Heaven celebrates when God’s grace wins and lifts the pained soul up and offers the suffering spirit hope.
   God celebrates with you when your relationships are healed and you share the love with your spouse, children, parents and friends.  God celebrates with you when you look at the challenges of life and hold onto the truth that nothing can separate you from God’s love.  God celebrates with you when you see the devil as someone who deceives and does not have control over you.  God celebrates with you when you call upon him and give him thanks and praise for the blessings you.  God celebrates because of his love for you; a love greater than that of the father in our verse.  God loves you with a love that allows you to celebrate that you have new life with him.
Gracious Lord, in you we have everything to celebrate.  In you we feast on the finest food and the finest wine.  In you we celebrate forever the most wondrous feast of eternal salvation with you.  In your precious and loving name we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret        

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