Come Back to Jesus

Good morning, Happy Souls!

Bill Keller wrote a wonderful devotional today
that I highly recommend to you.  He has given
me permission to copy his e-mails, and I'm sure
he would be happy if you would share this with
people you know as well.

Read on.

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL   THURSDAY FEBRUARY 2, 2006
( Luke 15:11-32, Mark 8:36 )

It is time for you to "go home."  One of the great
passages of scripture is the Parable of the Prodigal
son.  It is such a powerful picture of those who
know Christ as their Savior, have a relationship
with Him, and decide one day they want to live life
apart from the Lord.  They no longer have a desire
to follow Jesus and simply want to live their life
in rebellion to God and His Word.  I share with you
often the fact that our way never works, God's way
always works.  When we choose to live life our way,
there is nothing but pain and heartache.  When we
choose to live life God's way, there is peace and
joy and the abundance that Christ promised.

TODAY, GOD IS SPEAKING TO YOU THROUGH THESE WORDS
AS LOUD AND AS CLEAR AS IF HE WAS SITTING RIGHT NEXT
TO YOU.  HE IS SAYING, "COME HOME!"

The parable starts out with the younger of two sons
asking his father for his portion of the estate.  He
basically went to his dad and said let's figure out
what part of the estate is mine, and let me have my
share now. The father did as his son requested and
the Bible tells us that very soon after he got his
share of the estate, the young man took off for a
"far country."  He had obviously been planning his
rebellion, since it was immediately after he cashed
out his portion of the estate that he left.

My friend, when we rebel against God it starts in
our heart.  Our actions are simply the manifestations
of the rebellion that started in our heart. When we
sin, before we ever commit the act, it starts in our
heart, moves to our head, and ultimately is manifested
in the action itself.  That is why we have to guard
our hearts.  It is critical that we keep our hearts
pure before the Lord.  David cried, "create in me a
CLEAN HEART."  We keep our hearts clean  through our
time each day with the Lord in prayer and in God's
Word.

The Bible tells us that once this young man was in
the "far country," he wasted all of his money on
"riotous living."  Now we don't have a detailed
account of what this young man did, or what "riotous
living" involved, but we probably have a good idea.
If it was the year 2006, he would be out every night
drinking, doing drugs, frequenting the strip clubs,
the casinos, having sex with many different people.
He would wake up the next day and do it all over
again.  For anyone who has lived this type of
lifestyle, you know that it is only a matter of
time before your money, no matter how much you have,
runs out.

That is exactly what happened to this young man.
He ran out of money and about that same time the
Bible tells us there came a great famine in the
land he was in.  I am sure you have heard the
expression, "when it rains, it pours."  When you are
living your life in rebellion to God, NOTHING GOES
RIGHT!  It is simply one problem after another, and
eventually they mount up and just living from day to
day becomes a nightmare.  You don't even want to get
out of bed, and eventually you don't even have a
bed!  As I tell you often, SIN COSTS AND COSTS MORE
THAN YOU EVER EXPECTED TO PAY!

This young man was now faced with being in a foreign
land, broke, and simply trying to survive day to day.
The Bible tells us that he went to work for one of
the citizens of the country he was in.  His job,
FEEDING THE PIGS! Here was a young man who just
months earlier was an executive in his father's
business.  No doubt he worked hard, but he was in an
executive position, overseeing the day to day
operations, people working for him, making the
important decisions that have to be made each day in
any business.  All of a sudden he is no longer an
executive but the lowest of the low, literally feeding
the pigs!

REBELLION TO GOD COSTS, MY FRIEND!  When you choose
to live your life in rebellion to God, do it your
way, you will pay the price in so many different
ways.  One day you are a big time businessman,
running companies, hundreds of people working for
you, spending your time making deals, eating out
in nice restaurants, driving nice cars, wearing
nice clothes.  The next day, all of that is gone
and you are simply trying to survive from day to
day.  You have gone from enjoying your life to
just existing.  You will always pay a huge price
when you choose to live in rebellion to God.

It was at his lowest point that this young man
began to hear God speaking to him.  Let me make
sure you understand something very important.  The
Bible proclaims that God will never leave you nor
forsake you.  That is a promise from God to you, and
it is true.  God is there with you every step of the
way whether you acknowledge Him or not.  What happens
is we quit listening to God, we tune Him out.  When
we are living in rebellion to God, He is the last
person we want to hear from since we know deep down
inside we are sinning.  However, God is always there,
always trying to get our attention, waiting patiently
for us to listen to His voice and respond.

In 1989, near the end of my 10 years of running from
God, I was driving down the Kennedy Expressway in
Chicago heading downtown where I lived.  It was 3
a.m., I had been out drinking that night, my legal
problems were starting to mount, I was looking to
escape in every way imaginable, and as I was driving
home I flipped through the radio stations and
stopped when I heard booming from the radio, "FOR
WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN, IF HE SHALL GAIN THE
WHOLE WORLD, AND LOSE HIS OWN SOUL!"  The voice was
that of Dr. Joseph Stowell, Chancellor of the great
Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, but it was clearly
God speaking to me trying to get my attention.
Sadly, I was in full rebellion to God and He was the
last person I wanted to hear from.  It would be many
more months before I was ready to listen.

The Bible tells us that this young man began to hear
God's voice that was clearly calling him home.  He
began to reason that he was sleeping with the very
pigs he fed, eating the same food they were eating.
The servants in his father's house at least had a
nice place to sleep and plenty of food to eat.  He
realized that he would be better off going home,
asking his father's forgiveness and becoming one of
the servants.  That was GOD speaking to this young
man telling him to go home.

Many of you reading this today are "sleeping with
the pigs," you are eating the same food the pigs eat.
You are tired of living like this, tired of waking
up each day with no hope, tired of running from God.
My friend, God loves you, He cares about you so much,
and He is waiting for you today.  The fact is, God is
NOT going to force you to come home.  That has to be
your decision.  No doubt this young man's father
could have tracked him down and brought him home, but
he didn't.  It was not because he didn't love his
son, but because it was a choice his son had to make
on his own.  God is not going to force you to come
home, it is a choice YOU have to make yourself.

I love you and care about you so much.  The wonderful
end to the Parable of the Prodigal Son is that the
son did go home.  When he arrived, he was not made a
servant in his father's house as he was hoping, but
he remained a SON!  My friend, just because you have
left the Lord, you never stopped being His son or
daughter.  You may have denied Him, you may have
chosen to reject Him, but He never denied you and
He never rejected you.  YOU NEVER STOPPED BEING HIS
SON OR DAUGHTER!

I will be praying for you today, praying that God
will speak to your heart about going home.  You
don't need to be miserable any longer.  You don't
need to dread waking up each morning.  God can take
the pain and the hurts in your life and replace
them with a peace that passes all human understanding
and His joy.  God is speaking to you today.  God is
waiting for you to come home.  He is waiting to
rejoice, "for this my son was dead, and is alive
again; he was lost, and is found."

Let me leave you today with the words to the great
hymn "Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling."  Read
the words, they are from God for YOU today!

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
See, on the portals He's waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.
Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
Pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,
Mercies for you and for me?

Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing from you and from me;
Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
Coming for you and for me.

O for the wonderful love He has promised,
Promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon,
Pardon for you and for me.

Refrain:

Come home, come home,
You who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller

***If I can help you in any way you can contact me
through my personal email at bkeller@liveprayer.com

***ARE YOU 100% CERTAIN WHERE YOU WILL SPEND
ETERNITY?  The fact is you will die one day.  At
that moment, you will either spend eternity with
the Lord or be cast into everlasting darkness
forever separated from God your creator.  To know
for certain you will be forever with Jesus, go to:
http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.html

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(C) Copyright 2006, Bill Keller Ministries.
All rights reserved


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May God bless you as you learn from this message!

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2006 Donald W. Mitchell