Ok - I'm slower than I thought ... I'm still reading Luke 15. This post is to the older brothers.
It's very clear to me that in the story, without God's grace, I am the older brother representing the pharisees being confronted by Jesus. I need to everyday die to self asking that His Spirit would live in and through me. Everyday I wonder why He allows the younger brothers to get away with what they do. And what really grabs me is the arrogance of the younger brothers. They are so filled with it. They usual sit around talking sweet and rejoice about how they are not "hung-up" like the older brothers yet in doing so they are condescending and filled with self=pride wearing a simple but too thin vail of humility over it ... all as they proudly race off in the wrong direction (very often thinking they are right but mostly just running from the bondage they see in the older brother).
And then I rejoice. I am glad that God has chosen to deal mercifully with me as well as with these younger brother. I am glad He has not judged me in the way I judge others. That He has begun a process of setting me free from the unnecessary bonds I have built into me life. And I sit in awe as He ultimately works His (rather than my) plan to perfection. God is GOOD! And I'll leave it to Him to deal with the errors of others. I have enough of my own.
2 comments:
Rick-
Have you read Tim Keller's The Prodigal God yet?
His book really showed me my older brother attitudes and nature.
yes - 139 pages including notes in large type on small pages with a lot of spacing and I've been reading it for weeks. Lk 15 and Keller's take on it make for great meditation. I love it.
I'm understand that God is not on the side of either brother and that as I try to fix my younger brother, I only act out what's wrong with me as the older brother.
And I'm seeing that our younger brothers come from the same dysfunctional family in that they are judging just as the older brothers do. They just disguise it as freedom and "love".
The "ah ha" is that they are for God to deal with. My focus is on what He wants to do in me and I only get in the way of that when I focus on them ... oh, and I am not really helping them anyway, just fueling their rebellion.
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