Martina McGowan

  For each of us, the elder brother’s attitude is a powerful warning, showing how easily and how cleverly unbelief can masquerade as faithfulness. No matter which category you find yourself in, the whole point of this series is to help you see that God can and will minister to your aching or broken heart. [...]

    Christ is using this parable to teach the Pharisees, and us, about hypocrisy and about God’s love. Here is the hard lesson: The Pharisees have a problem, and it is one that we still have to contend with. Their difficulty was that their “inner man” did not match the “outer man.” We, like [...]

  The striking descriptions in the parable are cultural details that help us understand the story in the context of first-century farm village life. It is important to look at these stories in context to really grasp what’s being communicated. The prodigal represents a typical sinner who comes to repentance. The father’s patience, love, generosity, [...]

  The Story of a Father’s Love The “Parable of the Prodigal Son“ speaks to us all on many levels because it has emotions in it that we can easily identify with. It has grief, joy, desperation, elation and rage. It is also has an open ended, unresolved and raw finish, just like life. This story that Jesus [...]

  What do the Prodigals mean to me? Jesus is trying to teach a lesson using three parables. If I could sum it up into a few words, the object lessons of all of them individually and combined are about the extravagant love that God has for us. And, this same extravagant and forgiving love is what we [...]

  Davey, Jr, of the Prodigal family, has been so busy being indignant that he has missed out on all the power, joy, peace, security, and love that was available to him, simply because he didn’t claim it! How insane is that!  How often do we get so caught up in doing things exactly right and [...]

  Have you checked your heart today? If we do and honest self-examination of our hearts and minds, we may find that we do occasionally think and act like the older brother of the Prodigal family, Dave Jr. But the Bible, clearly shows us that God is really about love and restoration and reconciliation.  So, even in this tiny parable, God has some [...]

  In the last post (here) we while discussing the Prodigal family, we took a sidestep into another parable taught by Jesus; the ”parable of the workers in the vineyard.” (Matthew 20:1-16) We have a vineyard owner who has offered to pay a set fee for a days work. Workers have shown up at varying times and sent out into the [...]

  We will mess up every time we start comparing ourselves to others. It’s easy for us to look at other people whose sins and errors are open and vulgar, and think we are so much better than them. We must remember that there are secret and favorite sins of the spirit as well. Henri Nouwen, a [...]

  Most of us are happy in most of our relationships most of the time. No one is happy all the time, all relationships require effort…from everyone. And when we love people, that alone will cover over a multitude of those little hiccups that come with any relationship. These are the “happy” sons, daughter, wives [...]

  The wayward, prodigal son has returned. The father is ecstatic and has a party. The older son, Dave Jr., who has stayed behind is not happy. What’s up with Dave, Jr.? After working all day in the fields, the older brother arrived at his house only to hear music, dancing, talking and merriment. When he discovered [...]

  Let’s review the first part of this parable.  A man had two sons and the younger son insisted on getting his inheritance right away, took the money and left to see the world. He went away and exhausted all his funds on wild living and the good life, although I cannot imagine what that [...]