43. The Parable of the Prodigal Son: Return to Love
The Parable of the Prodigal Son is familiar enough that people sometimes skim it, as if they already know what it will say. But what stays with me is not the dramatic departure, and not just the extravagant reunion. It is the slow, stubborn work of coming home while the heart is still arguing with itself. The story names a kind of love that is not sentimental and not conditional on performance, and it also shows how hard it can be to receive that love without turning it int
If you spend time around Christians long enough, you start to notice something that isn’t always obvious from the outside. People do argue about doctrine. They disagree about worship style, spiritual gifts, church leadership, and the best way to read hard passages. Still, beneath those differences there is a common center of gravity. For most believers, that center is not a theory you can memorize. It’s a person you can encounter. The heart of Christian faith is Jesus Ch
When people talk about the Fruit of the Spirit, they often picture it as a checklist for believers. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That can be helpful, but it can also make the idea feel abstract. What changes everything is noticing where this fruit shows up first. In the New Testament, the fruit is not just something Christians are supposed to produce. It is embodied in the life of Jesus. Jesus is not only the tea
Grace is easy to praise and hard to practice, especially when you are trying to hold it in the same hands that also hold truth. Jesus never treats grace as a soft alternative to conviction. He speaks as if grace and clarity belong to the same sentence. When you listen to his words closely, you notice a pattern: he does not only announce forgiveness, he shapes the way people think, what they expect, and what they believe is possible. His grace is not vague. It has edges. It