Recommended Reading

I recently finished reading A Tale of Two Sons by John MacArthur. I definitely recommend it. I am kind of wishing I had taken notes along the way as I read and could blog about it in a little more detail, but I didn’t. Maybe one day I’ll go back and do that. By the way, I am getting ready to start over with MacArthur’s Because the Time is Near, and I am planning to take notes as I read that one, and perhaps I’ll blog a little about it along the way. Back to A Tale of Two Sons, though, since reading it I have been doing an awful lot of thinking about God’s amazing grace and His joy over repentant sinners. It is a blessing to think about how God is not a reluctant Savior, but a joyful Savior who is extravagant in His forgiveness of the bankrupt sinner who realizes his inability to save himself. This is a joyful thing to think about and has really helped me to grow in my love for Jesus as I more fully appreciate His amazing grace toward even me.

As a result of reading this in depth look at the parable of the prodigal son, I have also done a lot of thinking about how much of myself I saw in his discussion of the Pharisees. That was difficult and uncomfortable, but necessary to think about. I found myself praying often, “Lord, please don’t let me be like the older brother, but let my heart be full of compassion and empty of pride.” I don’t want to be cold, unloving, unforgiving, full of pride and self-righteousness. I want to be poor in spirit, as Jesus told us to be. I want to love God with all my heart and live in the joy of gratitude for His gift of grace He has so lavishly granted to me, a sinner. He has been so merciful to me, even when I have not been fully aware of just how desperately needy I truly am and even when I have not had a deep enough grasp of the magnitude of the grace extended to me, nor of my utter undeservedness of it. I have more thoughts percolating on this, but I just couldn’t get them written down coherently today.

I do recommend this book. It helped me better understand the parable by looking at the culture of the listeners and how they would have perceived Jesus’ words as He told the story. At least read the parable of the prodigal son in the book of Luke and think hard about God’s amazing, amazing grace and the wonderful gift of Jesus Christ to atone for our sin while we were yet sinners. We love Him because He first loved us. And it helped me to recognize some things in my own heart that were uncomfortably like the older brother. May those things be pruned away, and may I love Jesus with a grateful heart, and may I yearn to share the gospel with those who need to hear it and rejoice with great joy with the Savior when lost sheep become found.