A Challenge to the Clergy. Use this as your outline for your sermon on Sunday. As a united force we must battle the evil that has come up against our children in our own community. Please help me by sharing with your congregations that if our children are approached in any way that they should tell a responsible adult about inappropriate contact.

Assist me by getting your Pastors involved. Tell them about this post and request their attention be given to this matter.

A Fresh look at an old story.

The parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) is perhaps better named the parable of the lost son, since it is designed to go with the parables of the lost sheep (verses 3-7) and the lost coin (verses 8-10). Some have even called it the parable of the prodigal son's father, because of the father's anguish in seeing his younger son given over to sin.

The son perhaps revealed that he didn't have everything he "wanted" living in his father's house. Perhaps the house wasn't big enough for him to have his own rooms. Perhaps they weren't "rich" enough for him to have his own money. Maybe he didn't have the best clothes, or perhaps he was embarrassed by a family that wasn't good enough for his friends to come and visit. So, the son left his father's house to live with the family of another man. Invited in, perhaps by the other man's wife, he made the other man's house his own, enjoying the other man's blessings. There he ate of the other man's bread, made the other man's adulterous wife his own, and lived with pride in the other man's house as though it were his own as the man traveled to make a living. He possessed what the other man labored for without having earned his own way. Faults pride, covetousness, and even fornication consumed this young son's life, which ultimately lead to the hardship of such a life. At the end he had wallowed with swine without realizing that he was in the process of losing his soul.

Today, after centuries of teaching about God's grace and mercy, the father's prayers were ultimately answered and his willingness to forgive his "runaway" son, upon his return and repentance, is shockingly gracious and merciful. This is Jesus' longest parable: 22 verses. Read it for yourself to gain further insights of the many faceted aspects of this story.