Bringing home the prodigals (I)

The Parable of the Prodigal Son: I like the story because it reveals a lot about the nature of God (the father figure) and the nature of man (the two sons).

The father longs for the return of his son, and gives him back all the rights, status, privileges of a son: Christ is always standing outside the doors of our hearts, patiently waiting for us to invite Him in. When we repent and turn to Him, God restores our status and identities as children of God, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

Like the prodigal son, we sometimes fall too easily for the trappings of this material world. We take the blessings of God for granted. We persist in our own foolishness and rebellion. We look to God and come to our senses only when bad things happen or when troubles come our way.

Thank God that He is full of grace. He is always there with open arms to lift us up whenever we fall and stumble in our walk with Him.


Some associate the prodigal son with people outside the church, but there are also many prodigals within the church who need our love, grace and support.

Prodigals outside the church: These people could have hurt badly by people within the church and that's why they left. Or they could have sinned and felt so ashamed that they are afraid to even step back into a church again because of their heavy burden of condemnation. And then, there could be some who feel that they are never good enough for Him, so why bother.


I wish they would know that no one is perfect and everyone is a sinner and that is why God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for us on the cross, so that we could be saved from his judgment through Christ.

God cares for them and loves them, and wants them to come back to him. Christ is the Good Shepherd. He is searching for the many lost sheep in his flock.


Prodigals within the church: They attend church but feel disconnected to the family of God. Or they could have backsliden and need just a helping hand back into the church. Perhaps, their hearts have turned slightly cold and cynical over the years, changed by the fallen world they see around them.


Rob Parsons of the UK's Care for the Family charity gave a stirring message in my church yesterday. His message was on Bringing Home The Prodigals: Preparing for Our Prodigals' Return. There were some main points:

- Some of the prodigals are not even prodigals to begin with but became prodigals because they were pushed away by people and rules and rituals.

- The guilt and condemnation of Christian parents with regard to prodigals is oftentimes tremendous and he asked these parents to leave all these negative feelings at the foot of the cross.

- Forgiveness extended to the prodigals is key in preparing for the prodigals' return.

- When the prodigals return, the church should ensure that they will be met by the father first instead of the elder son.

- Pray, pray, pray for the prodigals out there.


At the end of the service, we were told to write down names of the prodigals we knew and to put the cards in baskets at the foot of a cross on the stage. Then we had congregational prayers for these people.

I put down the names of four friends because they were people who had known God and had now left church. I'm committed to praying for them.

My family is on a separate list in my book because they have not yet known God yet. But it's amazing how God works - He spoke to me about reaching out to them through a friend, and a younger person at that. But I'll blog about that another time.