From Kevin Funk…

I really enjoy sharing with you all what God puts on my heart.  This blog is not only a great tool for us pastors and elders to help communicate to the body, but I know speaking for me it also sharpens my awareness of the broken world around me to give you insight into what God is teaching me.

On Monday, my heart was heavy.  On that day two years ago, my dad went home to be with his Creator (can’t wait to join him).  Pastor Dave sent our family a picture (above) that I think best represents my dad and what his heart was all about.  He kept the commandments as well as anyone I’ve ever known.    Love God.  Love others.  You can see here his passion for both.

I’m going to be talking about Luke 15:11-24 for the duration.  Please take a moment to let this parable speak to you before you continue on.  You may have heard this parable before but as I was thinking about my dad, I couldn’t help but relate to this passage.

In verses 12-13, I could swap out this son for who I was growing up.  I grew up in a Christian household with caring parents.  Not knowing how good I had it, I basically moved away after high school and pursued my own worldly desires.  I feel like I used my father’s money, resources, and talents just to waste them away.  Some of my wild living still haunts me today.  But God’s grace is amazing, and I rest in that.

The father that is in this parable often represents our Heavenly Father.  During this dreadful day in August,  I took this father figure in Luke 15 and correlated it to my earthly father.  As a son who went his own way, I had a father who never gave up praying and watching for my return.  Of all the sins I sinned against my God and my dad, he always had words of encouragement and the hope and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  No judgement or cold shoulder.  As I read verse 20, I can’t believe the love and compassion that my dad had for me after the years I spent living in sin.  What he modeled to me through this process is exactly what God wants us to display for our children.  No matter how hopeless or defeated we feel as parents,  we can NOT give up on our children.  If my dad would have shunned me from the family or something worse, I fear where I would be at today.

Through a recent situation with a friend of mine I was reminded of this kind of love.  A love that never fails, gives up, or listens to satan’s lies.  I will always be praying and keeping watch for him. Ready to embrace and throw a robe around him (or others I encounter).

Thank you dad….for the legacy and Godly example you left. It will live on forever. I promise.

Ephesians 3:20-21:  Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.