Sabbatical

My Cherished Reader:

It is sabbatical time for me.  After seven years of steadily churning out blogs for my six blog sites it is time for me to step away.  There will be no new posts for the next ten weeks.  I will resume with some fresh insights and thoughts after Labor Day.

Thank you for your consistent support of this blog.  I cherish your interest, your readership and your comments. 

My back-list is still available and I encourage you to continue to dip into that as often as you wish.

I will post an occasional oldie-but-goodie from time to time on social media sites, but mostly this is a regathering time for me.

See you in September.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words

Words of Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

When Will We Accept God's Love

If I have any thoughts for you at this moment they are this … God DOES love you. 

The most well-known children’s Sunday

School song says it this way: 

“Jesus loves me 

this I know

for the Bible 

tells me so.

Watch this video of 

Whitney Houston Singing 

Jesus Loves Me

After watching, please continue 

to the end of this message. 

The story of the prodigal son is nothing but a parable of God’s love.  In a nutshell here is the story.

~A son asked for his inheritance early.  That was tantamount of saying to his father, I wish you were dead, so give me my inheritance.

~The father gave the son his portion

~The son went away and spent it all

~The son returned, and only wanted to be treated like a servant

~The Father ran to meet the son when he saw him returning home

~The Father put a new robe on his shoulders

~He put new sandals on his feet

~He spread a welcome home banquet for the son

Remember, Jesus is telling this made-up story to illustrate God’s great love for us.  There is a bit of the prodigal in all of us, and God welcomes us back after our wandering.  That, my friend, is great love.

John 3:16 tells us very clearly – God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only son so that all who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  That, my friend, is great love.

God is an accepting kind of God.  He didn’t quiz the prodigal son on his return.  He didn’t chastise him.  In fact, the son could not even get his prepared speech said because the Father was giving orders for the robe to be brought and the sandals to be fetched and the meal to be prepared.

Why would he do that?  Why would God welcome a wayward son back into the arms of love after the way the son had treated the grace and love of God?

Why?

Because God is LOVE! 

God’s love continually reaches out to us.  He never stops looking for us.  We can’t play hide and seek with God for God always knows where we are. 

And when we make the first step toward God He takes ten steps toward us.

In the story of the prodigal son, the story goes that when the Father saw the son a long way away, he began running to him.  The son made a turn after his money was spent and began the journey home.  The Father ran to him when He saw his son coming home.

With God, it is not how good we are, or how acceptable we are. 

With God, it is a matter of coming home to His embrace.  Coming home to the love that has always been there waiting for us.

Will you come home to the love of God?

Will you accept your rightful place at God’s table of grace?

Will you allow God to love you as you are, not as you should be?

That is the heart of God’s love.

Read the story 

of the Prodigal Son 

by clicking here

Internet Church

P Michael Biggs

Offering Words of

Hope Encouragement

Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Where Does God Show Up

I have a quote from an old book that is new and fresh for today.

“The most fixed thing of all

about God is His very flexibility.

He has a way of showing up 

at the most unexpected 

times and places.”

~Bob Benson – Come Share the Being

I just got a phone call thirty minutes before I started writing this thought.  My friend Bob passed away on Wednesday.  Nancy, his wife, is experiencing the very presence of God here in Washington state.

Just today, another friend – Luke -  passed away.  Just as surely as God is with Luke’s family in Texas, He is with Nancy. 

God is with my friend Louis tonight.  He is in a local hospital facing surgery. 

And God is with my pastor and yours as they prepare for tomorrow’s church services. 

See that red SUV turning left at the corner.  That soccer mom is headed to yet another game for her eleven-year-old, and He is with her as surely as He is watching over you and me right this moment.

God has the amazing ability to show up in the unusual, the out-of-the-way and the down and dirty places of our lives.

My friends at Union Gospel Mission in downtown Seattle often catch a glimpse of God walking the halls and comforting the ones they serve.

Every day, in my travels, I pass a make-shift ‘tent city’ on the side of a main thoroughfare near downtown Seattle.  God is on duty there every day as well.

Tonight Carolyn and I took a walk along Sunset and admired the lovely homes and some amazingly beautiful rose gardens.  You know what?  God shows up there as well.

If you’ve ever felt lost, alone and abandoned, regardless of your address or whether you sleep in a tent or a temple, God knows exactly where you are. 

He has His eye on you and He cares for you.

In the Bible – Joshua 1:9

Even if you think you are going through hell, then keep going, for God is with you, even to the end of the world.

Thanks be to God!

P Michael Biggs

Internet Church

Offering Hope 

Encouragement

Inspiration

One Word at a Time