Tag Archive: Joel

Return To The Lord

Randall Daluz - Extended HandLuke 15:29-32  So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.  But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’  “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.  It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”

Dear Readers,  When I was a child, my mother brought me to church on Sundays.  I have fond memories of going to church back then.  I loved the singing and clapping.  We always attended multi-ethnic churches.  I loved seeing people of all colors worshiping Jesus together.  I accepted Jesus as my Lord many times back then.  I attended Sunday school and bible camp.  And, I do believe I loved Jesus as a child.  As I got older, time and circumstances led me away from church and eventually away from God.  The further I drifted away from God, the worse my life got.  I lost my faith and with it, my peace.  I suffered a lot in my twenties.  I lost a lot of people that I loved.  I blamed God.  I got so angry at Him that I refused to believe in Him.  I thought He wasn’t real and if He was, then He surely hated me and abandoned me, leaving me broken and forsaken.  I didn’t understand God.  I could not fathom Him at all.  I question whether or not my acceptance of the Lord as a child was real.  Sure, I believed at the time, but I ask myself, “How could I have drifted so far and sunk so low if I truly was saved?” (more…)