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“PIG SLOP and the COMEBACK KID” – Pastor Howie

celebratingthegospel — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:59:30 +0000

“PIG SLOP and the COMEBACK KID”

“We have to celebrate and rejoice,

for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live,

was lost and has been found!”

– Luke 15:32 (NASB)

There is a story in the Bible about a father and his son. The story goes that when the son reached a certain age, he took the money that his father would have left him as an inheritance, and left home. He went far away and spent it all; living the wildest life there was to be had. In today’s society, he would have been right there with Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan (actually probably doing even worse things than they ever imagined). The son completely turned his back on all that the father stood for – even hiring himself out to work for a pig farmer, feeding the pigs their slop every day. One day he got so desperate that the Bible said that the even the pig slop started looking good to him…

I was born in 1969. The last of five siblings, I was raised in a loving Christian home. My parents were in church every time the doors were open, and in 1979 at ten years of age; I walked an aisle, was baptized, and joined my parents church. This was more of an intellectual affirmation that I believed God existed, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that He died for my sins, and that I should do something in response.

Then, in 1982, my mother began to be very sick. She had been diagnosed for some time with lupus, but in 1982 it began to really take a toll on her. We didn’t go to church often (or even at all most Sundays). In 1983, I began high school. Over the next three years, I would make several “half-hearted” attempts at spirituality, but the lure of popularity won out more often.

In the summer of 1986, I had a moment in which I believe I was genuinely saved for the first time – that I had begun a real relationship with Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. When school began two weeks later, I began meeting with other Christians every day for prayer and Bible study. Over the course of the next four months, this evolved into me leading a daily “devotional time” (essentially me preaching for 30 minutes) for over 100 students. We outgrew four different approved meeting rooms, and finally had to petition for the auditorium and have one teacher sponsor for every fifty kids.

Then the bottom fell out.

I fell from grace, and I did it hard. Did you know that your whole world can come crashing down around you in a second? One act of physical indiscretion with a girl in a hotel room while we were on a school trip soon got out to the entire student body, and I was humiliated. This was around the same time of Jim Bakker’s and Jimmy Swaggart’s similar downfalls as well, by the way.

I spent the next three years bouncing around; “up and down” spiritually speaking. I had times of deep depression in which I had major doubts about Christianity (PIG SLOP!). I became heavily immersed in alcohol, drugs, and illicit relationships (PIG SLOP!). All the while, what I was trying to do was fill a “God-shaped hole” that was in my life with everything BUT God (PIG SLOP!).

During that time, the devil tried to tell me that I was useless (PIG SLOP!).

During that time, the devil tried to tell me that I was hopeless (PIG SLOP!)

But your Bible says that the devil is a liar!

The Bible says that the son in the story was just about ready to eat the pig slop, when he “came to his senses” and said – “Hey! Wait a minute! I’ve got a father who loves me… I just need to leave this junk… and come home to him.”

He didn’t look back.

He just went home.

If the devil can get you to focus on a sinful past…

he’s created a powerless present…

and a fruitless future for you.

The next time the devil reminds you of your past, you remind him of his future!

I’ve read the Book – all the way to the end… and guess what? We win!

Don’t you believe everything that is said about you – the devil is a liar!

Don’t eat the PIG SLOP that the devil’s trying to feed you!

If you are a Christian, believe what God says about you:

the Bible says that you are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;

you are not who you once were;

you are not your own –

you’ve been bought with a price:

the blood of Jesus Christ has set you free…

and whom the Son has set free –

is free, indeed!

Aren’t you glad that you serve the God of the second chance? His mercies never fail – they are new every morning! Think of it this way: we, as Christians, hold perfection in imperfect vessels. In other words – we’re all just “crack-pots”!

In 1990, I recommitted my life to God. I came back – just like the son in the story did to his father. I enjoyed and understood entire sanctification; being set apart for God and His services. And in 1992, He chose to use me – this cracked pot, this imperfect vessel to carry the message of perfection in Christ by calling me to the full-time ministry.

Quit believing all the PIG SLOP the devil’s been trying to feed you!

Stop trying to fill your God-shaped hole with things other than God!

Come home to your Heavenly Father, Who loves you!

Quit living a dead life and know what it means to really live!

“Come to your senses” and let God redeem you!

Wanna know the really cool part? God’s not finished with me yet. This isn’t the end of the story – it’s just the beginning.

In Christ’s Love,

Howie

aka

The Comeback Kid

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Advent and Death?

celebratingthegospel — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:21:16 +0000

Father Tom Elliot (1st Sunday of Advent)

Isaiah 2:1-5

Psalm 122

Romans 13:11-14

Matthew 24:37-44

At the beginning of the week, I had a great idea for this weekend’s homily. The theme I

was planning on preaching on was not only applicable to Advent, but it also spoke of our

school’s Trust and Endowment Fund (TEF), which we are highlighting this weekend. The theme

was “planning and preparing for the future.” That is what Advent is all about—preparation and

planning, and a school endowment is an awesome example of the importance of planning and

preparing for the future. I was proud of myself for coming up with such a subtle way to tie these

themes together with the beginning of Advent. However, God was apparently not amused. He

somehow reduced my theme to rubble and compelled me to start over! I hate it when He does

that! Even more than that, I hated

His

theme—death!

I pleaded with God. It’s the beginning of Advent—a time of joy and celebration—and

I’m supposed to preach on death?! You’ve got to be kidding me! How does death have

anything

to do with Advent?! I found myself getting angrier and angrier. In the midst of my anger, God

reminded me that our readings this weekend and next weekend are about death. Sure, the word

“death” is not used, but the readings are about the end times, which God assured me was

essentially the same as death.

So I asked God to try to explain how death was supposed to be a good theme for the

beginning of Advent. Here’s where He led my ponderings—God’s greatest desire for all of us is

that we spend eternity with Him. Sacred Scripture assures us of this fact. In the Gospel of John,

chapter three, we read, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone

who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16). Knowing God’s

greatest desire is very important, not only for eternity, but for making sense of our earthly life.

In addition to knowing God’s greatest desire, it is important for us to know our greatest

fear. The greatest human fear is death. In fact, every human fear is somehow tied to the fear of

death, whether it’s the fear of snakes, the fear of heights, the fear of rejection, the fear of

vulnerability, etc. They are all rooted in our fear of death. So celebrating Christ’s first coming is

also about preparing for the Second Coming, or our death, which must entail our coming to terms

with our fear of death. This means, in some ironic way, that Advent is ultimately a preparation

for death! If our Advent preparation is only about putting up decorations, buying trees, wrapping

presents, and hosting parties, then we have missed the real point of our Advent preparation.

If we are going to let our Advent preparation truly be a preparation for death, then there

are a few things we can do in order to ensure we’re ready for Christ’s coming. The first thing we

can do is nurture our longing for heaven. There are two main paths that this can take. One, we

can embrace our infirmities. I have had many people who were sick or handicapped ask me why

God was punishing them. It is not God punishing them, but as we embrace our humanity,

especially in its sickness, brokenness, and handicaps, we are given a whole new understanding

and longing for eternity. While God does not cause our suffering, He frequently uses it to

remind us that we were not made for this earth; we are merely pilgrims here, journeying to our

heavenly homeland.

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celebratingthegospel — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 04:51:44 +0000