This week was the London bombings. We talked and prayed about it.
Trevor Withers was going to talk on Luke 10, about connecting with people of peace. Who are your people of peace in whom God is stirring?
But actually he feels prompted to talk this morning about Luke 15 v 1-2 & 11 onwards. God loves all of the world that we are in with all of his heart.
Parable of the prodigal son. Put yourself in the story. God allows us to be in a mess, as the father allows the son to be in a mess. God does not intervene or control, as we and others sometimes think he should. He is a God of love who doesn't restrict the son from taking his inheritance early and using it to get in a complete mess. Love is a choice so there has to be freedom to choose, as shown by this week's events.
The prodigal son is our friends and neighbours but it's also us. We may not feel lost or poor, we have so much in material terms, but in many ways we haven't got a clue, and like our neighbours and friends we want more and more.
When we run out of our own resources we run into God's resources, like the son did. We try to hold our lives together, we try to make it work, when instead we need to enter into a dependent relationship with God, getting our identity from him not from our ability to run our lives/families/jobs.
We can't do it on our own because the reality of hurt, grief, destruction, is often there.
The father in the story doesn't tell the son off, doesn't say serves you right. That's God. The pharisees criticised Jesus as he told the parable because he ate with sinners, but God accepts all comers.
The welcome given to the son when he returns is more that he ever anticipated. No finger wagging or telling off, but a passionate welcome.
Are you in a time of famine, do you feel cut off from God and his love. Pray for the realisation that we need to throw ourselves on God. As people question us this week, pray that we will throw ourselves on God's resources and demonstrate the God of passionate love to those around us. | 
