Posts in Lent
The Father Calls for a Celebration

April 9, 2023

Luke Luke 15:22-24, 32 — God the Father gives us the new kingdom life in abundance because Jesus is raised from the dead and alive. God’s kingdom has come and is coming. The Father invites us into the kingdom of joy and to celebrate with Him when his lost children come home. When and because we have come home, we choose joy, life, and truth in the midst of the sadness and sorrow of this world. God’s joy can be ours in this life.

This is part of our Lent series for 2023 — Come Home! This series is based on and informed by the book of Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son, as well as Rembrandt’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son.

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LentPieter TheronTag 01, Tag 02
The Father Welcomes Us Home

April 2, 2023

Luke Luke 15:20,28 — The Father’s love is seeking us and waiting for us to come home. His arms are outstretched, and his hands are waiting to grasp and hold us, to comfort and protect us. We must allow God to love us, find us, and bring us home. Trust his love. Come home, and give thanks with joy and celebration at his table.

This is part of our Lent series for 2023 — Come Home! This series is based on and informed by the book of Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son, as well as Rembrandt’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son.

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LentPieter TheronTag 01, Tag 02
The Older Son’s Return

March 26, 2023

Luke Luke 15:28, 31-32 — Our Heavenly Father loves all of us, his younger and older children, equally and totally. He goes out to search for us and calls us home. We should let go of rivalry and resentment and surrender to his love. Only Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father, is the Shepherd that can bring home. And when we, as older sons, surrender and listen to his voice, we come home by practicing daily the disciplines of trust and gratitude.

This is part of our Lent series for 2023 — Come Home! This series is based on and informed by the book of Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son, as well as Rembrandt’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son.

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LentPieter TheronTag 01, Tag 02
The Older Son (We) Leaves

March 19, 2023

Luke Luke 15:25-30 — We are like the elder son when our hearts are filled with self-centered and self-righteous pride. We leave home and become lost like him when we surrender our hearts to resentment, envy, self-pity, anger, and fear. There is only one way home. We cannot find or save ourselves. We must be born from above. We can only be healed from above, from where God has come to us in Jesus Christ, to invite us to come home.

This is part of our Lent series for 2023 — Come Home! This series is based on and informed by the book of Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son, as well as Rembrandt’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son.

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LentPieter TheronTag 01, Tag 02
The Younger Son’s (Our) Return

March 12, 2023

Luke Luke 15:13-20a — When we leave home to seek love and belonging in the world, we become lost and slaves to the world. We are on a path that leads to self-destruction and death. We must come to our senses and choose between death or life. We must reclaim our childhood and begin the long journey home by becoming again a child of God. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became a child so that we might become children again and so re-enter with him into the kingdom of the Father

This is part of our Lent series for 2023 — Come Home! This series is based on and informed by the book of Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son, as well as Rembrandt’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son.

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LentPieter TheronTag 01, Tag 02
The Younger Son Leaves Home

March 5, 2023

Luke 15:11-13a — Our home is where we can hear God’s voice saying to us, “You are my beloved, on you my favor rests.” Our home is the center of our beings where we hear his voice, our hearts. Yet, we leave our Father’s home over and over again when we follow the loud voices of self, others, and this world. We become addicted to the conditional loves and promises of the world which never satisfy. The only way home is through the outstretched arms of Christ on the cross that leads us back to the waiting outstretched arms of our Father’s boundless, unconditional, and everlasting love.

This is part of our Lent series for 2023 — Come Home! This series is based on and informed by the book of Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son, as well as Rembrandt’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son.

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LentPieter TheronTag 01, Tag 02
Come Home!

February 26, 2023

Luke 15:1-3,11-32 — Lent is a time of homecoming. All of us leave our Father’s home during the year in one way or the other. To find our way home we must surrender control, die to self, and step into the Father’s waiting arms to receive his love and forgiveness. We are like the younger son and the elder son. Both are lost and need to come home. And coming home we must become then like the Father and look at others and the world through God’s eyes.

This is part of our Lent series for 2023 — Come Home! This series is based on and informed by the book of Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son, as well as Rembrandt’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son.

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LentPieter TheronTag 01, Tag 02
The Final Stone Rolled Away

April 17, 2022

Matthew 27:59-60; 28:2-6; Ephesians 2:5-8 — It is finished. The final stone is rolled away. The tomb is empty. Our Lord is alive and because He lives we live. He took away all our stones, all our sins. We are forgiven. We are free to live the new, eternal life He gives us.

This is our sermon series for Lent, entitled, Journey to the Cross, A Journey of Stones. This series is adapted from and based on the following two books: Journey of Stones: A Sermon Series for Lent and Easter by Steven Molin and Journey to the Cross: A 40-Day Lenten Devotional by Paul D. Tripp.

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Jesus Christ, Lent, Repentance, ResurrectionPieter TheronTag 01, Tag 02