The Prodigal God

And you need to go read a book to like order it tonight, read it twice tomorrow by Tim Keller.

It's literally called The Prodigal God.

And in it, one of the most important things he says is this, the main barrier between Pharisees and God is their damnable good works.

To truly become a Christian, we must also repent of the reasons we ever did anything right.

A major factor for me, I'm going to give credit to a Calvinist here, a Reformed theologian.

Timothy Keller wrote a book called The Prodigal God, and I read that book before, just still in my past, and it it began to open my eyes about who God was in this story instead of the focus on the son, the focus on the father.

And then Malcolm Smith wrote a book on the whole story of the prodigal son.

And so I think the thing about that story is the idea that the son comes back and nobody has to be whipped or beaten for the father's wrath to be appeased that the father's love was always there.

So we go into it with humility, with a lot of grace, and knowing that our kids aren't gonna always get it right, and they're not gonna always listen to that conversation we have and then turn around and be super Christian kid.

This episode originally aired in March of 2019, and Vicki is a national speaker to women of all ages, and she's a best-selling author of numerous books and Bible studies, including Move Over, Ever After.

And the books that this episode is based on is Five Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter and Five Conversations You Must Have With Your Son.

She has several children, lots of grandchildren since we've recorded this.

And in this conversation, we're gonna focus on instead of letting fear drive your parenting, Vicki's gonna encourage us to make space for honest questions that our kids ask, how to lead with love, and to create an environment where our kids know they can come to us with anything.

[laughs]

[laughs] Oh, goodness.

Well, your new releases of a, a book that's been around, revised and expanded versions of books that have been around, came to my door, and I was like, "Yes, let's chat.

Take us on the journey of probably the last couple years, the return back.

What's God been doing in your family's

life, in your life? Yeah.

Yeah, it's been a beautiful time of healing, honestly.

For

hours on end.

Like, it was between me and God

kind of thing.