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From the Message Bible:
The Lost Sheep
The Lost Coin
The parable of
the Prodigal Son
"By this time a lot of
men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around
Jesus and listening intently. The Pharisees and religious
scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They
growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with
them, treating them like old friends." Their
grumbling triggered this story.
"Suppose one of you had a hundred
sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the 99 in the
wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it?
When you found it, you can be sure you would put it across
your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in
your friends and neighbours, saying 'celebrate with me!
I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it - there's more joy
in heaven over one sinners rescued life than over
ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.
"Or imagine a woman who has ten
coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and scour the
house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds
it? And when she finds it you can be sure she'll call her
friends and neighbours: 'Celebrate with me! I found my
lost coin!' Count on it - that's the kind of party God's
angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God."
Then he said, "There was once a man
who had two sons. The younger said to his father, 'Father,
I want right now what's coming to me.' "So the father
divided the property between them. It wasn't long before
the younger son packed his bags and left fopr a distant
country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted
everything he had. After he had gone through all his
money, there was a bad famine all through that country and
he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who
assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so
hungry he would have eaten the corn cobs in the pig slop,
but no-one would give him any.
"That brought him to his senses. He
said, 'All those farmhands working for my father sit down
to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I'm
going back to my father. I'll say to him, "Father,
I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I dont
deserve to be called your son. Take me as a hired
hand." He got right up and went home to his father.
"When he was still a long way off,
his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out,
embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech:
'Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you;
I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.'
"But the father wasn't listening.
He was calling to the servants, 'Quick. Bring a clean set
of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his
finger, and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain fed
heifer and roast it. We're going to feast! We're going to
have a wonderful time! My son is here - given up for dead
and now alive! Given up for lost, and now found!' And they
began to have a wonderful time.
"All this time the older brother
was out in the field. When the day's work was done, he
came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music
and dancing. Calling over one of the house-boys, he asked
what was going on. He told him, 'Your brother has come
home. Your father has ordered a feast - barbecued beef! -
because he has him home safe and sound.'
"The older brother stalked off in
an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out
and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen. The son
said. 'Look how many years I've stayed here serving you,
never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever
thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of
yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up,
and you go all out with a feast!'
His father said, 'Son, you don't
understand. You're with me all the time, and everything
that is mine is yours - but this is a wonderful time, and
we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and
he's alive! He was lost, and he's found"
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