The Prodigal Son S Less Famous Sister

In this series of essays, exvangelical A. J. Sieling takes us on a deeply personal journey out of the darkness of a religion that could never see her. Drawing from the Parable of the Prodigal Son, she shares her story—not as the celebrated youngest son, nor as the begrudging elder brother, but as the sister: invisible, overlooked, and ultimately liberated. Weaving through the pain of being unseen and taken for granted in a community that preached unconditional love, these essays explore resentment, trauma, and the path to healing. With candid reflections, marked by raw honesty and bold choices, Sieling maps out the emotional landscape of leaving behind a world where she was always present but never acknowledged. This book isn't about proving points or winning arguments. It's about tracing feelings back to their roots and finding freedom in the realization that sometimes, invisibility can be a gift—the very thing that allows you to walk away, to heal, and to find happiness, with or without religion.

Previously published as A Tale of Two Sons Nearly two thousand years ago, Jesus told a simple parable about a family . . . a father and his two sons. It was a story of rebellion, repentance, and unfathomable grace. The Parable of the Prodigal Son still stands out as a crucial lesson about our struggle with sin and dependence on divine salvation. But there is a part of this story that often goes untold. It’s a message you need to hear. This powerful book provides fascinating new insight into one of the Bible’s most important stories. Using accurate and captivating historical context, John MacArthur invites you to hear the parable of the prodigal son as it was originally intended. Beautiful in their simplicity, rich in God’s forgiveness, these twenty-two verses from Luke will reawaken you to a new understanding of God’s love and the joy our repentance brings to Him. You are about to experience a tale of inexhaustible grace and an ending you’ve never heard before.

Within a few decades of the death of Jesus of Nazareth, there emerged within the infant church five literary and theological geniuses: Paul and the writers of the Gospels. No works of literature have been subjected to such close, persistent scrutiny by so many over the centuries. Yet the Gospels continue not only to fascinate, challenge and inspire, but to reveal new treasures and throw up fresh problems. Much depends on the questions we ask of them and the level of curiosity and honesty we bring to this task. For while the Gospels represent four magnificent attempts to come to terms with Jesus and the God he revealed, we cannot be surprised when they fail. We should, however, be astonished that they take us so far into Truth – then point even further on. In this glorious book, Trevor Dennis urges us to follow some of those pointers, to investigate where they lead in the search for the bright gospel beyond the Gospels. We will find ourselves in territory that is sometimes disturbing and sometimes heartening . . . But never less than truly exhilarating.

Parables of Jesus are stories about everyday life, ranging from a person's worldview to economic justice in society. This book examines most parables of Jesus from a critical literary perspective. Twenty-three narrative parables in the Synoptic Gospels are rearranged by their source: Markan parables, Q parables, Matthean unique parables, Lukan unique parables. Each parable invites readers to reengage Jesus's stories in the contemporary world.

The various kinds and conditions of love are a common theme for Kierkegaard, beginning with his early Either/Or, through "The Diary of the Seducer" and Judge William's eulogy on married love, to his last work, on the changelessness of God's love. Works of Love, the midpoint in the series, is also the monumental high point, because of its penetrating, illuminating analysis of the forms and sources of love. Love as feeling and mood is distinguished from works of love, love of the lovable from love of the unlovely, preferential love from love as the royal law, love as mutual egotism from triangular love, and erotic love from self-giving love. This work is marked by Kierkegaard's Socratic awareness of the reader, both as the center of awakened understanding and as the initiator of action. Written to be read aloud, the book conveys a keenness of thought and an insightful, poetic imagination that make such an attentive approach richly rewarding. Works of Love not only serves as an excellent place to begin exploring the writings of Kierkegaard, but also rewards many rereadings.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most read and preached parables of our Lord Jesus Christ. This Parable focuses on The Father, His House and His two Sons. We know that the Father was a good man, for the scripture declares a good man leaves and inheritance for his children's children. Many who expound on this passage focus on The Son who prematurely took his inheritances, wasted it on riotous living, lost his "substance" and wound up in the Pig Pen Motel. Perhaps this is why this parable is called the "Parable of The Prodigal Son." Others focus on the Father and his relentless love for his son. The father who released the inheritance to his Son knowing that it was premature, the father who let his son leave without confrontation, the father who knew his son would return and actually ran out to meet him before he got back to the house, and the father who threw an elaborate party for his rebellious but now repentant son.However in this powerful presentation Pastor Valerie Russell focuses on The Prodigals Brother. Her spirit-led insights will captivate you and draw you closer into understanding the heart of God for all of His Children. After reading this book you will understand that God really does not play favorites and there is no need for believers to be envious or jealous of one another. You will learn that whose you are, is more important that who you are and that who you are, is more important that what you have. Finally you will come away with the understanding that because you are in the Father's house everything he has is yours, it always has been and it always will be.

Christianity is in crisis. We live in a time when millions of people profoundly misunderstand the message of the Gospel. They believe that being a Christian means little more than being a nice person. They view Jesus as a wise moral teacher who showed us how to live better lives, and they conclude that the love of humanity is our greatest cause and its progress our primary purpose. Whatever else may be said of this view of Christianity, it is certainly not what Jesus taught. It is an attempt to replace the concepts of sin, redemption, and salvation with the more socially acceptable virtues of tolerance, compassion, and social progress. It elevates humanity and the world above God and his kingdom and reduces Jesus to a mere moral philosopher. But who did Jesus say he was? What was the essential message of Christ? The Gospel According to Christ answers those questions by examining the words of Jesus, in their context and in their entirety. The answers will be shocking to many Christians.

Rarely did ancient authors write about the lives of women; even more rarely did they write about the lives of ordinary women: not queens or heroines who influenced war or politics, not sensational examples of virtue or vice, not Christian martyrs or ascetics, but women of moderate status, who experienced everyday joys and sorrows and had everyday merits and failings. Such a woman was Monica--now Saint Monica because of her relationship with her son Augustine, who wrote about her in the Confessions and elsewhere. Despite her rather unremarkable life, Saint Monica has inspired a robust controversy in academia, the Church, and the Augustine-reading public alike: some agree with Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who knew Monica, that Augustine was exceptionally blessed in having such a mother, while others think that Monica is a classic example of the manipulative mother who lives through her son, using religion to repress his sexual life and to control him even when he seems to escape. In Monica: An Ordinary Saint, Gillian Clark reconciles these competing images of Monica's life and legacy, arriving at a woman who was shrewd and enterprising, but also meek and gentle. Weighing Augustine's discussion of his mother against other evidence of women's lives in late antiquity, Clark achieves portraits both of Monica individually, and of the many women like her. Augustine did not claim that his mother was a saint, but he did think that the challenges of everyday life required courage and commitment to Christian principle. Monica's ordinary life, as both he and Clark tell it, showed both. Monica: An Ordinary Saint illuminates Monica, wife and mother, in the context of the societal expectations and burdens that shaped her and all ordinary women.