Emanuel Joshua preaches on the PHN 2016.Photo: Yamin/cancaonova.com

We young people like to be rebels, but we were disoriented. As St. Paul says in Tt -4 3.3: “Because we too were once foolish, rebels, led astray, slaves of passions of every kind, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But one day turned up the goodness of God our Savior and his love for men.“

In Luke, Jesus tells the three parables of mercy and shows us how God loves us so much. In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus shows us that we are children of God, loved by him and for him. As much as I have been through so many situations and sufferings, we have to convince ourselves that we are children of God.

On our journey, we see that the son asks the father for his part of the inheritance. That attitude is a cry for independence and freedom. The father gives his son’s inheritance, and with this he goes away. But why did that father left his son go? Why does God let us do what we want? The Lord allows that to happen, because He knows how to take good from evil, and uses evil as matter of salvation.

That young man, left for a faraway place, forgot God. He wanted to stay away from the Father.When we sin, we’re also forgetting the Lord. We choose what we want, and we don’t want any more of our Father’s House. In the middle of the mess, we don’t remember him, until hunger arrives.

That young man, just as we do sometimes spent everything and squandered it all. He lived a life unbridled, looking for happiness, but only found pleasure, and pleasure passes. So, we have to dominate ourselves, setting limits to for self-control.

After this, there was a deep famine in the region and he started to experience need. And whatever else that was freedom turned into slavery. The famine was away from the House of the father, but the more we move away from the His House, the more we stay close to the difficulties.

The one who left home stopped serving with his father, only in the end to have to serve his sins. Feeding the pigs is living this unbridled life and serving sin. Pleasure does not feed us and we not are satisfied; We end up envying the sins before we convert, but it is up to each of us to decide if we will turn from sin to an experience or stay in them to a disappointment.

Calm down to separate us from sin

We have to calm down, because, if we keep in agitation, we will never be able to separate ourselves from sin. In the world today, everything is noise; We’re afraid to stop and listen to God. At this time, you need to be calm and quiet.

“Calm down to separate us from sin.” Photo: Yamin/cancaonova.com

When we calmed him down, we can see that we are not so close to sin. We’re dirty, yes, but we see that it is not impossible to break free with the help of Jesus.

God, out of love for us and for mercy, comes to us and saves us. Not out of our merit, but out of  love. The Lord causes us to return to him. Come around, stop and calm down. Start living the purification, so let’s have a party and meet with God to experience the happiness that never passes. You need to calm down, cease all agitation. Get back to God, because the best place in the world where He is.

Portuguese transcription and adaptation: João Paulo dos Santos

Emanuel Stênio