Luke 15:11~32

  God has given the greatest blessing to man, his created beings (Genesis 1:26~29). But man betrayed the great grace given by God. He listened to the devil, God’s enemy, and ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil which God had told him not to eat. In this way, man sided with the devil. The moment man broke God’s commandment, he became God's enemy, and he became ruled by the devil’s work (1 John 3:8). Therefore, man was destined to go to the fiery hell, and to be punished there forever where there is neither rest nor death, but only torment. Surprisingly man doesn’t even know what will happen to him after death. Instead he just follows his sinful desires. But God took pity on man, so he sent Jesus Christ, his only Son in order for him to die for us, shedding his blood on the cross and taking up the wages of our sin. He paid back the wages of our sin in order to save us. Only Jesus Christ is the inheritance which makes us live happily, and lets us be freed from the devil and sin. He let us preach the message of the salvation achieved by Jesus Christ all over the world by sending the Holy Spirit in order for man to repent and to turn back to God. God has eagerly and patiently waited for us to be saved and not to perish (2 Peter 3:8~13). In this world, there is not even one single person who can overcome the devil, Satan, demons, curses, death and hell due to sin. The word of life has been heard in this world where there had been only despair - the word of the Lord Jesus, who has saved man from sin, the devil and death. Repent of your sin, and then he will give you heaven. There are not many who trust in God’s word yesterday or today. We, Christians, used to be destined to be tormented along with the devil in hell, for we listened to the enemy of God, the devil, and we belong to him. But amazingly we have been freed from hell only by the working of Jesus' blood. Only by the Holy Spirit, by the Word, by the Gospel and by the blood of Jesus Christ, were we born again as God's children and have turned back to the Father. There is no righteousness in us, only the working of Jesus' blood that he shed on the cross. After realizing that we have done wrong, the only thing that we have to do in order to be saved is to repent. The reason that we can repent is by the grace of the Lord, so the only thing we can do is just to be grateful to him. We can't measure how valuable the body of the Lord is. There are no means to pay him back. We must wholeheartedly thank him giving our hearts, our possessions and talents to him. The Feast of Thanksgiving is the day to give thanks that God had found us, who were like lost children. God the Father has saved us by his only Son, so we ought to give thanks to him sincerely as if we were offering our only son. Let us give thanks to him as much as we live with his life by eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood, for our souls are saved by Jesus, and we live by him. Let us confess at the height of thanksgiving that we are the ones who have received his grace and let us express it. This is the faith conscience and personality of those who have received grace. Let us be grateful and grateful.