We all know (in our heads) that God is with us and that the Holy Spirit guides our hearts and nudges us in the right direction. But sometimes we just don’t feel God’s presence. It all sounds good; but it’s all head knowledge and not heart knowledge. When we’re in our own “pig pens” of life, does God ever enter the muck and stench to be with us? And when He does, how do we know?
At the Camp Meeting service on 8/4/19, Rev. Bill Wilson shared the truth that God does indeed enter our “pig pens.” Just as Jesus became a man and died the cruelest death that humanity had to offer, God enters the mire of our lives. But if we’re not listening, we’ll miss it. When we notice that God has entered into our situation, we experience an “Ah Ha!” moment, and we can answer His call.
Music
The One Way Express, a blue grass gospel group from the New Brooklyn United Methodist Church (in Williamstown NJ), opened the service. They are long time regulars at the Pitman Camp Meeting, but their music always brings a different sound and fresh perspective to our worship. They opened the service with songs such as “This Land is Your Land,” “If We Forget God“, and “I’ll Fly Away.”
After Rev. Wilson’s message, they closed the evening with their rendition of “God Bless America.”
Message
After the music, Rev. Wilson took the “stage” (actually, he chose to preach from in front of the stage instead of using the distant position behind the wooden railing). His scripture reading was from Luke 15:11-24, the familiar story of the Prodigal Son. (click the below “drop down box” to open the scripture reading):
Luke 15:11-24
12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.
14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.
15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.
16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!
18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,
19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”‘
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’
22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet.
23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast,
24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
As a boy, Rev. Wilson was on a farm and one day he managed to fall into a pig pen. After he hit the ground he was eyeball to eyeball with the pigs.
The young man that we know as “the prodigal son” also managed to fall into a pig pen. It wasn’t because he tripped, but he didn’t really know where he was going. He thought he didn’t need his father; he even considered his father to be dead and decided to take his inheritance. After squandering it all, he took on a job feeding pigs. But pigs are abhorant to any Jew. In using pigs in his parable, Jesus was emphasizing just how low this man had come.
And yet, verses 17-18 tell us that the man “came to his senses.” He realized how badly he had messed things up and that he really did need his father. Even if it meant becoming one of his father’s servants instead of his son, he realized he needed his father. In other words, the son had an “Ah Ha!” moment. Something clicked. He heard a message and he was motivated to change his direction.
Ah Ha Moments…
Many times, we fall into a “pig pen” of sorts. Life leads us into some stinky places, and we don’t understand the stench right away. But at some point, God leads us to an “Ah Ha!” moment where we see (and smell) things differently.
The truth of an “Ah Ha” moment is that God always loves us, and He wants us to come home to Him. So God whispers “Come Home!” to us in many subtle ways. Sometimes it’s a “coincidence”, or the words of a friend, or thoughts that pop into your mind. But God has a way of calling us to “come home.”
A GPS tells us when we make a wrong turn. It tells us to “wake up and recalculate our route.” “At the nearest legal opportunity, make a U-Turn.” But we need to listen to the GPS; it can’t be muted.
If you’re in a pig pen, look out for those “Ah Ha!” moments. God wants you to come home. He’s saying “I need you. There’s a whole world of new possibilities that I want to offer you. Come home!”
Are we ready to hear the “Ah Ha! moments that God sends our way?
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- Bill Wilson
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