RESTORED TO USEFULNESS

We seem to hear increasingly of some well-known pastor who has fallen. For those who don’t make national headlines, there are others in small churches who resign in disgrace.  Is it more rampant, or more publicized? I suspect the former.

Be that as it may—how does it happen and can such a man ever be restored to usefulness?  2 Kings 6:1-7 gives us some guidance.

Consider, THE USEFULNESS THAT IS REQUIRED.   “And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, ‘See now, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us. Please, let us go to the Jordan, and let every man take a beam from there, and let us make there a place where we may dwell.’ So he answered, ‘Go.’ Then one said, ‘Please consent to go with your servants.’ And he answered, ‘I will go.’ So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.” (v.1-4).  We need servants of God who are usable for there is much to be done. Our usefulness for God requires vision and vigor.

There was VISION (v.1-2).  They saw the need and were moved to meet it. Do you have a burden for the work of God to progress? They called upon Elisha to oversee the project (v.3-4a). Leadership is pivotal for progress to be made.

There was VIGOR (v.4b).  The vision is pursued with vigor! There comes a point when inspiration must give way to perspiration. You need a dream, but a dream isn’t enough. Daydreamers never accomplish anything.

Then, we find THE USEFULNESS THAT IS REMOVED.  “But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, ‘Alas, master! For it was borrowed.’” (v.5).  There will be no success without activity, but activity alone doesn’t insure achievement.

Ponder THE LOAN OF OUR ABILITY, “it was borrowed.”  The ability of the man to chop the tree wasn’t his own, but it was borrowed. Every now and then I’m listening to Rush Limbaugh and he says of himself, “Talent on loan from God.” Well it is. We are stewards—our gifts and abilities are on loan from God. We are going to give an account one day.

Then comes THE LOSS OF OUR ABILITY  “the iron ax head fell into the water.”  He became lax. He didn’t notice that the head of the ax was loosening. His laxity led to looseness and his looseness to loss. We can get so busy working that we stop watching. Jesus warned, “Watch and pray lest you fall into temptation.” If we are so busy in the work of God that we neglect the worship of God we are headed for a fall. Little by little this leads to loose living and loose living eventually leads to lost usefulness.

Thankfully there is THE USEFULNESS THAT IS RESTORED,  “So the man of God said, ‘Where did it fall?’ And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float. Therefore he said, ‘Pick it up for yourself.’ So he reached out his hand and took it.” (v.6-7).

Restored usefulness requires A REPENTANT CONFESSION  (v.5b-6a).  He mourned over his loss. He confessed and acknowledged the place where it was lost. There is a godly sorrow that leads to repentance. After Peter denied Jesus, his bitter tears were the seeds of fruitful restoration. You get back on the road of righteousness where you took the devil’s detour. Where did you fall? Confess it to God with sincerity.

Then there follows A RENEWED COMMITMENT (v.6b-7). The stick causes me to think of another piece of wood—the cross. That cross is the source of our cleansing, but it is also the standard of our commitment. You must die to self to be useful for God.

We can be restored also. Where did you fall? How did it happen? Will you repent and seek God’s forgiveness? Come to the cross and you can be restored.  It might be a difference place or a different position, but you can yet make a difference IF you will do DIFFERENTLY.

GOD FORSAKEN

God forsaken—what a frightening term for a fearful truth—and it was what the inhabitants of Jerusalem were about to experience.  The vultures were circling and the jackals were skulking—waiting to pick the bones of the dead.  The Jews should have raised their voices to God in repentance, but instead roared at Him as a lion in their arrogance.  That was folly to be met with God’s fury.

The Lord had brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey, but soon there would only be desolation.  The rulers of Babylon—the commanders of their army—would invade—rape, pillage, destroy, kill, and enslave until all would be destroyed.  

Notice, that it is “the sword of the LORD” that falls upon them.  God is sovereign and even as He will use the Babylonians as His sword, it is His hand that wields it.  God is not beyond using a foreign nation to bring down wrath on a land like America today—such a God-blessed land that can soon become a desolation because we have forgotten the source of our blessing.  Nuclear weapons would do that.

The farmers sowed what they hoped would be a harvest of grain, but they would instead reap thorns.  You reap what you sow, and thorns are the crop that comes from the curse of sin.

When Jerusalem fell, the nations that encircled them—Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Syria, and others would be exult in the downfall of Judah and like the aforementioned vultures and jackals were eager to devour the scraps.  Yet, Babylon would conquer those nations, as well.

Out of the dark storm clouds descending on Jerusalem, a beam of hope breaks through in the distance.  After 70 years of captivity, the Jews will be permitted to return.  God will have compassion—and not just to them.  The pagans who dwelt in the land, and influenced the Jews to call on Baal, can be influenced by the Jews to call on the LORD—and “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (Rom.10:13). There is hope for Jews and Gentiles alike.  We can sink roots of repentance into the soil of salvation or we will be uprooted and destroyed.  There is no middle ground. 

RESTORED

So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”  (John 21:15) 

The old car sits rusting in a field—an eyesore that once roared down the highway.  Then, one day, someone buys the decaying carcass, takes it into his garage, where with skilled hands, the vintage vehicle is restored—a classic car now turning heads as it speeds again across the asphalt. 

This is the message of the Gospel.  It is what Christ will do to a life wrecked by sin.  Peter experienced such a restoration as recorded in the twenty-first chapter of John’s Gospel.  Three times he had denied Jesus and now three times Christ asks him if he loves Him.  It was as Peter stood by the distinctive smell of a charcoal fire that his failure occurred and it would be again beside a charcoal fire that Peter’s forgiveness will be experienced.  Peter’s denials had been in public and now his repentance must be done in public as well. 

Each time, Jesus confronts Peter with the question, “Do you love Me?” followed by Peter’s affirmation of that love and concluded with a commission by Christ.  In the first case, Jesus asks if Peter loves Him more than the other disciples do.  This took the fisherman’s mind back to when Jesus predicted that they would all abandon Him in His hour of trial, and Peter’s response was to assure the Lord that though the rest of the disciples did, he would stand firm.  The Rock—for so his name meant—became Jello and slid into the shadows.  Now, his bravado is banished and Peter makes no such claim to love Christ in a way superior to his colleagues. He does say that he loves Jesus, but the love Christ inquires about is agape—God’s kind of love—while Peter acknowledges a lesser love using the word phileo—brotherly love.  Humility has replaced his swagger after his denials of Christ.  Then Jesus told him to prove it by feeding His lambs.  Peter would always recall this and later charge pastors to feed God’s flock with Scripture (1 Pet.5:2).  Our love for the church equates to love for Christ—and will be expressed not by profession, but action. 

A second time Jesus confronts Peter—not asking about his love in comparison to his comrades—instead targeting Peter’s love specifically.  Peter’s response is identical; Christ’s is different.  He tells the fisherman to “Tend my sheep.”  Shepherds are responsible not only to feed the sheep, but lead the sheep—guiding them for they tend to wander and guarding them for they are defenseless against predators.  The specific term Jesus uses here means, “little sheep.”  In the first commission, He refers to lambs and now little sheep—the next stage of their growth.  God’s people need tending at every stage of their spiritual development. 

The final time Jesus condescends to meet Peter at his level asking him if he indeed has phileo love for Him.  Peter, doubtless under conviction over his denials, is grieved and appeals to the Lord’s omniscience, “You know all things; You know that I love You.”  Jesus again calls on Peter to feed his sheep—and the word denotes a mature sheep.  We never grow beyond our need for the Word. 

Jesus is in the restoration business.  If you have failed, you can be forgiven—and brought to a place of usefulness again.

GOD OF THE SECOND CHANCE

 

And the LORD said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.”  (Exodus 34:1)

One of the most difficult marriage counseling crises that I encounter is when a spouse has been unfaithful.  It takes a special love and commitment on the part of the mate who was sinned against to forgive and restore the relationship.  It does happen, and I have seen the miracle.  That is God’s kind of love.  Israel was unfaithful to Him, yet, God gave them another chance.  Abraham, Moses, Jonah, Peter, and Mark are some instances that come to mind where failure on their part was met with forgiveness on God’s part.  That is the nature of God.  Israel had been miraculously delivered from slavery in Egypt.  How grateful were they?  They made a golden calf and worshipped it!  Here is God’s response, “And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.’ ”  (Ex.34:6-7)  This is amazing grace!

The God of the second chance gave them THE NEW COMMANDMENTS (Ex.34:1-4).  They had broken the first set, spiritually, in their idolatry and Moses broke them, literally, in his indignation.  God gives them a replacement.  They would be no better able to keep them than the first edition, but that is why Jesus came.  He fulfilled all the righteous demands of the law and became our substitute so that through faith in Him we are saved.

God also gave them THE NEW COMPREHENSION (Ex.34:5-9).  Moses had learned so much on Mount Sinai the first time, but now God summons him to another revelation of Himself.  The fellowship broken by sin was restored in repentance.  The cloud caused by disobedience was lifted by love and a new light broke through.  Today can bring the dawn of a fresh revelation of God, if you will come up to His throne and meet Him!

Further, God issued THE NEW COMMISSION (Ex.34:10-17).  God reminds them of His purpose for bringing them out of bondage—to bring them into blessing!  They were not to be content with wandering in the wilderness, but advance to abundance.  There were marvels to behold, victories to win, and rewards to gain.  Has sin robbed you of your passion and power for service?  You can be restored to delight in your duty!

Then came THE NEW CONSECRATION (Ex.34:18-28).  They had been unfaithful to their vows, but God summons them to renew their commitment.  The failures of the past can be supplanted by our faithfulness in the future.  First love can be rekindled.

This brought THE NEW COUNTENANCE (Ex.34:29-35).  The shadow on Moses’ face from coming from Sinai the first time and seeing the sin of the people, was replaced by the shine on his face from the second visit and seeing the smile of the Lord.  Let us spend time in His presence this day until that glow is reflected on our countenance—nothing between my soul and my Savior!  Take away the veil and gaze on Him (2 Cor.3:7-18)!

RESTORED

And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.  (Job 42:10)

Old battered furniture—a secretary, wardrobe and dresser from my wife’s mother and a dish cabinet from my grandmother—these came into our possession, were sent to a skilled craftsman who restored them, and now they adorn our home!  Job was battered by the Devil with cruel blow after cruel blow.  Looking at him, you would have said, “That’s it—he’s seen his best days.”  Yet, there is a Master Restorer—God Almighty—that would not abandon him in the ash heap where Job sat!  He is in the restoration business, and that is what He does with Job.  God not only restored Job, He doubled his worth!

In this climactic conclusion of Job’s story we see HIS REPENTANCE (Job 42:1-6).  It was not sinful acts against God for which he needed to repent.  That was the false accusation of his friends as time after time they assailed his character.  They believed that Job’s sufferings had come as Divine discipline for his sins, and if he would just repent then he would be restored.  That was not the case!  God Himself testified to the righteousness of His servant—having thrown down the gauntlet to Satan, concerning Job’s integrity—which Job maintained even in the withering fire of trouble he entered.  What did happen, however, is that as time went on, Job felt abandoned by God and sought answers.  That is understandable, and not even wrong.  Somewhere along the way, this moved from confusion to complaint—no longer desiring answers alone, but demanding them!  In the presence of a Holy God, Who turns the tables and demands an answer from Job—and He has the right—Job repents of his bitterness with brokenness.

There follows GOD’S REPROOF (Job 42:7-9)  God does not go so easy on Job’s friends.  They are facing His fury.  When they ought to have comforted Job, they instead condemned him.  Thinking they knew it all, they presumed to speak for God, when they knew very little, and had no business becoming judges.  God can handle that Himself.  The Lord is sick of hearing them, and so asks Job to pray for them!  While I might have not wanted to pray for them after they way they had been, Job again displays his spiritual excellence in his intercession.  God hears and answers the prayer of his servant Job.  God always does—just not always in the time and in the manner in which we expect.

Job didn’t get the answer to all his prayers, expressed throughout the book, as he wanted, but he got something better!  We see HIS RESTORATION (v.10-17).  God not only gave him as much as he lost—He doubled everything!  You might protest—pointing out that is accurate except concerning the children he lost.  God blessed him with the same number.  NO—they were doubled too!  Something is not lost if you know where it is!  Job knew he had ten children in Heaven, and now God gives an additional ten—so that in glory the family circle would be twenty—double what he would have!

God is in the restoration business.  Often we experience restoration in this vale of tears—the ultimate is coming in the city of gold!  For the child of God, no matter how good or bad now—the best is always yet to be!  Job’s story teaches that truth.

GET BACK

 

Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”  (Genesis 35:1)

I borrowed the title for this devotional from a Beatle’s song.  The chorus calls, “Get back, get back. Get back to where you once belonged.”  Basically, that is what God says to Jacob in Genesis 35.  Jacob left the Promised Land three decades earlier.  Those years were marked by hardship and heartache.  Much of his trouble was of his own making.  God had disciplined him, and now it was time for him to return to the spot where he had departed—Bethel.

This is JEHOVAH’S CALL (v.1).  Jacob was to return to Bethel—the place of the forgotten vow.  When he had been there before, and had a dramatic encounter with God, Jacob had promised to serve Him, but much of his life had been spent pursuing his own interests.  God, however, proved Himself faithful, even when Jacob did not.  So, the Lord calls him to get back, and notice this: “go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there….”  If you need to go up, that means you have gone down.  Should you need to return to the house of God (and that is what “Bethel” literally means), then it is because one has departed from it.    Jacob had gone off course, went down into the world.  Has it happened to you?

Jehovah’s call led to JACOB’S CHOICE (v.2-4).  He responds decisively.  He is like the Prodigal Son who said, “I will arise and go to my father.”  I love the old hymn, “I will arise and go to Jesus; He will embrace me, in His arms.  In the arms of my dear Savior, O there are ten thousand charms.”  God has given us this awesome power of choice.  We see that this father’s decision not only impacted him, but his family.  When a father chooses to serve the Lord, he can lead his children to the altar with him.  Have you wandered?  Is God calling?  It is time to act.  Jacob consecrated his life and cleansed his home.  What are you waiting for?

Jacob’s choice brought him under JEHOVAH’S CARE (v.5-6).  Not everyone was happy to see Jacob and his entourage show up.  The pagan inhabitants of the land were poised to attack them.  It was a hostile environment, but God cared for them.  I will not try to paint you a lovely picture—and inaccurate one—that choosing to follow the Lord will take you to easy street.  This world is no friend to those who seek after God.  We must never forget, however, that if God is for us—then none can stand against us.

Jehovah’s care inspired JACOB’S COMMUNION (v.7-15).  The altar is rebuilt.  The communion with God that had been removed by rebellion has now been restored by repentance.  Jacob was back to where he once belonged!  There is a way back to God. 

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.

Come home, come home,
You who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

I’VE FALLEN, AND I CAN’T GET UP!

 

The LORD upholds all who fall,

And raises up all who are bowed down.  (Psalm 145:14)

Surely, most of us have seen the TV commercials of an elderly person sprawled on the floor, crying, “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!”  What they need is a button they can push on the device around their neck, so someone can come to their rescue. 

Spiritually, we may feel that way.  We often are afflicted by sin, but there are times when we can fall in an extreme manner—to the point of despairing as to whether God could ever forgive us, and stand us up again.  So, when we stumble into sin, and take a fall, we need to push the button of repentance and in our broken state, feeling as abject failures, the Lord will hear our cry and come to our aid.  Have you fallen, and you can’t get up?

Make no mistake, you didn’t have to fall.  You can’t blame God.  Jude rejoices, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (v.24).  He has promised that no temptation is greater than the grace He gives to overcome, and that a way of escape is always provided (see 1 Cor.10:13).  But, what if we ran into the arms of the seductive sin, rather than away from it as David did?    Have you fallen, and think you can’t get up?

Our fall will be painful, but it will not be fatal, if we are children of God.  It would have been better to have never fallen, of course.  It is worse to wallow in self-pity and despair of life because we have stumbled into sin.  I do not minimize the pain.  The fact is that the bruises and brokenness were avoidable.  We could have walked straight and steady in God’s ways.  Instead, we are in the Devil’s ditch, off the road of righteousness—we have fallen and feel as though we cannot get up and get going again.  The wreckage of our wickedness seems total.  Do we not know that the pain serves a purpose, and a permanent scar and persistent limp can be perpetual reminders of the high cost of low-living, and that the amazing grace of God saves wretches? 

Lessons carved so deeply into our soul are not forgotten, and serve as a warning to others as well.  Do you remember that Jacob spent most of a lifetime seeking to scheme his way to the top—a self-willed man who sought to make it without God?  He was at last broken by God as he fought against the Lord’s will.  The Lord put his hip out of joint and Jacob would never be the same.  Until his dying day, he would walk with a limp.  But, he was crippled to be crowned, and broken to be blessed.  That was a horrible night of despair that brought the dawn of a new day of hope.  He had fallen and confessed he couldn’t get up—and then God raised him up.  Read about it in Genesis 32:22-32.

God will respond to your 911 call to Heaven.  He hears and comes to heal.  We may wander outside of His will, but we never outside of His watch.  We can be bent low, burdened with sorrow over our sin, and the Savior comes and stoops down to raise us.  He consoles us as He says, “This is why I came to earth and died the death I suffered, so you can be forgiven and restored.”  I think of the story of the Good Samaritan that Jesus told as a portrait of the kind of love we should have for the fallen.  Jesus always practiced what He preached—and that perfectly so.  In fact, the religious leaders scornfully called Him, “a Samaritan” and yes—a Good Samaritan He was!  I have experienced Him coming to me while I was bleeding on the side of the road.  Do you need Him today?  Cry out, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”  At least, you can’t on your own—and that is a humbling thing to admit.  God promises grace to the humble!

The demonic vultures of despair are circling over you, waiting to pick your bones clean.  “But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head.”  (Ps.3:3)  The Savior shield us and shoos them away.  He has another purpose—and that is to exchange our groans for glory!  Jesus cradles our head in His strong arm, bathes away the dirt and blood of our fall, pours in the wine of His grace to cleanse the wound, and adds the oil of His Spirit to soothe the pain.  He intends for that head to someday wear a crown!  With His support we can get up and get on down the road of recovery.

I wish we would never fall.  It always brings some measure of pain.  Peter denied the Lord.  What a deep gash that put in his soul, wringing out an ocean of bitter tears!  But, later Jesus would come to him and lift him up.  He would be restored to usefulness.  You can be too!