Second Thoughts

For a couple of decades I was accustomed to publishing on a weekly basis. Either that set a pattern or I just don’t think as fast as I used to.

In either case, I realized this morning that I assumed readers would see a connection I did not spell out in my response to the fallen minister. (see Who Gets the Glory)

I started off with a malfunction of my coffee pot and toaster and went right into the account of the minister who was fired and whose license was taken away.

The connecting link that I saw was that things malfunction, either because we use them incorrectly or they break, and we see if we can jerry-rig them (it usually costs too much to have them repaired) or we throw them away and get new ones.

Is the same thing true when people malfunction or break? If WE can’t fix them do we throw them away? Should we? Is there any alternative?

That’s what I meant to say. I believe there is an alternative. It costs more than having a repair man do the job, but the price has been paid by Someone else.

And He can fix not only the one man, He can fix the woman and the wife and the leaders and the congregation. It’s what He does. If we let Him.

Joseph was so full of himself that his brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt to get him out of their hair. His Egyptian master’s wife got him thrown into prison. But God saw to it that he was changed in slavery and prison and He saw to it that he was raised to a high place, a place of power and authority. And from that place, he was able to save his people.

Joseph told his brothers that what Satan had meant for evil, God had meant for good.

This was true then. It is true now.

We can see what Satan has accomplished in our time. I do not yet know what the good that God intends to come from that particular fallen situation will look like.

I have not been sold into slavery or in prison. I have not been caught in wrong-doing and publicly accused. But I malfunction, too. And God lets me see it.

I believe God exposes my malfunctions to me so I can choose. I can stay where I am and rot – corruption grows – or I can see the rescue and restoration that He offers and I can grasp it or receive it or whatever the right words are. Maybe surrender to it.

And if I am made even a little bit new, (although that’s like being a little bit pregnant) then the glory belongs to God.