“Your Damage is NOT Beyond Repair!”

Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works…” (AMP) 

I’m always amazed by how we so quickly discard damaged things, and worse than that, damaged people. Reminds me of something I read recently that stated, “A reporter asked the couple, ‘how did you manage to stay together for 65 years?’ The woman replied, ‘we were born in a time when if something was broken we fix it, not throw it away.” Honestly, it is my prayer that we take on this same approach with all people. However, the sad truth is, we live in a time with such a hard-hearted people, that we are quick to discard marriages, children, family members, friends, even churches and believers, due to damage. We’re quick to divorce and find another spouse; or discard our children and give the religious lingo, ‘I’m just placing them in God’s hands’. We’re quick to stop speaking to family members and throw away 10, 20 and more years of friendship, over minutes of misunderstanding. And yet what bothers me most is that the we, the church, the believers, are given the ministry of reconciliation, yet we rather the ministry of ruins!
 
Maybe we should read (or for some of us, re-read) what the Bible has to say on this?

2 Corinthians 5:16-20, “Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a FRESH START, is created NEW. The old life is gone; a NEW life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and Him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with Himself through the Messiah, giving the world a FRESH START by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what He is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ Himself now: Become friends with God; He’s already a friend with you.” (MSG)
 
Just 2 things I want to point out here (although there is so much more): 

1) “…ANYONE UNITED WITH THE MESSIAH GETS A FRESH START…” In other words, you don’t get to pick who’s worthy or unworthy in your irrelevant, biased opinion; and 

2) “…THEN CALLED US TO SETTLE OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH EACH OTHER…” Isn’t it amazing that church folk love to talk about what God called them to do, but fail to ever mention this aspect of their CALLING? CALLED to settle our relationships, not discard them with yesterday’s trash! Just thought I’d add a Selah moment on those 2 points.

You see, it’s our job and responsibility to help people take their old ways to God so that He may make them new. However, our job and responsibility is NOT to fix them, judge them, shame or guilt them. We are NOT to ostracize them. We are NOT to be exclusive and disrespectful. We are called to help, aid, assist, and encourage. We are responsible for showing others how to receive a fresh start in God, NOT stop them from getting to Him by the way we treat their old nature, as if we don’t have one ourselves.

For example, I don’t condone homosexuality, because I believe in what my Bible says about it. BUT, does that mean I can’t witness to them? Can’t hold a conversation with them? After all, how do I share the Gospel with a people I can never come in contact with? The same goes for the alcoholic, the drug user, the pimp, the prostitute, the gang member, the unbeliever. How do I reach them, if I’m not allowed to reach them? We have to be very careful about our religiosity, it’s doing severe damage to an already damaged people. Many of whom, at one time or another, WE WERE JUST LIKE! Don’t get deep now, read your Bible: 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, “Don’t you realize that this is not the way to live? Unjust people who don’t care about God will not be joining in His kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don’t qualify as citizens in God’s kingdom. A NUMBER OF YOU KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT, FOR NOT SO LONG AGO YOU WERE ON THAT LIST. Since then, you’ve been cleaned up and given a FRESH START by Jesus, our Master, our Messiah, and by our God present in us, the Spirit.” (MSG)

Makes you wonder how is it possible for us to point our accusatory fingers at others and go down the list of their sins and wrongs, when our grocery list of sin and wrong matches theirs, if not longer? And if not now, it did at one time. And dare we tell the whole truth, even now, we still have a list! Yes, all of us! Believe it or not with your deep, anointed, called, gifted, powerful self, you still have a list! But what did God do for us? “…since then, you’ve been cleaned up and given a FRESH START…” That’s like telling someone they can’t have a bath even after you’ve already had a shower! Why do some get to be clean and not all? 

If you received your Renewal despite all your Issues, why do you keep attempting to Cancel theirs?
Listen, we’ve all messed up in one way or another. None of us are perfect or sinless (regardless to what we may think or the show-stopping appearance we may put on)! We’ve had bad attitudes, not always the purest of thoughts, mouth or heart. We’ve been judgmental, critical, rude, conceited, envious, jealous, bitter, resentful and vengeful! And yes, I’m talking about Saved Church Folks! So who are we to act as if someone else’s damage is beyond repair when some of us were worse off (and still are) than they? While you ponder that thought, listen to this…

It’s just a humble little house in the country, but it’s been a dream of Sandra’s for years. Actually, it was her grandparents’ house most of her life. She lived just down the road from them as a child and she spent many hours and made many memories in that little place. After Grandma and Granddad died, her dad owned the house. But by then he lived four hours away, so he just rented it out for years. It never was a great house but it really fell apart over the last few years; holes in the roof, fleas in the carpet, critters invading the house through its many holes, rotting wood and deterioration.

Sandra’s dream has been that someday she might be able to get her hands on that house she loved and make it into something. She got her chance. Her dad deeded the house to her and her sister and this past summer they teamed up to make it a neat little place in the country. She put on a full court press to get all those holes fixed, to replace things that were rotting or infested or worn out and she started to put her wonderful creative and beautifying touches to work to make it a special little spot.

Another friend who used to go by once in a while when it was still rented confided to her how he felt about the house, “This place was a dump. I thought it should be bulldozed.” Needless to say, he doesn’t think that way anymore. He was very impressed with what that dump had become.

All those years Sandra had been seeing that house deteriorate and she just kept waiting for a day when it might be hers and she could take what had become a mess and make it into something beautiful. What she did for a house, Jesus does for people’s lives. He certainly did it for mine, maybe now is the time you allow Him to do it for yours. Believe it or not, but I know what some of you will say right about now, “you don’t know how bad my damage is. You don’t know how big my mistakes and how far off track I’ve become. You don’t know the mess I’ve made of my life. You don’t know what I’ve drank, smoked, snorted, or shot in my arm…you don’t know the many wrong beds I’ve been in. You don’t know the financial disasters my bad decisions have made.” And you’re right, I don’t know, and don’t need to know. But what I do know, is what the Word of God declares. Jeremiah 18:1-4, “Jeremiah received the Lord’s word:  Go down to the potter’s house, and I’ll give you instructions about what to do there.  So I went down to the potter’s house; he was working on the potter’s wheel.  But the piece he was making was flawed while still in his hands, so the potter started on another, as seemed best to him.” (CEB) 

See, unlike us, the potter doesn’t throw away the clay because it becomes flawed, he simply reforms it. And so does God. Another version reads, “But the pot he was making of clay did not come out like he wanted it. So the pot-maker used the clay to make another pot that pleased him.” (vs. 4 NLV) 

Truth is, we’ve all had a moment in our lives when it “…did not come out like he wanted it…” Or like we’ve wanted it either. But the good news, is that our bad news, is nothing new to God! Did you pay attention to the Scripture? The clay became flawed…WHILE STILL IN HIS HANDS. I believe that’s a vital point that we miss when dealing with the lives of others. We forget while we’re pointing fingers, they are still in God’s hands! And with Jesus as the Carpenter, is their Temple really beyond repair? Absolutely not! John 10:25-30, “Jesus answered, “I told you, but you don’t believe. Everything I have done has been authorized by my Father, actions that speak louder than words. You don’t believe because you’re not my sheep. My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them real and eternal life. They are protected from the Destroyer for good. No one can steal them from out of my hand. The Father who put them under my care is so much greater than the Destroyer and Thief. No one could ever get them away from him. I and the Father are one heart and mind.” (MSG). 

There is always recovery for anything or anyone placed in the Masters Hands!

Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].” (AMP) As bad as you think they are, or as bad as you think you are, you and they are still of Good Use to Our Good God! There’s always opportunity for change!

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if ANYONE is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].” (AMP) In other words, NO ONE can judge ANYONE because ANYONE can be changed, renewed, reborn, restored, revived, and repaired!

And I’ve seen that same miracle take place so dramatically in human lives, when a life that was getting more and more damaged was finally turned over to Jesus Christ. And He has lovingly gone to work to repair what looked “unrepairable” and to fix what looked unfixable to forgive what seemed unforgivable and to make a person into a new creation.

It could be that you’re in the market now for a re-creation miracle of your own. Things have been under your management for a long time. And maybe from the outside things look pretty good because we’ve learned and mastered how to mask, cover, hide, and disguise. But inside, there’s a lot you’re tired of. You’re tired of ending up lonely, you’re tired of your dark side winning, maybe the anger has done enough damage, the selfishness, the habit you have never been able to shake.

It could be that over the years you’ve accumulated more stress and more pain than you can handle anymore. Or more guilt than you can deal with anymore. Whatever the damage that’s accumulated during the years when you’ve been running things, there is Someone who has loved you all along who’s been saying all these years, “If only you would let Me have your life. I could do with it what you’ve never been able to do.” Think about it. The Son of God promises to make you a new creation, the old you behind you, a new beginning before you. Who doesn’t want that?

Romans 6:1-5, “What shall we say [to all this]? Should we continue in sin and practice sin as a habit so that [God’s gift of] grace may increase and overflow?  Certainly not! How can we, the very ones who died to sin, continue to live in it any longer? Or are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We have therefore been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory and power of the Father, we too might WALK HABITUALLY IN NEWNESS OF LIFE [ABANDONING OUR OLD WAYS]. For if we have become one with Him [permanently united] in the likeness of His death, we will also certainly be [one with Him and share fully] in the likeness of His resurrection.” (AMP)

Today is the day you walk in the newness of life! Today is your day to begin again! Your old ways can’t block the new you! No matter how much damage you’ve caused to your life, God can make it look as though it never even happened!

1 John 1:8-10, “If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.” (MSG). Did you read that? “…He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of ALL wrongdoing…” He holds nothing against us! He forgives and purges us of All! He’s not like us, he doesn’t look for little and big sins to weigh them out and see what He can let go of and forgive. No, He takes it ALL! In other words, YOUR DAMAGE IS NOT BEYOND REPAIR!

Psalm 103:6-18, “God makes everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet. He showed Moses how he went about his work, opened up his plans to all Israel. God is sheer mercy and grace; not easily angered, he’s rich in love. He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever. HE DOESN’T TREAT US AS OUR SINS DESERVE, NOR PAY US BACK IN FULL FOR OUR WRONGS. As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him. And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins.” (MSG). Once again, I reiterate, did you read that? “…HE DOESN’T TREAT US AS OUR SINS DESERVE, NOR PAY US BACK IN FULL FOR OUR WRONGS…” Again, unlike us, God doesn’t hold grudges! He forgives and frees! He restores and releases! If only we His children could exhibit the Father’s characteristics!

People of God, today is a good day to help someone out. Or in the words of Dr. Steve Maraboli, “How would your life be different if…you walked away from gossip and verbal defamation? Let today be the day…you speak only the good you know of other people and encourage others to do the same.”

No judging, no finger pointing, no gossip, rumors and the like. Just help.

I know their lives may be like the house in the above story, falling apart, messy, a complete eye-sore to look at. But you haven’t always looked like a million dollar mansion yourself. So take time today to reflect on what your temple ‘used’ to look like, and all the work God put in to rebuild and restore you to usefulness. And then show that same patience, kindness and love with others.

Lastly, in the story of the prodigal son the older brother focused all his attention on what the younger brother did while away from home. However, the father could only see that in-spite of what he did away from home, he still found his way back home. In other words, stop trying to find out what they did in sin, or what they did while they were away from church. Love them out of sin and love them back to church. Think about it, if God forgives their sin and removes it as far as the East is from the West, surely you should be able to mind your business between their house and yours. Selah…
 
We’re losing too many souls because of nosiness, pettiness, bad attitudes, unforgiveness, and the like. Instead today let us respond as the father of the prodigal son did. Embrace them, love on them, help them find their restoration and newness of life. Help them begin again. Show them where the restart button is, you know the button YOU push daily? 

Today let someone know that THEIR DAMAGE IS NOT BEYOND REPAIR! Let them know that you know just the right HANDYMAN that can make their old like new!

Isaiah 43:18-19, “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something BRAND-NEW. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is!…” (MSG)

“I have become convinced that God thoroughly enjoys fixing and saving things that are broken. That means that no matter how hurt and defeated you feel, no matter how badly you have been damaged, God can repair you. God can give anyone a second chance.” (Melody Carlson)

“Sometimes God lets you be in a situation that only He can fix so that you can see that He is the One who fixes it. Rest. He’s got it.” (Tony Evans)

“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history, it becomes more beautiful.” (Billie Mobayed)

Much Love, Dr.Shermaine #HealthyBodySoulAndSpirit

"It's Not Selfish to Love Yourself, Take Care of Yourself and to Make Your Happiness a Priority. It's a Necessity." (Mandy Hale)

"Self-Care is Not Selfish. You Cannot Serve From an Empty Vessel." (Eleanor Brown)