[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Sunday, October 14 2012

[Paul]

Well, folks, today I went back to my old church, and the feeling of being unloved, unwanted and unappreciated by all of them returned.  Of course, I know that God loves, wants and appreciates me, and that's always a good feeling, but from a human viewpoint all they said in essence was that it was good to see me again, despite the fact that members have three ways to contact me: via email, phone and personal visits.  Oh well, God will take care of them in the end in His way, will and time.  On the bright side, I thank Him every day that I have all of you as friends, and especially Carol Taylor, who is not on any of these lists.

Anyway enough of my woes.  How was your day today, especially in your local house of worship? I hope good, by God's matchless grace and His providential care.

John Strong has written today's sermonette article entitled "Get Back On That Horse!", rendered as follows:

One of life's more important lessons has to do with what one does with failure.  In times past, when someone fell off his horse, he was admonished to get right back on.  The reason for this was simple: the longer one waits, the less likely he will want to face the possibility of another fall.

We have the same propensity surrounding failure; rather than try again, risking further failure, we avoid the situation that brought it about.  Life is full of human examples of those who stayed off the horse as well as those who remounted and tried again.

Consider two different reactions on the part of Jesus' disciples.  Peter denied Him and "went out, and wept bitterly" (Luke 22:62.  Judas "repented himself. ... and went and hanged himself" (Matt. 27:3, 5).

We know from John 21 as well as Acts and Peter's own epistles that he went on to become a leader in the infant church.  Peter repented genuinely; Judas was sorry for what he had done but did not truly repent and come back to God.  He took the easier route instead of seeking restoration with Jesus.

I am sure that Peter's restoration was painful, and he may have wondered whether it would be worth what he had to go through.  Yet he accepted that path, and God then used him mightily to advance the gospel.

While we may never fail God as dramatically as Peter and Judas did, we will face failures.  What we do at that point will show our character as well as being a contributing factor in how God uses us in the advancement of His kingdom.

It is vital that we refuse to let failure define us.  Just because we failed, even significantly, does not automatically disqualify us from serving God.  It may be true that we cannot serve in the specific ways we could before, but God can still use us, even if it is to show others the wisdom of obedience.

The tendency, however, is to slink away from defeat and self-disgust, thinking our usefulness is forever over.  Left to ourselves, we may wander further away from God and being useful to Him.

So if and when you fail, do not give up and stop trying to follow and serve God.  Get back up, and get back to doing His will.  Learn from your failure, but come back to walking with God.

Refuse to allow failure to define you--you can be victorious once again as God restores you and brings you back into usefulness for Him.

I hope that for some, if not all, of us that Brother John's article was a source of God-given encouragement and uplift for you.  It sure was for the undersigned when he read it over four and a half years ago.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul