The Second Chance.
Would you like a second chance? Brian explains how Jonah received a second chance from the Lord, and how can experience a similar blessing.
A Walking Dramatization
I would like to read in the Bible from Jonah, chapter 3:
So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!
Jonah 3:3-4
“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” – a 4-second message.
In his physical appearance, Jonah was probably a walking dramatization that God punishes sinners. Imagine his yellowed, worn out appearance, with a piece of sea weed stuck between his teeth. When he said, God can destroy people, he was a walking model of that truth.
The 2nd Chance for the Christian
Jonah got a 2nd chance. Is there always a 2nd chance for the Christian? There is an old hymn that seems to disagree:
“The bird with a broken pinion never soared as high again.”
The bird with a broken wing can never reach the heights it used to. I think that is wrong.
You may have heard that kind of thinking: “Ah, poor Schmendrick, he stumbled badly in his Christian walk, or missed his calling. He’ll never be the man he was.” Or, “She disgraced her family, her church and her God. She’ll never be the woman of God she was.”
The poem should have said, “The bird with the broken wing will fly higher.” It all depends on who mends the wing. Have you failed? Don’t think you are stuck in a life of second-rate service to God. Look at Peter? Failure?
Peter Warns Us
He allowed Satan to sift him like a sieve, but when God repaired his wing, he allowed Peter to warn us,
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
(1 Peter 5:8)
The one to whom Jesus said,
“Get behind me, Satan!”
(Mark 8:33)
..gets to warn us about Satan. The one who denied Jesus at least 3 times was allowed to stand in Solomon’s Porch, point his finger at the Jews and say,
“You denied the Holy One and the Just.”
Acts 3:14
Why was he allowed to do that? Because he was restored, and he flew higher for God than he ever had before.
The Six Million Dollar Man
Have you ever heard of “The Six-Million-Dollar Man”? Badly injured, body badly messed up – but they rebuilt him with bionic parts and he was stronger than he ever was. Peter was one of the earlier models of the “Bionic Man” – restored, rebuilt and recommissioned. Jesus challenged him, “Feed my lambs.” Did he do that? Yes. He wrote in 1 Peter 2:25,
“For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
1 Peter 2:25,
Get Back on Course
If I am a believer who has run from God, I need to get back on course. If God could use the whining, unmerciful, hard-hearted Jonah to bring about the mass conversion of thousands of vicious Assyrians, he can use me – he can use you.
We can take this scripture to heart:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
2 Cor 12:9
If you have a Bible with the words of Christ in red, you will notice that these words are in red: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
That is not my promise to you; that is Jesus’ promise: His grace is sufficient. Take that promise and we will need binoculars to follow your flight for God.
Do you remember a time when you cried out to God? Contact us at HopeStreamRadio, or comment below.
n Stapley
Brian Stapley is the husband of Margaret and “Christian-proud” father of Tabitha, Ben, Jeremy and Joel. He has been director of the Boys JIM Club of America since 1981 and a “JIM Clubber” since 1958, the year he became a Christian. The mission statement of the JIM Club is, “Discipling boys to love Jesus deeply and express him vividly.”
He has been an educator since 1970, primarily as a high school English Teacher. (Don’t dangle your participles.) He has been in fellowship at Scottlea Gospel Chapel, St. Catharines, since 1976 and travels to preach about three dozen times a year, in Ontario and New York State. He is a ventriloquist, in company with Casey, Theodore, Dodo, Grumpa, and a menagerie of others. Also, a bit of a magician.
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Images Courtesy of:
Footprints in sand – ddzphoto
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