"It Could Happen!" -2

"I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel." (Psalms 31:12) Restoration, although a product of what God does in the lives of those that put their trust in Him, it is not what God has intended to take place in us! When you are speaking about restoring a life, usually it involves a life that has been broken due to excessive drug or alcohol abuse; but in fact, we all are in need of restoration unto God, because we were born in sin; separated from our Creator as a result of being born into a fallen world, we need to be restored to the One who Created us! However, as far as this vessel is concerned, it's not necessarily the vessel that God intends to restore, because His intention is to create a new vessel; something that is completely different from that which was previously broken! Jesus describes Himself as "the way, the truth, and the life"; and yes, I said "describes", because He makes this known in us that abide in Him; but He does so, because the three things we lacked as broken vessels were the way, the truth, and life: we were lost, as sheep without a shepherd; we had no knowledge of the truth, and walked in darkness; and we were dead unto God, in need of the eternal life that comes from being restored into Him. All three of these radical transformations require the act of something becoming new; not the act of restoration of a lost, unknowing, dead soul, that has no hope in God; but a new creature that is born of God; having within it all hope, because it is not lost, it knows the truth, and it already has eternal life!!! So then; as far as the broken vessel goes, it really does not exist any longer, and has been replaced by a new vessel of a whole different kind; one that does not resemble what was before, because it is no longer lost, in darkness, and dead. Just as with the portion of Scripture from Isaiah that I closed with yesterday, the transformation that must take place is so radical, that you know without a doubt that you have been transformed! Now, as we consider what that transformation required, and what it is that sustains this new vessel which has been created, do we see the full need we have to be committed to God? Talk about kite strings tangled in trees: there is no getting out of this!!! "Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briars; yea, upon all houses of joy in the joyous city: because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted a forest. Then judgement shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of the righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever." (Isaiah 32:13-17)