RUSTED IRON

            Most times, out of disuse, a very sharp blade could become blunt, and out of further disuse, and if exposed to the elements, it could rust.

Few things are more annoying than a blunt knife.

Imagine this,

You get home really hungry, and you rush to the fridge to devour anything you can find; opening the fridge, you are shocked to discover that all that is there is just one orange! One!

 That’s probably bad enough, then you make a mental note to call your brother to stop over and buy you some lunch after you are done ‘dealing’ with the orange; so you make a mad rush to the kitchen and for some reason, you can’t find the knife,  you search everywhere, and still  can’t find it. In exasperation you collapse on the dining table, and then just lifting your eyes, you see the knife, just sitting there!! “Why didn’t you say anything!” you scream at the innocent knife, suddenly your stomach growls again, and without thinking you grab the knife and cut the orange!

Only that the orange won’t cut open, you try again and the knife can’t seem to cut open the orange, you try harder, but the knife just makes a mark, but it won’t cut open!

Depending on how hungry you are, if you burst out in tears it won’t be a bad idea.

It’s not your fault the knife is just BLUNT!

So out of anger you throw the knife outside, screaming at the blunt knife as its trajectory leads it to the rubbish bin. You slam the door in anger and then go straight to sleep!

 (There is nothing more you can do! Lol!)

A couple of weeks later, you had completely forgotten about the incident, you were cleaning the backyard, and then you saw a knife, it was rusting already, you remember the knife, but you don’t remember how it got there at first;

…..

Then you remember…you smile at the memory, but keep cleaning up anyway, you obviously can’t use it anymore, it’s rusting already.

“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”

Proverbs 27:17(KJV)

 

It doesn’t matter how blunt a metal is, it can be restored. Rubbed against another metal, it slowly but steadily will regain its sharpness.

            Once in a while we see someone we used to know, who had at some point been so ‘sharp’ with the things of God suddenly withdraw and the love they once professed seems to wax colder each day.

(How would you know? You would know!)

Maybe that person has at some point been you.

These people eventually not only become blunt, but when we ‘discard’ them, they rust, becoming almost ineffective having no ability.

Rusted iron.

It seems to be the norm that when a person starts falling we rarely reach out to help, we just turn our face to the other direction “it’s none of my business” we say! When we eventually come around to say something to the person, we say,

“How could you do this?”

“I am disappointed in you”

“I don’t think your senses are correct anymore”

“If anyone should be found doing this not you!”

And then we leave.

I’m not saying that a person should not be reprimanded, but to just reprimand and leave is like diagnosing a patient with a sickness and then asking the patient to go, without prescribing any drugs, or attempting to treat it.

“No matter the depths they have fallen to Jesus will take them back, and make them useful again!”

“Jesus is willing to restore them”

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness.

Malachi 3:3(NIV)

 

 

If we told them this too, maybe they won’t rust, maybe they’ll return back to sharpness sooner; but we poke our noses at them, and spread their sins  to the four corners of the world.

We let them rust.

Jesus who is our example always reached out, even when peter started sinking, He chided peter, “Why were you looking at the waves peter, why did u get distracted? Peter you are obviously stronger than this” yet He PULLED HIM OUT.

That’s what we don’t do; we don’t help to pull them out!

The next time peter was going to fall, He prayed ahead for peter, despite that, peter ‘left’ and went back to ‘fish his own way’, yet again He reached out to peter, and “sharpened’ him, by the third time, Jesus asked him, “Do you love me?” (Are you sharp yet Peter? Can I use you as a sickle to harvest my wheat? ) the conviction had taken a hold of peter and Peter replied with a deep-rooted conviction! He was sharp! Because Jesus took time to sharpen Peter. Then He told peter, “strengthen your brethren” (Now that you are sharp, sharpen others!)

Peter was back.

If a brother or a sister does a ‘peter’ and ‘goes back to the former things’, the norm among Christians seems to be that we would tell everyone else, how he/she has backslidden! We would not even bother to tell ‘the peter’ how much help there is for him/her.

Thomas didn’t quite seem like a very bright one from the start, he seemed rather ‘blunt’, and when he doubted Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus didn’t brush him off, Jesus took time out to ‘sharpen’ Thomas; Jesus pulled Thomas up too. He didn’t leave Thomas behind.

Aren’t we supposed to live like Christ?

Are we then supposed to leave our brethren out by the trash can? Shouldn’t we rush to where they are and pull them up…

“My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back.

James 5:19”

 I agree too!

 

(What if the Person becomes a danger to others?…….Rusted-Iron 2)