Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved! (Psalm 80:3).<\/p>\n
One of my favorite TV shows was the History Channel\u2019s American Restoration. Before a new cast took over the show, it featured a guy named Rick Dale and his shop, Rick\u2019s Restorations, in Las Vegas, Nevada. People brought Rick everything from broken vending machines to beat-up motorcycles, asking if he could restore them. Many times he\u2019d take a deep breath and fold his arms. You could see the wheels turning in his head: Can I bring this thing back to life?<\/p>\n
Rick loved a challenge, so he usually agreed to the project (for a hefty price). Then he and his crew would get started.<\/p>\n
The best part of the show was when the customer came back to pick up the item. Rick let the suspense build a little and then unveiled it. He was so excited to see the reaction to his work. The camera zoomed in on the customer\u2019s wide-opened eyes (and mouths), and you\u2019d hear \u201cOh, my gosh. I don\u2019t believe it!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then Rick showed them what he and his team had done, describing every step it took to restore the object to its former glory. The really cool thing was that the item worked again; it had been restored to do what it was made to do.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This show is a good analogy of how God works. He loves to take what is broken down and cast off, and restore it to fulfill its original purpose. But I\u2019m not talking about stuff; I\u2019m talking about people<\/em>. God is all about restoring people \u2014 all kinds: broken up, beaten down, and everything in between.<\/p>\n I say this because God showed it. There\u2019s a story in the Gospel of Luke about an encounter between Jesus and a man named Zacchaeus, a Jew who collected taxes for the Roman IRS. Tax collectors were despised by their fellow Jews for at least two reasons. One, they worked for the Roman occupiers, and two, they collected a big commission in addition to the taxes. Consequently, tax collectors were viewed as traitors and extortionists who were beyond redemption \u2014 cut off from God and shunned by His people.<\/p>\n So it caused quite an uproar when, passing through Zacchaeus\u2019 town, Jesus not only made it a point to speak to Zacchaeus but also insisted on having supper at his house! The tax collector was so grateful that, during the meal, he stood up and told Jesus he would give half his possessions to the poor and pay back fourfold anyone he\u2019d defrauded (Luke 19:8). Quite a change of heart and business model.<\/p>\n Jesus responded to Zacchaeus\u2019 repentance and faith by declaring that salvation had come to his house. Then He told the astonished guests, \u201cFor the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost\u201d (v. 10). Jesus made it clear that His primary mission was one of redemption \u2014 to find people and bring them back to God; and then restoration \u2014 to so change them that they can fulfill their original purpose from God. I think it\u2019s significant that Jesus made this statement in the house of someone whom everyone, including Zacchaeus, thought couldn\u2019t be redeemed, much less restored.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019ve met a few Zacchaeuses. As a young pastor, I would go into the community to visit people, asking them to consider coming to church. A few of them said to me, \u201cI couldn\u2019t come to your church; you wouldn\u2019t want me there. You don\u2019t know what I\u2019m like or what I\u2019ve done.\u201d They believed (perhaps because they were made to feel) they were beyond repair. In everyone\u2019s eyes, they were so damaged, they couldn\u2019t be fixed \u2014 like a car in the back corner of a junkyard or a tattered chair set out by the curb, unwanted and no longer of any use.<\/p>\n Maybe you know someone like that. If that\u2019s the case, consider this: Every person is worth restoring.<\/p>\n Every item brought in to Rick Dale\u2019s shop was worth restoring in the eyes of customers. It didn\u2019t matter how dirty or rusted, broken or old; they wanted the item restored. It meant<\/em> something to them, so they brought it to Rick.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the way God sees it. Every person is worth restoring because everybody means<\/em> something to Him. It doesn\u2019t matter how broken they might be; no one is beyond God\u2019s ability to redeem and restore. All they need is for someone to bring them to Him, and He\u2019ll get to work, as Galatians 6:1 urges: \u201cMy friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness\u201d (NRSV). And somewhere along the way, somebody\u2019s eyes will get wide and their mouth will fall open and they\u2019ll say, \u201cOh, my gosh! I don\u2019t believe it!\u201d<\/p>\n Because just like Rick, God is into restoration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved! (Psalm 80:3). One of my favorite TV shows was the History Channel\u2019s American Restoration. Before a new cast took over the show, it featured a guy named Rick Dale and his shop, Rick\u2019s Restorations, in Las Vegas, Nevada. People brought Rick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":326,"featured_media":3251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nValued people<\/h2>\n