Morning Dew

Key Passage: Isaiah 61

Key Word: Isaiah 61:3 – ‘Beauty for Ashes’

When we were being taught about witnessing our faith to those who do not know Jesus Christ, we were told to ask some diagnostic questions. If there were objections to these questions, we were then asked to give a simple illustration. This illustration focuses on eggs. So here it goes. On a Sunday morning you are about to prepare breakfast for yourself and family. You bring out a dozen fresh eggs and start cracking them into a bowl, after cracking 11 eggs you thought to yourself what’s the use of keeping only one egg. I might as well crack this one too and make the breakfast just a bit more. As you crack the egg into the bowl with the other eleven eggs, you perceive this horrible, acrid odour as only bad eggs can smell. It’s too late to stop the egg falling into the other eleven. What do you do? How do you rescue your breakfast. Do you just mix the bad one with the good eleven and hope the good eggs cover the bad one. If you have never experienced this before, then don’t try. The eggs are all ruined and there is no remedy. This is what sin does and with this illustration we tell people that if you have done a million things right in your life and your did one wrong thing, then the other million acts are ruined.

The moral is that you cannot say you have not sinned and if you have sinned then you know everything is ruined and you need God’s solution to fix the mess.

But today, I really want to talk about eggs from another perspective. How many of you love scrambled eggs. Once eggs are scrambled, there is no way of putting the eggs back together again. A scrambled egg is scrambled. No way to unscramble it. Or is there a way?

Some lives are like scrambled eggs. They have gotten into so many intricately woven, mixed up, and confusing situations, that they cannot make head from tail in their lives. They have made a mess of their lives and they are in a hopeless and helpless situation and cannot see the way out. It could be relationships, marriage, money, debts, work related, health or even in education. Truly, some may even be in these situations through no fault of theirs. For them it looks like a scrambled egg.

But I have come to announce to you today that there is a God who can unscramble a scrambled egg. He can put it all together again, because He knows every piece of the egg and can rebuild it.

Isaiah 61 tells us the following:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.

Once upon a time, the Nation of Israel was scattered and left desolate for close to two thousand years. They were spread to the four corners of the world and the nation ceased to exist. Coupled with this, the Jews became the persecuted race and the Nazis tried to annihilate them by killing millions of Jews in the concentration camps and pogroms of the second world-war. It looked like a scrambled egg. A big mess. An irredeemable, irreparable, disaster. It looked like it was over for all of the dreams of a people and their nation.

But God had already sent a prophet years before this happened to let them know that He would put the nation back together again. In Ezekiel 37, we read of the valley of dry bones. God had taken the Prophet Ezekiel into this valley that looked like an abandoned cemetery, full of heaps of dry bones, scattered all over the place and then God asked him, can these bones live? Can your ruined life be rebuilt? Can your dashed hopes be restored? Can your failed marriage be restored? Can your crashed business be rebuilt? Maybe you are at rock bottom, can you rise again?

After a few banters, God told the prophet to prophesy to the bones to live. As he began, the cemetery came alive. Dry bones began moving and connecting with bones and soon the cemetery was full of skeletons, then the prophet prophesied some more and the sinews and muscles came of the bones, then skin, but they were still not living. Then He prophesied again and wind came from the four corners of the world and breath entered the dead bodies and they rose up as a mighty army.

This picture is how God restored the people and nation of Israel and in 1948 Israel became a nation once again from being scattered to the four corners of the world and almost annihilated for 2000 years, God caused the nation to be re-born and the people to return as it were from the four corners of the earth. What an awesome God we serve! The God of Israel is God.

This is why Jesus came. To rebuild the wrecked lives. To restore the displaced. To heal those who are sick and diseased. To bring hope to the hopeless.

So hear me. If God can restore Israel and unscramble the scrambled egg for them, He can restore your life. It does not matter how big your mess is. How bad your condition is, how scrambled your egg is, God can unscramble it. All you need to do is trust Him by throwing yourself on His mercy and allow Him to take over and raise you back up.

So today like the Prophet Ezekiel, I prophesy to everyone reading this blog. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, All your mess, will become a great message from God. All your ruins will be rebuilt and restored. All dead dreams and visions will come back to life. Every confusion will be cleared up in Jesus Name. You will not be a failure, God will make you a resounding success. You will not die, but live to proclaim the goodness of the Lord. Your best days are ahead of you. Though men have written you off and left you for dead. God is coming to raise you up and make a great story out of your life.

I am excited for you. God who can unscramble a scrambled egg will perfect that which concerns you in Jesus name.

I feel I must tell someone something right now. You feel your life is over. You have messed up so much, there is no way out. You are convinced the only logical thing to do is end your life. Stop. Stop right now and hear the word of God. God is ready to lift you up and restore your life. Just throw yourself on His mercy. Ask Jesus to come and help you and watch Him restore your life.

By the way if you had cracked the last egg and you now have a great stink around you, God knows exactly how to remove the bad egg and restore your breakfast. The breakfast is not ruined if God is involved.

God has the last word, not your circumstances. Not what people say about you. Not what you did wrong. God through Jesus Christ will have the final word in your life.

Let’s Pray: Father God, today we are in need of your power to unscramble the scrambled eggs in our lives. Lord, I have messed up. I have ruined my life. Please help me. I cannot do it on my own. I do not know the way out. Please help me and turn my life around again. In Jesus name. Amen