The Bruised Reed and The Smoking Flax - Reverend Olulana Alofe

Isaiah 42:3A (1-8) 3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: Humanity has been damaged from the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Those who have been saved from their sinful lives have been damaged by choice as well until Jesus fixed us. This is the testimony of every saved soul! Isaiah 1:4-5 4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken anymore? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Example 1: Repairing poor sounding clarinet reeds:

• Excess material removal
• Smoothen with sandpaper
• Soften

Example 2: Repairing the smoky wick of a lantern/oil lamp

• Washed
• Dried
• Trimmed

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Matthew 5:16 16 - Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Jesus fixes damaged individuals.

He fixed me in 1978.

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A Lesson from a Broken Hair Clipper (June 4, 2017)

Jeremiah 8:22 22 - Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

My rather expensive Wahl hair clipper was no longer able to cut evenly because its blades were misaligned. Ordinarily, I would have figured out how to fix it but the American culture of replacing broken things rather than fixing them had surreptitiously taken hold of me! It was not always so as I used to do my best to fix what got broken instead of just replacing them. In Nigeria, that is what we did but, in the USA, for many reasons, it is so much easier to simply toss a portable CD player which skipped songs than to open it up and replace the laser or lens assembly and I got used to simply buying replacements! Ultimately it often ends up being cheaper too when the time and energy spent fixing broken devices or equipment is factored in.

So, you can understand why I decided to buy a replacement hair clipper when my expensive Wahl brand did not cut evenly anymore. However, I kept it in its case on a shelf for four years while I used two cheaper replacements, the second being quite cheap because it was mostly made out of plastic.

Well, as I was giving our sons their last haircut of 2016, it gave up. It was winter and going to the store to buy a new one was not appetizing at all! So, I decided to see if I could manage to use the old Wahl and sure enough it was cutting unevenly still. My wife said, "there is probably a screw loose" and immediately, I felt silly because I knew that was it! Those words by her set me free from my "conditioning." I found and tightened the loose screw and voila, that clipper was like brand new! It was fun trimming the hair of our children once more.

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Later, as I was giving myself a 'goodbye to 2016' trim, it came to me: "God prefers to fix broken people than to throw them away." It is we humans who prefer to 'discard' other people than to help them get better! Once a person is no longer able to 'work' within our defined rules of engagement, the immediate reaction is to replace or keep them 'in storage' somewhere. Think about it. We do that because of impatience, selfishness or helplessness. Circumstances just might be beyond our capabilities and 'shelving' them as it is the best we assume we can do in such circumstances.

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God though is a specialist in fixing broken people. He has been doing so from the beginning of humanity. The only requirement needed apart from knowing one is broken and in need of repair is a desire to be fixed by God. Jesus does the rest. Jesus is the Balm of Gilead! Jesus is the answer! That is how I got fixed many years ago and though God is still working on me, I am not the same person I used to be before Jesus saved me. He tunes me up from time to time, oiling the creaky bits but the change has lasted, and I am so grateful God did not just toss me aside to be discarded because I was not 'working right'. He fixed me!

In our relationships, many times we toss people away simply because a screw is loose as it were and not that they are damaged to the point that it is impossible to have them in our 'exclusive' circles. It is cruel to abandon anyone especially if they are reacting to how we treat them. Think of wives to their husbands, husbands to wives, children to parents or parents to children and so on. Maybe all they need is a little understanding and a change in how we behave ourselves which will help them tighten the loose screw and all will be well again.

Reconsider before you discard someone you are fed up with. There is a master who fixes people. His name is Jesus. Invite the other person to have a consultation with Him and better still, make sure you have had that consultation with Jesus yourself.

Isaiah 1:18 18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Negro spiritual: There Is A Balm In Gilead John 3:16 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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