In baseball specifically, the rule is: three strikes and your out!
Some would say that, in these days you are lucky to get a second chance, let alone a third.
If you don’t do it right the first time you are out.
Joh 21:15 Then when they broke fast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Feed My lambs. 16 He said to him the second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Feed My sheep. 17 He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me? Peter was grieved because He said to him a third time, Do you love Me? And he said to Him, Lord, You know all things, You know that I love You. Jesus said to him, Feed My sheep.
What a mighty God we serve! His Mercies and Grace abounds towards us, renewed every morning.
Peter, who ran away, after having committed the worst sin in his mind, having denied Christ not only once, thought it was game over for him.
He ran, ashamed of himself, not wanting to face the crowds who wanted to mock and scorn him. Run away from those who would not give him a second chance.
Yet! Jesus the Redeemer, the Saviour, the risen Christ, searched for him and found him and told him: “It’s OK”, “I know you and I know your heart, I will not give up on you, I will give you another chance, go and feed my sheep!”
A Boxer, knocked down, lying on the canvas will be counted out in 10, but Jesus as the referee, will never count you out, He will encourage you and continue to count: 9, 10, 11, 12……201, 2001, never stopping, never giving up on you.
If He, refuses to give up on you, who gave you the right to give up on yourself?
Luk 24:2 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 And going in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And as they were much perplexed about it, it happened that, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. 5 And as they were afraid, and bowed their faces down to the earth, they said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead?
Why do we give up and spend time in places and instances and circumstance that pronounced the end?
The disciples thought it was over, they thought it was the end of the road; the dreams and expectations have now stopped. After all, Jesus is dead (or so they thought). This is what their circumstances indicated. They saw the crucifixion, they helped with the burial, and they closed the stone themselves.
What more could be done?
We stare at the circumstances in our lives, the mess we may have created ourselves. We look at the relationship that ended badly and we think: “it’s the end of the road.”
Jesus says: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”
He says: “Its not the end of the road until I say so.”
Luk 24:44 And He said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms about Me. 45 And He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.
Sit with Him today, take a moment out from your life and your situation and allow Him to open up the Scriptures to you, so you may understand this:
Jer 29:11 For I am conscious of my thoughts about you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope at the end. 12 And you will go on crying to me and making prayer to me, and I will give ear to you. 13 And you will be searching for me and I will be there, when you have gone after me with all your heart.
I think it was the baseball player Babe Ruth who said, “It’s not over till it’s over.”
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