[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Farticles\u002Fcoming-back":3,"\u002Farticles\u002Fcoming-back-surround":73},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"bibleBooks":8,"body":12,"columnName":56,"date":57,"description":18,"extension":58,"image":59,"meta":60,"minRead":61,"navigation":62,"path":63,"postType":64,"publication":65,"publicationUrl":59,"seo":66,"stem":67,"topics":68,"__hash__":72},"blog\u002Farticles\u002Fcoming-back.md","Coming Back",{"name":7},"Dave Faust",[9,10,11],"Job","Acts","Ephesians",{"type":13,"value":14,"toc":52},"minimark",[15,19,22,25,28,31,34,37,40,43,46,49],[16,17,18],"p",{},"Sports fans love a great comeback. It's exciting when a baseball team comes from behind to win in the bottom of the ninth inning. Or when an Olympic sprinter outpaces the frontrunner just before he hits the finish line. Or when a football team pushes the winning touchdown across the goal line a few seconds before the final gun sounds.",[16,20,21],{},"The Bible tells about some of the greatest comebacks of all time. God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac; but after a close call on the altar they came back down the mountain more convinced than ever that the Lord will provide.",[16,23,24],{},"When Moses fled to Midian after killing an Egyptian, it looked like his promising career as a leader was finished once and for all, but years later God brought him back to Egypt, and the last third of Moses' life turned out to be his most productive.",[16,26,27],{},"Goliath's intimidating taunts ruled the day until the underdog David brought him down and the Israelite army rallied for a come-from-behind victory.",[16,29,30],{},"A wicked government leader named Haman had the Jews on the brink of extermination before Esther and Mordecai intervened and God stepped in to spare his people.",[16,32,33],{},"Job lost his fortune, endured terrible suffering, and asked a lot of hard questions; but eventually \"the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before\" (Job 42:10).",[16,35,36],{},"Daniel came back from the lion's den unscratched; and when his friends came back from the fiery furnace, they didn't even smell like smoke.",[16,38,39],{},"Jonah ran from God's call and went overboard in his disobedience, but later he came back to preach so effectively that a pagan city fell to its knees in repentance.",[16,41,42],{},"Peter failed miserably on the night of Jesus' arrest and denied the Lord three times, but he came back to be a great preacher of the gospel.",[16,44,45],{},"One of the most impressive parts of Paul's resume was the way he consistently came back from adversity. He had critics inside and outside the church. He endured beatings, shipwrecks, false accusations, death plots, hunger, thirst, exhausting travel, and the daily pressure of his concern for the churches. One time he had to be smuggled out of Damascus in a basket lowered down through an opening in the city wall. Another time he was stoned and dragged outside the city, presumed dead; but he even came back from that! \"After the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city\" (Acts 14:20).",[16,47,48],{},"A most impressive comeback occurred at the garden tomb in Jerusalem. Three days earlier Jesus had been rejected, betrayed, beaten, mocked, and brutally nailed to a cross. \"But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him\" (Acts 2:24). If God has the power to do that, what can he do in your life? Can you rebound from failure and recover from your mistakes? Can you still find a place of useful service in the church? Yes, you can! God has \"incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead\" (Ephesians 1:19, 20).",[16,50,51],{},"We still await the greatest comeback of all. One day Christ will come back to earth again. Until that great comeback occurs, let's keep coming back to him for grace to face another day.",{"title":53,"searchDepth":54,"depth":54,"links":55},"",2,[],"First Look","2002-08-11","md",null,{},3,true,"\u002Farticles\u002Fcoming-back","column","The Lookout",{"title":5,"description":18},"articles\u002Fcoming-back",[69,70,71],"Biblical Theology","Church Leadership","Perseverance in Suffering","69-5Avx-vUQNAXnYTFUL5kL1iOG5mM56NynO4kXjVbk",[74,79],{"title":75,"path":76,"stem":77,"description":78,"children":-1},"Come Before the Throne","\u002Farticles\u002Fcome-before-the-throne","articles\u002Fcome-before-the-throne","\"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need\" (Hebrews 4:16).",{"title":80,"path":81,"stem":82,"description":83,"children":-1},"Commitment Coast to Coast","\u002Farticles\u002Fcommitment-coast-to-coast","articles\u002Fcommitment-coast-to-coast","Not long ago, in an interesting quirk of scheduling, I spoke at a singles retreat in Florida followed by a senior adult conference on the Oregon coast a few days later. One week I gazed at the Atlantic Ocean and moss-covered cypress trees near Jacksonville; the next week I hiked across sand dunes overlooking the Pacific and toured the cheese factory in Tillemook."]