MAX ON LIFE

90. My friend has really gone off the deep end. She used to walk with God. Now she hangs with a bad crowd and does things I can't believe she does. But I don't know how to help her.

On the walkie-talkie of a firefighter is an RIT button. RIT stands for "Rapid Intervention Team". A firefighter presses this button only when he is hemmed in by danger and has no hope of escape. The moment he sends an RIT signal, his fellow firefighters stop what they are doing and come to his rescue. The fire becomes secondary. All resources are focused on one objective: get the man out of danger.

God has a Rapid Intervention Team as well. And you may be on it. Look at the rescue personnel. "You who are spiritual should restore him" (Gal 6:1).

Typically we assume that rescue is the role of the leaders. Most often it is. Most often the elders, teachers, and ministers are called into duty when someone goes down. But the apostle Paul does not limit Rapid Intervention Teams to leaders. You may be a quiet but godly church member who has noticed the absence of someone.

Whoever you are, if you are spiritual (walking with God), God will deputize you. When he calls you, the purpose of your mission is restoration. "You who are spiritual should restore him".

The goal is restoration, not castigation or humiliation. The rescuer approaches the intervention carefully, "lest [he] also be tempted" (v. 1), and he should graciously "restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness" (v. 1).

Let's see if we can envision the rescue. Let's say a woman in the church gets tangled up in a mess. Things between her and her husband were chilly, so when things between her and her coworker got warm, she fell. She fell into the arms of another man.

That was bad. What was worse is that she didn't feel bad. Chalk it up to midlife, stress at work, struggle at home, or whatever, but she didn't feel bad, and she didn't change. By the time anyone at church found out, she was out. A husband and a couple of kids were left bobbing in her wake.

Can you imagine a worse scenario? I can. What if she didn't belong to a church? What if she wasn't known or active? What if her friends at church didn't take their roles seriously?

But she did, she was, and they did. They knocked on her door. They sent her notes. They made calls. They wouldn't give up. Finally she agreed to see a counselor. The healing wasn't immediate, but it was eventual. And, in time, she went home. A sister was restored, a family saved. "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (v. 2).

God's plan is simple. When a believer falls, the church responds. Immediately. Honestly. Gently.

By: Max Lucado