Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Refurbish Or Rebuild?


Justin Simmons, in an article titled “Called Out Of Nothingness,” highlights God’s propensity to work from the ground up in our lives:

“Very few would dispute that God has a history of using the most unlikely of suspects. Perhaps that is because of the humility resulting from their respective situations. Maybe it is because by using such people God’s action is more clearly recognized as just that: God’s action.

“I tend to think that God has chosen this as his modus operandi because, by reducing us to nothing, he returns us to our default setting. God doesn’t seem to be one who is interested in remodeling, so much as rebuilding. He doesn’t come into our hearts hoping he can add on an extra bedroom and half-bath, a comfy place for him over in the corner of our affections. He wants to rebuild the entire structure, and the easiest way to do that is to tear down the old edifice.

“This isn’t how we prefer to look at ourselves. We would like to think we are more of a “fixer-upper” than a building fit only to be condemned. Couldn’t God just come in and splash a fresh coat of paint on the walls, create more of an open floor plan, and maybe update the appliances? (I swear every HGTV show I watch, the couple thinks the appliances need updating, but I digress.) Instead, he wants to rebuild us from the ground up.”*

God’s desire is that we be made new, not merely refurbished (Romans 6:4; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:9-10).  Spiritually speaking, when we come to Christ, we are more akin to the condemned property that needs to be demolished than we are to the outdated 3 bedroom ranch on the corner that just needs a sprucing up before putting it back on the market (Romans 5:6-21).  But that’s no problem for the One who specializes in condemned property!  He delights in “making all things new” (Revelation 21:5).  Thank you Father!



God loves you!

Mike
*http://char.is/blog/2018/09/10/called-out-of-nothingness/

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