Repurposed

Repurposed

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 

18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 

19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

   On occasion, I watch reality shows, mostly the ones about renovating and saving businesses like failing restaurants.  One show has the host bringing in a decorator and a builder and giving them only 2 days and $10,000 to rebuild and renovate the restaurant while the host is teaching the owners how to run their business.  Often the decorator and the builder have a lot of work to do and not enough money to buy everything that they need for the job.  What usually happens then is that the decorator will find cast off items in thrift shops and salvage yards and repurpose the items into nice looking decorations.  For example: One episode showed a long, plain wall and the decorator found a stack of old, weather-beaten doors that were knocked apart and the weathered wood was repurposed to make the plain wall attractive. 

   The dictionary defines “repurpose” as “to give a new purpose or use to.”  Repurposing something means that a thing that was discarded and considered useless and out for the trash can be brought back and become useful once again.  This worthless item can once again have value and have a new usefulness.     

   When Adam and Eve sinned and were told to leave the garden, they were still alive outwardly but their hearts were dead from the effects of the sin.  They passed this deadly condition on to their children and to their children’s children.  Sin had come into the world and we all were born with this death in our hearts.  Sin spread into every part of the lives of the sinful people, so that according to the Bible, Genesis 6:5-6 (Lexham English Bible)

5 And Yahweh saw that the evil of humankind was great upon the earth, and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was always only evil. 

6 And Yahweh regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart.    

   Here is the Builder of the world and Creator of all mankind looking at the wreck of the world and regretting what it had made of itself.  He had a decision to make:  discard this which was useless and corrupted, or repurpose it somehow.  And I thank God He chose to repurpose this world. 

   He had had plans in place from before He had even created Adam and Eve and now He pulled out His blueprint of redemption.  It took years of planning and countless reworking of people’s lives but at last the plan was in place and He sent His Only Son to be born and to live and to die for our sins.  And then the crowning moment of this plan - He rose from the dead.  He was triumphant over death and brought life to our stony hearts.  The greatest work of repurposing was changing our sinful hearts that were filed with evil thoughts, evil impulses, and evil desires and repurposed them into tender hearts filled with love and with joy and with life.  John 10:10 NKJV The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.   

  

Stephen Cram                            February 10, 2013                Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8