I know some people who have the talent of restoring furniture, appliances and other items most people, including me, set on the street for trash pickup. Many an item has been cheaply purchased at yard sales by those with talented eyes for restorable treasures other people and I call junk. These people visualize this junk in their minds what it was before it had been weathered and broken down.
They are confident of their restoration talents, have the correct tools, and have the patience to work till their little projects are complete. Have you ever seen some of their projects completed. What was cheap junk, is now again the beautiful piece it was originally made to be.
These people know what to look for. They can recognize brand names, valuable wood, and the original date created. It took years of learning the craft, gaining the knowledge of identifying value, and the potential value of a piece. The end result from their passion is a beautifully restored item, many times the yard sale price. Just knowing that grandmother or granddaddy had sweat equity in it, increased the aesthetic value to want to pass the piece down to the families' future generations. ( Or some just fight over it after the funeral. LOL!!!)
Have any of you ever seen or do you have a piece restored furniture? Debbie bought a corner cabinet out of someone's barn near Franklin, Tennessee. He was using it in the barn as a hay manger to feed his cows. We brought it home and had a talented individual restore it. (Definitely not me.) The once hay manger is now a beautiful corner cabinet.
We all have bought different items over the years with the wear and tear of using them, just wore them out. They are broken and just junk, being beyond repair and restoration. Some created beings (people) think they are junk, and many other people would agree with them. But, before you and I call them junk and worthless, let's try to determine their real value.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...(Genesis 1:26) So God created man in his own image and likeness, male and female. (Genesis 1:27) Then God looked upon everything He had made, and, indeed, it was excellent. (Genesis 1:31) (ELG translation, Hugo McCord)
So, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit made mankind in their own image and called everything they created, that first week, excellent. Sounds to me like mankind is valuable. How valuable? Well let's go a little further.
Satan, our adversary, (1 Peter 5:8) had already been cast out of heaven with the angels that followed him. This was due to his pride. Now he wants to get back at God by tarnishing the image God had created in mankind.
Here is what he did and this is why we live in a fallen world today with sin, pain and suffering. (If you are going through pain and suffering now, it only last for this lifetime not eternity.) We will get into that later. We can continue suffering for eternity or we can live in heaven with God, with no pain and suffering for eternity. This will also be our choice.
Satan, in the form of a serpent, introduces doubt for the first time to Eve. Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1) Eve then responds with God's command not to eat of the tree that was in the middle of the garden. She said, God said she would die if she ate the fruit from it. (Genesis 2:2-3) Then the serpent said to her the first and most damning lie, ...You will not surely die. (Genesis 3:4)
Next, he tempts her with pride. ...In the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:5) Then he tempts Eve with the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh. Please read (Genesis 3:6) She saw it was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and would make her wise, she bit the lure of the serpent, hook, line, and sinker. It still happens today, but it doesn't have to.
When Eve, and then Adam, disobeyed the one command God had given them, the image they had been created in became tarnished and covered over with the sin of disobedience. Satan's deception had worked, but God had a plan. A plan to restore that image.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) (Please continue to read verses 17-21 in your Bibles.)
All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. (Romans 3:23) The image we were created in is still there, but covered by the old man of sin. We all are experiencing the effects of sin today. For some, the consequences have been brutal, leaving them and their families in hopeless situations.
We needed to see what the image of God looks like. Remember, God is a Spirit...(John 4:24) So God sent us His Son. He is the image of the invisible God. (Col. 3:15) also read 2 Corinthians 4:4. When we read about Christ and His life on this earth, we see the Father in Him. (John 14:8-12) To live in the image we were created with, we will do the works and live like that image.
We know we are living in the flesh when we do the works of the flesh. Please read Galatians 5:19-21. If you or I are living by the works of the flesh identified here, we are still living as the old man of sin that we were. Our image we were created in is hidden by sin. But, if we have been renewed or restored by repentance , confession and baptized into Christ raised to walk in newness of life, (Romans 6:1-14) The image is restored and we can know that it is by the new life in the Spirit we now lead. We will know this by the Spirit's fruit we exhibit. Read Galatians 5:22-25.
You and I are never like yard sale junk. We may be broken down by the works of the flesh condemned in Galatians 5:19-21, but we do have One who sees our value and will mend and cleanse our broken, and sinful lives. He will not put us on the street. He died for us, so we could be righteous before our Father in Heaven. All we have to do is to love Him and hear and obey Him. (Matthew 17:5)
I see so many families hurting from the consequences of sin and the Evil one. They are not junk in God's eyes. He has proven this to us by letting His Son die that cruel death on the cross. In all humility, we should love these as God does. Giving them hope of repairing their broken lives and the hope of Heaven.
This renewed spirit in Christ could then be valued and passed down by teaching to their future generations just like the restored piece of furniture. Except this has an eternal value that will never see corruption again.
The Master Restorer has given you and me, if we profess to be His disciples, a mission to find those that are broken in our communities, families, nation, and all nations making disciples of them, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all of His commands. (Matthew 28:18-20)
I have been broke and broken. I hate to see anyone hurting and without hope. If you or others you may know are hurting and need that eternal hope, please contact me at rhepler52@yahoo.com or rhepler52@gmail.com All will be confidential.
Remember you are not junk. Don't you give up because of addictions or any other terrible consequences because of sin. God will forgive you and give you peace and hope for tomorrow. Please contact me if you are hurting. I want to help you.
Thanks for reading. Looking forward to your comments.
Rick Hepler
