Home or Heart Renovation?

3-12-2013

I have a new addiction.  I recently found the HGTV channel on Dish network.  Who knew that people sporting hard hats, hammers, and funny lookin' goggles could be so entertaining?!? One day, after being sucked into about 4 episodes  I asked myself what's so doggone exciting about this channel?  Why do I keep turning to it when I have a free moment?  And then it hit me...most of these shows are about "redemption."  There was something in me that connected with people taking foreclosed or beat up homes and making them beautiful again.  Not only were the homes made beautiful, but also functional.  Even better, with every remodel agents would always appraise the homes at much higher values.  Sometimes people would totally update a new home and give it a completely new look.  Other times, they would find the bones of a home like an old brick wall or special wood details and shine up the old features bringing the character and value of a home back at the same time.

Redemption is a theme running through creation, adoption, fairy-tales, movies, and great love stories.  The Bible, the greatest love story of all time, tells the story of Jesus Christ the perfect son of God who willingly sacrificed his own life as a once and for all sacrifice to cover and atone for the sins of all mankind.   The entrance of sin into the world meant a holy God was separated from sinful mankind and therefore, man became an object worthy of God's wrath and total separation from God.  Jesus is the ultimate Redeemer, because His sacrifice not only paid for our sin debt, but it also was the catalyst that transported men from being objects of God's wrath to objects of God's love.  His sacrifice made us "right" with God for all eternity.  Scripture records in John 3:16; "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever should believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (NIV)  Because God valued His creation, He made a way for His creation to return to a perfect relationship with Him.  Even better than those HGTV episodes, Jesus' sacrifice is at no cost to us.  All God asks is that we believe in His son Jesus and accept the gift of what He has done for us.  Our step of faith in choosing to believe in this gift is an invitation for God's redemption.  Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" 

I remember understanding I had sinned and needed Savior when I was seventeen.  I remember wishing to find a person who could help me clean up and mend some of the broken places in my heart.  I did find that relationship.  I found it when I confessed my sins and asked Jesus to come into the middle of my life and take over every part.  I can look back over my life to this point and see that what He's done in my heart is better than any makeover on television!  In Christ, I am truly a new creation!