House-Flipping: Bought and Remodeled

One thing about Bible college is that sometimes homework completely cuts you to the heart. For my Intro to Bible class, my assignment was to do a study on Ephesians. The book of Ephesians is just a book in the New Testament. It's a letter this cool guy named Paul wrote to a Church in Ephesus, a place that is super old and what not. If you have not heard of Paul or Paul's story, I'd suggest checking it out! It's incredible! It can be found in Acts 9.

Anyway, back to Ephesians. I'm reading Ephesians, trying to get my homework done on time, and the words of this letter begin sinking in. So here I am, sitting in Starbucks, trying not to cry because Jesus is alive and real and he loves me!

Ephesians 2:1-10 is what got me. In the New Living Translation, this passage is titled, "Made Alive with Christ." Open your Bible or Google it and check it out! This short section of the letter to the Ephesians is talking about how God has made them new. They used to live this old life full of sin and darkness, and now they have a new life in Christ. God had bought them back, through the blood of Christ on the cross, and now they belonged to God.

Good News: the same goes for us. We have been bought back and belong to God. We no longer life a life of darkness, but we have a new life in Christ.

Earlier this morning, I was watching a TV show about house-flipping. A person buys a house that is run down, dirty, gross, and usually needs a lot of fixing! They go in and begin cleaning out old closets, wiping away sludge, and fixing the broken things. However, often when they begin fixing things, they find more repairs that need to be done. By the time they are done, the house is completely remodeled and often does not even look the same as before.

When thinking about the new life in Christ we have, I thought of this show. This is what God does for us. He buys us, through the blood of His son, Jesus. When He goes inside our hearts, he finds it dirty, gross, and broken. It needs a lot of fixing. He goes in, begins cleaning out old closets, throwing away garbage, wiping away slime and mud, and fixing broken things. Often times, when fixing things, we discover more and more broken things. God begins cleaning our hearts and we begin looking like a new person. We begin to live in our new life in Christ.

Luckily, we do not have any old craftsman buy us. We have the expert Craftsman, who knows how to fix it all.

For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10

Now, after an expert Craftsman bought us and fixed us up, we are remodeled.