Fresh Paint

By Pastor Eric

This past weekend our youth ministry led a full day of community service. With a couple other churches joining us, we set out to several work sites, helping with various jobs of yard clean-up, tree removal, cleaning windows, and so many other things. We also spent a good portion of our time just talking with people, listening to their stories, and spending time with them. 

On one of the job sites we were asked to help an elderly woman, Joyce, paint her garage. With paint brushes in hand, the students and leaders got to work putting down fresh paint. Before they could paint however, they needed to do one another thing that was very important. Before painting, the students had to scrape all the old paint from the garage. Using scraper tools, the students spent a couple hours removing the old paint off the garage. This wasn’t easy work, hard on the hands, and it seemed never-ending. They got it done though, and at the end of the day, the garage looked brand new! 

As we reflect on this and our Christian journeys, God has to do a lot of scraping in our lives too. God calls each of us to be like him, Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” 1Cor. 11:1. If we are going to look like Christ–the image we were created in–we have a lot to remove first. Just like Joyce, who was unable to scrape the old paint from her barn, we cannot remove the stuff in our lives (sin) that keeps us from being imitators of Christ. Joyce needed help and so do we. God loves us so very much that he did the work of removing that old paint from our lives by sending his one and only Son, Jesus, to the cross for us.But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8. 

When we accept Jesus into our lives and make a decision to follow him, a transformation happens. The old paint (our sin) is removed and a “new coat of paint” goes on. In Christ, we now take on the look of the masterpiece he originally created, 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.   

As humans, our natural tendency is to crack and peel, to give into the temptations of this world and do things that go against God’s will. For this reason we are in the daily process of  having the imperfections scraped out that keep us from being everything God created us to be. We find ourselves needing God to scrape out pride, lust, greed, gossip, hate, laziness, lying, and even the secret sins we carry in us that tarnish his masterpiece. This can be a very painful process and it can seem to take a long time, but if we truly want to reflect the perfect image of Jesus, the scraping must be done. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” Philippians 1:6.

As the old is pulled away, God in all his love, covers us in a “new fresh coat of paint,” his grace! The beauty of his original masterpiece is restored and on display for the world to see, for the world to know that he is the God of restoration, of love, and of grace!   

What do you need scraped from your life today that is keeping you from being everything God created you to be? Call on the Holy Spirit today! Repent and ask for forgiveness and let the Holy Spirit chip away the things that don’t belong and replace it with his loving grace! Be the masterpiece he has created you to be!! 

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” Galatians 2:20.

 

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