Ruined but Renovated

When I moved to Ashmore IL a little under 10 years ago to answer the call to pastor Ashmore Baptist church a lot of things have changed. For instance Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospital in Charleston IL has expanded and grow exponentially. I have seen businesses come and go. Pastors of other churches have come and gone. But one thing that has not changed was the eyesore across the street from the church.

What is interesting is at one time this house was a very nice house in Ashmore. You can tell that this house at one time was beautifully constructed and well made. It was a house that at one time sheltered families, where children would run and play in the yard. It was a home where memories were made, and families were raised.

However over time, as it changed from owner to owner. The house slowly became neglected. Needed repairs were not made and the small problems started to grow into bigger problems. So a once beautifully made house that housed families, and rasied children and made memories. Became abandoned, neglected, and dilapidated. 

For years this house (the one in the picture below) has been abandoned, neglected and by and large left to rot.  Many have said that it would be better to just tear it down to the ground. It switched owners a couple of times and each one, never doing anything that would improve the house's situation. No one could see any value in it, and so no one put any money into it. By all standard's this house was a mess and not even worth fixing. In fact many who would look at this house would surmise, and rightfully so, that it would cost more to fix than it would to tear it down and start over.

However, for the past year or so. I have noticed something a bit strange. I started to see some activity across the street. Activity I had not expected and for that matter no one else expected either. I started noticing that someone new had taken possession of the house and started working on it. I noticed that there was work being done. Difficult pain staking work. Yes someone was over there tuckpointing the entire house. 

Maybe you might call it being nosy, or just being curious, or a little of both. I decided to have a talk with this guy who was doing all of this work. After all it was intriguing to me that someone would go through so much effort to tuckpoint the entire house. especially since there were perhaps other things that might have been more important to fix, like the roof.

What I had found out was rather interesting. This man was not the owner of the house after all, in fact he was contracted out by a man who lived in another city. In fact this owner of the house, actually owned several other old, abandoned and well worn houses. I asked this man if he knew what the owner had in mind with this house? To which he replied that there was talk about renting out, or making it into a bed and breakfast, but he really didn’t know for sure. 

Now that was intriguing to say the least. Here is a house that no one saw any value in, it was for many nothing more than a big old eyesore in town. No one saw any value or worth in it and thought it would be best to just tear it down and start over. However one man saw something more, and began paying money out of his own pocket to restore this old dilapidated house.

Well for several weeks I saw this man working and i then saw some work being done on the roof. A large dumpster was placed in the front of the house, scaffolding was set up, piles of shingles were placed on the porch.  I thought to myself "This guy means business, it won't be long before this house is up and running.

But just like that the work stopped and this empty dormant house stayed the same for several months. No more work, no more labor, grass started growing tall around the house and then it would be chopped down. It would seem that the owner had forgotten it, or maybe he ran out of money. The scaffolding was still up, and the dumpster still stayed on the property. However there was no work being done, no improvements were being made.

This is the way it was for months, that is until several weeks ago I had noticed that once again there was some work being done. They started working on the roof, taking off the shingles, replacing some wood that had rotted underneath, and placing the shingles on.

As I thought about this house and the new owner and his willingness to restore this house. I thought that this is a perfect illustration of what Jesus does for us as well.

We are like this house. At one point we see that you and I were designed by God and we were perfectly made, in a perfectly made world. However sin entered in do to our disobedience and time and time again sin had warn away at us. Little by little our iniquity has chipped our exterior and has erroded our interior. 

Owners have come along from time to time offering us hope for our restoration.

Some of our owners has came in the form of positive thinking, religion, and self imporvment. These owners have been nothing more than slick car sales men, washing our exteror but never really caring to fix us from the inside. There concern has been to simply sell a version of us that would be appealing to others looking at us from the outside. The problem is when you finally let someone in on the inside, they see the real you. They begin to see all the weak spots of your life, the leaky roof that has not yet been fixed, the poor unsettled foundation you are on. 

Other owners have come in the form of addictions, hobbies and other interests. These owners are not really concerned about fixing you on the inside or the outside. There concern is simply mask the situation all together. They plant flowers, they will keep the lawn manicured and try to as best as they can to hide the real problem, through the means of distractions and illusions.

However there is one who desires to be your owner who intention is not to hide your issues, and is not to whitewash your exterior. Instead this owner wants to clean you from the inside out. That is what Jesus wants to do in your life! His desire is to cleans you of your sin that has ravaged your body, distorted your mind, and has separated you from His presence and your purpose. He wants to fix your weak foundation, to be a firm foundation.

What is intersting is that being a christian is alot like this house. At times it seems that God is working, and you can see him at work. The old shingles are being scrapped off and the new roof is being placed on. You can feel God working on you, and the cool thing is, other people are seeing it too. Sometimes even the entire community is aware that something is happpening in your life, that God is moving in a big way.

However then it seems that the work as stopped. It seems that all the progress you have made has been for nothing. It would appear that this new owner, Jesus has stopped working and has forgotten you. Perhaps you have backslidden and regressed back into your old sinful ways. Others looking are shaking l there heads and wag there hypocritical finger and say I knew it wouldn't last. 

However nothing could be further from the truth, because once again God begins working on you again. 

Just like the case of this house across the street from the church. Even when I could not see the work being done did not mean that the owner was idle. The evidence of this is that we see the work is starting again. 

So it is with you and I as belivers. When God takes owner ship, when we place our lives in the nail scard hands of Jesus Christ we can be assured that He is indeed working in us and through us. Even if others can't see it, even if we ourselves can see it, God is still working.

Now I do not know if the owner of this house will continue this renivation. I hope that he does. However I also know that things sometimes happen that is out of our control. It maybe that he may no longer have the money, or the means to continue this renovation.

But this one thing I do know. God who has begun a renovating work on me is not done and will not stop till it is complete. If God has begun a renovated work on you, I assure you He is not done either. See God does not run out of supplies, He does not quite when the issues are to great. Paul said this "He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

So if you will place your life in the hands of Jesus, allow Him to take ownership of your life. I can assure you, He will restore you. No it may not happen overnight, no it may not be easy. There will be ups and downs, there will be setbacks and times when you feel God is not at work in your life. Sin will continue to creep in from time to time, and the work may a times seem too much to handle. However if you will allow God to take ownership of your life, He will renivate your life and He will not stop till the renovation is complete! You may have been ruined, but with Gods help you can be renovated. We are all a work in progress!