Daily Devotional for April 5, 2013

Would you believe this little girl's
dress and pants was once a
ladies' beaded knit shirt?

2 Corinthians 5:17
Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new.
 
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
 
If you know anything about me, you know that I love to take old pieces of clothing and repurpose them into new garments.  I cut around holes and stains… I pick out the best parts of the garment… and I make something fresh and new that often barely resembles the previous piece – if at all.  You might see a jeans pocket here or be able to discern a t-shirt there.  But generally, the former “life” of the garment is totally forgotten.  I am somehow able to see beyond a discarded piece of clothing and find the good that still lies there… and to restore it to something clean and up-to-date.
 
As people who have committed our lives to Christ, we are like repurposed garments.  All of the old excuses… our stains, our sins – our past – are exactly that… in the past!  God has seen beyond those things that wore us down and made us tired and unlovely.  He has cut out the best parts and fashioned them into something totally different – and often unrecognizable.  Some of us just needed a little sprucing and updating… others needed a major overhaul.  But in the end, we are all new creatures… and Jesus Christ is the King of repurposing!
 
So the next time you start to make excuses… when you begin to say that God can’t use you or won’t want you because of this or that – your past mistakes or a present flaw in your makeup – remember these repurposed garments.  Let Jesus put His creativity and power to work to design a totally new you… one who is fresh, pristine, and beautiful in His glory.  If you don’t yet belong to Jesus, this should be reason enough to choose to live for Him.  You have the opportunity for a clean slate… a new beginning…a chance to create a completely different life!
 
Doesn’t this sound exciting?  Wouldn’t you like to change your “old garments” for new ones?  Do you truly get it that this is possible in Jesus Christ?  Isn’t today a great day to change your wardrobe and lose the excuses?
 
©2013 Debbie Robus

Daily Devotional for March 26, 2012

Ephesians 2:19-22
That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.

For centuries, men and women have been creating beautiful, useful items out of scraps. Many things that would ordinarily be tossed into the trash can are pulled together by creative and industrious (if not a big crazy) people to make something useful… maybe even a work of art! If you can’t envision what would be worth saving, you need only look at my desk or laundry room! Greeting cards with beautiful designs can be repurposed into a new note card. Tiny fabric scraps can be fashioned into a frilly hair bow, doll dress, or applique for a t-shirt. My grandmother has used incredibly tiny fabric scraps to create intricately beautiful quilts as long as I can remember. My great-grandmothers created a “postage-stamp” out of fabric scraps that were… yes… the size of postage stamps! Even a worn bed sheet or pillowcase can be cut into smaller strips to use as cleaning cloths.

I saw on Pinterest where an artist in Texas took shovel spades and used them to create the individual spines of enormous “pine cones” for beautiful yard art. A discarded metal yard rake was made into everything from a wall rack to hold wine glasses to a desk sorter for mail and office supplies! On one of my favorite TV cooking shows… Chopped… contestants are given four unrelated (and often bizarre) food items and told to create an appetizer, entrée and dessert from them. And on American Pickers, the two hosts often buy items like vintage bicycles and motorcycles and restore them to their original luster. Others are used as spare parts to create a new bike. In this manner, the once useless piece is given a new purpose, whether as the foundation or as a vital “brick or stone.”

All of these projects have one thing in common – a cornerstone, or starting point. Often this is the idea itself. Then piece by piece, scrap by scrap, the project takes shape. You see the quilt or yard art develop. You smell flavorful aromas and discover that there is usually something in the pantry that can create a tasty meal! You look at the shiny new bike and have no clue that it was once a pile of rusty parts! You look at something deemed useless and realize that all you needed was a new attitude… and maybe a little teamwork and some ingenuity.

Here’s my point… we are the scraps… the useless bits ready for the discard heap. Jesus is the cornerstone… the Idea, the Creative Spark that says “There is something worth saving here!” The foundation is the Word of God and His will for our life… His desire for us to be more in Jesus than we could ever be on our own. The ultimate outcome is God’s Holy Temple… an ingenious, beautiful work of art. We are God’s children, coming together from all backgrounds and histories to represent Him as one body… one heartbeat… one family… one home.

Where do you fit into this picture today? Are you part of the body of Christ? Are you involved in the building of God’s Holy Temple… His family of believers? Do you feel welcome and a part of this home? Or are you still operating like a lowly scrap, destined for the trash heap? Have you discovered your purpose? Are you even looking for it?

Haven’t you wandered long enough? Aren’t you ready to come home… to pitch in and do your part to belong in God’s Kingdom? No skills are required… no ticket is needed. All you have to do is ask Jesus to wash you clean of your sins and set you upright. He will do exactly this… and assign you a spot on the construction crew. Are you ready for your hard hat?

©2012 Debbie Robus

Daily Devotional for February 7, 2012

Isaiah 42:1-4
"Take a good look at my servant. I'm backing him to the hilt. He's the one I chose, and I couldn't be more pleased with him.  I've bathed him with my Spirit, my life. He'll set everything right among the nations. He won't call attention to what he does with loud speeches or gaudy parades. He won't brush aside the bruised and the hurt and he won't disregard the small and insignificant, but he'll steadily and firmly set things right. He won't tire out and quit. He won't be stopped until he's finished his work—to set things right on earth. Far-flung ocean islands wait expectantly for his teaching."

Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.

Those of you who know me well know that I am currently fascinated with repurposing objects and giving them a new life. I have turned the sleeves of shirts and dresses into leggings and pants for toddler girls. I’ve learned how to make vests and other garments from old t-shirts, and tired sweaters have become caps and mittens for babies. Vintage linens… doilies, tablecloths and bed sheets… have become dresses, jackets, collars, and bibs for babies and little ones. An old skirt became part of a bathrobe for my cousin Owen for Christmas, and I have a chenille bedspread that is begging to become several more robes!

And it’s not just fabric. A friend asked me for a piece of gum at the ballgame recently, and I opened my purse and whipped out a little plastic container that had once held Gerber baby food… now it houses my stash of gum! I melt leftover candle wax and pour it over wicks I bought at Hobby Lobby to make new candles and keep from wasting that last third of the jar of scented wax. An old box that held disposable coffee cups and lids was covered with paper and now holds my sewing patterns.

If I can figure out another use for something, I do not throw it away, no matter how small and insignificant it seems. That’s why I have a handy stash of fabric scraps and lace trims that are perfect for patching stains and holes… I almost always have a button when I need to replace one that is missing… and the rich chicken broth that I used to make soup last week came from boiling the leftover bones of our rotisserie chicken!

Have you ever considered that WE have been repurposed by God? Through the blood of Jesus, we are given a new life. In the scheme of things, we are each so seemingly insignificant and small… yet God sent His only Son to die for us and set things right! I like to imagine that God’s “craft room” is full of broken hearts and beaten-down spirits… sinners and downtrodden souls that He is repurposing into something wonderful for His glory!

We have very much become a “throw-away society.” Yes, I use disposable coffee cups on occasion – but only if I want to take coffee with me somewhere that it would not be convenient to rinse out a mug and stash it. And if I buy a cup of coffee at McDonald’s, I often bring the container home to wash and reuse a few times until the plastic lid disintegrates. The point is that God sees the potential in us. Recently I used a tiny piece of lace trim to cover a stain that threatened to ruin the leg of a pair of little girls’ leggings. That tiny scrap of trim turned something unlovely into something quite beautiful. In the same manner, God can use the tiniest “scrap” of a person to create something wonderful for His desires!

What is our “take-away” from this today? I believe there are two lessons:

1. God won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt… he won't disregard the small and insignificant, and
2. God won’t quit… and neither should we.

Let’s look beyond our flaws and imperfections… and those of others. Let’s look at every situation with an eye toward how God can use us and others for a new purpose. Where is He at work in your life to patch the stains, to use something seemingly insignificant and small to create something wonderful and huge for His Kingdom? How have you limited God with your “throw-away” attitude… and how can you start to change? You may never carry your gum in a Gerber container or repurpose your clothing, but you can open your heart and mind to the possibilities for a “Spiritual repurposing” in God… and allow Him to make something truly beautiful and glorious. What will God create with you?

©2012 Debbie Robus