Roommates, Re-purposing, & Restoring!

So, I'm sitting in my room trying to be a good little Christian and do my devo, it's a great study by Kelly Minter.  She's written 3, this is my 3rd, but she's working on a 4th, she told me herself, we're close personal friends via twitter! (There may be more than one tangent today as I've had some albuterol!) I keep re-reading the same line over and over because of the racket going on upstairs. Hammers and hollars and furniture being slid from one place to another by my roommate. Not to mention the toxic yet, somewhat pleasing aroma of some sort of aerosol paint or glue that is wafting through the rafters down here.  Here's a pic of our living room today if you come next week, everything will likely be different and not just the positioning, she may very well re-cover it all or find a bathtub to repupose into our new coffee table.

 Seriously she has a problem, this this will be the 3rd time this chair has been recovered in the last 18 months. 

I won't complain because I practically live here for free and it actually always looks like a page out of a magazine in here (except today with all the man tools out!) 

Oh and see this? 

 I bet you guessed it'd be a great planter?  That's what Lowes thought too, silly ya'll, slap some glass on top of this baby and you have a bedside table.  She seriously has a problem.  If it's not hammer and nails up there she's practicing the cello. Evidently repurposing is all the new rage. I totally don't get it.  I googled repurposing & here's what I got:

So, now how are you going to get
up there to hang stuff on it!?

You just ruined a perfectly good
dress shirt?! Were you in a jam where you
lost your pants, but had this handy?

It's pretty much MY goal to keep
things from growing in my toilet!  I mean
isn't this what toilet bowl cleaners are for?

And when I googled repurposed
this was among the images. So
re-purpose your manequins!
Dear Roommate, this is not a good
idea! 

                            

Where was I? Oh, yeah, I was trying to do my devo, it was on weaknesses tonight so I considered skipping it figuring it wouldn't be applicable to me, but I thought maybe I could learn something about helping others with their weaknesses so I honed in my focus and plowed thru it. The key verses were II Corinthians 12 - all about Paul's thorn in the flesh 

vs. 7  Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.... my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.....vs10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

(One of tonight's questions was, Why do you think Paul didn't tell us what his thorn was?) My initial answer, which I took the time to write down was, "I got no idea!" But then I thought about it and I guessed and said, "Well, he probably wasn't proud of it and he probably didn't want to be judged!"  Curious though, why do YOU think he didn't tell us?  

And the next focus vs was Genesis 50:20:  Which I got excited about because I knew it was about Joseph and Pastor Jeremy is doing a series about Joseph and Moses this month called MoJo. It's good with the exception of the songs he makes up and proceeds to sing! Sorry, Genesis 50:20:  Joseph is talking to his brothers who stripped him, threw him in a pit, sold him to the Egyptians, and told their father he was dead. They're back to apologize (sort of) and he tells them, Look don't sweat it. 

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives!"  

Boom! Did you catch that?  God repurposed all the crap that had happened to Joseph.  The betrayal by his family, his time in prison, AND he restored his dreams! Same thing with Paul, the Bible says that thorn in his flesh was a messenger from Satan to torment him, but God said, Don't sweat it, my grace is sufficient!

One of my supporters and friends, Shirley, was abused in every way imaginable as a child by someone in her family and it nearly destroyed her.  Today she is serving the Lord, serving others as a therapist, and writing a book about her childhood so that others can be helped by her story of overcoming and triumph.  Boom! "Messenger from Satan sent to torment" and "steal, kill, and destroy" Shirley; God is repurposing what was "meant for evil and to harm to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives!"  

I met with a friend just this week, who for years, had been secretly been involved in a homosexual relationship, full knowing that this was sin and not what God had intended for her life.  She finally walked away from the relationship and most people are none the wiser so she could never speak of it again & just be done with it. But she said, "at this point, I don't care who knows, if it could help someone!" She's already identified some people that are headed down the path she was on and is going to share her story with them! Boom! Take that tormenter!  God is repurposing what you meant to destroy her life and ministry, to provide more opportunities to minister and more people will be freed! 

So, it appears my roommate isn't the only one who LOVES to re-purpose and re-store, seems the Lord loves to do this too! Whatever has happened to us, whatever we've done, no matter how horrific, He can re-purpose it for our good and His kingdom and He can restore things in the worst of conditions to something so beautiful that it's previous state is unrecognizable! Thanking God I'm repurposed and restored!

See, He can totally take care of your baggage!
Repurposed & Restored