It is a special store, because it is a charity shop – a second-hand shop – or a thrift-store.
The store belongs to our church and is currently called Second Chance.
It is a great name that speaks for itself – as all of the things donated to us are given a second chance to be owned, reused and loved.
We receive the donations and we lovingly rescue, repair, refresh, restore, revalue and repurpose them; then they are bought – repossessed, rehoused, reused and recycled.
We may be changing the name of the store to ‘Re Store’.
Our church has changed its name too – we have merged two existing church congregations and have come together – renamed as ‘Re Church’.
Like the shop, each of us has been given a second chance – we have been reborn, rescued, redeemed, renewed, repaired, restored, repurposed, resurrected.
The old has become new.
I love these Re words.
I am most grateful and excited that I have been redeemed, rescued and am being constantly renewed, repaired, restored and repurposed.
(This was on one of those clever fridge-magnet captions that make me smile!)
Turning is an active doing word. It is deliberate and intentional – (unless you have been wound-up and are simply spinning automatically, as maybe we all do from time to time!)
Where am I heading? What is my destination? My direction and destination is altered if I turn off the path.
If I am heading North, but turn even a few degrees East, eventually I will end up potentially far from my original destination!
If I reach a cross-roads, I have to know if my destination lies straight ahead, or left, or right.
If I am going in the wrong direction, I may waste a lot of time and energy before I find another opportunity to get back on track.
In the Christmas story, the wise men saw the star and they followed it faithfully. Their destination was to find the prophesied new King. The star was to lead them to the new King. They had their destination and their guide.
At the tender age of 12, I made the best turn in my life. I turned from following myself, my friends and the world-view and I turned to follow Jesus.
It was a 180 degree turn.
In ignorance, as a young person, I had had my back to God and was walking away from Him; then, after hearing the gospel, I deliberately turned to face Him and to walk towards Him.
Throughout all the years that followed, I have never turned my whole face away from His deliberately, but I have deliberately closed my ears, parts of my heart, and ignored His instructions to me many times.
I have frequently gone off track and wasted a lot of time, mental and emotional energy and caused myself and others unnecessary pain.
I have made a great many wrong turns. Often I lost sight of my destination and my guide. I did not always follow the map. Sometimes I thought I knew better, or knew a short-cut.
Every time I have ‘turned-a-deaf-’un’ and walked in a direction that God had not planned for me, my spiritual life and my whole equilibrium and well-being has suffered. Not to mention all the suffering and heart-ache I caused to others!
Like the ‘prodigal son’ story, I have ended up in a mess, until finally ‘coming to my senses’, turning back and going home again.
This is repentance. A realisation of my own error. A sorrow for my error and the damage I have caused to others, and a turning 180 degrees and going back towards God.
God is merciful and gracious.
This turning, this repentance, is essential to healing of inner-root issues of the heart. It is the heart of what it is to live as a follower of Jesus.
God in His mercy and grace has NEVER turned His heart or face away from me. He has always sought me out, pursued me, watched for me and run to me the minute I turned back towards Him.
May I never turn away from Him again, but dwell forever now in His gaze.
If you need to realign even a small part of your heart or life towards Jesus, do it now and feel the delight in His embrace, as He places His ring on your finger and wraps His robe around you.
Wheezy the penguin in Toy Story who is left on the shelf when broken
Have you often felt left out? Overlooked? Ignored? Forgotten? Invisible?
Have you felt left-on-the-shelf? Not chosen? Not wanted?
It is painful to be, or to feel rejected.
Fear of rejection lurks in most of our hearts.
I went to see the ‘Messiah’ in concert last Saturday and those lyrics from Isaiah 53 have stayed with me –
He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him
Jesus experienced rejection too, so He knows how it feels.
He knows how you feel.
He was despised, rejected, betrayed, denied, abandoned and we esteemed Him not!
But what did He do?
On the night He was betrayed…He gave thanks and began His excruciating passion for our salvation.
ON that night!!
He didn’t wait until we all loved Him, before He died for us. No, He died for us, whilst we were still sinners and still His enemies; when we were still hiding our faces from Him.
Why did He do it?
The truth my friends, is that God Himself has chosen YOU!
He has called you by name. He takes you down off the shelf and holds you; He calls your name off the bench and calls you into the game. He has hand-picked you for a very special purpose and because He loves you more than His own life.
He has loved you UNCONDITIONALLY since you began to be formed in your mother’s womb and He sees every thought, every fear, every hope, every desire, every disappointment and every wound that you carry.
He wants you to stop hiding your face and to open the door to Him.
Come out of agreement with those lies about you being unwanted or unimportant.
It is what God says that matters, because He is the TRUTH and LIFE.
dawnfanshawe 