WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: Think of something you valued that got spoiled. What did you do? Not fit for purpose When I was a child, my mother took a college course involving some woodwork. She borrowed my father’s tools, but was horrified to find what bad condition some of them were in, especially the blunt chisels. Tools are specialist items with particular purposes; in order to be useful they must be kept in good condition and not used wrongly. We have been created by God for a specific purpose but are nearly useless because we have lived our lives in the wrong way, dominated by the world, the flesh and the devil (vs 1–3). Sin has so misshapen us that we were only fit to be thrown away (v 3b). Dependant on God Yet just as my mother sharpened my father’s blunt chisels, making them much more serviceable, God has made us fit for purpose again – risen with Christ, seated with him in heavenly places (vs 5,6), ready to do good works of eternal value (v 10). There is nothing we can do to help ourselves (vs 8,9). We are totally dependent on the mercy of God, and this is given, not grudgingly, but out of love (v 4). If we break something we either repair it or throw it away, and that decision is largely based on what it is worth to us. What great worth God attached to us, that he gave us such an amazing gift! Respond: Thank God that he is willing to go to such lengths to restore us. http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-03-07