Over twenty years ago when ACF purchased it’s current property, 12.5 acres on NYS RTE 12F. it was terribly overgrown as we began to clear the brush, and under the heavy overgrowth we found many many bricks, remnants of the Hotel Woodruff, demolished in 1976. That brush made it hard for many of us to see the beauty and potential of the property that wasn’t just neglected but was also a refuse site. In the book of Nehemiah we have a story of Jerusalem becoming barely a shell of it’s former beauty and blessing, the Temple having been burnt down for decades earlier, the walls and gates of the city destroyed, and most of the citizens carried away into slavery.
It was a mess! Our loving God is always redemptive, and had promised them the day to rebuild and restore would come. He led people to His chosen city to rebuild the temple, and it’s walls and gates. Neh 4:2 reminds us that many looked at the ruins with disdain, and could only see the prevailing disarray. They were convinced the Israelites and their capital city deserved to be desperate and in ruins. They wanted God’s people to be kept down and discouraged, but God had a different and better plan for them, desiring to restore them, their city, and their testimony. That is prophetic for today!
Jesus came into the world to save sinners! It is common for sinners to be so covered in the rotten results of their sin, that it can difficult to see their real purpose and value to a loving God, and a broken world. Isaiah 61:1-4 prophesies that Messiah, (Jesus), would come with a powerful Gospel that heals shattered souls, and restores them. He transforms them from “the desolations of many generations” into “trees of righteousness”, even after decades of sin, brokenness, grieving, destruction, and more. Our Heavenly Father so loved sinfully devastated people like us, that He sent His Son to bear all of our sin, grief, sorrow, and wickedness. The referenced Isaiah text reveals His anointing powerfully reaches into personal prisons of fear, shame, guilt, failure, depression, darkness, and whatever else sin does to a soul. There is the potential for the glory of God in every rubbish heap of a life! God is not willing that any should perish (2Pet 3:9)!
Just like our property over twenty years ago, there are many people that appear to be burned over, and are seemingly more refuse heap, than a desirable and holy building site. God is using Scriptures like Isaiah 61:1-4; Isa 53:3-6; John 3:16-18; Rom 8:28-29 to grow Him and His heart inside of us! Hallelujah! These verses planted and growing in our hearts are seeds of His nature and character, that God’s Spirit uses to grow world changing faith, hope, and love. You, me, our neighbors, our family and friends, and even our “not-friends” were all made to be sons and daughters of God, recipients of the greatest miracle of all, Jesus Christ living with and in us. When we meditate on texts like the ones just mentioned above, God’s Spirit uses His words, to nurture and grow Him in us. His ministry to heal broken hearts and free bound up souls is activated in us by His Word and Holy Spirit, because He is the same today as yesterday, and He lives in us right now to do the same things. Let’s ask Him daily to grow His heart inside us, and demonstrate His glory through us. We can and should cooperate with Him in this process, and when we do, our community is blessed as Jesus Christ is manifest in real time through our lives.
Pastor Paul Gmitter