There is a growing awareness and an increasing effort to recycle in our world today.  It is going on all around us:

I read an article some time ago about a house in Colorado called the Earthship. It is not only beautiful, it is also an environmentally friendly, 10,000 square foot home-made of used tires, aluminum cans and other recycled materials.

The Earthship is made of junk, but it has been featured on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Home and Gardens, the Discovery Channel, and PBS. If you want to buy one, it is all yours for only 3.3 million dollars.

There are not many things that are not being recycled today:
• Recycled paper products
• Recycled glass and metal products
• Salvage yards recycle car, truck and machinery parts
• There are many reports that Habitat for Humanity opened a used building materials outlet   in Denver a few years ago
• Even our thrift stores and garage sales are ways people recycle.

What am I trying to say to you?

God is in the recycling business. He’s been in the business longer than anyone.

It all started with a fascinating story of creation. The scripture says that “God created man in His image and in His image He created both male and female” (Genesis 1:27). They were perfect and placed in a perfect surrounding. 

But just before Adam and Eve could step into being fruitful and multiplying, something tragic happened. They betrayed God’s trust, and that event twisted everything good and perfect in them.

Genesis 6:11-13 tells us when saw what had become of man He was disappointed. “Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt. So God said to Noah, I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth!”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭6:11-13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

So, after the fall, man became sinful, broken and overshadow with darkness in many ways.

But the bible talks a great deal about how God is always in the process of taking people and turning them into a new creation. 

He is always taking sinners and turning them into saints.

He takes these jars of clay (our frailty and humanity) and turns them into something of great value. God is always taking our weaknesses turning them into strengths so that we can show his beauty and his glory.

Listen, you can lose all your guilty stains. You can lose all your shameful past. You can lose all your checkered past. 

Here in Matthew chapter 13:45-46:

Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought.

Jesus is the buyer and we are the pearls. He sees us so valuable that He would happily give all to have us forever. We are as precious to Jesus as a beautiful pearl of great price.

However, the pearl at its heart is a grain of hard and lifeless sand. This pearl was once junk, garbage, useless, worthless, a piece of dirt. But when sand comes in touch with a living organism, like the oyster, the sand is transforms into a pearl. As a result of this contact, it becomes a thing of exquisite beauty and precious indeed.

When we allow Jesus to touch our lives, he transforms these jars of clay into pearls of great value. God is in the business of taking worthless lives, useless people, junkies and low lives and turning them around, crowning them with beauty and dignity.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation the old things passed away and behold, new things have come.”

Now, this is what I call “100% Recycled Trash.”

• He takes your heart – a heart of stone (stubborn and disobedient) and he turns it into a heart of flesh (meaning he makes your heart willing to serve him and surrender to him).
• He takes your sinful nature and gives you a redeemed nature.
• He takes your low self-esteem and crowns you with his love, affection and confidence telling you that you are valuable.
• He takes your past – you know your past, and He forgives you of all of it, as if it had never happened.
• He takes you from being dysfunctional, useless, hopeless, and totally turns you around to become hardworking, dynamic, reliable and productive in your every day choices.

Aren’t you glad that He has pick you up and turned you around and fashioned you into a person of exquisite beauty and value. I am that’s why I am shouting it from the rooftop today I am 100% Recycled Trash!

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Prayer: Lord Make me over. Turn my life around. 100% Recycled – In Jesus name…Amen!