Old For new.

Aluminum has been implicated in the onset of dementia. The cans used to be rubbish, but now aluminum cans have, in the last few years, become valuable. If you collect a 100 it will return you $10. That’s more than the aluminum in them is actually worth, but the world is into recycling. I’m a recycled husband! Even God is into recycling, He is going to give us new bodies and natures. I’m looking forward to that day. No more sin or temptation, no more suffering or sickness. Wow.

What about a lump of coal, black ugly and only apparently good for burning and making heat. But no! Coal can be used in electricity generation, cement and steel production, perfume, plastics, food preservatives, vitamins, paint thinners, linoleum, moth balls, saccharin, synthetic rubber, nylon, ammonia, fertilizer, aspirin, sulfur, a rainbow of dyes and plastics, things for artistic purposes, creosote for wood preservation, synthetic fibers, and various science and industrial chemicals. High-quality carbon fibers can be made from certain types of coal. These carbon fibers are lightweight and incredibly strong, making them valuable in applications such as aerospace and automotive industries. Coal can be processed to create activated carbon, which is highly porous and has a large surface area. Activated carbon is used in water and air purification, as well as in various industrial processes. If we can do all that with an ugly lump of coal, imagine what God can do with you! Your body mass is 18% carbon. Its role is mostly structural, forming the “backbone” of many organic molecules.

Of course, coal can also produce some harmful poisons, drugs, and gases – even bombs – gun powder has coal(carbon) in it. This is like our hearts. Deep within coal are stored up good things and bad things. The world will one day only bring forth good things and so will you!

What about rags. They used to be clean shirts and blouses but now, as Isaiah says, our goodness (righteousness) is no better than filthy rags. Filthy rags can’t wash themselves, somebody else must wash them, like the world that is to be recycled, so that it, and us, will only bring forth good things, so too, we need to be recycled and washed and made perfect in his perfect robe of righteousness.  This old world will pass away, and everything will be made new. Listen to Peter’s words to the church, penned just before he was crucified by Nero upside down, “But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.  But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:10-12 NLT Maranatha!