Settin' Up Shop

Just a side note, as I write this post I'm looking out my window. The hummingbirds are feeding and fighting over the two feeders we have placed for them. They are one of my favorite birds and man are they fun to watch!

One thing happening here at Kaibab Lodge are preparations for the shuttle. The owners purchased the shuttle company from a gentleman preparing to retire. In this endeavor, the owners have decided to move the base of operations to the north rim at the lodge. Well, this isn't as easy to do as one might think. There are all kinds of planning needed to pull this off. Of prime importance is the garage where the maintenance will be performed on the eleven shuttle vans. So, I have been watching and helping (a little) to make this a reality.

First, there is the actual building. It had to be large enough to house the tools, compressors, tire machines, welders, pumps, new tire racks, and jacks, etc. This is not a comprehensive list, but it shows the degree of planning needed. Next, there is the wiring for the machines, the lighting, the air pressure lines, the concrete slab (which we had to pour), and a plethora of other considerations. I have seen the planning required and experienced the amount of work required. All the hand tools, auto parts, cabinets, and other supplies need to organized. The to do list keeps growing. Putting together a shop for the mechanics is a difficult thing to do, but if the shuttle service is to be successful, it is necessary. In thinking about this shop, it really is the same for every type of business whether it be a dentist or doctor’s office, a print shop, or a sign shop. You get the point.

So, what does "settin up shop" have to do with being a Christian and living the Christian life? Well, let's take a look.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come." 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

This verse led me to consider what God has done in and with the lives of believers. Hasn't he created a new shop? No? Well, how about Genesis, chapter 1?

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

This first chapter tells us God created everything and it was good. We read all the way through the chapter to verse 26-27 which really strikes a key note.

"Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female."

As an aside, the bible does not tell us God created an infinite number of genders; just two. If you disagree, show me in His Word where it says anything different. Things move along nicely until we reach chapter 3. Here Satan, the serpent, deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit who in turn gave it to Adam who also ate of the fruit. Now, we have a problem. With this single event, mankind's shop so to speak was disabled.

When God created man (Adam), He gave him certain mental and physical gifts. First, God gave Adam a heart. It was the proto-heart; the first human heart ever created. It had the capacity to beat 60 to 100 times a minute, after minute, after hour, after day, after week, after month, after year. It was also intended to last forever. It had the capacity for love; love for creation, for Eve, and for God.

However, when sin entered into the world, and more importantly into Adam and Eve, everything changed. What began as shops (lives) intended to love and serve God became "little shops of horrors." Man had now become estranged to God. Verse 3:22 tells us,

"The LORD God said, "Since man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, and also take from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. So, the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove man out, and east of the garden of Eden He stationed cherubim with a flaming, whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life."

Proof of their awareness of the evil they committed is found in their guilt and shame. Genesis 3:8-10,

"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. So, the LORD God called out to the man and said to him, "Where are you? And he said, "I heard You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid."

By the way, God knew where they were. He just wanted them to admit their sin. The blame game began when Adam told God, it was Eve's fault. She in turn said, it was the serpent's fault. Guilt and shame. It began precisely then and there, and is ever present. You realize the conundrum, right? Through one action, there has been created a separation, a chasm between God and man which man is unable to rectify on his own.

The singer/songwriter LaShun Pace puts it this way:

There's a leak in this old building and my soul has got to move

My soul, has got to move, Ooh, my soul has got to move

There's a leak in this old building, yo and my soul has got to move

I've got another building, a building not made by man's hands

In these words, Pace is saying she is looking toward her eternal building (shop). In the meantime, she is living in a building God has renovated.

Since the creation of mankind, each individual has been given a shop. The problem is there are not only some good things, but many bad things, evil things, like hatred, immorality, idolatry, lying, theiving, envy and so on. I could continue, but go to Mark 7:21-23 or 1 Timothy 1:8-11. These, along with many other verses help describe the condition of every shop ever created. All of this is a result of the fall in Genesis 3.

That is the bad news. The good news is God's plan for the redemption of any person who would choose to follow Him. I call it God's "settin up shop." When this happens, God will enter the person's life. Here, God will not sweep out the shop and install a few cabinets and racks. No, this is the time when He will completely build a new shop.

For beginners, there will not be a roof to impede access to Him, no doors to keep him out, and no walls to limit His access to every room in the shop. In short, it will be an entirely open room where the Holy Spirit will dwell. That is the structure of the shop. Then there are the tools in the shop. There is love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, benevolence, righteousness, humility, integrity, and purity. The bible tells us in Galatians 5:22, the shop now has the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faifulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The new shop now has a hatred for sin, all sin. The new shop no longer lives with a self-fish mindset, but rather lives to serve God and help others. The new shop now abhors idolatry, greed, pride, and all other evil because it causes a separation between man and God which man cannot repair on his own. Enter Jesus, the only way a person can have a saving relationship with God.

If Jesus, the Son, had not been sent from God the Father to save people from their sin, we would be stuck in the old shop with no hope for a new one. That is the point of this post. I was once stuck in an old shop of "horrors" so to speak. It was always all about me. Then one day, the Holy Spirit showed me just how sorry of a shop it was and how in one instant, I could have a new one. And now, I have a God shop.

HE has given it to me at no cost of my own. It cost me nothing. It cost Jesus everything. The only problem with my new shop is that I keep trying to build walls, rooms, and doors to maintain some control of my own. Then, the Holy Spirit reminds me it really is not my shop at all. Not if I am serious about a relationship with Jesus, He guides and helps me to take down the walls, rooms, and doors. It is a daily process.

One day, this shop will be replaced with another shop. Pace refers to it as moving on to a new building because her old building has a leak in it. I say, I'm getting yet another shop. This will be a final shop. This one will never require any work, updates, remodeling, or improvements. It will be the perfect shop God has in store for me. It will also be the same for you if you so desire.

Why don't you let God set up shop in you and get rid of that little shop of horrors?

Blessings,

Steve