Coming from a Restoration Movement church, I found the following life analogy to be quite interesting. It deals with a "little" project dad and I have slowly, VERY SLOWLY, begun in his garage -- the restoration of a 1972 Toyota FJ40 Landcruiser.Much like the frame pictured here, the frame on our cruiser was in pretty good shape, solid and ready for use, a good foundation to start from. The body on the other hand was quite a different matter altogether. The hull was so rusted in places that it simply lifted off the frame mounts. The two of us removed it quickly after somework with a sawzall. This body was in need of some major work.
This reminded me of some simple truths that many of our missionaries in the field already know:
1) Restoration is good for the church because it allows us to discover a usable frame -- the New Testament -- solid, designed by God.
2) Restoration is good for the church because it removes the rotten parts that have been attached to the frame, often for too long -- removing the hypocrisy that Christ warned against.
3) Finally restoration is good for the church because it allows us to examine the body in context of the frame, it allows us to see if our "mounts" are in good shape and in the proper places -- alligned through God's Spirit.
