DIY SOS – The Big Build

Recently I sat and watched DIY – SOS ‘The Big Build’ (BBC) Though to see the daddy of all big builds you would need to watch the US version ‘Extreme Makeover – Home Edition‘ with host Ty Pennington. As my late father used to say (and the song) ‘everything’s big in America’. But regardless either here or in America the same principle applies. A family, usually, have tried to do some fairly major work in their house and it has become just too much for them. Or, a family is coping in very poor circumstances, an almost (in some cases it is) dilapidated house without the resources to do anything about it. They do not have the finance, the expertise and the will to do what has become impossible for them. Consequently their lives are severely blighted by the wreckage they eventually have to live in.

I don’t know why it hasn’t struck me before but the parallels between this and where we are as human beings before God is so obvious that it almost needs no comment. But comment we will.

English: One of the DIY SOS: The Big Build vans

We live in a DIY (Do it yourself) age and the evidence is all around us. Not only can we now just about do anything but it also has to be straight away – I want it now. So it shouldn’t be a surprise to find this includes religion and a religion we can do our-self. More specifically God says ‘do it this way’ and we say ‘no thanks I’ll do it my way’ as Frank would say. And this was really what Adam did in the garden. The Lord gave Adam a prohibition and he decided – along with Eve – to rebel and do it his way. And by nature we are just as culpable as our first parents. And now we stand in the ruins of our own efforts to please God. We are doing it ourselves but the task is too great for us. It’s an impossible task. And yet how utterly ridiculous this is when applied to religious worship. We make a religion in our own image and then worship it. This is exactly what is written in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. O those people in the Old Testament were really stupid and we are so sophisticated. Really! Human nature has not changed one iota. We have the same rebellious nature and the same desire to worship ourselves and the things we have made rather than the Creator.

‘O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help’. ‘I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities’.

Often people neither have the ability to turn to someone for help, but more often will not ask for help. It’s a big thing to admit defeat and ask for help. It’s the same with us in our sinfulness. We are in a lost condition, hopeless and undone, with no resources. And even if we could ‘Do-it-Ourself’ the work would be shoddy, incomplete and ruinous. We need someone with the resources to come and rescue us. Now if that’s all true in the DIY world of construction or any other area how much more true is it in the spiritual realm of Salvation.

The Good News of the Gospel is that God Himself has done something. He has accomplished the ultimate S.O.S. (Save our Souls). He Himself – Jesus Christ – because only God could rescue us through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The BIG Build for God is to take a sinner,  grant repentance, faith and life through Jesus Christ and begin what for us is a life-time project as God Himself begins to rebuild us in the image of His Son.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.