The Restored Farmhouse on Route 7

In 2019, a couple named David and Maria Hernandez purchased a neglected farmhouse along Route 7 in Bennington, Vermont. The previous owners had used it as a storage dump — rooms crammed with old tires, walls punched through for makeshift shelving, the original hand-carved banisters buried under layers of spray paint. The house was legally theirs to do with as they pleased, but every choice carried weight.

David, a carpenter by trade, understood something most buyers miss. "Just because you can knock out a wall doesn't mean you should," he told a reporter from the Bennington Banner. "This house has bones. Somebody built it with intention." Over eighteen months, the Hernandezes stripped away every careless addition. They uncovered chestnut beams no one had seen in decades. They restored the original fieldstone hearth. They honored what the house was always meant to be.

Paul's words to the Corinthian church carry that same carpenter's wisdom. "Everything is permissible for me," they kept saying — and Paul didn't disagree. But permissible isn't the same as honoring. Your body was not built for casual use or thoughtless disposal. It was purchased — not with a mortgage but with the blood of Christ — and the Spirit of the Living God has taken up residence inside.

You are not a storage dump. You are a dwelling place. Glorify God with the body He paid everything to redeem.