“Why is it,” the girl asked the botanist, “that when I open a marigold it dies, but when God opens it, it’s beautiful?”

“Because,” came the answer, “God works from the inside out, while you work from the outside in.”
What a beautiful description of the new birth. It’s not something we do on the outside, but something God does on the inside.

A Christian becomes a completely new person. Although we cannot see the change on the inside, we know that there is a change when we see it on the outside – the new behaviors that come with the new birth. When Christ fills our heart on the inside, others will see it on the outside: we will no longer be the same.

People often speak of “being rehabilitated.” But that means that one has been restored to good health, a useful life, one’s former condition. But that is not true of those of us who have been born again. We have, in and through Christ, been re-created: “The old life is gone. A new life has begun,” said Paul.

When we are converted to Christ, we do not turn over a new leaf, we begin living a new life under a new Leader that results in a new way of living. This means that we now live by a new set of standards – God’s standards. We must ask, “Do others see Jesus in us?”

Prayer: Help us, Lord, to examine our lives carefully and completely to be sure we are living this “new life.” In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture for Today: 2 Corinthians 5:11-19  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

A man rushed out of a sales meeting and jumped into a cab. “Where to?” asked the driver.

“Anywhere,” he answered. “I have prospects everywhere.”

That’s the way it was with our Lord. Every one was a gold mine of possibilities.

Peter? A cursing coward? He became the most valuable apostle.

Mary Magdalene? A prostitute? But she became a clean Christian.

Matthew? Rich, but a thief? “Once a thief, always a thief?” No, he was changed and he wrote the gospel according to Matthew.

Every one’s life is changed for the better when Christ comes in.

Let Him into your life. He’s looking for you.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I come to Thee just as I am. Cleanse me, melt me, mold me, and make me an overcoming Christian. Lead me to do Thy will at all times and at any cost: in Thy name. Amen.