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Changes
of Life
Conversion
Consequences of
In England there is a paper
factory that makes the finest stationery in the world. One day a man touring
the factory asked what it was made from. He was shown a huge pile of old rags
and told that the rag content was what determined the quality of the paper. The
visitor wouldn’t believe it. In weeks he received from the company a package of
paper with his initials embossed on it. On the top piece were written the words
“Dirty rags transformed.”
The same is true of the
Christian life. It is a process of transformation from what we were into
something new and wonderful. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
The motor home has allowed
us to put all the conveniences of home on wheels. A camper no longer needs to
contend with sleeping in a sleeping bag
cooking over a fire
or hauling water
from a stream. Now he can park a fully equipped home on a cement slab in the
midst of a few pine trees and hook up to a water line
a sewer line and
electricity. One motor home I saw recently had a satellite dish attached on
top. No more bother with dirt
no more smoke from the fire
no more drudgery of
walking to the stream. Now it is possible to go camping and never have to go
outside. We buy a motor home with the hope of seeing new places
of getting out
into the world. Yet we deck it out with the same furnishings as in our living
room. Thus nothing really changes. We may drive to a new place
set ourselves
in new surrounding
but the newness goes unnoticed
for we've only carried
along our old setting.
The adventure of new life
in Christ begins when the comfortable patterns of the old life are left behind.
David Roher.