Aug.30.04: Light for the Day - "Changed for Life"

-- 2 Corinthians 5:17
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; 
the old has gone, the new has come!"

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You can scrub a pig, sprinkle Channel No.5 on him, put a ribbon around his neck, and take him into your living room. But when you turn him loose, he will jump into the first mud puddle he sees because his nature has never been changed. 

We constantly try to reform ourselves. Stores are filled with self-help books claiming to hold the secret to personal reformation. But such efforts are only temporary at best. A deeper transformation is needed - a transformation of the heart.

And it is possible! The Bible teaches that when we come to Christ, we are spiritually born again. God's Spirit comes to live within us and change us.     Our motives change, our objectives change, our dispositions change, our eternal destiny changes.

No, it doesn't happen all at once. We will spend the rest of our lives learning what it means to follow Christ. But it begins now, as we open our hearts to Him. Is your life "being transformed ... from glory to glory"?

-- Billy Graham

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-- 2 Corinthians 3:17,28
17 Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, He gives freedom.
18 And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like Him and reflect his glory even more."

-- Romans 12:1-3
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship.
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will.
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

-- John 3:1-17
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.
2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'
8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things?
11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.
12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven- the Son of Man.
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
15 that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.
16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.