Come Back New

Renewing the mind is a little like refinishing furniture. It is a two-stage process. It involves taking off the old and replacing it with the new. The old is the lies you have learned to tell or were taught by those around you; it is the attitudes and ideas that have become a part of your thinking but do not reflect reality. The new is the truth. To renew your mind is to involve yourself in the process of allowing God to bring to the surface the lies you have mistakenly accepted and replace them with truth. To the degree that you do this, your behavior will be transformed.  Charles Stanley

I was listening to a commercial on the radio this morning.  It had a serious undertone to it just by the music in the background and the guy’s voice.  It started out talking about a little boy in school who was asked to tell about an experience he had, but as the commercial went on it said the boy couldn’t speak and didn’t say a word.  The speaker went on to say that it wasn’t because he was embarrassed to speak in front of the group, or in front of a special girl who was in the room.  It went on to say the reason he couldn’t speak was because there were no words to describe the experience.  How could you describe ruins that were older than your grandfather, or watch movies under a blanket of stars too many to count or swim with turtles close enough to touch? The last line was what got me.   If you went on this trip you would come back “new”. 

I have been on many Caribbean trips in my lifetime.  I have been to the Bahamas, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and Playa del Carmen and I’ve even been on a cruise to Jamaica, Cozumel and the Grand Caymans.  Every trip was exciting and the scenery was beautiful.  I’ve seen beautiful white beaches that looked like sugar and soft breezes blowing palm trees while waves washed onto the shore.  I’ve seen stars too numerous to count.  The thing is I didn’t come back “new”.  I came back sometimes with sunburn, other times worn out and then there was the whole thing about I didn’t want to come back home at all.  Don’t get me wrong.  I enjoyed every trip and the beauty of my surroundings. It is pretty hard to describe a sky so blue, the sun so bright and the sand so white that it hurts your eyes to look at it.  But the one thing I didn’t do was come back “new”. 

I think the guy in the commercial and I have a totally different concept of what it means to come back “new”.  When my pastor buried my sin when I was baptized, I came back “new”.  I was no longer that old self.  My sins were washed away and I could see things I had never seen before and felt things I had no hope of feeling before my baptism.  Coming back "new" changes you from the inside out.  It is like the waves on that white sandy beach crashed over you and as they receded, they took the sin and shame with them.  When you come back “new” it is indescribable, overwhelming and amazing.  Choose to come back “new”.   

    

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I have seen some beautiful things and places in my life, but none can compare to my first sight of You.  The washing away of my sin renewed me and changed me.  I will never be the same and Jesus made it possible for me to return to You.  I am “new” from the inside out and I am forever grateful for the beauty of You.

Scripture: Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

And He said to me, “It is done!  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.  He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. ” Revelation 21:1-7