Happy Thursday

Under New Management

(Author Unknown)

As I was driving today, I couldn't help notice a sign outside a restaurant that read "Under New Management" in bold, colored letters. The owners were trying to convey the message that, even though the restaurant looked the same, perhaps even had a similar menu, something was definitely different.

It wasn't easy to spot the change from a distance. My first impulse was to go inside and question why things had to change. Why couldn't the new owners just pick up where the former left off, keeping it "business as usual"? The answers were simple: the former owners went bankrupt; they lost touch with what was important; their accounts were out of order.

In order to bring it back to its former glory, the old had to be replaced with the new. Some things, like the design, had to change gradually so others could become accustomed to it. Others needed immediate attention. But it had to come "Under New Management" for it to be effective.

That's the same way it is with us, beloved, when we finally come into a relationship with God: we have to come under new management . . . God's management! It can't be business as usual! God places a sign outside our hearts and begins to phase out the old things, those things which caused spiritual bankruptcy; those "accounts" in our lives that were in disarray. They are the past.

These "accounts" are not important any longer, nor do they have any bearing on God's ability to bring about change in our lives. And maybe we won't suddenly wake up and see someone else in the mirror . . . maybe from a distance others can't notice the change, but make no mistake about it: we're under God's new management!

It might not always seem like it. Our life's menu might sometimes seem like it's unchanged, but we can't be fooled! In some areas, we'll experience immediate change. In others, change will be gradual. Before long, however, the new Owner will bring in more changes, a more palatable menu for our lives and spiritual abundance. That's Jesus' heart and desire for us.

"What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!" 2 Cor. 5:17 (NLT)

"For what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another!" -Anatole France

Daily Smile:

An attorney, anxious to impress the judge with the detail, asked the following line of questions of a doctor who had recently performed an autopsy.

Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No.

Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.

Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.

Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.

Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.

Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.