II Cor 17. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
I was thinking about this verse on recently as I toured a combination Ethanol plant / grain mill. A truck load of corn enters the plant and a process begins to change that corn into something new. Within four days that load of corn leaves in one of two ways. It either becomes fuel for motor vehicles or feed for livestock.
In order to achieve the finished product, the farmer has to make a decision to bring the corn to the plant. Once the corn arrives the process starts. The corn is washed at 92 degrees, cooked, distilled and the gases are extracted to be converted into fuel. Two and one half gallons of fuel is created from each bushel of corn.
However that is not the end of the corn: the left over corn mash is separated into two types of livestock feed: dried distillers grain (which looks like fine saw dust and feels like sand) and wet cake (which looks like wet dirt). If the product comes out looking like pea-soup or yellow oatmeal no problem, it can still be used to feed livestock.
When we make the choice to come into the house of God, we start the process of becoming a new creature. We continue the process by repenting of our sins, being water baptized in Jesus Name and receiving the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues. Then like that corn we leave in different ways; each of us have talents and abilities that can to provide spiritual food and fuel to others.
