{"id":576,"date":"2008-09-25T00:30:14","date_gmt":"2008-09-25T06:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wnac.org\/blog\/?p=576"},"modified":"2008-09-04T09:32:55","modified_gmt":"2008-09-04T15:32:55","slug":"consider-the-butterfly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/?p=576","title":{"rendered":"Consider the Butterfly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/em>(2Corinthians 5:17).<\/p>\n<p>There is a tourist attraction in St. Louis called the Butterfly House. It is quite an interesting place. As part of the displays there is a short film on how God created butterflies. They start out as a little egg then develop into a caterpillar. This is called the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153larva\u00e2\u20ac\u009d stage. During this time they are nourished and their old skin is shed many times as they grow. Then caterpillars spin a protective covering around themselves during the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pupa\u00e2\u20ac\u009d stage, a time of resting. The latter is called a cocoon. The whole process of becoming a butterfly usually takes ten to fifteen days. The scientific term is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153metamorphosis.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d When the final stage happens we see a beautiful, flying adult butterfly.<\/p>\n<p>We come to Him, repenting of our sin. He forgives us and puts His Spirit in us. New life begins. Then we must be nourished first by the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sincere milk of the word.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Within that time we begin to shed old habits and attitudes. As we allow the Spirit to move in our lives, He watches over us protecting us from the things that would be a detriment to our new life in Christ. As we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ we are being fashioned to do service for God. With confidence we emerge as something beautiful for God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s glory. Then, like butterflies, we continue the cycle and reproduce. We, as Christians, must labor to disciple others thus continuing the cycle and reproducing. Led by the Spirit, spread your wings and fly.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Winchester<br \/>\nMissouri<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRAY TOGETHER:  <\/strong>Women in California will be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Traveling the Spiritual Trail\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at their state retreat, September 25-27. Ask God to equip and challenge attendees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (2Corinthians 5:17). There is a tourist attraction in St. Louis called the Butterfly House. It is quite &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/?p=576\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-devotional"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}