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God Promises Us a New Heart of Flesh, April 3
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within
you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will
give you an heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:26
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The youth especially stumble over this phrase, “A new heart.” They
do not know what it means. They look for a special change to take place
in their feelings. This they term conversion. Over this error thousands
have stumbled to ruin, not understanding the expression, “Ye must be
born again.” ... When Jesus speaks of the new heart, He means the mind,
the life, the whole being. To have a change of heart is to withdraw the
affections from the world, and fasten them upon Christ. To have a new
heart is to have a new mind, new purposes, new motives. What is the
sign of a new heart?—a changed life. There is a daily, hourly dying to
selfishness and pride
Then a spirit of kindness will be manifested, not by fits and starts, but
continually. There will be a decided change in attitude, in deportment, in
words and actions toward all with whom you are in any way connected.
You will not magnify their infirmities, you will not place them in an
unfavorable light. You will work in Christ’s lines....
Instead of exposing and publishing one’s faults to others, you will put
forth the most patient efforts to heal and bind up.... A harsh-spirited man is
unrefined, coarse; he is not spiritual; he has not a heart of flesh, but a heart
as unimpressible as a stone. His only help is to fall on the Rock, and be
broken. The Lord will place all such in the crucible, and try them in fire,
as gold is tried. When He can see His own image reflected in them He will
remove them.... The religion of Christ is to take possession of the whole
being, and give force and power to all our faculties, renovating, cleansing,
and refining. It manifests itself without parade, and high-sounding words,
but is shown in an upright and unselfish life
God’s power alone can change a heart of stone to a heart of flesh
[101]
7
The Youth’s Instructor, September 26, 1901
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8
Letter 15, 1895
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9
Ellen G. White
Manuscript 95, 1903
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102