"Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation." (1 Pet. 2:11-12)

Some years ago, a friend of mine moved into a new home. The house had been unoccupied for a long time; the garden was untended and high with weeds. The first morning my friend looked from an upstairs window into the garden, and among the weeds he saw a beautiful red rose. He went to pick it, but the weeds were so high he could not find it. Returning to his upstairs window he located the rose, noted landmarks near it, and on his second trip to the garden, succeeded in finding it. As he pulled it from the weeds, he discovered that the stem ran nine feet to its root in his neighbor's well-cultivated garden! That is the Christian life. Rooted in Heaven, it blooms among the weeds of earth. (From Let Me Illustrate, by Donald Grey Barnhouse, p. 52)