I’ve been married for five years now and have unconsciously developed a yearly ritual: I don’t throw out my camisetas (t-shirts) with the yellow stains on the arm pits until I get the “new” ones from my mother in law at Christmas time. Stay with me…I think I have a point. The “new” t-shirts enable me to part with the old ones. The camiseta exchange has become apart of my yearly resolutions!
He told them this parable: "…And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.' " Luke 5:36-39I know Jesus was addressing a “fasting” question in this text, but I would like to glean a principle. As you may already know, it was a common cultural practice to store wine in wineskins, not bottles. During the fermentation process, the gases gave off pressure causing the skins to expand – but if the skins were old (hard), they would crack and both the skins and wine would be destroyed. New Wine needed New Skins...nothing else would do.
My New Year needs a New - fill in the blank! Notice Luke’s indictment at the end of the text, “old is better.” Many times the enemy to “new” is old! Our loyalty to “old” people, places and things keep us from embracing the new things God wants to bring our way. We hold on to our old tees with holes and yellow stains way too long! It is my opinion that if we try to receive new "whatever" for 2006 and keep them in our “old” attitudes, approaches, and paradigms everything will be wasted. May God’s offer of a new life, a new season and a new year gives us all courage to make a fresh start - even if means parting with some old tees.
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Ralph
2 comments:
Ralph,
I was just emailing the girls somthing along those line. New Year which means New Things, New Memories, and a New Deeper Relationship with Christ and Eachother.
Mel
i was sitting in church last night (tuesday) and i just had this cry in my heart for the same exact thing...newness. i want to leave behind last year and the things that came along with it in the worst way. it hit me so hard and i couldnt believe that i hadnt noticed earlier. its like innate for us to hold on to stuff we dont need! just like the verse says, we are quick to say "the old is better than the new". like those old gap jeans that have so many holes we cant even wear them in public...and that hair-do that we love so much but honey its like 10 years outta style...and lets not forget your example, the infamous yellow but-used-to-be-white tee...why do we hold on to those things? i think many times we listen to the lie "you cant live without_______" or "but you've always ________". when in reality those things are useless to use and God has something better.
i like the way you uncover that lie ralph. i'm praying that we, as God's children, will grab hold of all the new and beautiful things God has for us while not thinking twice about letting those "old" things fall out of sight.
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