Sunday, January 1, 2012

Desiring New Wine


            After Jesus called Levi to follow Him, Levi threw a huge party and invited all his pagan friends and fellow tax collectors.  Jesus was enjoying Himself at this big bash but the religious establishment was criticizing him for eating with those sinners.  In response, Jesus told the well known parable about putting new wine in old wine skins. 
            The new wine Jesus is talking about is Himself.  He is teaching His disciples that He won’t fit in the old religious structures.  So He is associating with people like Levi and his sinner friends because He is revealing the love of God in a whole new way.
            At the end of that parable Jesus added, in Luke 5:39:  “And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’”
            What a strong rebuke!  He is saying that the Pharisees and their scribes are content with the old wine of living under the Law and doing the “religious thing.”  Because they are content with that old wine, they reject the new, Jesus Himself.
            My heart cry for this new year of 2012 is that I will thirst for the new wine Jesus has to offer for today.  His mercies are new every morning.  I want to be in a place, every day of this new year, where I love Him with all my heart, mind, soul and body.  If He wants to do something totally new in me this year, I want to be in a place where I recognize the new wine skin and allow Him to fill it with His new wine.  I want to be continually filled with Holy Spirit and if that makes me look foolish or out of place in this world—so be it.  Pleasing Him is the only thing that matters.

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