Old Minds & New Wine

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why don’t your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?”  Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom?  Of course not.  But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.  “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth?  For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.  “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.  For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins.  New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”  Matthew 9:14-17

The older one gets, the more one looks back on the chapters that were, instead of looking ahead to the chapters yet to be written.  Perhaps too much!  It’s difficult to look ahead when your mind is full of the past.  Yet, there is something to be said for meditating on what has happened, if the future is going to make any sense.  For instance, a pastor’s unquestioned task is always to preach God’s Word, in God’s timing, so that the true wisdom of God can bless and direct God’s people.  So a pastor must face what’s ahead while keeping the past in mind.  To let the future have sovereign reign is to fall prey to some of yesterday’s mistakes, spilling the new wine of tomorrow before it has time to mature.  To let the past reign (especially in an old mind) is to turn your back on the promise of all things new. 

We make choices, many without thinking; we are conditioned so, and life demands choices and changes.  And, in the wisdom that unfolds with time, we know everything of the past was not entirely evil or entirely good, as well as we know everything new will one day be in the past.  We live, we choose, we learn.

If our minds are the wineskins of which Jesus taught, then the possibilities of the wine of yesterday or tomorrow are what goes in.  Jesus said you can’t put the new wine (of tomorrow’s experience) into old skins (an old man’s mind, perhaps).  The common reasoning is that the fermenting of the new wine creates growth action that will expand (and burst) the old, stretched-to-the-limit skins.

As it is with old minds and new wines, so it is with the church and her ebb and flow of serving Christ’s Kingdom.  The more churches dwell on the past, lamenting the loss of those good ol’ days, the less fit we become for the new wine of Christ’s promise…behold, I make all things new.[1]  And when God is moving in the hearts of young people to stretch and accept his growth to expand the Kingdom, we do well to make room for that which is coming, or risk the judgment of Pharasee-like hardened skins, ready for bursting.

I know of only one remedy for that, and Apostle Paul made it simple:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.  Romans 12:1-2

Renewed minds…new wineskins for what’s coming, made possible by the kind of faith that presents body, mind, and soul to Christ…the surrendered life.

For You Today  

Old wine is best in taste, but it is strong, and is meant to be savored and sipped.  New wine is best in promise, meant to be expanding and changing.  There is room for both…no, there is necessity of both in the Kingdom of God. 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

The Tear in the Fabric  and  Drinking the Pastor's New Wine

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Revelation 21:5

One Voice

Friday, July 25, 2014

Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us.  And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.  May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus.  Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.     Romans 15:4 - 6 (NLT)

The idea of “harmony” is that many voices together sound like one pleasing voice.  Some of the synonyms the dictionary gives for the word are “accord” “agreement” and “synchronization”.

Paul’s charge to the Roman church folk was to remember Jesus did that for us, opening the door of fellowship for Gentiles, so we could come to know God and his gracious salvation.

The idea of many voices lifting “one voice” (truly synchronized, in agreement) literally means to be many minds, agreed; to be of one passion.  It means being committed to the same set of values, ideas, goals.

With all due respect to my musical friends – this is harder in life than music!

We live in a world where it’s much easier to talk about being homogenous – a one-human-race world – than to achieve it.  These days there are enough “voices” to go around…but not much harmony when the voices are raised.

Especially if you add the Bible to the mix.

Paul wrote that God’s intention for the written Scriptures was to help encourage the human race to patiently achieve harmony.  In this we give “harmonious praise” back to God; we can be truly the crown in His creation.

But, largely, we (the human race) have taken the Scriptures, personalized the message to meet our “felt needs” and dared anyone to contradict us with their version.  It’s usually called “my way or the highway”.  And it’s not harmony; it’s a racket!  This kind of unholy noise is generally well-saturated with cultural prejudice and skewed interpretations which ignore the totality of the counsel of God.

In other words – don’t confuse me with facts; I know what I know.

That “thud” you just heard was the door of an un-synchronized, non-agreeing, accord-refusing mind slamming shut. 

Don’t misread me here; I am not one to “give the farm away”, agreeing with something I don’t believe, just to be in agreement.  I used to be like that – a people-pleaser, going-along, agreeing just for the sake of making “nice-nice”. That’s as bad as slugging-it-out over minute non-essentials just to be ornery.

What I am saying is we need to stop pre-judging everyone until we hear what they’re saying.  Listen with an open mind; answer with a gentle heart; guard the door against thieves.

Do this in regards to doctrine, custom, culture, money and family – and you will be a reasonable person.

Hate people because of their thoughts, place of birth, skin pigment, social status or limitations of all sorts – and you will be a person who adds to the division the Lord came to end.

And who wants to fight THAT battle?

For You, Today…

Tune up that voice of harmony today; it’s in there – bring it out!

Title Picture:  By Randy Stern [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons