01 January 2020

Out with the Old and In with the New.

But not in everything, I hope.

I’m getting older now and really appreciate the wisdom and the life experience I have had. I don’t want anyone throwing me away, throwing away what I have learnt.

Sometimes I feel like I’m just getting things right, just at the ‘best days of my life’ stage, but I have also woken up to ‘old habits die hard.’ Meaning some old habits of mine that I do not even like are so ingrained in me that they take a long time (if ever) to die, to go away, to not exist in my life anymore.

Some old things have to be put aside (for necessity) or not be used anymore. For example, 3G mobile phones have been phased out. You need to go to 4G or 5G or your coverage is null and void. I can no longer use my old mobile phone. 

My old socks that have now got holes in them and are quite worn, thin and threadbare. They are no longer doing the job they were designed for, which is to bring comfort to the feet when sneakers, work or covered-in boots were worn. The socks prevented chaffing, sore spots and eventually blisters. I need new ones.

Even Jesus was trying to talk to people in the scriptures about new and old. ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak for the patch pulls away from the cloak and a worse tear is made.’

Or

“Neither is a new wine put into old wineskins, otherwise the skin bursts and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed, but new wine is put into fresh wineskins and so both are preserved.”

Both of these references appear to state old and new don’t mix. The new cloth not yet washed will shrink and cause a tear in the old cloak. The old wineskins won’t stretch more to contain the new fermenting wine and so will tear and spill the wine, but do you think Jesus is saying something else underneath these words?

Jesus states many times, “I have come to fulfil the law, not abolish it.”“I have come to bring life to the full” (not just at some mundane, mediocre level).

Jesus taught that God was initiating a New Kingdom, a new way of living and thinking. In Mark 1:14-15, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, “the time has come” he said, “The Kingdom of God is near. Repent(change) and believe the good news.”

Jesus was not saying ‘out with the old and in with the new in everything.’ He was stating that:

A NEW way of thinking,

A NEW way of loving,

A NEW way of living was needed even in the “OLD WINESKINS,” that they would stretch to contain the new. 

Thy KINGDOM COME stated in the OUR FATHER was taught by Jesus when the apostles asked Him, how do we pray. He told them to pray for, be ready for and learn this New Kingdom. 

Jesus states BOTH old and new wineskins will be preserved. Both have a different purpose. Both are treasures;

“Therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” Matt 13:52

Even as we all get older, a fresh approach, maybe a new approach, but definitely a humble approach to what God may have for us is needed. 

Let us ask the Holy Spirit what OLD should we get rid of? “Old habits, old ways of thinking, the “old-sinful” ways in each of us.

What NEW things can we invite the Holy Spirit to show us, to grace us with the courage and strength and ability to take on? To give permission to God, to the Holy Spirit to work with these NEW things within us. 

Remember, God is a respecter of our free will. It’s our choice.

What choices will you make this NEW YEAR?

So, this older wineskin is willing to take on the NEW things God has for me. To be stretched. To be renewed. Are You?