New Wine

[southernbelle47]

I thought I was comfortable with the Jesus from my youth.
You know the one with little children smiling as they sat with Him. The one that walked on water and calmed the sea.
Well guess what. My Jesus has become much "More" than that.
It did not happen overnight. It was not painless for me. Do I want to go through the trials I endured to see my "new and much more" Jesus again? Oh no.... It was painful....but I do know one thing...When ,not if, I do go through valleys ,He will be with me and He will become even "More and more than Enough" to me.
My prayer is that you too will come to know Jesus. God The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.
:h Nancy



Jesus told them this story: "No person takes cloth off a new
coat to cover a hole on an old coat. Why? Because he ruins
the new coat, and the cloth from the new coat will not be the
same as the old cloth. People never pour new wine into old
wine bags. Why? Because the new wine will break the bags, and
the wine will spill out and the wine bags will be ruined.
People always put new wine into new wine bags."

-- Luke 5:36-38 (ERV)


KEY THOUGHT:
Jesus' point is clear. Don't try to limit God's new life in Christ.
Don't try to contain it with your old religious categories. Don't try
to dilute it with your old religious practices. Jesus brings something
new. Celebrate it. Enjoy its blessings. Be challenged by its demands
and rejoice in its promises. But don't ever try to simply attach it to
what you had before. The call of Christ is new, fresh, and all
encompassing. Begin each day with fresh eyes and new ears with the
expectation that the Lord will do something you have never seen or
expected. You won't feel safe. It won't be predictable. But, it will be
marvelous!


TODAY'S PRAYER:
Forgive me, dear Father, for limiting the awesome power you have
brought me in Jesus. Open my mind and my heart and my eyes and my ears
so that I can imagine more fantastically, believe more completely, see
more fully, and hear more richly all that you have done, are doing, and
will do in my life in Jesus. It is in his name I pray. Amen.

[southernbelle47]

New Wine

:h You all
Nancy
The Lure of the Familiar


"No person that drinks old wine wants new wine. Why? Because
he says, 'The old wine is fine.'"

-- Luke 5:39 (ERV)


KEY THOUGHT:
The Israelites in the wilderness may be the best example of it, but we
all have a tendency to do it. We look back on the past, what we once
had or did, with nostalgia and imagine it better than it was. The
Israelites were slaves, but wanted to go back to Egypt because they
imagined it as better than what they were facing in the wilderness. We
often do the same thing in our walk of faith. The old life and its
temptations lure us and invite us back. So often we succumb. The old
religious way of thinking, one based on works righteousness and earning
our own salvation, often seeps back into our Christian way of thinking,
robbing us of its vitality. The lure of the familiar is powerful. It is
also a deadly thief, robbing our new life in Christ of its grace, joy,
and victory. Don't go back and mix some other form of religion you know
with the radical call of Jesus!


TODAY'S PRAYER:
Dear Father in heaven, please give me the courage and spiritual insight
to resist anything that would take me back from the marvelous way of
life you have given me in your Son. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.