DAY 37 - New Way: new wine into new wineskins (Please click here for English podcast)

Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace. Exhale your worries.

Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.   Open your heart to praise the Lord

       Blessed be the Lord,
           for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
           when I was in a besieged city.

                                                         Psalm 31:21

                                                                       

Confession and repentance

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in you:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sin to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gift to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

The Word

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

                                                              Matthew 9:14-17

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

My Listening

     Jesus was being challenged by the disciples of John the Baptist on why his disciples did not fast.  There were quite a number of obligations that the Jews had to follow, like fasting in this passage. 

     Well, Jesus has his own time table and own way of doing things. Do you think other people understand? No, that's why even the disciples of John the Baptist wanted to question him. 

     Bishop N.T. Wright says :

     The times were indeed changing.  God's new world was being born, and from now on everything would be different. The question for us is whether we are living in that new world ourselves, or whether we keep sneaking back to the old one where we feel more at home. 

             N.T. Wright. Matthew for Everyone, Part 1. Louisville,KY:Westminster         John Knox Press, 2004, p.103.

     

     Do you understand that following Jesus is like pouring new wine into new wineskins? What is the new wine?  What is the new wineskins? 

     The answer is already in the previous two passages. Just like the paralytic and Matthew, they are the new wine, being resurrected by Jesus. They could not stay in the old system with those teachers of the law and the Pharisees because they were the old wineskins. They needed to follow Jesus as their Lord giving them new way, new being, new doing and new standard. Yes, we as new wine need to be poured into new wineskins.

      What I got from Jesus today is a check point of two things:

1. Are you new wine?
    Have you been resurrected by Jesus? If you have, then you are the new wine.

2. Are you in the new wineskins?
   What kind of church do you belong to? Is your church a kind of new wineskins or an old wineskins? Do you know the difference? Well, if you are the new wine, then you should have a daily intimate relationship with Jesus. Then, you should be able to get the answer from Jesus yourself whether your church is the new wineskins or the old wineskins. Why don't you pray about that? 

Dear Lord Jesus,

      Lead us to experience a continuous renewal that we can become the new wine and that we can be able to enter into your preparation into new wineskins. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.  

          

Reflect on these questions:

1. Do you understand that following Jesus is like pouring new wine into new wineskins? What is the new wine?  What is the new wineskins? 

2.  Are you the new wine?

3.  Are you in the new wineskins? How so?

4.  What kind of church are you in? Is your church a kind of new wineskins or an old wineskins? Do you know the difference? What are you going to do about that?

Family Corner:

1. How difficult is it for your family to accept new things?

2. How can you bring to your family new ways and new changes because of your new transformation? 

Praise and Thanksgiving

Let's give thanks for God with us. Let us praise Him:

10,000 Reasons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

Please click this link to the app. Andy Ng wrote. You really need to use that if you have an Android cel. Andy said he is going to do the App. for iPhone later:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideal.rec.app

You may choose to follow my other daily blog:

Daily Devotion on Fire: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/

Daily Devotion on Fire 2: http://bishopsilas2.blogspot.ca/

Break.Build: http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/