Tag: wine

Grace Makes Room for the New PART 2 of All Things New Series

All Things New Series Part 2

GRACE MAKES ROOM FOR THE NEW

Jesus says in Mark 2:21-22…

21 No one sews a piece of un-shrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

What is was He saying? “Christ was bringing something new to the table and it wasn’t going to fit into their old religious system of self-righteousness. The beauty of grace is that it doesn’t patch us up. Grace doesn’t patch our guilt our shame, it doesn’t patch up our mistakes our failures. Grace renews us, it transforms us, grace replaces!

The old is dingy, the new is fresh and bright. The old is done changing. The new moves and stretches. When you put a new shirt in the dryer, the heat causes it to shift in size. Jesus says “this new covenant of grace I bring…it moves. And you can’t expect to wear your old nasty dirty garments and expect to use the grace of God as a patch over your broken places. “Jesus ‘ grace is fresh for today. It won’t match up with that old garment. And when the heat comes on, you’ll find out grace is active. It’ll only continue to expose the rips and tears. In fact, Grace will make them bigger. Grace is destructive. Grace isn’t in the remodeling or refurbishing. It’s in the replacement business.   

WE CAN’T BRING THE OLD INTO THE NEW

WE CAN’T BRING OUR OLD WAYS INTO THE NEW

WE CAN’T PUT SOMETHING OLD INTO SOMETHING NEW

WE CAN’T BRING THE PAST INTO THE NEW

GOD IS SAYING MAKE ROOM FOR THE NEW!

2 Timothy 2:21

21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

Never will you empty out that God won’t pour in!

With Ashes Comes Beauty

To grant those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called the oaks of righteousness… 

–Isaiah 61:3 ESV

There was a man whose livelihood was in the wine industry. He was asked by a friend if the drought they were having in California was negatively impacting him.

He said no and that actually grapevines are amazing plants because the harsher the weather and the rougher the vines are treated, the better grapes they eventually produce. Their roots are forced to dig deep to get what they need to survive, thus producing healthier plants. This farmer had no idea how true what he said was for life in general.

We will always have an immovable mountain before us, we will always have another wilderness that we are going into or walking out of. However, these are the things that make us dig deep, to find our identity in Him. And to have a sturdy foundation for what comes next, we know in whom we put our trust in and dig even deeper. Let those strange times shape you for the better. We will eventually see fruit coming from them.

God is the vine; we are the branches; and united in Him, we shall flourish. God wastes nothing, and from these ashes, beauty will arise.

weep no more, God can use the ashes of your life. He breathes into the dust just as He breathed into Adam. Dust doesn’t mean the end it has to be present for the new to begin.