Wineskins 2012

“No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

Mark 2:22

MAKEOVER! It's the new buzzword. Its all over television, the weather channel, and at make up counters. It signifies taking something existing, and making it look new, younger, different, changed, etc.  Yet, often make overs are only masks. You can make over a business, paint a wall,apply new make up, even get plastic surgery. But until you change what is behind it, it is only window dressing. The same sullen expressions, grumpiness, vulgarity, being put out at anyone that walks within reach all betray that its the same old stuff behind all that dress up.  

It is as Jesus states, we try to put new wine into old wineskins. We’re doomed to failure because “the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined” (Mark 2:22).

To be the person God wants us to be in the coming New Year, we have to make the decision and commitment to abandon the old wineskins in our life. Not just the window dressing, but the whole being, so that God can pour Himself (Acts 2:17) into the wineskin of your new life in Christ. New attitudes, behaviors, a new ME cannot be put into an old wineskin of “cutting corners.”  Otherwise, “both the wine (me inside) and the wineskins (me outside) will be ruined.”

• What you will have to change in order to be the person God wants you to be?
•  Are you ready to commit to make those changes? 

It is an exciting thing knowing God is right there with you, not just helping you change, but leading you in the change. God is for us all and wants you to succeed in 2012 in becoming the people that we are intended to be. What are some of the old wineskins you will need to discard as the New Year approaches?

Jer. 18:6  "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel."

Jim