Wineskins

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” Mark 2:22 Old wineskins were softened by soaking in water for several days and then rubbing olive oil into them. John Bevere It's very common to associate the old wineskins with old people and the new with the young. Common, but wrong. While it's true that many elderly people get stuck on how God "used" to move and work, hardness of heart and resistance to His ways has never been confined to an age group. I have met many young believers whose hearts are as stiff and unbending as the oldest of wineskins, but there is a cure. It's found in Bevere's above quote, and It's so simple that I have to wonder how we so consistently miss it. Our hearts can become stiff and unbending very easily and quickly. It's the result of drifting from Him as the center of our existence. Other things, idols, draw us away. Away from Him and away from His heart. This will always yield hardheartedness in us. We become old wineskins, rigid, unbending, unfit to hold the new wine of His Holy Spirit. Our only hope is to recognize what has happened in our faithwalk, and undergo the cure Bevere speaks of. We need to soak in Jesus Christ. We need our spirit to become completely immersed in Him. This comes through His Word, His Presence, and His whispering into our hearts. Whispering His Life, which our wandering has caused to greatly recede. As we soak, something beautiful is also happening. He rubs the oil of His Holy Spirit into every crack and crevice that has appeared in our hearts during our drifting. What had rendered us hard and ill fit for what He created us for, is revived, renewed, and made like new again. The stiff and rigid heart and spirit that we'd been walking in has been replaced by the supple smoothness and beauty of His Life. Where, regardless of our age, have we become old wineskins? Where has our neglect, our drifting, our stubborn desire to have things our way, produced a heart of stone, and the loss of a heart of flesh? Where do we need to confess that this happened, to repent of it, and to come to Him. To come to Him that we might soak in His presence and life. Soak until every part of our being has been drenched in Him. Where do we need Him to rub the oil of His Holy Spirit into the cracks, cuts, and crevices that our actions and attitudes have created? Do we have the courage to confess and address where we, regardless of our age, have become old wineskins, of no use at all to Him or His church? He is constantly pouring new wine into His church. Not new doctrine or a new, different understanding of His Word, but a new and deeper understanding of what He has said and is saying now. If our hearts have become too dry and cracked to receive and hold it, He calls us to Himself. To soak in Him as He rubs the oil of His Spirit into our spirit and our heart. He has new wine for us. Have our hearts become to dry and brittle to receive it? Blessings, Pastor O