JESUS SPEAKING

                “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put in to new wineskins and both are preserved.  And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better’” (Luke 5: 37-39.) 

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

                In the ancient world, skins were used to store and carry liquids.  When an animal was slaughtered the stomach and the bladder were taken out and fashioned in to pliable liquid holders.  The skins would dry out and become rigid.  When these skins were used to hold wine, they needed to be flexible because as the wine fermented it would expand, and if the wineskin was not flexible, it would break.  No one would take unfermented (new) wine and put it in to an old wineskin, but instead they would make sure to put it in to a newly fashioned skin.  This is an illustration was used to show the incompatibility between the ‘old covenant’ and the ‘new covenant.’  The ‘old covenant’ (Old Testament) and ‘new covenant’ (New Testament) were two different contracts between God and man.  In the Old Testament, gave guidelines for the removal of sin; everyone had to sacrifice animals to receive forgiveness from God (this was tedious and time consuming and was a burden on the people.)  This covenant began with Abraham (approximately 2000 years before Christ); God promised him that through his descendents a permanent solution would be provided in the form of the messiah (Jesus Christ: approximately 33 A.D.)  Jesus was presenting himself as the solution, or the promised one, and with him came a completely new message; one that should have been accepted readily, but was rejected outright by the religious leaders.  Many of them had gotten so used to sacrificing animals (the old way), that even after Christ was crucified they still refused to accept his blood for the forgiveness of their sins (the new way.)  In the upper room at the last supper Jesus made a new agreement with mankind; he took a cup of wine and said, “Drink from it, all of you.  For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  God’s provision would come in the form of the blood that he shed on the cross.  2000 years had passed, and God had finally fulfilled his promise the day of the crucifixion.  The majority of the Jewish people rejected this sacrifice.  He spoke of those who rejected him when he said, “And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’”

                As a newborn Christian I very much enjoyed listening to secular music.  I liked heavy metal and rap; it was usually filled with fowl language and ugly beats.  I decided to move forward and listen only to worship music, which was uplifting, and clean, and edifying to my mind and spirit.  My appetite for the old music was strong, and at first the new music wasn’t appealing to me.  Slowly I began to enjoy the new music.  Soon I was singing along with the tunes.  Occasionally I will hear an old song and it no longer appealing to me; in fact it repulses me.  God has made similar changes in every area of my life.  He has healed me, and made life new, and fulfilling, and completely different.

                Today, many people are incapable of receiving Jesus Christ because they are afraid of the changes that will occur in their lives.  The religious leaders denied Christ because they were afraid; are you afraid today?  Are you afraid of letting go of the old life?  Don’t be frightened, accept the Lord, partake in the cup he has asked you to drink of.  Have you put your faith in Christ?  Have you allowed him in to your life and in to your heart?  If you have never accepted him and his sacrifice, I want to give you that opportunity now.  What you are about to read is a prayer of acceptance?  Take a moment to think about what this commitment means…You are turning away from all that this world has taught, and you are making a commitment to listen to Jesus Christ; you are committing to doing all that he has taught you to do.  You will be a member of the body of Christ, and you will need to find a local church and begin to attend that church.  You will need to make prayer a daily habit.  You will also need to get a bible and begin reading it daily.  Your first mission will be to tell someone else about your decision….Take another moment to consider the new life that awaits you……………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..If you still wish to accept God’s promise and His Son, and are willing to go forward, then let’s begin….What you are about to read, read out loud,  or within your own heart, but mean what you read.

“Lord Heavenly Father, I’m sorry for all of the things that I have done in my past; for the people I’ve harmed and for all of the times that I have sinned against you.  I don’t deserve your love Father.  I come before you now and I want to receive the Holy Spirit, and I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and that all the things that I have done have been forgiven because he has made me clean.  I ask you to come in to my heart, and to come in to my life now and to guide me and direct me in all that I do.  I give you my whole heart, and my whole life, right now.  I love you Father, I thank you, and I ask and I pray all of these things in Jesus Christ’s name, amen.” If you prayed that prayer, you have an eternal life with God, in a kingdom that will never end.  God bless you all.

JESUS SPEAKING

                “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you unexpectedly.  For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.” (Luke 21: 34-36.)

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

                Jesus gave his followers a warning to be ready for his return (second coming.)  The focus was to remain on him and on the future kingdom.  He recognized that human beings tended to get distracted, and he addressed those distractions here.  He had commanded his followers to give their excess wealth away; to refrain from sexual immorality; to desire being servants rather than masters; to deny their own wants, needs, and desires, and to place others ahead of themselves.  To follow these commands sounded like non-sense to those who did not believe in a future eternity with God.  Whenever a person loses site of the eternal, they inevitably begin to live for themselves; they desire wealth, material possessions, beauty, and control; they indulge in their own wants and desires, often without restriction (they lay down the future to take hold of the present; whereas believers set aside present distraction for their future hope.)  Jesus identified three symptoms of a distracted follower; first, carousing: which is identified as the habitual use of alcohol (excessively celebrating every night of the week.)  A second symptom of distraction is drunkenness: which is alcohol consumption in excess (the typical Jewish wine was a mixture of 4 cups of water with one cup of wine; hard to get drunk from this type of combination, unlike today where it is commonly 4 parts liquor to no part of anything else.)  A third distraction would be the ‘cares of this life:’ these cares are anything that distracts a person from focusing on the life to come; which could include money, alcohol, house, cars, kids, career, health, beauty, children’s education, 401 k plans, recreation, a woman or a man, a home, free time, etc.  These distractions cause a person to not be prepared for the return of the Lord.  He likens the day of his return to a snare (a snare is a hidden trap that catches unsuspecting prey in the wilderness.)  That day is completely hidden, and many people who aren’t prepared will be caught by surprise and destroyed by it.  Jesus is warning us that each day we should be expecting him to return, and behaving accordingly.  Distractions can be very deadly.

                Text messaging is a relatively new term in the American language; it is usually used in describing communication between people, and is often described positively.  But recently, text messaging has been associated with tragedy.  All over the country people are more regularly text messaging while driving motor vehicles.  The results have been disastrous.  One case involved a very prominent plastic surgeon who was apparently text messaging when he drove off of a cliff and tumbled to his death.  You might ask, “What could have been so important that it was worth dying over?”  Sadly, Dr. Frank Ryan was twittering a message about his dog that was with him in the car when he drove off the cliff; he died and his dog was badly injured.  Dr. Ryan set out on a journey, but got distracted, and as a result he never reached his destination.  So many people who believe in Jesus Christ start out on a journey toward an eternal destination, but never make it, because they get distracted by some meaningless worldly pleasure or concern.  Something that seems so harmless can lead to destruction; something meaningless can rob a person of an eternity with God.  This doctor was not thinking that death would arrive at his doorstep when he was eating breakfast; he never thought that would be his final car ride; he didn’t wake up in the morning and savor the sunrise knowing it would be his last.  Yet, death came for him quickly, and without sounding an alarm.  Jesus as well, will come for each of us in like manner.

                Today, are you expecting Jesus to return, or are we expecting him to come at time that is more convenient for you?  Are you focusing on the cares of this world?  Have you allowed distractions to take your eyes off of Christ?  How can you keep your eyes on Jesus and not get distracted?  Firstly, the word of God is a road map that helps you to continue heading in the right direction.  Reading the bible daily is essential for reaching your destination.  Praying is another tool that allows god to guide and direct your life.  There are so many opportunities to pray; in the shower, in the car while driving (eyes open please); silently while in line at the grocery store; perhaps while you are on a nightly walk.  The key is, to connect with God in your heart.  Also, fellowshipping with other believers is essential, as is ministering to the non-believers.  You can talk to others about your faith, and you needn’t be ashamed of the God you call your own.  Also, any time that you do what God has commanded, you are moving forward and keeping your eyes on the eternal things in life; giving money to those in need; listening to someone without talking; showing love to a stranger; visiting the sick; returning grocery carts; picking trash up off of the ground when we see it; smiling at people; complimenting others when you see them doing something worthy of praise; sharing scripture with others, etc.  There are so many possible ways to do Christ’s will, but they are all acts of love.  The best way to not do the wrong thing is to continually being the right thing.  Give your whole life to the Lord, make him the central figure in your heart and life, and on the day that he returns, you will not be surprised, or frightened; but rather you will be filled with joy at the knowledge that an eternity with Jesus Christ awaits you.

                “Lord Heavenly Father, we come before You and lift You up; You are worthy of praise and honor and glory.  Father we ask that You would please remove the distractions from our lives, and help us to focus on the return of Your Son.  By the power of Your Holy Spirit speak to us and give us conviction and knowledge of Your will for us; give us also opportunities to serve You and to serve others.  Help us to recognize moments when we can connect with You Father.  May we always be ready Lord for the conclusion of Your plan, and for the life to come.  We love You Father, we love You Lord, and we love You Holy Spirit, and we ask and pray all of these things in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”  God bless all of you.

JESUS SPEAKING

                Then he said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted within his own country.  But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zaraphath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”  So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust him out of the city; and they led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built that they might throw him down over the cliff.  Then passing through the midst of them he went his way (Luke 4: 24-30.)

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

                Jesus was speaking to a town full of people who had seen him grow from a boy into a man. Before all of his miracles he probably worked as a carpenter.  Those people knew of him, and knew his family quite well.  In Mathew 13: 55-56, the towns people say, “Is this not the carpenter’s son?  Is not his mother called Mary?  And his brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?  And his sisters, are they not all with us?”  Jesus was a real live person, with brothers and sisters; he interacted with others; he didn’t live in a monastery; he ate, slept, went to the bathroom, worked, played, laughed, and cried; he attended the festivals and wore the robes (but never once did he sin; never once was he displeasing to God.  (In fact, we read in other scriptures that his brothers disliked him; living beside Jesus was probably a very humbling experience for them.)  Jesus addressed two prophets in this scripture who had been rejected by their own countrymen.  Elijah and Elisha were explosive characters in the Old Testament who performed all sorts of miracles.  Elijah caused a drought to last for three years in Israel because of the wickedness of King Ahab.  During that time, he went to a foreign land and stayed with a widow who was near to starvation; God provided them with enough food to survive the three years while all Israel went hungry.  Elisha was Elijah’s protégé who took over after Elijah was taken up in to heaven.  Naaman was a commander in the Syrian army; an army that was continually at war with the nation of Israel.  He so desperately wanted to be healed that he reached out to the enemy’s prophet for help.  God used Elisha to heal Naaman, an adversary of his people, and not one leprous Israelite was healed by Elisha during this time.

                I grew up in a little town in the middle of nowhere?  I moved away and found California more interesting than Michigan; it was new, and fun.  The place where I grew up was something I had taken for granted; I was so familiar with it, I had a hard time seeing its beauty and majesty.  These men and woman Jesus was speaking too had grown up with him; they had known him from his childhood, but they made the mistake of believing he was less worthy of being praised because of it.  God and human beings are not equal; God is in heaven, and human beings are beneath Him; God is all powerful, and human beings are weak.  God is pure and holy, and human beings are impure and unholy.  The Jewish people had been taught to reverence God, which was a good thing; many had gone too far, and saw very little of God in humanity; yet God had made human beings in his likeness and image; so man is shaped like God; man feels similar emotions to God; man thinks similar thoughts (this is why people desire to design and build things; God is a designer and builder; this is why human beings desire to master their environment; because God is the master over the entire universe.) So, because they saw God as distant and unfamiliar; they felt anger toward a man claiming to be God because they were familiar with him.  The concept challenged everything that they had wrongly come to believe.  Had they known nothing about Jesus; if he was from a distant country or foreign land, they would have been more open to receiving the message; instead they allowed their knowledge of him to blind them from seeing his true identity.  In the nation of Israel today there are very few Jews who profess a faith in Jesus Christ, or a faith in God period (There are many messianic Jews around the world who have accepted Christ and call him ‘Teacher,’ and ‘Master,’ but not in Israel.)  The people of God have been blinded.  Jesus delivered a message to them, and because of their disbelief, the message went out from Jerusalem to a world full of strangers and foreigners.  Non-Jews have been healed by the millions and whole countries have converted to Christianity. 

Often we share the message we have received with those we expect will be most receptive to it; our family, and friends, co-workers and acquaintances.  We will often find the opposition from these individuals is great.  Many times the person you’d least expect to receive the message will be the one who receives it.  When others have rejected the message, move forward; God wants you to bring his love to any who will listen (this does not mean you stop loving everyone; it means you are called to produce fruit, and when a certain person isn’t fruitful you focus on someone who will be.)  Reach out to the strangers, to the foreigners, to those you’ve never met, and God will show you a harvest you could never have imagined.

                “Lord Heavenly Father, we ask that You guide us in spreading the gospel to whomever You desire.  Help us Lord to let go of ministering to those who are not going to receive You, that we might go on to reach those who will.  Give us courage and boldness to stretch out to those we don’t know; to those who are strangers and foreigners.  Guide us by the power of Your Holy Spirit to be Your messengers.  We love You Father, we praise You, and we thank You, and we ask and pray all of these things, in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”  God bless all of you.