He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’” Luke 5:36-39 ESV
There has been a lot of discussion about “Change” lately, especially during the resent presidential campaign and upcoming presidency. A recent Twitterer asked the following question – “What is your opinion about change?” and I quickly answered, “Change is a necessary element to fullness of life, without it we grow stagnant...”. As I was pondering my response I decided to see what God would have to say about this discussion.
Here is my conclusion:
Change is an absolute! With out it, we will in fact grow stagnant. But there is a difference between change simply for the sake of change and change for the sake of the Kingdom. I for one am geared for constant change for example; I can’t stand to rent or own a home that isn’t laid out in such a way as to allow for resituating of the living room furniture (I get a little stir crazy about every 6-8 months and need to change it up in the living room) another example is my hair (facial and head) I can go from bald and beardless to shoulder length and goatee all within the same year. This kind of change, just for change sake, is cool and doesn’t really matter in the big picture.
But what about change when God is asking for it? How well do we respond to His request? For that matter how well do we even perceive His will? In the story above, God was doing a great and marvelous thing—He was preparing the stage for the most awesome event in all of human history and yet, those who resist change, those who were comfortable in their environment, those who only changed when it suited them…missed out and caused others to miss out as well (that’s an important insight to change or lack-there-of as well, what we do always affects others!).
Clearly, the old wineskins represent the teachings and traditions of the past. The new wineskins represent the fresh, current move of God. God is 100% committed to those of this day who are His – yes, but He is also 100% committed to those who do not yet walk in relationship with Him! When we resist His course of direction (which is really what change is…the lining up of my agenda with His or coming into agreement with His plan), back to my point, when we resist His course of direction, we can then only be off course – there is no “close enough”. We are either walking with Him or walking contrary to Him and I sure hope that we don’t need to discuss how that is bad, very bad…
Change is to life as water is to farming – if the farmer has no water, he has no crop! If we don’t change, when He is clearly leading us to it, than we will not have the fullness of life which He intends for us to have. Jesus came to give us life and life abundant – “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10 ESV
Change… Its Good For Your Health!
Wag
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