Out With the Old!

“He (Jesus) told them this parable: ‘No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.’ “ (Luke 5:33-39)

Ugggh! My stomach is really bothering me. I was in the car on the way to work this afternoon and grabbed a sandwich and some fries. Too hungry to wait to eat when I got at work, I grabbed a few fries in the bag to hold me off until I got to work. By the time I got to work my stomach was hurting sooooooo bad! As a matter of fact it still hurts. I kept thinking to myself, “Why did 3 or 4…okay maybe 5 fries hurt my stomach so bad?” And then I remembered…I’ve been eating healthy all week and on top of that I took a shot of wheatgrass detox last night at Jamba Juice. For those of you who don’t know, wheat grass is one of the most effective foods at alkalizing the body and providing nutritional support while colon cleansing or detoxing. French fries on the other hand, are probably the most non-nutritional, unhealthy, greasy foods to take into ones system. Mix the two up and it’ll make for one serious stomach ache. So here you have one very healthy food, mixed with one very unhealthy food and the two of them should have never been eaten one behind the other.

Jesus was telling his disciples a parable, using language that really isn’t that familiar to us in 2009….garments and patches and wineskins. But, we can gather the meaning of the scripture anyway because He explains it. Look at this part: “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.” If new wine is poured into old wineskins, the new wine will burst the skins. Yikes. That’s exactly how my stomach feels right now. Those are physical examples, but what about spiritual? What does it look like when we as new beings in Christ try to mix our old way of living into what is supposed to be a new life? I’ve got news for many of you; when you accepted Jesus Christ into your life the Bible says that you became a new being in Him. You may not look different and some of you may not even feel really different, but the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life through Christ makes you a child of God….you’re made new! So all of those old things that were apart of your life that are not things that would be characteristic of the things of God won’t mix well with your new life in Christ. I encourage you to evaluate those old and new things in your life that may be mixing; it could be causing unnecessary problems. Remember, you’re new now…out with the old!