New Wine, New Wineskins

Matthew 9: 14-17

A Question About Fasting

¹⁴ Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁵ And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. ¹⁶ No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. ¹⁷ Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Most of us are not familiar with wineskins, animal bladders used to store wine, but we do now the importance of preserving something good .Certainly, our faith is something we relish and seek to preserve, but it seems that it must also grow in the depths of our hearts in order to remain relevant.  It cannot be stored away in a vault.  It must be vibrant and relevant to the NOW of our lives.Hence, with Jesus present, it was not time to fast, but to be alive and celebrate with him. We need our daily reflection on Scripture and an open heart to heart what it is saying to us TODAY.  What is God saying to me; what will I say in return, and even better what will I DO with what I hear?

Bro. Rene