New Wineskins

 Job 19; Mark 1-2 

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.”

Mark 2:21, 22

New wine will burst old wineskins. The container is not the focus; it is the wine that matters. The structures must serve the fresh outpourings of God’s Spirit and expressions of his kingdom, not the reverse. It takes risk-taking obedience to develop new wineskins in step with the Spirit. Our natural tendency is to try to control new wine through old wineskins. The Jewish laws could not contain the new inner righteousness of the outpoured Holy Spirit any more than the western church structures can contain the new expressions of Church in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. God is continually doing a new thing. When we perceive it, our invitation is to ask God for the wisdom and timing for new wineskins (Isaiah 43:18, 19).

“Lord God, thank you for the new things and new containers you are giving to us, for your glory.”