Something Old and Something New!

 


This picture was taken on our FIRST-ever motorcycle road trip out west. We took that Honda Goldwing (yes, we have come a long way in our motorcycle journey!) out west to Carlsbad Caverns, the Grand Canyon, and Durango, Colorado, in 2006! We took that bike on quite a few trips, and on its last trip, we were also out west. The motorcycle died in the middle of Yosemite National Park, and we ended up flying back home from Los Angeles. Our days of long motorcycle road trips are behind us. My body has a hard time getting up every morning and sleeping in a comfortable bed. I can't imagine how it would react to a 4,000-mile two-week road trip, riding a motorcycle 700 miles a day, and riding in all kinds of weather. But those memories will last forever. 

I was studying Luke 5 today. This is one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. I love the story of Peter being called to ministry with his miraculous catch of fish. I have used that story in sermons multiple times. I love Jesus healing the paralytic who was lowered through the roof of the home he was teaching. Wow! What faithful friends. I love the shock of the Pharisees when Jesus forgives the man's sins and then heals him. I love when Jesus parties at Matthew's house, a dreadful tax-collector, and I have always been fascinated with the illustration of the old and new wineskins. This is such a rich and powerful text that it is hard to write about just one piece of this story. 

The thing that captured my mind today was the comparison between the old and new:

"Then Jesus gave them this illustration: 'No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then, the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn't even match the old garment. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. But no now who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. 'The old is just fine,' they say." (Luke 5:36-39, NLT)

The older I get, the more I realize the big difference between the old and the new. I have to admit, I really enjoy the old wine, the old way of doing things, the old way of doing church, the old way kids grew up, no internet, no technology, unless you call a transistor radio "technology," things were so simple back then. 

The old and the new don't mix very well. Jesus was ushering in a new way of faith. He was offering a new perspective, a new hope, and new life. What he was teaching was vastly different, and it didn't fit into the old wineskins. It didn't mix very well with the old cloth. 

Even though I love the past, the motorcycle trips across the country, the adventure, the joys of life when your body cooperated with your dreams, I don't want to go back. I also love the NEW life I have in Jesus Christ. I have never been more excited about the future, the new things God is putting in my life, ministry opportunities, new relationships, new challenges, and new adventures. God is making all things new. He is doing that within me, and like he will eventually destroy this earth and create a new Heaven and a new Earth, he is recreating me every day! Praise God for his powerful hand! 

"I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel's Creator and King. I am the Lord, who opened a way through the waters, making a dry path through the sea. I called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses. I drew them beneath the waves, and they drowned, their lives snuffed out like a smoldering candlewick.

But forget all that -- It is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland." (Isaiah 43:15-19)

This is such a powerful scripture to embrace as we roll over the calendar to another year. God is always creating something NEW. I love the OLD he has done, and that just feeds my excitement for the NEW that will come in 2025!

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