Roaring Twenties FastSample

Gleaning God

"And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” (Mark 2:22)

First of all, the cloths don’t match. The old is dingy, the new is fresh and bright. The old is done changing. The new moves and stretches. When you put a new shirt in the dryer, the heat causes it to shift in size. Jesus says, “this new covenant of grace I bring...it moves. And you can’t expect to wear your old nasty, dirty garments and expect to use the grace of God as a patch over your broken places.”Jesus’ grace is fresh for today. It won’t match up with that old garment. And when the heat comes on, you’ll find out grace is active. It’ll only continue to expose the rips and tears. In fact, grace will make them bigger! Grace is destructive. Grace isn’t in the remodeling or refurbishing business. It’s in the replacement business. 

New Fasting is not a fit for your old fasting, your old religion, your rules and regulations, and your old lifestyle. Incompatible. Won’t fit together.

You can’t fit new wine in old wineskins. 

What is the new wine? It’s the wine of God’s presence. 

What makes it new is the fermenting process.

When it’s fermenting, it is active. It’s expanding.

And if you pour active and expanding wine into a vessel that’s aged and stretched too thin, it breaks the vessel. 

Jesus is saying that fasting is necessary because you have a capacity problem. Jesus is saying, you’ll be tempting to stick with the old stuff because that’s what you know. You’ll be like that person who’s stuck in their ways and refuses to try new things.  Depression.  Sin. Even Religion.  They are predictable and comfortable.  But Jesus has something brand new for you.

In your fasting,  know that we are gleaning more of God as God is gaining more of us.

Prayer: 

Lord, give me the new wine of your presence and through fasting create a new  heart and wineskins in my life where your presence can abide.

-Jon Groves