New What a blessing it can be when doing the same tasks is made easier and more efficient with new discoveries and innovations. Utilizing new methods, however, requires letting go of what may have become sensible and dependable. Surely some were skeptical of dragging things on a sled or travois instead carrying them. Then, the concept of a wheel also came with its own reasons for not effectively replacing the sled. The difficulty of turning without bouncing along and upending everything surely kept many preferring the much more simple dragging methods. Motorized vehicles left some behind that still felt more comfortable with animal-drawn carriages. Airplanes required leaving the security of solid ground to soar where birds had only gone. – and on and on… And so it happens with every progression of development. “New” requires letting go of the comfortable and familiar. With God, there are encounters and perceptions that can become familiar as representing His ways and methods. His righteousness and holiness are surely established through His unchanging inspired Word. There are, though, discoveries in Him that will require letting go of our own ways and methods in which we’ve become secure and comfortable. When Jesus arrived on the religious scene, there were endless challenges to established perceptions about God. He came to provide something so much better but to receive it would require relinquishing a hold on ingrained ways and traditions. He related it to repairing an old garment with new cloth. The new would just make the problem worse as it was incompatible with the old. He also used skins that were used as wine containers for example. For new wine that was still expanding, there was a need for new skins that could stretch with that expansion and not break. What He brings is so much more than just ways of doing things that can become tightly held identities. He said that He Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. To follow Him in newness of life is to remain open to where and how He is leading, even when it may be unfamiliar to what we have yet known. As He Himself is the inspiration and motivation, there will be a need for Spirit-provided clothing and skins that are new and adjustable to what will be so much better with Him. Letting go of the old will be embraced where He alone is the purpose for what is chosen. There is a soaring that will necessitate departure from what may have seemed so secure. Notes You had a purpose before anyone had an opinion Our purpose was long before there was an opinion Ephesians 1:4-5 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Ephesians 2:10 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. There is no other method or way, only Him John 14:6 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. One of the greatest dangers of growing up in the Word is becoming old and inflexible with regard to the new things God is doing. Mark 2:18-22 18 Once when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s disciples and the Pharisees do?” 19 Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the groom is with them. 20 But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 21 “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. 22 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” Sins are forgiven – healed to prove Ate with sinners – healthy don’t need a doctor – came for those who know they’re sinners, not those who think they’re righteous. Questioned fasting – don’t fast while the groom is with The Sabbath is for the people, not the people for the Sabbath All the ways were to serve the Master’s purpose, not to become the slavemaster. Mark 2:27-28 27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!” God’s Way will serve His purpose in bringing deliverance, not bondage Isaiah 43:19 19 For I’m going to do a brand-new thing. See, I have already begun! Don’t you see it? I will make a road through the wilderness of the world for my people to go home, and create rivers for them in the desert! How to be compatible with what God’s doing? – allow His life to break off the old yoke/ways. Isaiah 10:27 27 And it shall be in that day that the burden of [the Assyrian] shall depart from your shoulders, and his yoke from your neck. The yoke shall be destroyed because of fatness [which prevents it from going around your neck]. [Deu 32:15] The Spirit within causes who we are on the outside to comply with/serve His purpose Romans 8:11 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Overview: Our purpose in Christ was established long before there was a way to serve that purpose. God is always doing something new and fresh that requires a cloth/wineskin to be compatible with it. The ways and methods we’ve experienced can confine and restrain God’s purpose going forward. There is only one Way that will take us to our pre-designed purpose – Christ Himself. We have received the same Spirit that raised Christ from the grave. By that Spirit on the inside we receive fresh direction and revelation to follow in newness of life. God is always leading to a new way through the wilderness with streams in the desert. Prayer: As I draw near to You with my attention and focus, deliver me from any way that would keep me from Yours. I yield to Your Spirit now to form in me a heart that is new and ready to comply with Your great purpose for my life in fulfilling Your plan. Declarations: I have been reborn into a newness of life that has a long-established purpose. I no longer serve ways and methods that confine and constrain. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the grave dwells in me, continually guiding me in a way that is fresh, new, and flexible for His purpose. Jesus is my Way, Truth, and Life and everything I do is directed by Him. I embrace things that are unfamiliar as they bear witness with the Spirit on the inside. There are new ways through the wilderness and streams in the desert that I am prepared for by the Spirit.