“Call me old fashioned. I just don’t like change.”  “Why can’t it be the way that it used to be?”  “What was wrong with the way we used to do things?”  “I don’t have to change, I can stay the same and still receive what everybody else is getting.”
   
Have you ever made any of these statements before? If you have, while reading them you were probably saying, “That’s right, go ahead preach it. I knew I liked that boy.” Don’t get your hopes up too soon, because I personally can’t stand these statements and I’m pretty sure Jesus would agree with me.

In Matthew 9:14-17, Jesus is questioned about fasting. What you need to see here is that these are not the Pharisees questioning Jesus, but John’s disciples. We are not looking at the religious Pharisees and their antiquated questions.  These are John’s disciples, those who have been with John in his ministry of “the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, repent for the kingdom is at hand.” They have been a part of John looking for Jesus, but now these disciples of John find themselves questioning Jesus and His disciples about how they are living their lives. They just put themselves in the same category as the Pharisees. That lets me know you can’t put anything past someone in the church. They can be the most judgmental, religious person or a hard core Jesus freak, but if someone seems to think something’s wrong or questionable with what you are teaching, you need to endure since Jesus couldn’t get past it either.
   
What I love about this scripture is how Jesus replies to John’s disciples, “How can you fast while the Bridegroom is here?  One day they will fast.”  In the Brooks translation He was basically saying, “They have no need of fasting right now because I am with them, ya big dummies.” Then He changed the subject back around on them, to express how they are trying to live in fullness by putting new precious gifts and power in their old dirty drawers and man bags.  Let me sum this up the best way I can. Why would you put a new patch on your jeans and then when you wash them, the patch is going to tear away from the jeans and be worse?  It will make a larger hole then the first hole. Why would you want to put new wine in an old wineskin? This will burst open the old wineskin and ruin the wineskin as well as the wine. Put new wine in new wineskins. This is a poverty mindset mentality, in finances and in Spirit. You got a hole in your jeans?  Go buy some new jeans! They don’t have to be designer, but they’re new. See, we get an idea, we promote it and do it over and over till we wear it out like a pair of jeans. Let it go! God has new wine He wants to pour out to His church (Body, Kingdom on Earth). I think sometimes the Lord doesn’t give to us because He knows if He pours it out and we have old wineskins, then it will just burst open and be wasted.
   
This year of 2010, get you a new wineskin. Get rid of the old wineskin. Get your New Wineskin out, rub some Fresh Oil on it, (really no pun intended here) open it up and pray that the “I AM” pours out Fresh New Wine on you, your family, job, church, students, whatever, but be prepared and ready to catch it in your new wineskin so that the wine and you are preserved. This is your year.  Let’s take it NOW!