September 4, 2019: This blog has been slightly edited from the original shared seven years ago. I pray it serves to strengthen our resolve to Jesus who gives and sustains our personal lives and the life of His Church.
This particular blog is a sort of compilation of some of my journal entries from the last several months, so forgive me if it jumps around a bit. Though we’ll look at two very different passages, there seems, to me, to be a common thread. Isn’t that how it is when God is moving and teaching in your life? It’s that way for me, and frankly, it can be exhausting. For example, if God is dealing with me about being more faithful in my devotional time, I’ll come across stories, e-mails, or songs that remind me that I will be weak spiritually without the Bread of Life. My kids will ask for an extra roll, and my mind goes to an account in Scripture. I’ll go to buy hotdog buns and be convicted. It never ends!!! I’m sure that this comes as no surprise to anyone who has read my blog since I began writing seven months ago. My life has a general theme…an overall desire…ever-present obstacles…just like everyone else’s. I’m only thankful God stays long enough to ensure I get the point. And I’m thankful you have all joined me in the journey.
This particular blog is a sort of compilation of some of my journal entries from the last several months, so forgive me if it jumps around a bit. Though we’ll look at two very different passages, there seems, to me, to be a common thread. Isn’t that how it is when God is moving and teaching in your life? It’s that way for me, and frankly, it can be exhausting. For example, if God is dealing with me about being more faithful in my devotional time, I’ll come across stories, e-mails, or songs that remind me that I will be weak spiritually without the Bread of Life. My kids will ask for an extra roll, and my mind goes to an account in Scripture. I’ll go to buy hotdog buns and be convicted. It never ends!!! I’m sure that this comes as no surprise to anyone who has read my blog since I began writing seven months ago. My life has a general theme…an overall desire…ever-present obstacles…just like everyone else’s. I’m only thankful God stays long enough to ensure I get the point. And I’m thankful you have all joined me in the journey.
Since Christmas, I have been reading a commentary on the life of the Apostle Paul, “To Live is Christ”, by Beth Moore. I love everything about Paul’s conversion and service to Christ and have read the accounts many times down through the years. Yet, until I read this book, it had never really occurred to me that all of Paul’s actions before his conversion were rooted in genuine passion for the Law of God. He was a devout Jew…the ultimate Pharisee…someone convinced of the truth and concerned with its holiness being respected and preserved. So convinced and determined, in fact, that while he was still Saul, he persecuted those who believed and confessed the Lord Jesus Christ, and found crumpled at his feet the coat of the first martyr, Stephen. (Acts 7:54-59) This excerpt from Beth Moore’s book speaks volumes and gains a different perspective of that day’s occurrences:
“As Jesus watched, He didn’t miss a single nod of Saul’s phylacteried head. Remember, Christ was up on His feet at the time. Can you imagine the alloy of emotions He must have experienced as He looked on the two key players in the kingdom that day? One for Him. One against Him. One covered in blood. The other covered by prayer shawls. One who could not save himself from men. The other who could not save himself from sin. One dead in body but alive in spirit. One loved by God. And the other loved by God. Grace, grace, God’s grace.”
Paul was standing for what he had always stood for, and Stephen was dying for something new…Someone new. Christ had come to fulfill the Law that Saul was defending, and soon he would find himself (as Paul) convincing others that they were "not being asked to forsake their history, but merely accept the rest of the story." (Beth Moore) I believe Saul’s intentions were good…that he was doing what he thought was right. The simple truth, however, is that he was wrong. The Messiah had come, and everything had changed. His rules felt safe because they were familiar, but had he not accepted the Christ who came to “make all things new”, he and the countless others influenced by his future ministry would have faced an eternity lost and separated from God.
May I make a comparison? In Luke 5:36-38, Jesus teaches, “…No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.” Ultimately, the old will be gone...unless it is preserved through the new. A blood line ceases if nothing new is ever reproduced...but reproduction doesn’t produce a carbon copy. The offspring will bear strong similarities, but it will still be new, and it's only reasonable to expect it to adapt to its surroundings...or you minimize its effect and possibly ensure its death. Then, all the influence of the family line is gone.
The Church has long forfeited the opportunity to influence lives for the cause of Christ at the determination to keep a grip on the old bottle. May I say this without meaning offense to any of my fellow believers? No matter how high you hold the bottle, it is still destined to burst. Clutch it tight and hold it close, but you will ultimately grasp broken pieces and weep as all it once held perishes with it. Because the old bottle is no good? No! It simply cannot contain new wine.
The Church has long forfeited the opportunity to influence lives for the cause of Christ at the determination to keep a grip on the old bottle. May I say this without meaning offense to any of my fellow believers? No matter how high you hold the bottle, it is still destined to burst. Clutch it tight and hold it close, but you will ultimately grasp broken pieces and weep as all it once held perishes with it. Because the old bottle is no good? No! It simply cannot contain new wine.
I am so weary of people trying to shove me back into an old bottle! I don’t sing the songs I sang ten years ago. Am I thankful I had them ten years ago? Yes, but I am even more thankful God is still speaking and doing a new work in music today…something new that appeals to my generation and the younger generation. I am also weary of hearing the “where are the D.L. Moody’s and the Billy Sundays? The Elisabeth Elliots?” We have just as godly men and women now. They won’t be dressed the same. They may have a different delivery, but they are here…making a difference for Christ. Will we be the ones standing for them? Encouraging them? Or will we clutch our traditions and pride and have secret satisfaction when they leave the church misunderstood and defeated? It’s really all become a game, hasn’t it? The old “winers” against the new “winers”. The old bottles “wine” over the new music, clothes, and methods. The new bottles “wine” over their exhaustion from trying to please the old bottles. And, sadly, our influence spills to the earth and dries into the dust. And we, like Saul of Tarsus, stand by. Except we do it, as believers.
But, remember that while Stephen’s faithful, precious blood stained the sand that day, Someone else was standing. Beth Moore describes it beautifully:
“Just a day in the life of a man named Stephen. A shooting star. He had one brief performance. One chance on stage. But it was absolutely unforgettable. As the curtain fell on his life, he received a standing ovation from the only One who really mattered.”
Are we on our feet for the Stephens of this time in church history? Commemorating the past has its place, but we will not move forward by mixing the old & new wine...the old & new methods, old & new stigmas, old & new music, etc. We will either watch the Stephens of this generation as Saul or as Jesus. One stood over him, the other stood for him. There is no straddling the fence, here. To stand with Saul is to consent to death. We are either shoulder to shoulder with self & tradition or we are shoulder to shoulder with Jesus in this. Lord, let us be making the right stand! But, please help us stop mixing in the old...commemorating our glory days, because mixing the old & new may please many, but, if there is to be even the slightest new wine, an explosion is inevitable. And, while that may cause a few moments of excitement, the ultimate result will be destruction...something that grieves the heart of God and slows the advance of the truth.
I pray that I am found presently standing for the servants in the time of church history in which God has placed me. And if God gives me a few decades more to live, I fully expect the services, dress, music...all of it to be very different than it is now. And I so hope it is! That will be a beautiful testament to the creativity of my God who makes all things new. I hope I walk into church as if walking into a delivery room with all of its different sights and sounds...machines, protocol, stuff they didn't have when I was born. All different! But all designed to welcome new life into a world that so desperately needs it. I pray I will be the spiritual grandmother, maybe feeling a little out of place, but there celebrating life, embracing the "newborns", encouraging the "parents", knowing that this new beautiful creation born into a world to which is does not belong may endure great persecution...but they can count on me to stand in support, surrender, admiration, and intercession.
Saul eventually embraced the new that Stephen died for. I love that about Paul, but what I love most is that he spent the rest of his earthly life refusing to live as an old bottle trying to carry new wine. He never patched some old fabric here and there to keep the Pharisees happy. He was made new, filled with new wine, and nothing else would ever do. It was that newness that changed his direction, gave him a new name, and turned the world upside-down. God wants to do that for the present church. May we stand for the Stephens God has entrusted to our charge, be filled with new wine, and poured out as the offering Christ deserves.
I pray that I am found presently standing for the servants in the time of church history in which God has placed me. And if God gives me a few decades more to live, I fully expect the services, dress, music...all of it to be very different than it is now. And I so hope it is! That will be a beautiful testament to the creativity of my God who makes all things new. I hope I walk into church as if walking into a delivery room with all of its different sights and sounds...machines, protocol, stuff they didn't have when I was born. All different! But all designed to welcome new life into a world that so desperately needs it. I pray I will be the spiritual grandmother, maybe feeling a little out of place, but there celebrating life, embracing the "newborns", encouraging the "parents", knowing that this new beautiful creation born into a world to which is does not belong may endure great persecution...but they can count on me to stand in support, surrender, admiration, and intercession.
Saul eventually embraced the new that Stephen died for. I love that about Paul, but what I love most is that he spent the rest of his earthly life refusing to live as an old bottle trying to carry new wine. He never patched some old fabric here and there to keep the Pharisees happy. He was made new, filled with new wine, and nothing else would ever do. It was that newness that changed his direction, gave him a new name, and turned the world upside-down. God wants to do that for the present church. May we stand for the Stephens God has entrusted to our charge, be filled with new wine, and poured out as the offering Christ deserves.
Isaiah 65:8 “Thus saith the LORD, …the new wine is found…Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it.”
