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WW.005: New Wine | by Hillsong Worship
I was going to write about The Blessing today but this morning all I can think of is New Wine. This song is one of my favorites but you obviously get it by now that every song I bring up is most likely a favorite of mine. Right now I cannot get this song out of my head. Do you ever have days like that?
I don’t like to complain but my life is in a pretty stressful state right now. I can’t be very specific abut it publicly right now but basically I am in a waiting room that effects the relevance of most every decision I make, financial, relational, and even how I utilize my “spare” time. It is an aggravating place to be especially when you can’t really say much about it to some of the people you spend most of your time with. I am stuck between wondering if I should do more in the mean time or use the time to do less and prepare by resting more and trying to just recenter myself. I realize I am not the only one facing such difficult circumstances and of course I also know that there are so many people dealing with worse circumstances right now. I know all that and it keeps me from complaining too much but I also need to be reminded that my pain, confusion, frustration, and trials are valid too. I don’t normally give myself permission to be the one who needs someone to listen to me. On the contrary, I usually try to be the one who is always there for others to vent to.
“In the crushing, In the pressing, You are making new wine” It is hard to see this truth when the vice grips of life are squeezing you to your limits. The part we forget is that our limits is not where our power stops! We have the power of God on our side! When new wine was made in biblical times they would carry it in wine skins which were normally made of goat skin…Kind of gross if you think about it but it is what they did. The thing is when an old wine skin reaches it’s limit and you put new wine into it, it breaks! I feel a lot like an old wine skin lately and things in my life are being crushed and pressed from all sides. The Lord is making new wine and I am about to burst. If we may segway into another biblical analogy of our cup running over, that is basically what is going on here. the wine is made of blessings. The things in life being crushed and pressed are distractions and superfluous things that we cling to in our sinful humanity which are being destroyed. However, it must be so to enable the flow of blessing into our lives and the live of those around us from our overflow.
I have said before and I truly believe that blessings and stresses are synonymous but that is only when we look at life through our own power. We keep forgetting that we have God’s power! The power that rose Jesus from the grave and defeated death is alive in us! so yes when we look at things we love or have found our security and purpose in, begin to be torn down, rearranged, or ripped from our grip, it can be unsettling to say the least. We can live in a constant state of stress and aggravation trying our hardest to hold all the wine inside our feeble old wine skins or we can surrender our finite strength and allow the breakthrough! When we experience that the wine it held will splash all over us and everyone in our vicinity. The breaking may seem like a failure on our part but it is that example that others will look at and see the power of God and how He makes us new again. When one wine skin breaks, they would make another one. God wants to give you a new wine skin so why are you trying to hold on so tightly to the weak old one you’ve had!? Let it burst it’s blessings over your life and trust that God will replace it with one brand new and stronger than before!
Blessings FAM!
What is being crushed and pressed in your life right now? How can that be used to produce new wine in your life? Why are you still desperately trying to hold onto your old wine skin? Sometimes we breakdown before a breakthrough but that is okay. Once it happens and we choose to lean on God’s power through it, those are the examples of how to live this Christian life that people need to see! You may not be able to answer the questions I just posed but the best part and one of the hardest parts to remember is that we don’t have to understand how it will all work out. We just have to trust and surrender it all to God. “So I yield to You and to Your careful hand. When I trust you I don’t need to understand!”
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TT.004: How Do You Handle Life’s INTERRUPTIONS?
Life is unpredictable. The only thing we can count on from the world is inconsistency. I think it is imperative that we understand that, in order to free us from the trap of setting our expectations on the fragile things of this world. Obstacles are bound to happen and the road turns in ways we cannot expect. It is like driving through torrential rain or fog, most days we can only see 5ft ahead if we are lucky. What is beyond that is completely unknown. It could be straight smooth roads opening to sunny skies or it could be a 100ft plummet into some of the darkest days of your life.
Okay those are two extremes and maybe all you are gonna face is a bump in the road….or a leaf. The fact is, sometimes we feel small like an ant and that leaf seems huge and life altering, but God knew it would be there. In fact, He put it in your path on purpose to correct and redirect you towards exactly the path you were meant to walk down. If you are not catching on to my reference yet this should do it, God is saying, “Stay calm! We are going to walk AROUND the leaf!”…(A Bugs Life) haha but seriously, don’t you ever feel that way? Like how is it that something as trivial as a leaf in our way (a relational rejection, a new job offer, a diagnosis, a canceled social event) can make us panic so much and lose our minds?
Our plans/path may have been interrupted by that leaf, but the ground is still beneath our feet. That relational rejection was God’s protection. That new job offer is an opportunity to advance, gain experience, expand your mind, test your trust, and allow God to pour out more blessings of provision into your life. That diagnosis may not feel like it, but it is an opportunity to cling ever so much tighter to the faith you have in the ultimate healer! Just like the blind man Jesus healed in John chapter 9, He may be using the diagnosis in your life to be an example of great faith that someone in this world needs to see in order to hold on to faith through their own situation.
And lastly, I know with COVID-19 we have all experienced some cancelled social events and gatherings that we are used to partaking in to mark special occasions like birthdays, weddings, graduations, or even funerals. If that is what has set your mind reeling and caused you to lose your peace, just remember, it is not the activities or motions we go through that create value in those events. In this current cultural storm we have to walk more carefully and intentionally to navigate our daily lives. I believe and hope, for the most part, it has caused us to finally slow down, be still, and really listen to the Holy Spirit. It has shown us areas where we had lost a bit of that genuine human connection and it is teaching us how to repair those areas. Just like Christianity is not about the religious activities or rules we follow but rather the loving relationship we each have with our heavenly father, the joys of life and relationships with our friends and family are still alive and well! They are not dependent on whether we blow out birthday candles together (can you believe we used to be allowed to blow our nasty breath all over a cake and then share it with our friends?! hahaha) or gather and “pick a side” to watch two friends profess their love to each other…etc.
As we leave 2020 behind us, the fundamental ways our lives worked will remain impacted. School, Church, Work will all continue to look different for future generations. I’ll say it again, our only constant in this world is inconsistency and we could get lost in the fear of the unknown but our home is elsewhere and that place offers us a consistent loving relationship with the One who wins! Let’s walk around the leaf together, live there and learn to love like Him!
Blessings FAM!
What leaf in your life has you feeling like an ant? How can you shift your perspective in that situation to reveal the steady presence and protection of God in and through it? Nothing is wasted and so even when we feel like we have failed to handle a leaf situation correctly, don’t let that derail you from trying harder to tune in to God’s purpose in the face of the next leaf. Each time we are intentional about learning what God is trying to teach us in every circumstance, we get better, stronger, and wiser in the aftermath. He is always working on us, we are His masterpieces in progress!
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MM.004: Rhythms of Rest & Daily Sabbath
pause……
Take some time right now to just be. Put your phone away, turn off the TV and radio, Close your eyes, clear your mind and be still… Take a few slow and deep breaths to calm your spirit and then just listen…
Okay, be honest with yourself, when is the last time you made time for this kind of mental therapy? God commands us to practice sabbath in our lives like He did after He created the world. I think if even God is taking time to rest then it is pretty important that we do the same! More so, He invites us to make this a rhythm in our lives. Not just an every now and then occurrence but an actual steady rhythm, a habit, an integral part of our natural existence!
If you were a drummer for a band and you just sporadically hit the drums whenever you felt like it but didn’t actually keep time with a steady pace I think you would probably be kicked out of the band! A drummer that doesn’t keep time is useless, no offense to drummers. It can be hard to learn to keep steady rhythm, but with practice we can get better at it. In the same way we as Christians can be pretty useless examples for others when we only hit up God whenever we feel like we need it. It is not conducive to growing our character or proving our ability to be consistent or dependable. With practice we all can learn to be better at keeping a steady rhythm with God. We have to be intentional and put in effort to make it a habit in order to get in sync with Him and His will for our lives.
Most interpret sabbath as a command to engage with God once a week by setting aside one full day of rest and intentional focus. While this is good practice, and it is awesome if it is possible for you to do this each week, the reality is that sometimes it is not possible to block off an entire day every week and, if we are keeping with our drummer example, is it better to practice a little bit each day or only once a week? I don’t think God intended for us to only spend one day a week in His presence. The rule of sabbath being one day out of our week makes it seem like on the other six days we don’t need to take any rest or time to focus on God and that is simply not true! I need God every day and every hour of every day! I would be willing to bet you can say the same. It doesn’t make logical sense then that we would drudge through the whole week on our own and then only take time to rest and acknowledge Him one day out of seven!
Like in music, when the rhythm is more upbeat, we tend to get a bigger thrill out of it! Maybe there are some extra fills here and there that really excite our senses but even the base beat is frequent and exhilarating, it takes you someplace! I think sabbath in our lives should do the same thing. Make time for it as often as possible! I like to try and work in some sabbath hours or at least one sabbath hour each day. I am no where near perfect at it but the more I practice mindfulness and plan for it in my day, the better I get, and the better I get at it the more my relationship with God grows. I then feel inclined to make even more time for it, filling in the dull moments and keeping an increasingly frequent beat which exhilarates my life with His presence. He wants to take you somewhere! Meet Him in the intentional stillness of sabbath every chance you get and let Him guide your journey!
Blessings FAM!
How often do you pause and spend time with God, not just in standard prayer but in an extended intentional way like we do for sabbath? Maybe it is hard for you to block out an entire day from your week to focus solely on God. If that is the case, try each day this week to at least spend an hour in sabbath. Silently and with no distractions, just listen. That, I think, is what separates this from prayer. Both are important but sabbath rest, to me, means not gripping about life which, lets be honest, a lot of our prayers are like that. No, I think sabbath is more so a time to clear all distractions, be still, and just listen. The Holy Spirit will guide you in that time. Start by trying for an hour each day this week, morning works great but whenever it fits best for you, and then just let the beat grow from there!
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TT.001: …How has God been working in you through this crazy season of life?
I think it’s no secret that He has been ramping me up more and more each day towards doing the things I have felt called to do for a long time. The least of which being to actually utilize this domain which I have owned for about 7 years now! hahaha I don’t know why I have put it off for so long. Life has a way of distracting you and making other things seem so important. I am certain no distraction was a waste of time though! I have grown and learned so much in every situation of life that has lead me to where I am and I continue to grow through the things I am facing each day. The difference is now I have a more focused drive towards creating than ever before. I want to do great things with creative people and in so doing make the world a better place, spread God’s love and advance His kingdom!
I am learning to balance my life in such a way that I am able to properly care for myself, be present and effective at work, as well as make time to create and hopefully soon begin to organize projects with other creatives under the FAM umbrella! I am so excited and expectant for God to do great things through this ministry. I already see so many ways that He has been working to equip many of my friends to be a part of it all too! I am not perfect and so I experience setbacks often but the trick is to give yourself grace for a while and then start again as soon as you are ready. So who is ready to get started with me?! Seriously, let me know if you have some free time and want to brainstorm something creative to do together. I am always up for a creative collaboration!
Blessings FAM!
Leave a comment below and let me know what God has been doing in your life through this strange season! If you would like to keep it private, just between the two of us, feel free to use the form instead. The form also provides an opportunity to express interest in a Creative Collab
