E-votional - New Skins
January 2, 2002
Verse:

"Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved."

Matthew 9:17 (NRSV)  

Thought:

    Out with the old and in with the new. This is the way of the world. Look at the computer you are using. In six months, while it will still suit your uses and purpose, it will be outdated and no longer at the forefront of technology. The element responsible for this tendency, the tendency to dispose of the old and focus on the new is the element of change. Change, one of the only true constants ion our life. Even as we return to work, turning the page on our calendars, reminding to end the year with "2" instead of "1" and even the reflection of the year that has been, right along side of dreaming of the year to come, these too point to change.

   Hear the Good News, while we do turn the page on another year, await the new change and position ourselves for 2002, it is important to heed the words from Matthew. If we were ever given an "excuse" to start over, it is now. With New Year resolutions, we are able to, possibly, have a new outlook on the year too. As we change and grow, we cannot help but grow out of our old habits and ways of life. And if we are growing in Christ, this change is good. Shed the old skin, the old habits of the past, celebrating the growth that has taken place, and welcome the new skin, the new life that is before you.

Prayer: 

   Gracious Father, Author of the New Life, I thank you for my growth of the past and look forward to my future in You. Let me embrace this new opportunity to start afresh and new, living my life totally for You. I trust that anything that might come my way which challenges me, will be overcome, by Your grace and help. Thank you for a new chance and new strength, but most of all, thank You for all that You have done in my life and all You will continue to do, for I ask this through Christ, my Lord and Savior. Amen.