Storyteller - Day 1

Over the next 4 weeks, I'll be blogging through "Storyteller", the latest Bible Study from Sarah Koontz at LivingbyDesign.org.

Each day, I'll be sharing my "takeaway" from that day's Scripture passage and devotional. Here's what stood out for me from Day 1:

The passage of Scripture we're reading today is Luke 5: 33 - 39 ...

One day some people said to Jesus, “John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray regularly, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are your disciples always eating and drinking?” Jesus responded, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment. “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.” The parable of the wineskins and the garments teaches us about the foolishness of clinging to our old ways of thinking, and old ways of doing, in light of the fact that Jesus came to make old things new.

The foolishness is this ... when we continue to hold onto and repeat the things we did, and said, and thought before we met Jesus, we continue to reap the old rewards, to get the same old results! We will not be able to contain, or live out the fullness and newness of life that Christ offers to us, if we try to fit our faith and our Saviour into the tired old rags of this world, of modern culture, and of our old nature. Sarah Koontz ends today's devotional with this: "Christ didn’t just come to bring something new; He came to make us new! So don’t be afraid to toss out your old way of living and embrace your new life in Christ."

Thank You, Lord, for making old things new, and broken people whole. Thank You for Your new garments of grace, that You clothe Your children in when we choose to let go of our self-reliance and the "comfort" of our old ways, and embrace the newness of life that You died to give us.

If you're joining me on this journey through the Parables of Jesus, please share your takeaways in the comments - I'd love to hear from you!