Monday Morning's Musings

Missing the intended point is becoming a habit. It seems I cannot get past Osteen's daily Scripture reading without stopping to consider what the Scripture is saying to me. After furiously scribbling down my thoughts, I turn back to the book. Sometimes my ideas do align with the author's. Today was kinda-sorta one of those days. Check out the last half of today's reading:

Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. Matthew 9:17

How many times have we heard people teach about or ask for "new wine?" Guess what? That is the wrong idea! What we need is for our wineskins to be renewed so that we can handle the new wine God wants to pour into our lives. Our hearts and minds need to remain in a state of readiness. Otherwise we become old, dried out, and unable to stretch. We become obsolete and unusable. Ouch.

The passage also made me think about generations. The Christian generation before mine seemed overly stiff. There were rules and expectations that I thought were overly drastic and led to bondage. The same is now true about my generation. The current generation moves more freely. They've fought hard (not always intelligently, but hard) to shake off bondage my generation tried to place upon them.

The thing about new wineskins is that they are pliable and have elasticity. This concept provokes me to more thought. Unfortunately, the thoughts are not yet complete. Osteen put it this way:

God will not pour fresh creative ideas and blessings into old attitudes.

Osteen's premise is that now is the time to experience the best God has to offer our lives. He is big on positive thought process and faith. I can deal with that. If Osteen is on the money and God wants this to be the best time of our lives, then we need to be on the lookout for possibilities. We need to perceive, discern, downright see what is out there for us. I like the way The Message translation quotes Isaiah 43:16-21:

This is what God says, the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves, The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—they lie down and then can't get up; they're snuffed out like so many candles: "Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. (emphasis mine)

What positive things have you been seeing lately? Just yesterday I had something happen that made me pause and consider some of the blessings in my life rather than the 'down side.' I mentioned to a member of my church's band that I'd played guitar in order help Andy with something but that I couldn't play for very long before the old aches and pains showed up. I also said I miss playing guitar and that I really want to be able to play again. He said, "Yeah, but you have this!" And he indicated my throat - meaning a (passable) singing voice.

When I didn't say anything, he continued: "so use the voice for God's glory now, and believe Him for your hands for later!" Well, as a member of the choir that is what I am doing. I never really put it that way. Heck, I never really thought of it that way. But it sure is the more positive outlook, isn't it? This person's encouragement meant a lot to me.

This is the prayer Osteen wrote for the end of today's devotion:

...Help me get rid of those old attitudes that would limit my vision and cause Your work to be stifled in me.

My beliefs run just a little differently, but the sentiment is the same:

I am choosing to let go of the old attitudes that would limit my vision....

After all, I don't want to be stale. Or brittle. Or stifled. Do you?