Come and Dine

“Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins,” Jesus said in Matthew 9:17, “or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined.” Not exactly what happened to me yesterday, but it reminded me of it. I had previously saved some chicken stock in a couple of pint jars in the fridge, then, not using them immediately, I put them in the freezer. Howard’s short-order lunch request yesterday was for homemade chicken soup, and I wanted to use the stock to enrich the broth.

I set the jars under hot running water as I hurriedly chopped celery, onions and carrots and thawed some chicken strips. I turned the jars upside down and shook them, but the frozen contents wouldn’t come through the mouth opening. I even turned them upside down in a colander over the boiling soup, but was only successful in emptying one jar. Putting the other back under the hot water tap, I heard a sharp crack. Like the time I poured hot tea into a glass pitcher. Still, it was only a crack, and I poked at the frozen blob with a knife. My knife made a fist size opening in the glass, the contents were lost, and the jar went into the trash. (The quick soup was delicious, any way.)

Jesus was talking, of course, about how the fresh truth of the gospel would not fit into the dead religion of Judaism. Something would have to give. I couldn’t help but think about that last night as I witnessed on the internet the powerful preaching of a young British evangelist holding a revival in Alabama, where a strong move of the Holy Spirit is taking place, with the evidence of healings, signs and wonders. He stressed the soon coming of our Lord and how people need to press in to a deeper relationship with God. Many people will not accept this, of course, preferring to stay in a stiff, cold religion that does not require anything of them.

The revival is reminiscent of the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Florida, that began some 15 years ago and lasted for 5 years. In fact, there are connections to that revival, in that last night’s evangelist had visited there as a youth, was touched spiritually, and later went into ministry. It is mind boggling to note the changes that have come about since then, especially in communication. We are now in the information age, able to transport at lightning speed the good news of the gospel and news of the moving of God anywhere in the world!

The Bible speaks of the time when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord! No doubt the development of the internet is in God’s timing to preach the gospel to every creature and make disciples of all nations. The warm, sweet wine of the Holy Spirit, vibrant with life, will never stay in frozen containers or brittle leather bottles, but resides in pliant new vessels, heart-shaped for love, and filled with compassion for the lost. It is more than chicken soup for the soul!