New Wine - Day 4

So what would new wine be?

I mentioned before that when people want to learn what makes Crosswalk unique, they often go to our process and design. We offer people something completely different from what is usually given in the churches they have attended.

The difference is New Wine.

Let me explain: When I came back into pulpit ministry and led a church, I had to decide my organizing principle. The more I thought and prayed about it, the more I realized that there had been a title that I had been given a long time before that, I had not always lived up to.

I was a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized this was all I had ever wanted to be. I didn’t want to try to prop up anything made by man, anything less than the gospel, and anything with another organizing principle at its core. I tried to preach Jesus in and out of season and see the seasons change because of it. Every week, I wanted to spend time in the word of God, listening to the Spirit of God, and speaking about the will of God to people, all in the context of who Jesus was, is, and is making us to be. I wanted to be a disciple, I wanted to be a follower, and I wanted to lead people to the foot of the cross and the feet of Jesus. I wanted to learn from Jesus, not just about Jesus, and I wanted a group around me that felt the same way.

Almost ten years later, we are continuing this journey. This new wine that was given has stayed dry. It continues to overflow. We have continued to be those ever-expanding and flexible vessels growing in grace, understanding, and even numbers when it comes to this new wine of Jesus Christ.

I love the text: “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”—Luke 6:38

JOURNAL

1. Have you experienced the overflow of God’s love and grace in your life? 
2. How can you look around and see what God is doing in your life?
3. What does it mean to be a new creation in Christ? Specifically, what does it mean to you? 
4. Do you live any differently with this reality? 

5. When do you most hear the voice of God in your life?