NEW WINE SKINS

There are issues in our lives that we ‘think’ we have dealt with, forgiven, and moved past.

This was me, so I thought. If you have ever found or discovered yourself in that position, you will understand what I’m about to put on paper.

As we read things from time to time, the purposes for doing so vary. The subject arouses our curiosity, we need some specific information, someone suggests a ‘good book’, or someone is needing advice on something they have written, or a myriad of other reasons.

Regardless of the reason, we proceed to read. THEN it happens-the subject of the reading material exhumes an issue we thought we had buried. The coffin is opened and once again we are faced with the pain that we thought we had sufficiently dealt with and thought was long gone.

I found myself in this position VERY recently. The first thoughts that came to my mind were ‘raw flesh’. The next thought was what do you do with raw flesh and how can you make it into something useable - no longer bleeding, needing attention.
My next thought was that raw flesh is like the raw hide of an animal. This progressed to how do you tan raw hide and make it usable.

It was then that the LORD showed me this is how new wineskins start out. “Nor do men put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” Matt 9:17

My choice is to truly allow myself to be healed so I can be a new wineskin and GOD can fill me with HIS new wine. From that point on I can be of use to others with their ‘raw flesh’ - their wounds.

FRAGRANCES

  Golly Gee!!  Peweeeee!  Just walked through the fragrance department.  Couldn’t walk out fast enough.

  Fragrances cannot only be “sensed” but they can be “felt’ as well.  The overpowering and heaviness of smells/aromas/odors is worth pondering, especially in the light of the truth that we are to be a “sweet smelling  savor, aroma, fragrance to HIM.”  II Corinthians 2:15

  Do we have the fragrance of LOYALTY like Truth, the fragrance of EXCELLENCE as the Proverbs 31 woman, or Mary and Martha’s fragrance of LOVE & DEVOTION?

  Today I will do some “fragrance” exchanging.

Jeanna

A Godly Marriage

What is a GODLY marriage?

We’re all familiar with the scriptures,”…they shall become one flesh,” “…be fruitful and multiply. ( have sex and make money)”  and ”leave father and mother and cleave to (be really glued to) one another.” All this is well and sounds good, it’s scriptural but in REALITY, when viewed in the STARK light of day, how does that translate?

After the “big question” has been popped (on bended knees of course) and answered “affirmatively” by the “fair damsel”,  the process starts- PREPARATIONS, SALUTE and THE MARCH FORWARD INTO “Fantasyland”.

When the fabric starts to fly, “How many times do we have to try on these dresses?”  “The cobbler has 11 pairs of your shoes to dye and hasn’t achieved the right color yet!?” “Do all your pigtails have to be perfect with perfectly coordinated ribbons?” “The crystal, silver and China are very rare, retro patterns and they have to be pre-paid before ordering.”  “Oh my, golly gee. Why does this have to happen to me?”  The guy that had gone to his knees may NOW be in a complete tail spin and is wondering how he got in this position.

Welcome to Fairyland ladies and is it really “all about us?”  Most guys just shake their heads, write the checks, and often ask themselves, “Is this a real marriage I’m in…?”

Life cannot be sustained in a very healthy fashion in this “Fairyland”.  Does it really matter if the family always has to have the best, and what is “best” anyway?

After 42 years of marriage I wanted to know what being married REALLY meant.  I looked back over the things I had allowed my husband to do alone; carry the weight of every day life on his shoulders- with “me ox” most of the time not being truly yoked to “he ox”. 

 My prayer in all of this is that just maybe us ladies need to take another hard look at guidance in regards to our ”GODLY Portrait of Marriage.”

GOD has facilitated many changes in me which have also spoken volumes to my “hunk”. (Imagine that I would need to change-YES I did and Still DO).

  As my hubby and I were driving home this morning after the removal of 7 polyps from his colon, GOD put this question before me again,  “Is our marriage indeed GODLY, is it pleasing to HIM and do HE and my husband feel welcomed and at peace there?”

Shalom,

Glo

Hello

Day one - Feb 3, 2011 - A cold and white day outside.