May God Almighty bless you through this New Year and the rest of your life
Has old age caught up with you? Do you sit and wonder if I acted differently in my youth, life as I experience it now would be better? Countless war veterans return with different personalities forever changed by wartime ordeal. Having to deal with drugs and social change striving and fighting to retrieve a personality lost through war.
Many people deal with personality and social changes, without participating in war. Living life of hope on a tightrope, defined in Cornel West 2008 book of wisdom. In which he points out “Where there is no death, there is no life.” Some come to believe the newness of life through Faith in God Almighty or in the Messiah. Most believe that face-lifts, sports, sex and money brings newness of life. I believe when one has experienced a circumcised heart, a controlled tongue and a renewing of their mind can walk in God’s newness of life.
Our Lord Jesus Christ proved this in Cana by turning water into wine. This superhuman event provided a window into God’s power and authority. In that, Jesus bucked tradition by serving where most of us looked to be served. This event in Cana showed when your way of living life to the fullest is over. The party must continue. What strength do you have to keep the party alive? Well, understand what Jesus mother had asked. “They have no more wine. Jesus said my time has not yet come. But his mother told the servants, do whatever he tells you.” So, they did as Jesus request, water had turned into wine, the party continued. The people asked the groom, “Why wait until now to bring the best wine out” little did they understand His actions. Some to this day don’t understand this initial event in Cana.
The event in Cana is the excitement of God telling the people why wait until everything else runs out before trying God. Why save the best until last? Many in American are obsessed with comfort, convenience, and contentment. Cornel West teaches, “the advanced capitalist American society, the culture of consumption, revolves around the market-around buying and selling.” The danger of a marketplace culture puts a price tag on everything, dominating human life.
This is not God’s plan, it man’s. We need to realign our thought and culture around service and love. Forsaking market-driven consumption, for when the wine stops flowing, who will we rendered responsible or answerable for our actions. This market-driven society is not new. We’ve been living like this for over 21 centuries. Jesus told us in Luke 5:37-39 no one puts new wine into an old wineskin. New wine must be put into new wineskins. However, people back then and now seem to drink the old wine, saying the old wine is better. As the old wine will run out, Jesus is the fountain of the new wine.
Why save the best until last?
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