An Expanding Life

Wineskins expand with the fermentation process of the wine that they hold. They are flexible and stretch. They don’t burst at the seems spilling all the wine on the ground. So Christ in me is like new wine causing me to expand and change. There is pressure but the pressure is for my good and makes me larger. This thought continues to turn in my mind after reading Mark 2:22.

Since I already preached a message on this I won’t belabor the point. But I would like to suggest some applications to you and solicit some from you in return:

OLDER CHRISTIANS

I remember as a teenager it seemed to me that older Christians were not as on fire for the Lord as us newly-converted teenagers were. But should it be that way? It seems to me the longer you live with Christ in you that you should be an expanded version of your previous self with greater capacities to love, to be patient, to be kind, to be long-suffering, to be compassionate, to be evangelistic, etc

An old Christian should not be known as stiff and crusty as their generational counterparts (thinking of the old man from the movie Up right now). What habits can create an ever expanding life and heart for a Christian as they get older? What would a life look like at 50, 60, 70, and 80 years old when that person is still expanding in response to Christ inside?

MARRIAGE

Marriage stretches anyone who enters into its blessed bonds. But the people, the wineskins, often don’t make it through the expanding process. They burst at the seems. They crack and are destroyed because the pressure of the process meets stiff, unyielding people. I read the other day that 25% of marriages inside evangelical churches end in divorce. This is one way that the wineskin bursts.

God is using your spouse as part of his expanding process in your life. Will you learn to love this other person like Christ? Will you receive the words of criticism with humility? Will you be patient and long suffering? Will you be committed to your covenant? Will you confess and repent when you have sinned? Will you be pliable, moldable, expandable?

I know as a young husband I sure wasn’t. I hope I am more now. By God’s grace our marriage has expanded us and not destroyed us. What habit in your marriage allowed you to be expanded and not destroyed?

SEEKING A SPOUSE

The most common advice I give to single people looking for a spouse is: make your top priority someone who has clearly converted heart. How do you know? They love the Lord and His Word. They love other people.

Why is this #1? If you marry someone who is not a dedicated follower of Jesus, you are marrying someone who is not committed to expanding, someone who is not sensitive to the movements of Jesus in their heart, someone who is rigid and stiff when it comes to the new wine of Christ. This person will break or break you given enough time.

BUT if you will wait for that person who is clearly indwelled by Jesus, despite all their other flaws, they will expand and be sensitive to Him, they will grow with time, they will submit to His Word even when it runs head long into their will.

What about more topics:
A LOCAL CHURCH: What does a local church body look like that expands with Christ’s movement in them?
PARENTING: How should our children be able to observe us expanding as we learn to be mothers and fathers like our Heavenly Father?
MISSIONS: How would the expanding work of Christ in us cause us to geographically expand?

What about you? Do you feel yourself expanding in the last few months due to the work of Christ in you? What traditions and self-righteousness have needed to be set aside?

Would you please leave your comments below and help me think through this glorious thought?