In the Gospel of according to Mark says “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.”
According to Roy Clark Blog. The men of Issachar understood the times. But that’s not all they did. Anyone can look out their window and tell whether or not it’s raining. These men did more than just know the times. They understood them. And because they understood them, they also knew what Israel should do.
Understanding is just the first piece. We must also know what to do.
Leonard Sweet in his book Soul Tsunami writes at length about how the world has and is changing. But then he goes on to argue that the church has faced these changes in one of three ways:
- Denial
- Reclusion
- Hoisting the Sails
Sweet says that only one of these options is healthy.
Some churches deal with change by denying that it’s taking place. We can deny the changes all we want, but denial won’t forestall the change. I could have denied my grandkids the right to listen to their iPods in my car. I could have complained about how in my day we read real books, not eBooks. I could have extolled the lost art of letter writing and complained about the “laziness” of today’s youth, but what would that have done? It would have isolated me from my grandkids.
Many churches take the reclusion route. They hunker down in bunkers waiting for the waters of change to recede so they can return to the “good old days.” In an effort to remain solid and sound, they resist anything that is new and different.
But the healthy church seeks to be carried along by the wind of God (pneuma) as they engage the world in which they live—not the world they wished they lived in—with the good news of Jesus Christ. by Roy Clark in Blog on July 20th, 2012, Understanding the times (part 3) RBC, Ministries
God is Love 1John 4:16 in Jesus name
It Is Finished
IT IS FINISHED 
Leave a comment