New Wine Uncorked: Christmas Cheer: Truth of Christmas Present or Christ...

#love #trinity #jesus #holyspirit #father #newwine #nwnws 

As Christians, when regarding Christmas, are we honest with ourselves before looking at the words and deeds of our neighbors and their Christmas celebrations? And what then of our engagement of “the world?” How are we, as Christians, today bringing joy to the world; or, is the Christmas song we often sing one of judgment?

In this episode of New Wine Uncorked, Matt, Phil, Kayla, and Jim walk into the winter wonderland of Christmas. Is the Christian church today ushering in celebrations of joy because of the birth of their King or is the 21st century Christian nothing more than the great judger—forgetting the joy that was birthed some 2000 years ago? Are we today bringing judgement to one another as well as the world rather than joy?

Recorded live on Fridays at 10am (pst) New Wine UnCorked seeks to step into culture with a heart bent towards engagement, reconciliation, and relationship. Dialogue is the truth of participation as dia via Latin from Greek dia-logos invokes a participatory conversation. It is interactive. From dia "through" + legein "speak." Going through the Word so to engage through our word, New Wine seeks to uncork the impossible possibility of the human and our pursuit of this Uncommon God so to realize our common good. Where to find New Wine: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newwinenewwineskins 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nwnws 

Instagram: https://instagram.com/newwine_newwineskins 

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/newwinenewwineskins 

Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/club/new-wine-new-wineskins 

Web: http://www.new-wineskins.org/

New Wine Uncorked: Following Jesus: Into the Promise Land or the Polluted Landfill

#love #trinity #jesus #newwine #nwnws 

Following Jesus means that you know Him, or at least have an idea of where He is leading… So what then of the path in front of the Jesus follower? Is it a path of promise or a polluted one drowning in toxic “love.” 

In this episode of New Wine Uncorked, Phil, Kayla, and Matt traverse the wonderful terrain of love… When we follow Jesus on to the path of love, where exactly does this path lead? And am I equipped to walk such a path? 

Recorded live on Fridays at 10am (pst) New Wine UnCorked seeks to step into culture with a heart bent towards engagement, reconciliation, and relationship. 

Dialogue is the truth of participation as dia via Latin from Greek dia-logos invokes a participatory conversation. It is interactive. From dia "through" + legein "speak." Going through the Word so to engage through our word, New Wine seeks to uncork the impossible possibility of the human and our pursuit of this Uncommon God so to realize our common good. 

New Wine Uncorked- The Truth of Love: You, Me and being the Be-loved

Am I loveable? Are you loveable? According to the Christian Scripture, the answer is a resounding YES! But is it so inside of me? Do I believe that I am the beloved of the Creator of all things? More than this, do I believe you are His beloved? 

In this episode of New Wine UnCorked, Jim, Kayla, and Matt step into the dialogue of faith and life by examining the truth of divine love. What does it mean to be unconditionally loved, and how should this impact my life and the way and the who I love? Does the love of Christ compel me at all? Or have I become numb to heaven’s embrace of love?

TGIF

Have you ever stopped to think what makes something good? Is something good always something to be thankful for?

Today many around the globe are engaging two truths: the cross, the COVID-19. For which can, should, do we exclaim: TGIF!

On this day called Friday, is there a reason to thank God? So many thank God for Friday and yet what is such thanks rooted in?

Might this day be the day when TGIF strikes at the core of the soul? Might this TGIF be a time when we pause to give thanks for the Friday that changed everything?

This Easter is different... As it should be. Truth is, the hope is that over the days past, we have grown closer, stronger, deeper with Jesus. And in our closeness we have found life to be what it is meant to be the closer I am to Him. And yet, how often do I neglect this truth?

Might this Friday be the day when we use the stay-at-home to really go home? To return to the One who is our home? What if today we pause and socially distance ourselves from the darkness, pain, angst of sin by embracing the One who is good? The One who radically altered the course of history thereby giving us the “goodness” of Good Friday.

As we go through the day, let us be mindful of the act taking place on our behalf... Let us ask the Holy Spirit to awaken us to the truth of what our King has done in order to give us the goodness of this life... 

As you enter into prayer this day - and throughout the weekend - be creative in the ways you meditate on God's word and in His presence. You might begin by listening to How Many Kings by Downhere, allowing the melody and lyrics to further awaken your heart to the truth of the One nailed to the rugged tree. 

Poured out

Every moment I spend with Jesus is yet another moment I am filled with wonder. Every minute I spend in prayer is time I spend taking in the beauty of eternity. In Christ and through the Spirit, I have come to know this—Love.

This week is known to many as passion week. This week marks the intentional movement of the Light of God into the inferno of God. This week marks the moment when the love that came to town becomes the love that engulfs the town. This week marks the time when love steps into our pain, our silence, our turmoil, our darkness, our depression, our virus...

Truth of this week is that in the death of life's living hope, the hope of our life erupts. When we step into the truth of Christ's passion we are consumed by His presence and from His presence we can become His power. And the greatest eruption of His power and presence poured out is prayer.

Through the Spirit the truth of heaven's love can be multiplied... if we are willing to be poured out. When we come before His throne of grace we find the peace, the hope, the joy of heaven. We find that in Christ we are not alone, and in our unity we find strength.

We are not alone because He is our strength, our defender, our refuge in the storm. When we embrace the Spirit so as to step into the heart of Christ we come to find that through all the trials He has always been faithful, bringing healing to our soul.

Let Jesus be your everything. Today, become engulfed in the prayer of Christ—His prayer to the Father for the protection, the blessing and the glory of His beloved.

“I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours” (John 17:8-9).

For the truth of His love is the truth of our eternal joy. He came to wrap us up in His arms so that we might have peace, so that we might know that we are His own. Jesus’ prayer for us should bring our hearts to such a place of worship that we can do nothing but proclaim:

“You amaze me, Redeem me, You call me as Your own.”

If we say we love Jesus, our lives right now must show we love Jesus and the greatest way to do this is to jump into the “heart of Jesus” by jumping into prayer for the sake of the other.

Take a moment and listen to I am not alone by Kari Jobe and let the truth of this song invigorate the glory of your day as you are poured out in prayer for the sake of the world. Amen Jesus!

for further teaching and thoughts from Dr Farlow visit his YouTube page 

Is there light?

In light of devastation - emotional, physical, spiritual, what is life? In light of pain, turmoil, trouble, what is life? In this life is there light?

Devastation all around seems to dampen the delight of divine beauty.

How it is that we can move into the holidays with hearts filled with good tidings and cheer? Where is our hope?

The complexity of the answer as to where is our hope, is found in the simplicity of what was done some 2000 years ago for the whole of humanity. Birth...death…hope.

Yes, a baby was born so that as a man He might hang on a tree.

One birth. One death. One tree. Three nails. Eternal hope.

Hope is wrapped in the truth of Immanuel - God with us. The only way to engage the happenings of today while seeking to celebrate the truth of life is found in the One who is life.

Jesus came to reign down hope. He came to shower us in joy. And with His entrance on the world stage He gave us the way to respond to the darkness that suffocates life.

Yes, Jesus came to suffocate us in His all-consuming love...

It is in His breath-taking performance that we are given the oxygen needed to ignite this world with His crazy insane love. A love that gives us the power to step directly into the devastation by giving ourselves over to the truth of Christmas... I mean really giving ourselves over.

When we give into the Christmas truth we find the truth of Mas Christ is what suffocates my darkness with the light of His eternal flame. And in the burning truth of His eternal love we come to witness the glory of heaven as it erupted through the birth of a baby. A birth that fills our hearts and lungs with the air of truth behind (and within) Christmas.

Let us this day prayerfully embrace the Holy Spirit so that we might exhale the grime of life. Let us this day ask the Spirit to fill us with His strength so that we might inhale the unrelenting Christmas hope that erupts in the birth of divine love. Amen Jesus.

Eruption of Thanksgiving...

To give thanks insinuates something to be thankful for; it points to something beyond ourselves that has impacted our lives in such a way that our response is one of gratitude and praise.

Today many of us will find a multitude of “items” or “people” who fit this bill, and truth be told, many of us do have a plethora of things and/or people for which we are thankful.

But what if we stopped and took a moment... What if in the midst of all the food, football and fellowship we are missing the deeper, underlying foundation of thankfulness?

I wonder for those who bear the mark of Jesus - for those who call themselves followers of The Way, how many will illumine the cross on this day?

It is the cross where thanksgiving is found…it is where thanksgiving erupts.

As soon as we gaze upon the cross our hearts, our eyes are taken to the scene of the manager hidden away in the dusty, dirty, dark crevasse of a mountainside. Yes, thanksgiving is found from the cradle to the cross for it is here that we find the One who is the ultimate giving of thanks…Jesus Christ.

For God so loved the world that He gave… Our giving of thanks is the direct result of being given Love. That is, we must always remember that hanging on the cross is the One born in the manger—not just any baby, but the One who was with God, the One who is God, the One who is with us...The One who is Love...

Might some time today we give pause to the majesty of the cross? Might we stop to thank the One who gave of Himself so that we might receive the truth of ourselves? Might we take a moment and enter the drama of salvation so as to become the faithful performance of love?

Let your celebrations be magnificent this day! Stand, dance, shout for joy! And in your moments of bliss don't forget the One who is thankful for you! Amen Jesus!

Heaven's passion

No matter what may come your way, when we are in Christ through the Spirit, nothing in this world can separate us from His love. All we need is to find our place in prayer so as to realize our place in His heart.

God’s great desire for His people is that we feel secure in His love and in His power. Everything else in life may be unstable—our health, our family, our job, our education, our society, our world. At any given time and within any given moment you may feel as if you are out on a ledge forty stories up in an unpredictable wind. You feel yourself losing balance and falling, and every brick you grab pulls out of its mortar. When we walk according to "ourself" the ground beneath and the pillars all around us will only crumble.

Stability only comes from the One born in the stable.

Paradox of life is that being in Christ is the riskiest decision you can make…according to the world.

And yet saying "yes" to Jesus is the greatest decision you can take security in. Saying yes to Christ is saying yes to the crazy of life so as to find the stability of heaven's passion. As Paul writes, life in Christ is: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword—we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered (Romans 8:35–36).

Paul knew the craziness of a life of a disciple but he knew that the love of Christ was even crazier in its power, presence and passion.

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us…for nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vs 37-39).

Paul’s life of faith was much like ours, one many questioned as to why do it? Why live such a life? Why give sacrificially when you are beaten, ostracized, criticized, while being opposed from every side?

But for Paul, as is for us today, the stability and power needed comes from the truth of being in Christ. For in Christ and through the Spirit we encounter the heart of God so as to find security in His love and strength in His power, even if everything else in the world is uncertain.

We have to be willing to fall to our knees and thank the One who became sin so as to seal us with His eternal love. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection far surpass all understanding and knowledge and yet they are so simple that a child can understand that Jesus loves them. This is why Christ’s incarnational performance is to be the foundation of who we are if we are to be the foundation of love this world so desperately needs.

Jesus wants to be our security. Question is, “How will you respond to the life Jesus is calling you into? Resting in His security or trying to secure your own rest?”

Father Almighty, in Christ and through the Spirit, we are covered in Your eternal security and presence so that we might be the covering of Your love for all the world to experience. Amen Jesus!

Love Beyond

When is there a time that we don't need love?

Holiday seasons only illuminate and exaggerate the truth of our need for love. And here is the absolute of love's truth: In Christ we encounter the fullness of love. Yes, in Jesus we meet the "realness" of love because when we encounter Jesus we encounter love.

It is a love that is beyond... It is a love that is here... Now

A love that is crazy, insane, inviting, intoxicating, scandalous, scrumptious, fiery, fierce, radical, relentless, real... 

It is a love that has come to saturate our hearts, our souls, our minds and our bodies so that we might fall deep... oh so deep, into the heart of God. 

But please be mindful of one thing... It is a love that will mess you up... It will rock your world... 

Problem for so many of us is that we are afraid of love. We are afraid of entertaining the idea that we are lovable.

And so we close ourselves off. To each other. To ourselves. To Jesus.

What is holding you back from opening up? The greatest gift you could give yourself this Christmas season is the gift of love. 

He is here. He is waiting. He is love...

Choose Joy

Read Psalm 100; John 15.1-11

All around people struggle to find happiness. I know I get caught up in this battle. But what I have come to find is that I am not in search of happiness, but joy…And He is right there before me.

Truth is, there is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is usually something on the surface—it comes and goes with our feelings. But joy…joy is different. It is deeper. It is alive and in our soul.

One of my favorite authors, Henri Nouwen once wrote:

“Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us…Often we discover the joy in the midst of the sorrow. I remember the most painful times of my life as times in which I became aware of a spiritual reality much larger than myself, a reality that allowed me to live the pain with hope. I dare even to say: ‘My grief was a place where I found joy.’ Joy does not happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to Jesus and have found in Him our refuge and our safety, and that nothing, not even death, can take Him away from us.”

Yes, unlike happiness, joy is essential to spiritual life. When we are not joyful we cannot bear fruit. Jesus calls us to Himself so that His joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete…if only we go to Jesus.

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing — sickness, failure, emotional distress, wandering, oppression, doubt, war, or even death — can take that love away.

Right now (you may need to find a “secret” place) let yourself celebrate joy…let yourself celebrate Jesus. Stand up, dance around, sing out, throw your hands up in the air, laugh uncontrollably, fall to your knees, cry profusely… whatever you need to do to celebrate heaven’s joy, do it. 

Right now forget formalities and normalcy. 

Right now enter into the joyous praise from Mercy Me and let this beautiful song fill your heart… Greater.

Right now embrace the Spirit and choose Joy by stepping into the crazy insane love of Jesus and celebrating His undeniable love for you. Amen Jesus!

The heart of Jesus

Read John 17

Every moment I spend with Jesus is yet another moment I am filled with wonder. Every minute I spend in prayer is time I spend taking in the beauty of eternity. In Christ and through the Spirit, I have come to know this—Love.

When we come before His throne of grace we find the peace, the hope, the joy of heaven. We find that in Christ we are not alone.

We are not alone because He is our strength, our defender, our refuge in the storm. When we embrace the Spirit so as to step into the heart of Christ we come to find that through all the trials He has always been faithful, bringing healing to our soul.

Let Jesus be your everything. Today, become engulfed in the prayer of Christ—His prayer to the Father for the protection, the blessing and the glory of His beloved.

“I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours” (v8-9).

For the truth of His love is the truth of our eternal joy. He came to wrap us up in His arms so that we might have peace, so that we might know that we are His own. Jesus’ prayer for us should bring our hearts to such a place of worship that we can do nothing but proclaim:

“You amaze me, Redeem me, You call me as Your own.”

If we say we love Jesus, our lives must show we love Jesus and the greatest way to do this is to jump into the “heart of Jesus.” Take a moment and listen to I am not alone by Kari Jobe and let the truth of this song invigorate the glory of your day. Amen Jesus!