A Miss-Match!

Lord, You are my shield, my strength, my portion, my deliverer, my shelter, my strong tower, my very present help in time of need. Thank You.




Good morning! My name is Charlotte and I am writing to help us give our first thoughts to the Lord.

Luke 5 goes on to say this, starting with verse 27: After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, "Follow me." And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him.

Levi was the disciple Matthew which wrote the book of Matthew. Tax collectors were notorious in that day because they not only collected the exorbitant taxes, but more to put into their own pockets. Matthew left all behind to follow Jesus. He evidently was wealthy because of the big reception he gave for Jesus at his house.

Zacchaesus, the wee little man, was also a tax collector and also gave a feast for Jesus. Do you wonder how Jesus must have touched the wicked people at these feasts? Or how Matthew and Zacchaesus must have wanted Him to touch their friends and associates at these feasts for Jesus. This perhaps was their way of 'tearing off the roof' in an attempt to bring their friends to Jesus.

And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them.

The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?"

And Jesus answered and said to them, "It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

And they said to Him, "The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, the disciples of the Pharisees also do the same, but Yours eat and drink."

And Jesus said to them, "You cannot make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? But the days will come; and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days."

The Pharisees were not unlike people today. There is always someone to criticize - no matter how hard you try to live for the Lord. You hear people say they don't want to go to church because that is where the hypocrites are, yet you certainly don't want to go to hell and spend eternity with them.

And He was also telling them a parable: "No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.

And no one puts new wine into old wine skins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wine skins. And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, 'The old is good enough.'"

I had a neighbor one time who was a thief. My daughter was one month older than her daughter. Robyn was eleven months old at the time. My mother had made a darling little dress for Robyn but it was too big for her at the time. I took the dress and put it back in my sewing closet until she grew into it. It was precious. My neighbor was there and knew where I put it. Well, when I started to get it out after she had grown a little, the dress wasn't there.

I had bought the boys some juice machines for Christmas. I put them in my back closet and only my neighbor and my husband knew where they were. Well, when I started pulling Christmas together, the juice machines and some other things couldn't be found.

It had to be her because no one else knew where the things were.

I bought my daughter some little black patent leather shoes with blue socks with white lace around the top. One day when we came in from shopping, she took off her shoes and socks. The house was in perfect shape, so when I started looking for her socks, one was missing, and there was no place it could be. My neighbor just happened to have come down right after we came in and as my daughter was taking off her socks.

I knew that her daughter had a blue sock missing, so I figured when she saw that the socks didn't match, she would bring it back. Well, one day in she walked throwing that blue sock on my bar - said she found it over at the laundromat and since it did not match her daughter's sock, she thought maybe it just might match Robyn's.
Of course, it did!!!!

This is what Jesus was saying. You can't match an old faded sock with a new never- washed sock. They won't match.

You can't just know about Jesus and know about the Word and making prayers....you must be born again (new wine) (new material) (new sock). You must leave all to follow Jesus, to be filled with His Spirit and be filled with His Light.

You can't have it both ways.

If you don't give up all to follow Jesus, then you will have a old, faded, washed- many-times sock trying to match it with a new, never washed, not faded sock, and it won't work. It won't match up because Jesus is new birth. Old things passed away behold all things are knew. Old friends, old habits, old ways, old paths - left behind - for new friends, healthy habits, new ways, new paths....following Jesus.

You would be surprised how those old friends disappear when Jesus comes on the scene. You drop them in a minute because they lose their glamor in the light of Jesus and your new-born life. AND most of the time, they don't want to hear about Jesus.

Gotta go for now. Have a great weekend and my prayer is that if you haven't already, leave all and follow Jesus. He is worth it.

Charlotte