Still the Same

It is 1:45 am on a Friday night....wait, make that Saturday, right?

I thought I was ready for bed but felt You calling me to 'come away'.  Next thing I know I'm here on the office couch searching Your pages for the 'why'.

My eyes keep going back to Hebrews 13:8.

It seems to be sandwiched between tons of exhortation about honoring, respecting, listening to and obeying those who've gone before.  I thought it strange at first how such a profound declaration of YOU is popped in there at that instructive, very practical passage by the author.  Kind of like a commercial during an intense climatic scene in a movie I'm viewing!

But there it is.

"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever."

How many times did I read that while sitting in church growing up?  Thousands, no doubt, thousands of times!  As a child, I would look past the pastor, up above his head on the wall behind him were those carved wooden letters, and I would copy each word on the church bulletin practicing my cursive. As a teenager I would doodle it over and over on my notepad to make the service time go faster.As a young adult I recall the feeling of safety and comraderie, seeing it blazened across various church platforms, reminding me "this is where I can trust what I hear, what I see---this is where I belong."

Even as I just wrote that last paragraph You began to make it clear to me.

That IS why its "sandwiched"  between all those reminders.  Reminders of those who have gone before me and instilled in me the faith, the love , the hope I have in You.  Its why I can say with confidence  "Jesus, You ARE the same yesterday, today and forever!"

Mom, Brother Underwood, Sister Morris, Brother Hood, Effie Slagle, Pastor Bob Jones, Pastor Martin, Jerry Butler, Bill Horton and so many more who spoke into my life one way or the other by word and example, that "Jesus Christ, You are the same, yesterday, today and forever!"

Now its men and women like Dr. Harold Dewberry, Joseph Prince, James Robison, Beth Moore, Pastor Steve Miller, T.D.Jakes, Jim Cymbala, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, and of course Jack Hayford.  Their passion for Your Word and for Your people to know that simple yet profound truth keeps me on task, believing what YOU SAID.

In Your Word, You healed all who believed yesterrday.  Even some who needed 'help' with their unbelief.

In Your Word, You gave specific timely direction and guidance to those who cried out for it.

In Your Word, You forgave and began restoring, even while they were still in the muck and mire of the pigpen.

That was Yesterday.

You are still doing it.  TODAY.

And You'll never stop.   Ever.  FOREVER.

Because its not just what You do.

Its WHO You are.

The I AM....of Yesterday, of our Todays, and for Forever.

Jesus Christ, You are the Same.