Sameness

"The steadfast love of the lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end." Lam. 3:22
During a time of major change in my life where nothing is the same, it has been comforting to know that I serve a God who is unchanging. He is the Great "I Am" Who within His name has the meaning of no beginning and no end. The fact that God attributes a name to Himself is so we can understand that He may be known; that we can know His character and that we can have not only relationship, but one of total communion whereby we may abide in Him as He also will abide in us. (Jn.15:5) He who, even now, is at work in those of us who believe; having been transformed from our hopeless state, separated from the life that is in Him, are now, by His great mercy and grace, daily recipients of His love and energizing power so as to be sons and daughters who are led by His Spirit.

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." ( Heb. 13:8 ) In the New Testament we see the same character of God in Christ revealed to us. This wonderful consistency gives us confidence that in relationship with Christ, our faith, our trust and our hope is always steadfast. He will always be faithful, He will never leave us or forsake us and His word unto us is always true. He says "come unto me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." That was true yesterday, its true today and it will be true tomorrow.

Even though I serve an unchanging God, my own life must be changing everyday for it is the purpose of God to make us new creatures in Christ. Sometimes that requires us to let go of things which were good, to embrace those things which are better. One picture of this in the New Testament is that you can't put new wine in old wineskins. The new wine will burst the old and inflexible skin. Sometimes we would rather hold on to the way we have always done things because we find security in that, even when there is no generated life observed. Moving into a new culture can be a shock on our familiar system of doing things. I once heard, while visiting in Southeast Asia, "Its not that different is bad, its just different." Something C.S. Lewis wrote addresses this dilemma. He explained how we love to treat life like a movie in which we can rewind and relive the best moments in the film. Honestly, I don't like change any more than the next person, but I also realize that traditions and routines may hold me back and fog my vision for the future if I am constantly trying to relive and hold onto meaningful or valued life experiences. Our lives must be open to change if we are to develop into mature, functional followers of Jesus Christ.

Chapter 5 in the book of Hebrews, says, "by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you" In this chapter, having to be taught is pictured as an infant needing milk. An infant is one who needs to grow, but those who are mature are grown already and they need meat in order to work. They have become mature and have taken on the responsibility of not only themselves, but the weak who have need of discipleship. In the great commission, Christ did not leave us with instruction to evangelize, but to make disciples of all nations. That requires investment of our lives into others with our own authentic relationship to Jesus. Our lives are then the sermon that backs our words. In the U.S. gold used to back our currency, now we have nothing, but empty promises and cheap words of little consolation.

Babies are cute, but not when they are older. Babies who refuse to grow up, thinking only of themselves all the time,  become a hindrance to the work of God and a stumbling block to those in and outside the body of believers.  Lewis said it best when he said " its not that we should think less or more of ourselves, but that we should think of ourselves less." If we choose to live out our lives dominated with a consumerist mentality; satisfied with being spiritually spoon fed and never attending to our own relationship with Jesus Christ, then we will not only become dull of hearing the truth, but ultimately, we will become deaf and dumb to its impact. There is no better way to learn the word of God than by doing it and so prove to be His disciples. Reaching maturity, then becomes one of intentional growth and application rather than only hearing and reading all the best spiritual teachings.