2018 Weekly Devotional - Week 44

Week 44

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

    I recently saw a bumper sticker that read; ‘Boerne, Texas; gone forever’. I’m sure its owner was lamenting the fact that Boerne has changed so much in recent years. I’ve lived in Boerne since the fall of 2000 and can attest to the incredible amount of change. We can all sympathize with those whose small town has grown and changed so much that it is almost unrecognizable. When I was coming to Boerne in the late seventies there was one blinking light in town! My own hometown of New Braunfels has exploded as has all of central Texas. When I was a boy you might swim in the Comal river and see a few people. Now with the monstrosity known as Schlitterbahn, each day on the river looks like a scene from Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon. Forgive my animus! We are creatures of habit. We take comfort in being able to go to the same places and see the same sites. We see these places and reminisce about all the great times we used to have there. However, change is inevitable. Each time someone enters a community they are a change agent. You simply cannot lock the gate behind you and prevent change from occurring. Why not? Because the people behind the locked gate change. The folks that don’t want change somehow want different/better schools than they attended. They want some change, but not too much!

    Our text for today teaches us that Jesus Christ never changes. Culture changes, God does not. Styles change (where are your parachute pants?), God does not. Communities change, God does not. F.F. Bruce highlights this. Yesterday Jesus “…offered up prayers and supplications, with a loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death” (5:7). Today he is a high priest before the Father who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses because “…in every respect he has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (4:15). And forever this same Jesus, “… always lives to make intercession for them.” (7:25) I take great comfort in the knowledge that Jesus will never stop interceding for me. I rejoice that Jesus’ substitutionary death will never not be sufficient to cleanse me from sin! I’m thankful that Jesus will never leave me or forsake me! I’m grateful that in Christ I will never die! Change in this world is inevitable. Perhaps we should make a bumper sticker of Hebrews 13:8.

In Christ,

John