Hebrews 13:8 (ESV)
8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Nothing has really changed. People need the same Jesus who was needed in the New Testament. He is the same Jesus who sacrificed Himself for them in the past. He is the same Jesus who walks with them in the present. He is the same Jesus who is coming for them in the future.
I wonder if people believe there is a different Jesus whom we have today. Can this new Jesus provide for thousands with only a few loaves and fish? Can this new Jesus heal? Can He give direction to those who seek to follow Him? Can He teach the world how to treat each other?
Maybe that's why so many try to explain away the miracles they read in the Bible. They want a Jesus who is nothing more than a natural man who taught good things. They can't imagine One who has authority over the world. It is much easier saying that Jesus was near the shore walking where He knew the rocks were than to say that He walked on water. It is much easier to explain His resurrection as a mass illusion or the raising of Lazarus as the burial of a man who only appeared dead.
So, Jesus is carefully formed into the image of the society who wants to make Him a man who may have had some contact with God but was no different from any other man. People have no trouble with Him being fully human. They struggle with Him being fully God too.
This should reassure us but when our prayers aren't answered with the immediacy of a microwave we say, "See, He isn't all that the Bible says He was."
How many testimonies does it take to convince people that Jesus is the same as yesterday? I don't believe that some people will ever be convinced since they have already made up their minds.
So what do I know of Jesus?
He is the same Jesus who heals me yesterday, today and forever.
He is the same Jesus who loved me yesterday, today and forever.
He is the same Jesus who listens to me yesterday, today and forever.
He is the same Jesus who speaks to me yesterday, today and forever.
He is the same Jesus who walks with me yesterday, today and forever.
He is the same Jesus who works miracles yesterday, today and forever.
He is the same Jesus who provides for me yesterday, today and forever.
He is the same Jesus who raised me from the death of this life yesterday, today and forever.
Personally, I don't want a new and improved Jesus who is nothing more than a great man. I wouldn't want a Jesus who was the greatest man who ever lived if all He was is just a man.
I didn't need a man; I needed a Savior.
He is the same Savior, yesterday, today and forever.
2 comments:
People can say all they want, but to me, following Jesus, is NOT following a man or a great man. The Word tells us that Jesus is NOT just a man, and my Christian walk tells me Jesus cannot be just a man.
I have read about miracles in the name of Jesus; I have heard about miracles, I have seen them, and I have had miracles being worked through/via me. It is not that I recommend people to go by experience; or form doctrines and theology based on experience (doctrines and theology should NOT be formed from experience, but from the Word. Our experience testifies to the truth of the doctrines and theology).
The doctrine and theology is that, Jesus is NOT just a man or a great man; and for me, my Christian walk testifies to the truth of that. I am just a man, could I possibly of my own, caused men's legs to grow before my very own eyes, by just praying and invoking the name of Jesus! Of my own, how can I work miracles; no, it is Jesus working them through me. If Jesus was a man and was NOT resurrected back to Heaven as the Son of God, how can the leg-growing, for example, be accounted for!
So, by my walk, I know the Jesus of the Bible. If you really want to know the Jesus of the Bible, you too, have to walk with Him, Jesus. If you think that Jesus was just a great man and was not resurrected to Heaven as the Son of God, you are likely to be a non-Christian; and you have to, come into the faith to walk with the Lord. If you claim you are a Christian, and you think likewise, like the non-Christian, I think you have to check again if you have believed the real thing! Jesus is the divine Son of God.
Jesus said John 10:14 - I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep, and my sheep they would know me. . One got to be sheep of Jesus to know Him. You are a sheep or NOT, strictly speaking, is NOT by your claim or any man's claim, but by what Jesus thinks or so judges. Jesus said His sheep are known by Him. What is significant about this John 10:14 verse is it's emphasis on "knowing". You got to be known by God. 1 Cor 8:3 said this: He who loves God is known by God. So, walking with God, Jesus, it necessarily means you have to be loving Him.
Begin today, to worship Him in love, obey Him in love, serve Him in love, and trust Him in love, and .................................... you will know He is God, and yes, the same One, yesterday, today, and forever more.
Anthony Chia, high.expressions
i COPIED THE END OF THIS CUT IT OUT AND PUT IT IN MY BIBLE AS I NEED TO BE REMINDED OF THIS AS THE WORLD GETS UGLIER AND UGLIER.Thanks
Post a Comment