The verse Hebrews 13:8 is displayed in the 1,556 sanctuaries and meeting places of Foursquare Churches throughout the Unites States, and in the 68,503 Foursquare sanctuaries and meeting places in other countries around the world. The sad reality is, this verse has become just a slogan for some churches and the true spiritual reality of this verse is not experienced to its fullest possibilities by many believers in their lives. The verse Hebrews 13:8 is displayed in the 1,556 sanctuaries and meeting places of Foursquare Churches throughout the Unites States, and in the 68,503 Foursquare sanctuaries and meeting places in other countries around the world. The sad reality is, this verse has become just a slogan for some churches and the true spiritual reality of this verse is not experienced to its fullest possibilities by many believers in their lives.
A few days a week I have the privilege of doing the prayer portion of my devotions walking around the sanctuary of Hope Chapel. If I would pray on my knees I would be putting myself in a very good position to fall asleep. As I was praying this week, the Lord brought my attention to look at the front of the sanctuary, on the wall of the platform where the beautifully hand carved Bible verse Hebrews 13:8, is located, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”. He asked me two questions, “how much of a reality is this verse part of your life?” And, “how much of a reality is this verse part of the life of this congregation?” I always expect to hear from the Lord while I am having my devotions whether it is when I am reading His Word or praying. But being asked these two questions was something that I really did not expect.
This is one of the many awesome aspects of prayer. When prayer comes from a humble, sincere and a “contrite heart“, we should not be surprised when God speaks to us because His Word tells us, this kind of prayer is accepted by God. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise,” Psalms 51:17.
When God asked me, “how much of a reality is this verse part of your life?”. His question really challenged me to seriously look at my own life comparing it to what the Bible teaches me of what my life should and could be in Christ Jesus.
I realized that Jesus Christ was not all that He should and could be in my life because of me being complacent and excepting much less of who God created me to be in Christ Jesus, and not applying what He promised me in His Word that I should experience in my relationship with Him. Needless to say I repented of this fact and asked God to show me the cause of my complacency.
If Jesus is not the same in me today as he was in the days of the New Testament because of my complacency, is the cause my lack of faith and or other things I do not recognize? And because of my lack of faith, is Jesus limited of how He is able to use me and minister through me. Matthew 13:58, “And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”
In my mind I started to compare my life with many New Testament verses, such as what Jesus said in John 7:38, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” In the King James Version this verse says, “rivers of living water.” Is there just one river flowing out of me or as Jesus says, “rivers” meaning many? And what kind of water is flowing, “living” or some other kind? Is my life a dry riverbed where living waters had flowed in the past?
In John 14:12 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” If Jesus has never changed, then who He is in me today should be the same as He was in others of the past, including those of the days of the New Testament. Do I have the faith in what Jesus said to truly believe that I can do what Jesus did and have the faith to truly believe to do even greater things because Jesus is with the Father?
When some people read John 14:12 the thought immediately comes to mind is what Jesus did. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind and even raised the dead but Jesus did much more than this.
Please read in your Bible the verses stated below.
When Jesus ministered He had compassion and as a result fed four thousand, Matthew 15:32. Do I even feel compassion for the people who are always asking for money at the intersection of Harlem and 143rd?
When Jesus ministered, racial, gender and even religious differences were not obstacles for Him, John 4:4-24. And as a result there was a two day revival in the place where He ministered and many from that place became believers, John 4:39-41. What are my racial, gender and religious prejudices and stereotypes that would prevent me from talking to others about Jesus?
Am I doing what Jesus said to do, being obedient to His Word as He told me to in Luke 6:27-31? Am I being good to those who hate me, blessing those who curse me and praying for those who mistreat me, especially when “those” who do these things to me consider themselves Christians?
The second question I was asked by the Lord related to Hope Chapel, “how much of a reality is this verse part of the life of this congregation?”
As I was told, sometime between 1948 and 1953 when our church was located on Marquette Road in Chicago, someone from our congregation carved out of wood, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever” (KJV). Ever since then this wood carving of Hebrews 13:8 has always been displayed in our sanctuary. Is the wood carving just a decoration on the wall? Or should it serve as a constant reminder who Jesus should always be in relation to the spiritual life of our congregation as we are the expression of Jesus to this neighborhood and beyond?
If the presence of Jesus Christ is not the same today as we read in His Word as it was yesterday (or as it was in the New Testament), would it be noticed by our congregation? Does the Hope Chapel congregation know what it is to experience and express Jesus today as He was experienced and expressed in the New Testament times? How is the reality of “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever” expressed on social media by those who say they love Jesus and attend Hope Chapel?
These are tough questions that require answers. If they are not answered because of complacency, lack of faith or for some other reason, we will continue down the same path never experiencing as God intends us that “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever”. We should never be content to experience less of who Jesus tells us He could be in our relationship with Him.
It is and always should be our desire for every person of our Hope Chapel family to know, experience and express to a lost world that “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever”.
Pastor John
