After five months of silence, here I am with a new blog post for a new year.
It was while I was back in Scotland, at the end of November - collecting my dear wife! - that we visited the Riverside Museum in Glasgow. This is what used to be named the Transport Museum, but in a new venue! What an amazing experience! Things that we both remembered from even before our marriage were there in front of us, testifying to the changes that have been made in even that (mere!) half-century (+).
Before that, we had visited the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, at the University of Glasgow. I was speaking with one of the staff about the changes that had been made on campus, and of the many changes that have been made to the city of Glasgow itself, since my own days as a student at the University (before the member of staff with whom I was speaking had been born!).
Everywhere I go, I seem to discover changes, whether physical with regard to road layouts and buildings, etc.; or to social attitudes; or to fashion (seeing two young ladies who had just graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University and who, along with many others, were parading through the bus terminal in academic gowns and hoods - and tattooed legs! - was quite a shock to my conservative system); or to any of the other issues that seem to come under the general heading of "woke". You may wish to add your own "change" subjects/topics to my short list. However, change there is, and change there will undoubtedly be!
However, there is one important exception. In the letter written to Hebrew disciples of Jesus by an unnamed human author, is this amazing statement: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever." (Heb.13:8). Now, if someone is the same at all times, then there can be no change in, or by, that individual! By the way, this is also a reminder that Jesus is Almighty God. Speaking through the prophet Malachi, YHWH states: "... I YHWH do not change;" (Mal.3:6). One hymnwriter wrote: "Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me".
But what is the practical outworking of this fact? Well, I would suggest that it is simply that we may depend on God. I am a lover of Gilbert & Sullivan light opera. In one of their productions, "The Mikado", (who, in the show, is the ruler of Japan) one of the characters who is in danger of being put to death, makes this statement to the Mikado: "When your Majesty says, ‘Let a thing be done,’ it’s as good as done – practically, it is done – because your Majesty’s will is law." In other words, the Mikado's will could be depended upon - and he is just a fictional character!
How, then, may I depend on God? His written Word, the Bible, is actually full of promises that He has made to His people. However, having spent almost five months with very limited physical human contact, the one that means most to me is the promise made by the Lord Jesus, to His disciples: "I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matt. 28:20). Another hymnwriter penned these words: "No, never alone, No, never alone; He promised never to leave me, Never to leave me alone:" I actually prefer the French translation of that chorus which, in a reverse translation, (!) reads; "No, never completely alone; no, never completely alone. Jesus, my Saviour guards me, never leaves me alone. No, never completely alone; no, never completely alone. Jesus, my Saviour guards me, I am never completely alone."
As we move into this new year, that is a promise that I shall continue to hold - even with my dear wife back with me! It's a promise that you, too, may claim. However, you need to be in that saving relationship with Him that is made possible by His atoning* death on the cross at Calvary. That, in turn is, at its very simplest, accepting that none of us can ever, by our good deeds, achieve, or deserve, or purchase, eternal life in the presence of the Lord. We may only come to Him, in repentance* and faith*, and accept what He has already done for us. It is then that we become truly His, and begin to know eternal life, even now. But we must be walking with Him now! As someone has said: "If we do not have Him with us in this life, He will not have us with Him in the next."!
I wish each and all who read these words, a good new year, and pray that it will be in His presence.
* These words are explained in my book: Great Words of the Faith: - link at the top of the page. Remember that I receive no financial benefit - ALL royalties are sent, directly, to the bank account of Release International in support of the persecuted church.