Well, in a few days
there’s going to be some major changes taking place in our country and its
government. I’m not going to opine on the pros or cons of our
governmental changes, I’m just going to use “change” as the basis for our
lesson today because “change” is one of those inevitable things about this
world we live in. The reason why is because it’s tied to “time” and
“time” only applies to this world and us as we occupy it.
Nothing of this world
remains the same because of two types of changes that occur - natural change
and capricious change. In the “natural” realm of change our bodies age
and boy do they change. Simply speaking, we just wear out. As I
said, it’s just the nature of things associated with this earth.
But, the area of
“capricious” change is different. This is the kind of change that man
(we) cause to change. We’re just constantly changing things, sometimes
whether they need it or not. Sometimes we just can’t leave well enough
alone. And, sometimes the change is good, and sometimes it isn’t.
Since man sinned and was ejected from The Garden, nothing has remained the
same.
We’ve been studying
about ancient Israel in our Sunday morning class and they’ll serve us well as
an illustration to this lesson. In the first chapter of Exodus we find
Israel living in the land of Egypt and everything was just “peachy keen” for
them. All of a sudden a new government came into power and their lives
changed. And it wasn’t for the better either.
My point here is, that
things can change from good to bad rather quickly, however, sometimes they can
change from bad to good. Let’s hope that our coming government change
will be a change for the better. But, whether natural or capricious,
change will be a part of this world as long as it exists.
Aren’t you glad that
there is one thing that doesn’t change - God and His Word? Think about
it, when it comes to God’s rules they are the same for everyone. Have
always been so and will remain so forever. I cited the passage from Mal.
3:6 where God says (in modern language) “I
DO NOT CHANGE!”
What that says to me is,
that God does not operate like man. He is not capricious like man
is. He has set His standards and given them to us in His Word and we can
know assuredly that we don’t have to worry about them being changed on us in
mid-stream, so to speak.
To me, there’s a lot of
comfort in knowing that there is only ONE set of rules for us to follow in
order to be saved. Only ONE plan given for man to reach heaven.
That these rules and this plan is the same for every human being on
earth. This is the only example of perfect quality we’ll ever see on this
earth.
There’s a great old hymn
in our songbooks entitled “Abide
With Me” which originated as a poem written by Henry F. Lyte, a
minister in England. Henry suffered from a serious lung condition which
eventually turned into tuberculosis. On September 4th, 1847, at the age
of 54, he preached his last sermon. Following the sermon he sat down and
penned the poem “Abide With
Me.”
Shortly after that, he
traveled to Italy where the climate was much more suited to helping his lungs
however it was too late to do any good. In November of 1847 he passed
away. It’s these words of the second verse that tie this hymn to our
lesson topic today: “Change
and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me.”
There’s another
beautiful old hymn that fits very well with both the lesson and the poem of
Henry Lyte. It was written by Knowles Shaw and its words were taken,
almost verbatim, from the first 7 verses of the 15th chapter of John. The
title of this hymn is “I Am
The Vine.” I encourage you to read that passage from John 15,
but I’d like to cite one verse from it here. It’s verse 7 and it reads “If you abide in Me, and My words abide
in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
Yes, it’s just a fact of
life on this earth that things are constantly changing. Some good, some
bad, but know assuredly that everything about us and this world that we occupy
will change. The only thing that we have that is constant, that doesn’t
change is the Creator of this world - GOD!
If we “abide in Him” we have His
Word that He “abides in us.”
Further, He left us with another promise that should comfort all of us.
In Heb. 13:5 he says “...I
will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” And that will never
change.
Respectfully submitted,
Ron Covey
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