Forever

 I'm remembering a conversation I had with a couple of good pastor friends. We were talking about the prevalence of fear and uncertainty that is attacking our culture and the church. As we talked, one of my friends said, "I always tell my people that God is working with us from the perspective of eternity. I tell them, 'Jesus is walking around in your future.' "He spoke a deep truth in that, one that must weave its way into the very fabric of our being in the days we now find ourselves, living out our walk with and in Him.

Many quote Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and yes, forever," but believing can be near impossible when today is so frightening and tomorrow even more so. How much of that is due to our living a great portion of our lives in our yesterday's and today's, forgetting, as my friend said, that Jesus is operating out of the realm of eternity, of our forever? We become ensnared by what we have lived through and are now living in. We can't see beyond them. We are so grounded in the temporal that we can't even begin to grasp the reality of an eternal forever. What was, what is, bad as they may be, are more familiar and sadly, more comfortable for us. They hold us in captivity. 

I go back to my friend's statement, that Jesus is walking around in our future. That means He has fully explored it and fully knows it. He knows our yesterday's, today's, tomorrow's, and best of all, our forever. He invites us to entrust them all to Him. He "walks around" in all of them. He is Lord over all that has happened, is happening, and can ever happen in all of them. Nothing that could happen, has happened, or might ever happen has power over Him, so in Him, they have no power over us. 

One day, there will be yesterday's, today's, or tomorrow's. There will only be forever. For now, we live in time, but we're to live looking forward to where our true home is. Where the Father is, the Son, and His Holy Spirit. The home for which He made us. Nothing in time or in this world has power over them. The Father, the Son, the Spirit, and our lives in them.....are forever.

Blessings,
Pastor O