Unchanging

    There was man from Brooklyn who went to court to change his last name from Kelly to Feinberg. Then a year later he went back to the same court to change is name again. This time he changed his name to Garibaldi. 

    It was at this time the judge asked the man "Mr. Feinberg this is the second time you have petitioned this court to change your last name with in a year. Now I must ask you are you trying to make the court confused or foolish?" 

    The man replied "No not at all your Honor" 

    "Well then why are you changing your name then" asked the judge

    The man replied "Because your Honor my neighborhood keeps changing" 

We live in a world full of change do we not. From culture, to technology, to style, to politics nothing stays the same. In our church we have a wonderful godly lady who is 101 years old I can't imagine the changes she has seen in her lifetime. She used to teach in a one room school house years ago. Now today schools can do online learning. Students used to write there ABC on slate, now students are taking home computers home instead of books. 

    However even in my own life I have seen quite a few changes myself and I am just 45 years old. I can remember my teachers always talking about how I needed to memorize my multiplication tables because i won't always have a calculator around. I would love to go back in time and show them everything my phone can do now. Just a few short decades we went from pen and ink, to computers, to laptop's and now tablets. 

    Now one thing is for sure, we don't always like change. In fact many times we fight it tooth and nail. We like the familiar, the ol' reliable but change tends to mess those two things up. We don't like to change our routine, and learn new things.

    It was not too long ago that Taco Bell had said that they were doing away with the Taco Pizza. When it was announced there was a great outcry to Taco Bell to bring it back. The odd thing is that I willing to wager that many of those people had probably not bought a Taco Pizza from Taco Bell in quite sometime. In fact I am pretty sure that the the reason why Taco Bell made such a move was because there were not that many people actually buying that menu item. 

    

    So why the outrage? Why the outcry to bring back a menu item few people actually ate on a regular basis? Well my hunch is that they were familiar with it, they depended on it being there. I think they correlated the Taco Pizza with Taco Bell. For Taco Bell getting rid of the Taco Pizza would be like McDonalds getting rid of the BigMac or Burger King getting rid of the Whopper. It was changed that the people spoke and said they did not like it, so bring it back! 

We sometimes can read certain stories in scripture and think that God has some how changed. When we read stories like the Red Sea crossing and how Israel walked across the Sea on DRY GROUND! WOW!  Or when we read about how Daniel was throne into the lion's den, filled with hungry blood thirsty lions and spent the night and the next Day Daniel was perfectly fine with not a scratch on him.

We read stories about Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego, and how they were thrown in a fiery furnace and not only where they not burned, they did not even smell like smoke!  Or when we read about how Jesus hearing of Lazarus's death called out to him to come out of the grave and Lazarus who was dead for 4 days all of a sudden came back to life! We read these stories and it can cause us to think that perhaps that God and the God of Today are some how different. We sometimes can think that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament has some how changed. 

When we think about God, we need to understand that one of His Characteristics is that He does not change. He is unchanging. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, and will be the same for all eternity.  He will not change His Nature, His Power, His Character, or His will. He is unchanging. The God that Abraham worshiped is the same God that David danced for, and it is the same God we read about in Revelation chapter 5 and 6.  He can not be forced to change His will, or His ways, He is unchangeable. 

“Because I, Yahweh have not changed you descendents of Jacob have not been Destoryed (Malachi 3:16)

When that passage was written the nation of Israel had been in rebellion against God and His words for years. Time after time they had followed after other Gods and followed the examples of other nations. They had at one time said that they would follow God and His word, but the nation had changed and no longer were faithful to the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. 

     So what is God's response to there change of heart? How does God respond to there constant and consistent rebellion? Well God tells us that He has not changed and for that reason alone Jacob has not been destroyed. God is saying, even though your loyalty towards me, and your love for me has changed, my love and my promises toward you have not changed. In short God is saying "You might have changed but I have not" 

    Now this should be a great comfort for you and I. You see there is nothing you or I can do that will ever change God's love for us. We can know for certain that all the promises that God makes in His word He will keep. All of the things God tells us about who He is, will not change. The God you relied on last year, is the same God you can rely on today. He is the same yesterday, today and forever more. 

     You see the unchangeableness of God can give us comfort in the day and age in which we are living in. In a time when change is happening all around us, God is still the same. When the issues of life change unexpectedly, God is still the same. When facing the challenges and uncertainties of change that we all must go through in this life, God is still the same. When nothing in your life seems familiar or dependable, God has not changed. 

SO take a moment out sometime today or this week to read one of those great stories in the bible. Maybe the story of the Exodus journey, Elijah on Mt. Carmel, or Daniel in the lions den. Maybe the story about Jesus walking on water, or maybe the story of how a viper bit Paul and he did not die.

 But what ever story you decide to read, remember that the same God you read about in those stores is the same God today. Then take some time to  pray to God and thank him that He is unchangeable. He can do great things in your life today, because he has done great thing in the lives of others in the past.