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Do you get the feeling that God has changed over your lifetime?
In the last book of the Old Testament God says through the prophet Malachi, “I am the Lord, and I do not change.” (Mal 3:6)
James says something similar in 1:17 Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father who created all the lights in the heavens. He is always the same and never makes dark shadows by changing.
God doesn’t change but our understanding of God does. Paul says when he was a child he thought like a child and so do we. Once we’ve matured we no longer have a childish view of God.
It’s interesting to consider how the Bible gives us a developing view of God. For example the Israelites gradually moved from believing that God was one among many gods to the only God. Now it’s quite clear God hadn’t changed but the people’s understanding of God and the truth about God had.
God doesn’t grow up with our faith but our faith in God grows and develops. It might be interesting for you to take a break from reading this and think about how your view of God has changed over time and how this affects the way you relate to God.
One of the big questions I’ve been puzzling over because of the theme I was given for the Lenten services is did the incarnation change God? When the word was made flesh, as John puts it, when Jesus was born and became one of us, did that change God?
As we continue on our journey to Easter I wonder in particular whether Jesus experience of death on the cross changed God? Does God understand us better now than he did before? I don’t know the answer but I know that Jesus’ death and resurrection makes a world of difference to each of us. Praise God for his amazing love!
Living in eternity
by Tim Klein
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He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive (Luke 20:38).
Read Luke 20:27–38
What an irony, and we can be sure this is not lost on Jesus. Here in Luke 20, the Sadducees, who do not believe in resurrection, ask Jesus a question as if they did believe in resurrection. They are, once again, trying to trap Jesus, and he knows it. Yet Jesus gave them a serious answer: ‘He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.’ Where do they go with that eternal wisdom?
And now to us.
We confess in the creeds that we believe in the resurrection of the dead. What Jesus says is significant for us. He calls us ‘children of the resurrection’ (verse 36). He also calls us ‘people of this age’ who marry and are given in marriage (verse 34). As children of the resurrection, we belong to both ages. We live in the context of eternity. We are people of the age to come, where the Lord’s surpassing riches of grace will be fully revealed (Ephesians 2:7). In our brokenness, we live in this hope.
By God’s grace, I am the husband of one wife – but in this age, that could be another story completely (as the Sadducees described). We all know people to whom God has extended grace and gifted a new partner in life.
We all live with the brokenness of sin and its consequences.
To him, even after we die, we are all alive. In the meantime, we all rely on the never-ending mercy and grace of God. Jesus’ death was for you and me. His resurrection informs us that his sacrifice has paid the price for our sinfulness. He forgives – he lives. His life assures us of life as children of resurrection: here and now, and into eternity.
Because he lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because he lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know he holds the future,
And life is worth the living, just because he lives.
–Because he lives by William and Gloria Gaither, 1971, Gaither Music Company
Father, in Jesus’ name, I praise you for all you have done. Keep my eyes fixed on you. Keep hope alive – even when I am caught up in sin. Thank you for your mercy and grace and for the new things you are doing in my life. Amen.
Tim is a recently retired LCANZ pastor. He enjoys spending time with family, connecting with neighbours and gardening. This is the season of flowers: beautiful irises, anemones, proteas, leucodendrons and leucospermums – and roses! They all give witness to God’s glory and grace.
Steadfast feet on ‘the Way’
by Maria Rudolph
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
My steps have held to your paths, my feet have not slipped (Psalm 17:5).
Read Psalm 17:1–9
There are many great African spirituals that sing of steadfast feet on the path of Jesus: ‘We are marching in the light of God; we are marching in the light of God …’ Or how about this one: ‘It is a great thing to love Jesus, it is a great thing to love Jesus, it is a great thing to love Jesus, walking in the light of God. Walk, walk, walk, walk, walking in the light …’ If either of these songs gets stuck in your head this Saturday, praise the Lord!
In Psalm 119:105, we read, ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.’ Psalm 121, a pilgrimage song, contains the words, ‘He will not let your foot slip – he who watches over you will not slumber … The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.’
The first Christians were known as followers of ‘the Way’. What a great joy it is for us, too, to be followers of the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). The Apostle Paul remarked:
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! (Romans 10:13–15)
Dear Lord, give me beautiful feet that bring the good news wherever I go. May the feet of God walk with me and his hand hold me tight wherever I go. Light of the World, illuminate your path before me so I do not stray to the right or to the left. Grant me steadfast feet on the Way. Amen.
Pastor Maria serves at St John’s Lutheran Church Perth in Western Australia. She is blessed with her pastor husband, Michael, who serves at Concordia Lutheran Church, Duncraig. With God’s help, they navigate ministry across two parishes and life at home with two beautiful primary-school-aged kids and one amazing high schooler. Pastor Maria also serves the Lutheran Church on the Commission on Theology and Inter-Church Relations.
Have mercy on me
by Maria Rudolph
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
The poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought … It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him (2 Samuel 12:3).
Read 2 Samuel 12:1–14
Formerly a shepherd boy, King David is confronted with a parable about a beloved lamb being slaughtered unjustly in his darkest hour of sin. Nathan the prophet exposed his sin, adultery, deceit and murder. David would have felt the sting of this story acutely.
Psalm 51 flows out of David’s quill straight after that shocking visit from the prophet Nathan: ‘For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.’
We draw some of our Lutheran liturgy straight from that psalm:
Against you, you alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise (Psalm 51:4,10–12,15).
David was no stranger to sin, and neither are we. David knew that there was only one Good Shepherd who would make the sheep lie down in green pastures and help them not fear even in the valley of the shadow of death. Ultimately, from the line of David, Jesus would be born, only to lay down his life as the sacrificial lamb for the sins of the world.
Cling on to Jesus today. His grace and redemption are bigger than your sins. Hand each of them over to Jesus, one by one. Join David in praying Psalm 51 in repentance, asking God to have mercy on you. For the sake of Jesus, you are restored, you are redeemed, and your sins are forgiven.
Read Psalm 51 and then pray this prayer:
Thank you, merciful God! I can breathe again. You have redeemed me. You have washed me in your blood, and I have come out whiter than snow. Through the waters of baptism, your mercies are new every morning, great is your faithfulness! Thank you for forgiving and loving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Pastor Maria serves at St John’s Lutheran Church Perth in Western Australia. She is blessed with her pastor husband, Michael, who serves at Concordia Lutheran Church, Duncraig. With God’s help, they navigate ministry across two parishes and life at home with two beautiful primary-school-aged kids and one amazing high schooler. Pastor Maria also serves the Lutheran Church on the Commission on Theology and Inter-Church Relations.