The God who’s always present.
The God who’s always present.
John Henry Jowett on the wonderful glory of a Christ who is “the same, yesterday, today, and forever.”
As a follow-up to my post from Thursday, I recently finished reading through a collection of a dead guy’s sermons. In God—Our Contemporary — which you can read for free over on Google Books, by the way — John Henry Jowett articulates, through a series of fifteen readings, the varied ways in which God the Father works in and through our present circumstances to accomplish his purposes. In one of the more trenchant excerpts from this little volume, Jowett upholds the wonderful glory of a Christ who is “the same, yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). He writes:
Christ is not an anachronism. The passing of the centuries does not leave Him far behind. He is not a tale that is told. He is as modern as our most modern necessities. He is as original as the most novel circumstance. He is level with our immediate task. He keeps pace with the most startling and unexpected challenge. Nay, the promise of the word is even more than this; He not only keeps with things, He goes before. He is always in front of the age. He is ever ahead with a more exacting call. (196–97)
I am grateful for works such as this, where even though some illustrations and some uses of language are antiquated, there exists a through-line of profound meaning, hope, and peace. All of which is brought to bear through repeated repose in and resting on the God who is always in the present.
Soli Deo Gloria. Amen.
Works cited:
John Henry Jowett, God—Our Contemporary (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1922).