Yesterday Today ForeverSample

If there are many ways to God, then many will get lost. If I were to tell you 10 different directions to my house all at one time, most likely you will get lost. Compare that with my telling you one clear and simple way to find me.  

Jesus was being exclusive with Thomas in order to be simple and clear. The most simple things in life are often the most beautiful. Simple, clean design is celebrated. Simple, clean fashion is seen as timeless and lasting. But the most simple things can actually be incredibly complex and deep. It’s the desire of the Lord that explains why He has made the way so clear and accessible for all. His desire is oneness with us, for intimacy and relationship, for sharing His glory.  That desire has never changed. It has been the same yesterday, today and forever.   This Way is exclusive because of who He is -- there is no one like Him -- but He is totally inclusive in who can experience this oneness through His grace.

Because God wants us to have clear access to Himself, if He did make the way to Himself confusing, then He’d be working against His purpose. For God to have many ways to Him, and not one way, would defy what He wants. The enemy and our own sinful nature have made something so simple and beautiful -- the way to God -- into something complicated and ugly. We have added to His Way, we have argued against the Way, we have debated over the Way, we have disagreed with the Way, we have blocked the Way,  and we have denied the Way and said we will find our own way to God, without God.

This is a big part of why the world is that way it is. 

We took the way of love and made it a way of lust. We took the way of generosity and made it a way of greed. We took the way of kindness and made it a way of hate.

We all want to find our way to perfect love, which is the Father. Jesus came to show us the way, to show us the truth and give us the life that allows us to enter back into this beauty, no longer a way that is separated and confused but now connected and clear. In His presence is clarity and peace that transcends our sinful understanding and surpasses our complicated love.

We know the Way now. It has been the same Way yesterday, today, and forever.  The question is, will we surrender our way for His way so we do not waste our today and our forever, so that we would be freed from the shame of our yesterday?