Look inside this book.Where the Bush is Burning: A Daily Devotional by [Thomas Tice]

Tag: Hebrews 1:3

Today

Today

By |

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  

Hebrews 13:8 

Why is it important that Christ is the same today? If we think of Him as the writer of Hebrews presents Him it becomes clear. The writer presents Christ as the Mediator of the new covenant. This supersedes the old covenant. As the Mediator of the new covenant, He is Prophet, Priest, and King. The people of God, His redeemed, stand in need of Him today. We need Christ as Prophet to speak to us today. We need Christ, as Priest to intercede for us today. We need Christ as King to rule over us today. While we live it is today. We do not live in yesterday, nor in tomorrow. Wherever we are in the chronology of human history, it is today. We need Christ to be the same today because He is the unchanging God in the midst of our changing world and circumstances of life. ‘When all around my soul give way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.’ We are utterly dependent upon the Christ Who is the same today as He was yesterday. This is why we have peace in this changing world.  

Our Great God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You are our very present help in time of trouble.
We praise You that all others may change, 
but You do not.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Yesterday

Yesterday

By |

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  

Hebrews 13:8 

Our text is a dogmatic, categorical statement. It explicitly sets forth that Christ is the same from eternity to eternity. How do we come to an understanding of this truth? We begin by considering how He is the same yesterday. In order to understand it aright, we must consider the testimony Christ bore of Himself. When His enemies challenged Him with the question, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’ His answer to them was, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.’ Thus, He used the Divine Name from Moses’ encounter with Jehovah at the burning bush. Christ was saying to His enemies that He is Jehovah. If we take that utterance and consider another verse from the Old Testament it will bring us to a definite conclusion about Christ. In Malachi 3:6 we find this statement, ‘For I am the LORD, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.’ If Christ is the I AM, that is Jehovah, then according to His testimony of Himself He does not change. Because God is eternal the logic follows that He has never changed. Thus, Christ is the same yesterday. It is important that we grasp the magnitude of this statement. Christ has been the same from of old.  

Our Glorious Living Saviour, 
we rejoice that You have been the same from ancient days. 
We praise You that we can utterly depend upon You. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
 
What Can Man Do?

What Can Man Do?

By |

When I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me? 

Psalm 56:3-4 

Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me? 

Hebrews 13:5-6 

David had hope in Christ. Christ referred to this understanding when He challenged the Pharisees regarding His identity. He asked them how Christ could be the Son of David, and David still refer to Him as Lord. This is one instance of David’s evangelical knowledge. In the four verses which form our text, we find the language is very similar. David repeats the key phrase even more specifically in the eleventh verse of the psalm when he says, ‘What can man do to me?’ The verses from Hebrews use that same phrase. We see there is a direct relation between David’s expressed confidence in God and the depiction of Christ from Hebrews. If David’s confidence was in Christ, so much so that he could say, ‘What can man do to me?’ we have every reason to believe that Christ will be as much with us as He was with him. We are the Body of Christ. We are the spiritual inheritors of the same faith David had. We believe, as David did, that nothing can happen to us that falls outside of the providential plan of God for us in Christ. If Christ will never leave us or forsake us, we may also boldly say, ‘What can man do to me?’  

Our Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You are always with us. 
We praise that, because You are,  
no one can touch us apart from Your will and plan. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
No Continuing City

No Continuing City

By |

No Continuing City

For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.

Hebrews 13:14

As the writer of Hebrews draws His epistle to a close, he continues with his overarching theme of ‘the things which are better.‘ He has taken the time to prove that the New Era is better than the Old, that the new priesthood is better than the old; and that the new revelations are better than the old. As he concludes, he refers to Christ and His suffering ‘outside the gate.’ He points out that in a de facto way, Christ was in the world, yet not of the world. He then applies that thought to us in our text for today. Because of Christ, and our relationship to Him, ‘here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.’ This brings us, first, to face our reality. As much as we may be in this world, we are not of this world. ‘We have no continuing city.’ We are in the tabernacles of the body, and only temporarily situated in our geographic locations. This brings us to consider very carefully how we view, houses, property, and even human relationships. We are Christ’s and Christ is not here. He was not of this world, but was here to accomplish His Mission. We are here, for the time, as His Body, to complete the mission which He has for us. This brings us to hold the things of time and sense more loosely, and to depend upon them less heavily.  Let us, today, dwell upon that which is, in order to prepare ourselves more thoroughly to dwell on that which is to come.

Our most Holy and Wise God,
we rejoice that You have brought us to where we are,
that You have things for us to do now,
and that You have set before us, grand and glorious things, which are yet to come.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
Our Unchanging Christ

Our Unchanging Christ

By |

Our Unchanging Christ

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

Hebrews 13:8

We live in a changing world, and are constantly changing ourselves. Although we look into the mirror day by day, and can often barely discern the changes, yet, they are there, and very real. In the midst of all this change, which is occurring both within us and around us, we desire constancy. Where shall we find it? Where is that which is so permanent and unchanging that we can find security for our souls? Our text for today sets this forth for us in glorious fashion, ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.’ What a wonderful declaration! Here is constancy; here is continuity; here is security. Christ was the same in eternity before the world began. His Love was fervent, strong, and pure. His regard for us, His people, was already firmly fixed and unwavering. His Plan and Purpose to do all that was necessary, to bring ‘many sons to glory’ was already fixed and unalterable. He is the same today. Having accomplished all that was necessary, by His Perfect Life, Atoning Death, and Glorious Resurrection, Christ is, even now, continuing to act on behalf of His Elect by His continual Intercession on behalf of His Blood-bought people. Christ shall continue to be the same, and that forever. Time and circumstance shall not change Him in any way whatsoever. He is and shall ever be, the Prophet, Priest, and King of His People. He is ‘the same, yesterday, today, and forever.’ ‘Change and decay, in all around I see.  O, Thou who changest not, abide with me.’

Our Most Gracious Unchanging God,
we rejoice that You are the same from age to age,
and that Your years fail not.
Abide with us we pray, through all our changing seasons of life.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Meta