Hi All! I have been away from the blog and busy with life. My children are back in school full time and have two more weeks before summer vacation. I have also received a new appointment at a nearby church as a senior pastor, and we'll be moving to a new home in four weeks. Life is good and life is busy! How are you? I'd love to hear what you are doing in the comments below. In the meantime, please enjoy this devotion I wrote for my current congregation. May God be with you! Blessings!
Photo by Stephen Mayes on Unsplash
Do you feel Jesus with you today?
In the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, the Apostle John quotes Jesus Christ: “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” The letters Alpha and Omega are the beginning and the end of the Greek alphabet. We could just as easily say Jesus is the A and the Z.
When Jesus says he is the Alpha and Omega, Jesus is saying he was with us at the beginning of time and will be with us at the end. And, yet Jesus is not only with us at the beginning and in the end, but also is with us for everything in between, including this very moment.
Here are the words Jesus says in the first chapter of Revelation:
‘I am the Alpha and the Omega...who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Eugene Peterson, in The Message version of the Bible, writes Jesus’ words this way:
“I’m A to Z. I’m The God Who Is, The God Who Was, and The God About to Arrive. I’m the Sovereign-Strong.”
Christians believe that God created the heavens and the earth and everything that lives, including each one of us. And not just God the Father created but also God the Son.
The first two verses of the Gospel of John tell us that in the beginning of time Jesus was with God and was God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus was in the beginning with God.” God in Christ is the Alpha.
We also believe that God in Christ is present in the end of all things. Jesus Christ is the one who will come at the end of time and the one whom we’ll see at the end of our own lives. Christ is the Omega.
That’s what we believe. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
But do we believe that Christ is in the middle? In the midst of our everyday lives?
I don’t know about you but I am very good at starting home improvement projects. I look in magazines and on websites finding ideas for decorating. I have a couple of books detailing do-it-yourself projects to make my apartment feel like a home. I have a Pinterest page full of pins and ideas for projects for the kids’ bedroom and porch garden.
But I have to admit to you that I am not always good at finishing projects. I’ll start pulling weeds, but then I get tired and stop. Or I buy a picture frame, but I never get around to putting a picture in the frame. We are good at starting projects, but not so good at finishing them.
Or that fitness routine and diet? It’s fun and easy to buy a treadmill and buy new healthy foods. But after the first few weeks – or let’s be truthful: after the first few days! – how many of us are still working out and eating our greens? We as humans sometimes have a tough time finishing what we start.
That’s why we sometimes wonder if God is like that too. Have you ever gone through a tough time in your life and wondered if Jesus was there? How easy is it to say, “It doesn’t feel like God is part of my life right now. God may have created me, and God may see me at the end, but God is not present now.”
Perhaps it is when you go to doctor’s appointment after doctor’s appointment only to keep hearing devastating news. Or you receive a bad phone call. Or you have a child or a friend who doesn’t seem to change after making horrible mistakes. Sometimes it is hard to feel God’s presence. Yet, thankfully, God does not stop what God starts. I am here to assure us today that Jesus Christ is present in the midst of our everyday, messy lives.
God in Christ doesn’t quit after beginning a project. Jesus is part of our entire human story – from the beginning to the end – not just at the beginning and at the end. The statement that Christ is in our lives is a statement of hope and trust. Not only do we believe that Christ is present with us at each and every point of our lives, we are counting on it.
What does it look like for God to be with us at all points in our life? How does trusting in Jesus as Christ help us view daily life differently? Knowing that God has been with us from the beginning, is with us now, and will be with us until the end means: we can pray and feel assured that God is listening; we can take deep breaths and feel encouraged that God cares; we can stay positive because we know God loves us.
Jesus is “The Alpha and the Omega.” Jesus is the beginning and the end, the one who is with you at all times. Jesus Christ is always with you.