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"After all this time?". . ."Always."

"I'm not the same me, and that's all the proof I need"-Britt Nicole, "All This Time"

The title of this post comes from a conversation in one of the Harry Potter novels. In this conversation, one of the characters is telling another about his love for someone, a love so strong that even his beloved's death did not quench it. Christ offers His people this kind of love as well, but His is even stronger because He loves everyone this way, and His love is unconditional. He has loved us since long before we knew Him, He loves us even when we make mistakes, and He even loves those who have turned their backs on Him or never want to know Him. There is nothing we can do to earn His love, and there is also nothing we could ever do to lose it.

Christ's love is also transformative. As is stated in the song quote that opens this post, after we accept His love for us, we will never be the same again. Even before Christ was born, the Israelites knew that loving God could change a person's life forever. In Ezekiel 46:9, God gives the commandment "But when the people come in through the north gateway to worship the Lord during the religious festivals, they must leave by the south gateway. And those who entered through the south gateway must leave by the north gateway. They must never leave by the same gateway they came in, but must always use the opposite gateway." God doesn't want us to be the same people when we leave as we are when we came in, so he commanded the Israelites to leave by different gateways as a symbol of how an encounter with God could change them.

So how should we respond to this commandment in the 21st century? I'm not suggesting we enter and exit the church through different doors. In most churches, this is impractical, and in some it may even be impossible. Personally, I believe in a less literal interpretation of this scripture. I believe that we should go into worship each Sunday morning expecting to be changed. Worship is one of the disciplines through which God's truth is revealed to us. God loves us just the way we are, but He also loves us too much to leave us that way. He offers us a new life, but we need to be willing to take it. He has been walking with us our whole lives, and He invites us to follow Him to the eternal life granted to us through the sacrifice and resurrection of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

Britt Nicole-"All this Time"

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