Words Change. God Does Not.

I was reminded this week of the fluid nature of language and jargon. As an author, I am confronted by this surprisingly often. In Jordan's Deliverance, which takes place about fifty years in the fictional future, it was fun and challenging to craft jargon that doesn't exist yet. And in Unto Dust, I've had to research American jargon from the 1930s.

In a more colloquial sense, not all of the terms and words my generation (Generation X) used mean the same thing today. Often popular culture influences these changes, sometimes politics, and some things seem to happen at random.

It can be confusing sometimes, especially between generations of adults, because words have power. They are supposed to mean something. They can lift people's emotions or bring them down. They can be helpful or they can harm. They can bring clarity or they can obscure.

This is not so with the Living Word. Its meanings are not beholden to trends, popular notions or altering cultural influences. It is the Word of God and like God Himself, it does not change. The Bible's Old and New Testaments work together to inform, inspire, and comfort. They share a history of how God chose a people, interacted with them, sent His Son as the Messiah, and following Jesus's death, burial, and glorious resurrection, God sent His Holy Spirit into the world to make God's salvation available to everyone.


Hebrews 13:8 (King James Version = KJV)
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.


John 1: 1-4 (KJV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.


From the days of Abraham and Moses to the judges, kings, and prophets to the days of Jesus and His disciples to today, God has stayed the same. His Word has not changed. It has been read, studied and used for inspiration and comfort throughout the ages. It is a Living Word and that is why it can still affect lives for the better now and with whatever the future brings.

God does not change.


Malachi 3: 5-6 (KJV)
And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.

For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.


I Peter 1: 24-25 (KJV)

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.


So, no matter what changes occur in this world — from words, language or jargon to real-life events and experiences, you can be sure of two things:

1. God and His Word will never change.

2. If you keep your eyes on the Lord and strive to be like Him, according to His Word, He will bless your efforts.

Take comfort in that, now and in the days to come.