Hebrews 13:8 NIV
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Eighty years ago on September 27, 1944, God called home a most remarkable woman, but on July 28, 1922, Sister Aimee looked the KKK straight into their eyes and told them that God could see behind their hoods. Aimee Semple McPherson, affectionately known as Sister Aimee, was the founder of the Foursquare Church. Now finding Bible verses hanging inside a church isn’t terribly shocking, but if you go to a Foursquare church in Hawaii to Maine, Alaska to Florida, each of them will have Hebrews 13:8 written on the wall as per the instructions of founder Sister Aimee. Knowing that this verse, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” was the foundation of Bible Christianity gave this optimistically formidable woman the courage to stand up to the KKK, the Depression, War, natural disasters, kidnappings, illnesses, and deep personal griefs while never losing sight of her true mission of bringing the lost to Jesus.
In the 1920s, the KKK had a resurgence. This wasn’t exactly the same KKK as in the South in the 1800s, but an isolationist society operating under the guise of Christian patriotism. They sought to gain their strength in small town USA, participating with floats in the parades of local celebrations and assisting the small white business man. Immigrants, Jews, and Catholics (because they were under the foreign control of the Pope) were a treasonous threat. The KKK seemed attracted to the message Sister Aimee was delivering in her revivals leading them to basically kidnap her at least two times to give private sermons at their clandestine meetings. But the night over 200 of their members came in their cloak and hood regalia to Sister Aimee’s temple service, these nativists received an illuminating lesson.
She began her sermon by recounting the story of a black farmer. He entered a big fancy church to worship the Master, but was escorted out because he didn’t belong there. The man, weary and dejected, sat down on the steps and wept until a stranger approached him. The stranger said, “Don’t be sad, I’ve been trying to get into that church for years too!” The man looked up and straight into the face of Jesus. Sister Aimee finished her sermon with, “Ask yourselves, how is it possible to pretend to worship the greatest Jew that ever lived and then despise living Jews and to judge the value of man by the color of his skin?”
The Klan members rose from their seats and exited the temple. Moments later, changed men donned only in suits returned to the empty seats. The first step for them to recognize their false doctrine was the realization that the Jesus as revealed to us from the manager, to the cross, to His resurrection, until His second coming doesn’t change. His message doesn’t transmute with popular culture or the latest craze. Many can try to manipulate His teaching to suit their purpose, but the truth is: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Aimee knew that truth, lived that truth, and left that truth as a legacy hanging in each Foursquare Church.
