Month: March 2016

Trust an Unchanging God

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God is an immutable being (James 1:17), which means He does not have the ability to change. God not only does not change, He doesn’t have the ability to change.

“To say that God is immutable is to say that He never differs from Himself. The concept of a growing or developing God is not found in the Scriptures…For a moral being to change it would be necessary that the change be in one of three directions. He must go from better to worse or from worse to better; or granted that the moral quality remain stable, he must change within himself, as from immature to mature or from one order of being to another. It should be clear that God can move in none of these directions. His perfections forever rule out any such possibility. God cannot change for the better. Since He is perfectly holy, He has never been less holy than He is now and can never be holier than He is and has always been. A deterioration within the unspeakably holy nature of God is impossible. Indeed I believe it impossible even to think of such a thing, for the moment we attempt to do so, the object about which we are thinking is no longer God but something else and someone less than He.”—A.W.Tozer

Read the verses below to see what the Bible reveals about the immutability of God:

  • Psalm 119:89―God is changeless in His person. (Cf.Heb.13:8)
  • Isaiah 46:9-10―God is changeless in His purposes. (Cf.Ps.33:11; Mal.3:6)
  • Numbers 23:19―God is changeless in His promises. (Cf.1 Sam.15:2)

God will never change who He is, His plan, nor what He has guaranteed to do, be, and give to His beloved. Will you trust Him today?

All That Thrills My Soul

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My Grandmother is 94 years old and suffers from dementia. It has been a roller coaster ride for my mom for a long time. Some days are good days, some not so good, and she never knows from one day to the next what to expect. I was very thankful and humbled last month when I went down to Tucson and had an amazing visit with Grandma. She was well enough for my mom to bring her over to the house. Grandma was so filled with joy in her heart and happy to be with people she loves. I was so thankful she recognized all of us and was just in a good frame of mind. Words were spoken between us. Sweet words. But, a lot of the time was just sitting with each other. We sat on the back porch and watched the kids swing. Grandma commented how it felt good to be outside with blue skies and family. Just sitting and being was enough. She didn’t need some new reality; she was thrilled to be a part of the ordinary of life.

John Piper has said, “The curse of our fallen nature is that what once thrilled us becomes ordinary. The reality hasn’t changed. We have changed.” This is true of our lives on so many levels. Children get a new toy that grabs their attention for a while, but soon enough it becomes ordinary and doesn’t excite them anymore. New parents bubble with joy over the gift of a new baby, but soon get blinded by the monotony of caring for a family and are not as excited about the treasures they have been given. If we are honest, this can become our attitude with God and His Word too. Truths that once enlightened and thrilled our hearts can become so ordinary to us. Did God change? Did the amazing reality of the truth change? No, we did.

So, when we fall into this slump of losing the thrill in our hearts, what are we to do? Our hearts need to be stirred up by way of reminder (2 Peter 3:2). God is unchanging. He is always great, always awesome, always extraordinary. We need to remind ourselves and each other about all that we already know to be true. And sometimes, God will sovereignly allow circumstances in our lives to bring us back to the place of treasuring Him.

What things have blocked your view of God? What truths about Him do you need to remember in order to stir your heart up again? Don’t miss Him today. He is the same God who thrilled you when you first believed.

All that thrills my soul is Jesus.
He is more than life to me.
And the fairest of ten thousand
in my blessed Lord I see.
(All That Thrills My Soul, Thoro Harris)

Does God’s Immutability Affect the Family?

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“Change is the only constant in life.” You may have heard a saying like this at some point in your life. This quote is said to have come from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who lived from 535-475 BC. So what is change? Webster’s dictionary defines it as: to make different. When we think about change, it can be for the better or for the worse. For example, I have made the decision to change my eating habits. I have a sweet tooth like nobody’s business; but I have chosen to cut back on the number of sweet treats I enjoy. Most would agree that this is a change for the better. On the flip side, due to my profession, I regularly see people who fail to take their prescribed medications or even take too much of their medications and unfortunately their health takes a turn for the worse.

I would agree that change is the only constant in life. It’s all around us and is a part of every aspect of life. One area of life that experiences changes is the family. I remember when my wife and I got married, we went from singleness to starting our family and experienced the change in responsibility and accountability to each other when two people come together in marriage. Families with children know this all too well—parents deal with changing countless diapers, changes in their children’s growth and development, and when their kids get old enough, the constant changing of their little minds. Change is a constant thing in the context of the family.

Even society’s view of what makes up a family and how a family looks has changed or become progressive—meaning that the historical and traditional sense of the family is no longer the only way or even perhaps not even the right way to understand what family is. In today’s culture the changing view involves the idea that two women or two men can constitute a marriage.

I would like to offer the biblical perspective or God’s viewpoint of the family. Although I agree that “Change is the only constant in life,” I also believe that there is One who is constantly without change, in other words One who is immutable. God says of Himself that He does not change: “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6). God is perfect in all His attributes and knowledge; He does not need anything added to Himself. If He could have some attribute or knowledge taken away or lost, He would no longer be perfect; therefore, His immutability is an inevitable result of His perfection. Since God does not change, God’s ordained concept of family has never and will never change. He told Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:28). From a plain reading of this verse in context, we can glean that God established the family to be made up of a marriage union between a man and a woman and in this context, children are to be raised (Cf. Genesis 2:24). This is also seen in the New Testament book of Ephesians, where Paul explains that the family is to be a husband who loves his wife, a wife who honors and respects her husband, and children who are raised up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 5:22-6:4).

So even in the progressive climate of our society, God and His Word are unchanging; therefore, we can be confident that what God has ordained concerning the family will never change. And as long as we stand with God, we will always be on the right side of change.

 

Can Money Influence Your Faith?

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Does your behavior change based on your financial situation? For example, are you more generous when you feel you have an abundance? How about the opposite? Are you stingy when you feel things are tight with your finances? Most of us are usually not “always” generous or “always” stingy (I said most), we typically change based on our financial situation, don’t we?

In her blog post on Money Crashers, Jacqueline Curtis writes:

Going from rags to riches is essentially the American Dream. Whether it happens by way of a better-paying job or winning the lottery, some studies suggest that money can change your behavior—and not always for the better. Of course, there are plenty of charitable, helpful, and giving wealthy people. However, results from some studies have proven that they may be the exception, rather than the rule.

Your thoughts, behavior, and actions are all linked to your psychology, which is composed of a host of factors ranging from your genetic makeup to the way you were raised. While money doesn’t exactly shape your belief system, it can influence the way you think and act toward others. Gaining a better understanding of the sway that money—or the lack of it—may have on your behavior can make you more aware of when it might be pulling your strings and, hopefully, help you learn to stop it.

Aren’t you glad we serve a God who does not, cannot, and will not change? Malachi 3:6 says “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.” God owns it all; there is no “shadow of turning” from his revealed purpose or truth. We can count on Him to be and do exactly what He promises in His Word.

While our behavior may change based on our financial situation, our faith in Christ should never ever waver because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8).