A God of Absolutes.

Over a number of years, I have developed the habit of weighing myself every Friday morning - just to keep a careful eye on my weight! However, I have discovered that our bathroom scales play a trick! When I first step on to them, they register a certain weight. However, if I then step off, and back on again, I amazingly lose a couple of pounds in the process! Neither dieting nor exercise required!! Regretfully, repeating the action doesn't lose me another couple of pounds! Now one of those readings must, surely, be false. However, needless to say, I judge my 'progress' by the lower reading!

We live in an age in which many people believe that there are no absolutes! Self-serving behaviour, it would appear, is the order of the day, and tramples the moral law given for the protection of society. Our contemporary culture prides itself on 'freedom' - that is actually bondage to sin. I am, allegedly, "free" to do what I want; to believe what I want; to be what I want. However, the truth is that I am going to conform to something outwith myself - in many cases, the latest fashion or fad! 

In some educational establishments, for example, the concept of a school uniform appears to be unknown. Pupils may wear what they wish, provided that it does not cause unnecessary offence! However, as one drives past such schools, one often observes that the pupils are all dressed in the same way! They may not be wearing a school-sanctioned uniform - but they tend to be dressed uniformly!

Paul writes to the early disciples of Jesus in Rome: "Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness." Rom 6:16-18. In other words, whether we admit it, or not, we are subject to that which effectively controls our actions!

Almighty God is the God of absolutes. His scales never give a false reading. With Him, a pound is a pound; a kilogram is a kilogram; right is right; wrong is wrong. He says "... I, YHWH, do not change;" (Mal 3:6). The writer of the Letter to Hebrew disciples of Jesus, states that "Jesus, the Christ, is the same yesterday and today and for ever." (Heb. 13:8). This means that what He has declared to be sin, is sin - regardless of what humanity may otherwise decide! His Word is true, and eternal.

For those of us who are His disciples, this assurance is a source of great strength. We gain confidence in the face of difficulty, and anticipate the fulfilment of every divine promise, and prophecy. I am nearing the end of my current reading of the Book of Daniel in my personal devotions. I am now working my way through ch.11, and am amazed at the accuracy of prophecy that any student of history can confirm as having taken place. This, of course, encourages me that those prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled, will be - in His perfect timing!

If Almighty God were easily moved by every whim or notion, our eternal destiny would be in constant jeopardy. But, because He is the Unchanging One, we may be absolutely certain that His promise is true, that He "... so loved the world that He (the Father) gave His (the Father's) only Son, that whoever believes in Him (the Son) should not perish but have (here, and now) eternal life." (John 3:16; emphases added). 

Have you taken Him at His word?!