Seasons of Change

As much as we may love routine or how things are in our life or plans now, change seems to always sneak into our lives. People move, new technologies change the way tasks are done, jobs responsibilities or opportunities change, and many other things.

There are times in life when there is very little change, and other times when it seems like change happens way more than we want for months on end.

It's at times of unexpected change that faith is of great help to us. We often don't know why things are changing, but we know that God has a good plan for us. We know that he will give us the strength and will love us still at the times when we feel weak.

Whether it's a time of change in your life or not, now is a good time to soak in the meaning of the Bible, of what Christ's work means and how God has a good plan for his children and will be with them. That will help prepare for times of transition but also helps in times of transitions.

Often transition takes up large amounts of time and thought, and having already really learned about God and our relation to him can be in the back of our mind or there in quick moments in between tasks, and is a comfort to us.

The more we study and truly learn God's Word, the more we'll feel a confidence that God will always love us and allow things to happen for our overall good.

This reminds me that God never changes. However much we feel life around us is shifting and changing, we know that God is still the same God he was yesterday. And if we truly know God, we know that is a great thing.

Faith is not simply Intellectual Assent

Faith Is Not Simply Intellectual Assent Faith is not simply intellectual assent. Faith involves accepting the claims of Jesus intellectually but it is far deeper. You see there are many things we accept in life which have no affect on us.

Many pieces of information we learn have no affect on us. We believe they are true but they make no difference on our life. You see many high school students ask in classes what practical value the information has. Usually the high school students are simply missing the value of the information presented, but the fact is true there can be information learned which has no affect on one's life.

If our acceptance of Christianity has no affect on our life then something is profoundly wrong. The Christian faith should have a profound affect on our life.

Of course it is common for sincere Christians to doubt God's love for them. A person who is concerned if God loves them usually is a child of God. It is usually a sign of a weak faith or a strong faith which has gone through a difficult time.

Usually the sort of intellectual assent which is not faith does not care about Christianity. It accepts the claims of Christianity and moves on unchanged. It does not care that there is no evidence of change in their life.

True faith has an appreciation for what God has done. It is active and transforms the person. It reaches out into the world to live out its faith day by day.

Humor and Immutability

Often theologians will express statements like, "God is immutable [unchangeable] therefore he cannot have humor or experience emotion."

It is not only bad theology it is bad logic. First the bible does seem to indicate that God is perfect and unchanged. Second the bible does seem to indicate that God laughs, has a sense of humor, and experiences emotion.

You see this is one of the issues of carrying human logic when doing theology. People are changed by events happening to them since we are in flux. Thus if God experiences he is changed.

You see the issue of course is that there is an essence of a person and the things that happen to them. My essence is not exactly changed many times by this or that joke or comment.

You see experiencing emotion in no way necessitates a change of the essence of a person or being. This is of course the great chagrin to parents who wish their children would learn from mistakes!

You see often human essence is not at all affected by experience in the way it should be. God too is not affected by emotion in the form of a change of essence because he is in his perfect state.

You see experience is something that happens. It does not necessitate change in essence.

Another point of course is that experience for people adds knowledge. To God who knows all things as eternally present, however, experience does not even add to knowledge.

He already knows and is not discovering as we are. What is next in history to people is already present to God.

God the Same through Eternity

Winston Churchill "To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."

Hopefully the error in this quote is obvious immediately to Christians. God is the ultimate standard of perfection.

He is the same through out all eternity. All human wisdom must be measured against the bible.

While change often has value in a fallen world – it cannot be absolutized as an absolute good.

Some statements seem true when we look at them in isolation. However once we compare them to the truth of the bible we see their error.

To change does not imply perfection. Actually it was man's first change of state which lead to his state of sin in the world.