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Actuality and Potentiality: suffering from change, searching for constants
MONDAY night at our college study, preceeding the Tuesday election, we studied the attribute of God known as Pure Actuality. Pure Actuality refers to the constant, unending Life, the Ever-Existence, of the God who said "I AM WHO I AM".
The following is an excerpt from that teaching. It's longish. But no one ever suffered from reading too much :)
And I think it's pertinent given the fear and discouragement many are (still) facing with the current course of America, regardless of who they voted for. Perhaps this will lift you:
"So… the question is: how does
God’s Pure Actuality have any bearing upon our lives?
It does in this way.
We live in a world and a society that constantly changes.
We’re at an age as young adults in which our lives are undergoing tremendous
change. Our friends and families are sometimes moving on. We’re learning new
things about how to be a part of this world. And often times, our own world
seems upside-down.
There’s no stability in life. We outgrow the protection of
our parents. We often can’t depend on friends. We cannot provide total financial
stability for ourselves. We can hardly trust authority at all. We can’t even
trust ourselves most of the time.
It’s been said that the only certain thing about the future
is uncertainty.
Even the German physicist Albert Einstein said “As far as
the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as
they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”
C’mon! If not even mathematics are certain, if 2 + 2 isn’t
even sure, than what is? Money isn’t. Love isn’t. Friendships aren’t. Family
isn’t. Power isn’t. Not even Creation is certain. It all has potential for
change. Everything has potentiality.
Listen to Psalm
102:25-28, “Of old You laid the
foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will
perish, but You will endure; Yes, all of them will grow old like a garment;
like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed. But You are the
same, and Your years will have no end.”
Everything has potentiality. Everything changes… except for
God. God has pure actuality. He does not change. He says I AM WHO I AM. God
always IS. God is the only constant in our unstable world.
God was around when our parents were our age. God was
around for Einstein, for Lincoln, for Washington, for King Henry, for Alexander
the Great, for Paul the Apostle, for Abraham, for Moses there in that desert.
Remember Psalm 90:1 “LORD, You have been our dwelling place in
all generations.”
It’s a tremendous comfort to me that my God was around
before I existed and He will be around long after my death. Someday, if it’s
God’s will, I will grow old and I will die. Someday, I will lie silent in the
grave. Even further down the road one of my children’s children might look at a
photograph of me and wonder who I was. But God will have outlived me. And God
does not change. He will be a constant for my children and their children, so
long as Earth endures.
There’s so much change we’re dealing with now. And it can
get stressful. But the answer is right in front of us.
Malachi 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I do not change;
therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.”
Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today
and forever.”
That’s stability, people! That’s a sure foundation. That’s
why God is likened to a Rock or to a Tower. That’s why God can be our refuge
when our ever-changing lives are stressful and tiresome and discouraging. God
is ALWAYS. He always IS.
Should our relationships change, God will not change.
Should college get difficult, God will not change. Should friends and family
abandon us, God will not change. Should our bank accounts empty, God will not
change. Should our nation change, God will not change. Should we be diagnosed
with a disease, God will not change. Should we die, God will not change. Should
our futures be uncertain, should they be happy or sad, full or short, long or
brief… God will not change.
Martin Luther was someone we may not be able to relate with
much. He was a German theologian who helped begin the Protestant Reformation.
Because of his biblical ideas and desire for a reformation of doctrine in the
church, he was branded a heretic and excommunicated. But he was invited by the
Emperor to attend an assembly in Worms, Germany to defend himself. On April 16th,
1521, as he entered the city of Worms to face his accusers, he sang the words
of an old hymn:
“A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. Our
helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.”
Sometimes we face difficulties, hazards, new ground we’re
not familiar with. Sometimes we face a changing world. Sometimes we face
stress. Remember that God will always be our mighty fortress.
What fools we’ve been to ignore the very stronghold of
safety and protection and sanity we have in God. The world is crazy! But we can
rest in peace in every moment of our lives knowing that the great I AM is
unchanging and that He will always be our God, our mighty fortress."
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