The Absolutes of God

Our lives are lived in relatives. No, I don't mean family members. Have you noticed how the temperature you set the thermostat to during summer feels cool, but the same temperature in winter may feel warm? Or you may have noticed that the same temperature, in the same place, at the same time, will be sufficient to keep one person warm while the person right beside may be shivering, even with a sweater on. The response to the temperature is relative to what is going on inside each person -- one may have just been doing a lot of work and the other may have been still for awhile.

When it comes to music, most of us have relative pitch. In other words, we can usually keep the proper distance between consecutive notes, but we may have trouble making sure we are in the same key that other people are using.

The same holds true in so many other areas of life. We can measure, weigh, and calculate conditions in our environment and get an absolute number, but only in context with the person involved does it carry any relative meaning. Five dollars is a known, but abstract, amount; only when it is in someone's hand is it given meaning. If an adult has a five dollar bill, it can be a tip at a restaurant; if a six-year-old has it, it can be a lot of spending power; if a three-year-old has it, it will be shredded in short order. Depending on the person who has it, that piece of paper can express appreciation, satisfy a personal sweet-tooth, or make a fun sound when it is torn apart.

Unfortunately, we tend to consider our relative viewpoint to be "the" absolute consideration. If *I* am cold, the temperature needs to go up, regardless of what others will feel. None of the three people would willingly give their five dollar bill to either of the others because *their* use of it would be a "waste." Expand that reaction to a larger scale, and we begin to understand what is behind much that we see and hear in the news at the local, state, national and global scales.

Only God can provide a true absolute. He is absolutely holy. His Word is completely true. His perfect love reaches everybody. He is totally worthy of praise, obedience, and trust. While the Spirit of God speaks to us in ways that are meaningful and individually suited to our needs, the truths that are revealed for us to act on are absolute: we are sinners, we fall short of God's requirements, His grace provides a way, and through acceptance and confession of Jesus as our Savior, we receive mercy rather than justice.

When you read the Scriptures, you can bring out the sense of the eternal, unchanging, immeasurable quality of God that is in His Word by simply inserting the word "perfectly" or "absolutely" or "completely" anywhere that is grammatically correct.

John 3:16 For this is how God loved the world: He gave his unique Son so that everyone who believes in him might not be lost but have eternal life.

John 3:16 For this is how God totally loved the entire world: He completely gave his perfectly unique Son so that absolutely everyone who completely believes in him might not be absolutely lost but have perfect, complete eternal life.

Practice today living in God's absolutes. Let His Spirit guide you in finding the right, relative words to speak to the person near you in order to convey the total love God has expressed toward him or her through His actions. Seek God for the individually suitable expression to encourage the co-worker that there is hope to be found in turning to Jesus. Let the Lord take you out of your own relative situation and give you the context of the person you are ministering to.

God of the harvest, thank You for the many tools You give us as we work in the many different grain fields to bring in the harvest. You give us the skill to harvest the barley, the millet, the cumin, the rye, the corn, the vetch, the oats, and the wheat, each field needing different tools and skills to gather and winnow the harvest without harming the seed. You care for the entire harvest, Lord, for You care for each seed. Give us Your heart today as we do Your work.

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