The Goodness of God

Recently I have been spending a lot of time reflecting on the nature of God. During the service last weekend God showed me some really amazing stuff and it just hasn't stopped since!

I find it startling that the church as a whole seems to be very quick to overlook something God was extremely intentional about demonstrating in His word....that HE is GOOD! This really was drawn to the light for me recently when a very televised preacher made some comments that implied that the Haiti earthquake was God's doing as a response to a "secret pact made with the Devil". This comment is a reflection of a deeper misconception about the way God relates to us. I also heard a different preacher say that God had sent Katrina to New Orleans because of the sins of the people of New Orleans, and yet another who said that 9/11 was God's judgment because of the sins of the United States.

People who ascribe to this type of theology say things like, "Well, if God doesn't judge America because of it's sin, He will need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!" When I read about the torture that Jesus endured on the cross to take "the punishment that brought us peace" (Isaiah 53:5), I can't help but think that if God is still pouring out His wrath on us, he would actually need to apologize to Jesus. Because in order for God to pour out punishment on us as a response to sin, He would first have to decide that what Jesus did was not enough!

It seems so much easier to get angry with people who offend us than it is to love them through differences in life, and unfortunately it seems that some Christians have tried to project this image upon God. But that is not the image that God gave us of Himself in the Bible. How did he represent himself?

I encourage anyone reading this to go to www.blueletterbible.com and type in the following word searches (under the NIV translation):
"slow to anger"
"goodness"

It is my prayer that the body of Christ begin to rise and stand against misrepresentations of our God. Let's seek ways to demonstrate His goodness to others. Our God is worthy of His children standing to ascribe to Him the praise that He deserves, and represent His goodness to everyone we meet!

Ephesians 2:4-9 says, "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast."

Selah