{"id":260,"date":"2016-10-21T13:18:25","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T12:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomascreedy.com\/?p=260"},"modified":"2016-12-23T13:24:41","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T13:24:41","slug":"god-is-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/god-is-good\/","title":{"rendered":"God is Good."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-262 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thomascreedy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/God-is-Good..png\" alt=\"god-is-good\" width=\"640\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/God-is-Good..png 640w, https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/God-is-Good.-300x167.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I agree with Bill Johnson.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">God is Good!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-261 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thomascreedy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/godisgood.png\" alt=\"godisgood\" width=\"400\" height=\"188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/godisgood.png 400w, https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/godisgood-300x141.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I&#8217;ve been seeing a variation on the ad above on my Facebook <\/span><span class=\"s1\">newsfeed fairly regularly for a few weeks now. It is advertising\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">a new course and book, as far as I can ascertain without <\/span><span class=\"s1\">clicking on the link, which focuses on Gods Goodness. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I believe that the Goodness of God is one of the most\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">important truths that the church should be seeking to\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">communicate to the world. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I also suffer from mental health problems,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">in particular depression. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I hold the two statements &#8211; that God is Good and His\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">Goodness is good news &#8211; in tension every day. Earlier this \u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">week, a friend on Facebook shared this song\/spoken word\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">piece about pain and suffering and the glory of God:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yFDfzyaCbXc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The video is, in my opinion, a powerful example of a worship song that\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">takes lament and reality seriously &#8211; which is sometimes so\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">valuable. The goodness of God doesn&#8217;t depend on our\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">experience of reality, or our understanding. That point is well\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">made by John Piper in the sermon snippeted in that YouTube\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">video &#8211; a sermon I needed to hear and I believe many people\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">need to hear and chew over.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">God is Good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There is a wonderful verse, about God and His Goodness,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">in Psalm 100. I reproduce the whole Psalm here because\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">context is important, and the way the Psalm builds to a\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">crescendo of goodness is wonderful:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">A Psalm. For giving grateful praise. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">Worship the Lord with gladness; come before <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">him with joyful songs.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">give thanks to him and praise his name.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">his faithfulness contineus through all generations.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">In our small group this week instead of doing &#8216;sung worship&#8217; <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">like we normally do, a good friend led us in a prayerful <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">expression of thankfulness. This was incredibly powerful &#8211; <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">focusing our prayers and minds on thanking God, rather than <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">the usual list of things we ask for. And the reason that <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">thankfulness is so powerful is well expressed in this Psalm &#8211; <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">For the LORD is Good.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This is a truth to cling to, even when it hurts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This is a truth to cling to, even in the worst of the storms of life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This is a truth to cling to, because God&#8217;s love endures forever,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">unlike the fickle love of humans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This is a truth to cling to, because God&#8217;s faithfulness continues\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\"> through all generations, even until the end of what we call &#8216;time&#8217;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This is a truth to cling to, because God is Good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">God is Good.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I agree with Bill Johnson. God is Good! I&#8217;ve been seeing a variation on the ad above on my Facebook newsfeed fairly regularly for a few weeks now. It is advertising\u00a0a new course and book, as far as I can &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/god-is-good\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,34,125],"tags":[239,138,238],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions\/263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}