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A simple enough sounding question isn’t it?

Is God good?  Just because He says He is, does that mean He is?  Why does He get to tell us that He’s good, and then we have to just go along with it?

And what about the world around us?   It’s a bit messed up.  Is that not his fault?  Why has He let the world become the way it is…with all the poverty, all the sickness, all the broken families, all the needless death?  How can God, who claims to be more powerful than anything on Earth, and only wants what’s best for us, let all this bad stuff happen if He’s good?

You can pick out any question out of that lot I’m sure, but for me, the entire thing comes down to whether you truly believe God is God, and if you believe that He really wants what’s best for you in your life.

He created the world and everything in it, as the story goes in Genesis 1.  This means He is all powerful and all knowing about the world.  He knows how it started, how it will end and everything in between.  By virtue of the fact the world is His, it’s His to do what He wants with, and He has set the ‘rules’.

He created us in his image as in Genesis 2, and we are to reflect Him; that is our purpose.  Our other purpose is to look after the world; he has made us the keepers of his creation, Earth.  We have responsibility for it, to take care of it, to treat each other right, and to relate with each other as God always intended us to do.  This is where our freedom lies to, because God wants us to choose to love Him, and see that His way is the best way.  But He will not force us.  Surely the fact he created is, and wants to love us, and wants to trust us, means He is good.

He promised that He would stay with His people, and He made this promise through Abraham in Genesis 15.

He made it ultimately possible for this promise to come true, through Jesus.  Such was the gap we created between us and Him through our sin, God remained faithful and bridged the gap so we could spend now and eternity with Him.  Surely this means He is ultimately good?

The fact He wants you with Him, and He loves you unconditionally, does that not make Him good?

I’ve left a lot of the questions at the top a bit unanswered, because I want to see what people think.  Let us know your thoughts on all of this!

God “will give to each person according to what he has done.

Our faith and love for God needs to be seen in our everyday lives , actions, words. If we say we love God then that means we should love others – not in a legalistic way that means we do it cos we have to but in a way that reflects Gods love for us.

The other side of that question is – are you living but not loving. Wood veneer demonstrates what this might look like in our lives – on the outside it looks well, everything seems to be ok but the inside is a different story – it’s a different wood and the wood on the outside is merely a face or a veneer of what is really going on inside. How often have you put on a ‘brave face’ or done the right thing to look good but actually on the inside you have forgotten what it means to be a follower of Christ? To love and to be loved by the living God? Verse 21 says we need to teach ourselves – we can be great at teaching others and living the ‘right life’ but we need to teach ourselves – practise what we preach. So where are you?

It’s easy sometimes to go through the motions because you know what you’re supposed to do, you know what you should say and what way you should act but following Jesus is not about merely doing the right thing but being like Christ, loving from the heart. I know it’s one thing I find difficult at times.

Do you say you love God but in reality your life doesn’t reflect that?

Or are you doing the right things, looking good, going to the right things but it’s your head rather than your heart for God that is motivating you?

Any thoughts?!

We can choose what we want to do.
We can choose what to eat and drink.
We can choose who to worship.
We can choose how to act.
We can choose to follow God’s way or to go on our own way.

However, 3 times the passage sends out a warning to those that choose their own path over God’s.

‘Therefore God gave them over…’ (v.24)

‘Because of this, God gave them over…’ (v.26)

‘so God gave them over…’ (v.28)

We all have to live with consequences. In Ireland, that should be well known by now. The fall of the majority of the banking system means that as residents of Ireland we will live with the consequences of someone else’s mistakes for a long time.
But what about our own mistakes? When I was younger I had to learn to be responsible for my actions. Times when I didn’t study for exams, I failed. If I didn’t eat my vegetables, I didn’t get dessert. There are many more consequences I faced. I’m sure you can think of some of your own too.

The second half of Romans 1 informs us that we will have to live with the consequences of our decisions, something we all know. The people Paul is writing about have chosen to reject God, and God has allowed them to do it. He hasn’t sent any plagues on them or made them sick or taken anything away from them. He has just let the consequences of their decision play out. That has been his judgement on them. He has let them declare their independence from him, even though he knows that in time they will become slaves to the choices they have made (Romans 6).

We all have to live with consequences.

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God’s Wrath against Mankind – September 26th 2010

I have a confession to make. I do not like doing what I am told to do. Let me explain a bit more.

If you, for instance, ask me to do something or explain to me why you want it done, then I will happily help.

However, when I am just told to do something, without knowing any reasons why I should or without being consulted on it, I won’t be happy.

In the opening lines of the letter to Rome Paul speaks of Christian obedience and its ties to faith.

‘Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith’. Romans 1:4-5

Initially, this looks straight forward enough. Paul wants to call the Gentiles (People who don’t know God) to an obedience that comes from faith. I’m not much of a man for grammar but I’m going to give it a shot here. If the obedience comes from faith that therefore means that faith is the main thing and obedience is just a consequence (i.e. I have faith and that means I obey). The problem with this is that it leaves the door open to having faith and not obeying God’s command.

However, many people use a different translation for this verse than the one above. Lots of people would say that Paul wants to call the Gentiles to an obedience of faith. This changes the meaning slightly because now neither obedience or faith is primary or secondary. Instead they go together, you cannot have one without the other. They cannot be separated. Obedience and faith must always go together. This means if we claim to have faith then that will be shown clearly in the choices we make.

Faith, if genuine, always has obedience as its outcome; obedience, if it is to please God, must always be accompanied by faith.

Why then should we put our faith in Jesus and obey what he says? Look at the end of verse 4 (I included it in the quotation above), Jesus Christ our Lord. These four words tell us that Jesus was not only a man but a messiah and the ruler of all – heir to the world. Who else is better qualified? Who else can bring us salvation? Who else deserves our worship?

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Why Paul is so eager to preach the Gospel – September 19th 2010

I hope you have had a good summer – Just wanted to let everyone know that Ignite is starting back this Sunday. We have changed the time slightly to make it more accessible to younger people and children so we are now starting at 6.30pm with coffee before from 6pm. We have felt the need to run Ignite weekly for a while now so we are also going to try running at 6.30pm weekly up until Christmas. We hope that this time and frequency suits you and you will be able to join us. We’ll fill you in more on Sunday.

Look forward to seeing you on Sunday,

Ignite

“Be holy as I am holy” Peter writes in the New Testament of the Bible. We follow a God who is holy in every way and he asks us, his followers to choose holiness too. What does this mean? Are we to strive every day for perfection and kick ourselves if we haven’t reached the standard to be a ‘good Christian’?

As Christians we can sometimes fall into a trap of ‘doing good’ for our own gain or for favour with God. We worry about our appearance and if people think we’re worth it. We wonder if we are good enough, for people or for God. We can spend a lot of time earning ‘good points’ and neglect our relationship with God and the reason for any goodness at all. Can we earn the right to be in God’s presence? ‘I help with Meals on Wheels each week’ ‘ I pray every night’ ‘I’m generally a good person’ – I’m guessing a lot of people think we can.

‘Be holy as I am holy’ – God asks us to be holy not to earn us a place in heaven but to show Him to the world today

Our good works can never earn us a place with God. We can’t measure up to his standard ourselves. God isn’t like us, he’s always loving, forgiving, just, right. Always. He’s different. He’s perfect. He’s Holy.

So how does God’s holiness impact us then? Because of His holiness God can’t be in the presence of sin and because we’ve sin in us, we can’t be with Him. His Holiness shine’s like light and is too strong for us to take.

It’s like oil and water – they’re 2 different elements and can’t mix. Ever try washing oil or fat off pots when doing the washing up? It’s really tough because the 2 don’t mix well. They’re different elements. In order to be in God’s presence we need rid of sin (the ‘oil’ part in us) – the part that can’t mix with God. This means to be forgiven from our past mistakes (sins) and everything we’ll do wrong from now on. This forgiveness has been made possible through Jesus.

Simply put – in life, we can either try to rack up so much good that it somehow eliminates the bad or we can alternatively ask God to forgive us. God will say yes to our request because Jesus has already paid for our wrongs through his death.

Our place as a Child of God isn’t based on good that we’ve done but the good Jesus did.

Let’s never get bogged down in how we appear to others, in seeking approval from other Christians or building up credits with God. Let’s remember that God is holy, a different element to us. We can’t measure up to Him, He can’t ever owe us. But yet when we ask God to forgive us through Christ, we’re given a new life, our sin is gone. We’re beautiful to Him, we’re approved by Him and we’re at the end of the race over the finish line.

Recently at ignite we have been looking at prayer, What it is to pray, Who can pray. This is part of a series of small talks running over 6 Ignites. Marion started us off with this talk.

This is a video that I came across a while ago that I found interesting and It gives a bit of insight into what people around the world are doing with prayer and what they think of prayer.

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Talking To God

Today I was reading a book about heaven. In it the author was telling a story of a christian lady she knew who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she only had 3 months to live. She talked it over with the minister who was going to take care of the funeral service and some of the funeral details. She asked him if he could just make sure of one thing for her funeral, that she was to be buried with a fork in her right hand. “Why?” the minister asked. She replied saying “When I was young I used to go on alot of summer camps, and at these camps we would have dinner together. I was never too fond of the dinners at camp. Whenever dinner was finished someone would inevitably lean over to me and tell me to hold onto my fork. This was because we all knew something better was coming, something tasty and sweet – dessert”.

The minister agreed to do this for her. The woman eventually passed away and at the funeral several people asked the minister what was with the fork. “She knew something better was awaiting her” was the answer he told. She knew that heaven was better then anything she could imagine and she was buried with the fork – a reminder of the living hope she had in an eternity with God.

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you

The passage about speaks of this hope. Hope that we can be sure of. A hope that tells us we have an inheritance in Heaven, one that does not perish, spoil or fade.

And for that reason alone we should be clinging onto our forks. With the living hope that although we go through struggles on this earth, things will be far beyond our imaginations in heaven and we will no longer have struggles, pain, hurt or tears. Just endless joy.

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

Below is a video, about hope. Little bit cheesy but some good stuff in there.

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What does living in hope look like? Practically?

Please let us know what you think below!