Better Than We Think.

What's the first thing that comes into your mind when someone mentions God?

An old man with a beard? An angry deity with a thunderbolt just waiting for you to do something wrong? The epitome of boredom perhaps?

Religious people might mention something like, "God is Holy, God is everywhere. God is all powerful."

When it came to writing the first book of the bible however, the very first thing mentioned, of all the things the writer could have chosen was....

God is GOOD!

Yes, that's right, good! In fact he was so emphatic about getting this point across he mentioned it again and again in the very first chapter of the scriptures!

That's what I want to tell you today. GOD IS BETTER THAT WE THINK. That's what the whole opening chapter of the bible is really all about. The creation is the sacred text people lived with for thousands of years before a book was ever written. The world around them was their bible and God spoke emphatically through it every day for all who were willing to hear.

As one of the world's earliest musicians once sang, "The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands"

Every time you get up and see the sunlight another day is because God is good. Every time you enjoy the sunshine it's because God is good. Every time you drink water or wash it's because God is good. Every step you step on 'terra firma' it's because God is good. He created it all. Every time you eat what has grown it's saying to you, God is good. Every seed that yields a crop is because God is good. He designed it to do just that.

Every time you look up at the stars at night and lose yourself in the sheer scale and grandeur of the universe you are peering into it is telling you, God is good. Every living thing is a testimony to God's creative and life giving genius. Every experience of and the capacity to experience pleasure and happiness and joy originated with God. Why did he do it? He could have just made us functional bio-robots but he is good. He gave us life to enjoy. From the touch of a loved one to the tastebuds that appreciate all the flavours imaginable. They exists for one reason. God is good! God is better than you think.

Fruitfulness and prosperity were God's idea. Relationships, sex, marriage and family were his idea as well. The whole concept of us being able to bring another life into this world was hatched in the mind of the creator. He could have made that process purely functional. Instead he made sexual intercourse pleasurable. That was God's idea as well. {I know some religious people who think that was the devils idea. Sorry to disappoint you guys!} God actually came up with that idea. That's amazing.

Finally God made you. According to the ancient scriptures you are the best idea God had. When God created everything else he said "It is good" After he made human beings he said "It is very good" {That's definitely something we need to remember more often.}

This amazing world that our God created is the book that even the illiterate can read. It is the very first song ever composed. It is the music the tone deaf can sing in time with. It is the very first poetry. It is the prose that even the cultural Philistines among us can pick up and appreciate. You don't need a degree or PhD for this education. You just need to be alive.

You might never have read a bible. You may have promised never to darken the steps of a church again but every day and every moment of every day you are walking through the living, interactive, moving word of God. You are watching an active dramatisation of the bible before a word was ever written. You and I are living in God's very first sermon!

Welcome to the interactive word of God. We've been living in it every day of our lives! It's right there at our fingertips.

All that is required of us is to simply open our ears and eyes to everything around us. If, like me, you've been flicking absent mindedly through the pages of this life then I invite you to stop, take your time and take the opportunity to look a little deeper and maybe, just maybe, you will see again and again the very first thing the creator wants you to know about him.

God is good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvStcZ8Vrf0