God Is Good(er)

in
 

The most evil idea in the world is the idea that God cannot be trusted, that God isn’t good.

And it is in direct opposition to that destructive idea that Jesus performed the miracle at the Wedding of Cana.

Want to know what the water-into-wine miracle means?

It means that God is Good(er).

Preacher: Andrew Forrest
Scripture: John 2:1-11; Isaiah 25:6-7

 
 
 
 
“BUT IDEAS AND IMAGES are also a primary stronghold of evil in the human self and in society. They determine how we ‘take’ the things and events of ordinary life. They control the meanings we assign to what we deal with, and they can even blind us to what lies plainly before us. Again, this is seen over and over in biblical and in Christian history, and in human life generally. Their power for evil cannot be overestimated and is constantly at play in most human governments.

Ideas and images are, accordingly, the primary focus of Satan’s efforts to defeat God’s purposes with and for humankind. When we are subject to his chosen ideas and images, he can take a nap or a holiday. Thus when he undertook to draw Eve away from God, he did not hit her with a stick, but with an idea. It was with the idea that God could not be trusted and that she must act on her own to secure her own well-being.

This is the basic idea back of all temptation: God is presented as depriving us by his commands of what is good, so we think we must take matters into our own hands and act contrary to what he has said. This image of God leads to our pushing him out of our thoughts… and putting ourselves on the throne of the universe. The condition of the ruined soul and world naturally results. The single most important thing in our mind is our idea of God….”
— from Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ, by Dallas Willard (p. 99)
 

Read Through the Gospel of John with Me

in
IMG_8529.jpg

At Munger, we’ve been reading through the Gospels in 2019, and TODAY we begin the Fourth Gospel: the Gospel According to John. The readings are paced out on weekdays only, from Monday, October 28 through Tuesday, December 31.  You should join me.

Sign Up Here

You can sign up here to receive a weekday email reminder and brief commentary from me, sent out M-F at 4:00 AM. (If you are currently on my Gospels 2019 mailing list, no need to do anything else.)

Update: be patient with today’s email—we’re having some technical difficulties.

More Info

  • At Munger, pick up a John Field Guide so you can just read along in the booklet.

  • (If you live out of town, email Rosemary, she’ll mail you a John booklet.)

  • If you would like to follow our schedule in your own Bible, you can download the reading schedule here.

  • On Wednesday, November 6, I’ll be teaching a 1 hour Bible study overview of the Gospel of John from 6:00-7:00 PM at Munger for 6th graders-old people. At the same time, there will be a study for elementary students. We’ll have free food trucks in the parking lot afterwards for anyone who wants to stay for dinner.

Let’s do this.