Goodness of God

In this post I want to do nothing more than to share to myself (and you), the lyrics of one of my all-time favourite worships songs by Bethel Music. It is sung by Jenn Johnson as part of the Victory album released in 2019. The song was written by Ed Cash, Ben Fielding, Jason Ingram, Brian Johnson and Jenn Johnson.

And the name of the song is “Goodness of God”.

It is a Grace song that flies in the face of traditional doctrine and religion alike.

Who am I

 

We prayed. We observed.

Years ago as we started the hospital ministry, we discovered that most people have a distorted and destructive self image, caused by a corrupted idea and who they really are.

The god that smiteth thee

Today I am ranting …

I am saddened by the fact that so many people still bear the scars of religion.

Some even decided to move away from any intimacy with God all together.

Yet, others have chosen to stay incarcerated, stuck in the chains and shackles of religion embracing its sorcery, the deception and defrauding of the open Truth.

Stuck.

The damage is real.

Immanuel

I sometimes wonder how the institutional church interprets Immanuel.

God with us.

God in us.

God present.

… and then, looking at what is preached, I wonder … who is this God?

Is it the same God that Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 7:14?

Is it the same God quoted in Matthew 1:23 and Luke 1:35 when the prophecy was about to be fulfilled?

Is it the same God who promised never to leave nor forsake us in Hebrews 13:5?

Pray the perfect prayer

When it comes to prayer, most people are clueless.

Let me be the 1st one to admit that I cannot pray a near perfect prayer.

In my pre-relationship days I tried. Moving from the conservative protestant to the Pentecostal and Charismatic denominations, I also moved from praying in one way as taught to praying in another way as taught by man.

Most of us do not realize that we pray according to what we were taught and the examples that we got and are still getting. Our prayers are learned behavior emanating from mostly indoctrinated and conditioned thinking and conduct.

Praying is not what we think

Violent screams and violent accusations

I live In South Africa, one of the most dangerous countries in the world.

Violent screams pierced the dark early morning

The other night we were woken at 3am in the morning by the petrified screams and shouting of a woman in the neighbourhood. On our social media groups we shortly discovered that there was an armed house robbery in the street just behind us.

We did not hear the shots fired … only the screams that went on and on for what seemed to have been several minutes.

These are some of the shocking realities when you live in a country where human rights are violated all the time and with no regard for human life, neighbourly love or well-being of others.

Why am I writing this post?

The Gospel is bâśar

What many believe to be the Gospel, is in fact not the Gospel … but rather some cooked-up message that hinges between good and evil, depending on how you feel at that specific time or point in your life … or what someone else makes you believe at the time.

But the Gospel is not that at all …

What is the Gospel?

The poo-free Gospel part 3 - Uncomplicated

I am a devoted student of the fundamentals and birthplace of all things, the core and bedrock construction whence everything that we know originates from. Go back to the beginning and you are likely to find out what is ticking …

We continue in this post, having left off in our previous post looking at the poo-free-Gospel. In this post we look at what the Gospel is in its purest form, the way Jesus pronounced it. We'll get to that just a little later in this post … so, read further.

Moving from poo-induced to poo-free

Refined by fire?

During the week someone posted a message on social media about a Malachi 3 message that seems to imply that we are being refined in the fire … God places us in situations that burn away the muck so that we can become more like Him!

Huh?

Really? After what Jesus did? Still?

It is always a good idea to get the context when reading, and especially when quoting verses in the Bible.

But here is the soppy social media story first:

[soppy social media story starts] There was once a group of women studying the book of Malachi in the Old Testament. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three, which says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.”

Rejecting the poo-message - now what? The poo-free Gospel part 2

The subject question of this post is somewhat ambiguous, but follow through to the the end if you already know the answer.

Between rejecting the corrupted, mixed-Gospel and accepting the Gift Gospel-message of unconditional love, there is a part that Paul explains so beautifully to the Galatians (and us). In this post we continue from where we left in the previous post. (see the previous post here)

You'll remember that Paul was referring to the undiluted word of Truth (2 Corinthians 2:17, James 1:21), mixed with nothing but Faith (Hebrews 4:2).

In the previous post we caught up with Paul explaining how that there is an accursed Gospel preached by trouble-makers, mixing the pure Good-News Gospel with poo (law, rules and doctrine), the latter being a toxic, deadly mixture that should be discarded immediately. We were reading what he said in The Message Translation.

In this post we look at Paul’s explanation on what to do once we’ve decided to reject the poo-induced Gospel to receive the pure Good-News-Gospel. This time we’ll read from both The Message and the KJV.