Join us Thursday night for our monthly Men’s Fellowship Night. Our speaker this month is Dr. Dan Stott, Calvary Grace Church in Shipbottom, NJ. Dinner is at 6:15 PM followed by the worship teaching times and fun in the Activity Center. Come, bring a friend. Please call for information – 800-453-7942
What is Good?
“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” Genesis 1:31a
Have you ever categorized your works as “good vs not good”? I’m not even talking about sinful but just, not good. How about choices you make, good or not so good? In Genesis chapter one, God spends six days and at the end of each day He said “it was good”. I have been sensitive to the things I’m a part of or the activities I allow myself to engage in at times. The problem is, it’s not always good, not sinful, but just not the best.
The verse that got me started with this thought is found in Psalm 133, it says “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Funny thing is I think it was the exclamation point at the end of the verse that got my attention. Sometimes I judge peoples actions by the “good things” they do or the generosity they show. When was the last time you considered simply dwelling together in unity as a good thing?
The other morning I was walking thru the dining room at Keswick during breakfast and thought to myself as I witnessed everyone smiling and enjoying the fellowship, now this is good. I thought back to the prayer that my buddy Ed Weiss prayed at the beginning of the meal, he said, Lord, may our conversations be edifying to one another and glorifying to You.
I think that dwelling in unity means being of the same mind and if we edify our fellowship I believe we are doing a “good” thing.
Here’s the picture as the Psalmist puts it in Psalm 73,
| “But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, That I may declare all Your works” |
So the pattern is,” Draw near to God, Put my trust in Him and then Declare His works”.
Again I’m drawn back to the verse in Hebrews 12 “let us lay aside every weight”, or put off the not so good and strive for the best. 1st Corinthians 12 ends with Paul gearing up for the “Love” chapter by saying “But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way”.
If you noticed in Genesis 1, the sixth day God created man and said, “It was very good”. The plan from the beginning is for God to restore us back to the ideal, until then, it’s a practice run. Like the old saying goes, “if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all”. Amen! – Rob Russomano is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and serves full-time at America’s Keswick. You can write to Rob @ Russomano@americaskeswick.org
Think About This: Until self-effacing men return again to spiritual leadership, we may expect a progressive deterioration in the quality of popular Christianity year after year till we reach the point where the grieved Holy Spirit withdraws-like the Shekinah from the temple. A. W. Tozer
This Week’s Verse to Memorize: Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked. 1 Chronicles 4:10
Freedom Fighters 