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It’s Thirsty Thursday. I call it that because you are thirsty for the weekend to get here. Just one more day — Friday — and you are on your way to quenching your thirst to enjoy the weekend and hopefully some rest. We live in a time of constant upheaval, change and confusion. We are still dealing with an engineered virus out of China, I call Covid China. We have a war in the Middle East and in Europe. We have people campaigning for office that are so opposite that it seems obvious to some which one is for America. We have inflation and ever increasing prices at the grocery store and restaurants. While wages are not increasing, our pocketbooks are shrinking. 

We find ourselves in a culture, even at times a Christian culture, where subjectivism and relativism defines morality, right, wrong, and even sin. We have a younger generation today that can’t decide if they are male, female, trans, non-binary, gay, straight or even human. But the prophet Nahum writes this in Nahum 1:7, “The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows those who take refuge in Him” (ESV). Nahum has several points here. 

  1. First, God is good. Good in giving Himself and imparting His goodness to His own; yea none is good. That was Jesus’ point in Luke 18:19, “And Jesus said to him, `Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone’” (ESV). Jesus reinforced this theological truth about goodness in Luke 18:9-14:

“Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: (10) “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. (11) The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer[b]: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! (12) I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ (13) “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ (14) I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (NLT).

We read this story and we tend to think we are more like the despised tax collector rather than the Pharisee, but Jesus’ point in telling the story is that we are more like the Pharisee. We compare our “righteousness” to other people’s righteousness and we start feeling good about ourselves. Good? I thought Jesus said there is none that are good except God alone. God is absolute pure goodness. For example, God cannot be tempted as we can. Yet for us, His goodness to us temptable creatures is found in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure” (NLT).

Nahum says God is a refuge to those who trust in Him, even pagans. We see an example of this in a woman name Rahab in the Old Testament. Rehab was a Canaanite prostitute, not the most likely “good” person in terms of righteousness according to our standards. She hid the spies that were sent out to explore the Promised Land. When God destroyed Jericho, she and her family were spared. Just like the thief on the cross that Jesus saved, another unlikely “good” person according to our standards of goodness. That is the point of the whole Bible. We are not good nor are we the standard for goodness — only God is. 

  1. Second, God personally knows those He is a refuge for in life. The Hebrew word translated as “knows” is [וְיֹדֵ֖עַ, yadah] and it means “to know personally, intimately and eternally” everyone who puts their trust in Him. To those who trust Him, He lavishes His love on us. That is the point of 1 John 3:7, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us, is that it did not know Him” (ESV). People who trust God when life does not make sense are the “apple of His eye.” 
  • Look at Deuteronomy 32:10, “He found them (i.e., the Hebrews) in a desert land, in an empty, howling wasteland. He surrounded them and watched over them; He guarded them as He would guard His own eyes” (ESV). 
  • The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:19 this, “But God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and “All who belong to the Lord must turn away from evil” (NLT). In 2 Timothy 2:19, Paul is quoting from both Numbers 16:5 and Isaiah 52:11:
    • Numbers 16:5,  “Then he said to Korah and his followers, “Tomorrow morning the Lord will show us who belongs to Him and who is holy. The Lord will allow only those whom He selects to enter His own presence” (NLT).
    • Isaiah 52:11, “Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessel” (ESV).

God knows intimately those who love Him, trust Him and seek Him and He is a refuge to them. All who habitually look to and depend on Him, who with unwavering confidence believe His Word and who night and day put their hope in His unfailing love, are daily cared for by their omniscient Savior. God has given us Himself though the person of Jesus Christ. I pray that is enough for all of us. Ethel Herr understands this fully:

In his book If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil, author Randy Alcorn recalls when his friend, writer Ethel Herr, had a double mastectomy. Two months later doctors discovered that the cancer had spread. One of Herr's friends, shocked and fumbling for words, asked her, "And how do you feel about God now?" Reflecting on the moment the question was posed to her, Herr says:

As I sought to explain what has happened in my spirit, it all became clearer to me. God has been preparing me for this moment. He has undergirded me in ways I've never known before. He has made himself increasingly real and precious to me. He has given to me joy such as I've never known before—and I've no need to work at it, it just comes, even amidst the tears. He has taught me that no matter how good my genes are or how well I take care of my diet and myself, He will lead me on whatever journey He chooses and will never leave me for a moment of that journey. And He planned it all in such a way that step by step, He prepared me for the moment when the doctor dropped the last shoe … God is good, no matter what the diagnosis or the prognosis, or the fearfulness of the uncertainty of having neither. The key to knowing God is good is simply knowing Him” (Source: Randy Alcorn, If God Is Good: Faith In The Midst of Suffering And Evil, p. 399).

Questions To Consider

  1. When we say, “God is good and He is good all the time,” has there ever been a time in your life you questioned that? If so, when and why? Did your view ever change to a biblical understanding of God being good?
  2. Reflecting back on that time in your life you questioned the goodness of God, what was the lesson God taught you and how can you help others who struggle with God being good when evil and bad happens to them?
  3. In the story Jesus told above in Luke 18:9-14, why do you think we tend to view our goodness better than some other people’s goodness? Do you and if so, why?
  4. After reading Ethel Herr’s story above, how do you think it was possible for her to have this attitude that God is good no matter what her medical diagnosis was?
  5. Why do think some Christians and other people think God owes them the perfect life and when it does not come, they turn on God?

Scripture To Meditate On: Nahum 1:7, “The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows those who take refuge in Him” (ESV). 

Prayer To Pray: “Jesus, no matter happens to me, I believe that You are good all the time. Thank You for being my refuge and good to me. Thank You for choosing to love me unconditionally and to continuing to be intimate with me in our relationship to each other. Help me to have the attitude of the tax collector above in the story You told in Luke 18:9-14. Please forgive me when I get the big head about myself, especially when I think I am better than other people because I do not commit the same sins they do. I acknowledge that all sin, including mine, are an abomination to You. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside! — Pastor Kelly

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