{"id":6562,"date":"2015-04-27T00:05:38","date_gmt":"2015-04-27T07:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6562"},"modified":"2015-04-26T15:12:15","modified_gmt":"2015-04-26T22:12:15","slug":"god-is-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/04\/27\/god-is-good\/","title":{"rendered":"God is Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYes, God\u2019s Message: \u2018You\u2019re going to look at this place, these empty and desolate towns of Judah and streets of Jerusalem, and say, \u201cA wasteland. Unlivable. Not even a dog could live here.\u201d But the time is coming when you\u2019re going to hear laughter and celebration, marriage festivities, people exclaiming, \u201cThank God-of-the-Angel-Armies. He\u2019s so good! His love never quits,\u201d as they bring thank offerings into God\u2019s Temple. I\u2019ll restore everything that was lost in this land. I\u2019ll make everything as good as new.\u2019 I, God, say so.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod-of-the-Angel-Armies says: \u2018This coming desolation, unfit for even a stray dog, is once again going to become a pasture for shepherds who care for their flocks. You\u2019ll see flocks everywhere\u2014in the mountains around the towns of the Shephelah and Negev, all over the territory of Benjamin, around Jerusalem and the towns of Judah\u2014flocks under the care of shepherds who keep track of each sheep.\u2019 God says so.<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2018Watch for this: The time is coming\u2019\u2014God\u2019s Decree\u2014\u2018when I will keep the promise I made to the families of Israel and Judah. When that time comes, I will make a fresh and true shoot sprout from the David-Tree. He will run this country honestly and fairly. He will set things right.\u2019\u201d (Jeremiah 33:10-15)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Only after the discipline of God has been planted, can we harvest the fruit of that plowing and recognize that God did something good to us. In the middle of the sorrow, when the nation was a blasted wasteland and the cities were rubble piles, it was impossible for the Israelites to see the presence of God, to discern any hope. The hopeful words of the prophets were just so many empty platitudes. As hard as it had been during prosperity to hear God\u2019s promised judgment, so in the midst of judgment, it was hard to hear his promise of renewal.<\/p>\n

Our circumstances dictate what we hear, what we see, what we think we know. When times are good, rejoicing comes naturally. The world is bright and happy. All circumstances are interpreted in the best possible way. When the score is in our favor, every missed basket was \u201calmost there\u201d and \u201cthey\u2019re hot tonight.\u201d But when the other team is ahead, the same missed basket becomes evidence that \u201cthey can\u2019t hit anything.\u201d <\/p>\n

The \u201csprout from the David-Tree\u201d was a promise fulfilled when the Messiah came and Jesus brought in the kingdom of God into the hearts of his people. Just as everything was awful, God promised that someday soon, everything would be wonderful. God is more than our circumstances. He asks us to stand where he\u2019s standing and learn to see things from his perspective.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYes, God\u2019s Message: \u2018You\u2019re going to look at this place, these empty and desolate towns of Judah and streets of Jerusalem, and say, \u201cA wasteland. Unlivable. Not even a dog could live here.\u201d But the time is coming when you\u2019re … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6562"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6565,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6562\/revisions\/6565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}