Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

God Is GoodThe Psalmist cries out, "O taste and see that theLord is good." He had known from experience thegoodness of God in his deliverance from his fears, in theanswers to his prayers, in the deliverance by the encampingangel, in the ample provision for his physicalneeds. He wants others to experience this same joy inGod. This idea occurs very frequently in the Psalms, andwe should ourselves express it frequently.God is infinitely good. We may declare, "How greatThy goodness." There are no bounds or limits to thegoodness of God. His goodness does not depend onanything or anyone outside of Himself. It is part of Hisnature, an attribute of the divine being. There is no suchthing as increasing or decreasing the goodness of God, forit is always a perfect and absolute goodness. It is notchangeable, for God is unchangeable. His goodness iseternal, enduring forever.God is good to all His creatures. He sends rain onthe just and on the unjust. He makes the crops to grow,the seed to sprout for non-believers as for believers. Heprovides food for all. It is not always properly distributed,for men waste or hoard the produce instead of sharing it.He gives life. It is in Him that all creatures live, and move,and have their being. He sustains life. He is Lord of life.He has set the length of life of all living.From all eternity God existed. It was not necessaryfor Him to create the earth or to form creatures and manupon it. He did this as a manifestation of His goodness.When he had completed His creation and looked upon it,He saw that it was very good.Especially do we see the mercy of God and thegoodness of God in His work of salvation of man, Hisredemptive work. There was no necessity on the part ofGod to do anything for man after the fall into sin. God hadwarned him against the particular danger before, but manhad disregarded the warning and deliberately disobeyedGod. In His goodness God did not destroy man, but setforth His plan for man's redemption. It was characteristicof God's goodness that He planned everything necessaryfor this. ... In His goodness, in the fullness of time, Godsent forth His Son, who became man, lived as a man, anddied the death of the cross, after taking upon Himself thesins of men, in order to make the atonement and pay thepenalty of sin for men. We should be able to taste of God'sgoodness in our own salvation.In His great goodness God has provided variousmeans of grace for our Christian development. We have•he gift of the Holy Spirit, God Himself as our helper, inprayer, in temptations, in living and work. We have thewritten Word of God, with the Spirit as our Teacher. Godhas given the sacraments for our spiritual benefits. Hepermits us the privilege and fellowship of prayer. All ofthis is because of His goodness.The goodness of God is seen in the promise of aplace in heaven with Himself. It is a holy and happy place.It is an eternal home with Christ. We could not haveimagined such goodness.We can taste of this goodness. We can experience itin our hearts and lives. We can think upon these thingsday and night. We can enjoy the good things of Hisphysical gifts. We can have Christian assurance—assurance of His presence, of His power exercised in ourbehalf, of His boundless love, of our salvation. ThePsalmist added, "Blessed is the man that trusteth in him."—The Associate Reformed PresbyterianAstrology — Just Fun?Rev. Ralph Joseph, Pastor ofBethel and Old Bethel R. P. Churches, Sparta, IllinoisIn this country we are seeing a great deal of interestin astrology and things of this sort. We might assume thatthe interest shown by many people is just for the fun ofseeing what might happen or what they should be or do ona particular day. However, astrology in all its forms is verydangerous.The idea of consulting the stars is nothing new. Aswe look back in ancient history, whether secular orsacred, we find that people looked for help to come as aresult of the date of their births or the configurations ofthe stars. If this be true, and indeed there is much toconfirm it, then it follows that the current craze is not tobe passed over lightly as just another fad.The Bible warns us very specifically about using thestars and consulting wizards and witches concerning ourcourse of action. Why does the Bible give us a commandin no uncertain terms to have nothing to do with suchthings? The answer lies in the fact that the source of allthis is the Devil! This is nothing else than Satanic wonderswhich would deceive if possible the most devout Christian.Now this should not surprise us because the Biblealso tells us that Satan masquerades as an angel of light—afigure of speech that indicates that Satan is adept atcausing things that are wrong to appear as right or at leastharmless.Why is the interest in astrology so great today?There are many contributing factors which we do not havetime now to consider, but basically it is because man isdissatisfied with his own philosophy of life. Because hecannot live with his own concept of what life is all abouthe turns to something—anything that hopefully will fillthis longing.The One that can fill this longing—and will fillit ifwe ask Him is Jesus Christ. But the words of Jesus still holdtrue, ". . .you are unwilling to come to Me, that you mavhave life."MAY 26, 1971 3