Home > Work > God is Good: He's Better Than You Think
1 " So when I read that there is the fear of the Lord in the New Testament, I have to adjust my definition. What I think, live, and teach must be consistent with the Bible, so I allow what is written to prune my definition until it will stand the test of God’s Word itself. "
― Bill Johnson , God is Good: He's Better Than You Think
2 " People ask me, “What about Job?” My response is, “What about Jesus?” Job provides the question. Jesus gives the answer. The story of Job is about holding to our faith in the midst of trials and seeing God restore everything brilliantly. But the story of Jesus is the only one I follow. "
3 " God has chosen to veil Himself in just the right measure so that our wills and intellects could be shaped by our allegiance to Him. He is there for anyone humble enough to recognize his or her personal need. He is also subtle enough to be ignored by those who are filled with themselves. "
4 " For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord” (Ps. 33:4–5). One of the definitions for this word full is “having no empty space.” It’s beautiful. The world has no empty spaces untouched by God’s goodness. That being the case, no one has to look far to find this treasure. But one may have to look differently. "
5 " It is not the task of Christianity to provide easy answers to every question, but to make us progressively aware of a mystery. God is not so much the object of our knowledge as the cause of our wonder. K ALLISTOS W ARE "
6 " The whole point of this book is that condemnation is not in His heart. As stated earlier, “God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezek. 18:23). "
7 " All of God’s judgments are aimed at whatever interferes with love. "
8 " This isn’t the Day of Judgment. This is the day of great mercy. The Day of Judgment is in His hands. The day of mercy is in ours. All of us who received His forgiveness have done so because of His mercy. All we’re praying is, “God, I know I’m no better than the people of this city. Please show them the same undeserved mercy You’ve shown to me.” God longs to extend His mercy to people who no longer recognize the difference between their right hand and their left. (See Jonah 4:11.) That is not a derogatory remark about their intelligence. Far from it. It’s a statement about the ability of the majority to distinguish between right and wrong. "
9 " The will of God has been a much-debated subject, which I often find quite entertaining. It does us no good to keep the conversation in a classroom caught up in Christian theory. It has to be taken onto the streets, where the hurting people are. The will of God must be displayed by a praying people, unwilling to sit on the sidelines and see the devil continually steal, kill, and destroy, and then watch the theorist give God the credit. Masking our unbelief with a spineless theology is the great deception. This continual misrepresentation of the nature and heart of God for one another and for the world must stop. Stupidity often looks like intelligence in the absence of experience. "
10 " I said “yes” to this journey many years ago and have since discovered that His goodness is beyond my wildest dreams. My yes started by simply recognizing that I have sinned and fallen short of God’s purpose and design. Jesus then became for me the perfect manifestation of goodness. He rescued me from all that would destroy me and brought me into a relationship with Him where more of His goodness could be discovered. Many have taken that first step but tragically have stopped after step one, picking up the view of who God is as seen in the Old Testament stories. Those stories are important and necessary. But the fact is, Jesus came to replace them with a clearer view of what God is like. There are few deceptions more devastating than this one. It is tragic and so completely unnecessary. "
11 " Cancer had become a very specific target for us. I hear far too many Christians mention the word cancer almost with a reverence. To recognize it as a powerful entity is costly. It would be like Israel respecting Baal, or some other false deity. The spirit behind such diseases can recognize our fear. Cancer, and every other disease, is an inferior name to the name of Jesus. It must bow. None of us should have any respect for that disease. (I don’t mean respect in the sense of honor. I know of no one who does that. I mean respect by the place of “awe” it has obtained in the hearts and minds of God’s people.) Cancer has become the Goliath of the New Testament Church in North America. We must do what David did and run toward the giant to see it killed! (See 1 Samuel 17.) It is inexcusable to withdraw in reverence, as did Saul and his armies when Goliath taunted the armies of God. We are the most to be pitied when the size of our God (in our eyes) is smaller than the size of our problem. We must return to Big God, little devil. "
12 " The New Covenant is better than the Old, and therefore must provide superior blessings and breakthroughs. "
13 " Anchoring our souls in everything but His goodness is the ultimate waste of time. Moses "
