Is God good, really? Sceptics may ask (and Christians as well for that matter), if God is real, can he be good?
The TV personality Stephen Fry once said if he ever met God he would ask 'Childhood cancer, what is that all about?'.
The World's woesIt is easy to reel off a list of the world's woes: disease, hunger, tragedy, earthquakes and so on.
Simply by considering the bad things in this world we might conclude there could hardly be a living God let alone a good one!
The Sceptics problemThere is however a problem for the sceptic.
Just as believers have a hard time explaining pain and suffering there is an equally difficult question for unbelievers.
Who told you these things were bad?Something inside us, an inner voice if you like says 'That's wrong, it shouldn't be like that!'.
If one asks 'Why does God allow that?' another might reply 'How did you find out it was bad, who told you?'.
Why do we care?Why do we care about other people's suffering?
We hear about famine in a remote part of the world and our hearts ache, we might even send money to help. Yet we probably don't know these people and have nothing obvious to gain from helping them.
What is it about us that makes us care about strangers?
The Bibles answerThe Bible tells us we are made in the image of God.
'So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them'. 2Genesis 1:27Fallen man still retains something of the image of the creator even though badly marred. Like a castle ruin we can still imagine something of its original glory.
Good giftsThe Bible insists 'Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights'. 3James 1:17
Goodness is from God or more precisely: God is good.
In truth the Lord has showered us with good gifts: food, clothes, our physical senses, family, friends, oxygen, sunsets, the list goes on and on.
I was once walking through some fruit trees and it suddenly struck me that God has inserted sticks in the ground and hung food off them to satisfy the hunger of any passer by!
The Ultimate giftGods ultimate good gift is Jesus himself. It should stagger us that God the Father would offer his son to a guilty and ungrateful world.
In the face of his rebellious and defiant creation he offers sinners a way out.
He offers us:
Forgiveness'Blessed is he whose sin will never count against him'. 4Psalm 32:2 A new start'The old has gone, the new is here!'. 52 Corinthians 5:17 A new identity'I now longer live but Christ lives in me.'. 6Galatians 2:20 Abundant life'I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly'. 7John 10:10 Eternal fellowship'where I am you may be also.'. 8John 14:3Will you accept his gift?