God is good

December is already here, and there are many great things to speak about this special month where we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

As Christians, we read the bible and learn more about our great God, and we always emphasize these attributes: God is love, God is gracious, God is merciful, because we often fall in sin, and experience at first hand that God is loving and gracious.

Sometimes we emphasize on the Holiness of God, on how we ought to be holy as we are set apart to live for Him. On occasions, we also speak about the wrath of God, as the great lyrics of "In Christ Alone" speaks about it:

"Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied "

Because we understand that our sin has offended the just God, and in order to satisfy His wrath, the death of His only Son was necessarily.

It's extraordinary how our worship to God is more refined when we know Him more and more.

A particular aspect of God that we should also speak is the "goodness" of God. I guess we often associate God with being good, and don't really ponder about it too much.

Recently I have been reading a Chinese manga series called "Feng Shen Ji" that takes place in the days of the last emperor of the Shang Dynasty (Chinese history oh yeah). In the story there are many gods that govern everything and puts mankind into slavery, so the emperor starts a rebellion against the gods to give dignity to the humans. It is a very cool fantasy with manly fight and honorable fight scenes. But it made me think about what would happen if our God is not good, and does not always intend to do good to us. The reason the emperor is starting this rebellion is because the gods of the story are only looking after their own interests, and treat humans as toys.

The classic passage of Romans 8:28 assures us that God works for our good no matter what the circumstances are. There is really no reason for All-powerful Almighty God to be good to us, but this is our God, and His goodness compels us to worship Him more.