And Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

Luke 18:19

The victory cry of Israel was, “For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”  Psalm 100:5  They sang this refrain over and over, as a praise to their God who had given them them their victory.  No other words are recorded, if there were any, this was their triumph!

No one is good but God.  Even Jesus, God Himself, didn’t try to stand in His own goodness as a man.  Everything He did, He obeyed His Father, as an example.  He said that whoever does truth comes into the light so that it might be plainly be seen that what has been done has been done through God (John 3:21).

Jesus called people to pray in their innermost closet rather than to do it to be seen by men.  He wasn’t against praying on street corners, but rather the heart that desires to be recognized and seen as righteous for external acts of service, rather than acts of service deriving from the heart which, at times, break forth and are quite visible.  Jesus didn’t arrest the woman anointing His feet because her works derived from a heart of adoration.  He never stopped the crowds from welcoming Him with shouts of Hosanna, for they came from the unction of the Spirit.  But, if we seek to be rewarded by men, we will have had our reward in full, for what we seek, we shall find.

O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

Psalm 34:8

I like to think that this “taste” is to taste like a milkshake is good.  To see is to look and see anything of great design, order, and beauty is good.  Of course, of a higher realm, but it is taste and sight nonetheless.

He is good, and His mercy endures forever.

As we do His truth, what comes out of us is His acts, which are good.  As Jesus was the exact representation of God’s being, as we become like Christ, we begin to resemble Him.  While it might not be a good thing to say that we are in the same sense the exact representation of God’s being as Christ was, and the radiance of His Glory (Hebrews 1:3), we become like Him, being Christ to the world.  We shine with Christ’s light, which is God’s light, and to the extent that we reflect that light of Christ, the world will see Christ, who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).

The good works of the Father were the signs, miracles, and wonders that He worked while He was on the Earth.  He came to preach and to teach, and to perform signs and wonders, demonstrating to the nation of Israel and the World that He was who He said He was and that His way is Eternal.

For the God of Heaven had set forth a time from the beginning, and He had ordained it, so that at the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, to redeem us (Galatians 4:4-5).  And at His Set Time, He has determined that the fullness of the Gentiles would be brought in.

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

Matthew 7:11

It is the heart of the Father to give good gifts to His children.

He is the real, and this world is the shadow.

We can talk all day along about nothing separating us from His love, but until that love is a reality, something real that really sustains you, you’re living a doctrine, and not in God.

As Paul wrote, there are some among you who have no knowledge of God, and I say this to your shame (1 Corinthians 15:34).  You can live your whole life in a doctrine, and have all the right answers, but until love is the substance of your answer, until you really are never separated from the love of God that is in Christ, you demonstrate only that you know Christianity , but have further to understand Christ Jesus Himself.

The world is nothing, and this life is nothing.  Christ is all, and He is in all.

The Father is good, and His reality and nature are ever present, yet perceivable.  The world is failing because they cannot see what is before them, and the Christianity that refuses to look at see is guilty of loving it and not seeing how good He is.

The Israelites lots many one day in a place they called Taberah (meaning “burning”).  They couldn’t see anything but their trials, which seemed severe, and they grumbled and complained before the Moses in the hearing of the Lord.  The Lord was angry and sent fire to consume the outskirts of the camp.  In asking the Lord one day, respectfully, why that happened and that it seemed, on a surface reading, that their trials were a little severe, His immediate exclamation back to me was, “That’s the point!  They saw their circumstances and their trials, and not me!  If they would see me, they would have seen how good I AM!  They would have stood in my counsel.  They would say with Paul, these ‘light and momentary afflictions’.  They would not have regarded their afflictions.”

They moment we can get our eyes up off of our circumstances and onto the Lord, our Good Father, our circumstance are as nothing.  As soon as we can see Him, taste of Him, and lose this whole, entire world again, we are free.  Whether we live or die, we do it to the Lord!  Romans 14:8.

This is the life.  The is the exultation of the sons in glory!  There is no fear in death, and no pain in loss, for we have the Lord always.

But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:55

But, our Good Father has given us all that He is.  We have a better covenant than Moses, and a better walk than Adam.  We live in the powers of the age to come, we survive in the presence and majesty and Eternal Glory of the Master.  We have His precious and magnificent promises, of which none has ever failed.

He is the Great I AM.  He is the same that He always has been.  Tomorrow, when you believe the scriptures, remember, they were still true today, before you believed.  The next day, in the midst of the fray, they will still be true.  He is the same provider that tomorrow will seem so much more real to you then.  Believe today!  Believe again.  Believe Deeper.

Trust in Him, with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding.  In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

Don’t settle for a shadow.  Don’t settle for something less than His Presence and anointing.  Having learned it, and knowing it’s worth and it’s cost, let nothing, let no one, deter you from it or separate you from it.  For His paths are past finding out, and His worth is greater than fathomable.

He is Good.  And, there is none other.