Good Pleasure part 1
It seems to me that people like Joseph Prince and Joel Osteen kind of get a bad rap for preaching a "happy gospel." As if we truly are sinners in the hands of an angry God, and that's the kind of thing we need to focus on. To me, though, that's crazy. The gospel literally means "good news." I don't know where this idea of an angry God came from. Well, I guess maybe I do. There are some parts of the Old Testament of the Bible that could give you the idea that God is, at the very least, tempermental. But what we have to realize is that the Old Testament was written without benefit of the indwelling Holy Spirit. If "that" God looks a lot like man, it is probably because we were interpreting the unknowable through our own selves. We put things in terms that we could understand. We are tempermental, and that means God must be, right? Almost like we made Him in OUR image instead of the other way around. And that, by the way, is why so many of the things Jesus said befuddled His disciples. The last shall be first and the first last? That doesn't make sense. Love your enemy? Turn the other cheek? It was all so radical because He wasn't filtering it though human "natural" mindsets. He was bringing a whole new mindset. The mind of Christ. Now look at our key verse for this Rant series: Luke 12:32, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." I always preach a happy God. And sometimes people will ask me why I think He's so happy. Well, not to oversimply it, but I think God is happy because He had a goal and then accomplished it. It was His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. He gave us the Kingdom. He did what it made Him happy to do! Let me say it another way. All throughout that Old Testament, over and over again, God said what He wanted. I'll use Jeremiah 24:7 as an example. "And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return to me with their whole heart." That's it, in a nutshell. God wanted to be our God and He wanted us to be His people. Now. Fast forward to the book of Revelation. Which is an in-depth look at what happened on the cross. "I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God" (Revelation 21:3 MSG). Mission accomplished! He wanted to be our God and for us to be His people. Now that's how it is. It was His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. So He did. Why? Because He loves us and wants us to have it. And that, to me, when you do something good for someone else... that makes you happy. We have a happy God because He expresses His love to us, and in us, and through us, and as us! He gets to enjoy watching us (and helping us) enjoy the gift we've been given. Think about Christmas--you parents out there--how happy it makes you to see the look on your kids' faces when they open the presents you got them. It's joyful for them... but also for you. It is more blessed to give than to receive. God gave it all. And He's happy about it. It was his good pleasure, and He is now enjoying the fruit of that labor!