Lesson 5 "As Good as It Gets"

Lesson # 5 Lenten Study Series “Geography of God”

Chapter 15 “As Good as it Gets”

Why do we do good as people of God?
Obedience
Imitation
Inspiration

What about sin? Can people change? Is repentance really possible?
“In order for people to change, something must die: Old habits of the heart must die, dear and self-centeredness must die, complaining and peevishness must die, anger and hatefulness must die…All that which is sin must be crucified, dead and buried.” Michael Lindvall, pg. 96

Other sources to look at on sin
“Whatever Became of Sin?” by Karl Menninger
“Moral Man and Immoral Society” by Reinhold Niebuhr

A good word for hypocrites: “We are a bunch of hypocrites”

A good word for love
“The core of Christian ethics is a tough and insistent love. This love draws into itself three gifts: obedience, imitation, inspiration…Love is not a feeling but an act of will, a commitment to act.” Lindvall, p. 103

Chapter 16 “Seventy times Seven”

David Freeman’s summary of the message of scripture (Old and New Testament) is: “There is forgiveness”

We struggle to forgive because we “underestimate the forgiveness of God.”
Read Matthew 18:21-35 (1 talent= 15 years wages so 10,000*15*$20K= $3 bill)
“To refuse forgiveness is to refuse God whose very nature is to forgive” (p.105)
Desmond Tutu “There is no future without forgiveness”
“How many lives have I seen eaten away by the acid of unforgiven hurt.” Lindvall, p. 105

Forgiveness is not to diminish the offense. Forgiveness also does not depend on our goodness. Lastly forgiveness does not even depend on the perpetrator asking for forgiveness?!?

Chapter 17 “Deserts and Wild Beasts”

“If God is good, why do bad things happen?”
Quick answers: “It’s God’s will”….”It’s not partly cloudy- It’s partly sunny”..
What about “I found God in the wilderness?”
St. Thomas of the Cross “Dark Night of the Soul”
Ultimate comfort “God is with me”
23 Psalm “Ye, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me…”

Matthew 1:24 “…and they shall call his name Emmanuel which means “God is with us”

Matthew 28:20 “And remember, I am with you to the close of the age”
Rev. 21:3 “See the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples and God himself will be with them, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes”.