Over the last several weeks, our staff has been challenging me through a discussion we have been having in our staff meetings. For me, the discussion has spilled over to moments of pondering, praying, and conversations beyond the meeting. This week that process ended up with me thinking about Psalm 34:8. The verse reads:
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
As a person who prefers long messages, and struggles to write in a compact fashion, I am struck by the succinctness of David’s message in verse 8. In so many ways it captures what I hope is the message of Central. I believe the Lord is good. When I talk about God’s beauty and His love, those are expressions of His goodness. Good is not to be understood as a comparative, as if God is good but something else is great. Saying God is good is declaring that He is the most glorious, wonderful, beautiful, loving being there is. God is the definition of good because He is good.
I pray that everything we do as a church, whether we are talking about our worship services, Children’s Church, Equipping Hour, Connection Groups, Awana, or Student Ministries, or our church scattered as we follow Jesus in our daily lives that we all know God is good and we invite others to taste and see that He is good. Our enemy tries to tell us and the people that other things are good. But God alone is good. We need to invite people to taste and see the wonder, beauty, and goodness of God alone. No substitutes or imitations will do. We need the real thing. Because the only way to experience blessing in life, which is His love in our lives, is to take refuge in Him. If we do not turn to Him, we may be without help, support, or protection. We might think it is cool to try life on our own, but according to Psalm 34:10, we will end up like young lions in want and hunger. But those who seek the Lord, meaning He is our refuge, will lack no good thing. When we taste and see that the Lord is good, and in response seek refuge in Him, we will know His goodness in our lives. Please ponder that glorious truth with me and pray that God will provide you the chance to share it with someone this week.