See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice for ever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.'
Isaiah 65:17-19
See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice for ever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.
Isaiah 65:17-19
Find more videos like Ben's on the Live DVD.
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“You’re 9 years old,” I say to my younger self. “What do you have to be sad about?”
The charcoal portrait, sketched in the shadow of the Sacré-Coeur, now hangs in my father’s front room. And I look heroically gloomy. Presumably the artist did his best to capture the merriment of a family vacation, but the face is so sodden with regret it near drags the paper from its frame.
This was no isolated moment of childhood melancholy. "Cheer up," complete strangers would routinely say to me, "it might never happen." ("Too late," I would say under my breath, "it already has.")
I suppose some of us tend that way naturally. We’re always trying to swim back upstream to the moment just before we think it all went wrong. Our minds, sadly, aren’t well-behaved libraries shelved with orderly memoirs. They’re gothic charnel houses piled high with gaudy carousels, furiously spinning out past moments, past conversations, past relationships. What if I had done things differently? What if I had said something else? What if I had been someone else? The linoleum is worn through with pacing. We rehearse and re-rehearse dialogue as if we’re preparing for opening night on Broadway, except there is no play, these conversations ended long ago, and many of the people who shared them with us are long gone. Regret, the barbed wire hula-hoop, loping heavily around the brow, lacerating the skull with each revolve. Regret, the malevolent halo.
“What’s done is done.” “That tree has fallen.” “Why regret things you can’t change?”
Miserable comforters all. They may as well tell someone to ignore an itch they can’t scratch. The unreachability is what makes it so impossible to disregard.... continue reading
The following is an extract from the Going Deeper section from LIVE: Session Three.
Jesus was never hesitant to state the benefits of what he offers. We never hear him say: “Well, if it seems like a convenient time, you might want to consider” … “I think you really might enjoy this” … “I don’t want to sound presumptuous, but what I offer is rather special!” Instead, Jesus is bold and remarkably direct. He says the benefit of placing our faith in him is that he forgives our sins and brings us into an intimate relationship with God now and for all eternity. He gives us abundant life—not gifts like a Ferrari or an all-expense-paid holiday, but a life of meaning, purpose, profound joy and fulfillment! Through Jesus we discover who we are and whose we are. We have a sense of belonging because we finally know our true home.
At the same time, Jesus warned people to stop and count the cost of being his disciple. William Barclay, author and Bible commentator, rightly observed about Jesus and his disciples: “No one could ever say that they were induced to follow Jesus by false pretenses. Jesus never tried to bribe men by the offer of an easy way.”... continue reading
We're conscious, here at The Good Book Company, of our need for prayer. We want to be working in God's strength - for God's glory - in God's Kingdom not just pottering about doing what we think is good and right. If you could remembers us in prayer, that would be so much appreciated. To that end, over the next few Wednesdays, we'll be popping up some prayer requests - asking you to pray for us department by department. This week, print and logistics:
We're a department which goes unnoticed if we're doing our job. We look after getting a finished product from the editorial department into the right place at the right time, looking right! We liaise with printers, shippers, couriers and warehouses. We print paperbacks, hardbacks, spiral bound, Christmas cards, stickers, display boxes, booklets, tracts, DVDs and CDs. We maintain 7 warehouses around the world and dispatched parcels to over 100 different countries in the last year.
We'd value prayer for:
Thank you!
1. Emotions ebook - just £4.99 until midday Thursday!
Get the ebook version of Emotions by Graham Beynon for just £4.99!
2. TGCW14 Media Now Available
Watch or listen to the main talks and seminars from the recent Gospel Coalition women’s conference.
3. How Can I Be Sure? - Helping Christians Combat Doubt & Enjoy Assurance
John Stevens introduces his new book on doubt.
4. LIVE: the course your church may well have been waiting for
Editor Carl Laferton introduces the new course from Rebecca Manley Pippert.
5. And finally...
In case you missed it, our video of the week, the ‘Live Grow Know’ trailer:
Found something that you think should make it on to the On to a Good Thing round-up? Send it to: ontoagoodthing@thegoodbook.co.uk
