God Is Good For You A Defence Of Christianity In Troubled Times – Greg Sheridan

Naomi at this time is bitter with life, though she still cares for Ruth. She left Bethlehem full, she says, and she is returning empty. Almost like Job, she concludes that the Lord has turned against her. Naomi and Ruth’s return to Bethlehem causes a stir in the town. But still they are living on very hard terms. Simply to get something for them to eat, Ruth goes out to farmers’ fields and picks up scraps of what are basically leftovers from the barley harvest.

Naomi is presumably too old or too unwell to engage in such labour herself. What would she have done without Ruth? Ruth works in the field of Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s. Ruth is beautiful and therefore vulnerable. Boaz asks who she is, and when he finds out, instructs his men not to molest her. He tells Ruth always to work in his own field, to take a drink when she wants one and, for safety, to stick close to the women who work for him.

Ruth is overwhelmed by this act of kindness and asks Boaz: ‘Why have I found favour in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?’ Boaz’s reply is instructive: All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.

May the Lord reward you for your deeds and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge! This speech reflects well on both Boaz and Ruth. Ruth has displayed true, kind, but also sinewy, determined devotion to Naomi, the kind of devotion that completely transforms lives. Ruth must have known something of Judaism from her marriage but still she was living among Moabites.

Now, for Naomi, she has embraced the God of Israel. Boaz honours Ruth for this devotion to Naomi and promises her that the God of Israel will honour her also. Boaz is speaking for God in this conversation.

‘It is not easy being a Christian and it will get harder. It is a product of faith and experience. But faith fluctuates and is always challenged. It is helped by knowledge, both of the essence of faith and its societal situation. Greg Sheridan seeks that understanding. This book is the best I have read for a long time that meets that need in me, and I suspect will for many others.’

Kim Beazley ‘God Is Good for You is insightful, compelling and challenging. Australian society is experiencing rapid change on many levels. Greg Sheridan has identified the shift in the landscape that pertains to church and faith in general. Though there is an obvious decline in some expressions of the Australian Church, he also identifies the new frontiers that defy this trend.’ Wayne Alcorn, Senior Pastor, Hope Centre Church, Brisbane, President of Australian Christian Churches ‘Anyone concerned about the depletion of God from the Western imagination should read Greg Sheridan’s God Is Good for You.’

Anthony Fisher, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney ‘Bluntly put, I am a sceptic, playing on the other team. But Greg Sheridan’s honesty confronting the steep decline in belief will recruit non-believers to join his lively hike through the frontline trenches of the argument whether God exists. No one could have read more of the literature or wrestled longer with it. Nor treated the other side—us stubborn doubters—with more courtesy.’ Bob Carr ‘What a wonderful surprise! Greg Sheridan’s God Is Good for You is rightly sober about the dire prospects Christianity faces in the post-Christian West, and appropriately concerned about the many good things we will lose if Christianity goes.

But this is a hopeful book. In companionable prose, Sheridan makes the ancient faith seem fresh and exciting, and introduces readers to ordinary believers whose joy invites both once-believers and never-believers to give God a chance … This stirring book offers both a warning to the West and a way out of our civilizational crisis. Take and read —before it’s too late.’ Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option ‘Greg Sheridan is to be congratulated on his robust and enlightening defence of religious belief, contrasting the aridity of atheism with the cultural and intellectual riches that accrue from faith.

It is all the more impressive coming from the pen of a distinguished journalist, with his curiosity about human nature and long experience of the affairs of the world.’ Piers Paul Read, author of Alive!, The Free Frenchman and A Married Man ‘God Is Good for You is, well, good for you, no matter where you find yourself religiously—believer, unbeliever, skeptic, seeker.

Believers will find their faith strengthened; unbelievers will discover some stereotypes challenged; skeptics may think a bit harder; and seekers just may find.’

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 2fcb83dd04950dd2
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,633,241 bytes (1.558 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781760632601, 9781760636791
• Pages: 274
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 502.82 minutes
• Total Words: 100,565
• Total Characters: 591,920
• Average Words per Page: 367.03
• Average Characters per Page: 2160.29

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