Spring 2024 Update
Between Friends
Dear Friends,
As we all know, 2023 saw the rise of yet another major conflict. As we continue to listen to harrowing reports of the suffering of men, women and children in multiple places around the globe, it may cause many to wonder if God can truly be in control of such a world where death and destruction are so rampant.
For believers, God’s governing of the universe is indisputable. In Daniel 4:34–35, King Nebuchadnezzar realizes this for himself. His sanity restored, he raises his eyes towards heaven, proclaiming:
His dominion is an eternal dominion;
his kingdom endures from generation to generation.
All the peoples of the earth
are regarded as nothing.
He does as he pleases
with the powers of heaven
and the peoples of the earth.
No one can hold back his hand
or say to him: “What have you done?”
So what is Nebuchadnezzar saying? David Gooding tells us, ‘There are many great powers on earth: kings, dictators, parliaments, and all the rest of it, and they are given delegated power by God. “There is no authority except from God,” says Scripture (Rom 13:1). Ultimately, God is in control and his will shall be done.’
But does this mean that we are so insignificant that we do not matter? Of course not! We are of great significance to God. Our right and wrong actions matter to him, and one day Christ will return to judge the wicked and bring about the full realization of his kingdom.
‘In some sense we live in enemy territory,’ says David Gooding, ‘but the enemy doesn’t have the last say. In all of it our blessed Lord stands in control. If he allows his enemies, Satan in particular, to test his people, it is only ‘so far and no further’. He shall not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Cor 10:13). The great day will come when the same Word who created heaven and earth shall bid them depart. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Pet 3:10). Eternity will dawn and the almighty God, the omnipotent, shall reign—not only as the indisputable, but as the undisputed sovereign Lord of all.’
We can take courage from this truth about our God, and rest in his care.
A Look Back at 2023
Last year our ‘tech guy’, Matthew Craig, took on the post of Operations Lead for Ardbarron Trust. He will be sorely missed! As we continue here to sew up the Matt-shaped hole, we are working hard to ensure that our work progresses steadily.
How did you come to work for Myrtlefield?
Josh called me out of the blue while I was studying for my Masters in Theology to ask if I could edit audio. I told him that I could learn how to, and was brought on for three months to clean the recordings of old sermons. Six years of saying, 'I can learn how to' followed, with my role growing and morphing according to needs.
What skills have you developed by working with us?
As a tech-nerd, I got to turn my hobbies related to web development, graphic design and presentation into a job, creating websites, books, graphics and reports for both internal and external use.
What will you miss most about Myrtlefield?
I'll miss lunchtime theology discussions with Josh, Ben and Stephen that began around the table in Myrtlefield Park. Interacting with Dr Gooding’s material on a daily basis provided many springboards to interesting and provocative questions, with all of us bringing different perspectives to the table!
How can we pray for you?
As a young father of a two-year-old (Elleanna) and a seven-month-old (Alexander), there are so many things I need to learn about parenting, and working as a team with my wife (Chloe) in this new adventure. Also, in my new role at Ardbarron Trust, I'm again in a phase of renewed 'I can learn how to'. Please pray that I may learn quickly and be a help to those I serve with.
Project 2.2 Billion Progress
Arabic
Over the last few months we have continued to make significant progress in our Arabic translations. We now have a contract in place to publish all six of our Quest books in Arabic, through partners in Lebanon. Additionally, our partners in Egypt have completed work on a third book, Key Bible Concepts, which is now available; this is in addition to existing translations of Windows on Paradise and The Definition of Christianity. We are also nearing publication of The Bible and Ethics. Our strategic partnerships with multiple ministries should enable us to reach an audience throughout the Middle East.
Other Languages
Translation work is continuing in Chinese, where our translator has worked on a number of books and is now nearing completion of The Riches of Divine Wisdom. We are continuing to review options for the editing and eventual publication of these books. Editing of Spanish True to the Faith is ongoing, as is proofreading and final editing for all remaining books in our existing catalogue. When publication work is complete, all our Spanish books will be available through our new website, https://www.myrtlefieldespanol.com.
In other news, we have recently contracted with translators who expressed an interest in our books in both Croatian and Romanian. Work is ongoing on a Croatian translation of The Glorious Gospel transcript, and a Romanian translation of Key Bible Concepts is in its final proofreading. Our Romanian contact is particularly interested in the books, and has expressed a desire to translate more.
Published in 2023
Myrtlefield Articles
David Gooding was not only a gifted Bible teacher, but a renowned scholar. Our website now hosts an archive of many of his academic and popular publications, made available for free thanks to the permission of their original publishers. They can be read online here.
Now Available Online…
The following books are now available to read online for free, or to download as PDFs or eBooks. Clicking on the book title will take you to its webpage:
Encouraging Statistics from 2023
Books & Other Resources
Number of books sold and distributed/downloaded for free: 46,849
Number of free audio files played: 21,100 (4,713 downloads)
The total length of time people spent while using our resources online:
Books: 20,406 minutes
Sermons: 148,738 minutes
David Gooding Answers: 56,242 minutes
YouTube Content: 623,880 minutes
Podcasts: 3,300 downloads
Our Websites
Myrtlefieldhouse.com
Visitors: 32,304
Page Views: 171,198
MH316.com
Visitors: 6,686
Page Views: 15,605
Myrtlefieldespanol.com
Visitors: 467
Page Views: 878
A Look Forward
The Quest Videos
The nine-part video pilot series produced with Remission Ministries in Jordan is now being released in Arabic. It will be used as part of Remission's ongoing work of reaching and discipling Arabic-speaking millennials, including distribution by SAT-7. Click here to view it. The English version is now ready to be released, with part one now on YouTube, so watch this space!
An update on the John Commentary Project
With so much rich material to sift through, the editing of From Symbol to Reality: The Journeys of the Son of God in John’s Gospel is taking longer than expected. However, to whet your appetite, here is a snippet taken from David Gooding’s insight into John 5 and the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda:
None of Christ's miracles in the Gospel of John is simply an act of supernatural power calculated only to call attention to his deity. They certainly were physical miracles; but they were also enacted parables, designed to diagnose, and call attention to, human moral and spiritual needs, and then to illustrate Christ's ability to meet human need at that level. We rightly ask, therefore, what parabolic lesson the healing of the paralyzed man has for us.We may start with the description of the man’s trouble. Like all the others lying around the pool, he was sick; but not ill with some malignant disease, or some disorder of his internal organs; not suffering from some skin disease that made people shun him; but physically weak, without strength (as the Greek word means literally), that is, disabled, incapacitated: too weak and powerless indeed to use the means of healing presented by the pool.
We should have no difficulty in seeing the similarity between him and ourselves, for one of the grievous effects of the Fall is that it has left all of us spiritually weak, without strength, incapacitated. Describing the condition that we all were in before Christ died for us to make salvation possible, Paul strings out a list of sorry symptoms, and ‘weakness’ heads the list: while we were yet weak . . . while we were yet sinners . . . while we were enemies . . . (Rom 5:6, 8, 10). Moreover, the weakness Paul is referring to is not particularly an inability to express our own views strongly enough or a failure to insist on having our own way. It is the general inability to keep God’s law as God demands that we should keep it. True, some people of an optimistic disposition and a not-too-well informed conscience start off by imagining that they do—or could if only they tried hard enough—keep God's law. But experience will show them, what Scripture tells them in advance, that all have sinned in the past and do constantly come short of God's glorious standards (see Rom 3:23). Humanity is fatally weak.
We need Christ to save us, then. But just here our miracle/parable is designed to correct a common mistake. Many people imagine that Christ saves us by giving us that extra strength which we need in order to keep God's law, and thus by keeping God's law to qualify for eternal life. But that is quite false. It is like imagining that Christ saved the paralytic by giving him that extra help he needed to use the pool as a means of healing. But no! Christ did no such thing. He gave the man healing and new power independently of the pool altogether.
And so it is with us. Christ has not come to help us to keep God’s law and by that means to qualify eventually for eternal life. He has come to give us eternal life, here and now, instantaneously, as an unmerited and unearned gift, without, and apart from, the works of the law.
Coming Soon…
RNIB Bookshare
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is a UK charity offering information, support and advice to almost two million people in the UK with sight loss. One way they offer support is through their Bookshare UK education collection, which provides accessible educational resources to all qualifying print-disabled learners.
We are uploading our books to the RNIB Bookshare collection, where our titles will be made accessible to those with a sight-related disability. The Riches of Divine Wisdom is currently a part of their catalogue. We will update you as more books are added!
Biblical Insights with David Gooding
A Myrtlefield House Podcast
We are excited to announce that the first episode of our new podcast series Visions of Judgment and Victory, will be released this Spring, with a new episode being released each week until the series is complete.
Previous series of the podcast can be found on most major podcasting platforms, and also on YouTube and www.myrtlefieldhouse.com.
David Gooding Answers … 10 more Questions!
We have added ten more questions to the David Gooding Answers section of our website. Click on a question below to go to that page:
Because of your ongoing prayers and support for Myrtlefield, we are regularly hearing from people who are grateful for our resources and who give us specific examples of things the Lord has taught them through what they've read or heard. Here are only a few examples of what people have been telling us:
“I am so amazed all this audio is still available. So glad someone had the foresight originally to tape the talks and to hold on to them. Such a treasure chest of material!”
“I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you for all the work you have done and continue to do at Myrtlefield. Although I didn't have the opportunity to hear David Gooding in person I have been hugely influenced by his videos and recorded ministry as well as his books. So thank you very much indeed.”
“I am so grateful that you and everyone at Myrtlefield are keeping the voice of David Gooding's teaching alive and well for the generations who follow, so that they may hear our Lord so clearly expounded in his work. I have listened to and read countless teachers in my life, and David continues to hold a special place in my heart. I had never experienced the riches of Scripture until I was blessed to come across his work so many years ago now.”