Dea Nuacht - Good News!
No matter where you get your news, it’s seldom good these days. A quick look at the state of our world makes us appreciate the words of Solomon: "As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."1
You might try the Bible if you are tired of bad news all the time. Many people make assumptions about this book without ever reading it. The Bible often refers to its message as "the gospel." Gospel simply means "good news."
This good news centres on Jesus Christ. On the night of Jesus's birth, an angel declared, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day ... a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."2 As that child grew into a man, he preached what the Bible writers called "the gospel of the kingdom." Jesus preached a message of good news.
Good News: It's a message of hope! The Bible’s good news is optimistic. The apostle Paul wrote about "hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began."3 What’s the point of eternal life in a world as bad as ours? That hope sounds hollow! Thankfully, the Bible anticipates a day when God will set everything right. Evil, death, and decay will be abolished. Peace, beauty, and goodness will triumph.
Good News: It's a free gift! It has to be a gift because we are part of the world's problem.4 The world is bad because each of us is bad. We strive to offset bad works with good ones, but there’s still no place for anything bad in a perfectly good kingdom.
Good News: It's for everyone! God intends this good news to reach everyone. The good news won’t help people who don’t believe. The Apostle Paul wrote that the promise of eternal life only benefits people who believe the good news after they hear it.5
During some of the darkest days for God’s people, he offered them a hopeful message: ‘“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, ... thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end."6 That expected end involves a hopeful future. God promised that people who search for him will find him when they search with all their hearts.
A future and a hope? Thoughts of good and not evil? Those are priceless commodities in our world! We have tried our schemes for manufacturing hope and peace, and they fall apart because of shoddy craftsmanship. Why not give God a chance? Take his offer. He promises to hear, to answer, and to give you a future and a hope. Now that’s good news!
1 Proverbs 25:25
2 Luke 2:10-11
3 Titus 1:2
4 Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9
5 Ephesians 1:13-14
6 Jeremiah 29:11