REPORTING THE GOOD NEWS

Isaiah 28:14-30:11; Galatians 3:23-4:31; Psalm 62:1-12; Proverbs 23:19-21

“These people are stubborn rebels who refuse to pay attention to the Lord’s instructions. They tell the seers, ‘Stop seeing visions!’ They tell the prophets, ‘Don’t tell us what is right. Tell us nice things. Tell us lies. Forget all this gloom. Get off your narrow path. Stop telling us about your “Holy One of Israel.” We are tired of listening to what he has to say.’”

“And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, ‘Abba, Father.’ Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir, and everything He has belongs to you.”

Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.”

“My child, listen and be wise: Keep your heart on the right course.”

Today, make it a point to watch the news. Log on to today’s top stories. Consider well what gets the media’s attention. Almost across the board, we are awash in gloom and doom. Now, I don’t mean to be insensitive to our problems or the millions who are out of work or unable to pay their bills. I simply mean to lay hold of the obvious. Even sinners need hope. Beating folks up over their wickedness is, in my humble opinion, an outmoded and ineffective way to draw people to Christ. If guilt really worked as a motivating force, our churches would be much fuller than they are. To bring people into the Kingdom, we really need to spend more time modeling the benefits of a life in Christ, instead of pounding on seekers about their inadequacies as leaders, parents, workers or just plain members of the community. Jesus spent far more time telling people how to improve their lives and live beyond their individual limitations than He spent haranguing them over their shortcomings. Today’s selection from Isaiah, read in isolation, might suggest people who tire of hearing bad news are ducking the real issues. But remember, that is only an excerpt from a much longer chapter in a long book from a much longer Book.

There’s no arguing the Bible spends a lot of time convincing humankind of their sinfulness and essential need for Christ. That is an important part of the Gospel, but it is not the only, or even the major, storyline. When sinfulness instead of grace becomes the cornerstone of our evangelistic efforts, we are probably more interested in ascending the throne of judgment than in freeing souls from the bondage surrounding them. Friends, that is no good at all.

The message of every Christian ought to begin with the idea that, through Christ, gloom and doom can be changed into joy and celebration. Creation can be recreated. People can be converted and made new. The old can become irrelevant, and with it, the penalty for our willful desire to be like God. If anyone wants to hear some good news, let them focus on that great word! Stop bludgeoning others with personal opinions of what they are doing wrong and how they might be “fixed.” People cannot be “fixed.” Pets get “fixed.” People must be healed, and that is a process we humans can never initiate for anyone else. It is a process that has to start from the inside out. All we can do is encourage others to open their hearts to the power of the Great Physician.

I grow weary of bad news. Its messengers are, frankly, tedious, and they typically offer few helpful solutions. Judgment requires no character, either, and its absence is often quite obvious to all but the judge. Few listeners are so blind they cannot recognize that those who focus on bad news just have nothing good to report. Always looking at the downside soon stunts one’s own growth potential. It is both a limited and limiting perspective.

We all need the Cure for our sinfulness, pettiness and judgmental attitude. That’s old news. Let’s start our work for God by letting Him first deal with and heal our lack of compassion and empathy for the plights of others. Let’s open ourselves up to His healing grace before we start trying to break others. When we do, it’s pretty much a given that our perspective will improve. We won’t need to batter others with their spiritual poverty. We can be agents of grace and healing instead of destruction. We will have good news to report.

We are heirs of God. Everything He has, He longs to share with us. He will be our Rock and our salvation, if we will but allow it. So let us never beat on others so hard that we chase them off to another refuge. There is no other which can hold a candle to the sanctuary our Father provides for His children in His heavenly mansion.