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Archives: January 2011
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Archives: January 2011
A good
news story
By Natalie de Laune
“Have you heard about Robbie’s engagement? It’s amazing news!”
“Have you heard Dan and Sarah’s exciting news? They’re having a baby!”
“Have you heard the brilliant news about England winning the Ashes!?"
“Have you heard the good news about Jesus?”
Recently I’ve been thinking about the way we communicate the Gospel by calling it the ‘good news’. We can get really excited about amazing things like babies and engagements but use better adjectives to describe the weather, than we do when describing Jesus’ message! Did Jesus really only bring us ‘good news’ or do we need to get our hands on a thesaurus?
It turns out we lost some of the punch through translation from the original Greek; we are underselling it! For the first Christians, when Jesus arrived on the scene and announced: “The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:14-15), this was much more than good news for them. It was the BEST, most exceptional, marvellous, stupendous news and it rocked their worlds. Jesus was announcing a new way of doing life that turned their worlds upside down and right side up. Jesus brought news that should transform not only our lives after death, but our daily lives right here, right now!
If you want a summary of Jesus’ good news, check out the sermon he gives in Matthew 5-8; it’s packed with words that transformed the reality of those who first heard them. The message Jesus preached not only offered forgiveness of sins, unconditional love and eternal life - which is truly amazing – but by announcing his Kingdom had come near he was letting us know that by coming to earth he was bringing a whole new way of life and offering it to us. When he tells us to ‘repent’, he’s encouraging us to turn our lives around and stake our lives on this news by believing it’s not too good to be true. The New Testament is jam-packed with words from Jesus, and those who knew him, that explore what this new way of life looks like because the reality of the ‘good news’ can’t be summed up in a sentence. The ‘good news’ is a gift that keeps on giving. Each day as we read the Bible hopefully we are discovering more of Jesus’ teaching that offers us life in its fullness.
In one sense, the core of the ‘good news’ is the same for all of us: Jesus loves us so much he offers forgiveness for the sins that separate us from God so that we can forever enjoy an intimate relationship with him.
But our God is personal. He meets us all where we are at, he speaks into our hearts and our situations, reminding us of his promises that will touch us in different ways depending on what we are struggling with at the time. He takes away our shame when we mess up, he gives us joy in hard times, peace in times of uncertainty and so much more! What’s good news for me today might not be the good news you need to hear today and the good news that uplifts us this week could be different next week. God never runs out of good news that can transform our struggles.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes there is just so MUCH ‘good news’ that I don’t know where to begin soaking it in to let it transform my day-to-day life!
Recently when I’ve felt stressed and overwhelmed, sad and hurt, confused and anxious, I’ve been trying to stop myself from wallowing in those feelings by asking myself: “What is the Good News Jesus has for me in this situation?” I ask God this question and see if he responds by bringing something to my mind. Where I’ve been feeling overwhelmed with university work, and as I’ve struggled not to drown under my workload, God has brought this verse to mind “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest… For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
As I studied that verse, God revealed to me that the verse could be read as saying, “Come to me all who have overburdened themselves and I will rest you. If you are weary and overburdened it’s because you are wearing the wrong yoke. The yoke I wear is my relationship with my Father and I’m calling you to join me in it. It’s the secret of my identity and ministry.”
This has been good news for me! God wants to break into old habits and transform my life through these promises and shown me how the good news can be applied to my life right now.
But the even better news is that I don’t have to do it alone. Whatever our situation, when we ask God what the good news is, the answer will always include, “You are not alone in this.” Jesus embodied the good news because Jesus IS the good news that makes all of God’s promises possible: he is always with us and always hears when we yell, “Help!”
He has shown us a new way of living and he gave us his Spirit to equip us so we can trust in his teaching and not just talk about the good news, but live it out. When we invite the Spirit to fill us and we surrender to the teaching of Jesus, the good news grabs hold of us and we develop new character traits, lifestyles, ambitions and motivations. The good news will rock our worlds for the better! Our lives will be good news to be those around us and they will be drawn to Jesus in us, and our God who is with us. And that’s more than just good news! That’s news so awesome we’ll find hard it to articulate!
About the author
Natalie works with us at Soul Survivor. She's just completed a degree in Christian Studies at Regent College, likes hiking and is the fastest one hand typist that we know.
Soul Survivor is a Christian charity that puts on events for young people. Our registered charity no. is 1080720. We are also a company limited by guarantee in England & Wales. Our company registered number is 03991111, which is nice. Thanks for caring.
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