Could you use a little good news?
Words from the Servant/Messiah in Isaiah 61:1-3:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
Do you notice anything about this Good News the Messiah would bring? It is more than nice sounding words spewed forth into the air. This Good News does things! It binds up broken hearts and frees those who are bound. It changes mourning into gladness and faint spirits into praising ones. It changes the weak and wavering into “oaks of righteousness.” This Good News is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12) and does not return without accomplishing something (Isaiah 55:11).
Bad News
Could you use a little good news? Life confronts us with so much bad news these days. The world teaches children they’re no different than animals. The world teaches youth that sex is causal, marriage optional, and gender is neutral. The world attacks the younger generation on college campuses and challenges their faith and beliefs. The world says the most compassionate way to help women experiencing a crisis pregnancy is to kill her child. The world says the most compassionate way to help people with disabilities or chronic disease or the effects of aging is to have assisted suicide and euthanasia legal and readily available.
Bringing Good News to Life Does Things!
You more mature readers will remember that General Electric used to advertise that they “Bring Good Things to Life.” Maybe you can still even sing the jingle! At Lutherans For Life, we desire to Bring Good News to Life and to equip God’s people to do the same. Because the Good News of Jesus Christ does things, we want to connect it to the life issues so that people’s hearts and minds and lives will be changed.
Value: Bringing Good News to life does things. It brings value to life. Human worth does not come from human abilities. It comes from God. That’s good news! It means our value is objective and does not depend upon our location or level of development or state of consciousness. Born or unborn, young or old, aware or not—our life matters because of what God has done and continues to do. He creates each and every life knitting us together in our mothers’ wombs (Psalm 139:13-14). He purchased every life with the price of His own son and His precious blood shed upon the cross (1 Peter 1:18-19). He desires to call every life into an eternal relationship with Him (1Timothy 2:4).
Transformation: Bringing Good News to life does things. It brings transformation to life. That’s good news! It transforms us into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). We can renew our minds (Romans 12:2). We can put our minds on things above (Colossians 3:2). We can make good, God-pleasing decisions not just based on what we should or shouldn’t do, but as fruit produced because of whose we are.
Peace: Bringing Good News to life does things. It brings peace. That’s good news when we face fearful and frightening situations (Luke 12:32). The pregnant teen can be given the peace that God’s forgiveness brings (Romans 5:1). She can be given His strength as He reaches out to her through His body the Church and provides for her and her baby’s needs.
Forgiveness: Bringing Good News to life does things. It brings forgiveness. That’s good news for us all and especially for those weighed down by the shame and regret of a past abortion. It brings a message of “no condemnation” (Romans 8:1). It brings the only message that can reach into the deep darkness of sin and bring people back into the light (John 12:46).
Meaning: Bringing Good News to life does things. It brings meaning and purpose into people’s lives. That’s good news! We’ve all heard grandma say, “Why does God keep me around?” He knows why! (Jeremiah 29:11) We know it would be “better by far” to depart and be with Christ (Philippians 1:23). But it also might be “more necessary” to remain in the body (Philippians 1:24). God determines the “more necessary.” As long as He gives life, He gives life meaning and purpose.
Hope: Bringing Good News to life does things. It brings hope and comfort to the sorrow filled. That’s good news! Dealing with death and dying is not easy. But we have a God who knows about suffering and death because He suffered and died! (Hebrews 4:15). Because of the suffering and death of Jesus, we have the living hope of glories to come (Romans 8:18). We live in hope because we know that even now He is present and at work in our suffering (Romans 8:28, 32).
Could you use a little good news? We have the best Good News in the world in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It does things! It changes things! It changes lives! Rejoice in this Good News! Share this Good News! Bring this Good News to life!