Good News! 

Like cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a distant land. -Proverbs 25:25 

What do you do when you receive good news?  Someone has probably told you before “I’ve got some good news and some bad news.  Which do you want first?”  You stand there thinking, I should have them tell me the good news first then when I hear the bad it won’t really matter or maybe I should hear the bad news first so that the good news will sound even better.  Then in desperation you just tell them to make the choice.  However, the truth of the matter is, without bad news there really isn’t any good news it’s all just news.  

Have you received any good news lately?  Maybe a better question for me to ask you is have you taken time to stop and think about The Good News?  Tucked away in the first chapter of 1Timothy is a phrase that should bring much delight to our tired and weary souls - it says, “the glorious gospel of the blessed God” (v11).  Now before you start saying, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that phrase before and just skip on by, stop to think what it is really saying.  One way you could rephrase this verse is like this:  “The brilliantly beautiful, magnificently splendid, delightfully wonderful, and completely enjoyable good news of our most happy and joyous God!”  Does this cause you to see it a little differently?  I hope so.  No, I pray so! 

Let me draw your attention to the last part of that phrase, “our most happy and joyous God.”  Too often, we see God as an angry and wrath-filled God, who is just waiting to pour out all vengeance upon us.  Yes, God is a God of wrath and His wrath is directed towards the sin of man.  God is holy, righteous, and pure – so much so that He cannot even look upon sin – and we are sinful, evil, and wicked creatures who constantly miss the mark of God’s perfection.  Therein is the “bad news” and until we realize this truth we will never grasp a hold of why the good news is so good.  The good news is good not because we are good but because God is!  God is also loving, kind, patient, and just.  He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to take the payment for our sin upon Himself.  God is happy and rejoicing in this! If God were not happy there would not be any good news.

His people can now enjoy the glory, fellowship, presence, and blessings of God through His Son!  

This is the brilliantly beautiful, magnificently splendid, delightfully wonderful, and completely enjoyable good news of our most happy and joyous God!  God has called us, forgiven us, reconciled us, justified us, empowered us, and is sanctifying us all through the finished work of Jesus Christ our Lord.  This good news takes but a moment to receive but a lifetime to understand.  Take the time today to stop and meditate on it.  This is the only news that you or I need to hear day after day to refresh our weary souls. 

Let me close with a poem from a soul that understood this glorious gospel of the blessed God. 

“O long and dark the stairs I trod,

With trembling feet to find my God.

Gaining a foothold bit by bit,

Then slipping back and losing it.

Never progressing; striving still,

With weakening grasp and faltering will.

Bleeding to climb to God, while He,

Serenely smiled, unnoting me.

Then came a certain time when I,

Loosened my hold and fell thereby.

Down to the lowest step my fall,

As if I had not climbed at all.

Now when I lay despairing there,

Listen, a footfall, on the stair.

On that same stair where I afraid,

Faltered and fell and lay dismayed.

And lo, when hope had ceased to be,

My God came down the stairs to me.”

(Author uncertain)

By God's Grace ~ Through God's Word ~ For God's Glory!

Chuck Long

©God’sGWG
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