Sunday, May 15, 2005

The Good News

What is good news? That depends on who you ask, and the circumstances in which you ask. An anxious wife waiting for news of her husband during a war. An anxious husband waiting at the delivery room. An anxious student waiting for results. (HAHA). An anxious kidney patient for news of a transplant. And so on.

Before you switch off and start to just glance through the rest of this, think of the analogies I've given above. Sure, you may have been in one or more of the above situations before, and now its good and gone. But what is the ultimate good news that would apply to every single one of us, irregardless of our circumstances?

In all the situations you can think of, they are not finalities. As in, they aren't the be-all and end-all of the whole meaning of life's existence. But have you ever considered the greatest, final circumstance of every single human being, including your very self?

The circumstance that we are, ultimately, ashes to ashes, dust to dust? Whatever we do in the end comes to naught, and we take nothing with ourselves, not even our bodies, when we die?

Do you actually consider that? Aren't you anxious to know how this ultimate circumstance is going to be resolved? With finality and certainty?

If you are, the Gospel is indeed, going to be Good News to you. Don't be mistaken, its not a promise that you'd get rich, that you'd always be materially happy, healthy, or whatever. But the Good News being your reconciliation with God in Christ, who came to seek the 'lost sheep' that we all are, wondering and clueless on this earth, attaching our loyalties to vain, temporal things which are to perish anyway. Yes, even this very world itself (for all you 'heal the world' people).

For in Christ it is God's grace (kindness undeserved) that we may be in His presence in heaven when we leave this world as well as mercy (not giving punishment deserved) and forgiveness for all our selfish sins, transgressions, evil-doings and thoughts, the chief sin being denial or ignorance of God's commandments and God's ownership of the whole of existence.

Sound completely alien to you? Yea, all of us, including me, once lived in darkness not knowing Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life. Was the preceeding paragraph too much for you to swallow or stomach? Think about it, and typically you'd stubbornly refuse to yield. I spent many years in absolute denial. But if it even very slightly touches you then don't recoil in fear, but dare to ask and seek the truth. Ask any Christian you know or talk to me. For Christ has promised -

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. - Matthew 7:7-8

When you seek the truth with your heart sincerely, I testify from my own experience, the Good News shall be as plain as the day before you. And as I always hold:

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. - John 8:32

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