Stewartstown Baptist Church

Good News in a Bad News World

Let’s see if I can remember them all: acid rain, depletion of the rain forests, the oceans dying, asteroids hitting the earth, and global warming. These are all the ways that we were told we were going to die when I was growing up. Each one of these was a catastrophe waiting to happen and that couldn’t be avoided. And yet, I’m still here. Is it my natural resiliency that has allowed me to survive so long? Or is it that we live in a world that dwells on the negative?

Al Gore was on Capital Hill this week to tell the Congress how grim the situation is for our planet. However, there is a changing dynamic in the conversations about global warming. Just a year or two ago, anyone who denied the “facts” of global warming were considered fools. However, there seem to be more “fools” popping up all the time. World leaders, climate scientists, and now Congressmen and women are beginning to admit there is not overwhelming statistical data to indicate a significant warming of the earth. My thought has been that if I can’t trust meteorologists to give me accurate weather for tomorrow, I’m not going to believe their forecast for 100 years from now.

People are used to bad news and more often than not they expect bad news. But that pessimism has even spread to how we share the gospel. If I talk to someone about their sin, so often they dwell on the bad news and they don’t fully grasp the forgiveness that is offered through Jesus Christ. In Acts 8, Philip is traveling through Samaria. Samaria was full of people that were considered undesirable by the Jewish people. When Philip, a Jew, came to tell them about Jesus, it took them a moment to believe what he was telling them. Verse 12 says, “But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.” In the midst of a bad news world, these Samaritans heard the good news that Jesus loved them, and they accepted the truth of it.

There are a lot of people in your neighborhood, workplace, and family that are dealing with bad news. It may be financial, personal, or just their reaction to world events. Live as the positive person among them. Live as the person who has good news to share. When someone starts to talk about all the bad news, ask them what helps them to get up in the morning if things are so bad. And after you listen to them, tell them of the hope that is within you that lets you know that a new season of bad news is probably on the horizon, but that the good news of Jesus never changes.