John McKeel
Sometimes it’s true, “No news is good news.” Parents worry about their children taking their first road trip. “Why haven’t they called?” they frantically ask, but, especially with kids, “No news is good news.” However “No news is good news” isn’t always true.
“Gospel” literally means “Good News” but many Christians are afraid to say anything. Sometimes the desire to be “polite” keeps us from talking about religion or politics with our friends. At other times, fear keeps us quiet. We might be afraid of saying the wrong thing or of not being able to answer a question or afraid of seeming “holier than thou” or being branded as a “Bible thumper” but “no news ain’t good news” when it concerns the Gospel.
Some people might not talk about the Good News because it really doesn’t seem all that great. Interesting perhaps, but not all that relevant. How sad! Can you imagine a young man who became a father over the weekend and not telling a soul about it at the office on Monday? Can you imagine a bride not beaming or an Olympian not wearing his gold medal?
So what is so great about the Good News? Here are three simple points I share with people. First, we aren’t alone. There is a God, and better yet, He cares about you individually! Someone once observed, “God must love a good story because he created people.” God is intensely interested in your story!
Two, we found the solution. It’s as if we just opened a box of parts and scattered them across the floor in a hopeless tumble. You look through all the pieces, bolts, nuts, wires and widgets but there are no instructions – not even a picture of the finished product. Just when we are ready to throw our hands up in despair, there is a knock at the door and in walks the factory representative with the plans and a screw driver! “Let me help,” he says. That’s good news!
Third, and this may be the most important point, the Good News is great news because it is a message of hope. Christians have no more fear of death than you do of laying your head down on your pillow at night. Our hope isn’t based on wishfully thinking or someone’s dream. It is based on an empty tomb and the promise of LIFE – now and forever.
God is real. He cares and we have hope. Now that’s Good News – but Good News isn’t Good News unless it is shared.