My Good News

I find it exciting when someone I know has good news they want to share with me.  When I hear of a new job, buying a house, a proposal of marriage, or the birth of a child, those are all exciting times.  Seeing other people excited about most anything grabs my interest, and though what excites them may not directly affect me, I can be happy with them.

Now it is another story when someone says, "I have some good news for you."  Immediately I find myself on the defensive, wondering what product they will pitch or what they want from me.  Please, not another "pyramid scheme" that isn't one!  When I see someone excited about a book, product, diet, or deal, it is my prerogative to decide if it is good news for me or not.  Should a stranger tell me they have good news for me without even knowing me, their enthusiasm seems fake and their assertion presumptuous.  How could they possibly make such a claim?  I am not interested in your pamphlets, thank you.

As Christians, we have the Good News of Jesus Christ to share with the world.  If you were to weigh the Gospel against a job promotion, winning the lottery or a premiership, or receiving news you are going to be a parent or grandparent, there is really no comparison:  the Gospel outshines them all in eternal glory.  The Gospel and the love of God is forever, truly the greatest news imaginable.  This should thrill us!  Forget Disneyland for a weekend:  we are going to heaven forever!  The question is, are we as excited about heaven and being in the presence of God forever as we are about temporal things?  Well, not usually.

How good it is when we are genuinely excited about our salvation!  When we have good news to share our excitement draws the interest of others.  Instead of being mournful no one seems to care about the Gospel, shouldn't we openly express our excitement about our Good News - like we would any other news we are simply dying to share?  How many times have I been excited about a book and by the end of the conversation people said, "Man, that sounds amazing.  I think I'll check it out."  Whether they actually read it or not is another story, but excitement is infectious.  Would to God people I talk to will look into the Gospel for themselves!  I have realised I have made the mistake of pitching the Gospel as "good news for you" instead of simply gushing over it because it is my good news.

We have the freedom and the right to be excited, Christian!  We are going to heaven to be with our Saviour forever, and what an incredible privilege and honour it is to know Him today! 

Forever Friends

"Then Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, 'May the LORD be between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants, forever.' " So he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city."

1 Samuel 20:42

When I read this verse, it struck me how God changes our perspective of life entirely:  He enables us to view life through the lens of eternity.  Jonathan and David made a covenant of friendship before God, an expression of love and loyalty beyond life on earth.  It is remarkable how marriage ordained by God between a man and a woman ends when "death do us part," yet those who born again through faith in Jesus Christ will experience forever friendship.

David was forced to flee because of King Saul's murderous madness.  Yet David and Jonathan took solace that as men who feared the Almighty God who lives forever, the distance which separated them was only temporary.  Time apart could not compare to eternity.  The LORD had brought them together as friends, and He would bring and keep them together as well.  Having immigrated internationally, I am joyful in knowing friendship I have with those who are born-again will endure forever.  Jesus called His disciples friends (John 15:15), and every friend of Christ is mine as well.  What great joy there is in enduring friendship, not only on this planet but forever in the LORD's presence!

Jonathan bid David to "Go in peace," and all who have discovered peace through faith in Jesus Christ can also abide in it.  All who have friends will eventually find themselves separated by distance or the death of the body, but we can have peace knowing we will meet again in the best circumstances, in the heavenly embrace of God without the shackles of time or other earthly constraints.  "We will meet again" people say hopefully, yet fellow followers of Jesus know this with all our certainty of salvation.  Death is swallowed up in victory, and the sting is gone.  Shouldn't this cause us to rejoice in our eternal Saviour?  

Real Windex

Thinking back, the Windex at church had looked strange for a couple weeks - a bit cloudy and not as blue as usual.  Then I saw a streaky glass window I know I had recently cleaned.  Something was up.  As I compared the cleaning product in the Windex bottle to the refill, I saw the problem:  someone (and that someone likely was me) had mistakenly poured similar looking surface cleaner into the Windex bottle!  That explained why the Windex looked different, and being a product not made for glass it did not perform as expected.  I am happy to say the cleaning crisis is over, as there is now real Windex in the Windex bottle.

For a week or two I thought I was using Windex because of the professional label on the spray bottle, but the poor results on glass alerted me something was amiss.  It reminds me of the warning Jesus provided us in Matthew 7:15-20: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Therefore by their fruits you will know them."  Many people claim to speak truth from God, but not all who make this claim are legitimate.  Even as a tree is known by its fruit, so genuine prophets of God will speak words which align with God's Word.

All believers, regardless of role or calling, ought to ensure our words and claims of truth do not go beyond what scripture has said.  God's Word is compared to a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105).  We need the light of God's Word without man's filters, for they dim and obscure God's clear meaning to accommodate the wisdom of men.  A wolf's growl sounds nothing like the bleat of a sheep, but looks can be deceiving.  For weeks I thought I was using Windex because I didn't take the time to examine the contents of the spray bottle, and often we can believe false teaching is true because we have not carefully examined it ourselves in light of God's Word.  The results of erroneous belief are far more disastrous than streaky glass, and far more difficult to rectify.

May we be as the Jews to whom Paul preached in Berea mentioned in Acts 17:11-12:  "These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. ¹² Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men."  The Jews in the synagogue in Berea received the word with all readiness, but also searched the scriptures daily.  They were not suspicious or cynical when hearing an unfamiliar preacher but were willing to receive.  They diligently researched the claims of Paul, and when confirmed many of Jews and Greeks believed.  Faith in a preacher or prophet is a weak foundation, but the faith in the Word of God provides an eternal foundation.  When we build our lives upon Jesus Christ and His Word, the result is eternal life and continual revelation.  

A Key to Spiritual Growth

Something simple James Edwin Orr said in a sermon about spiritual growth always stuck with me:  "If you don't obey, you don't grow."  Spiritual maturity comes through obedience to God in what we already know rather than learning something new.  New things have their allure, but often new things are not necessary.  Take golf clubs, for example.  I have played with people who constantly tinker with their equipment instead of taking lessons to learn how to hit the ball properly.  They hope buying a new driver or new shafts will help their game instead of focusing on developing a game with the decent clubs they already have.  They always seem to have a new club in the bag but perpetually shoot the same old score.  A new club does not eliminate the need for practice, and reading a new Christian book or listening to a sermon will not grant instant maturity.

As believers, we can imagine spiritual growth is facilitated by the discovery of new truth, experience, or gift of the Holy Spirit.  Of writing books there is no end, and there is no shortage of people happy to put a new spin on scripture.  There is more information readily accessible today than ever before.  At our church years ago we had a "Tape Lending Library" where the pastor's sermon was copied onto a cassette tape, was checked out for the week, erased, and the following week a new copy was made.  Today there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of new sermons and podcasts available online every week.  Does it mean people are growing?  Listening to more sermons isn't the key to growth, but putting into practice even one thing God showed you through His Word today.

We mature and grow most spiritually when we commit to doing fundamental things better.  Professional athletes illustrate this well.  A quality cricketer enlists the help of coaches to play cricket at the highest possible level – not to switch from cricket to chess or powerlifting.  It is phenomenally rare (based on my observation) for an athlete to reach elite professional status without coaching along the way.  Even the very best rely on coaches who know their game to scrutinise their form, put them through drills, assist with diet, all to elevate their game.  There are some quality multi-sport athletes, but if an athlete were to abandon the fundamentals of a sport under the guise of advancement, their skills would ultimately erode.  During seasons of slumps and struggles, going back to the basics is key to becoming the best player possible.

For Christians, the good-old Gospel saves us as truly now as it ever did before, and maturity comes when we actually start believing and trusting it more.  To grow we do not need more books or sermons (useful and good as these things are) but to read the Bible ourselves and obey what God says, to do the things we already know are true.  We do not move beyond prayer because it is basic but should pray more faithfully.  Jesus gave the command we are to love one another as He has loved us, and notice the disciples did not immediately say, “And?  What next?”  Love is the fulfiment of the entire Law.  Learning new things is amazing, for God has given us the joy of discovery and the capacity to grow.  The key to spiritual growth is obeying God in what you already know.  Be faithful in the basics and who knows what God will teach you!  He undoubtedly will.