“You know, Stan,” I mentioned one morning, “with all of the news that’s available twenty-four hours a day, it can be kind of hard to sort out what’s true and what’s not.”
“Yeah,” he responded, “that seems to be part of today’s world, but there’s an example of the same thing in the Bible about Jesus, John the Baptist, and a man named Herod.”
“What was that all about?” I asked.
“Well,” he replied, “it seems that Herod, who was some sort of head guy, didn’t care much for John the Baptist.”
“Why?”
“John the Baptist had told him it was wrong under God’s law for Herod to have married the wife of his brother. In retaliation, Herod had John thrown in jail.”
“He didn’t like the message,” I replied, “so he took it out on the messenger.”
“Big time!” Stan replied. “He eventually had John killed over it. And that’s when he got confused about Jesus.”
“Confused about Jesus? How so?”
“It says that Herod had heard the news about Jesus and assumed that He was a resurrected version of John the Baptist.”
“He was sure wrong about that!” I said.
“He was,” Stan replied, “and so was I in my own way.”
“What do you mean?”
“Wrong about Jesus. I had heard the news about Him, but I had not heard the Good News.”
Continuing, he added, “For a long time before I became a Christian, I had heard about Jesus, but it took God to open me to hear and to understand the Good News that Jesus came into the world to provide redemption and salvation. Once I understood the Good News and gained the assurance of salvation by accepting God’s free and gracious gift, everything changed.”
“Everything?”
“Yes, everything. No longer was it just the news about Jesus that I heard, but it was the Good News of life eternally with God when it’s time, along with the fabulous news of being able to know God the Father and Jesus the Son in a personal and intimate relationship while God keeps me on this side of eternity.”
“Good News, not just the news!”
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Bible verses to consider:
At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus. Matthew 14:1.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16.
And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent. John 17:3.
How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without the preacher? Romans 10:14.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10:17.
Prayer: Thank you, Father, for giving your Son Jesus so that I could believe and obtain the assurance of salvation by faith. Thank you, too, for the opportunity to know you and Jesus in an ever-deepening personal relationship on this side of eternity. Thank you for those you brought into my life so I could hear the news of Jesus and then hear the Good News of Jesus. Please help me in following your lead to spread the Good News of Jesus to those who have not heard so that they, too, can know. Thank you that I can and do bring these prayers before you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Think on this: Have you gone from hearing about the news of Jesus to hearing and accepting the Good News of Jesus? If not, why? What is the difference between the news of Jesus and the Good News of Jesus? What is that Good News and what difference does it make in lives and eternal destinations? If you don’t know and have not accepted the Good News, do you know how to do so?
Waiting for the Train 