Yes! There is Good News! April 7, 2018

“Sometimes the news is enough to get you down. Mostly these days the news networks are filled with the latest inane things our politicians have been saying. But if it wasn’t for that, we would be inundated with talk of the crazy weather patterns across our country, or the latest on ISIS, or what China is doing to flex its military muscle or Russia or North Korea or …”

I noticed that this article is the 101st in the series that have been published in our Danish Villages News newspaper; and so I began to read the very first one that I wrote way back on March 7th 2016 – over two years ago. Oh, I know, two years is not necessarily a long time but the opening paragraph above is quoted from that first article and is how I began thinking about the direction we might take. Some things never change you say! But I would add that they do change and it seems that they have changed for the worse!!

With that in mind, I would ask you to consider just where your life is right now. Do you have the power to change the direction things are going? Or are you the eternal optimist, sure that everything will turn out alright?

I had the privilege this past weekend to bring a very special message to the residence of the Salem Lutheran Home. I suppose that I would title it “The Ultimate Good News.”

I began with a scripture from the very end of the bible – the 21st chapter of the book of Revelation and it says this: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold I am making all things new!’ Then He said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ ”

Someone once said that in every text book, the answers to the questions are found at the very end; and the bible is no different. I know the book of Revelation is filled with some weird symbols and strange visions; there are symbolic numbers and different animals, but the above quoted scripture is indeed the answer to many of the puzzling questions we might have concerning this age in which we live. There is much more to say about my message to the nursing home and about this beautiful piece of scripture from the book of Revelation.

Hang in there; this news really does get very good!!