Scripture Verse that Caught my Attention Today: Revelation 14:6 Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation and tribe and language and people.
Observation: Eternal Gospel (Good News)?
Application: Life is full of short-term good news. A favorite team wins a championship. A new job is secured. A new car is driven. A new house is built. A new friend is made. A great night of romance is experienced. A child is born. Magnificent buildings are built. But then comes an upset loss, unexpected duties in the new job, car and mortgage payments and/or repairs that become a burden, complications with the friendship, arguments with one’s spouse or significant other, birth followed all too quickly by death, towers fall. Good news is often followed by news that is, well, not so good—maybe even downright awful.
The Christian faith offers a much-longed-for alternative—eternal good news. By eternal I don’t mean just future stuff. I mean right now!
The good news of the Christian faith, however, it not trite and shallow. It does not ignore the realities of the bad news around us or even within us but, rather, embraces them much like a loving parent holds and endeavors to comfort a hurting child. The eternal good news of the Christian faith enables one to courageously take on forms of suffering, not so much because we have necessarily volunteered to do so, but because we are possessed by the love of the One who has done so himself and who in turn promises to see us through the crisis of the moment in light of his lasting promise, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
People grasped by the eternal gospel are, to use the late Henri Nouwen’s term, “wounded healers.” They know suffering and, by the grace of God, continue to carry on.
Now, they might not carry on in quite the same way they did in the past. They may have been forever changed by an incident or other life experience. Innocence, if it ever truly existed, may have been lost. But the eternal gospel/good news is not about innocence. It is about the authentic and lasting hope found in the reality of a God who knows suffering and who promises, one day, to take it all away. Hence the words of hope found near the end of Revelation, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”
Prayer: Lord, at the moment it appears to be a beautiful day. I thank you for it…as well as for whatever you will teach me regardless of how the day unfolds. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Readings today included: Lamentations 1-2, Obadiah, and Revelation 14)
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