Good News

God created this world for us to enjoy with him.
Unfortunately, the spiritual powers of evil tricked humans into surrendering their authority over the earth to them.

Jesus rescued us from their power by paying the ransom that spiritual powers of evil demanded, human blood. The blood of the Son of God is infinitely valuable so they had to accept the payment he offered.

The spiritual powers of evil also demanded that God enforce the penalties specified in the law against all who had done wrong. Jesus paid the penalty with his blood, nullifying the charge against us.

God forgave us for our failings, and sent his Holy Spirit into the world to walk with us, but humans’ shame prevents us from drawing near to him. Jesus dealt with human shame by washing us clean with his blood.

All these benefits are available to anyone who surrenders their allegiance to Jesus.

The Gospel I Proclaim

Reading Simply Good News made think about the gospel. Here is my statement of the gospel of Jesus.

God has installed a new government. Jesus came to earth and lived a good and generous life. He amazed the people with his wisdom and healed broken lives, but he was killed by the political and religious leaders. However, God raised him from the dead and gave him a place of supreme authority in the spiritual world.

Jesus new government is different from any government that we have known. Human government have always exercised authority imposed from top down with police and military power. This makes them vulnerable to the spiritual power of evil, who picked off the people on the top and then manipulate them to wreak havoc on earth. This is why human governments have been so disastrous, and so many have been evil.

The government of God is based on love, not power, so all authority will be freely submitted freely from below to those the people love and trust. This leaves no room for the powers of evil to work, because Jesus death on the cross set those who trust him free from their power.

God’s new government has come. He is calling people all over the world to shift their allegiance to Jesus, and become part of his new government that his emerging on earth.

Jesus has done a lot for me, so I have chosen to follow him and do his will by follow the voice of his Holy Spirit.

Free Markets (25) - Good News

The gospel is good news for the poor. What does that mean? One possibility is that Jesus wants people facing poverty to have “peace in their heart” while their belly is empty. I do not think so.

Jesus expected that the gospel to produce a great flood of wealth from the rich to the poor. This started, as soon as the Holy Spirit was poured out.

Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need (Acts 2:45).

The gospel was good news for the poor at the beginning. And the church carried on as it has started.

There were no needy persons among them (Acts 4:34).

Two things were essential for the success of the gospel: caring for the poor and healing the sick. The gospel really was “good news to the poor” and “recovery of sight for the blind”.

The only good news the modern church has for the poor is God will multiply their seed if they tithe. The inequality that pervades the modern world is not a sign of market failure. Rampant inequality represents the failure of the church to proclaim and produce good news for the poor.