Dear reader,
I, the answerer, am now 89 Years old and I write this memo in a hospital bed in my home state of Western Australia.I have been here for weeks.
And I have been thinking that because so many of my readers do not live in Australia, many might not know what the “Good News” is truly all about.
The “Good News” is the gospels -the story of the life of Jesus in Matthew,Mark,Luke and John.
Well, the Archangel Gabriel visited Mary to give her a message from God. It was that Mary was a favoured lady and that “….the power of the most high will overshadow you so that the child born to you will be called the Son of God. You are to name him Jesus for He will save the people from their sins.”
That little encounter (story)can be found in Luke
chapter one.(Luke 1:26-38).
Well people needed to be save because sin separates us from God.
Many people had drifted far from him so He planned to send his son Jesus to die in our place and make a way for us to get to heaven.It was Jesus who died instead of us and he was known as “The Lamb of God” the “Sacrificial Lamb”.
High above Rio de Janero is a 30m. (97 feet high) statue of Jesus with his arms stretched out over the city, yea the whole world, as a welcome to all to come.
It is named “Christ the Redeemer.”
I like very much the word ‘redeem’ and ‘redeemer”,because that is what. Jesus is. The “Good News” is that getting to heaven is a freegift.
It cannot be bought,earned or bargained for. You take it or leave it.
Jesus said: “ I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies.” (John 11:25).
Believing in Jesus and His father,God, takes only a moment-but you then have the rest of your life to learn more about God and his ways.
If you choose to join God’s family be sure to choose a good and serious church near you because there are some churches that are not much more than Sunday social clubs and people can enjoy singing and good company. Go to a church where the “Good News” is preached often.
May God be with you and bless you as long as you live.
Peter Harris. Nov. 2021
Ps. Give yourself a lift and Google up John Newton. Read of his many years of evil living and even captain of a “ Slaver”-a ship carrying slaves to America and his later becoming a Preacher and writing the much loved hymn “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. “. It is more popular now than when he wrote it 230 years ago.