Hosanna Restoration Church

Good News! We all like good news. Isn’t it odd that we have come up with the saying, “No news is good news?” This would imply that we mostly expect bad news. In fact, often times good news is presented as, “good news and bad news.” We have gone so far that even if someone has good news we listen and then wait for the bad news! Instead of looking for good, we plan for the bad and consider good news a scarce commodity.

Think about it. Even people who regularly read the Bible have a tendency to consider the bad news. For instance, when you think of the nation of Israel, do you think about the years they were blessed, or do you think of their disobedience and the foolish things they did? Do you consider the blessings or the curses involved with the word of God? When you think of Jesus, do you think of His dieing or of the fact that He is alive?

We need to escape from the programming that causes us to expect to struggle through. There is no doubt that bad news comes, but what will we do with it. If our first thought is that God must be doing this for a reason, we are in real trouble! After all, if God is the one causing us trouble who are we going to look to for help? Remember, all the bad things we deserved were placed on the shoulders of our Savior Jesus Christ.

No wonder Philip and the other believers went everywhere preaching Good News! They knew there were bad things going on around them. They knew their friends were being persecuted, jailed, and killed. They just happened to be so excited about the Good News that they were not going to let anything hold them back.

They understood that there was more power in the Good News than in the bad the news. They understood that even death could no longer defeat them. They knew that all the teachings of Jesus were true. Some of them were there the day that Jesus stood up in the temple and told them that He was anointed to preach the Good News to the poor. They understood having blind eyes opened and seeing captives freed. They had witnessed enough to believe that Jesus Christ was Lord of all.

Everywhere they looked they saw people who needed to know the same thing. They preached with their lives as well as their mouths. Even when they shared the reports of the problems that arose, they did not elaborate on the problems they rushed to the part where God delivered, healed, saved, and provided.

I encourage you today to expect the Good News to overtake you. God has no bad plans for you. He sent you a letter to prove it. Unless we are disobeying and rebelling, there is absolutely no reason for us to accept the curse, repentance will turn things around in a moment. Stop planning for the worst. Expect Good News!