2017 JanEng

JANUARY, 2017 1
THE GOOD NEWS
JANUARY, 2017
MONTHLY CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE
What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.
O, what peace we often forfeit
O, what needless pain we bear—
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.
JOSEPH SCRIVEN
The man who wrote this
nineteenth-century hymn was
familiar with grief and loneliness.
Scriven was engaged twice, and
both times his bride-to-be died
before the wedding. He fought
depression all his life. It was after
one bout with depression that he
wrote the words to this song.
He could write those words
because he had discovered the
reality of friendship with Jesus
Christ. Jesus understands our
feelings because he lived on
earth as a man. Jesus knows
what it is like to be lonely. He
suffered the pain of rejection and
cruelty, and he felt hunger and
thirst. The Bible describes him as
“a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with grief” (Isaiah 53:3).
Yet Jesus did more than just
sympathize with our troubles.
The Bible says that “all have
sinned and fall short of the glory
of God” (Romans 3:23), and that
“the wages of sin is death” (Romans
6:23). But God transferred
our sin to Jesus, his sinless Son,
to make us right with God (2 Corinthians
5:21).
Jesus Christ died on the
cross for our sins and rose from
the dead on the third day. He experienced
God’s wrath in our
place. Because of that, those
who trust in Jesus Christ as Savoir
are given the right to know
God as their Father (Romans
8:15). And God has promised
that he will never leave or forsake
those who put their trust in
him (Hebrews 13:5).

2 THE GOOD NEWS
God does not promise an
easy life, but he gives those who
trust in Jesus the privilege of taking
everything to him in prayer
and the confidence to know that
he hears them and will answer
(see: 1 John 5:15).
What God requires is that
you and I turn from our sins and
receive Jesus Christ as Saviour
and Lord. “If you confess with
your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved” (Romans
10:9).
To believe in Christ means
you acknowledge that there is
nothing you can do to be good
enough to meet God’s holy standard.
Christ alone made the perfect
sacrifice to pay the price for
your sin. He died for you, even
though you are a sinner (Romans
5:8). God promises that all
those who believe in Jesus and
trust in his perfect sacrifice for
their sin will have everlasting life
(John 3:36).
Have you received Jesus
Christ as your Saviour and
friend? If not, you can right now.
You can express your desire to
do so in a prayer like this:
Dear God, I admit that I have
sinned against you and deserve
punishment for my sins. I believe
that Jesus died in my place and
took the punishment I deserve. I
want the new life and friendship
promised in the Bible for those
who believe in you. Thank you
for forgiving my sins and giving
me new life. Amen.
Everyone who is seriously interested in the pursuit of
science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in
the laws of the universe–a spirit vastly superior to that
of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest
powers must feel humble.
Have you ever looked up into
the heavens at night—or felt a
tiny baby grip your finger— and
been filled with wonder? The
Albert Einstein
world is filled with wonder everywhere
we look. It declares the
glory of God when we look for
Him.

JANUARY, 2017 3
THE MARVELS OF NATURE
Who made all of this? Did it
just happen . . . or is there really
a God who created it, as the Bible
says? Can anyone really
deny it? If you say there is no
God, then all the wonders around
you are just an accident. The billions
of stars in the sky just happened
to make themselves, generate
their own power, and stay
on course. The land just happens
to have topsoil without which
nothing could grow. The air we
breathe—only 50 miles deep and
exactly the right composition to
support life—is just another accident
in the “laws of physics.”
Did deposits of coal, zinc,
gold, and uranium get there by
accident? And what prevents
lakes from freezing solid—all the
way down to the bottom—making
it impossible for fish to survive
frigid winters? Why does the
earth spin at a given speed without
slowing so that we have day
and night? Who tilts it so we get
seasons? No one really knows
the why and how of the magnetic
poles. Or think of the sun stoking
a fire just warm enough to sustain
us on earth, but not too close
to fry us or too far away to freeze
us. Who keeps things constant?
Can you believe these things just
happened? Isn’t it more reasonable
to believe that a supreme
mind is behind everything that
exists?
THE AMAZING HUMAN BODY
What about the human body?
It’s an intricate combination of
bones, muscles, nerves, and
blood vessels. In the future, scientists
hope to have a supercomputer
to rival the three-pound
average adult brain, but it won’t
be easy. In 2007 scientists built a
$30 million supercomputer.
It has 5% of the computing
ability of a human brain!
The kidneys contain approximately
145 miles of tiny tubes. In
a day they filter around 50 gallons
of blood, extracting up to
two quarts of water and impurities.
Then there’s the heart, an
unbelievably rugged organ—a
four-chamber, four-valve pump
that handles the equivalent of
2,000 gallons of blood daily. It
supplies a circulatory system that
has 100,000 miles of vessels
and, in a lifetime, beats two-andone-half
billion times (108,000
times a day)!
Before you say, “There is no
God,” think about these marvels.
All of creation gives evidence
that there is a God who created it
all. And since the Bible says that
God’s Son, Jesus, created all

4 THE GOOD NEWS
things and holds everything together
(Colossians 1:16-17),
then we need to see how Jesus’s
life affects us.
THE CREATOR ENTERS HIS
CREATION
Our Creator came to earth on
a mission to change disaster into
victory. The Bible says that we’re
“dead in trespasses and sins”
and “alienated from the life of
God” (Ephesians 2:1; 4:18). Just
as a body without physical life is
physically dead, so anyone who
is separated from God is spiritually
dead. We need God’s forgiveness
of our sin and freedom
from its penalty, which is spiritual
death—eternal separation from
God in hell. We all are in need of
a right relationship with God.
That’s why God sent Jesus to
earth. The Bible tells us, “For
God so loved the world, that he
gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Jesus willingly paid the ultimate
price to save us from the consequences
of our sins!
By his death on the cross, the
sinless Jesus paid the debt of
our sins that we could never pay.
And his resurrection three days
later proved what he claimed
was true: “I am the resurrection,
and the life. Whoever believes in
me, though he die, yet shall he
live” (John 11:25).
That everlasting life will be
yours if you acknowledge to God
that you are a sinner and believe
in your heart that Jesus is the
only way you can ever be forgiven.
If that’s your heart’s desire,
why not tell him? You can
pray to God in words like these:
Dear God, I believe that you
are real. I believe that your Son
Jesus came to earth and died in
my place, because of my sins
against you. Thank you that he
rose again. I want your forgiveness
and I place my trust completely
in you for now and eternity.
Amen.
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