Good News - January 2023

CONTENTS
Happy New Year
Faith, Not
Feelings
THE GOOD NEWS
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 3
A TRAVELER NAMED TIME —
A traveller was walking along the
road. He had a scythe upon his
shoulder and an hourglass in his
hand. He walked with measured, exact
footsteps. His eyes looked
straight in front — they never
moved either to the right or left,
but gazed on what was beyond.
I said to him,
“What's your name?”
“My name is Time.”
“Where are you going?”
“I'm going to eternity.”
“What's the number of your years?”
He showed me an open book,
and written on the page was the
date of the year just begun.
I followed where he went, but
I couldn't tell how long I should follow.
I saw one person after another
stop in the road, and lie down to
rise no more. They were left behind,
for Time paused not — his course
was unstopped.
YOU ARE WALKING WITH
TIME — Yes, my reader, you are
walking with Time on the road of
life in a new year begun. But you
may not go far. You may pass the
buds of spring, but never see the
flowers of summer. Or, you may
watch the leaves fall from the autumn
trees, and lie beneath them in
the winter. But whether your days
on earth are to be few or many, are
you ready for eternity?

P A G E 2
T H E
G O O D
N E W S
Whether you are old or
young, God would have you number
your days, and apply your
heart to wisdom (Psalm 90:12).
To begin the year with God
is more important than anything
else in this world. The Bible says:
“Seek the Lord while He may be
found; call on Him while He is
near. Let the wicked forsake their
ways and the unrighteous their
thoughts. Let them turn to the
Lord, and He will have mercy on
them, and to our God, for He will
freely pardon” (Isaiah 55:6,7).
The dawning of a new year
serves to remind us that we are
all marching through time, heading
for eternity. Awaiting each
traveller is either a glad and glorious
heaven in the presence of
God, or a sad and sorrowful hell,
banished from God.
The eternal Son of God entered
into time as the man Christ
Jesus to make a way for sinful
man to approach God and enter
into life eternal. His death, burial
and resurrection have fully accomplished
this objective so that
Jesus now proclaims, “I am the
way and the truth and the life. No
man comes to the Father except
through Me” (John 14:6).
NOW IS THE TIME — To
personally “seek the Lord” is to
realize that Christ died for your
sins, and to trust His shed blood
as the full and powerful payment
needed to wash your sins away.
“The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies
us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
On the basis of Christ’s atoning
sacrifice, God abundantly pardons
the repentant sinner and
makes him a child of God forever.
“Christ also suffered once for sins,
the righteous for the unrighteous,
to bring you to God” (1 Peter
3:18). See also Romans 5:10; 2
Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 3:1-2.
But you must seek Him
now, “while He may be found”,
while there is still time, before
you pass into eternity. In view of
the uncertainty of life, how important
it is to “prepare to meet
your God” (Amos 4:12), through
faith in Christ as your personal
Saviour! This alone will enable
you to experience a truly “Happy
New Year” — and look forward to
a glorious eternity with absolute
certainty.

I was once told, “I believe every
word you say. I believe every word in the
Bible, but I don’t feel I’m saved, and I’m
not going to say I am until I’m sure.”
I replied, “I have been saved for
nearly five years, and never yet felt
saved. If you wait until you feel saved,
you will never be saved. The Bible does
not say anything about feeling saved.”
“But the Scriptures say we ‘must
be born again’. Surely I must feel a
change come over me. Are you saying
that I could be saved and continue as I
am, miserable and afraid to meet God?”
“No, I don’t mean to say any such
thing, for the moment you are saved
there will be change enough. You will be
changed from being a ‘child of Satan’ to
a ‘child of God.’ But Satan is deceiving
you by getting you to look for a feeling.
All the while you are shutting your ears
to the Word of God, which brings true
change. ‘For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith’ (Ephesians 2:8);
and ‘faith comes from hearing the message,
and the message is heard through
the word about Christ’ (Romans 10:17).
If you feel nice and happy now, you
would think you were saved because
you felt it. Tomorrow you might not feel
happy, so you would think you were not
saved. This would be making a saviour of
your feelings. One day you would have a
saviour, and the next you would have
none. Instead of knowing that you have
passed from death unto life by believing
the testimony which God has given of
His Son (John 5:24), you are waiting to
feel a change, and remaining in misery.
Look here, my friend. Suppose
that your spouse is away on business,
and you stay at home with your children.
The food runs out, and you have no
money. The children are hungry, and you
are miserable because of the state of
things. You want a change, but your misery
does not bring the change. No
thoughts of yours fill the children’s hungry
stomachs, or put glad smiles where
there are looks of sorrow.
Just then, you get a letter in the
mail. You look at it — you know the
writing — it’s from your spouse. You
quickly open it, and inside you find a
money order. What effect does it have
on you? Do you sit down and dwell on
your misery, waiting for a change, thinking
there never was such a poor creature
in the world as you? Of course not!

You go to the bank to cash the
money order, and come back with all
you need, to the joy of the children.
What a change! How has it come
about? Just through the letter. You read
and believed it. Your sorrow was gone
and your heart was light before you
cashed the money order. Why, now, will
you not listen to God’s letter, and be
saved? You are a sinner, but God’s letter
says, ‘Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners’ (1 Timothy 1:15). And
Jesus says ‘whoever hears My word and
believes Him who sent Me has eternal
life and will be judged but has crossed
over from death to life’ (John 5:24).
Moreover, the letter says, ‘I write
these things to you who believe in the
name of the Son of God so that you
may know that you have eternal life’ (1
John 5:13). You did not feel the money.
It was at the bank. But the letter said it
was there for you, and you believed it
and were made happy. You knew it was
yours; the money was not yours because
you felt happy. Similarly, you did
not feel Christ die for your sins. Neither
did I, but I know it. The letter which
tells me He died for me, tells me that
because I believe on Him, I’m saved. I
believe God’s blessed letter, and I feel
very happy because I know I am saved.”
Are you putting feelings in the
place of faith? Perhaps you, too, believe
the Bible, but don’t feel saved. Don’t be
occupied with feelings! Look to Jesus.
God set Him on the throne, proof that
the work is finished to His satisfaction.
If God is satisfied with the sacrificial
death of Jesus, why should you not be?
Salvation is ‘to the one who does
not work but trusts’ (Romans 4:5).
‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal
life’ (John 3:36). Believe God’s letter
which He in divine love has sent you,
declaring what has been done by Jesus
Christ for sinners. When you take God
at His Word, you are saved. It is not
feelings, but faith. ‘By grace you have
been saved, through faith” (Eph 2:8).
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