Go and tell John the things that you have seen and heard; that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Luke 7:22

He said to them, “Go into the world and preach the good news to all creation”. Mark 16:15

One of the definitions of news on Dictionary.com is a person, thing, or event considered as a choice subject for journalistic treatment.  And around the world there is an amazing amount of journalists and journalistic/news outlets deciding what should get treatment.  So maybe it is not surprising to see the incredible variety of what is considered newsworthy or perhaps even more incredible (at least to me) are the things which each of these outlets (again at least in the United States) decide are “newsworthy.”

In my time I have seen where news was primarily about war and rumors of war, natural disasters and plagues, man made tragedies and scandals with some human interest good news stories (mainly added on to the end of a show).  It is understandable that those types of things would seem newsworthy as they have the potential to impact and in many cases personally so, scores of people.  Yet it is surprising to me over time, how other types of stories have not only crept into the daily news cycle, but have become all too often (again my opinion) near the top of the news…….for days!  For instance, who has slept with whom, what celebrity couple has broken up, what questionably thinking person has done something rather ignorant with someone else close by filming it.

Why does this matter and more importantly what does it have to do with Jesus Christ?  Good question.  As I see it, we only have a certain amount of time in a day and certain amount of concentration for things that are happening around us.  What we decide is newsworthy matters because that is going to have an impact about how we see and react to the world around us.  Where is the strife and injustice that should move us as Christians to act?  Where is the need that should move us to help?  Where are the triumphs and the miracles that we should be rejoicing over?  A twenty something star going into rehab or breaking up with their significant other doesn’t quite rise to that level in my opinion.  And oh by the way, if you Google (a questionable source I’ll grant you) miraculous cures 2012 there are over 3,000,000,000 articles.  In addition, if you search people revived after clinically dead, there are over 200,000 articles.  Interesting that we don’t hear about those today.

So bottom line is what we decide is news for us, is going to make an impact on us.  So let us all decide that we are going to start and end each day with this headlines:  You Are Loved by Your Creator!  Jesus Christ Lived, Died For You, and Was Resurrected, and Now Lives and Loves You!  Our Heavenly Father Knows and Loves You By Name!  Jesus Christ has Defeated the Enemy on Our Behalf! Jesus Christ Promises Peace and Rest for Those Who Love the Father and Him!  Jesus Declares:  Ask and It Will Be Given To You.

I could go on typing those headlines the rest of my days (I know you’re saying please stop I get it!).  My prayer is that we’ll all find some time today to shut out the “news” the world thinks is important and go to the truly world changing news of God’s Word, the bible.  Amen