No News is Good News?

Deadly High Speed Train Crash in China

Stocks Sink on Debt Talks

Earthquake Strikes off Mexican Coast

Congressman to Resign Due to Sex Scandal

These are a few headlines I picked off a major internet news service today.  Notice anything they have in common?  They are all negative.  I’m sure that’s not news to you.  Anyone who follows the “news” for any time at all is well aware that, except for weather and sports which are variable, and an occasional human-interest story, the news is usually bad.  

In fact, studies of newscasts reveal that there are 17 bad news stories broadcast for every good news story.  Ever wonder why you don’t hear more “good news?”  The answer is simple.  “Good news” doesn’t sell.  It doesn’t attract our attention the way bad news does.

Why are we so riveted to the negative?  Researchers tell us that the primary motivator for our preoccupation with bad news is fear.  We have a need to be vigilant for danger to insure our survival.  So we are constantly on the alert for what is wrong, or what might go wrong.  

If we lived in the wild, this type of vigilance might have some survival value, but in modern society it actually causes us harm.  The more we focus on bad news, the more vigilant we become and the more we are convinced that we are in potential danger, even if we are not!  Studies show that nightly news watchers significantly overestimate the rate of crime in their communities.

Feeding on fear elevates our body’s stress hormones and disrupts the balance we need to maintain for our physical and emotional health.  It lowers the functioning of our immune system, increasing our risk for diseases like cancer, and slows our metabolism resulting in increased weight gain.  Fear increases our sense of hopelessness and leads to feelings of depression and despair.

We are not designed to survive best through fear, but to thrive through love.  This is not a warm, fuzzy thought, but a hard scientific fact. When we are involved in warm stable relationships and know we are loved, our bodies respond by coming into a healthy balance.  

Love stimulates the production of killer T-cells that boost our immune system and build our resistance to all types of disease.  It lowers our blood pressure and increases our levels of oxytocin, a “feel good” hormone that elevates our mood, and helps us to relax.

Contrary to the popular saying, no news is not good news.  Love is good news and we need a steady diet of love to be healthy and happy.  God understands this for He designed us to operate on love, not fear.  He tells us not to fear over 300 times in the Bible.  When He sent us His greatest gift of love, He told us, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will bring joy to all people.  A Savior has been born to you, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10b-11)

To ensure that we will continue to focus on the good news of His love for us, He appoints evangelists in the Church.  They share God’s heart of love with all who will hear, and encourage all of us to accept His free gift of abundant life in Christ Jesus.  So remember, love is the good news, and God loves you!

Come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM.  One of our Pastors, David Richardson will discuss the office of evangelist and the many ways they share the “good news” (the gospel) today. 

Facts, Perception and the Whole Truth

It is a fact that under his leadership his country was instrumental in taking down one of the world’s most brutal dictators. It is a fact that he transformed his country into the world’s second largest economy. It is a fact that, even before America’s Civil Rights Act of 1964, women in his country enjoyed equal employment rights. It is a fact that diseases dropped to low numbers as a result of his country’s health care initiatives.

Yet, in one online opinion poll he is perceived to be more evil than Adolf Hitler. How can the facts suggest one thing about a person, but the perception of that  person be so totally different?

To understand how facts and perception can differ so greatly, let’s first identify the leader we’re talking about.   It’s Josef Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union from the 1920’s until his death in 1953. While he did do some good, he is better known as the tyrant responsible for millions of people who died during his rule as the result of mass murders, man-made famines, executions, and imprisonments.

But if all we knew about Stalin were the facts contained in the first paragraph, we would be left with a positive misperception of him. Those “good” facts about Stalin would create a positive perception that is at odds with the whole truth.

Facts are knowledge or information based on real occurrences, while perception is defined as achieving an understanding of what the facts mean or represent. But the truth is “that which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence.”

Rather than the positive misrepresentation given above, the whole truth (aka, the reality) about Stalin is more accurately represented in this quote from a PBS biography:  “The man who turned the Soviet Union from a backward country into a world superpower at unimaginable human cost.”

But the disconnect between facts, perception, and the whole truth also can work the opposite way. Facts about a person can create a negative perception that is at odds with the whole truth. Let’s take Jesus for example.

For many of us, our perception of Jesus is based on a few facts we’ve picked up here and there. Fact: Jesus is perfect. Perception: I have to be perfect in order to please Him. Fact: Jesus sits at the right hand of God. Perception: Jesus exists to judge me. Fact: Jesus hates sin. Perception: I sin, so Jesus must hate me.

But have we taken the time to find out the whole truth about Him? The whole truth about Jesus is that His perfection helps us to see what perfect love looks like in the flesh, which includes being merciful and forgiving. The whole truth about Jesus is that He did not come to judge us. Many of us have heard the verse, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” But few of us have ever heard the verse right after it: “For God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but to save it.” (John 3:16-17)

The whole truth is that Jesus does not hate us because we miss it every once in a while. We all fall short. He loves us regardless. His death on the cross was His way of walking His love talk. He loved us enough to sacrifice His own life so that, through his resurrection, we would have eternal life.

God desires for us to always know the whole truth about Him, and not get trapped in misperceptions.  Come and join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM, as our guest speaker, Todd Pokrifka discusses the office of the Teacher as the “guardian of truth” in the Church.

Heart of Hope

Are you a hopeful person?  When you think about your future do you see sunshine or gloomy weather?  Is your glass of expectation brimming over or bone dry?  These days with so much discouraging economic news: rising unemployment, skyrocketing national debt and a housing market that keeps searching for its bottom, more of us are finding it difficult to hold on to our hope.

It can be very challenging to find hope in discouraging and negative circumstances, and the more they pile up, the dimmer our hope often becomes.  How hopeful would you be if you were abused and held in captivity for 18 years beginning when you were just a child? 

We can all remember news coverage of the shocking discovery of a young woman, Jaycee Dugard, who was held prisoner in a soundproof building in the backyard of Philip and Nancy Garrido.  Abducted with a stun gun while walking to her school bus stop when she was only 11, Jaycee was subjected to repeated rape, sexual and verbal abuse, and psychological manipulation by her captors for the next 18 years.  During that time she gave birth to two daughters, fathered by her rapist, Philip Garrido.

What allowed her to live through these incredible events and maintain her sanity, especially when she was so young?  In her book “A Stolen Life,” Jaycee states that remembering her mother’s love kept a spark of hope alive in her that allowed her to believe in her future.   She had one object from her mother, a tiny butterfly ring she managed to keep hidden.  It became a concrete link that helped her focus on that maternal love.  And she recorded her dreams of a better future in a secret journal.

She states, “I refused to let any cloud extinguish my heart of hope.”  She repeatedly chose to maintain her hope, and that choice kept her alive.  Hope is not wishing for something.  It is much more substantial than that.  Hope is confident expectation about what is unseen and in the future.  It is happy anticipation that future good awaits us.

    

God knows that life will present us with disappointment and tough times.  He understands that hope cannot be put off continuously.  He says in Proverbs 13:12 that hope deferred makes the heart grow sick, and a sick heart keeps us from enjoying our life.  He knows that we must have something to connect our hope to if it is to survive hard times.  He offers us the promise of abundant life if we will put our trust in Him.  This blessing God promises us becomes an anchor of hope for our soul.  (Hebrews 6:19)

In light of His promised blessing, the apostle Paul wrote: “May God, the source of hope, fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him.  Then you will overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

To help us remember His promised blessing, God appoints pastors in the Church who are gifted with true compassion for others.  They listen, encourage, and follow-up with us as we grow in our trust with God.  They help protect and inspire our hope.  I pray you will decide to trust in God, let Him bless you, and find a good church with caring pastors who can help your hope thrive!

Come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM.  Our own Pastor Karl Malouff will explain more about the encouraging role of the office of pastor.

It’s Non-Negotiable

For those of us who are sports fans, things are looking bleak for the upcoming 2011-2012 season.  As I’m sure you are aware, both the NFL and NBA are currently involved in lockouts.  The dispute?  Disagreements between owners and players on how to equitably divide revenues, of course.

The NFL, now entering its fifth month of lockout, appears close to a compromise.  It must reach one by July 15 to avoid delays in preseason games, scheduled to begin in August. Although revenues topped 9 billion in 2010, owners claim decreasing profitability due to exponential increases in player salaries and benefits the last few years.  

Owners want to lower the percent of revenues that go to players and expand the season from 16 to 18 games.  Players reject both proposals stating increased injury risk and short average career life.  They also want more transparency in team financial accounting, which owners are resisting.

The situation is even more complex in the NBA.  The 2010-2011 season was one of the best yet with 4.3 billion in revenues, but average annual player salaries rose from 5 to 7 million in the last few years.  Accounting practices are more open in the NBA, and despite healthy revenues, 22 of the NBA’s 30 teams finished last season in the red.  Players blame owners for poor decision making, while owners claim the financials clearly point to the need for basic economic restructuring in the NBA, a herculean task.

In both the NFL and NBA, failure to reach an agreement will have serious financial consequences for both owners and players, so why do settlements always go to the brink of mutual disaster before they can strike a compromise?

As human beings, we seem to have a basic distrust of one another when our interests come into conflict.  Our fear blinds us to the perspectives and needs of the other side.  We feel our survival is threatened, and cling rigidly to our non-negotiable position, until we reach that brink of disaster and are forced into a mutual compromise.  We settle for less than we wanted comforted by the fact that the other side settled for less too.

This basic fear makes us suspicious of God, when He offers us a non-negotiable contract that looks too good to be true.  He tells us that He wants to supply all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).  He then goes on to explain that these riches are immeasurable, far beyond anything we can think or conceive in our wildest imaginations! (Ephesians 3:20a)  

Jesus knew this offer would be hard for us to accept, so he told a story to illustrate how God operates.  An employer hired some laborers at the beginning of the day to work.  They carefully negotiated the rate of a denarius, a fair day’s wage at that time.  At the end of the day he hired more workers for an hour and promised to pay them what was right.  They didn’t negotiate, but trusted the employer and went to work.  In the end the employer paid the last workers a full denarius too, which they certainly weren’t expecting! (Matthew 20:1-16)

Jesus was telling us we don’t have to negotiate with God.  God is not an owner trying to maximize His profits, but our loving Father who has an unlimited supply.  Say “yes” to God’s non-negotiable contract and let Him abundantly bless you!

Come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM and hear our guest speaker Becca Greenwood discuss how God reveals His actions with us through the office of the prophet.

Gooder than Good

We all like to get a good deal.  We’ll clip coupons to save 50 cents on our favorite breakfast cereal, or order merchandise online before a cutoff date to get free shipping.  Our car finds it way to the drive-thru when a large coke is free with our order of a burger and fries.  We feel triumph when we find that perfect nightstand for the spare bedroom for pennies on the dollar at a weekend garage sale.

We enroll in frequent flier and cash back reward programs, buy entertainment cards and discounted movie tickets at Costco because we want a good deal. We haggle with the car salesman over price or try to get free upgrades added on, for the good deal of course.  We feel great when we can get a hefty rebate on the latest smart phone or negotiate a large software package for our new laptop.  

We are pros at scouting for good deals because most of us started early.  The free toy in the cereal box looked like a good deal when we were four.  And we learned how to cut good deals by swapping baseball cards or super heroes figures with our friends. The internet has revolutionized the way we search for good deals with endless comparison or discount sites and those pesky pop-ups that assure us they offer sensational deals. 

But we’ve also learned that all that glitters isn’t gold.  That internet, phone, TV bundle sounds fabulous until we read that its a 2 year contract and the discount rates are only good for the first year.  The all-inclusive vacation package looks great until we see the list of fees and expenses that are excluded.  From our first disappointment with the cheesy free cereal toy that didn’t look anything like the picture on the box, we’ve learned to be wary of “good deals.”

Perhaps this is why we find it so difficult to accept God’s free gift of grace and favor to us without attaching some conditions to it.  God clearly tells us that because of His grace and favor, we are delivered from judgment and given all the privileges of Jesus Himself. 

And this good deal just keeps getting “gooder.”  He goes on to explain that it will take an eternity for Him to demonstrate His love for us, because it is so immeasurable.  Perhaps He knew it would be hard for us to accept this “gooder than good” deal because He ends by reassuring us that it is a totally free gift, and doesn’t depend on anything we can do to try to earn it. (Ephesians 2:5-8)

Perhaps you’ve heard about God’s “gooder than good” deal and looked into it, only to be turned off by some church’s demands that you dress a certain way, avoid certain activities, music, people etc.  Or maybe the list of religious duties you were expected to perform choked off your enthusiasm, proving once again that good deals are just too good to be true.

Take a second look at God’s offer.  It’s really free and there is no fine print attached, no matter how much religious people try to add it.  God loves you and offers you His free gift of abundant life and a wonderful destiny in Him.  All you have to do is say “Yes!”

Come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM as our guest speaker Mark Tubbs addresses “Discovering Your Destiny.”