The Good News

What is the best thing?  The greatest thing there can be?  If you had one wish what would you wish for?  God actually gave Solomon that very deal.

I King 3:5

5   That night the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, "What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!"

(NLT)

What would you ask for if you were given that same offer?  Solomon asked for wisdom.  He was the king of Israel and young and overwhelmed with the responsibility.  He knew that the way he was there weren't the resources inside himself to rule.  God was pleased with his choice because it wasn't selfish.  God in fact answered that request and gave him great wisdom and

besides He gave him wealth and honor. 

The question is what to ask for.  What is the best thing you could get as a gift? How about being raised from the dead?  How about being healed of blindness?

Colossians chapter 2: verse 13

13  You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not

yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins.

(NLT)

John chapter 9: verse 39

39  Then Jesus told him, "I have come to judge the world. I have come to give

sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind."

(NLT)

Boy that set off all kinds of alarms inside didn't it?  What does He mean raised from the dead?  What does He mean blind?  Those scriptures sound strange.  They sound strange to all the people who have heard them and they sound that way today.  God himself is calling you dead & blind already.  Jesus himself is saying you are dead, right now, even though you're breathing.  He's saying you're blind too.  What did He mean?  He means you are separated from God and you don't even realize it.  You don't see it because you are blind to it. 

I saw a Darmo & Greg episode the other night. If I misspelled the name it's because I'm not at all into their show, but they were doing a spoof on god and they said something that was totally profound.  This Indian spirit appeared and was talking to I assume whoever Darmo is and she was asking the spirit all kinds of questions about god and finally this Indian spirit said, "Let me get this straight, you are praying to God.  The God that created the heavens and the earth right? And YOU are doing all the talking?"  In other words doesn't it make sense to hear what God says?

Pay attention because here's where it really gets good: God said "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God".  That's right, every single person that ever lived.  He also said that no one that ever sinned will see the kingdom of God, let alone get in.  Have you ever stolen a pencil? How about looked at a woman with lust in your heart?  Have you ever taken the Lord's name in vain?  We compare ourselves to others and think we are graded on the curve, compared to so and so I'm pretty good, but God said no sin, none, not one.  It is very important for all of us to come to this realization that there is nothing you can do on your own to earn God's acceptance.  And see, religion puts forth that if you are good enough God will accept you, but the truth is it's already too late because we all have sinned and are guilty.  This sounds like bad news not good news.  Well, that's true, if you leave it right where you are it's very bad news.  You are utterly and totally without hope if left just to yourself. 

To the good news; Jesus Christ.  There was one person who did live who never sinned and that was Jesus.  He was fully man and fully God and we, mankind, killed him, totally innocent of ANY wrong doing of any kind.  Why?

Because He paid for our sin, yours and mine and everyone's.  This is God's plan of salvation.  He gives us a gift that we didn't earn and don't deserve by accepting Him as who He is, the Christ.  Our Savior.  How can you become

reconciled with God?  There is only one way, by coming to the place where you realize you are utterly and totally lost in sin and hopeless.  This place is actually that place we talked about in the beginning, the place where you can see.  God gives that sight, it in fact is a gift to get to that place where you see your need.  Because only there do you realize your need for a savior, someone who has the authority and power and standing to do what you can't do  yourself.  Erase your sin, make you just as if you never sinned, spotless.  That isn't all He gives, if that weren't enough.  He also gives us love. Unconditional love that doesn't remember wrongs, that never gives up, endures through every circumstance.  Love that is tangible, that can actually be felt.  Love that heals physically and emotionally.  Love that restores intimacy. Love that is so tangible and powerful that it can remove any fear.  He gives us wholeness and joy, peace and security.  He promises that we can actually hear His voice.  He promises that He will actually come into us and live in our very hearts, he promises to change us from the inside out.  And here is the best news, He promises to make us into a brand new creation.  A brand new person, with a brand new heart. 

Your reaction should be disbelief.  You should be saying to yourself there's no way.  And my response is what do you have to lose.  Let the Lord do what He promises, to open your eyes and let you see.  If He created the heavens and the earth with a word couldn't He change you?  If He formed mankind out of clay and made us in His very own image doesn't it seem remotely possible that He could very easily make us new again?  Christianity is in its essence supernatural.  Think about it, God has done it all.  He loved us so much that He made a covenant with us that He fulfilled, not us. 

All this and so much more is a gift, free and clear.  We do nothing at all except to accept it.  If there is any remote possibility of this being true, don't you agree it is worth pursuing? This is how He was presented to me:

Years ago when my jeweler friend told me about Jesus and I wanted to get away from him as fast as I could, he said, "Greg, I can see you are not ready.  Do me this one favor, when you are alone say this: "Jesus, if you're real show

me"".  That didn't seem hard to me.  And like I said if there is the remotest possibility that what I'm telling you is true wouldn't that be worth paying attention to and just stopping for a bit to see.  When I left that jeweler and drove away I prayed that little prayer.  It's been a long time ago, 23 years, and I don't remember how long He took to show me, less than a few weeks I think.  He did it in a way that was absolutely undeniable yet I had a choice and that choice hinged on faith.  I had to make a conscious decision inside myself, in my heart to believe that Jesus was real and He was the

Christ, my Savior.  And in fact, later I realized that that decision really meant that I had to then believe everything about Him.  His promises, to make me whole.  To heal from any and every disease.  He promised that we would see people raised from the dead.  I have seen that happen.  If you live your life with only your experience as your basis of reality you deny the supernatural.

 The truth is nothing is impossible with God!  

Let me address those of you who are already believers who don't have a relationship with Jesus that is alive and vibrant and filled with supernatural manifestations.  Think about the Pharisees, how they clung to their religious beliefs in the face of miracle after miracle.  They always found an excuse not to believe because their hearts were as stone.  They hadn't had a prophet in Israel for hundreds of years.  What did the prophets do?  They ripped the religious people's hearts to shreds didn't they? And the hard hearted people ultimately killed them.  Just as they did Jesus.  The answer is to go right back to the place of humility, admitting that what is promised in God's word isn't real in your life. 

I know of a missionary in Mexico, his name is David Hogan . I have heard him preach.  He ministers in the jungles of Mexico.  His ministry, and those people with him have seen hundreds of people raised from the dead, all types of diseases healed, eyes created etc.  I say this because he holds the church in the US in derision as being proud and arrogant and powerless.  That we have accepted man's efforts, big ministries, big churches, big choirs, self sufficiency, independence as acceptable.  But devoid of the power of God.  Devoid of the supernatural.  I make absolutely no apology for the supernatural.  There are things we face in this world that are totally beyond anything a human can do, certainly beyond human reasoning.  I think that is very common, in everyone's life from time to time.  Jesus Christ is the answer.  Nothing is impossible with Him! And we haven't seen everything yet.  Finally, when we look at the world, the truth is they see the church as irrelevant and I agree.  The dead church, the church that teaches I have to be better, that I have to change into what they are.  The church that produces cookie cutter Christians.  That lambastes homosexuals instead of loving them.  That ridicules the promiscuous instead of loving them.  That looks with horror on the pierced youth instead of loving them and accepting them. The church that snubs the church next door because they are a little different.  When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior we died, or were supposed to.  That means our thoughts, our aspirations, even our likes and dislikes were placed under His.  What do you like, Lord?  Not my will Lord, but yours.  Dead to self. 

There is a revival in the world right now that is unprecedented.  It is also almost invisible to the unsaved and even to the dead church (dead meaning as above, those who don't have a relationship with Jesus that is alive and vibrant and filled with supernatural manifestations).  The 6 PM news hardly ever mentions it, but occasionally they touch on it.  It was reported that New York City has had a tremendous drop in the crime rate (I don't recall the percentages but they were huge).  The politicians have taken credit of course.  What we didn't hear is there is a tremendous move of God on the streets of New York.  There is an evangelist, Bill Wilson, among others, who ministers to the kids who has had thousands of kids saved every month.  In Argentina there has been a move of God that has swept through the country and has touched almost everyone.  Children have been going door to door telling people about Jesus and working miracles to prove Him.  You've heard of the town of Calle Columbia, the drug capitol.  You probably didn't hear that mass revival has taken the city back from the drug lords and Christians are now in high office. 

I have a personal friend, Darrell Stott from Seattle. An assembly of God pastor for over 20 years. He was burned out and ready to quit the ministry.  He was sent to Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship Church in Toronto Canada, where revival has been going on for 6 years now, by his father.  He was literally turned inside out.  Revived. 

I benefited personally from his experience when he came and stayed at my home for a week while ministering in our church.  I didn't realize the Lord had given him a ministry to rape victims and the sexually abused.  I didn't know my daughter had been raped when she was 16.  She never told anyone, not even her best friend.  She was ashamed, she felt guilty, she felt it was her fault.  While Darrell was here she finally told her Mom.  What a God setup.  Darrell ministered to her and Jesus did what He promised, she was totally healed, restored to spiritual virginity and purity.  She has gone on to TACF's School of Ministry and now is attending their Bible College.  She is happy, vibrant and full of joy.  A new creation, free and whole.  I know my God can heal deliver and set free because I have experienced it.  And He is no respecter of persons.  What he has done for me or others He will do for you.  I could go on and on and actually I fully intend to but not here.  I intend to write vignettes about the many miracles that have happened in my life to follow after my story, Where was God That Night, in my autobiography because I am not talking theory, I'm speaking from experience.  I haven't seen it all, in fact I believe, as I said, we haven't seen anything yet.  Lord, I ask you to reveal yourself to everyone who reads this meager piece.  I ask that the truth will shine and the flaws will be hidden by Your Glory.  Lord, quicken our hearts.  Let faith arise inside and encourage us to RISC it all.  Lord, I pray for honesty in our inward parts, let us identify with Revelations 3, that we are wretched, poor, pitiful, blind and naked and in need of You Lord.

There are only two kinds of people in the world, those who know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and those who are about to.  Which are you?

Be blasted in Jesus, Greg