{"id":189,"date":"2009-12-10T07:12:46","date_gmt":"2009-12-10T15:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.deserthillspc.org\/?p=189"},"modified":"2009-12-10T07:12:46","modified_gmt":"2009-12-10T15:12:46","slug":"sharing-good-news-a-lesson-from-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/10\/sharing-good-news-a-lesson-from-the-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharing Good News (a Lesson from the Bible)"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite Bible stories is found in 2 Kings 7<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A neighboring empire had attacked Israel and Jerusalem was under siege. The city was surrounded, so nothing could get in or out, and people got very, very hungry. But one night, God caused the besiegers to hear the sound of a great army. They became frightened and fled, abandoning their camp outside the city.<\/p>\n

Inside Jerusalem, nobody knew the enemy was gone. But outside the city gates were were four lepers. Like those in the city, they were hungry, and they decided to defect to the enemy. When they arrived, and found the enemy missing, the Bible says, \u201cthey went into a tent, ate and drank, carried off silver, gold, and clothing, and went and hid them.\u201d Then on to the next tent\u2014like the Grinch stealing Christmas.<\/p>\n

But after awhile, the lepers said to one another, \u201cThis isn\u2019t right. This is a day of good news, and we aren\u2019t sharing it with anyone! Come on, let\u2019s go back and tell the people at the palace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story might not be familiar, but this picture is one that Christians should recognize. We are like the lepers: we\u2019ve stumbled on treasure we did nothing to earn. (Similarly, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to someone who found a treasure hidden in a field.)<\/p>\n

We can be happy, like the lepers, and enjoy what we\u2019ve found. What we can\u2019t do is keep it to ourselves. We need to share the good news with people who haven\u2019t heard it yet.<\/p>\n

Too often, however, Christians model their behavior after people in other Bible stories. We act like a watchman posted announce the approaching doom (Ezekiel 3:16-21<\/a>). Certainly there is a role for the prophetic messenger\u2014but how often do we pick that role, instead of being called to it?<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t easy to admit you\u2019re a lucky leper. To admit everything good in your life is a gift God put in your path. But for most of us, it\u2019s more honest.<\/p>\n

This is the holiday season: A month of parties and special occasions between Thanksgiving and New Year\u2019s, a time to gather with friends and family in celebration after celebration. Some people you know may be like the miserable victims of Jerusalem\u2019s siege. Can you be like one of the \u201clucky lepers\u201d and share your good news with them?<\/p>\n

Note: this article originally appeared in the Yucca Valley Hi Desert Star<\/a> on Wednesday, December 2, 2009.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite Bible stories is found in 2 Kings 7. A neighboring empire had attacked Israel and Jerusalem was under siege. The city was surrounded, so nothing could get in or out, and people got very, very hungry. But one night, God caused the besiegers to hear the sound of a great army. … Continue reading »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[8,27,34,52,62,63],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living","tag-bible","tag-holidays","tag-mission","tag-service","tag-wisdom","tag-witness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}