Pete's Blog

The Good News at its heart is a declaration that Jesus Christ is in charge, he is Lord of all.  The resurrection of Jesus was a vindication of his claims to have "all authority" and that he had a special relationship to God the Father (I and the Father are one).  Jesus's death was in obedience to God the Father and in it he accomplished his great victor over sin and death.  The Good News is that Jesus in in charge, the Good News is also that Jesus in his death has wind for us the victory over sin and death.  This latter victory means that those who recognise him as Lord and choose to follow him get to receive the blessing of eternal life that he brings.  This receiving of eternal life as a free victory gift  from Jesus is also called being "born again".  This is all so well known even Wiki gets it right, as we discussed on The Good News Show recently.  But it needs to be appropriated personally to be effective, that is, each person needs to not o...

An article that appeared in USA Today had this title: “Psychologists now know what makes you happy.” And the writer discovered a not-so-surprising fact, forgiveness is most strongly linked to happiness and the Bible closely links forgiveness with healing. "Forgiveness is the trait most strongly linked to happiness", said University of Michigan psychologist Christopher Peterson. T he Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, in removing revenge from the agenda, brought, to a certain extent, forgiveness and healing to the country.  There are reported to be still deep divisions in the country of South Africa.   However, the situation would have been far worse, most political commentators agree, if revenge had been left to take it's course. Truth is  important, but so is reconciliation. At a personal level forgiveness also has a profound effect.   The psychologists are right on this one. Happiness is closely linked to forgiveness.  The truth is t...