intitial thoughts

We, as Christians, have a significant problem when it comes to the news. No, I am not talking about which news source provides the most accurate information. Personally, they are all flawed. I have had conversations with people about the news media which grow heated for reasons I am still not sure of. If I like CNN (which I do) it has no bearing on my spiritual maturation. It does not announce my political affiliations or personal opinions on "hot" issues. It simply expresses my preference for gathering information about the happenings in the world.

Getting back to my original point, Christians (in general) react very poorly to news, especially pertaining to the pain and suffering caused by disasters, natural and man-made. As I read the Japan story yesterday, I found the first reader-posted comment troubling. The individual quoted Matthew 24:7 and left.

Christ did tell us to be ready. He told us to make sure we are not "asleep" when He comes again. What He didn't tell us was to announce to the world "the end is near" every time disaster strikes. It seems as though a lot of Christian responses to Japan and the political unrest in Middle Eastern areas are the same; everything is getting worse and worse so let's just call it as it is.

Where is our compassion? Where is our love for the lost? Where is the hope offered through Jesus Christ? Where is our commitment to prayer?

We have been entrusted with the only good news for those living in this corrupt, broken, and painful world. Declaring the end of all things is not the good news we have been entrusted with. Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins is. Him paying the penalty for our sins by absorbing the full cup of God's wrath is. Christ rising again on the third day overthrowing the reign of death is. Placing our faith and trust in these things to receive eternal life, which is our hope as we labor through this life, should be what we are sharing with those hurting.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too."

~2 Corinthians 1:3-5

We have received comfort from the God of all comfort. We should be quick to share it with those around us. For we have been comforted in order to share the comfort we have received with those in need.