Daily Devotional
Want the Bad News?

October 7, 2021

Ponder This

A preacher and his son were traveling down a street, and they saw a house that was on fire. They realized that there may be danger inside the house, and so they went and knocked on the door, but no one answered. Finally, they broke the door down and went in. They couldn’t find anybody in the house, but they took all the furniture out of the house and set the furniture outside the house while the fire department was on the way.

Later on, the preacher thought that was a great illustration, and decided to use it in his sermon. After he told the story, the people looked at him kind of strangely. When he got home, he did as preachers are prone to do and discussed the sermon with his wife. He said, “You know somehow I thought that was a good illustration, but it just fell flat.” She said, “I’ll tell you why. You forgot to tell them the house was on fire.”

It was the bad news that the house was on fire that made it good news that they saved the furniture. Often, we fail today to tell people the bad news that makes the Gospel message good news.

• How have you experienced the reality that it is the bad news of sin and eternal separation from God that makes the Gospel good news?
• Why is it important to share both of these parts of the Gospel message?

Practice This

Take some time today to reflect on the bad news of our sin that brought about the need for salvation. Thank God for the good news that He has met our need in Jesus.