TURNING BAD NEWS INTO GOOD NEWS
The irrepressible Bud Hancock presents another highly perceptive article about Good News and how to find it. Many thanks Bud, it is much appreciated by this monkey.
Gibber! Gibber!
Chugley
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Turning Bad News Into Good News
By Bud Hancock
Introduction
News: noo͞z, nyoo͞z
noun plural
- Information about recent events or happenings, especially as reported by means of newspapers, websites, radio, television, and other forms of media.
- A presentation of such information, as in a newspaper or on a newscast.
- New information of any kind.
As can be seen from the definitions above found in the American Heritage Dictionary, the word “information” can be interchanged for the word “news”. The only “media” not mentioned in any of the definitions is the word “book”, so I guess the world does not see books as sources of information. How wrong they are.
No matter where you get your “news”, any good news is becoming very difficult to find these days. Whether it is political, cultural or educational in nature, it is mostly negative and inspires negativity in the listener, viewer or reader.
The Bad News
Educational – In the U.S., the basics of education have been more or less forgotten or replaced by what now passes for education. The three R’s, readin’, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic, were dominant when I was a youngster and WERE the basis of education and were the critical subjects that all students were expected to gradually master as they progressed from grade to grade. Now, very few high school graduates can even read at a third grade level. Writing in cursive is not even taught in schools, having been replaced with the twenty-six letters, ten numbers and various symbol keys on a computer keyboard. Ask a young adult to even write his name in cursive and you’ll be met with a “deer in the headlights” stare and the unasked question in response: “What is cursive”? Indeed, it is becoming a lost art for anyone under 40 years of age.
Cultural – Racial division in the U.S. is everywhere, with hatred for one group or another being the norm, and no one seeming to care to tackle the big question: “Why can we not solve the racism problem”? Even though every so-called spokesman for each ethnic group has opinions, usually based on their own life experiences, good or bad, they have no actual solutions to the problems facing and dividing the groups. The problems just seem to be unsolvable.
Nothing seems to change: the rich get richer and the poor get political promises. The disparity in economic status from one ethnic group to another is always blamed on the appearance of racism in one form or another
Political – It seems every nation on the Earth is either in turmoil or chaos; either entering into a period of instability or upheaval, already in one, or, less and less, recovering from one. Stability seems as elusive now as it ever has been. Here in the U.S., the political system may appear to be organized chaos, but in actuality, it IS highly organized and the chaos is for appearance only. It is a masterful performance for so many people in one U.S. Congress to claim exclusive membership in one or the other of the two major parties while they are all pretty much in agreement on nearly every issue they debate.
If there were an Academy Award ceremony for “political drama” and political actors, it would be impossible to choose which one would win the most “Oscars”. Of course, in today’s “woke culture”, they would all demand an award just for participating.
What is still so surprising is that so many seemingly intelligent, educated people are fooled by the whole Kabuki Theater, thinking those politicians in D.C. are actually there to represent their constituents. Hah! Once people are “fooled” into believing that nonsense, it is easy to keep them fooled.
The past several paragraphs have only brushed the surface of what I consider bad news. To cover every bad news issue would require more time than I have to write it or anyone has to read it.
If the standard reporting that now passes for journalism is your source for important information, understand that it is very difficult to get the “truth” about The Good News since most reporting is based on lies and will not provide much, if any, truth.
Mark Twain famously said: “If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do, you are misinformed”. The same could be said of all news media outlets now, and you alone must assume responsibility for what you allow to enter your mind.
But, we all have had enough exposure to the “propaganda news” crap, with some still embedded in there somewhere, to some extent, and until it is addressed it will still continue to influence our thoughts and our decisions.
The reason you find so little good news IN the news is that, to actually admit that good news is real, the “newsies” would need to admit the existence of a God who has already provided the basis for all the good news one could ever want.
Enter The Good News, The ONLY Good News
Way back when Television was in its infancy (as was I) the programming was mostly wholesome and entertaining and the technology was building a huge following among the masses. As the years passed and the morals of a large segment of the populace declined and that was coupled with the addition of many new channels of programming, many of which were definitely NOT wholesome. Many viewers, especially parents with small children began to be turned off by the crap flowing out of some of those channels with many becoming irate and complaining loudly about it.
It occurred to many, myself included, that the best way to handle it is to simply change the channel or shut the TV off if the information offends you. That allows you to be in charge of what you see and hear. You must determine what passes for good info versus bad info, or good news versus bad news, especially when your children are being subjected to it.
The good news is that you do not have to read, view or hear any of the bad news. I sincerely believe every person would be better off if most of what we do read, view or hear from all news media just went in one ear and out the other. Or better yet, understand ahead of time that the junk coming from all those sources is misinformation at best and evil propaganda at worst. In either case, none of it should ever be allowed to enter our consciousness in the first place.
However, the fact is that with so many unsupervised children watching TV or other media on their iPads, phones and other electronic gadgets, unless some controls and regulations are placed on the content media outlets can broadcast, the young minds of kids will be inundated with the most evil junk imaginable.
One Source of Good News (Truth)
Even though most dictionaries do not list books as sources of information or news, every believer should know that the only source for truly good news/information is the Word of God, you know, that “book” called The Holy Bible? The information in it has stood the test of time for thousands of years and it is still the best source of life-saving, life-changing information.
As much as the actions of the current news media are exercises in obfuscation, either completely ignoring, or covering up the facts of any matter, The Holy Bible, God’s word has never done so. The most evil acts of man throughout history are clearly detailed in its pages by the authors, inspired by The Holy Spirit; God has always completely exposed the sins of man, resulting from Satan’s temptation, as the source of all bad news. But He also weaves the good news throughout the Bible, starting with His pronouncement of Satan’s judgment and eternal fate in Genesis 3:14. In that verse we see the prophecy about Satan bruising the heel of the “seed of the woman”, Jesus Christ, but also the same seed bruising Satan’s head. That is GOOD NEWS, but the BETTER GOOD NEWS is that, in God’s perfect time, that prophecy was partially fulfilled when God’s only begotten Son was sent into this world as a God-man who literally lived a perfect righteous life, was crucified as a sacrifice for all our sins, was buried for three days but then rose from the grave after defeating Satan and taking all his authority back. The prophecy about the bruising of Satan’s head was fulfilled and now we only await the fulfillment of other prophecies that will finally end Satan’s reign of terror on this Earth, and THAT is the BEST GOOD NEWS of all time!
God exposed all the bad news of man’s defeat BY evil and turned it into the good news of Jesus’s triumph OVER evil! Amen and Amen!
Even though there were no computers when the Bible was being written, the Apostle Paul specifically explained how to avoid being deceived and led astray by the voices of demons and false teachers and preachers. As recorded in Romans 12, he said this: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).
You will not receive any truth from the MSM information, only more propaganda being spewed out, and without truth, there will be no transformation of your mind and you WILL be conformed to the world’s lies leading to the condition and the ultimate fate of the world.
While the world is deeply entrenched in the “bad news cycles” that seem to continue on forever, the good news is that the people in this world do not have to remain trapped in these cycles. They can become the recipients of the good news of Jesus and His redemption, but their minds are closed to the good news and it therefore eludes them. They are the victims of the propaganda that passes for news and sadly, they have been programmed to believe they are hearing truth.
Unless their minds are reached by someone with a different message than the ones that trapped them, they will ultimately die in their lost and blinded condition.
Multitudes of people, trapped in the “bad news cycles” that issue from, and are promoted by, the so-called journalists of today are desperate for truth but are unable to separate the lies, deception and evil propaganda from anything that remotely passes for truth. The media are nothing more than pushers of the bad news cycles being used to keep the minds of these multitudes blinded. Unless the true Church reaches them with the Good News from God’s word, they have little hope of ever being freed.
There is still much work for the Body of Christ, the true church on Earth, to do before we will see His final triumph over evil, but until that day and hour arrives, we must follow the example of Jesus who said, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:4).
Jesus physically left this world when, days after His resurrection from the grave, He ascended into heaven, so now the only light the world has IS the Church, and if that light goes out, millions more may perish without Christ.
There is only a small window of opportunity between day and night and it is fast closing; I can assure you, the day is waning and the night is closer than anyone imagines! Let’s gear up and get to work!
Blessings and Maranatha!
Born and raised in a small textile town in North Carolina, Bud Hancock’s family moved to Michigan in the hope of finding better employment with General Motors. After graduating from high school, Bud began an apprenticeship with General Motors to become a Metal Modelmaker. Retiring after a 30 year career, which included an eight year stint as a Meteorologist, he and his wife moved back to North Carolina to be near his elderly parents. Shortly thereafter, with both of his parents having passed, he started a new career in the bank security/ATM business, advancing from an entry level technician to one of two North Carolina customer service managers for his employer. Retiring again after 13 years, he and his wife of 51 years relocated to Tennessee where Bud began writing articles specializing in Bible teaching and geopolitical issues. At age 75, he and his wife relocated to South Carolina with their Miniature Schnauzer, Baxter. Bud continues to study God’s word and write articles on Christian living and geopolitical issues from the Biblical end times perspective