Evening News – Big Business | Good News – Our Business
The evening news: do you still watch it? Its influence is not what it was, but it is still big business. Do you ever watch the news or listen on the radio (as I do) and wonder, “What does that have to do with me?” Much of it has nothing to do with you directly, but it is either sensational, frightening, opinion altering, or maybe all three. The truth is that news these days is big business. This business requires and desires money, and money requires advertisers, and advertisers require viewers or listeners. It is not about what you need to know. It is about what grabs your attention. Once the attention is arrested the imagination is engaged and the thinking influenced. And it all happens in a few moments; sometimes a few seconds.
This is why it is crucial that the follower of Christ must keep his mind influenced by and under the authority of God’s Word. This is why we must live Gospel-centered lives. The Gospel, both the Gospel proper and in its larger implications, is our business. Our lives are about the “Good News” in Jesus Christ. In fact, Christ is the good news. We are not selling something. We are living and proclaiming the truth. As employers or employees, bosses or subordinates, rich or poor, the politicians or the populace we hold in our hands, or more importantly, in our hearts that which cannot be bought or sold. Whatever our God-given lot; it is our pulpit from which we are to make Christ known.
“We are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s Word, but…men of sincerity…”, but as the people of God let us “…very gladly spend and be spent…” for the purpose of God, the people of God, and the glory of God. Let us, by God’s grace, turn the normal and ordinary into the extraordinary by the reality of Christ Himself. The mundane moments of life must be measured, not by mere temporal success, but by the ministry of Christ and His Gospel. Pray that you and yours will be instruments of grace, trophies of grace to this end; “And do not grow weary in doing good, for in due season you will reap if you do not lose heart… “So let no one glory in men. For all things are yours… And you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.” This is our business at home, at church, at work, at play, in our politics, in our social interaction. May we be “wise as servants and harmless as doves.” And may God be pleased to make our investment count for eternity.
In the Battle with You,
Charles Cavanaugh
(References: 2 Cor. 2:17&12:15; Gal. 6:9; 1 Cor. 3:21&23; Matt.10:16)
