There is good news, new news, and old news.  The word gospel means good news - the news that we can individually and corporately have a personal relationship with the only living God, who created all life on earth, and the universe itself.  Individually, we can be forgiven of our sins, our wrong moral choices, because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived a sinless life, and died on the cross, taking the consequences we deserve for our sin.  Like any gift, it is of no real value to the receiver until it is accepted.  In the same way, we must stop focusing on blaming others, and accept personal responsibility for our own sin, and then ask for and accept His gift of forgiveness and healing.  From there, life has a new foundation, a new and living hope, that does not fade away.  Corporately, we then become adopted sons and daughters of the Living God, and therefore brothers and sisters in God's family.  The focus of life then is not more toys or amusement, but the process of growing in grace and wisdom, and building strong healthy relationships with brothers and sisters, and sharing the good news with others who are not yet adopted into God's forever family.  Have you accepted the good news, and are you living in the light of that reality?

In New York harbour, stands a lady, with a torch raised to the sky,

And all who see her, know she stands for liberty for you and me.

On lonely Golgotha, stood a cross, with my Lord raised to the sky,

And all who kneel there, live forever, as the saved can testify.

O the cross is my statue of liberty, it was there that my soul was set free,

Unashamed I'll proclaim that a rugged cross, is my statue of liberty!     (c) 1974 Neil Enloe Music

Chief Shoefoot, a leader among the Yanomamo people who live in the jungle on the border of Brazil and Venezuela, was a shaman, or witch doctor, but wanted to escape the oppression of the spirits that held him in bondage.  He needed to be rescued by someone stronger than himself, stronger than the evil spirits who held him.  Then a family came to live in his village, who knew the Greatest of All Spirits.   Shoefoot had known of this spirit, but had been told by his spirits that this Great Spirit was an enemy.  He found that this Great Spirit was not only greater than the spirits who held him in bondage, but that being adopted into the family of this Great Spirit was the source of genuine freedom - not of licence to do as we please, but of liberty, to do as we ought.  See Focus on the Family broadcasts June 25 and 26, 2009.

As a statue liberates a citizen,

so the cross liberates the soul!