The Good News Blog

by Dr. Harold Sala

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” -1 Corinthians 13:6

When you learn that your bitterest enemy has really “gotten it in the neck,” how do you feel? Do you quietly—or perhaps not so quietly—rejoice? “Good!” you think, “Got just what he deserved! I never liked that person anyway.”

Our natural reaction is the very opposite of that which God wants us to develop. In the greatest passage ever written about love, Paul gives us some words of advice—tough ones too! They grate against our natures like sandpaper on a glass table top, or like a chicken bone that turns sideways when you try to swallow it. He says simply that “love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” (I Corinthians 13:6).

When we learn to love as God wants us to, we are saddened when a person falls in a moment of

by Dr. Harold Dala

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” -1 Corinthians 13:4-7

When the late cartoonist Charles Schulz dined in the home of a friend, the host remarked that he had just what Schulz needed to set off his dinner jacket. He disappeared and then returned in a few minutes with a heavy chain from which a medallion hung. Across the face of the medallion were the letters L O V E. Schulz fingered it for a few minutes and then handed it back to the host. With a wry “Charlie Brown” smile on his face, he said, “It’s just

by Dr. Harold Sala

And so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” Luke 5:10

“Where is Zebedee?” asked George Stormont in Pointers. He continued, “I’ve been looking for him for nearly fifty years. The New Testament is haunted by his name. You read of his sons, his wife, his hired servants, his fishing; but you never meet him.”

To understand Stormont’s question and the issue, you need to know that Zebedee, of whom the writers of the New Testament speak, had two sons, James and John, two young men who were prominent in the ministry of Jesus. They came from a fishing village in Northern Galilee, Bethsaida—the ruins of which can still be seen today when a guide points them out from the tourist boat that takes visitors from Tiberias to Capernaum.

James and John

by Dr. Harold Sala

“Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!” -Psalm 32:11

In my file on “happiness” is a yellowed piece of paper, the inexpensive kind of paper which little children use in school. It’s been there now for almost a quarter of a century, and the edges are frayed and soiled.

On the paper is an essay written in a child’s hand by a nine-year-old girl who happened to be my daughter. It reads, “Money can’t buy happiness. Or love. Sometimes money can’t buy the things that you like best. Money can’t buy the kind of things that mother makes. Money can’t buy good friends. Money can’t buy a baby.

Or a pair of pretty eyes. Money can’t buy the moon or the sky. But most of all money can’t buy the love of God for us.”

Talk about wisdom coming from the