There has been a lot of bad news lately. A 13-year-old boy in Washington, D.C. was shot and killed by a neighborhood resident who thought he was breaking into cars. A 29-year-old man in Memphis was stopped and viciously assaulted by five police officers, sustaining injuries that led to his death.

A gunman at a Metro station in Washington, D.C. shot and wounded several bystanders and killed a Metro employee who tried to intervene. And then there is the ongoing crisis of the war in Ukraine with more civilian casualties virtually every day.

It seems the world is filled with bad news. That’s why I take heart from the stories about Jesus in the Bible. There are four books in the Bible that tell the stories. They are called Gospels, which means “good news.” The stories about Jesus are good news because they tell how God has intervened in human affairs for our good.

The ultimate “good news” of Jesus is his resurrection from the dead. In the Introduction to my book, "Spelunking Scripture: Easter," I write:

“The resurrection of Jesus is the linchpin of the Christian faith….That Jesus died for our sins and was raised to new life by the power of God is the heart of the gospel….The goal of this study is to move beneath the surface of the stories to explore what the Resurrection means for our lives.”

Amidst all the bad news of life in this world, the resurrection of Jesus gives us hope. On page 5 of Chapter 1 I write:

“Not only was Jesus raised from the dead, not only will we have eternal life through our faith in him…Jesus will be with us in the everyday moments of our lives. That is the message of Easter: Jesus is with us, now and always.

The Psalmist wrote: ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea’ (Ps. 46:1-2).

Yes, the earth may change, the mountains may shake, but the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord will always be with us.”

Amidst all the bad news there is good news. God is with us.