Good news is where you find it, and these days, living in New Orleans, we’ll take all we can get. The New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl exactly one month ago today. Regardless what people down here say (“I predicted this.” Yeah, right. Sure you did.), we were as surprised as anyone else.

The downside of that great news is that a new season gets underway this summer and the Saints win will be ancient history. No sooner had Coach Sean Payton got back into the office on Airline Drive when sports reporters started badgering him, wanting to know, “Can you repeat?”

So much for the kind of good news we get in this life. Almost all of it has a dark side, something that takes the shine off it, that would rob it of a lasting joy. And yet, there are bits and pieces of news here and there that are light years beyond the other kind. They are pure joy and have no negatives whatever.

A few days ago, we gave the first 6 of our even dozen items of good news, the kind that never loses its luster and carries no negatives.

I promised to come back and give the last six. These are mine and the result of a lifetime of trying to live the Christian life. You’ll think of more to add to it.

7. When the Lord Jesus comes into your life, you become a child of God.

Not just his servant or friend, but his child. Not his admirer or supporter or member. His child. Not just a convert, a number, a scalp to be counted, but the very own born-again child of the living God.

“As many as received him (Jesus), he gave the power (or right or authority) to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name” (John 1:12).

Now, I suspect you are aware that scripture uses many metaphors and similes to tell us all we are in Christ. There are places in the New Testament, for instance, that tell us we are adopted into God’s family. And others tell us we are born again. Isn’t this contradictory? Not at all. Each brings something special to the picture.

In the new birth (John 3:3), we leave behind our previous existence and begin our spiritual lives as newborn infants. In adoption (Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:5), we enter at whatever real age we happen to be. The Roman custom of adoption sheds light on this. Instead of the way we do (adopting infants), the Romans adopted fully grown adults in order to have an heir.

So, we are children of God. The Apostle John said, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God!” (I John 3:1) Indeed.

8. You can never lose this relationship with the Lord.

This relationship is forever and can never be undone. We refer to this as the doctrine of eternal security. Once the Lord saves you and brings you into the family of God, you are secure in Him forever.

Jesus said, “And I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-29)

My wife once asked a godly layman from a United Methodist Church, a denomination which is historically Arminian, meaning that it teaches the possibility of losing one’s salvation, what he thought of this doctrine. He said, “I believe salvation is forever and that I am secure in Christ.” Margaret said, “How did you learn this?” His answer was revealing. “I’ve always known it from the moment the Lord saved me. I’ve never doubted it.”

Far from giving us a license to sin, which detractors say results from this, it gives us an incentive to praise the Lord and serve Him without worrying about our own footing.

9. You become a priest.

Historically, a priest had two functions: he stood before God on behalf of other people, and then he faced those people on behalf of God. He was a go-between.

In Jesus Christ, all who are saved are priests. “He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.” (Revelation 1:6) Also, see I Peter 2:5,9 and Revelation 20:6.

When I stand before God on behalf of others, I am interceding in prayer. This is a privilege given to every believer. (See I Timothy 2:1-4) Think of that–I can enter the throne room of God and enter a plea on behalf of a president, a governor, a judge, a pastor, a friend, a prisoner, a patient. I do not need their permission and they need never know of what I did. But God knows, He hears, and He answers.

Nothing you and I do is more about faith than interceding for others. In most cases, we will never know how the Lord answered us. When I lift the president of my country to the Father, asking for wisdom and restraint, for helpful counsel and divine guidance to be given him, I will have no way of knowing to what extent my prayer was answered.

If I have little faith, I will soon quit praying. If I am a person of faith in the Lord and His word, I will continue.

Then, when I turn and face my friends on behalf of the Lord, I am bearing witness to Him. I may be preaching or teaching or simply speaking out about the Lord.

Sometimes people ask the person witnessing to them of Jesus, “What right do you have to do this?” The answer is, “I’m a priest and this is what we do.”

It’s an incredible privilege.

10. From now on, you are part of the world’s answer, not another of its problems.

This point naturally follows the last. If I am commissioned to speak to others on behalf of the Lord and invited to address Him on their behalf, I can make an incredible difference in this world. It’s a privilege not to be taken lightly.

But alas, Christians have always taken this dual role too lightly, as though the Lord had not invited us to intercede or sent us to bear witness.

Those who pray and then speak to others about Jesus become world-changers.

If I were the devil, I could spend no better time than convincing Christians not to intercede and not to witness. These two activities better than almost any other define God’s redeemed children.

11. You are part of a vast family of believers.

I sat on a folding chair in a store-front church in Singapore and worshiped with 30 or 40 followers of Jesus Christ. Even though I did not understand a word of what was being spoken, I felt right at home.

Here in my city of New Orleans, I have done the same with Vietnamese congregations, with Haitians, Chinese, Koreans, and the Hispanic. In every case, I was at home. These were my people. They were indwelt by the same Holy Spirit and were reading the same Bible, even though the language was unfamiliar. We were brothers and sisters.

At this moment, my spiritual brothers and sisters are in Haiti and Chile ministering to the earthquake-devastated needy in the name of Jesus Christ. As always, their first priority is to find the churches and work through God’s people who are already there. Back at home, we send offerings and teams of volunteers and prayers their way.

12. God is faithful.

Whatever else it means to declare “God is faithful,” it surely means this: He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (see Hebrews 13:8). He is unchanging (see Malachi 3:6). He can be depended on completely.

I have stood at the graveside of my father and wept. I have knelt and touched the cold marble stone and spoke to my dad, then rose to speak to my Heavenly Father. More than once, I have looked upward and said, “Father, I’m counting on you to be true to your word. You said you were going away to prepare a house for us, and that we would dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

I have paused and, through my teary voice, added, “If it turns out this is only a hoax, I’m going to be so angry at you.”

The absurdity of that hits me. I say, “Father, you are faithful to your word. You keep your promise. I believe that with all my heart. We are betting our lives on that.”

I treasure the last sentence of Psalm 17. “But as for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied with thy likeness when I awaken.”

“Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.” (James 1:17)

There is no bad side to His good news.

The night Jesus was born, the angel said to the shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be to all the people. For unto you is born this day…a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2)

There it is: the best news ever. There is a Savior, His name is Jesus, He is here, and He is for everyone.

It doesn’t get any better than this.