Hi there and thanks for joining me for our Daily Bread. I'm Sheridan Voizzi and I've titled

Today's devotional Good News. In 1941, as Hitler's reign was expanding across Europe,

novelist John Steinbeck was asked to help with the war effort.

He wasn't asked to fight or visit troops on the front line, but to instead write a story.

The result was, The Moon is Down, a novel about a peaceful land that gets invaded by an evil regime.

Printed on underground presses and secretly distributed throughout occupied countries,

the novel sent a message.

The Allies were coming, and by imitating the novel's characters,

readers could help secure their freedom.

Through the moon is down, Steinbeck brought good news to people under Nazi rule.

Their liberation was near.

Like the characters in Steinbeck's story, Jews in the first century were an occupied people

under brutal Roman rule.

But centuries before, in the book of Isaiah, God had promised to send an ally to liberate them

and bring peace to the world. Joy erupted when that ally arrived.

We tell you the good news, Paul said in Acts 13. What God promised our ancestors, he has

fulfilled for us by raising up Jesus. Through Jesus resurrection and offer of forgiveness, the world's restoration had begun.

Since then, this story has spread throughout the globe, bringing peace and freedom wherever it's embraced.

Jesus has been raised from the dead.

Our liberation from sin and evil has begun.

In him, we're free.

Today's scripture reading is from Acts chapter 13, verses 32 to 39.

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