Every time we turn on social media, we're constantly bombarded with bad news — about famine, about war, about natural disasters, economic crisis, social crisis. And maybe right now your heart is shaking with fear. Maybe you feel confused, frustrated, discouraged. And you ask yourself: is there still any good news? Is there still something to hope for?

And yes — the truth is that there is still good news. There is still something to hope in. And I'm here to share it with you.

As it's written in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

The truth is that war will end. Famine will end. Natural disasters will end. Social and economic crises will end. And even your life and my life, sooner or later, will end. But God is giving you the opportunity to have an everlasting life — one in which we will no longer suffer, no longer struggle, no longer feel pain.

Maybe you're thinking: "Yes, I want that kind of life — but how do I get it?"

The answer is simple: you just have to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. He gave up the glory He had in heaven. He gave up the praise of the angels, just to come here to earth and pay for my sin and for yours.

But maybe you're telling yourself: "I'm a good person."

"I'm a moral person. I live an ethical life. I help others. I help the poor. I volunteer. I've never killed anyone. I've been faithful to one spouse. I'm a good person. So what are you even talking about? What sin?"

But the Bible is very clear, in Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The truth is that, willfully or not, we all sin. Just look at the Sermon on the Mount — Jesus is very clear there. If you tell a lie — even a small lie, a half-truth, or a "harmless" lie — you sin. If you look at someone with lust, you sin. If you take something that isn't yours — even something cheap, something almost worthless — you still sin. Hating someone is considered a sin.

So: if you've ever told a lie, even a small one or a half-truth, you've sinned. If you've looked at someone with lust, you've sinned. If you've taken something that wasn't yours, you've sinned. And if you've hated someone — even if you felt you had a reason to — you've sinned.

And the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death — eternal separation from God, or what we call hell.

Maybe you're thinking: "That doesn't seem fair. That sounds like an unjust God, sending good people to hell over small things."

But let me tell you two things.

First: if a judge lets a moral, upstanding person off the hook after they've broken the law, is that judge righteous? Of course not. Even if someone lives an ethical life, if they've broken the law, they still have to answer for it. And it's not God who sends people to hell — it's our own choices that lead us there.

God saw that we sin. He saw that we make countless mistakes and errors. And He — who is not only a righteous and just God, but also a loving God, a loving Father — saw that we were unable to pay for our own sin. We were unable to pay our debt. So He sent someone who was able to pay it: He sent Jesus to take the blame for our mistakes.

As it's written in Isaiah 53:5-6: "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

As I said, none of us were able to pay for our own sin. We had nothing to offer God in exchange for His forgiveness. And God saw our situation — my situation, your situation — and had mercy on us by sending Jesus to pay for our sin.

You might think it was an easy thing — paying for sin in a single day, a single act of condemnation for all of humanity. But the truth is, it was a terrible and painful experience that Jesus endured, entirely for our sake.

We can see this in Luke 22:63-65: "Now the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him. And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, 'Prophesy! Who is the one who struck You? ' And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him."

And in John 19:1-3: "So Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. Then they said, 'Hail, King of the Jews! ' And they struck Him with their hands."

It wasn't easy for Jesus to pay for our sin. He was tortured through an entire night. He was whipped, mocked, humiliated — and then He was nailed to the cross. And I don't know if you know this, but crucifixion is one of the most terrible and painful ways to kill a person.

And maybe you're asking: if it was so terrible, why did Jesus accept it? Why didn't He rebel against it? Why did He give up everything to come and pay for our sin? What did He gain from it?

The truth is, Jesus didn't gain anything from it. God didn't gain anything from it. God was the ruler of the universe, and Jesus was praised by the angels in heaven — He had all the glory already. Jesus didn't need to earn anything by paying for our sins. The only one who caused harm here was you — and me. No one else.

He bore all that suffering simply because He loved you. As it's written in Romans 5:8: "But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

The only thing that kept Jesus on the cross was His love for you — nothing else. He didn't owe us anything for our sin.

Now maybe you're thinking: "Okay — I see that I'm a sinner. I see that Jesus paid for my sin. It cost a lot. But maybe it's too late for me. Maybe I've done too much. I don't feel worthy of being saved."

I want to tell you about the criminal who was on the cross next to Jesus. As I mentioned, crucifixion was one of the most terrible ways to put someone to death — it was reserved only for the worst criminals. And we can understand from this that the man crucified beside Jesus was not a good person. He was, by all accounts, someone who had done a lot of bad things. Maybe he had even killed someone — we don't know for certain. But we do know he was a criminal. And on the cross, he mocked Jesus, humiliating Him just like everyone else did.

Yet in his final hour, he turned back to Jesus and accepted Him as Lord and Savior, saying: "Lord, please remember me when You come into Your kingdom."

What did Jesus do? Did He turn him away? Did He reject him?

No — Jesus accepted him. Jesus forgave him. And Jesus promised him that he would be with Him in paradise.

I want to share with you a bit about my own life before I knew Jesus.

I came back to God when I had lost everything. I could barely speak with my family, with my parents. I lost a woman I loved and fell into a deep depression. I lost my scholarship, ended up with a lot of debt, and had no job — and no way of finding one. This was during the pandemic, when most shops and restaurants were closed and the economy had nearly collapsed.

It was a painful time. I remember coming to Jesus in prayer, saying: "God, everything I've worked hard for is falling apart. I have nothing left. I just want to trust You. I don't know what You can do. I see no opportunity, no way forward — every door seems closed in my face." I was discouraged. I thought maybe it was too late, that I had sinned too much, that I was unworthy of being loved, unworthy of being forgiven.

But God didn't reject me. He started working on me — healing my wounds, working in my life, giving me new opportunities, new possibilities.

And the same God who didn't reject that criminal on the cross, who didn't reject me, will not reject you either — if you come to Him with an honest heart.

A prayer:

God, please — You are a loving Father, You are a good God. I ask You, in the name of Jesus, for whoever watches this video and comes to You: please forgive them. Please give them a sense of being forgiven, of being accepted. Save their life just as You saved mine — just as You saved the life of that criminal on the cross. In the name of Jesus. Amen.