What joy! Angels are sent by God to tell the good news! This AnGeL has never been so confident of being sent as I was on August 29th, when, in response to an invitation I had received on August 16th, I stood before the General Assembly of the United Nations. The occasion was the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders. 

One thousand of the world's most prominent religious and spiritual leaders representing every tradition, faith, and religion, from every region of the world, gathered for the purpose of using their influence to solve the problems of pollution, poverty, and conflict. The Summit was convened with the intent of establishing an International Advisory Council of Religious and Spiritual Leaders as a permanent body of the UN that would serve as a source of symbolism and inspiration to the world. 

As I stood in the podium beneath the great seal of the United Nations and looked out over the audience, I reflected on those who were also listed on the program and knew that they and/or their representatives sat before me: the Grand Mufti of Islam, the Buddhist Meditation Master, the Cardinal who read a personal message from the Pope, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, as well as leaders from Hinduism, Shintoisim, Jainism, Taoism, Sikhism, Brahma Kumaris, Bahai, Zoroastrian, and those of traditional and indigenous religions. Having just completed the video taping of God's Story (to be published in May, 2001), Genesis 10 and 11 came clearly to mind. I was acutely aware that I was looking out over the descendants of the ancient Babylonians who had devoted their lives to establishing a religion that would get them into heaven without God--descendants who, like a dandelion gone to seed, had been scattered by the breath of God all over the world. Yet 4000 years after the Tower of Babel, they had come together once again in the United Nations, in the General Assembly, in front of me. And it was my high privilege to give them the Good News! 

It is a great honor to stand before this General Assembly and the nations of the world that are represented here. I am also honored to be included among highly esteemed religious leaders from every region of the world. I am honored to be the daughter of Billy Graham who has devoted his entire life to peace by preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

With all of our national, cultural, social, racial, religious, and personal differences, we have something very basic in common. As our brother from Ethiopia explained, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. But the most amazing truth is that we are each loved by God Who created us for Himself. 

We face a new century and a new millennium. Two thousand years ago, at the beginning of a new century and a new millennium, in the heat of the night, in the city of Jerusalem under Roman occupation, Jesus Christ had opportunity to address one of the leading religious figures of His day. And in that address He gave the answer to three of the major problems that face us in the new millennium--problems which we have gathered to discuss this week--poverty, pollution, and the desperate need for peace. As He gave the solution to these problems, Jesus directed the attention of the religious leader--and thus our own attention--not to the problems in the world around him, and there were many: poverty, human rights abuse, oppression of the poor, invasion and occupation by a foreign power--but He directed attention to the source of those problems which is in the human heart. The solution is spiritual rebirth. 

Bishop Vashti McKenzie asked, Where is peace? We all want peace. Why don't we have peace? We have no peace in the world because we have no peace in our hearts. Jesus said you must be born again because man needs a new mind to know God and understand his fellow man. Man needs a new heart to love God and love his fellow man. Man needs a new spirit of reconciliation with God and forgiveness towards his fellow man. 

The Bible says this is necessary because God created man in His own image with a capacity to know the Creator in a personal, eternal, right relationship. But man rebelled against God and disobeyed Him. With that act of disobedience, sin entered the human race and as a result, man was separated from God. The Bible says that every person since that original act of disobedience has sinned and fallen short of God's purpose for their lives. And that sin separates all of us from God because all of us have sinned. The wages of sin is not only physical death but spiritual death that has resulted in wars and conflicts that are a broad, outward reflection of the fact that we are at war in our hearts and homes because we do not have peace with God. The Buddhist Meditation Master has articulated the fact that we will never have peace around us until we have peace within us. Because we do not have peace with God we live in poverty of the human spirit--we have lost the blessing of God--inner peace and joy. And because we live in spiritual poverty, we permeate our world with the pollution of sin--greed, selfishness, pride, jealousy, anger, hatred, prejudice, and unforgiveness. 

As Jesus went on to speak with the religious leader, He made a statement that has reverberated through every generation since. Because Jesus said, For God so loved the world--you and me--that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life. 

The Bible says Jesus Christ is God's Son Whom God gave as His own sacrifice on the altar of the Cross to make atonement for our sin. Through His death and resurrection we have forgiveness of sin, reconciliation with God, and eternal life when we place our faith in Him. 

The Answer to conflict and war is God's only Son--Jesus Christ--who establishes us in a right relationship with God that then produces a right relationship with our fellow man and brings peace.

The Answer to poverty is God's only Son--Jesus Christ--who eliminates the poverty of the human spirit by giving us the blessing of God--love, joy, peace, happiness, eternal life, hope, and a heavenly home. 

The Answer to pollution is God's only Son--Jesus Christ--who, through His sacrificial death on the Cross, cleanses us of the pollution of sin--greed, selfishness, hatred, anger, envy, pride, prejudice, and unforgiveness. 

Isaiah the prophet, whom the Chief Rabbi also quoted, said, "Come let us reason together though your sins are as scarlet they shall be white as snow, because God has given us His Son Whose name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. When the government of this world is on His shoulders we will have peace." Peace in our hearts. Peace in our world. Peace in our time. 

My prayer is a prayer of praise to God for giving us His Son, Jesus Christ. And my prayer is a prayer of petition to God that the world might be reconciled to Him and then reconciled to each other through faith in Jesus Christ. 

The audience in the General Assembly remained respectfully silent, except for occasional outbursts of applause from observers. But in my heart, I was praising God for just giving me Jesus! Now that's Good News! Would you join this AnGeL in sharing it?