Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 107

Isabella Chow and Standing up for What God’s Word Says Even When It’s Unpopular

Last month, 20-year-old Isabella Chow, a student senator at the University of California, Berkeley, became the center of a controversy when she chose to abstain from a pro-LGBTQ vote.

She was essentially told, “You have to fully support this bill and fully support the LGBTQ lifestyle, or you’re out.” But Isabella held to her convictions. At the next student senate meeting that followed the vote, she sat for three hours while student after student stepped up to the microphone to express hurt and rage over her actions. Commenters on social media compared Isabella to the KKK and called her “a terrible example of Christian hypocrisy.”

If you’d like to read more about what happened, I recommend reading the World Magazine article “Conviction and Consequences,” which quotes Isabella as saying:  

“If I was elected to be a voice for such a time as this, the light doesn’t stop shining when the darkness gets darker, the voice doesn’t stop speaking when it’s being shut down. This is not a time to back down. It’s a time to continue shining the light of Christ in all love, all grace, all humility.”

I want to stand with Isabella, and her right as an individual and an American to hold to unpopular beliefs. But it goes deeper than that. I also affirm her responsibility to have done so. She acted courageously, yes, but instead of viewing this as something extraordinary, I could wish such courage were the norm, not the exception, among American Christians.

Of course, humility is as great a virtue as courage, and sometimes we believers can blast out our convictions in a prideful and demeaning way. But it appears to me that’s not what Isabella has done. In my book The Grace and Truth Paradox I emphasize the need to never choose between grace and truth but to seek to be like Jesus, full of both.

Sometimes we as Christians put far more emphasis on our right to say something than our responsibility to do so. We will stand before the Judgment seat of Christ and give an account for what we do (2 Corinthians 5:10). Jesus specifically emphasized our accountability for what we say: “I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:36). Scripture also makes clear that besides sins of commission in what we say there are also sins of omission. We are told to speak up and defend the innocent (Proverbs 31:8-9). We’re also told to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), which appears to be Isabella’s sincere desire.

Often those who say they feel unsafe when beliefs they disagree with are voiced by others, are in fact feeling uncomfortable or conflicted or angry, not actually unsafe. Feeling uncomfortable and angry and conflicted is not the same as being victimized, it’s just part of life.

There are places in the world that are truly unsafe, and it minimizes and demeans those people’s plight every time we Americans say we are “unsafe” because someone disagrees with us, the choices we make, or the way we live. Children living on the streets and victims of sex trafficking and abuse are unsafe. Well fed and clothed American university students are not, unless of course someone attempts to shoot, stab, or rape them.

The words “I disagree with you” are fine, and common in a society where free speech is guaranteed, valued and even treasured. On the other hand “You make me feel unsafe when you say that”—in response to anything but an actual threat of physical harm—is something else entirely. It now has been distorted to mean this:

“I am unwilling to dialogue with you and listen to your viewpoint, or even to tolerate you expressing it. I must cling to my own opinions, regardless of whether they are irrational and inconsistent. I refuse to submit them to scrutiny, and therefore you have no right to disagree with me. When you say and do things I disagree with, it makes me profoundly uncomfortable. Therefore, you have no right to do or say what you believe to be right. I, on the other hand, have every right to call you names and try to shut you up and organize efforts to keep you from holding to your convictions.”

Don’t get me wrong, I believe every American should be free to dislike Christians, disagree with the Bible, and believe the Christian faith is wrong or even evil. Fine, but doesn’t that also mean affording others the same right to believe what they do about atheism, abortion, sexual immorality, or  whether it is morally right to act on nearly every sexual impulse a person ever has? For Christians, I think that while advocating the right to free speech is appropriate, we need to think more in terms of whether God tells us we’re responsible to speak up than whether or not our culture grants us the right to do so. The early Christians were told they didn’t have the right to share the gospel:

Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:18-20).

When they were threatened with jail, Peter and John said, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). So even if the Constitution did not grant us the right to freedom of religion or free speech, we would still have the responsibility before God to speak out.

The fact is, while the gospel is good news, it is also insulting. Though the exact issues facing Christians in our culture today have changed, there is nothing new or postmodern about the gospel turning some people off. That’s always been true, just as it’s always been true that some people are longing to hear it and will deeply appreciate that you had enough courage to tell them about Jesus. If we merely seek our culture’s approval, we’ll either never get it or get it only at the expense of failing to represent Christ.

Even the most inclusive and loving Christians must insist that some things are right and others are wrong. In doing so, we ensure a degree of unpopularity. Peter said, “Don’t be surprised at the fiery ordeal you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). As I share in my book Truth, remaining quiet about hard truths isn’t the way to reach the world for Jesus. Even when it stings us or them, we’re to humbly tell people what God has actually said.

But if your goal is to avoid suffering in this life, then following Christ will not help you. Jesus Himself said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.… If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:18, 20). If our eyes are on anyone but Jesus, we’re not going to have the stamina to put up with the criticism or outright hostility we will likely face in the days ahead. Paul said, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

Jesus also said in Matthew 5:11-12, “Blessed [happy] are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Finally, you might also like to check out this radio interview with Isabella, to hear her share firsthand what happened and about what God has been teaching her. She says this, and I think it’s right on:

“In today’s culture, it’s often easy to...strive for political correctness. It’s easy to follow what everyone else is doing... But at the end of the day, it’s a decision you have to make between following God and holding fast to His truth, and really wrestling with what you see in Scripture and with what He convicts you to be the truth, or following the world and compromising your principles.”

How I Appeared to Plagiarize C. S. Lewis, and What Pascal Never Said

Plagiarism is definitely a problem—sadly, even within parts of the Christian community. However, as I share in this past blog, the talk about the serious sin of plagiarism has helped cultivate a suspicion that’s sometimes unhealthy. The following incident illustrates how easily an unintentional mistake can happen in the process of writing a book—and that sometimes, what on the surface appears to be plagiarism might not always be so.

In my book Money, Possessions, and Eternity, I start out a paragraph with this bolded statement, and then at the end of the paragraph I go on to quote C. S. Lewis:

In the truest sense, Christian pilgrims have the best of both worlds. We have joy whenever this world reminds us of the next. And we have comfort whenever it does not. We have the promise of a new heaven and new earth, where the worst elements of this world—sorrow, pain, death, and the tears they produce—will be gone forever (Revelation 21:4). Yet we also know that the best elements of this world—love, joy, wonder, worship, and beauty—will not be gone but intensified and perfected in the remade world. “Aim at heaven,” C. S. Lewis says, “and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither.”

A couple of years ago, it was brought to my attention that the bolded statement is also in my books Heaven and 50 Days of Heaven—only there it’s a quotation attributed to C. S. Lewis! So years later when I saw it again in Money, Possessions, and Eternity, I thought I appeared to be taking credit for a C. S. Lewis quote, which horrified me!

Wanting to get to the bottom of this, I Googled “Christian pilgrims have the best of both worlds,” which turned up over 300 hits. Most of them obviously were extracted from Heaven and other things I’ve written. Had Lewis said it or written it in one of his books, I was certain there’d be thousands of results. One of my ministry assistants at EPM then confirmed it wasn’t in any of Lewis’s writings by searching in electronic form more than 225 books (including those about Lewis, and not just those by him).

It turns out that in my Heaven books, either I, or one of my editing staff, or my publisher accidentally credited C. S. Lewis with something I wrote years earlier in Money, Possessions and Eternity, after which I quoted something else Lewis actually did say. Then several others put it in their books (like here) and now it’s all over the place, and will probably continue to spread. Among other places, it appears in books, articles, and a number of sermons and online church bulletins. So, ironically, an error in my own books has succeeded in causing others people to falsely attribute that quote to Lewis. I honestly don’t remember writing those words, but since I’ve written over three million words in books and articles over the years, I can’t always rely on my memory!

Of the over 300 times this quotation appears online, the vast majority of them are attributed to C. S. Lewis, and the rest to me. So the other effect of this is that when people see it attributed to Lewis online, then see that I have not done so in Money, Possessions and Eternity and two of my other books that use this statement, Truth and Eternal Perspectives, I will appear to be plagiarizing him!

But I would much rather appear for it to be true than for it to have inadvertently been true. (We sent the corrections to my publisher, but of course there are still thousands of books circulating with the original faulty attribution to Lewis.)

I especially love this:

This proves what one accidental false attribution can do! Actually, it’s fun to see the influence of the Heaven book—but the reason I know it’s for sure had an impact is because of a false attribution! :)

The good news is that I think Lewis would agree with the sentiment of the quote. I trust he wouldn’t have wanted someone else to put those words in his mouth, but I’m sure he’ll not hold it against me when I meet him!

Now, there are in fact many quotations online that are falsely attributed to various people. The most famous quote from Blaise Pascal, for instance, is one that he apparently never said. It has variations, but goes something like this, with the key words being “God-shaped vacuum”: “There is within every man a God-shaped vacuum, an emptiness that only He can fill.”

Years ago I searched diligently for this often-quoted statement from Blaise Pascal—and it just doesn’t exist. (One person suggested that perhaps Pascal’s work with the concept of vacuum led to the misquote.) The closest I’ve ever found is the following. It’s very good, and all the better because Pascal really said it (Pensees, translated by W. F. Trotter, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1958):

What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there once was in man a true happiness of which now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present. But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.

This is all a great reminder for me and for all of us to go to primary sources when quoting someone, and not rely on secondary source (including my books, though we do try to be careful). This is something I  and my editing staff regularly try to do by searching Google Books in hopes of finding quotations in their original source, but we are not always successful. For more thoughts on this problem, I appreciated this recent helpful post from Thomas Kidd about bogus Christian quotes and how to avoid perpetuating them.

Finally, if you want to see one list of quotes from famous people that they didn’t actually say, see here.

Appearing to plagiarize C. S. Lewis for the glory of God,

Randy

Raising Our Children to Be Givers in a Culture Infected by Affluenza

The next generation is growing up amid—and inheriting—vast wealth. Even many children in Christian families don’t see their parents give and are not taught and encouraged to give themselves. So they become keepers and accumulators, and essentially self-preoccupied materialists. They see the world as about themselves and expect to receive more and more things, appreciating them less and less.

With no vision for the joy of giving and of investing in eternity, they can’t see that God’s purpose for prospering them is not so they can live in luxury, but so they can help others, support their churches, aid the poor, and reach the lost with the gospel.

One of the best gifts we can give our children is to include them in our family giving decisions and instill in them the giving habit, and a vision for giving. Show them options and ask them to choose the one that sounds best for the family to send a special gift to. Get them involved by giving them ownership, working on projects, and earning money to give to the needy.

Giving shouldn’t be an add-on elective to the spiritual life; it should be a required course at the very core of life’s curriculum. If our children don’t learn about giving from us, then who will teach them?

Consider taking your kids on a missions trip. When our daughters were nine and seven, we took them on a two-month trip visiting missionaries in six countries. They have never forgotten it and it helped shaped their vision for Jesus and the world. So did sponsoring children through Compassion, who they corresponded with.

Consider these Scriptures:

- Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it (Proverbs 22:6).

- Teach them to your children and to their children after them (Deuteronomy 4:9).

- I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just (Genesis 18:19).

- What we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. He decreed statutes . . . and established the law . . . which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands (Psalm 78:3-7).

Many people who want their children to develop hearts for God overlook the one thing that Jesus explicitly says will move our children’s hearts toward Heaven—giving our earthly treasures resulting in treasures in Heaven. Jesus says our hearts will follow those treasures (Matthew 6:19-21).

Our children, and in my case grandchildren, need to be shown the joy of giving and taught the discipline of giving.

In order to enhance their giving and overall stewardship, they should also be taught to avoid debt and control spending. Our duty to our children is clear: “Bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Giving is not just taught, but caught. If they see us giving and see us finding joy in giving, they will follow our lead.

In the movie Chariots of Fire, Olympian Eric Liddell says, “I believe God made me for a purpose . . . and when I run, I feel his pleasure.” When they give, our children are acting like Jesus. They should see our pleasure in our giving and in theirs—and learn to feel God’s pleasure when they give.

For more, see Randy’s article Training Your Children to Manage Money. See also his books The Treasure Principle, Managing God’s Money, and Money, Possessions, and Eternity.

Photo by Ben White on Christianpics.co

The Miracle of the Incarnation

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.
—Titus 3:4-5

The miracle of the cross was made possible by the miracle of the incarnation. The angels must have been stunned to see the second member of the triune God become a human being.

The baby born in that Bethlehem barn was God, and He was born to die. His death delivers us from our fear of death. His suffering on the cross atoned for our sins, allowing Him to understand and help us.

And incredibly, the incarnation is permanent. Christ rose in a glorified human body that He’ll have forever. It’s not that Jesus suddenly stopped being a man after the ascension. No, the second member of the triune God will be a human being who reigns eternally on the New Earth.

“He was created by a mother whom he created. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy, he the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.”
—Augustine

This blog is excerpted from Randy’s new devotional, Face to Face with Jesus: Seeing Him as He Really Is, which includes 200 entries focused on the person and character of Jesus. Through December 13, Face to Face with Jesus is on sale for $7.99 (47% off $14.99 retail), PLUS you can receive free USPS Media Mail shipping when you use the code GRATEFUL18 at checkout. (Free shipping offer is valid for U.S. continental orders only, and expires Thursday, December 13 at 12 P.M. PT.)

This book makes a great Christmas gift, especially since it’s all about the Jesus whose birth we celebrate! Watch Randy share more about it:

Photo by Ben White on Christianpics.co

How to Care for Those Who Are Suffering and Grieving at Christmastime

My mother died in 1981, when I was a young pastor. Ten years earlier, not long after I become a Christian, I had the joy of leading mom to Christ. We grew together, reading and discussing Scripture and great books, praying and laughing together, and later fussing over my children, her granddaughters, Karina and Angela. When she died, I mourned my loss, my wife’s, and above all my children’s. I felt like part of me had been taken away.

As I walked into church that first Sunday after mom’s death, I felt as though my presence parted the Red Sea. Instead of greeting me warmly in their usual way, people stepped aside. I knew they did it because they just didn’t know what to say, yet it magnified my loneliness.

Many of us have seen friends disappear when we most needed them—and without meaning to, we’ve done the same to others. If you find yourself not wanting to make a phone call or send a note when you hear about someone’s crisis, remind yourself that any imperfect expression of concern is normally far better than none. When people lose a loved one, they don’t want to “move on” as if the person never existed. Even if doing so makes them cry, usually they want and need to talk about them.

“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15). We tend to do better at rejoicing. Because we don’t like to feel pain, we tend to ignore others’ pain. But they need us to become the arms of Christ to them—especially at Christmastime, which can be a difficult season for those who are undergoing loss, grief, or any kind of suffering.

Several friends have recently had their close loved ones die. I appreciate these five points from Vaneetha Rendall Risner, a dear sister who has experienced much suffering, on how to minister to others in need. Thanks, Vaneetha, for these sensitive and insightful suggestions. —Randy Alcorn

The week after my infant son Paul died, I went to pick up my two-year-old daughter from preschool. No one said a word to me other than “Here she is.” I realize they felt awkward, but the silence was crushing. I barely made it out the door before bursting into tears.

It’s hard knowing what to say when someone has experienced a great loss. Saying “I’m so sorry” feels trite, so it’s easier just to say nothing. But for those who are suffering, silence hammers the hurt even deeper, especially during the Christmas season when the ache of loss is intensified. The weight of tragedies — the death of a loved one, divorce, disease, divided families, depression, and disaster — can all feel heavier at the holidays, as the festivities acutely remind us of what we have lost.

I have buried a child, endured four miscarriages, gone through an unwanted divorce, parented troubled teenagers, and continue to deal with a painful deteriorating disability — so I understand how difficult this time of year can be. While each person and each loss is unique, from my experience, here are five suggestions for caring for those who are suffering at Christmas.

1. Acknowledge the loss.

Having someone simply acknowledge your grief can be a gift in itself. Though our suffering friends may never mention it, the sadness of the situation will be a constant backdrop throughout the season. When we verbally recognize their loss, it shows we notice and care. Our words need not be deep or profound; just recognizing the ever-present reality of their pain can be encouraging.

Consider offering:

“I know this season is particularly hard. I wish you weren’t dealing with this agonizing family situation and all of the fallout.”
“Losing your wife will understandably overshadow everything else that is happening this Christmas. We miss her too, and we know your pain is even deeper.”
“I’m guessing these health struggles make it harder to enjoy Christmas because you can’t do the things you loved and did before. I’m so sorry about that.”

2. Adjust your expectations.

Our friends who are reeling from loss this holiday may not be able to do things they did in years past. Since it may be harder to buy gifts, they may not participate in the usual gift-giving. Social events may be too emotionally or physically demanding to attend. Include your friends and offer to go with them to functions, but be understanding if they cancel at the last minute. Suffering people often don’t know what they can do until right before the event.

Also, extend grace when they are down or depressed. Tears may appear unexpectedly and so can irritability. You don’t need to cheer them up, but understand that their emotions may be constantly on edge. The impact of your support and encouragement is appreciated more than you realize.

3. Actively offer assistance.

Deliberately look for ways to help, and then offer specific suggestions. It’s hard to follow up on vague offers, so don’t just say, “If you need anything, call me,” because they won’t call. If you do offer specific support, be sure to follow through. They know it’s a busy time of year, but if you have committed to help, they are likely depending on it.

Some things that may be helpful are:

Offer to help with Christmas shopping, decorating, or even gift-wrapping.
Since food is a big part of the holidays, offer to cook or bake something, or even invite their family for dinner. After my first husband left, it was a priceless gift to be invited to friends’ homes where we were able to form new memories.
Offer to run errands like grocery shopping, going to the post office, or picking up children from school.
Keeping their children for the afternoon can be a huge help, giving them time to be alone, rest, or get needed things done.

4. Ask how they are doing without putting them on the spot.

Even though everyone at a gathering may know them well and share concern for them, it is difficult to be put on the spot with more than a few people present—so ask in private. I have felt awkward and even embarrassed to be asked how I am really doing in front of a group; it’s harder to be authentic when everyone is looking at me.

Regularly call or come by to check in with them. The question, “How are you doing today?” can open the door to conversation since it acknowledges that grieving and suffering changes from day to day. It also lets them answer the question without feeling they need to summarize everything that has happened over the month. But don’t ask prying, personal questions or speak in hushed, mournful tones. That often makes people feel uncomfortable, and like a project more than a friend.

5. Allow them to grieve and don’t try to fix them.

Instead, point them to Christ and remind them of his faithfulness.

I am still indebted to the friends who let me weep and vent without analyzing or judging me. Trying to fix people only deepens their grief. Unsolicited advice feels like criticism. It hurts to be told that others are thriving under the same circumstances and then to get suggestions on what to do differently. Everyone’s healing is unique. Negative comparison makes the wound even deeper.

Instead, we can remind our friends that the real joy of Christmas is not in family or friends or gift-giving or parties, but in the incredible fact that God Incarnate came to earth and dwelt among us. Jesus took on flesh for us so that we would have life eternal in him.

Remind them that God’s grace is sufficient and his word revives the soul. But do not bludgeon them with mini-sermons or pepper them with platitudes. God’s ways are mysterious, and we do not understand why calamity comes.

Remind them that our faithful Savior will never fail or forsake them. That Jesus walks with them and he weeps with them. Remind them that he knows every detail of their struggle. Remind them that for all of us, the unshakeable hope of Christmas lies solely in Emmanuel, for our God has come to us and will forevermore be with us.

This post originally appeared on DesiringGod.org and is used with the author’s permission.

Photo by Megan Wood on Unsplash

Thank You, Kathy Norquist, for Your 21 Years at EPM!

Kathy Norquist, who served with our ministry for over two decades, retired from Eternal Perspective Ministries this past September. Many of you who have been touched by EPM over the years have come to know and appreciate Kathy. Wherever I’ve gone and spoken, invariably someone says, “Your assistant Kathy is so great!” And I always told them they are absolutely right.

Kathy and her family are dear friends of Nanci’s and mine, and have been for forty years. She and her husband Ron, who also worked for EPM for some years, were the ones we asked to raise our children if we died. She also worked with me when I was a pastor. At the church and at EPM, she served Jesus with uncommon grace, wisdom, kindness, and patience.

Nanci and I thank God for the decades in which Kathy went above and beyond the call of duty to make our lives easier. Her devotion to Christ, love for people, and loyalty and ministry skills have all been extraordinary. We are so happy for her that she’s been able to retire, and we look forward to seeing what the Lord has for her in this next season of life!

God has graciously provided me with another wonderful assistant who took over for Kathy when she moved to another role at EPM three years ago. Chelsea Weber is also a true Jesus-follower, does a terrific job, and is endlessly helpful to me, and I think the world of her. I know those of you who have worked with her feel the same way! —Randy Alcorn

Here are EPM, we are grateful for Kathy’s faithful service to the Lord and will miss her in the office! We hope this Q&A will give you a look into her long relationship with EPM as well as her future plans.

Tell us a little about your history with Randy and EPM.

I first started working for Randy when he was one of the founding pastors at Good Shepherd Community Church. Seven years after he left GSCC to begin Eternal Perspective Ministries, I became his assistant. I was at EPM for the past 21 years, 17 as his assistant and four in a more part-time role in ministry development.

How has working for EPM impacted you personally?

It’s difficult to quantify the impact that Randy and EPM have had on my life and my family. Probably the biggest influence is in the area of giving. I’ve watched Randy and Nanci and their generous giving and seen how God has provided for them over and over again. It’s contagious, and Ron and I have been blessed by growing in the area of giving. It truly is more “happy making” to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).

What is your biggest take away from working with Randy?

What joy it’s been to be part of a ministry where you hear on a regular basis how Randy’s writings and giving have impacted lives for eternity.

It's been a privilege to work for a man who lives out what he writes about. He has been the best combination of friend, employer, counselor, servant, and giver.

What are some things you know from working with Randy that others might not know?

He will put people first before his own comfort. I recall many times when he had a pressing book deadline along with a speaking engagement or appointment and was also not feeling well (sickness is complicated because he’s an insulin-dependent diabetic). Yet if at all possible he would keep his commitment and others would never know how he was really feeling. He’s one of the most loyal people I know.

I remember a time when he was ill yet still delivered a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake to my home for my birthday since my hubby was away for an extended time and wasn’t able to celebrate with me.

He has a great sense of humor and has played many practical jokes on me. You also can never get the last word in when it comes to his sarcastic sense of humor! We’ve been known to go back and forth on emails and I finally give up because he never will! We’ve had a lot of fun over the years bantering back and forth. :)

Now that you’re retired, what are you doing with your time?

Ministry isn’t ending; it’s just being redirected. Ron and I are caregivers for our 19-year-old special-needs grandson as he attends a transitional high school program in our local area. Christian was adopted at a young age by our son and his wife after a tragic auto accident took the lives of his parents and left him with brain damage and other physical and emotional handicaps, even though he’s quite functional. If you’d like to read more of the story you can check out “A Tragedy and a Blessing.” I will also remain on the EPM board, so I plan on staying as connected as I can with this wonderful ministry.

Eventually Ron and I plan to do some traveling around the U.S. and look forward to celebrating 50 years of marriage next August.

Jesus Changes Everything

From childhood I’ve loved astronomy. I grew up in an unbelieving home. Night after night I’d gaze at the stars, clueless about a Creator, but yearning for something greater than myself.

One night, as I stared through my telescope at the great galaxy of Andromeda with its trillion stars 2.5 million light years away, I was filled with awe. I longed to explore its wonders and lose myself in its vastness.

I read fantasy and science fiction stories of other worlds, of great battles and causes. I knew that the universe was huge beyond comprehension. But my wonder was trumped by a sometimes unbearable sense of loneliness and separation. In retrospect, I think I wanted to worship, but I didn’t know what or who to worship. I wept not only because I felt so insignificant, but also because I felt so disconnected from the Significant One I did not know or know of.

Several years later, at age fifteen, after attending a church youth group, I opened a Bible and saw these words for the first time: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And then I read verse 14, the greatest understatement ever: “He made the stars also.” A universe one hundred billion light years across containing countless stars, and the Bible makes them sound like a casual add-on!

I quickly realized that this book was about the Person who made the universe, including Andromeda and Earth—and me.

I had no reference points when I read the Bible. All of it was new, intriguing, sometimes confusing, and utterly disorienting. But when I reached the Gospels, something changed. I was immediately fascinated by Jesus. I’d been an avid reader of fiction, but I knew this wasn’t fiction. I knew Jesus wasn’t just a character in a story. I soon came to believe that He not only lived two thousand years ago, but that He still lived. Everything about Jesus of Nazareth struck me as completely believable. And, somehow, I knew He was the One my heart had always longed for.

By a miracle of grace, Jesus touched me deeply, gave me a new heart, and utterly transformed my life. Forty-nine years later, He’s still unveiling Himself and changing me into His image and likeness. I couldn’t be happier that He’s every bit as real to me now as the moment I met Him—but now I know Him better, and therefore worship Him more deeply.

For me, Jesus didn’t just change everything back then. He still changes everything today.

Humble Savior

Having been raised with no knowledge of God, part of what drew me to Christ is how the Gospel accounts seemed so contrary to typical human reasoning. Yet I found them completely credible. No human would make up such a story! It had the ring of truth to me…and still has.

In the Old Testament, we read how God kept reaching down to His people: “The Lord…sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people…But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets” (2 Chronicles 36:15-16, NIV).

The prophets foretold the coming of Messiah. Yet centuries of oppression and suffering passed, and many lost hope. In every generation there were people like Simeon and Anna who longed for and prayed for Messiah’s coming. And finally, when the Redeemer’s absence became unbearable, He came: “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4, NIV).

Jesus came to us in humility. He didn’t have the honor of being born to the house of a king. He wasn’t born in Rome, the world’s political capital, or Athens, the philosophical capital, or Alexandria, the intellectual capital, or even Jerusalem, the religious capital. He was born in tiny Bethlehem, which means simply “House of Bread.”

Jesus came in humiliation. Everyone who could count thought He was conceived out of wedlock, a shameful thing in that time and place. He grew up in a town of ill repute, where a Roman military outpost accounted for moral corruption: “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46, NIV).

Jesus worked as a humble carpenter, lived in relative poverty, and endured many indignities as He spent three years teaching and healing and speaking the good news of God’s Kingdom. And then, the eternal and infinitely holy Son of God chose to endure the most shameful death—crucifixion with its excruciating suffering—to take our sins on Himself. Not some, but all of them.

Who Is He?

Jesus made bold claims about His identity, which religious leaders of His day considered blasphemy. He claimed to be God’s only Son, one with the Father, descended from Heaven and destined to rule the universe as King. And what response was He met with? “For this reason they tried all the more to kill him” (John 5:18, NIV).

Many today try to reduce Jesus to the role of a good teacher, one good moral example, maybe the best among many. But His own claims about Himself in Scripture make that impossible. In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis famously pointed out,

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic…or else he would be the Devil of Hell…but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

The battle for human souls pivots on the issue of Christ’s identity. He’s the watershed, the dividing line between Hell and Heaven. Jesus made that clear when He asked His disciples about His divinity: “‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’” (Matthew 16:15, NIV).

That question is the most important one we will ever answer. Our own eternity hangs in the balance. Who do you say Jesus is? Who do you believe, in your mind and deep in your heart, that He really is? Every person must give an answer—and whether our answer is right could not be more consequential.

Come and See

When Peter identified Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus said to Him, “Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:17, TJB).

Happy is the person who recognizes the real Jesus! It was true of His disciples then, and it’s true of us now.

Biblical Christianity is fundamentally not simply a religion about Christ, but a relationship with Christ. If we get it right about Jesus, we can afford to get some minor things wrong. But if we get it wrong about Jesus, it won’t matter in the end what else we get right.

The Bible reveals that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, in a supreme act of love became a man to deliver us from sin and suffering (John 3:16). Jesus lived a sinless life (Hebrews 2:17-18; 4:15-16). He died to pay the penalty for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). On the cross, He took upon Himself the Hell we do deserve in order to purchase for us the Heaven we don’t deserve. At His death He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30), using the Greek word for canceling certificates of debt—meaning “paid in full.” Jesus then rose from the grave, defeating sin and conquering death (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, 54-57).

Christ offers freely the gift of forgiveness and eternal life: “Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22:17, NIV).

Besides knowing His name, have you come to know Jesus as your Savior and Lord and best friend? “Come and see what God has done,” the psalmist says, “his awesome deeds for mankind!” (Psalm 66:5, NIV). “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).

Scripture gives us many invitations to come to God and personally experience Him. Open the Bible and learn about Jesus. Set aside all other arguments and study the person of Christ. Read of His life in the Gospels, the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Listen to His words. Ask yourself who He is and whether you could believe in Him. If you hold Him at a distance, you will never see Him for who He is. Philip simply invited his friend Nathanael to “come and see” Jesus ( John 1:45-46).

Have you come? Have you seen Him? If not, brace yourself. Because once you see Jesus—I mean see Him as He really is—you, your worldview, goals, affections, and everything will change. And because He never gives up on us, the changes won’t stop. He’s about growth not death, sanctification not stagnation. That’s the key to a Christian life, and it’s not boring but adventurous. Jesus, who spun the galaxies into being, paints the sunsets, and taught the humpback whales to migrate, can be comforting and restgiving, but He is never boring!

Our Best Thought

Even if you have come and seen Jesus, accepted His invitation, and walked with Him for years, you can never exhaust His depths. Puritan John Flavel wrote, “The longer you know Christ, and the nearer you come to him, still the more do you see of his glory. Every farther prospect of Christ entertains the mind with a fresh delight. He is as it were a new Christ every day—and yet the same Christ still.”

There’s no more worthy subject to set our minds on than Jesus Himself. He is “the Alpha and the Omega…the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 22:13). I thank God that today I don’t just know and love Jesus as much as I used to; I know and love Him more. That is to His credit, and I’m deeply grateful. He’s what makes life so exciting and so worthwhile. Like the apostle Paul, more than ever, I want to know Christ (Philippians 3:10). How about you?

This article is from the introduction to Randy’s new devotional, Face to Face with Jesus: Seeing Him as He Really Is, which includes 200 entries focused on the person and character of Jesus. Through December 13, Face to Face with Jesus is on sale for $7.99 (47% off $14.99 retail), PLUS you can receive free USPS Media Mail shipping when you use the code GRATEFUL18 at checkout. (Free shipping offer is valid for U.S. continental orders only, and expires Thursday, December 13 at 12 P.M. PT.)

This book makes a great Christmas gift, especially since it’s all about the Jesus whose birth we celebrate! Watch Randy share more about it:

Photo from Christianpics.co

How Going to Jail Gave Me a Heart for Prisoners, and How You Can Help EPM Reach Them Through Books

Over twenty-five years ago, on nine occasions I participated in peaceful, nonviolent civil disobedience, briefly going to jail (my longest incarceration was only two days) for what was an extremely unpopular cause—speaking up for unborn children. I remember how during a one-hour release from the jail cell, I checked over the “bookshelf” and found pathetic offerings. I determined to do what I could to donate some decent books that could get the gospel in there.  

While in jail I shared the gospel with one inmate who “tried Christianity” but turned his back on it. I found myself praying that the Father would touch this needy man, and all those in prison who desperately needed Him. There were fewer insulating layers between them and their need for God than in the lives of many “free” people. They are hungry for hope and for purpose.

Even my brief time there gave me a much greater heart for prison ministries like Prison Fellowship. There is untold potential to minister to these men and women who are worthless in the eyes of the world, but who are so valuable to God that He shed His divine blood for them.

Ultimately, God really used that experience. What others intended for evil, God intended for good (Genesis 50:20). Shortly after we started Eternal Perspective Ministries, inmates began writing to request my books. Though it was part of our ministry I never really envisioned when we began, over the years we’ve given away thousands of books to prisoners in facilities across the U.S.

If you’d like to hear more about my jail experience, and how God used those circumstances to lead to our starting EPM, here’s a 15-minute video where I share the story.

These days, EPM does many eternity-impacting things, including giving away my book royalties to worthy ministries. But ministering to inmates through giving away books is a huge part of what we do, and over the last year, this part of our ministry has literally exploded. During just one week in October of 2018, we received 279 letters requesting material and mailed 275 packages of books. Of the 279 contacts, 223 were contacting us for the very first time. We recently reached a benchmark of having served 25,000 prisoners who have contacted our ministry requesting free books. Just a few short weeks later, that number is now up to nearly 26,000.

In 2017 we had 2,958 new prisoner contacts and averaged 358 letters a month. In the first eleven months of 2018, we have had 6,008 new contacts and averaged 755 letters a month. This is about a 100% increase from the previous year. At this rate, we can only imagine what God will do through this ministry in the coming years. In the picture is one day’s worth of book packages that we sent out! (Our wonderful staff member Sharon Misenhimer reads each letter we receive, and oversees addressing each request.)

We are convinced from many direct interactions with both prison chaplains and prisoners that books sent to prisoners are widely read and have a far reaching impact. While books bought by people who aren’t in prison often go unread, and may not be passed on to others that much, it is radically different for prisoners. They not only read books they have requested (and the great majority of my books are sent when prisoners themselves have requested them), but they also eagerly pass them on. It’s common to hear reports of books that have literally fallen apart, pages coming out, because they have been read and reread so many times, sometimes by dozens of prisoners. 

One prison chaplain shared with us how he asks inmates to memorize Psalm 23 before he gives them one of my graphic novels. The prize is the book, he says, but the real prize is their hiding God’s words in their hearts.

Here are a few other notes we’ve received this year:  

“I just paroled from a 3 1/2 year term my first time ever in trouble (I’m 53) and your books and magazine helped me tremendously, and I want to thank you. As a Christian for 40 years, who walked away and ended up in prison, your prison outreach along with God’s grace, His word, Christ’s sacrifice, and your ministry saved me.” —James from California

The book Edge of Eternity is not only a great book for reading as a time passer but also it teaches lessons and opens a person’s eyes to what’s important in life…Now I know that God has only placed me here to put me back on track and He used you and your book to help. God bless you and your family and your works forever.”  —Joshua

“I’ve been incarcerated for 17 years and never in my life would I ever read a comic book. I don’t know how to read. And thanks to your comic books, I am seeking the Lord now. I’m a gangster loving your comic books. Thank you, Randy, for showing me about the Lord. I don’t know much about the Lord now, but one thing I do know is that I’m going to heaven now to be with my Father.” —Ramon from New Mexico

“Thank you for sending me the Picturing Heaven coloring book. I love it!!! The devotionals go along with the coloring pages perfect. As I color the page, I think about what the scripture means. I share the pages with my daughter at home. It gives us a chance to talk about God when I call home.” —Rhonda from Missouri

“I send the coloring pages (Picturing Heaven) to my two little girls once a week. I color half and they finish the rest.” —Cirena from Missouri

“Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest” (John 4:35, CSB).

If you’d like to partner with us in reaching these men and women for Christ, we’d be honored if you’d prayerfully consider supporting Eternal Perspective Ministries with a year-end gift. Financial gifts to our General Fund support our operating expenses and staff, and allow us to continue giving away the royalties from my books. (You can also give to our Books for Prisoners Fund, if you’d like to directly support that part of our ministry.)

Your partnership through prayer, giving, or both, is making an eternal difference! With great gratitude to God and personal appreciation of you,

Randy Alcorn

If you'd like to make a year-end, tax-deductible donation to EPM, please note that donations postmarked no later than December 31, or received  online  by 11:59 p.m. PT on December 31, will be included on this year’s tax receipts.

Jackie Hill Perry’s “Gay Girl, Good God” Is a Book You Shouldn’t Miss

My last two blog posts have been centered on Christopher Yuan’s new book Holy Sexuality and the Gospel. In today’s post, I want to highlight Jackie Hill Perry’s book Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been (Amazon, Christianbook.com).

These books dovetail very beautifully. I believe reading both of them will give people a larger vision of Jesus and also provide vital perspectives related to the entire LGBT discussion. Both books are in harmony, yet each brings distinctives the other doesn’t. Either one is great, but together they are amazingly complete. Anything you wish one book would say, or put in a different tone, is exactly what the other one does.

(By the way, Christopher’s book has been the target of coordinated negative reviews on Amazon, with the same one-star review being posted by many who obviously haven’t read the book. I did read it and thought it was GREAT, but Amazon blocked my five-star review—probably because I endorsed the book. But I encourage you to read and review Holy Sexuality and the Gospel!)

Back to today’s blog: If you want a quick, less than three-minute intro to Jackie Hill Perry, this does it well, and you’ll hear powerful truth in the process.

I started reading Gay Girl, Good God on my Kindle earlier this month, and then also ordered the audiobook. The ebook is great, so honest and compelling, but Jackie’s voice and inflections and personality are so captivating that continued with the audio. It’s stunningly good.

I first heard Jackie Hill Perry at the Canvas Conference in Portland a few years ago, where we both spoke. Jackie writes like a word artist, which is exactly what she is. She does “spoken word,” as in the video above, where every word counts.

Her book is poetry of sorts, at times with a cadence, and I was almost spellbound listening to it. I couldn’t wait to finish, yet didn’t want to.

Jackie writes, and beautifully speaks in the audio, “What God has done to my soul is worth telling because He is worth knowing. Worth seeing. Worth hearing. Worth loving, and trusting, and exalting…To tell you about what God has done for my soul is to invite you into my worship.”

There is an amazingly powerful foreword to Jackie’s book by Nancy Leigh Demoss Wolgemuth (though it’s not in the audiobook). I was surprised to see Nancy’s name because of the contrasts between her and Jackie. And sure enough, that was the first thing Nancy pointed out in the foreword!

The fact that Jackie and Nancy would connect like this tells you a great deal about both of these women, but especially about Jackie. It is a model of the unity in Jesus that overcomes every cultural and personal and racial and economic barrier. Here’s Jackie’s intro from the book:

I wrote this book out of love—a common word used so out of context on most days. This work is not a miscommunication of my intentions; it is a direct product of it.

Before writing it, I lived out the words. A gay girl once? Yes. Now? I am what God’s goodness will do to a soul once grace gets to it.

In saying that, I know I’ve already offended someone. I don’t assume that every hand that holds this book will agree with every black letter on the pages. There are many who, while reading, won’t understand gayness as something possible of being in the past tense. It is either who you are, or what you have never been. To this, I disagree. The only constant in this world is God. Gayness, on the other hand, can be an immovable identity only when the heart is unwilling to bow. There is more complexity to this than my modest introduction will allow. I will only encourage those hesitant to turn the page because of my particular perspective on truth to keep reading. I’ll admit that I have much more to say about gayness and God that will be a bit countercultural, but I hope will also be intriguing to the point of consideration in the grand scheme of things.

There are others who only know of the hetero love that makes a book such as this one for studying the unknown. These are the Christians (the “I’ve always been straight Christians, that is”) for whom this book was also intended. I have not always loved how they’ve loved the gay community. Between the banner-painted hate and the interpersonal silence, my love for the church moved me to attempt to write something of balance—something that can make the love for which they are called to walk in, the tangible proof of what God is like.

This book, however, is not to be confused with the Scriptures themselves. It, God willing, will be of benefit to the church, but these words are not to be esteemed as being what is most important for the church. That is what the Word of God is for. This is not an appendix to the Scriptures; it is simply the telling of a story impacted by the Scriptures, with practical instruction gained by living out the Scriptures. My love for the LGBT community makes me desperate for them to know God. My love for the church makes me desperate for them to show the world God, as He is, and not as we would prefer for Him to be—this book being my efforts toward such an end. Coming out of the gay lifestyle and into a brand-new world of loving God His way is a wild life—a wildness so sufficient that it will either turn a new saint back or make them into someone better. If I were to call the experience by another adjective, I would call it “hard.” A hardness much like a mountain too beat-up by the sky to climb. But even they can be moved.

For those saints, my love is a gathering up of my life, failures, victories, and everything I’ve figured out about God, edited and made into text for them to read. As they do, a deep “She gets it” might well up. But even better would be a “God is good,” only to be followed by an “All the time!” from within. They are the demonstration of how often God saves. That there are more gay girls and boys that have been made new by a good God. For them, these words landed face-first that they may know that they are not alone.

In writing this book, I did it as myself. Meaning, I am as honest as I know how to be. I have never been one for pretense. When, as a new Christian, I was introduced to the typical nature in which some Christians speak of their lives in the loveliest terms, I refused to give in to the convenient misery of being ambiguous about the truth. If the truth is what sets us free, then why not walk in it at all times? With wisdom and love, of course, but also with the reality that truth is where freedom begins.

Finally, in this book you’re holding, every sentence is the pursuit of showing off God. Leaving this word-filled place with a developed understanding of me and a shallow revelation of God would make all of my efforts worthless. This is a book with a lot of me in it but with a whole lot more of God. He is what the soul needs for rest and what the mind needs for peace. He is the Creator God, the King of Glory, the one who, in love, sent the Christ to pay the penalty for and become the sin that we are all born with. It is the words from and about this resurrected Lamb of God that I hope will lift off the page and into the heart. This book is a lifted hand, a glad praise, a necessary hymn, a hallelujah overheard and not kept quiet. This work is my worship unto God that, with prayer, I hope will leave you saying, “God is so good!” —Jackie Hill Perry

Thank you, Jackie, dear sister, for sharing your story, and for your contagious love for Jesus and God’s Word.

I encourage you to watch this six-minute video in which Jackie talks about her book.

Finally, here’s a great review of the book, written by Kristen Wetherell for The Gospel Coalition:

I saw them as I drove up our street. Both girls had beautiful, long hair and were about 16 years old. Then I noticed they were holding hands and sharing intimate embraces. Just friends? Maybe. But probably not.

This scene is common nowadays. Christians can’t ignore the subject of homosexuality, as it’s so interwoven with our culture. We need to know how to engage with it, following the example of our Lord Jesus who was “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). And this requires us to pull up a chair and listen well to those who’ve walked its road.

Full of Worship

Jackie Hill Perry is one such woman. Growing up in a broken home, she had an absent father and suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a friend’s older brother. Her first book, Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been, recounts these circumstances that shaped her gay identity, but in Perry’s words, “Sexual abuse is not what made me gay. Nor did fatherlessness. They only exaggerated and helped direct the path for what was already there––which is sin” (37).

Having struggled with same-sex attraction (SSA) for as long as she can remember, Perry recounts her story with humility, pointing us ultimately to her good God.

Read the rest.

Christopher Yuan on Living Holy in the Midst of Temptations

As I shared in my last blog, I deeply appreciate Christopher Yuan’s excellent new book Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story.

This blog will be followed by one centered on another amazing and powerful book, Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry. These two books work together to give a remarkable picture of the power of God’s redemptive grace, the clarity of His Word, and His calling to live in sexual purity. I would recommend that every Christ-follower read and take to heart both of them. They are not just for people who have same-sex desires, but for all who seek to understand LGBT issues.

In the last decade there has been increasing confusion among evangelical Christians on the subject of sexual identity. One example is God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same Sex Relationships. This book, printed and sold by a Christian publisher, tries to persuade God’s people the homosexual lifestyle is compatible with Scripture and the Christian life.  

I first became familiar with Christopher Yuan when he wrote a Christianity Today review of God and the Gay Christian. I found his insights to be profoundly biblical and personal. If you want to hear Vines’s arguments and Yuan’s counter-arguments, I highly recommend reading this book review: Why God and the Gay Christian is Wrong.

Christopher’s chapters in Holy Sexuality and the Gospel on singleness, and the church as spiritual family, are a wakeup call for local churches to rethink our unwitting assumption that marriage is God’s calling for everyone. Scripture emphatically tells us otherwise, and demonstrates it in the singleness of Jesus who was not only God, but also the most well-adjusted human being who ever lived.

In our culture, sexual confusion and immorality is as rampant among people who’ve never had a homosexual temptation as those who have. What’s wrong with us that in some Christian circles it’s considered healthier to say yes to heterosexual lust than to say no to homosexual temptation?

Christopher Yuan is that rare individual who has personally grappled with these issues in the crucible of life. Instead of reinventing theology or engaging in creative interpretation, he lives consistently with biblical beliefs even when it’s personally difficult or unpopular. In that respect, he is God’s gift to us, and I for one am profoundly grateful. (Here are Christopher’s parents, two of the dearest people I have ever met, with his book. Christopher wrote on Twitter, “Beyond grateful for my parents for their support. p.s. The last time they were this excited was when they became grandparents!”)

Here’s an excerpt from Holy Sexuality and the Gospel, where Christopher writes about holiness and temptation:

God exhorts us in the Old Testament, and again in the New, “Be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44–45; 1 Peter 1:16). Holiness is the goal, and sanctification is the process.

Unfortunately, many Christians have envisioned an incorrect goal and a faulty process for those of us with same-sex attractions. I’ve explained in this book how everyone’s goal in regard to sexuality should be holy sexuality—chastity in singleness or faithfulness in marriage.

For too many and for too long, holy sexuality has not been the goal, and singleness has been deprecated. Unmarried Christians are projects to be “fixed,” so we try to “fix” them up with someone. Think about it. Although there has been some progress in recognizing that the correct objective is “holy sexuality” not “heterosexuality,” many still embrace the wrong process by continuing to use “sexual orientation change” therapy as their main methodology.

I’m often asked, “Do you still have same-sex attractions?” Sometimes people ask it in a different way: “Have you been fully delivered?” Queries like these stem from a sincere desire to better understand me and my journey of coming to faith and of following Jesus on a daily basis. I love helping a fellow brother or sister better understand the topic of sexuality. Yet behind these questions is a misunderstanding of what the process of sanctification looks like.

After Paul’s listing of vices in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, which includes same-sex sexual behavior, he says this: “Such were some of you” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Later, Paul makes a stark distinction between the believer’s pre-conversion and post-conversion realities: “The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

But if a Christian—who is a new creation—is still tempted with same-sex sexual desires, does this mean there has been no true transformation, no real healing, and no complete deliverance? Does conversion mean that same-sex attractions should be a thing of the past? Or more generally, is the Christian’s goal, while here on earth, the eradication of trials and temptations?

Let me offer an illustration. Beau was a drunk. But by God’s saving grace, he has become a Christian and stopped drinking. Yet even after years of sobriety, he admits that he still has urges to drink—but he doesn’t. Would we therefore question Beau’s transformation? Would we doubt that he’s been healed? Does Beau need further deliverance? Does Beau need the demon of alcoholism cast out of him? No! In fact, the manifestation of God’s grace is more evident in his life, because he says no to his flesh and says yes to Christ! It’s when we live holy—even in the midst of temptations—that God is glorified. In an earlier chapter, I discussed temptation’s reality. How temptations are not sinful per se, but can certainly lead to sin. Then, what does daily life look like for the ordinary Christian who is tempted? From the point of our conversion until at last we enter the presence of the Lord, what’s the process for our pursuit of holiness?

And in particular—because of this book’s focus on holy sexuality—what does it mean to be holy and to become holy for people like myself who may experience same-sex attractions? Let’s begin by further exploring the doctrine of sanctification, and by dispelling certain myths about it.

To learn the vital truths Christopher deals with next, get the book, read it cover to cover, and let it help you develop a true biblical theology of human sexuality. (It’s available from both Amazon and Christianbook.com.)

And also read Jackie Hill Perry’s new book Gay Girl, Good God (Amazon, Christianbook.com). It’s stunningly good too, and will be the subject of my next blog.

Photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash