Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 11

Is Immorality Inevitable? Or Can Christians Finish Life Well, to God’s Glory?

Note from Randy: If you have a ministry of any sort—public or private—as a teacher, preacher, leader, helper, or as any kind of salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-16)—then take heed: you are a targeted man, a marked woman. I wish I was aware of only a fraction of the stories I know of Christians (and specifically pastors) who have fallen into sin and immorality.

One woman said to me, “There’s so much immorality among Christians now that I’m living in constant fear. It makes it difficult even to work with my associates in the ministry. It’s happened to those more godly than I, so I keep thinking that it’s probably going to happen to me. It almost seems inevitable.”

But as I write in my booklet Sexual Temptation, while God does not want us to be presumptuous, neither does He want us to be paranoid. We do not have to live each day teetering on the edge of immorality or paralyzed by the fear of a sudden fall. In the specific context of seeking to be sexually pure and resisting sexual temptation, the wise man says this to his son:

My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment,
do not let them out of your sight;
they will be life for you,
an ornament to grace your neck.
Then you will go on your way in safety,
and your foot will not stumble;
when you lie down you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
Have no fear of sudden disaster
or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,
for the LORD will be your confidence
And will keep your foot from being snared.

(Prov. 3:21-26)

If we walk daily with Christ—fleeing sexual immorality, reminding ourselves of sin’s consequences, being alert to what’s happening in our minds, implementing steps of righteousness and wisdom, and calling upon Christ to empower us—then we can go our way “in safety” and “not be afraid.”

In this article, Pastor Steve Bateman shares advice to help pastors finish serving Jesus well. It’s applicable to all believers, whether they have a public ministry or not.

Let Me Get Home Before Dark: Wisdom to Help Pastors Finish Well

By Steve Bateman

Another high-profile pastor resigns in disgrace. For love of power or a fleeting season of forbidden pleasure, he forfeits his hard-earned reputation, his position of authority, and perhaps even his marriage. But the greatest tragedy is that he stains Christ’s reputation on earth, giving skeptics what they think is good reason to continue their rebellion against the King of kings.

When I was in college in the early 1980s, the renowned and plainspoken preacher Vance Havner delivered his sermon titled “Home Before Dark” in our college chapel. By this time, Havner was an octogenarian widower, and it was probably one of his last times preaching the famous sermon. One statement he made that day has profoundly influenced me: “I’ve stood at the fresh grave of many a preacher who should have died 10 years earlier.”

Later, in 1987, after four years of youth ministry, I entered Dallas Theological Seminary. Those were the days of the televangelist scandals: Jim Bakker’s sexual affair and financial infidelity were broadcast to the world in 1987, and Jimmy Swaggart’s hiring of a prostitute was exposed in 1988. These scandals fed the stereotype of corrupt clergymen fleecing the flock. Everyone who wanted an excuse to renounce Christ and belittle his Bride celebrated these scandals.

In seminary chapels at that time, Chuck Swindoll occasionally returned to his alma mater and sternly warned us, reminding the young men preparing for ministry that we’re entrusted with a sacred duty, a charge to keep and a King to please. We mustn’t betray Christ or besmirch his name.

The day I heard Havner’s sermon, I began to pray God would take me home before I brought disgrace on the gospel. Looking back on how God used those warnings in my life, I sense a responsibility to share with a new generation some practical wisdom on finishing well. Here are five warnings and encouragements.

1. Hold yourself (and others) to high standards.

There’s no perfect pastor, but all pastors must be above reproach. After all, ministry is where you make Christ’s name great, not yours. On October 22, 1987, Swindoll’s chapel message was on David’s great sin. I still have the Bible in which I wrote down his outline (pictured). He spoke on faithfulness and integrity, on doing what’s right when no one is looking.

We must guard our integrity because pastoral ministry isn’t a place to become mature; it’s for the mature man who knows what’s expected, even if he still has much to learn. Pastors are called by God, affirmed by the church, trained in seminary, and responsible for weekly preaching God’s Word. They should know ministry’s rigors and dangers, and they must proactively guard themselves against the temptation to abuse authority for personal gain and selfish pleasure. Thank God, these things are forgivable, but they’re still inexcusable.

2. Consider what you’ll lose.

Genuine repentance can restore a fallen man to fellowship but not necessarily to leadership. God’s grace extends to fallen, brokenhearted pastors, but the hard consequences remain.

I now possess a sad collection of books and commentaries written by once-qualified pastors. They were exceptional communicators and excellent scholars with abilities far beyond mine. But no man is irreplaceable. Thousands of hours and dollars were invested in their training, and each possessed a remarkable skill set, but they’re no longer in the ministry. Some who fall lose relationships with their spouses and other Christians. For all, their days of leading the church are done. Have you considered what you could lose?

3. Be honest about the sin you’re capable of.

I temper my ire at the latest pastoral treason in the news by remembering I’m capable of all manner of sin. Better men than I have made stupid choices, so I need much grace, and I must never drop my guard.

Years ago, I witnessed a friend’s public ordination exam. Among his examiners were heavily degreed pastor-scholars, so he prepared for difficult questions about election and the hypostatic union. But the hardest question was this: “Is there any sin you think you’d never commit?” It’s a question I’ve pondered ever since. The seasoned pastor reminded us all that day of Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians 10:12–13. It begins, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (NIV). One of the most useful traits we can develop as pastors is a healthy self-distrust when it comes to sin and temptation.

4. Embrace your obscurity.

Uzziah’s “fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong. But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction” (2 Chron. 26:15–16). Young pastors may dream of fame but have no idea of its costs. Few men experience great success without being assaulted by temptations. Thank God for the Calvins, Spurgeons, and Sprouls, but if you never lead a megachurch, speak at a conference, write a book, or appear on a podcast, you’ll be safer than you know.

If you preach solid sermons to the same people every week, visit them in the hospital, and officiate their weddings and funerals, your church may eventually take you for granted. The praise of strangers may be infrequent, but you’ll be close to family and elders who watch over your soul and dare to ask hard questions. If that’s your situation, embrace it.

5. Expect to finish well.

The internet amplifies every church scandal. Wolves may make the headlines, but thousands of faithful pastors do the Lord’s work without recognition. If you assume most pastors finish poorly, you’d be wrong. As I look back on all my pastors and professors these last six decades, I see faithful men you’ve never heard of who got home before dark and left a quiet legacy of faithful service. It’s not right for their success to be overshadowed by the failures of a few, but this will be righted in heaven.

Failure isn’t inevitable. By God’s grace, you can use common-sense safeguards to help you finish well as you constantly revisit Paul’s exhortation to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).

Keep the End in View

Every pastor will preach a last sermon. It probably won’t be a masterpiece, but it should be faithful to the text and delivered with a good conscience.

None of us knows how long we have between our last sermon and our last breath, but keeping our funeral in view can help us make better decisions.

Havner’s sermon 40 years ago greatly influenced my college’s president, J. Robertson McQuilkin, who finished well in 2016. Before he died, he left us with a poignant prayer read at Havner’s funeral. Though he was in the sundown of his life, McQuilkin didn’t fear the “dark spectre” of death, and he put into words the cry of my heart: “But I do fear . . . that I should stain your honor, shame your name, grieve your loving heart. . . . Of your grace, Father, I humbly ask . . . Let me get home before dark.”

This article originally appeared on The Gospel Coalition , and is used with the author’s permission.

Some Animal Encounters Offer a Foretaste of Life on the New Earth

Jim Abernethy, a well-known diver and underwater photographer, works primarily with sharks. Years ago in the Bahamas, Jim encountered a large tiger shark he named Emma. Unlike most tiger sharks, Emma was friendly and curious, and as their relationship developed, Jim saw her respond to touch and learned she loved to be petted on the head. She kept coming back to him for a repeat performance.

Emma continued to seek Jim out in his frequent dives and a deep bond developed between them. Emma regularly approached him and welcomed his touch, something rare with wild sharks. Abernethy says there is something hard to describe about how deeply moving his friendship with Emma has become. They know and trust each other and delight in each other’s company. Jim says, “She’s like a big labrador retriever who wants love and affection constantly… These are, without question, sentient creatures which thrive on affection, which they never had before.”

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, global travel restrictions kept Abernethy from visiting Emma for an extended period, leaving him uninformed of her welfare.

When travel was once again possible, Abernethy returned to the Bahamas. After knowing Emma for twenty years, he was eager to see her but unsure if she would remember him after the year-long absence. Remarkably, as he descended into familiar waters, Emma approached him right away. Their reunion was emotional, with Abernethy describing it as a moment of pure joy and relief. They picked up right where they left off. Jim describes Emma as wonderful, warmhearted, and affectionate. While all animals can love others of their own kind, and even different species, the unique affection of humans with animals is something no other animal can give them. It’s as if God made humans to govern and care for animals, and to have a completely inimitable relationship with them.

Jim says of Emma, “She leaves me speechless. I don’t really know that there are words to describe what it is like to have a friendship with a wild animal like this. But it’s extreme joy, heartwarming, almost tearful.”

Watch this video and see firsthand their relationship and how much Emma appears to enjoy Jim’s company:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr_T4Aim6Fw?si=i2zOJq4_bwNl8v7n

There are over 500 species of sharks in the world, with more being discovered all the time. Many of those are rarely aggressive with humans. I’ve been around reef sharks with no aggression on their part, including five at once. However, tiger sharks are among the most dangerous, with more attacks and kills of humans than any other sharks except great whites—they are the water equivalents of the present earth’s lions, wolves, and bears. My point is, don’t try to do what Jim Abernethy does. If you ever see a tiger shark on this side of the New Earth, do not put your hand out and try to pet him! Be patient—wait until the New Earth! 

But even now, in an often violent world, to see such an unlikely bond like Emma’s and Jim’s gives just a little taste of that coming world we see in Isaiah. Like countless other unlikely relationships of people with animals and animals with each other, it is a beautiful foreshadowing of what the Bible promises us:

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

Check out Jim’s Instagram for more footage of sharks, and also see this video of how he’s befriended a nurse shark he’s named Relentless:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbPrRV8b2CI?si=AURCwo7P06P4keet

God Is at Work in Your Life, Even When You Can’t See It

Recently I shared Isaiah 43:19 with our Eternal Perspective Ministries staff. I was so moved by that verse that I looked it up in every translation, via Bible Gateway. Keep in mind that each of these nine versions I chose was translated by a team of Hebrew scholars who had reasons for rendering it as they did, and each has a just little different nuance or two that I loved hearing. Maybe one or more of them in particular will strike you:

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. (NIV)

Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. (CSB)

Look! I’m doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it? I’m making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness.  (CEB)

I am doing something new; it’s springing up — can’t you see it? I am making a road in the desert, rivers in the wastelands. (CJB)

I am creating something new. There it is! Do you see it? I have put roads in deserts, streams in thirsty lands. (CEV)

Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already—you can see it now! I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there. (GNT)

Look at the new thing I am going to do. It is already happening. Don’t you see it? I will make a road in the desert and rivers in the dry land. (NCV)

Look, I am about to do something new. Now it begins to happen! Do you not recognize it? Yes, I will make a road in the wilderness and paths in the wastelands. (NET)

For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. (NLT)

Sometimes we need the reminder that God can do what is humanly impossible, and that He knows what is eternally best in ways we cannot. God can see ultimate purposes and plans that we can’t see. Consider what Isaiah 46:9–11 says: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.... What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.”

God is “the LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle!” (Psalm 24:8). The rhetorical question “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” implies a “no” answer (see Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:27).

Gabriel says to Mary, “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). Jesus says, “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

God is the “Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:18; Revelation 1:8). He is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20, ESV). John the Baptist says, “God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:9, ESV).

May you experience the reality of Isaiah 43:19 in your life. I am asking God to do this for me also!

What Excites You Most about Living on the New Earth?

We asked commenters on my Facebook page,

“But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). What excites you most about living on the New Earth?

Wow, the responses were so great. Here are a number of them, and I hope they encourage you to anticipate our eternal home:

No more heart attacks, widowhood, teenage boys having to deal with losing their Dad right before Christmas (that was me 50 years ago this December), cancer, war, Alzheimer's, sin, no more death! But better than those awesome future realities is that we will be forever in the presence of our Lord who suffered and died that we might experience those promises! 

Being able to go to places like the equivalent of Mt. Everest or the Amazon, or deep-sea diving without fear or hazards. Being able to hear the stories of all the people as they tell how they came to Christ and walked through life with Christ. Seeing the throne of God. Singing. Visiting other galaxies.

I’m most excited about being free of my sinful self. I can’t even imagine what that will be like. No wrong thoughts, emotions, motives, no more selfish desires, demands, or dreams. Truly it will be Heaven to be completely focused on Jesus and all that is right and good and pure and glorifying. Come Lord Jesus, come!!!

Seeing my God face to face…meeting the great cloud of witnesses, a long walk and talk with my late husband, seeing friends and family that have gone before, meeting my aborted children, hiking without the fear of grizzlies or bad people, my new house, no arthritis any longer. OH MY, I could go on and on. What a future we have.

I look forward to seeing Jesus! My son that I lost at 10 years old and his dad that I lost three years later. And actually, just seeing well because I have been legally blind for years!

“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now...Come further up, come further in!”  C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chronicles of Narnia, #7)

Reading all these comments is such a blessing, knowing there are so many who are in love with Him. Can’t wait to be with you all on the New Earth!

Seeing our Savior, having no more cancer, and spending eternity with loved ones! Also being able to travel to places I didn’t get to see before!

Knowing I'm exactly who and where I was created to be! The complete contentment! And the amazing health and strength to do all the things our new adventure holds!

Total peace and tranquility with Jesus and with our loved ones. Enjoying the newly restored earth, and our renewed, resurrected bodies.

To meet the Bible characters and ask endless questions about their lives. To meet people like C. S. Lewis and all the writers who have affected my life. To explore all the wonders of the New Heavens and the New Earth. To live in peace, joy, love, contentment, and eternal happiness. No pain, sickness or sorrow. To walk the golden streets…all of Heaven’s glory!!

I am looking forward to seeing God! To worshipping with the saints and angels and to walking with Jesus—looking into His face, touching His hands, and hearing His stories! And without a doubt I am looking forward to a deeper friendship than I knew on earth with my husband. I want to know what it was like for him at the time he was dying and what he felt when he woke up in Heaven—who he saw, what startled him most, and what he prayed for as he observed the saints below. An eternity of discovery!!!!

No more suffering for anyone, no more sorrow, pain, or grief. I can’t imagine living without any of these. I can’t even wrap my mind around how this would feel.

The absence of my own sin and weaknesses. I will finally be who He designed me to be!

I have experienced two samplings of unspeakable joy, so I want more of that! And I want to experience the awe of beholding Him in person. …I have gazed at my babies’ faces for hours and could never get enough of them—how much more so the Face of God! The One who made their faces! The beam of love He emits and to experience His gaze resting on me! I want to hang out there for a very, very, very long time.

No sickness, no tears…true friendships and walking and talking with Jesus…peace!

All that was sad being made glad.

Seeing Jesus, meeting so many new friends, no pain, no tears, no death, eternal adventures, seeing my dear friend again, and embracing my great grandparents on both sides.

Breathing the Resurrected Air!

Everything ♥️

To answer the question myself: first and foremost, I look forward to being with Jesus, my Lord and Savior and best friend. To be in His presence, to listen to Him and walk with Him…nothing could be better than that. Seeing God will be like seeing everything else for the first time. WOW!

Secondly, I look forward to seeing my family members and friends who have gone before me, including my dear mom, and my wife, Nanci, my closest sister in Christ. I fully expect no one besides God Himself will under­stand me better on the New Earth than Nanci, and there’s nobody whose company I’ll seek and enjoy more than hers.

Finally, I look forward to meeting other people. I’ll ask people to fill in the blanks of the great stories in Scripture and church history. I want to hear a few million new stories. I imagine we’ll relish these great stories, ask questions, laugh together, and shake our heads in amazement.

My heart explodes with happiness as I anticipate the world to come and its endless delights of closeness with Jesus, first and foremost, and the people of God and angels and creatures we have known and will one day know in a vast and beautiful new universe!

The Great Danger Is to Assume We Are All Headed for Heaven

For every American who believes they’re going to Hell, there are 120 who believe they’re going to Heaven. This optimism stands in stark contrast to Christ’s words in Matthew 7:13-14: “…wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” As C. S. Lewis wrote, “The safest road to hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

What would keep us out of Heaven is universal: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). God is so holy that He cannot allow sin into His presence: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong” (Habakkuk 1:13). Because we are sinners, we cannot enter Heaven as we are. Unless our sin problem is resolved, the only place we will go is our true default destination . . . Hell.

The great danger is to assume we are headed for Heaven. Judging by what’s said at most funerals, you’d think nearly everyone’s going.

We dare not “wait and see” when it comes to what’s on the other side of death. We can know, we should know, before we die. And because we may die at any time, we need to know now—not next month or next year. “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow…You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).

The voice that whispers, “There’s no hurry; you can always think about it later,” is not God’s voice.

Hell: Heaven’s Awful Alternative

Christ’s return will initiate a resurrection of believers for eternal life in Heaven and a resurrection of unbelievers for eternal existence in Hell (John 5:28-29). The unsaved—everyone whose name is not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life—will be judged according to the works they have done, as recorded in Heaven’s books (Revelation 20:12-15). Because those works include sin, people without Christ cannot enter the presence of a holy and just God and will be consigned to a place of everlasting destruction (Matthew 13:40-42).

Hell will not be like its stereotype found in comic strips, a giant lounge where between drinks people tell stories of their escapades on Earth. Because God is the source of all good, and Hell is the absence of God, community, fellowship, and friendship—rooted in the triune God Himself—can’t exist. Likely, each entity rules its own tiny kingdom of self, just as Jesus portrays the rich man alone in Luke 16:22-23. Misery loves company, but there will be nothing to love in Hell.

This is why Dante, in the Inferno, envisioned this sign chiseled above Hell’s gate: “Abandon every hope, you who enter.”

Hell has become “the H word,” seldom named, rarely talked about. Satan has obvious motives for fueling our denial of eternal punishment: he wants unbelievers to reject Jesus without fear, Christians to be unmotivated to share Christ, and God to receive less glory for the radical nature of Christ’s redemptive work.

God Never Sends Anyone to Hell

Hell seems disproportionate, a divine overreaction. In the words of one professor and contributor to an evangelical publication, “I consider the concept of hell as endless torment in body and mind an outrageous doctrine. . . . Surely a God who would do such a thing is more nearly like Satan than like God.”

Many imagine that it is civilized, humane, and compassionate to deny the existence of an eternal Hell, but in fact it is arrogant. For, if we understood God’s nature and ours, we would be shocked not that some people could go to Hell (where else would sinners go?), but that any would be permitted into Heaven.

In The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis wrote, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find.”

What Did Jesus Say about Hell?

In the Bible, Jesus says more than anyone else about Hell (Matthew 10:28; 13:40-42; Mark 9:43-44). He refers to it as a literal place and describes it in graphic terms—including raging fires and the worm that doesn’t die. Christ says the unsaved “will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12). In His story of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus taught that in Hell, the wicked suffer terribly, are fully conscious, retain their desires and memories and reasoning, long for relief, cannot be comforted, cannot leave their torment, and are bereft of hope (Luke 16:19-31). The Savior could not have painted a more bleak or graphic picture.

How long will Hell last? “They will go away to eternal punishment,” Jesus said of the unrighteous, “but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). Here, in the same sentence, He used the same word translated “eternal” (aionos). Thus, if Heaven will be consciously experienced forever, Hell must be consciously experienced forever.

Is It Unloving to Speak of Hell?

There are only two possible destinations after death: Heaven and Hell. Unless and until we surrender our lives to Jesus, we’re headed for Hell. If I had a choice, that is if Scripture were not so clear and conclusive, I would certainly not believe in Hell. I do not want to believe in it. But if I make what I want—or what others want—the basis for my beliefs, then I am a follower of myself and my culture, not a follower of Christ. Novelist Dorothy Sayers wrote, “The doctrine of hell …is Christ’s deliberate judgment on sin. . . . We cannot repudiate Hell without altogether repudiating Christ.”

The most loving thing we can do for our friends and our family is to warn them about the road that leads to destruction and tell them about the road that leads to life. Would we think it unloving if a doctor told us we had a potentially fatal cancer? And would the doctor not tell us if the cancer could be eradicated? Why then do we not tell unsaved people about the cancer of sin and evil and how the inevitable penalty of eternal destruction can be avoided by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ?

If we understood Hell even the slightest bit, none of us would ever say, “Go to Hell.” It’s far too easy—it requires no change of course, no navigational adjustments. The need for Hell is the single greatest tragedy in the universe.

God loves us enough to tell us the truth—Jesus said, “I am the way…No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). All other roads lead to Hell. The high stakes involved in the choice between Heaven and Hell will cause us to appreciate Heaven in deeper ways, always praising God for His mercy that delivers us from what we deserve and grants us grace for what we don’t.

Earth: The In-Between World

Earth leads directly into Heaven or directly into Hell, affording a choice between the two. This present life is the closest Christ-followers will come to Hell and the closest unbelievers will come to Heaven.

Given the reality of our two possible destinations, shouldn’t we be willing to pay any price to avoid Hell and go to Heaven? And yet, the price has already been paid. Consider the wonder of it: Jesus determined that He would rather go to Hell on our behalf than live in Heaven without us. He so much wants us not to go to Hell that He paid a horrible price on the cross so that we wouldn’t have to.

As it stands, however, apart from Christ, our eternal future will be spent in Hell.

Jesus asks a haunting question in Mark 8:36-37: “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Christ offers each of us the gift of forgiveness and eternal life—but we must appropriate it. “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).

Adapted from Randy’s book Heaven .

A Father’s Passion for Sharing about Heaven Inspires His Entire Family

A reader tagged us on Instagram in this wonderful reel about her father:

My dad wants everyone to know about Jesus, Heaven and the hope that God gave us all when He sent His son for us. Thank you, Jesus, for the blood and thank you Jesus for Heaven. Heaven truly does change everything.

 
 
 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Valyssa (melissa with a V) (@sunsetssistersandsweettea)

In the note featured in the video, which he left for the housekeeping crew at a lodge his family stayed at, he wrote:

These Heaven booklets are for you. The larger Heaven book was so inspiring and comforting to my wife and I in her last days battling pancreatic and lung cancer. Even though we had been Sunday School teachers for 40 years, this book really showed us what we really have to look forward to in Heaven. We know the great (4) times we’ve had for years in this lodge and place are not over with our 17 grandchildren. Great times await us in Heaven and on [the] New Earth.

I’m also looking forward to being with our other three grandchildren already there.

Our prayer for you and yours is that you know or will come to know Jesus Christ, so that you can also enjoy eternal life in Heaven and the New Earth.

We pray we will meet you there and get to know you. God bless you.

One of his other daughters wrote our ministry:

Not a day goes by that my dad goes without mentioning Randy’s Heaven book, and he has passed out (to be sure I’m not exaggerating we’ll just say over a thousand, but I’m sure more) of the Heaven booklets. My siblings and I have videos and pictures of how he has scattered these across the country, sharing the hope of Heaven with everyone he meets.

…Ever since mom’s passing in February 2022, we passed out Heaven booklets at her visitation and funeral, and my dad doesn’t leave home without them. If you pump gas in the stall next to my dad, you’re going to hear of the hope of Heaven and receive a booklet. If you are his waitress or just take his order at a fast-food restaurant, he’s going to share with you the hope we have and what we have to look forward to on the New Earth.

Thank you, Jerry, for your example of living with your mind set “on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1), and for sharing your rock-solid hope with so many. As an author, there’s no greater honor than to know that my books have been used by God to help readers like Jerry, and to reach people with the gospel. To God be the glory!

An Abortion Survivor Shares His Story

January 24 marked the March for Life in Washington D.C., which is held on the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

This story shared at the march by Josiah Presley, an abortion survivor, is powerful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXcs8EB472g?si=J603WLkfqyA0sZjf

A commenter wrote in response on Instagram, “There are thousands of us survivors of failed abortions. I know the world would never have missed me, had I not survived, but what a much darker place it would be, without my two wonderful daughters and four amazing grandchildren. It’s not just one life that is lost during an abortion, it is generations of lives. Every life is so special and unique. God does not make mistakes!”

The Bible is clear that every child in the womb is created by God. Furthermore, Christ loves that child and proved it by becoming like him—He spent nine months in His mother’s womb. Finally, Christ died for that child, showing how precious He considers him to be.

The biblical view of children is that they are a gift from the Lord (Psalm 127:3–5). Yet society treats children more and more as liabilities. We must learn to see them as God does, and to act toward them as God commands us to act: “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82:3–4).

In John 3:31-36, Is John the Baptist or John the Apostle Speaking?

Question from a reader:

In John 3:27-30, John the Baptist teaches his disciples about his joy being complete. However, it seems as though he is continuing his lesson in verses 31-36, but it has no quotation marks around it. (The ESV and NIV don’t; NASB does.) Many resources give credit to John the Baptist speaking here, even though there are no quotations. Why do some translations have the quotation marks, and others don’t? And if it is correct to not have them, who is speaking in those verses? Is it John the author?

Answer from Randy Alcorn:

Yes, you are correct, the translations that put the whole thing within quotation marks are interpreting this as all from John the Baptist. The translations that end the quotation marks halfway through are saying the first part (verses 27–30) is from John the Baptist, which is clearly true, and the last part (verses 31–36) is from John the apostle, which is the uncertain part. Which John was it?

Some people say it really doesn’t matter since it’s all God’s Word anyway, but I do think that we should try to figure out which human being actually said the words of God.

This article assumes it’s all John the Baptist.

Since there is no punctuation in the original Greek, no quotation marks, commas, periods, or anything else, it is truly a judgment call whether this is John the Baptist, or the apostle John. Which means you are safe saying “this was said by John”!

Different commentators argue differently. I am sort of in the middle, thinking it could go one way or the other. Certainly, the Greek text can be taken either way precisely because quotation marks are not there. Normally, it is obvious from the context. In this case, it is not obvious the way it usually is. Hence, there is no absolutely certain answer to your question that we can know in this life. When we get to Heaven, we can ask the apostle John, John the Baptist, or Jesus Himself, and then we will know!

That said, I do lean toward it all being John the Baptist, perhaps partly because I love the uniqueness of that man, and I love the idea of hearing more of the gospel from Christ's forerunner. We hear much from the apostle John in the rest of this Gospel and in his letters and Revelation. But if this is all John the Baptist, which it certainly could be, it would be a substantial addition to what we know that he said.  

A friend said to me, “I personally lean towards it being John the Baptist, primarily because if it is John the Apostle it would be a bit out of place with the rest of the book. The only times John really offers commentary (other than a clarification) is at the beginning and at the end so this would be an exception.” 

Somehow when I picture that bearded, wild-eyed prophet saying these words, it just resonates with my heart. That’s not a good argument for believing they are his words, but since I’m up in the air on it in the first place, if I were preaching the passage, I would lean toward it being the words of John the Baptist right to the end of John 3. 

How Can Enjoying Happiness in God’s Creation Draw Us to God?

Two seriously ill men occupied the same hospital room. The man next to the window was able to sit up, while the other couldn’t.

Each day the man by the window described in picturesque detail what he saw—including a lake, ducks, and children sailing model boats. This meant the world to his roommate, who had no outside view. Witnessing these sights secondhand brought him daily happiness.

Eventually the man by the window died. His saddened roommate requested a move to the bed by the window.   He couldn’t wait to enjoy all the sights his roommate had described. But as he eagerly looked outside for the first time all he saw was an old brick wall.

Perspective makes all the difference. His roommate had been able to see, in his mind’s eye, life beyond the wall. Some prisoners, surrounded by bare walls, see in their imaginations the world’s true beauty. But many “free people” are surrounded by rich beauty yet day after day, year after year, fail to see it. Who is happier?

J. R. R. Tolkien wrote in The Fellowship of the Ring: “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

The better I know Jesus, the more I see Him all around me—in people, animals, places, and objects. But if I hadn’t studied His Word and reflected on His character over the years, I wouldn’t have known what to look for. A student of insects or birds can see dozens of fascinating specimens on a short walk. Another person on the same walk, not having learned to observe, can miss them altogether.

Scripture paints a picture of how we should think about God in our daily lives: we should be talking about (and to) God throughout the day, teaching ourselves and our children to see Him in everything (see Deuteronomy 6:1-7).

Two of my grandsons love football and in their younger years, would speak tirelessly of professional players. So Nanci and I entered into their world. We would name those we consider the best players and say, “Isn’t it amazing that God has given each person special gifts to use for his glory, and the rest of us get to enjoy it?” In this way, we could see God’s master craftsmanship in the beauty of life. When we would see an athlete who honors Christ, we encouraged our grandsons with his or her example. When we observed ugliness in an athlete who glorifies himself, we knew it was the Curse at work, and it’s another teaching opportunity.

Consider the brightest “stars” in the sky—which are actually the planets Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn. Unlike the true stars we see, which are far away and therefore dimmer, these planets don’t shine with their own light; they are bright only because they reflect the sun.

Likewise, the moon is a beautiful sight, but it doesn’t generate light on its own. It merely reflects it. Merely makes the reflection sound trivial, but this is actually a magnificent phenomenon. The moon was made to glorify the sun, and when it does, it shares in the sun’s glory. (If the moon were able to talk, wouldn’t we think it foolish if we heard it congratulate itself for how brightly it shines?)

So it is with all secondary sources of happiness. Things such as art, music, literature, sports, careers, and hobbies generate no light on their own. The light they bring comes from “the Father of lights” (James 1:17).

I don’t value the planets and moon less because they don’t shine by their own light. Likewise, I don’t devalue my wife, my children, my grandchildren, my coworkers, or my dog because they’re secondary to God and reflect Him. On the contrary, I value them all the more because the God who is primary has made them who and what they are, and He has endowed them with worth that makes them far more important than if they were merely random accidents with a flickering light of their own.

Happiness can be sought in thousands of places, but it can be found in only one. That source is God, who incredibly is “Christ in you” (Colossians 1:27). He is big enough to create the galaxies, yet He dwells in each of us who know Him.

Excerpted from 60 Days of Happiness. 

Watch the Full Sessions from My Eternity 101 Class for Free

Years ago, I enjoyed teaching an in-depth, 12-hour course on Heaven and the New Earth at Corban University. We had it filmed with the goal of providing a course that people can use for personal study, or in groups. (I was a bit younger, but the content has remained timeless!)

I am often asked to teach a class on Heaven in churches and schools, but time does not permit me to say yes. The good news is it’s already been done and recorded for you, and you can use it in your church, with your family, small group, Sunday school class, or any other way you wish.

John Eldredge says, “We can only hope for what we desire.” To this I would add a corollary: We can only desire what we can imagine. If you think you can’t imagine Heaven—or if you imagine it as something drab and unappealing—you can’t get excited about it. You can’t come with the childlike eagerness that God so highly values (Mark 10:15).

When you know you’re going on the trip of a lifetime, what do you do you? You prepare, you read about it and talk about it—maybe even take a class about that particular country and its customs and languages, foods, history, and features. You do what you can to get ready, and that feeds your excitement.

Well, the greatest journey, and certainly the greatest destination, any of us will ever travel to is Heaven, followed by the realm we will live in forever, the New Earth. (Since the New Earth will be literally Heaven on Earth, Scripture tells us far more about it than most people imagine!) I hope the videos of this class will help you prepare for that journey.

Consider how our misguided view of Heaven thwarts our joy and undermines our evangelism. Why would we want to share Christ so that others too can spend eternity in a boring ghostly place? Ironically, we know we should share the good news, but we aren’t convinced going to Heaven really is good news!

Yet all along God promises that we will live on a new earth in a new universe, reigning to His glory. We will behold wonders of God’s new creation beyond our wildest dreams. Forever delivered from the sin and death that once plagued us and our relationships, we will worship and work and rest and serve and laugh and feast and celebrate to God’s glory and our good.

Here’s a clip from the class, about how having a biblical view of Heaven can help us reach people with the gospel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_xXW-qfVPU?si=jxQkju878Aioerkx

And here’s the 55-minute video of session one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ui3EUgqUdI?si=gTJV7ZrcJqX81Y8U

I invite you to watch sessions 1 to 12 for free here. (EPM also offers free class resources, including a study guide with leader’s guide and an inductive study. And for those would prefer to watch the class on DVD, we offer it in our store.)

A viewer of the class sent our ministry these kind words: “My son passed to glory last year. Your video Eternity 101 got me through almost impossible days.”

Another one wrote, “I just wanted to let you know that my church youth group is watching your Eternity 101 DVD series for our youth Bible studies. I love it, and the rest of the group is thoroughly enjoying it as well. It's amazing how our view of Heaven can change how we live on earth.”

And here’s one more: “Our Bible study group just finished Eternity 101, and it was awesome! I've been a Bible believing Christian for years, and I was surprised at how many misconceptions I've had about Heaven.”

May studying about the life to come bring you great peace, happiness, and purpose!