Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 114

10-year-old Isaiah Read About Heaven and Is Now Experiencing It Firsthand

A friend shared this story and blog with me, about a precious family, the Simaos, who lost their son Isaiah last year after a tragic horseback riding accident. Isaiah’s oldest sister Sydney has written about their family’s experience and grief:

When tragedy strikes, faith does not make it hurt less. Grief is never easy. It makes us weak. But when you have nothing left in this world, the sovereignty and goodness and all the promises of God must become the rock you fall on by His grace because everything else has been stripped from under your feet. God has used this tragedy to draw us closer to Himself, as the burden of our pain and sorrow has pressed us deeper in the Rock that is higher than I. Writing on Isaiah’s story and our walk through grief has been an immense gift to me, as I dwell on the promises of God, and by His grace, share some of the hope I have in Him with others who may be made to walk a similar road.

In one of her posts, Sydney shared how Isaiah had been reading my Heaven book before his death. She wrote this while he was in the hospital on life support:

After we tucked the kids into bed tonight, Maya and I went into Isaiah’s room and crawled into his bed. He had the book that he’s been working his way through sitting next to his Avengers alarm clock. It’s the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn.

Isaiah asked if he could read it himself several weeks ago and has been working away at it every night. His bookmark was just beginning chapter 11. Some of the chapter titles that he has read include things like: “Can You Know You’re Going to Heaven?” “What Is Life Like in the Present Heaven?” and “This World Is Not Our Home.”

The last chapter he read in it is called, “What Will It Mean for the Curse to Be Lifted?” This is a passage from the last page of that chapter. He probably read it the night right before his accident, as he was going to sleep:

“How far does Christ’s redemptive work extend? Far as the curse is found…Redemption in Jesus Christ reaches just as far as the fall…Jesus…will transform our dying Earth into a vital New Earth, fresh and uncontaminated, no longer subject to death and destruction.

The Curse is real, but it is temporary. Jesus is the cure for the Curse. He came to set derailed human history back on its tracks. Earth won’t be put out of its misery; it will be infused with a greater life than it has ever known, at last becoming all that God meant for it to be.

We have never seen the earth as God made it. Our planet as we know it is a shadowy, halftone image of the original….If the present Earth, so diminished by the Curse, is at times so beautiful and wonderful; if our bodies, so diminished by the Curse, are at times overcome with a sense of the earth’s beauty and wonder; then how magnificent will the new earth be? And what will it be like to experience the New Earth in something else we’ve never known: perfect bodies?

…..Without Christ….mankind would be doomed. But Christ came, died, and rose from the grave. He brought deliverance, not destruction. Because of Christ, we are not doomed…Christ’s resurrection is the forerunner of our own.”

We had completely forgotten this was the book Isaiah was going through right now. We thought when he asked that it would be a little too heady for him, but he assured us enthusiastically that he was loving it every time we asked. Of course, God knew what He was doing.

Isaiah has professed faith in Christ and so he is twice our brother. He is also in the hands of our Great Father who is in Heaven. This morning, we read from John 11 with the kids, about two other sisters who were weeping for their brother. Jesus told them that this had happened so that His glory might be made manifest in him. He told them that He was the resurrection and that life, and all who believe in Him, though he dies, yet will he live. Jesus wept beside the tomb with them, but the story ends with Him crying: Lazarus! Come forth! And their brother came back from the grave.

We believe that Jesus is the Great Miracle Worker and the Great Physician. That He weeps and grieves for His flock and will never forsake us. We believe that He can bring Isaiah back to us, and that is our constant prayer.

But we also know that Lazarus’ resurrection pointed to the Great Resurrection. The Resurrection that Jesus brings forth in the hearts of all who trust in Him alone for salvation. We, who are dead in sin, cannot bring this work about in ourselves. Jesus comes to us while we are dead, while we are repulsive, while the odor of the grave is infiltrating every corrupted cell. And He weeps for us. And calls us by name. And commands us to Come Forth!

By His amazing grace, and His providential and sovereign plan before the foundations of the world, He chose Isaiah to call forth from the grave already. Isaiah is saved and therefore has only one ultimate destination. We want, oh so much, to have him here with us for a great time longer, but God’s timing is perfect, and He loves Isaiah with an everlasting love.

Thank you, Sydney and the Simao family, for sharing about Isaiah. May God wrap His arms around you and comfort you. I look forward to meeting Isaiah, and all of you, in a far better world, where suffering, pain, and sorrow will forever be a thing of the past:

On this mountain he will destroy the burial shroud, the shroud over all the peoples, the sheet covering all the nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people’s disgrace from the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken. On that day it will be said, “Look, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he has saved us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:7–9, CSB)

Encouragement to Men to Lead Their Families Spiritually

I share some advice for men about spiritually leading their families in this brief video:

I would challenge men to be the spiritual leaders of their homes. What does that look like on a daily basis? Open God’s Word with your wife, your children, and your grandchildren. Pray with them, talk with them, and guide them. Use the spiritual wisdom that God is giving you as you draw from His word daily, and share it with the people around you to make a difference in their lives.

And here are some further thoughts on how men can impact their families spiritually:

Family devotional times can be a great way of providing spiritual reference points which will lead to conversations throughout the week. When our children were younger we would read and discuss Bible stories. As they got older, we asked them to pick a story and read it. Sometimes at dinner I would read from Proverbs and invite their thoughts on the passage. These were rich conversations that prompted our daughters to tell us things they might otherwise not have mentioned.

Ask your children to try to put verses in their own words, and then apply them and report back the next day to the family. Their skill in application will dramatically develop—as will their love for the Lord.

Here are some related resources and books:

25 Ways to Lead Your Family Spiritually – radio broadcast from Dennis Rainey with Family Life Today

Game Plan for Life, by Joe Gibbs plus Tony Dungy, Ravi Zacharias, Tony Evans, Randy Alcorn, and others

Kingdom Man: Every Man's Destiny, Every Women's Dream, by Tony Evans

Quiet Strength, One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge, and Uncommon Manhood, by Tony Dungy

The Resolution for Men, by Alex and Stephen Kendrick, and Randy Alcorn

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Poor Interpretation Lets Us “Believe” the Bible While Denying What It Actually Says

I’ve been spending some time in Psalm 1 recently and have been reminded just how important delighting and meditating on God’s Word is. Here’s how the CSB renders it (note the use of “happy” in verse one for the Hebrew asher, often translated “blessed”):

1 How happy is the one who does not 
walk in the advice of the wicked 
or stand in the pathway with sinners 
or sit in the company of mockers!
2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction,
and he meditates on it day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams
that bears its fruit in its season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
4 The wicked are not like this;
instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

In order to delight and meditate on the law of the Lord, we must understand correctly what Scripture actually says. As people respond to my books, ask questions, and state opinions through emails and social media, I’m struck with how many say they believe the Bible, but their interpretations are so out of line with credible biblical meanings that their profession of confidence in Scripture becomes meaningless, and even dangerous. Not only is this happening more frequently today, it’s also being accepted as normal.

Historically, theological liberals denied Scripture, and everyone knew where they stood. But today many so-called evangelicals affirm their belief in Scripture, while attributing meanings to biblical texts that in fact deny what Scripture really says. Hence they “believe every word of the Bible” while actually embracing (and teaching) beliefs that utterly contradict it.

I’m not talking about mere differences within the sphere of orthodoxy, such as the debates between Calvinists and Arminians, or various interpretations for some of the most difficult problem passages or intramural squabbles about spiritual gifts or ordinances or church polity. I’m talking about people believing and confidently affirming that Scripture says what no one in the history of the church ever believed it says—or some people did say it but were easily recognized as heretics. (Universalism is just one example among many, though an important one.)

We rightly call upon people to read their Bibles, but it seems many spend much more time reading INTO the Bible than reading OUT of it. So nearly everything they read becomes merely an echo of what they already think or what most people around them are already saying. God gave us His Word to teach, rebuke, correct, and train our thinking (2 Timothy 3:16), not so we could interpret it away into something that’s just a mirror image of our preferred beliefs.

You can believe in the inspiration and even inerrancy of God’s Word, but because your subjective interpretation doesn’t center on the author’s (and Author’s) intention, but on what seems right to you and the secular or church culture, the Bible isn’t really your authority. You don’t let it correct your thinking but walk away with an interpretation which conveniently supports your comfortable beliefs.

If you’ve not yet watched John Piper’s most recent Look at the Book series, Finding Meaning in the Bible, I highly encourage you to do so. In one of the early sessions, he talks about The Golden Rule of Bible Reading. Just as we would like people to understand what we actually mean by our words, so we need to find the intended meaning of the biblical authors, not superimpose on Scripture our own preferred meanings.

This reminds me of the challenge small group Bible studies face where the main question can easily become “What does this passage mean to you?” instead of “What did it mean to the author and original readers?” Only when we ask that second question can we then figure out how to properly apply God’s Word to our own lives. (Of course there are numbers of passages where we can’t be 100% certain of the meaning. But overall, there is much clarity of meaning in Scripture. Otherwise, reading the Bible would be meaningless because the Holy Spirit could never change or transform us through words we can’t know the meaning of, or to which we can feel free to ascribe any meaning we wish.)

So we need to teach people not just to read the Bible but also how to interpret it, so they don’t end up being Bible-believing heretics or Jesus-followers who follow a Jesus different than the real Jesus of the Bible and history.

I find myself wishing people would know they are denying Scripture, and not feel free to use Scripture to deny Scripture. If you’re aware that you disbelieve and reject the Bible, there is hope because you can come under conviction to submit to God by denying your preferences and accepting what Scripture actually says. But if you imagine you believe the Bible all along, when in fact your interpretations contradict it, pride can blind you from knowing the truth and therefore the truth cannot set you free.

For more on this subject, see Randy's devotional Truth: A Bigger View of God's Word.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Your Suffering Can Be the Pathway to Greater Godliness

Mountain climbers could save time and energy if they reached the summit in a helicopter, but their ultimate purpose is conquest, not efficiency. Sure, they want to reach a goal, but they desire to do it by testing and deepening their character, discipline, and resolve.

God could create scientists, mathematicians, athletes, and musi­cians. He doesn’t. He creates children who take on those roles over a long process. God doesn’t make us fully Christlike the moment we’re born again. He conforms us to the image of Christ gradually: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

In our spiritual lives, as in our professional lives, and in sports and hobbies, we improve and excel by handling failure and learning from it. Only in cultivating discipline, endurance, and patience do we find satisfaction and reward. And those qualities are most devel­oped through some form of suffering.

God Uses It for Our Good

Instead of blaming doctors, drunk drivers, and criminals for our suffering, we should look for what God can accomplish through it (see Romans 8:28).

Why do God’s children undergo pressures, suffering, and deadly peril? Paul answers clearly: “that we might not rely on ourselves but on God” (2 Corinthians 1:11).

A victim of a great evil told me, “I learned that God wasn’t going to go down my checklist of happiness and fulfill it. I learned what it meant to sur­render to his will. Before, I wanted certain gifts from him; now I want him.”

For turning us toward God, sometimes nothing works like suf­fering. C. S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (The Problem of Pain). God uses suffering to bring us to the end of ourselves and back to Christ. And that’s worth any cost.

I write these words not from a lofty philosophical perch, but in the crucible of my precious wife Nanci’s battle against cancer. This is not theory to us; it is life. And we sense not only God’s presence, but also His purposes.

Our Suffering Often Includes Discipline

For us to be transformed increasingly into Christ’s likeness, we need God’s correction: “He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all dis­cipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:10–11, ESV).

Of course, God never punishes us to make us atone for our sins. He calls on us to accept, not repeat, Christ’s atonement (see Isaiah 53:5). But He does give us a clear reason for disciplining us: “that we may share in his holiness.”

C. S. Lewis spoke of God’s discipline this way:

But suppose that what you are up against is a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good. The kinder and more conscien­tious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting. If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would have been useless.... What do people mean when they say, “I am not afraid of God because I know He is good”? Have they never even been to a dentist? (A Grief Observed)

Let Suffering Reveal Your Idols

Suffering also exposes idols in our lives. It uncovers our trust in God-substitutes and declares our need to transfer our trust to the only One who can bear its weight.

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall” (Proverbs 18:10–11). God uses any means necessary to tear down whatever we hide behind. Your job, reputation, accomplishments, or material possessions may be your fortified city or your imaginary, unscalable wall. But anything less than God Himself will come up short: “My people have com­mitted two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

We may imagine God as our genie who comes to do our bid­ding. Suffering wakes us up to the fact that we serve Him, not He us. Diseases, accidents, and natural disasters remind us of our extreme vulnerability; life is out of our control.

We must relinquish our idol of control that causes us to believe we can prevent all bad things from happening, or correct their byproducts. God reminds us, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). We don’t even belong to ourselves: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

We should repeatedly tell our Lord, “This house is yours. The money, this body, and these children belong to you. You own the title deed; you own the rights; you have the power of life and death.” It becomes much easier to trust God when we understand that whatever He takes away belonged to him in the first place (see Job 1:21).

Count It All Joy

We come into this world needy and leave it the same way. Without suffering we quickly forget our neediness. If suffering seems too high a price for faith, it’s because we underestimate faith’s value.

James 1:2-4 tells us, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

How can we possibly obey this command to welcome difficulties instead of resenting them? By trusting that God tells the truth when he says these make us more like Jesus, increase our endurance, expand our ministry, and prepare us for eternal joy.

Perseverance through suffering, for Christ’s glory, is the sure pathway to godliness. May our God of grace and kindness grant us His peace, and immerse us in His presence, as we walk that road—and may He remind us both that He walked the road before us and walks it with us now.

Photo by Micah Hallahan on Unsplash

While You’re Waiting on God, He’s Working

In a time of suffering, David affirmed this: 

The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?... Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confi­dent.... Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.... I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. (Psalm 27:1, 3, 10, 13–14)

Notice how David talks to himself about God’s faithfulness and goodness, then encourages himself to wait on God. Self-talk is often misguided, but it’s terrific when it involves speaking God’s Word. David tells himself twice to wait for God, and uses His personal name: Wait for Yahweh, the God who is, and who is at work, and who is at work for you and me.

My wife Nanci, who is currently undergoing chemo treatments, is now reading several books, including The Joy of Fearing God by Jerry Bridges and Waiting on God by Andrew Murray (a South African writer, teacher, and Christian pastor, 1828-1917). She said this week in an email to a few friends, “I am learning that ‘waiting’ is an enormous tool that God uses in His working, both in our hearts, and in His purposes to be accomplished. In the ‘waiting,’ He is ‘working.’”

Then she quoted from Murray’s Waiting on God:

When you first begin waiting on God, it is with frequent intermission and failure. But, do believe God is watching over you in love and secretly strengthening you in it. There are times when waiting appears like just losing time, but it is not so. Waiting, even in darkness, is unconscious advance, because it is God you have to do with, and He is working in you. God, who calls you to wait on Him, sees your feeble efforts and works it in you. Your spiritual life is in no respect your own work; as little as you begin it, can you continue it. It is God’s Spirit who has begun the work in you of waiting upon God. He will enable you to wait continually.

Waiting continually will be met and rewarded by God Himself working continually. We are coming to the end of our lessons. I hope that you and I might learn one thing: God must, God will work continually. He ever does work continually, but the experience of it is hindered by unbelief. But, He, who by His Spirit teaches you to wait continually, will bring you also to experience how, as the Everlasting One, His work is never ceasing. In the love and the life and the work of God, there can be no break, no interruption.

Do not limit God in this by your thoughts of what may be expected. Do fix your eyes upon this one truth: in His very nature, God, as the only Giver of life, cannot do anything other than work in His child every moment. Do not look only at the one side: “If I wait continually, God will work continually.” No, look at the other side. Place God first and say, “God works continually; every moment I may wait on Him continually.” Take time until the vision of your God working continually, without one moment’s intermission, fills your being. Your waiting continually will then come of itself. Full of trust and joy, the holy habit of the soul will be: “on thee do I wait all the day “PS. 25:5. The Holy Spirit will keep you ever waiting.

My soul, wait thou only upon God!

Also, recording artist Jackie Hill Perry was recently on the Ask Pastor John podcast, and talked about waiting on God. It’s great stuff, a contemporary voice expressing in different words what Andrew Murray spoke of.

Photo by Jose Llamas on Unsplash

Shouldn’t We Share Our Concerns About a Book Directly with the Author Instead of in the Public Forum?

Recently someone asked me, “When you have concerns about a book, and disagree with it, shouldn’t you talk directly to the author rather than posting about it on your blog?”

In some cases, yes. I’ve gone directly to authors when I have a relationship with them, in the spirit of Matthew 18:15-17. For example, for years I didn’t share my review of The Shack publicly, and just emailed it directly to those who asked me about the book. Because the author and I live in the same area, I was able to invite him to discuss his book. We sat down in a coffee shop for nearly three hours in constructive dialogue. After we talked about a lot of things, I read to him most of the parts of the book that concerned me. When we met together face-to-face, he graciously agreed to respond to my questions, as I had underlined many places in the book where he has God make statements that I believe are not biblically accurate. I actually met with him a second time to discuss the issues.

When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to revise the book in light of the doctrinal concerns that I and many others have expressed, and because the book’s influence was growing and I was still getting questions about it, it seemed appropriate to finally post on my blog a link to what I wrote years before.

However, Matthew 18 addresses the need to go to people privately when they’ve sinned against us, or perhaps when we’ve sinned against them. But I’ve never read a book where I think the author has sinned against me, or I’ve sinned against the author. The author publicly takes a stand, so any ideas in the book are subject to public disagreement. This comes with the territory of being an author. After writing 55 books this is something I’ve long accepted. People routinely criticize my works and ideas, and they absolutely have the right to do so. I don’t lose sleep over that. True, sometimes I feel they have no regard for what I’ve said in context, and that they’re misrepresenting me. But I too have the right to say that just as they have the right to criticize me.

Also, often it’s simply not practical to connect directly with an author, since we don’t have a relationship. In such cases I can certainly hope and pray there are others in their lives who are willing to speak the truth in love to them. I have personally contacted several people with concerns about what they’ve said, and never heard back from them. I get that. Honestly, there are so many people who’ve taken issue with me on various things I’ve written, that often one of our staff members ends up addressing their concerns.

I could spend the rest of my life trying to respond to people’s objections and never be able to do anything else again. So I fully understand the limits of time to respond.

I think what’s central to this issue is that a book is by nature something placed in the public sphere, and is no longer a private matter. When it impacts and influences Christian readers, sometimes after careful consideration, I might feel the need to point out doctrinal and theological issues that readers should be aware of. I believe that just as others are free to do so, I am also.

Those who regularly read my blog know how rare it is for me to express opposition to a book or author. I only do so when I feel God is compelling me to. In each review of a book where I share concerns, I am not attacking the author, but rather simply expressing honest disagreement. Usually my disagreements are with some—not all—of the things he or she says.

Yes, we should all examine our hearts and motives before sharing a review. Yet every published book is fair game for honest evaluation. My books have received their share of criticism, but still I appreciate it when people are even-handed and kind, as I seek to be in my posts. My heart isn’t to tear down others or cause unnecessary division in the Church. (Ironically, some people have judged my motives while calling me judgmental.)

Scripture is clear: we’re to know the truth (1 Timothy 4:3), handle the truth accurately (2 Timothy 2:15), and avoid doctrinal untruths (2 Timothy 2:18). But even as we share what we believe honors and reflects God’s revealed truth, we are to be full of grace, humility, and gentleness. An author isn’t necessarily an opponent, but the principle found in 2 Timothy 2:25 still applies: “Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth.”

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Three Ways Parents Can Pray for Their Prodigal Children

There are few things in life as difficult and painful as watching your children walk away from Christ. For those whose hearts have been broken by their children’s rebellion, never give up on them. No matter how difficult their struggle, as long as they’re alive, God can change them.

Pray for your children (and grandchildren). Once they’re grown and on their own, sometimes it’s nearly the only thing you can do for them. But it’s always the best thing. Since God is on the throne, and your power is so limited, walk away from your efforts long enough to ask Him to exercise His omnipotence to do what’s best in your children’s lives.

I appreciated this beautiful article, originally posted on Desiring God, which was written by a prodigal who has come home. Sarah Walton shares three prayers parents can pray over their lost children. —Randy Alcorn

(Parents may also like to check out the book Prayers for Prodigals, recommended by one of our staff members.)

I once was that prodigal child — lost, angry, and struggling to find my identity. Hardened on the outside, but deeply hurting within. The pain of my choices was not only destroying me, but creating heartache within our family and severing my relationships with the people who loved me most.

By God’s grace, my parents did not give up on me — despite how tempting it must have been at times. Instead, they entrusted my life to God, prayed for my brokenness, and fought for me in prayers that God eventually answered.

Parents, if you are raising a seemingly hard-hearted, rebellious son or daughter (whether outwardly or inwardly), I challenge you to take up your arms, fight the spiritual battle that rages over them with all of your God-given strength, and refuse to give up on their life.

I encourage you to pray these three prayers over lost children.

1. Pray for a heart of brokenness, no matter the earthly cost.

It’s incredibly hard to pray for anything but a comfortable, successful, and pain-free life for our children. But as Christian parents, the greatest eternal good that we can pray for them is their salvation over their earthly happiness or comfort. We have to fight for them in this world filled with temporary pleasures, self-gratification, and blurry lines — entrusting their lives to our Lord — even if the path of salvation comes through pain.

I am eternally grateful that my parents loved me enough to pray for my brokenness, a brokenness that would lead to healing.

And my path of brokenness nearly killed me.

After a devastating loss of my identity as an athlete and hidden abuse from peers, my life spiraled out of control. I searched for identity and purpose in anything but Jesus. As self-destructive patterns drove me deeper into despair, I longed for an escape from this world, ultimately landing me in the protection of a hospital.

In that stark white hospital room, the choice before me was clear: be crushed by the weight of my sin or lay the broken pieces of my life at his feet. By his grace, he led me to my knees and has been redeeming those broken pieces ever since.

We will only be bold enough to pray a prayer of brokenness over our children when we ourselves have been broken before God and trust his love for our children and us. It’s only when we have completely surrendered our children to him that we can pray, “Father, use what you must to save my child from an eternity apart from you, no matter the cost.”

2. Pray against the enemy’s desire to have them.

A battle is being waged over our children’s lives. We have to fight for them, especially when blindness keeps them from fighting the battle themselves.

I remember my mom telling me the story of a time when I was standing in the kitchen with her, angry at the world, and taking it out on her. She looked at me and said boldly, “I am fighting for you, and I won’t let Satan have victory over your life!” After she spoke those words, I fell into a heap on the floor and burst into tears.

Although we don’t have a guarantee of our children’s salvation or the outcome we may desire, we can be confident that God is faithful to his promises and hears our prayers. One of the great weapons God has given parents to fight against the world’s pull and the enemy’s schemes over their children is to pray the way Christ did for Peter: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31–32).

Although Peter was a believer and the children we are praying for may not be, we can still pray to God that he would rescue our children from the power of Satan, give them faith in Christ, and use their lives to advance the gospel and strengthen other believers.

3. Pray specific Scripture over their life.

Even if your child wants nothing to do with the truth and hates to hear the word of God, they can do nothing to stop you from praying Scripture for them. This is another mighty weapon God has given to parents.

My parents prayed Psalm 18:16–19 over my life and prayed it often:

He sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me.

It truly amazes me to look back and see how faithful God was to answer this prayer. I was drowning in self-destruction, abuse from others, rebelliousness, and sorrows too deep to understand at the time. God, in his mercy, drew me out of many deep waters, and rescued me from my own flesh and Satan’s desire for me.

As I sat in a hospital room, no longer wanting to live, God rescued me, brought me out into a broad place, and showed me that he delighted in me (despite my unworthiness). He has continued to be faithful to this prayer, upholding me through many deep waters and carrying me through many dark days.

Parents, no matter how far your child seems to be from Jesus or what path they are on, you can fight for their life with the powerful weapon of God’s word.

The Power of a Praying Parent

The truth is, while we must teach and train our children, and put boundaries in place, we have no control over their hearts. Ultimately, God alone can fill their hearts with a love for Christ and open their eyes to see the beauty and glory of who he is.

I am learning this on a new level and from a different perspective as I now face struggles with my own children that often tempt me to despair. But we are not helpless, and we are never hopeless. Whether our children are young or old, have soft hearts or hearts of stone, we have the power of prayer, God’s living word, and a sovereign God we can trust.

Our Father in heaven loves to take seemingly hopeless lives, like my own once was, and show himself merciful and mighty. Give your child the gift of prayer, and trust that God will use his or her life for his good purposes — growing and transforming your own life in the process.

This article originally appeared on DesiringGod.org . It is used by permission of the author.

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Some Day, Jesus Will Make It Plain

When I’m asked who my favorite character from my novels is, I always say it’s Obadiah Abernathy in Dominion, who played baseball in the old Negro leagues. He modeled dignity, grace, wisdom, and humor. My sports inspiration for Obadiah was Buck O’Neil of the Kansas City Monarchs, but my spiritual inspiration was John Perkins. Whenever I wrote dialogue for Obadiah, I asked myself, What would John say?

Here’s an excerpt from the book, where Obadiah shares thoughts with his family and sings a hymn:

Obadiah looked around the table, and Clarence could almost hear an abrupt gear change in his daddy’s head. “You know what’s missin’ in churches these days?” “What’s that, Daddy?” Clarence asked.

“The mourner’s bench. ’Member our old church in Puckett? They had a mourner’s bench. That was back in the days when you didn’t need no theologian to explain away the Bible. We just believed it. And tried to live by it. ’Member ol’ Reverend Charo, Clarence?”

“Yes, Daddy.”

“Now that was a preacher. Man had more points than a thornbush.” Obadiah smiled broadly, his white teeth looking like piano ivories. “The Reverend used to say from the pulpit in this big loud voice, ‘It’s no disgrace to be colored.’ Then he’d pause and lean forward and wink at us and whisper, ‘It’s just awfully inconvenient.’”

Obadiah laughed and laughed, mostly on his own, though Geneva managed a few chuckles herself.

“Sunday was the finest day of the week, I reckon. We’d leave behind those cotton fields, that ol’ ramshackle house, and come to the house of God. Without Sundays, we woulda shriveled up and died, worked ourselves to the grave ’fore we was fifty years ol’. We’d put on our Sunday best. Mama, she’d put wheat starch in my collar to glue down the threads on my one white shirt. I’d pick the trousers with the fewest holes. We’d walk the four miles to Sunday school, rain or shine. And we had fun walkin’. Ol’ Elijah and me, we was always cookin’ up mischief along the way.”

He looked right at Jonah and Ty and nodded, as an old man who’s never forgotten what it is to be young. Everyone’s eyes focused on Granddaddy. Frail as Obadiah’s body had become, his eyes were strong and he still carried the indomitable authority of a senior black man.

“Pastor served four churches, so he’d be there once a month. We’d take a break after Sunday school, then have a big service. Preacher go up there and say, ‘Remember your mama? How she used to hug you and tuck you in? But she gone now. Can’t tuck you in no more.’ And he’d carry on and on, till we was all snifflin’ and sobbin’. He’d keep remindin’ us of our grandmammies and all our kin that died until we was almost in a frenzy. Then he’d shout, ‘But someday you goin’ to see yo’ mama again. Some day you goin’ to heaven, if you loves Jesus, and there she be—arm’s awide open, waitin’ fo’ you. How many o’ you can hardly wait for that day?’”

Obadiah’s voice had taken on the strength of the preacher’s from seventy-five years ago. “People, they be shoutin’ and clappin’, twitchin’ and tremblin.’ Not like some churches where it’s just a lecture and they has to stop at an hour so you don’t falls asleep. Now, your churches today, they don’t preach about heaven no mo’, not like that anyways. Not like that. Maybe nowadays we thinks this world’s our home. Maybe that’s whys we’s in so much trouble.”

…He scanned the children to decide which to light his eyes on, and this time chose Keisha.

“We’d come together and focus on a better life—the life to come. Always read the Scripture that said we was strangers and aliens and pilgrims. Slave stock understood that. Property owners never did. See, Keisha, black folk couldn’t own property back then. A few did, but very few. We was sharecroppers; our pappies was slaves. We knew this wasn’t our home. It’s harder when you think you own things yourself. ’Cause then you starts actin’ like a big shot owner instead of a tenant. This here is God’s world, chillens. No man owns anything. We’s all just sharecroppers on God’s land. But he never cheats us—come harvest time, he’ll give us the rewards of our labor.”

“Doesn’t seem that way sometimes, Daddy,” Clarence said. Geneva looked startled. She didn’t remember him ever taking issue with his daddy in front of the children, at least not on spiritual matters. “Lots of bad things happen in this world. Seems like sometimes our labor doesn’t pay off.”

“That’s because it ain’t harvest time yet, Son. You jus’ wait. You jus’ wait.”

“I’m tired of always waiting.”

“You trust him, boy, and yo’ sweet Jesus ain’t gonna let you down. These television preachers make it sound like today’s the harvest. Give a bunch o’ money and next thing you know there’s a big Cadillac in your driveway. Show me the chapter and verse fo’ that one, will ya? God say at the proper time we’ll reap a harvest, if we don’t give up. Proper time ain’t here yet. Don’t give up, Son. Just don’t give up.”

The old man’s eyes started to glaze. His mouth kept moving, but he was in transition. “I remembers those ol’ songs, songs black as night, black as the raven. ‘Steal away.’ ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.’ ‘I’ll Fly Away.’ ‘Just Over in Glory Land.’ ‘In the Sweet By-and-By.’ We always sung about ‘one day acomin.’ We knew this weren’t the day.”

Obadiah was somewhere else now. Was he thinking about his mama? Clarence wondered. His wife? His daughter? Little Felicia?

Suddenly, so low and quiet you could barely hear, he began singing a song Clarence vaguely remembered from childhood. “I does not know why all aroun’ me, my hopes all shattered seem to be. God’s perfect plan I cannot see. But one day, someday, he’ll make it plain.”

…“I don’t understand,” the old man continued to sing, “my struggles now, why I suffer and feel so bad. But one day, someday, he’ll make it plain. Someday when I his face shall see, someday from tears I shall be free, yes, someday I’ll understand.”

A reader recently asked me what song those lyrics Obadiah sings are from. They are a slightly revised version of “Some Day He’ll Make It Plain,” with words by Lida S. Leech and music by Adam Geibel. He wrote the melody in 1911 after his son-in-law died in a steel mill explosion. Be sure to check out this audio devotional from Joni Eareckson Tada, who shares a precious recording of her mom singing the hymn.

Photo by Brunel Johnson on Unsplash

We Need to Regain and Teach an Understanding of the Physical Nature of the Resurrection

Many Bible-believing Christians today are crippled by their unbiblical view of the life to come. This is why I have written at length on the subject of Heaven, putting primary emphasis on the resurrection and eternal state centered on the New Earth.

Ironically, there are believers who would die rather than deny the resurrection, yet they actually don’t understand or believe what the doctrine of the resurrection means! Despite the centrality of the resurrection in Scripture and church history, many of them have never been clearly taught its meaning, so they imagine they’ll live forever in a disembodied state.

But this predominant viewpoint is self-contradictory. A nonphysical resurrection is like a sunless sunrise. There’s no such thing. Resurrection means we will have bodies! If we didn’t have bodies, we wouldn’t be resurrected.

Christ’s resurrection body demonstrated what our own will be like: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39).

It’s no coincidence that the Apostle Paul’s detailed defense of the physical resurrection was written to the church at Corinth. Corinthian believers were immersed in the Greek philosophies of Platonism and dualism, which perceived a dichotomy between the spiritual and physical realms.

Platonists see a disembodied soul as the ideal. The Bible, meanwhile, sees this division as unnatural and undesirable. We are unified beings. That’s what makes bodily resurrection so vital. That’s also why Paul said that if there is no resurrection, “we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). The truth is, God intends for our bodies, once raised, to last as long as our souls.

In an article for First Things, Abigail Rine Favale writes about “Evangelical Gnosticism” and the need for Christians to regain an understanding of what the resurrection means:

I teach in a great books program at an Evangelical university. Almost all students in the program are born-and-bred Christians of the nondenominational variety. A number of them have been both thoroughly churched and educated through Christian schools or homeschooling curricula. Yet an overwhelming majority of these students do not believe in a bodily resurrection. While they trust in an afterlife of eternal bliss with God, most of them assume this will be disembodied bliss, in which the soul is finally free of its “meat suit” (a term they fondly use).

I first caught wind of this striking divergence from Christian orthodoxy in class last year, when we encountered Stoic visions of the afterlife. Cicero, for one, describes the body as a prison from which the immortal soul is mercifully freed upon death, whereas Seneca views the body as “nothing more or less than a fetter on my freedom,” one eventually “dissolved” when the soul is set loose. These conceptions were quite attractive to the students.

Resistance to the idea of a physical resurrection struck them as perfectly logical. “It doesn’t feel right to say there’s a human body in heaven, when the body is tied so closely to sin,” said one student. In all, fewer than ten of my forty students affirmed the orthodox teaching that we will ultimately have a body in our glorified, heavenly form. None of them realizes that these beliefs are unorthodox; this is not willful doctrinal error. This is an absence of knowledge about the foundational tenets of historical, creedal Christianity.

Read the rest.

A 1997 poll of Americans found that of those who believe in a resurrection of the dead, two-thirds believe they will not have bodies after the resurrection. [1] Unfortunately, as the above article demonstrates, twenty years later many Christians are still laboring under a false understanding of the resurrection.

In response to Abigail’s article, one Christian university professor wrote on Twitter, “I did not believe this was true of my students, so I polled two of my classes today. I was floored (and dismayed) to discover the vast majority don’t believe in the bodily resurrection.” Later he wrote, “After five minutes of discussion most of them were more open to the idea.” This is encouraging, as I believe most believers are interested in learning the real biblical meaning of the resurrection (the fact that we have a physical eternity to look forward to is good news!)

So why does all this matter? Because if we don’t get the resurrection of the body right, we’ll get nothing else right concerning our eternal future. I agree with Abigail’s assessment: “The tenet of the bodily resurrection is not a peripheral doctrinal issue. It is part of the entire economy of salvation.” It’s therefore critical that we not merely affirm the resurrection of the dead as a point of doctrine but that we understand the meaning of the resurrection we affirm.

For more on the eternal life that awaits us, see Randy’s book Heaven. You can also browse additional books and resources on Heaven available from EPM.

[1] Time (March 24, 1997): 75, quoted in Paul Marshall with Lela Gilbert, Heaven Is Not My Home: Learning to Live in God’s Creation (Nashville: Word, 1998), 234.

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The Best Gift I Brought to a Dying Friend

Today’s guest post is by EPM staff member Shauna Hernandez. I so appreciate the thoughts she shares about saying goodbye just a few weeks ago to Karen Coleman, our beloved coworker and friend. —Randy Alcorn

Recently, I was preparing to visit my friend and coworker, Karen, who was dying of cancer, and I was a bundle of nerves. This was my third significant loss in the past year and a half and I wasn’t sure I could actually go through with seeing her. My soul was tired. My emotions were wrecked. But my God was, and is, faithful.

For days, I was stressing about this visit to Karen. My mom passed away a year and a half ago and this would be the first time since her passing that I visited someone this close to death. I shared my fears with my husband and decided to go ahead and see her. I wanted to say goodbye for now and also, though it may have been selfish, I thought it would help in my personal grieving process. I asked another coworker if we could go together as I surely couldn’t do it alone. We decided we’d go on Friday, and so for the next several days, my mind was filled with this visit.

As I was preparing that week to see her, the question “But what do I bring her?” crossed my mind. Flowers? Chocolate? A fluffy stuffed animal? Certainly none of these things are bad, but they all seemed SO insignificant for the visit. None of them seemed to hit the mark for the extraordinary lady I was about to say goodbye to.

So empty handed, I entered her room that day. She was awake and quietly laying on her hospice bed in a bright, sun-filled room with huge windows that looked out on the yard filled with green grass and big trees. What a room of peace! My time with her was short and simple. I gave her hand a squeeze and told her I loved her. She returned the words to me and asked me to pass along her hello to my husband (what a thoughtful lady!).

About five minutes later, our sweet time was over. I was filled with thankfulness—I was thankful the Lord gave me the courage to see Karen that day. Thankful that I had the gift of living life with her for a few years. Thankful that Jesus defeated death and this truly isn’t the last time I’ll see her or other people I’ve lost. Thankful for the dear people taking care of my friend. Thankful I ended up just bringing myself and not a little “trinket” that to me would have been only a formality. Karen passed away less than two days later, and I was so thankful God gave me those precious five minutes.

So, for me, I didn’t need to bring a “thing” for Karen, for she was going to a place where she wouldn’t need it anyway!

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). Karen is now enjoying the presence of her Lord, whom she served so faithfully.

You lived life well, dear sister. I’ll see you again and can’t wait until that day!  

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