Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 119

Learn to Pace Your Life Race

Some years ago the women’s competition in the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon had one of the most dramatic endings in sports history. Coming into the final stretch with a comfortable lead, the triathlete reached the very end of her reserves. She slowed, staggered, then collapsed within sight of the finish line. Her mind and body were barely functioning. It was a pathetic and frightening sight.

Determined to win, she crawled toward the finish line, only to be passed by a competitor at the last moment.

The crowd and the commentators had the same reaction—too bad she lost. But even if she would have won, what a terrible price to pay!

This memorable moment illustrates a critical principle for Christians today. Life is not a sprint to be run with reckless abandon. It is a marathon to be run with care and thoughtfulness, saving bursts of speed for when they are necessary, but allowing time to recover before the next burst. The twenty-six miles of a marathon must be run strategically. The runner must conserve energy, monitor, then pace herself according to energy reserves. Otherwise, no matter how fast she may have started the race, she will end up losing, collapsed in a heap short of the finish line.

Some of us are tortoises (type B’s), some of us are hares (type A’s). The hares run themselves ragged, pleased that they’re getting more done and getting it done faster than the tortoises. The tortoises burn energy slowly but surely, getting the job done but not raising their blood pressure much in the process. While the hares start off with a great lead, they end up spending so much time sick, run down, and weighed down that the tortoises pass them by, getting more done in the long run, and in the process living longer and better lives.

Some cars are still going strong with 200,000 miles on them; others are sputtering at 60,000 miles and goners at 80,000. All of us need to go down some bumpy roads in life, and occasionally we need to speed. But if we race through life with throttles wide open, if our most traveled roads are full of chuckholes…how long can we expect to last? How much mileage will we get out of our lives?

Christian stewardship is much more than what we do with our money. It begins with what we do with ourselves. We must see taking care of ourselves—spiritually, psychologically, and physically—as an investment.

God’s words are called “life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body” (Proverbs 4:22). God chose Solomon’s words to his son to be part of His own Word given to His children:

My son, do not forget my teaching,
But keep my commands in your heart,
for they will prolong your life many years
and bring you prosperity. (Proverbs 3:1–2)

Listen, my son, accept what I say,
and the years of your life will be many. (Proverbs 4:10)

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
For through me your days will be many,
and years will be added to your life. (Proverbs 9:10–11)

The fear of the LORD adds length to life,
but the years of the wicked are cut short. (Proverbs 10:27)

If we live according to God’s principles, we will withdraw in daily meditation of His Word, develop godly perspective, learn to manage our emotions, and learn to eat, exercise, and rest properly to care for our physical bodies, the temples of His Spirit. Can living by God’s prescription really help us live longer?

These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. (Deuteronomy 6:1–2, italics mine)

Of course, we have no guarantee of long life on this earth. God may have other, better plans for us. God is sovereign and there are accidents and diseases completely out of our control. There is no unconditional promise that faithful people will live long lives. Indeed, as the many martyrs around the world prove, God’s people sometimes die young because they are faithful. I do not believe in the health and wealth gospel. But I do believe God has entrusted to us the stewardship of our bodies and our lives. We can take good care of them, and leave our lifespans up to Him.

Let’s put the emphasis on the word enjoy from Deuteronomy 6, “so that you may enjoy long life.” We’re talking about quality of life. Those who pace themselves are invariably the most contented and refreshed people. They have more to offer their families, their friends, their church, their ministry. They’re more enjoyable to be around, they enjoy being around, and—all things being equal—they’re around longer to enjoy.

Sure, some people may pamper themselves unnecessarily and use stress as an excuse for avoiding their responsibilities. But we’ve talked with far more people who are so responsibility conscious, so totally committed to their tasks that they feel guilty caring for themselves. They think it’s selfish to take a nap, and unspiritual to send out for pizza. At best they feel it’s an imposition and at worst a sin to ask for help. If this describes you, change the way you think and start taking care of yourself or you’ll bequeath to those who love you a broken and burned out person.

Jesus came that we might have abundant life, not just in Heaven but on earth. How rich and rewarding is your life? How much more rich and rewarding could it be with a daily maintenance plan for the body and soul God has entrusted to your care?

Let’s open up the windows of our lives, learning not just to survive but thrive. Let’s learn to pace our race, and throughout our days look to God as our Creator and Redeemer.

Adapted from Randy and Nanci Alcorn's book Help for Women Under Stress. 

Photo by Andrew Tanglao on Unsplash

A Challenge for American Believers to Remember and Write for the Rest of the World, Too

I read the article below, by my friend Dan Balow, and appreciated the challenge he shared for writers. This was found on the blog of Media Associates International (MAI), a great ministry that equips and encourages talented men and women with a passion for producing Christian literature for their own people. They focus on countries with few Christians and little publishing activity. EPM has supported their work, and I recommend you consider supporting it, too. 

A little about Dan: he’s director of publishing development and a non-fiction literary agent with The Steve Laube Agency. He’s also the president and publisher of Gilead Publishing, which publishes Christian-themed fiction. He has a large and diverse amount of experience in the publishing world, so he has credibility in what he says here:

The majority of Christian books published every year are written in English by authors in the United States. U.S. Christian publishers in a billion dollar industry publish many thousands of new titles every year.

Still, I am not sure all American authors who desire to have their books spread across the globe and translated into various languages have the credentials nor the global insight to be telling the rest of the world how to live and grow in their faith.

How’s that for a cheery perspective?

An American perspective on the Bible is not always a universal one, applicable to every people group, language and country. This is why relatively few Christian books published in the United States find their way into translated editions or exported around the world.

Even the Bible has portions which need to be seen through the eyes of a Middle Eastern, Mediterranean culture before it can be truly understood.

Here are a variety of anecdotal pieces of information, which I believe create barriers to American Christian authors when they attempt to speak to the world:

During World War II, from 1939-1945, over 3% of the population of the world died either directly or indirectly as a result of the war. The United States lost 1/10th of this percentage or around one third of one percent. If the US followed the average of the rest of the world, we would have had over four million people killed. Certainly the 400,000 who died were far too many, but maybe we should have a little more understanding for the permanent damage to culture for countries like Russia who lost between 10-15% of their entire population, or the Philippines, who lost over 500,000 of their 16 million citizens and Ukraine who lost close to seven million people, a sixth of their population at the time.

Life has been difficult everywhere. Comparatively speaking it has been far less difficult in the United States. Treat other peoples with respect and understanding.

Middle class America is not something experienced by the vast majority of the world’s Christians. Since most Christian authors in the US come from this group, this fact alone should build in a great deal of humility and caution for Christian writers.

When you write globally, consider yourself less important and entitled than you might be accustomed. More Scripture, less you.

American Christians experience a level and variety of religious freedom largely unknown in the rest of the world. We have more Christian books, Bibles and Christian media than the rest of the world combined. The total number of Christian books published in a month in America outnumbers the total number of Christian books ever published in some languages and countries. American access to the Bible and places of worship is unparalleled.

American Christians have comparatively little to complain about. Be careful when addressing issues of Christian persecution and difficulties.

So, what is the point of this counter-perspective today?

When writing from their experience alone, American Christian authors have very little to say to the rest of the world’s Christians. If an American Christian author desires to write for believers in other languages and countries, they need to see their faith on a deeper level, writing from great humility and a Scripture-focused perspective.

Still, the American Christian perspective is not always a universal one.

Authors can write about anything they want in this country. You don’t need to apologize for your life or experience. But if your desire is to write to help believers in other languages or countries, you need to see your work and message from their perspective.

If you use examples to illustrate your points about the stress of driving your SUV five miles to the Home Depot to pick up building materials for the pergola over your backyard patio, your spiritual point and credibility will be lost among the shaking heads.

The writing of Christian books to people culturally similar to you is a great privilege and responsibility. Writing to encourage people not like you is an even more daunting task.  Walk carefully and with great spiritual humility.

A great joy of mine has been to see my books translated into over seventy languages from around the world, including Chinese, Ukrainian, Nepali, Turkish, and Norwegian. (See the full list, which is broken down both by languages and by individual books.) But there are always expressions, figures of speech, and illustrations which need to be altered during translation, to make them culturally relevant and understandable.

One of the illustrations I use in The Treasure Principle of the futility of storing up treasures on earth is people who held onto huge boxes full of Confederate currency that became worthless as soon as the Civil War was over. Obviously that story is meaningless to someone who knows nothing of the American Civil War and Confederate currency! So the translator will have to help me out by finding the equivalent of that illustration in his own culture. If he looks hard he can probably find it.

As Dan explains, we don’t have to feel badly about writing specifically to people who live in places and situations similar to us, but there is power in focusing on God’s Word and writing about how it applies to our lives, regardless of where and how we live. I try to keep this mind as I write, knowing that eventually my books may be read by people from around the world. I believe that what’s truly lasting and eternity-impacting will be the parts which center on God’s powerful Word, which He says will not return to Him empty (Isaiah 55:11).

Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash

An Important Case Concerning Pregnancy Resource Centers Is Headed to the Supreme Court March 20

I was privileged to serve on the board of the first Pregnancy Resource Center (now under the umbrella of First Image) in the Portland, Oregon area back in 1983. At that time there were only 12 to 15 others in the whole country. Now there are 2,500! It’s amazing how far the movement has come, and how many lives have been changed and saved because of it. (For example, First Image reports that last year 2,850 women were seen in the Portland centers; 850 of those women were given ultrasounds which resulted in 94% of them deciding to carry their babies to term!)

PRCs display the heart of God for the child (fatherless) and the widow (abandoned). As the most affluent society in history, we are sometimes hard-pressed to find the truly desperately needy. But for many of the women facing unplanned pregnancies, we encounter the combination of those who haven’t heard the gospel and who need practical, life-saving counsel and resources. As staff and volunteers quietly care for women and the unborn—from supplying clothing and diapers, to providing peer counseling and parenting classes—their compassionate outreach breaks the old stereotype of only being concerned about the unborn, but not the woman or the baby after birth.

Because of their tremendous impact, it’s not surprising that PRCs are often attacked by the pro-abortion movement through restrictive legislation and other means. David French explains about a law passed in 2015:

The state of California has enacted a law, the so-called FACT Act, that requires pro-life crisis-pregnancy centers to prominently place a notice informing clients that California offers low-cost and even free abortions to women who qualify and providing them a phone number that grants quick access to abortion clinics.

In other words, California is requiring pro-life professionals—people who’ve dedicated their lives to protecting the unborn by offering pregnant mothers alternatives to abortion—to advertise state-sponsored abortions. California is making this demand even though it has ample opportunity to advertise state services without forcing pro-life citizens to do so.

…And the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the FACT Act is constitutional. To validate California’s oppressive act, its decision carved out a dangerous First Amendment exception for what it deemed “professional speech”—“speech that occurs between professionals and their clients in the context of their professional relationship”—and ruled that the state had much greater leeway in regulating, for example, doctor/patient communication.

PRCs who don’t comply with the law face penalties, starting with $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent one. (Unlike the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Alliance Defending Freedom reports that other courts have invalidated or mostly invalidated similar laws in Austin, Texas; Montgomery County, Maryland; Baltimore; and New York City.)

Now this California case is slated to be heard before the Supreme Court starting March 20. Let’s be in prayer that the justices would make a wise decision that protects the first amendment rights of pro-life centers and their staff. And pray for encouragement for all the centers’ staff and volunteers who work selflessly to uphold the sanctity of human life and reach out in Christ’s name to help those in need.

You might also like to check out this podcast from Care Net, which talks about why this decision could mean the end of freedom of speech as we know it, as well as 50 Ways to Help the Unborn and Their Mothers (excerpted from my book ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments).

Photo: Pixabay

Understanding What Life Looks Like for Billions of People Worldwide Can Change Yours

In his book The Great Ascent: The Struggle for Economic Development in Our Time, economist Robert Heilbroner recommended visualizing ourselves doing the following, step by step. Though this may make you uncomfortable, it will increase your level of gratitude, thankfulness, and contentment, and hopefully increase both your compassion for the world’s truly poor and desire to reach them in Christ’s name. Please don’t just read the words. Slow down and take time to picture what reality looks like for billions of people:

1. Take out all the furniture in your home except for one table and a couple of chairs. Use blankets and pads for beds.

2. Take away all of your clothing except for your oldest dress or suit, shirt or blouse. Leave only one pair of shoes.

3. Empty the pantry and the refrigerator except for a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a few potatoes, some onions, and a dish of dried beans.

4. Dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, and remove all the electrical wiring in your house.

5. Take away the house itself and move the family into the tool shed.

6. Place your “house” [the tool shed] in a shantytown.

7. Cancel all subscriptions to newspapers, magazines, and book clubs. This is no great loss because now none of you can read anyway.

8. Leave only one radio for the whole shantytown.

9. Move the nearest hospital or clinic ten miles away and put a midwife in charge instead of a doctor.

10. Throw away your bankbooks [or debit and credit cards], stock certificates, pension plans, and insurance policies. Leave the family a cash hoard of ten dollars.

11. Give the head of the family a few acres to cultivate on which he can raise a few hundred dollars of cash crops, of which one third will go to the landlord and one tenth to the money lenders.

12. Lop off twenty-five or more years in life expectancy.

The next time you are tempted to think, “I don’t have enough money,” don’t compare yourself to the relatively small number of people in the world who have more than you. Compare yourself to the billions who have less, most of them far less, including those who lived in the time the Bible was written. I often encourage people to go to globalrichlist.com and insert their household income to see where they figure in terms of global wealth. Most will find they land in the top 1 or 2 percent.

God has given you considerable material blessings. Have you ever asked yourself, Why has He provided so much? You don’t need to wonder. Paul tells us exactly why:

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that… (2 Corinthians 9:10–11)

So that what? Prosperity theology would finish this sentence, “so that we might live in wealth, showing the world how much God blesses those who love Him.”

But that isn’t how Paul finishes it. He says, “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion” (v. 11).

God comes right out and tells us why He gives us more money than we need. It’s not so we can find more ways to spend it. It’s not so we can indulge ourselves and spoil our children. It’s not so we can insulate ourselves from needing God’s provision.

It’s so we can give—generously.

(By the way, I am not minimizing the fact that many people in western countries do struggle financially. In some cases it’s not their fault and certainly we should help them. But it is fair to say that some people don’t have enough because they are spending what they have on things they want but don’t actually need. In those cases, when there’s no food on the shelf, often it’s because of other choices that have been made. There is help available for people in changing their spending habits and getting out of debt. For example, see Crown Financial Ministries.)

For more on money, stewardship, and giving, see Randy’s books The Treasure Principle, Managing God’s Money, and Money, Possessions, and Eternity.

Photo by Joshua Watson on Unsplash

How Can Parents Encourage Kids to Own Their Faith as They Grow Up?

I’ve written before about the concerning trend of young people who’ve been raised in the church but are leaving it as they grow up. Many of us are acutely aware of the problem, but less certain about what parents can actually do to encourage kids to make their faith their own. That’s why I appreciated a recent article from blogger Trevin Wax, who summarizes some points from a new LifeWay Research study and suggests ways parents can invest in their children spiritually. Thanks, Trevin, for this helpful article. —Randy Alcorn

Parents, don’t take the biblical proverb “train up a child” and treat it like a promise, assuming that if you do everything right in your parenting, your children will turn out right. Proverbs are general truths, not specific promises. Besides, when we consider the overall context of the Bible, we see how counterproductive it is to try to train our kids to trust in God if what we model for them is that we trust in our training.

But even though we place our hope for our children in God, not in our training, we recognize how this proverb teaches us to take our training of children seriously—both where we guide them and also how we shepherd their hearts. And part of that shepherding and guidance includes the effect of a family’s culture.

A new LifeWay Research study commissioned by LifeWay Kids surveyed 2,000 Protestant and non-denominational churchgoers who attend church at least once a month and have adult children ages 18 to 30. The goal of the project was to discover what parenting practices were common in the families where young adults remained in the faith. What affected their moral and spiritual development? What factors stood out?

You might expect that family worship services would play a major part, or the simple habit of eating meals together around the table. Perhaps you’d expect a Christian school kid to be more likely to follow Jesus than a public school kid. Everyone has ideas about what practices are formative on children.

The research (compiled now in the new book Nothing Less) indicated that children who remained faithful as young adults (identifying as a Christian, sharing their faith, remaining in church, reading the Bible, and so on) grew up in homes where certain practices were present.

BIBLE READING

The biggest factor was Bible reading. Children who regularly read the Bible while they were growing up were more likely to have a vibrant spiritual life once they became adults. This statistic doesn’t surprise me. God’s Word is powerful. The Bible lays out the great story of our world and helps us interpret our lives and make decisions within the framework of a biblical worldview. Bible reading is a constant reminder that we live as followers of God. Our King has spoken. He reigns over us. We want to walk in his ways.

PRAYER AND SERVICE

Two more factors follow close behind: prayer and service in church. The practice of prayer did not specify whether it was private or corporate, before meals or before bedtime, or in the morning. But prayer was present.

Note that the church-related factor is about service, not just attendance. It wasn’t just that parents took their kids to church (where “professional clergy” could feed them spiritually), but that the children were included and integrated into the church through the avenue of service. The habit of serving others in the church and community likely formed these young adults in a way that kept them from identifying merely as a churchgoing “consumer,” but instead as a contributor to the building up of God’s people. Down the list a little, church mission trips show up, another indicator of the power of active service.

SINGING CHRISTIAN SONGS

What may surprise you is how high up on the list was this factor: listening primarily to Christian music. Christian contemporary music gets a bad rap these days, usually for being more inspirational than theological (although I believe this stereotype is not true across the board). Still, we shouldn’t dismiss the truth behind Augustine’s ancient observation that we sing the truth into our hearts. When we sing together as congregations and when we praise God on our own or sing songs that fortify our faith, we reinforce the beauty of our faith. (Also noteworthy was the finding lower on the list, that listening primarily to secular music was an indicator that negatively affected one’s spiritual life.)

CULTURE, NOT PROGRAMS

For decades now, many Christians have assumed that certain church programs are the key factors in a child’s spiritual development: Vacation Bible school, youth group activities, Sunday school, and so on. But the research study shows that these programs make an impact when they are connected to consistent habits of prayer, Bible reading, praise, and service. It’s the culture of the family and church, and that they integrate children and young people into spiritual disciplines, not the how that matters most.

Also notable is the impact of the parents’ example of reading Scripture, taking part in service projects, sharing their faith, and asking forgiveness after sinning. In other words, the more the repentant, joyful Christian life was modeled, the more likely children were to remain in the faith.

THE POWER OF IMITATION AND ENVIRONMENT

Research shouldn’t be misused in a way that transforms children into blank slates. There is no perfect parenting formula, and as I mentioned above, no one should assume there’s a surefire formula or method to bring about the result of a faithful kid. Don’t overestimate your power. The Holy Spirit saves, not you.

But don’t underestimate the Spirit’s power to work through the environment you create for your home either. Nothing Less shows that there’s power in faithful, Christian imitation. Children are more likely to repent and ask forgiveness when they’ve seen parents do so, and when they’ve experienced grace in human relationships. Children are more likely to aspire to faithful Christianity when they see joyful service as a virtue modeled in the home.

What kind of culture do we want in our homes and churches?

What space are we creating for our children to flourish?

How are we rooting our families in God’s Word?

How are we modeling prayer and repentance?

What does faithfulness look like in our home?

What are the songs that are in our hearts and on our lips?

How are we fulfilling the Great Commission?

Let’s ask these questions and beg God to work in us and through us, for his glory and our families’ good.

Photo: Pixabay

God’s Glory, Our Good

Satan has conned many people into a twisted view of the Christian life. We imagine that God calls us to do things that won’t be good for us, while the unbelievers are out there having all the fun. In fact, anything done for God’s glory also works for our good.

Choosing what is good and right will always be to our advantage. Wrongdoing sometimes appears to offer benefits, and doing right may seem to bring serious disadvantages. But in the long run, in this life and in the afterlife, God rewards His children’s right choices and confers consequences (not eternal punishment) for wrong ones. “A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7, NIV).

What is in God’s best interests is also in others’ best interests and in my best interests, not necessarily immediately but always in the end. Something that is good will be good for everyone, not good for God and bad for me, or good for me and bad for my neighbor. Each time I obey God, I’m doing what’s ultimately best for all.

Perspectives from God’s Word

“Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land” (Psalm 25:12–13).

“The simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster” (Proverbs 1:32–33).

Perspectives from God’s People

“God has not created a universe where you must choose between your joy and his glory.” —John Piper

“Since man was made for the glory of God, he can never be what he was intended to be until his life is properly focused on the glory of God.… So God’s glory does not detract from man’s life. Instead, His glory is the sun around which the whole of life must revolve if there is to be the light and life of God in our experience.” —Sinclair Ferguson 

This blog is excerpted from the expanded edition of Randy’s book Seeing the Unseen. This 90-day devotional equips and inspires readers to live with a right view of eternity that can shape the way they think and live today. 

Photo by Hunter Bryant on Unsplash

Billy Graham, George Beverly Shea, and Cliff Barrows: Three Faithful Men All Now with Jesus

Last week, 99-year-old Billy Graham entered the presence of Jesus. (See Christianity Today’s special issue dedicated to him, as well as John Piper’s tribute.) In 1970, as a brand new Christian, I heard Billy Graham for the first time at a crusade in Portland, Oregon. His friend George Beverly Shea, the soloist who preceded Billy in song in Crusades over the span of nearly sixty years, sang How Great Thou Art. 

Over forty years later, in 2011, I was teaching on Heaven at The Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center in Asheville, North Carolina. To everyone’s surprise, including mine, just before I got up to speak they brought in George Beverly Shea in a wheelchair, along with his dear wife, shortly before his 103rd birthday. 

I looked around and realized that no one in the booth was videoing. Since I was in the front row ready to speak, I grabbed my phone and pressed record. Then I posted the two-minute video on YouTube. (Since then it’s had over 282,000 views.)

After George died at age 104, the Billy Graham Association contacted me and asked if they could use my video! Apparently it was the last time George sang publicly. Incredibly, over his lifetime he sang in person to a quarter of a billion people, more than anyone else in history.

I will never forget that powerful evening. It was the best lead-in to speaking I’ve ever had. When they wheeled him off the platform, I stopped the recording, wiped the tears from my eyes, and got up to speak on Heaven, with George Beverly Shea in the front row, eyes bright and smiling and nodding as I spoke. God was my primary audience, as always, but George was easily the second. And as you’ll see, he was incredibly delightful that night. 

Talking about the wonders of Heaven as I looked into the watery eyes of this man who I had heard sing How Great Thou Art as a new teenage believer was surreal. Afterward George said some kind words to me.

This is George on the stage that night, just before I spoke about Heaven:

This is the blog I wrote a few weeks after that experience, with links to two more videos I made of George that night.

At another place and time, Cliff Barrows, who was a longtime music and program director for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, shared how he had been touched by my Heaven book. Of the three, Cliff died “young,” at age 93. Billy, George, and Cliff were inseparable in their Crusades for several decades. In a 2008 interview, Cliff said this about their partnership: “When God called us as a team, Bev Shea and Billy and myself, he called us to be faithful and to preach the Gospel, to go into all the world. He never put a termination point on it. And as long as we have the physical strength and the energy to do it, we feel we still need to be using what talent and gifts and strength we have to carry it out.”

That’s exactly what these faithful men did with the years God gave them.

Finally, here’s George Beverly Shea in his prime singing How Great Thou Art in 1969, the same year I came to faith in Christ:

I look forward to seeing George, Cliff, and Billy again in a far better world!

By the way, since criticism of Billy Graham has been brought up since his death, I want to note that of course many of us disagreed with various aspects of things he said and did. That comes with the territory. However, it is sad to see some of the undeserved, unfair, and mean-spirited criticism launched against him. For a response to one highly critical column on Billy Graham, check out Owen Strachan’s article Defending Billy: Responding to George Will’s Fierce Critique of Billy Graham.

Someone on my Facebook page made this comment: “I’m disappointed in the lack of discernment or intentional inconsistency of most processing Christians regarding Billy Graham. He taught you don’t need faith in Jesus to be saved as long as you do your best. Can you say works salvation? Can you say denial of the exclusivity of Christ? Can you say heresy? Why are we propping him up as the greatest preacher since John? John wouldn’t have even shaken the guy’s hand.”

This was my response: Have you actually listened to the messages of Billy Graham or read any of his books? What you say he said is not what I ever heard him say. “Do your best” and “works salvation”? That was not his message! I disagreed with Billy in various areas but in terms of the redemptive work of Christ and belief in him as the sole basis of salvation, not by works but by faith, I fully agree with him.

He Who Never Forsakes You Will Restore Your Soul

I love the psalms, because of their beauty and because the wide range of emotions they contain grant us permission to express to God our honest questions, doubts, griefs, and despair. My friend Jon Bloom, board chair and co-founder of Desiring God, wrote about two back-to-back psalms and the powerful message their proximity expresses. Thanks, Jon, for this wonderful article. —Randy Alcorn

King David wrote Psalm 22 and Psalm 23, but if we weren’t told that, we might not believe it. These two ancient songs of the faith are about as different as they could be. The first few verses of each psalm capture its tone. Here are the first two verses of Psalm 22:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. (Psalm 22:1–2)

Now, read the first three verses of Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. (Psalm 23:1–3)

In Psalm 22, David feels forsaken by an unresponsive God. In Psalm 23, David feels shepherded by an ever-attentive God. In Psalm 22, David’s soul is in restless agony. In Psalm 23, David’s soul is restored to a trust-fueled rest in the Good Shepherd’s care.

Two Perspectives on Reality

It is a beautiful and merciful providence that these two starkly different psalms are placed right next to each other, authored by the same person. Because they illustrate the diverse ways we experience the strange reality that is the life of faith in our world. If we live long enough, we all experience the occasional agonizing phenomenon of God’s apparent silence. And we all will also experience God’s kind restoration, peace, and protection. In fact, we eventually come to realize that what felt like abandonment was a merciful nearness and shepherding of a kind we hadn’t previously understood or perceived. We discover that God’s promises are infinitely more substantial and reliable than our perceptions.

But there’s an even deeper beauty and mercy in this poetic and thematic juxtaposition. Both psalms are messianic — they foreshadow and prophesy of Jesus. And in this profound realization, we discover that the order in which these psalms appear is no accident.

Jesus Was Forsaken

We know Psalm 22:1. Its first sentence is among the most famous in the Bible. For Jesus screamed them out while in unfathomable agony on the cross: Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? (Matthew 27:46).

Stop and think over this sentence. Delve into it as deep as you can. You will never get to the bottom of it.

There was a moment, at the crux of history, when God was God-forsaken. To we who are not God, and who are only able to experience a few dimensions of reality, this is mysterious. But it was not a mystery; it was horrifyingly real. God the Son, the eternal delight of the Father, the radiance of the Father’s glory, the exact imprint of the Father’s nature, and the Father’s earthly visible image (Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:15) became in that incomprehensively dark moment unholy sin — our unholy sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). And while that moment lasted, the holy Father and the Holy Spirit could not abide the holy Son made unholy. God became the object of God’s wrath. A terrible, once-for-all-time fissure rent open between the Father and Son.

For Jesus, it was a truly hellish moment, which is why, in the words of R.C. Sproul, Jesus’s Psalm 22:1 scream “was the scream of the damned. For us.” Out of a love for us we have hardly begun to fathom, he took upon himself our damnable curse, becoming the propitiation for our sins (Galatians 3:13; 1 John 4:10). And he did it for us so that our curse would be eternally removed and we might become the objects of God’s eternal mercy, clothed forever with the holiness and righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Psalm 22 does far more than give us words to pray during our seasons of spiritual desolation. It gives us words to grasp the desolation God the Son experienced to purchase our peace and restoration.

So That You Will Never Be Forsaken

This restoration, the great messianic restoration, is what made David sing for joy in Psalm 23. The Good Shepherd, having laid his life down for the sheep (John 10:11), gives his sheep eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will be able to snatch them out of his hand (John 10:28).

No one. Not “death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord,” the great Shepherd of the sheep — even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death (Romans 8:38–39; Hebrews 13:20; Psalm 23:4).

Our great Shepherd has walked through this valley before us and for us. In this valley, he was stricken and afflicted, betrayed, beaten to a bloody pulp, and brutally crucified by evil. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). He was smitten and forsaken by God (Isaiah 53:4; Psalm 22:1).

And he did this for us so that he might say to us, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

He Will Restore Your Soul

In this world we will have tribulation (John 16:33). The Bible’s portrayal of tribulation is realistically horrible. Psalm 22 is a description of David’s tribulation, and it was severe. But it is also a description of Jesus’s tribulation, which was infinitely more severe than David’s — or ours.

Do you feel forsaken by God? Jesus understands. He truly understands more than you know. We can feel forsaken by God; Jesus was forsaken by God. We feel lonely; Jesus was, for a horrible moment, truly alone. As our Great High Priest, he is able to sympathize with us in all our weaknesses, since he was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

But Jesus does far more than sympathize with us. As our great sacrificial Lamb, he atoned for every sin we commit in all our weak, faithless stumbling, removing our curse forever by becoming our curse. And as our great Shepherd, he is leading us through every tribulation — no matter how severe — to eternal restoration.

That is the promise of Psalm 23, purchased by the price of Psalm 22: your Good Shepherd will restore your soul forever. He was forsaken by God, scorned and mocked by men, and his hands and feet were pierced (Psalm 22:1, 6–7, 16) for your sake. So that he could guide you through every evil valley, honor you before every evil enemy, pursue you with goodness and mercy every day of your earthly life, and bring you to live with him in his house forever (Psalm 23:4–6).

Psalm 22 may be your song for a brief night, but Psalm 23 will be your song for an eternal morning (Psalm 30:5).

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When Weakness and Limitations Make You Feel You Don’t Have Much to Offer

Back when I started my blog, I recommended the excellent book Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris, who are both Christ-centered young men of character and vision. In the years since the book’s publication, the brothers have gone to college, pursued career paths, buried their dear mother Sono, and married—Alex to Courtney and Brett to Ana.

Alex graduated from Harvard Law School and is an associate at Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott. Brett is now the co-owner of theyoungwriter.com, which provides ongoing mentorship and support for young writers. (Check out their free Young Writers Guidebook.) 

A few years ago, Brett’s wife Ana was diagnosed with late stage Lyme Disease. Life has been extremely difficult for them, but I’ve been touched by their faith in Jesus and commitment to each other throughout their trials.

Here’s more about Ana’s story:

“I was newly married and pursuing a career in ballet when my life took a devastating turn. I fell severely ill and was diagnosed with late stage Lyme Disease in 2012. In early 2017, I discovered that toxic mold was also playing a big role in my illness. I became so sensitized to mold that my dear husband and I were forced to leave our home and belongings in search of a place with cleaner air for me to breathe. Our search landed us in the middle of the desert, living in a tent with next to no camping experience. After six months of camping and strict mold avoidance, I recovered so much of my health that we were able to move into an apartment in South Dakota. I’m continuing to heal in leaps and bounds.”

You can read a longer version of her story on her blog, where she writes regularly. Ana recently shared this post, and I was very touched by it and asked her permission to share it here. —Randy Alcorn

As you all know, these last two months have been a bit more difficult for me health-wise. One night, when I was feeling particularly sad and discouraged I confided in Brett, “I’m scared that God isn’t going to say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’ when I get to Heaven. I feel like I’m not doing anything. I’m too sick to serve God and people. I’m not contributing anything to the kingdom.”

This wasn’t the first time I’ve battled such discouragement. It was even worse when I was wasting away in bed for months that turned into years. I was so sick that I couldn’t handle most contact with other human beings. At times all I could think about was how to get relief from the pain. I certainly wasn’t serving anyone. Worse than that, my sickness was a huge drain on my husband and family. I felt like I was a burden and my life was pointless.

I think most chronic illness sufferers can relate. And I think even healthy people can feel limited and useless for other reasons. So, I wanted to share with you a story from the Bible that has reassured me during those painful moments of discouragement.

And he [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” —Mark 12:41-44

Take heart friends, you may have less energy and health to work with but you can still give what little you can. And in the eyes of Jesus, your feeble expression of gratitude to your caregivers can be more significant than someone else’s founding a non-profit. Just give what you have to give.

The sick mom heating up canned soup for her family in the microwave may be giving more than the mom who is cooking an all organic meal from scratch.

The sick wife who takes three hours to write a simple birthday card in between waves of pain may be giving more than the healthy wife who organizes a big birthday party.

The sick friend who replies to a text message when her head is pounding and she’s trying not to vomit may be giving more than the healthy one who invites a friend over for dinner.

The sick believer who fights to concentrate enough to say a two sentence prayer for a person in need may be giving more than the healthy ones who are leading bible studies and starting ministries.

The people we love may not always realize this, but we can rest assured that Christ is watching and he knows. He knows our hearts. He knows that what a suffering person has to give looks different than what a healthy person has to give.

And He’s a God who counts two copper coins a priceless gift.

Check out Ana’s blog, where she offers a free PDF of her favorite resources for suffering souls.

If you’d like to read more from Randy related to the subject of suffering, see his book If God Is Good, as well as the devotional 90 Days of God’s Goodness and book The Goodness of God (a specially focused condensation of If God Is Good, which also includes additional material). Many people have also handed out the If God Is Good booklets.

Photo by Natalie Collins on Unsplash

Don’t Be Afraid of Trying and Failing

I’ve written about quarterback Nick Foles on my blog. He’s a Christ-loving young man who millions of people across the country celebrated when the Eagles won the Super Bowl earlier this month, and Nick was named the MVP.

Nick was an early success in the NFL, followed by injury and being traded and becoming a backup. Most of us aren’t professional athletes, but career disappointments and personal failures in family relationships and whatever we do are just some of the many ways we become disillusioned.

Listen to Nick answer a question at a press conference, where he shares about how past failures have shaped him as a person. Notice how he speaks of his faith and family, and affirms Carson Wentz, the Eagles starting quarterback, who Nick replaced when Carson was injured. Nick talks about failure but in the process models how to handle success with humility and perspective.

Nick says, “Failure’s a part of life. It’s a part of building character and growing. Without failure, who would you be? I wouldn’t be up here if I hadn’t fallen thousands of times and made mistakes. …If something is going on in your life and you’re struggling, embrace it. Because you’re growing.”

It may seem ironic to be talking about failure in the life of an NFL player. To even make it to the NFL is success beyond the dreams of most college players, who themselves are in a small minority to have made it that far. So you may think, “You’re still an elite and highly paid athlete, so you can’t be a failure. Now my life has been full of failures you can’t relate to.”

But this neglects to recognize that as human beings, and Christ-followers, we are all far more alike than different. Athletes and celebrities are people with dreams and disappointments, successes and failures, just like the rest of us. One of the ironies of life is the relationship of expectations to our contentment. One person can be thrilled at finishing in the middle of the pack in a local 10K. Another can be devastated at “only” getting the silver medal at the Olympics.

All of us want to succeed more than we do at any level, and our experience of a sense of failure is equally real regardless of that level. You can make it to the NFL, a dream that very few realize. But if your dream is to be a starter, being a backup seems a failure. If you are a starter and your goal is the playoffs, and it’s everyone’s goal, not going there seems a failure. If the only definition of success is to win the Super Bowl, then every year every member of 31 or the 32 NFL teams will be a failure. And the winners’ success will be short-lived, because another Super Bowl is coming, and relatively few will enjoy the win.

Isn’t that true of all of us in our own lives? One person’s success is another person’s failure. If your dream is to be a nurse and you become one, you’re a success. But if your dream is to be a physician and you are a nurse, you may think yourself a failure. You may want to be the best mom in the world but you know Super-Moms and you look at them and think you’re a failure. It’s all relative, and it’s all relevant to the way we all think.

We need to recognize our limits and live our lives out in front of God, the Audience of One, seeking to honor Him and not trying to please people and live up to their expectations. And we need to adjust our own expectations as well. There is always a better athlete, a better writer, a better student, a better pastor, husband, mom, teacher, carpenter, artist or musician. Always. And if you really are the best in the world, it won’t be for long. So if that’s the source of your identity and contentment, you’ll be a miserable person.

The type of failure we’re discussing here isn’t moral failure, but the kind we experience when we don’t succeed in what we’re trying to accomplish. Of course, God can and does work through our sinful failures, when we repent and entrust ourselves to Him. In his article Being a Loser and the Freedom to Fail, Ed Welch includes a helpful differentiation between moral failure and failure-because-we-are-human.

G.V. Wigram wrote, “When people fail, we are inclined to find fault with them, but if you look more closely, you will find that God had some particular truth for them to learn, which the trouble they are in is to teach them.”

I too have experienced the refining power of failure. When I was sued by abortion clinics I had to give up my job as a pastor, and that was kind of a career failure. When I became insulin-dependent, I experienced a health failure. And a few years ago, I had some big challenges with a writing project, and God taught me a lot through it, though it was very difficult. When we succeed all the time, we don’t trust. But when we fail, we draw our strength more from God, because we sense our deeper need for Him. Regardless of our success or failure, He most values our heart of dependence on Him.

Ed Welch writes, “The freedom we have in Christ has a few different facets. One is that we are not judged by the world’s standards of success and failure. Instead, we have the freedom to be human, which means that when we fail, and we will every day, we know that Jesus is the head of this new world order, not us, and we hope to one day realize that there are more important matters, such as boasting in what Jesus has done.”

As believers, we don’t have to live under the tyranny of self-doubt. Our fear of rejection can diminish, and our fear of failure can dissipate, because even when we fail, we know we are still loved. Furthermore, we know that even our failure is a character-building tool in the hands the Master Craftsman, who is not yet finished with us. 

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26).

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2–4). 

Photo by Ashley Knedler on Unsplash