Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 122

Pursue Your Relationship with Jesus and Find Your Happiness in Him in the Coming Year

Several years ago I was asked what things believers can do to pursue an authentic, meaningful relationship with God. Here are my suggestions, which are the same now as they were then:

Set aside time every day to spend with the Lord, reading His word, praying, listening to Him.
Read books that draw on the power of Scripture. Feed your heart and your mind.
Listen to sermons, worship music, and Scripture as you go about your day-to-day activities such as driving or doing the dishes.
Fellowship with other Christians within the church, the body of Christ.
Turn off the distractions in your life, whether that’s social media, the internet, television, etc.

I encourage you to consider how you can put these suggestions into practice in 2018, and find deeper happiness in knowing Jesus.

One thought on reading Scripture and building godly habits: countless Christians believe that Bible reading is their duty—something holy people do. What many don’t understand is exactly what Scripture really tells us: that meditating on God’s Word can and should delight us, infusing us with heartfelt happiness (see Psalm 1; the world translated “blessed” is asher¸ which means “happy”). David said of God’s words, “More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb” (Psalm 19:10). Throughout the difficulties and joys that 2018 will bring, you’ll find abiding happiness as you go back to God’s Word again and again.

There’s an age-old tradition of Christ-followers who have found their deepest happiness in their Lord. We should eagerly join them and say with English Puritan John Flavel (1627–1691), “Christ [is] the very essence of all delights and pleasures, the very soul and substance of them. As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean . . . so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet.”

Below are some related articles about pursuing Christ in the coming year you might like to check out:

Marry the Bible This Year

A New Year’s Resolution from Philippians 3: “I Want to Know Christ”

Planning Your New Year and Making God’s Word a Priority

How Can I Stay Motivated in My Relationship with Jesus Christ?

How to Begin a Bible-Reading Habit in 2018

Also, check out Tim Challies’s 2018 Christian Reading Challenge, which will encourage you to read more and to broaden the scope of your reading. (He offers a free download of the challenge graphic you can print to keep yourself on track.)

And if you’re looking for a new daily devotional for the new year, see my books 60 Days of God’s Happiness, Grace, Truth, We Shall See God (with excepts from Charles Spurgeon’s sermons), and Seeing the Unseen.

May your 2018 be filled with the deep, abiding joy and happiness  of knowing Jesus Christ!

Photo by Rakicevic Nenad on Unsplash

Constant Explanations from God Wouldn’t Allow for Our Faith or Trust

Sometimes we make the foolish assumption that our heavenly Father has no right to insist that we trust Him unless He makes His infinite wisdom completely understandable to us. But if God offered us constant explanations for the circumstances we face, our lives would not be free or normal, and would not allow for faith or trust.

I think of my friend John Franklin, who was playing softball when he was then a healthy thirty-nine-year-old. John developed a headache and neck pain, so he took himself out of the game. By the time the game finished, he needed help walking.

Taken to the hospital, John became completely paralyzed and unable to speak. Soon he was breathing with a ventilator. John spent seven weeks in ICU and another four months in the hospital. He underwent speech therapy, then a few years of occupational and physical therapy. Now, over twenty years later, John remains restricted to a wheelchair. Doctors never discovered why it happened.

John’s youngest son, six years old when his father became disabled, wrote me, “I remember always being so mad that God did this to him. One day I asked my dad why he wasn’t angry. He said, ‘Why should I accept good from God and not evil?’ I think my jaw dropped and at the time I was angry at him for saying that. But that experience has forever shaped my view of God and evil.”

This wonderful family has certainly seen God at work. But they still have no clear explanation of his purpose for John’s disability.

Consider what our lives would be like if God regularly explained to us why He allows everything that disappoints us.

Suppose you’re a teenage girl, sick on prom day. God could whisper, I let you get pneumonia so you wouldn’t bond with that young man who wouldn’t be right for you, and so your parents would go get you your favorite dessert, where they’ll see a help-wanted poster and tell you so you apply and get the job, and meet the girl who will become your best friend and help you twenty years from now when your husband gets cancer, and...

“Whoa! My husband? What’s he like? And why would you let him get cancer?”

In order to make you more Christlike and help you become more of a servant and...

“But I don’t want to be a servant. And cancer terrifies me!”

...and teach your husband to depend on me, and draw your children and grandchildren closer to you, and...

“I’ll have children and grandchildren? How many? Girls or boys? But how will they deal with their father’s cancer?”

Do you see where this is going? And it’s just one “simple” event. How could God explain His purposes without revealing to us the life He intends for us to live later, not now? And without imparting the grace that He will give us just when we need it, not in advance?

The God of providence weaves millions of details into our lives and into all the lives around us. Maybe He doesn’t have one big reason for bringing a certain person or success or failure or disease or accident into our lives; in fact, He may have hundreds of little reasons. In order to understand God’s explanations, we would have to be God.1

If you’d like to read more related to the subject of evil and suffering, see Randy’s 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.

[1] See John G. Stackhouse Jr., Can God Be Trusted? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 90.

Photo by Cherry Laithang on Unsplash

Star Wars Movies Are Fun, Just Remember They Sometimes Contradict a Biblical Worldview

With the release of Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, I’ve been asked again about my views on Star Wars. I enjoy science fiction and I do like Star Wars, especially the original three movies. Nanci and I actually attended, in Portland, the first showing of the original Star Wars in late May 1977, over forty years ago (we started our church earlier that same month). The theater was less than half full. We were blown away by the quality, and by the time we brought friends back to see it the following week, the word had spread and lines to buy a ticket were almost out to the street. (Some of you remember!)

That said, it was obvious even then that Star Wars was fun to watch but a very poor place to get your theology! I am not a Star Wars naysayer, and it might seem self-evident that “these movies aren’t based on reality.” But I’ve found that while almost no one ends up believing that the particular aliens onscreen really exist, matters of worldview are much more subtly conveyed. So I encourage parents to talk with their children about this, since many of them don’t yet have the filters in place to screen out what’s false.

Full of Theology

I can hear some people saying, “What are you even talking about? There’s no theology in Star Wars. These are just some fun movies.” Well, yes, they are fun movies, but if you think they don’t contain theology you are, no offense intended, naïve. Here’s just one example from the second of the original Star Wars movies, The Empire Strikes Back. Yoda is mentoring young Luke Skywalker in Star Wars theology:

“For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life breeds it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the force around you, here between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes, even between land and ship.”

This is loaded with theology, most of it dead wrong. Where is God the Creator and Jesus the Redeemer in this worldview? Or when Yoda says of his coming death, “Soon will I rest, yes, forever sleep. Earned it I have,” how does this stand up against the biblical worldview of Heaven and Hell? Where is the grace of God offering deliverance from Hell only the basis of faith in Christ offered by His redemptive death on our behalf? Our eternal rest, which is conscious, is not granted on the basis of good works, as Yoda affirms: “Earned it I have.” Compare Yoda’s words with Ephesians 2:8–9 and Titus 3:5.

This errant theology is an opportunity to talk with our children and each other about biblical truth. But if this isn’t done, why shouldn’t we expect a child, especially one who watches the movies repeatedly, to absorb and to a degree, at least, to embrace this false theology?

If kids and parents can sit down, like we did with our daughters when they were young, and discuss the theological errors with “the Force,” that can be very good for them (and us). Everyone has a theology or worldview, of course, you do and I do and George Lucas does. His worldview just happens to have a bigger platform and more pervasive presence than most of ours!

The Dangers of Dualism

So what are the errors in the Star Wars theology and worldview I’m referring to? There are elements of Eastern mysticism and New Age, with sprinklings of pantheism, but the most fundamental and pervasive error is dualism (similar to the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism).

When we teach our kids about the world and the course of events, we need to make clear it is not fate, randomness, or nothingness which control these things, nor is it a whimsical pagan god with limited powers, duking it out with competing gods, and only time will tell who wins. There are not two equal opposite forces in the universe, and who will be victorious is not in doubt! The God of the Bible is utterly unique, transcendent, and personal. And this God, the one true God, is not portrayed in the Star Wars Saga (nor in most other movies of any sort being produced today).

Even among Christians, I sometimes see a sort of evangelical dualism that surfaces. But such thinking is dead wrong—yes, there is evil in the world, of course, and God is not an evil-doer. But the forces of evil are not “the dark side” of God. He has no dark side! God is the all-powerful Force for good, and demons and sinful people are finite and temporary forces for evil. But they are not part of the same force, nor is their ultimate power equal!

In John 9, the disciples wanted to attribute a man’s blindness to human sin, either his or his father’s. Jesus corrected them: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (v.3). We sometimes back away from thinking God actually makes someone disabled. We attribute deformity and imperfection to human sin and to Satan, and there’s a half-truth in that, but only a half-truth (and all heresies are half-truths). God said to Moses, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” (Exodus 4:11). Notice God doesn’t merely say “Who allows man to be deaf or mute or blind?” but “Who makes him that way?”

He Has No Opposite

Sometimes when I’ve spoken on this topic, I’ve given a little quiz and ask the audience, to say out loud the first thing that comes to their minds in answer to each of these questions. Please do the same right now, actually speak your answer:

1. What’s the opposite of good?
2. What’s the opposite of above?
3. What’s the opposite of God?

Then I tell them, if you answered “evil” to one and “below” to two, you were correct. But if you answered “Satan” or the devil to number 3, you’re wrong. (Yet in my experience that’s exactly what most Christians answer.)

Here’s the truth, and it’s what breaks the back of all dualism, including Zoroastrianism and the Star Wars theology:

Satan is not the opposite of God. He is the opposite of Michael, the unfallen archangel. This is not a semantic trick—this is the truth. God has no opposite. To make a created being the opposite of the Creator results in many other heresies, not the least of which is thinking that Satan and God are battling to see who can pilot the ship, with the results in question. This is Star Wars theology, not the Bible. Who will win, the dark side or the light side of the force? Dualism is a heresy many Christians buy into without realizing it. We make Satan too big—and far worse, we make God too small.

Yes, Satan is called the “god of this world,” but this is set in an overall context with God being absolutely sovereign. Satan isn’t anywhere close to being all-powerful, omniscient, omnipresent, or anything else that God is. He is capable of great evil influence, but he is ultimately a dog on a leash. (That doesn’t mean God is responsible or accountable for Satan’s actions—indeed, God is accountable to no one.)

God says “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness. I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7). Our tendency is to try to be God’s PR people by absolving Him of all disasters. Sure, we can link them to the curse on the earth due to the sin of man, and yes demons do seek to bring disasters on us, but by distancing God from disasters (in a misguided attempt to defend his goodness—which needs no help from us) we end up with a deistic God who just lets the universe go wherever it will, run amok because of our sin. That kind of God isn’t vitally involved in our lives. He does not work all things together for good, like the true God of the Bible.

An Opportunity to Think Critically

If you would have told me in May 1977 that our children would be surrounded by Star Wars themes as they grew up, I would have doubted you. Had you said that children today would be, I would have thought you were crazy. But Star Wars has taken the world by storm, and while some children won’t watch the movies, the great majority will. Some things are better not to get exposed to, but some our kids will inevitably be exposed to, so it’s important for us to help them think through these issues properly.

Both the Christian worldview and the Star Wars worldview embrace the reality of the supernatural. But they do so in very different ways. The biggest question is, what will our children and grandchildren learn about God from the universe of Star Wars? Will what they learn be true to the Bible, or will it oppose what Scripture teaches?

In my opinion, if—but only if—you and your children know what the Bible says and have discernment, you can watch and read Star Wars, appreciate its portrayal of good doing battle against evil, and not buy into its dualistic belief systems. But we need to be careful with what our children feed their minds on, since their discernment isn’t yet well developed (and they live in a world of children and even many adults who never develop spiritual discernment).

Certainly we can’t expect our children to figure out all this on their own. If we as their parents don’t carefully point out to them the areas in which various stories they read or listen to are true and not true to Scripture, who will?

These articles are a few years old but still may be helpful for those wanting to understand some of the worldview and theological issues with the Star Wars movies:

A Worldview Critique of Star Wars

Why We Get Religious About ‘Star Wars’

The Irresistible Force of ‘Star Wars’: 3 Popular Approaches

Photos: Pixabay

Good News of Great Joy: Listen to the Christmas Story from Luke 2

Recently I was filmed reading from Luke 2:1–21 for a video for our home church, Good Shepherd Community Church. I was joined by my wife Nanci and our Golden Retriever, Maggie (who as you’ll see, to our surprise, was very well behaved!).

In the midst of the busyness of Christmas, there’s nothing like getting back to the heart of the “good news of great joy,” and focusing on Jesus Himself. Hope you enjoy hearing from God’s word.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Nanci and me, and from all the staff at Eternal Perspective Ministries!

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

Greg Laurie on Will Your Christmas Be Real or Fake?

Before I get to today’s blog, I want to share how I was very moved by this pilot episode of a proposed television series called “The Chosen.” I highly recommend your family sit down together to watch this episode, titled The Shepherd, which views the first Christmas through the eyes of a disabled and ostracized shepherd.

Including the 45-second trailer, it’s just over 19 minutes long.  (It’s followed by some words from the director, Dallas Jenkins. You may not want to play that part for the family, but I highly recommend you watch it yourself to be aware of the vision for this series.) 

After watching it, I recommend you take the time to ask your family what sticks out to them from it. I plan to show it at one of our Christmas family gatherings, and I hope you’ll consider it also.

Now on to today’s blog: I enjoyed these Christmas reflections from my friend Greg Laurie, and think you will too.

Will Your Christmas Be Real or Fake?

You can have Christmas without Santa and his elves, without Frosty the snowman, without Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, and without Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. You can have Christmas without Mr. Grinch, Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim. But you cannot have a real Christmas without Jesus. Otherwise, it’s a fake Christmas.

Don’t get me wrong. I like Christmas. But the problem is that we have made Christmas almost too beautiful with our horse-drawn carriages, snow, crackling fireplaces and hot cocoa. We have bathed the Nativity story in blue light with music swelling in the background. It’s all wonderful, but sometimes I think we’ve missed the raw power of the story by making it almost sentimental.

We’ve romanticized Christmas or even homogenized it, taking the real edge off the story that God Almighty came down from heaven to be born on the floor of a stable. To think that God did all this for us is more powerful than any romanticized version of Christmas.

Jesus came at the appointed time, at the perfect time. The Bible tells us, “But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children” (Galatians 4:4–5 NLT).

Understand, things were very dark in Israel at this particular time. They were living under the bondage of the Roman empire that bludgeoned everyone into submission through Pax Romana, a forced peace. You either did what Rome said, or you paid the price.

Add to this the fact there had been 400 years of icy silence from heaven. There was no prophet speaking for God, nor were there any angels bringing messages from God. There were no miracles being performed. Nothing was happening. There was just chaos and violence and misery.

Speaking of this time, Isaiah 9:2 says, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined” (NKJV). The term for “darkness” speaks of evil and ignorance.

The people were living in a time filled with evil and untold suffering, a time filled with violence, oppression and injustice. It sounds a lot like today. They were waiting for something to happen. And something did happen. At the right moment, God sent his son.

Think of what he did for us. Think of all he gave us for us. The Bible tells us, “Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being” (Philippians 4:6–7 NLT).

Jesus didn’t empty himself of his divinity; he emptied himself of the privileges of divinity. He walked among us as a man – a sinless man. He lived our life and died our death. He did come to this earth. That is what we celebrate at Christmas. It’s a time to honor the One who was born with God’s people.

The Bible also tells us that one day Jesus will come again. But this time he won’t be coming to a manger; he will be coming back in glory.

In his first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes. In his second coming he will be clothed royally in a robe dipped in blood.

In his first coming he was surrounded by animals and shepherds. In his second coming he will be accompanied by saints and angels.

In his first coming there was no room for him in the inn. In his second coming the door of the heavens will be opened to him.

In his first coming he was the Lamb of God who would die for the sins of the world. In his second coming he will be the ferocious Lion of the Tribe of Judah, bringing judgment. This is the day the Bible speaks of when it says, “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2:10 NLT). Jesus is coming again.

Jesus also can come into your life right now. He can enter into your world today, if you will ask him into your life. Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NLT). These words of Jesus are for any person who is stressed out.

Are you stressed out right now? Sometimes even in the celebration of Christmas, we forget all about Jesus because we are in such a rush, going here and there. We can be so busy in the celebration.

Jesus is saying, in effect, “Come to me with your problems. Come to me with your worries. Come here and find rest from me.”

You have a choice this year: Either you can have a real Christmas, or you can have a fake Christmas. Either you can have the fake version, or you can have the real version with Christ himself living inside of you.

God is offering to forgive you of all your sins. God is offering to give you a second chance in life. God is offering you a ticket to heaven, a guaranteed reservation. He is saying this can all be yours if you will reach out and accept his gift.

The gift of eternal life is the only gift that keeps on giving. There are no batteries required. There is no assembly required. All you have to do is reach out, receive it, and just say thank you.

This article originally appeared on WND.com.

Photo by Charmoré Nel on Unsplash

Humble Savior, Sent to Earth

Long before His crucifixion, Jesus Christ endured countless indignities on Earth.

In the Old Testament, we read how God kept reaching down to His people. “The Lord…sent word to them through his messengers again and again.… But they mocked God’s messengers” (2 Chronicles 36:15–16, NIV).

Finally God sent His Son to Earth. He came in humiliation; many imagined He was conceived out of wedlock, a shameful thing in that era. He grew up in a town of ill repute: “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46, NIV). He worked as a humble carpenter, lived in relative poverty, and endured many indignities as He spent three years in ministry, teaching and healing and speaking the good news of God’s kingdom.

When I first read this story as an unbeliever—having been raised with no knowledge of God—part of what drew me to Christ is how the gospel accounts seem so contrary to typical human reasoning, yet I found them completely credible. No human would make up such a story! It had the ring of truth to me…and still does.

Does Christ’s redemptive work for you resonate in your heart and mind? How does it make you feel and think?

Perspectives from God’s Word

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2, NIV).

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:5–7).

Perspectives from God’s People

“There has never been a greater humiliation of a person than that of Jesus. No one has ever descended so low because no one has ever come from so high.” —Mark Jones

“Because we children of Adam want to become great, / He became small. / Because we will not stoop, / He humbled Himself. / Because we want to rule, / He came to serve.” —J. Oswald Sanders

This blog is excerpted from the new 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 Greyson Joralemon on Unsplash

When Your Pain Makes It Hard to Say “It Is Well with My Soul”

Shauna Hernandez is a vital and beloved member of our team at EPM, where her many responsibilities include overseeing social media and marketing, organizing and implementing promotions, and supporting the office staff with various tasks.

Shauna lived in Slovenia for 3.5 years working with youth through a local evangelical church, and now works with the youth at Cornerstone, her home church in Gresham, Oregon. She is newly married to Ryan, who she met on a short-term mission trip in Mexico. Together, they plan to move to Mexico in the near future to work with NOE International, a student center in Morelia, Michoacán.

I greatly appreciated these thoughts Shauna recently shared about the loss of her mom and trusting God in grief. What she wrote is beautiful and powerful, and applicable to any who have suffered loss and pain. —Randy

Several months ago at church, we were singing “It Is Well with My Soul.” But after recently losing my mom to cancer, I didn’t feel like I was “ready” to sing it. As I tried to keep the tears back, I remember even telling someone I wasn’t ready. I felt that if I sang those words, I was saying it was OK that my mom died and that this thing called cancer took her life. It meant it was OK that my mom wasn’t going to be here for my wedding day or when I have babies. I wasn’t willing to admit that it was “well.”

Upon reflection, I realized that God wasn’t asking me to say that all these things were OK. Isaiah 66:12–14 says,

For this is what the LORD says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem. When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; the hand of the LORD will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes.”

This passage from the last chapter in Isaiah is talking about the fulfillment of all of God’s covenant promises He made to His people, and explains the hope of a new creation. God was acknowledging the terrible things that happened to the Israelites weren’t “OK” and saying He was going to redeem it all. He had something better for them.

I believe that God hates cancer. He hates pain and separation of His loved ones. I love that Isaiah says God “extends peace like a river.” He doesn’t just hand us a band aid to cover up the brokenness; He gives us peace that is unlike any the world can muster up (John 14:27).

So now when we sing “It Is Well with My Soul,” I understand it a little differently. I see it as a future hope. It is well that my mom and I will be reunited someday. It is well that she is forever cancer free. It is well that maybe someday we’ll get to watch my wedding footage together. It is well that she’ll get to meet my kids and perhaps bake one of her famous pies for them. It is well that we’ll enjoy Jesus’ presence together, finally free from the curse.

Whatever your “It is not well with my soul” is, I pray that you’ll hand it to God and know that He sees your hurt and doesn’t ask you to paste a smile on your face to just “get through.” Grief is hard. Yet, if you choose to walk through grief looking to Jesus, it will produce beautiful things in you. A verse that has rung true in my soul while going through grief is Psalm 31:7: “I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and know the anguish of my soul.”

God sees and knows you. He has experienced the deepest pain. Trust Him with yours.    

In reading Shauna’s words, I’m reminded of the history behind the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul,” which I researched and shared in my book If God Is Good:

Horatio Spafford, a prosperous lawyer, real estate investor, and devout Presbyterian elder, lived comfortably in Chicago with his wife, Anna, and their children.

The year of 1871 was a difficult one for the Spaffords. Much of Horatio’s real estate investments disappeared in the great Chicago Fire. Not long after, they lost their 4-year-old son to scarlet fever. But worse still was to come.

Knowing that his friend D. L. Moody would preach in England in 1873, Spafford’s family decided to vacation in Europe. Last-minute business detained Horatio, so Anna and their four girls sailed on the ocean liner S.S. Ville du Havre. En route, a British vessel rammed the ship, and it sank within minutes. Rescuers picked up an unconscious Anna on a floating spar, but all four daughters drowned. When Anna arrived in England, she sent a telegram to Horatio with the words, “Saved alone.”

Horatio immediately left Chicago to bring his wife home. On the Atlantic crossing, the captain called Horatio to his cabin to tell him that they had nearly reached the spot where his four daughters had perished. As he passed over their watery grave, Spafford wrote a hymn of profound depth that has touched millions: “It Is Well with My Soul.”

He later wrote to Anna’s half-sister, “On Thursday last we passed over the spot where she went down, in mid-ocean, the waters three miles deep. But I do not think of our dear ones there. They are safe, folded, the dear lambs.”

The pain was great, but God’s grace rose to the occasion. Despite his heartbreak, Spafford could say without pretense, “It is well with my soul.”

Only God can perform such a miracle of grace. And that kind of miracle is available to us all.

What’s So Good about the Good News?

I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. —an angel of the Lord (Luke 2:10)

The religion of Christ is the religion of joy. Christ came to take away our sins, to roll off our curse, to unbind our chains, to open our prison-house, to cancel our debt. . . . Is not this joy? Where can we find a joy so real, so deep, so pure, so lasting? There is every element of joy—deep, ecstatic, satisfying, sanctifying joy—in the gospel of Christ. The believer in Jesus is essentially a happy man. —Octavius Winslow

The angel’s message to the shepherds at the birth of Jesus condenses the gospel to its core: the “good news of great joy” wasn’t for some; it was “for all the people.” This is truly the best news there has ever been or ever will be.

What characterizes this good news is a deep, everlasting joy for any who will receive it. The Contemporary English Version renders Luke 2:10 this way: “good news for you, which will make everyone happy.”

The world Jesus entered desperately needed a redeemer from sin, hopelessness, and unhappiness. The mythological Greek gods (which the Romans had renamed) were seldom taken seriously. In daily life, Greek and Roman worldviews were centered more on Stoicism or Epicureanism, both of which failed to bring happiness. 1

The Stoics believed in truth and virtue. They exercised mental disciplines that allowed them to overcome emotions and rise above difficulties, similar to some forms of Buddhism today. Scholar William Morrice states, “There was no joy in it. Stoicism was essentially pessimistic in spirit, and its outlook upon life was dark and foreboding.” 2

Epicureanism, on the other hand, taught that happiness was found in enjoying life’s pleasures. According to Epicurus, “There was no place at all in religion for joy—except in the case of the gods themselves, who lived a life of perpetual happiness and bliss. The self-appointed task of the philosopher was to free men from the terrors and degradations of religion.” 3

Stoicism and Epicureanism have close counterparts in contemporary Western culture. As a religion, modern Christianity is viewed, sometimes unfairly and sometimes not, much like Stoicism: a duty-driven, negative, unhappy way of life.

The secular backlash against Christianity today has much in common with Epicureanism. Its message is to be happy however and whenever you can—don’t allow guilt and worry about moral standards to interfere with your happiness. (And just ignore the fact that your “happiness” often brings misery.) The so-called “mystery religions” in Greek and Roman culture affirmed that happiness could be found only in the gods, who alone were truly happy. Today’s New Age beliefs have some similarities to these religions. New Age followers correctly see that happiness is found in a higher spiritual being or force, but they don’t acknowledge the true God of the Bible. When Christianity emerged, the appeal of Jesus’ teachings was widespread. He emphasized truth and virtue, as did Stoicism, and the goodness of pleasures and happiness—including eating and drinking—as did Epicureanism. He also offered a true relationship with God, which the mystery religions fruitlessly sought. Just as he does today, Jesus offered the genuine happiness everyone wanted but had not found.

As a young believer, I often heard testimonies in which people happily recalled the day the gospel took hold of their hearts. Years later, it dawned on me that instead of only being happy about what Jesus did in the past (on the cross and at my conversion) and what he’ll one day do (at his return), I should be happy in what he’s doing today. The present is the only place we live. Happiness in God’s Good News should be more than memories and anticipation. We should lay hold of it today and experience it here and now.

The psalmist was onto something when he said, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). Yes, in that context he spoke of one particular day, but God has ordained all the days of all his people (see Psalm 139:16). How much happier we’ll be if we rejoice in what God is doing every day and every hour of our lives. Why wait many years—or until we’re with the Lord—to look back and say, “God, I finally see that you were at work even in those hard times; I wish I would have trusted you then”?

I have a close friend who genuinely believes that nearly every meal, get-together, retreat, or vacation is the best he’s ever experienced. This makes him fun to be with. His capacity to enjoy the moment and savor present happiness morphs into treasured memories of past happiness and anticipation of happiness to come. When he raves about today’s delights, I smile and enter into his happiness. And this reminds me of God’s own happiness and why I should enjoy Jesus not just in the biggest events of life, but also the smallest ones.

The true gospel cannot be improved upon. Theologian J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937) said, “In the gospel there is included all that the heart of man can wish.” 4 What do we wish for most? Happiness.

Our happiness is certainly not the only thing the gospel is about. However, it’s one of the wonderful things Christ accomplished through his redemptive work.

Circumstances constantly change, and good news comes and goes, but we should look to God for happiness now. Why? Because the Good News of happiness has come, it is still here, and it will never go away!

Jesus, how can I ever thank you enough for the sacrifice you made in order to secure our salvation and open the pathway to endless happiness? I can’t, and I know that, but I thank you sincerely for granting me an eternity to try.

Excerpted from 60 Days of Happiness: Discover God's Promise of Relentless Joy

1 Some of my thoughts here are inspired by William Morrice, Joy in the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985), 11.

2 Ibid., 12.

3 Ibid.

4 J. Gresham Machen, What Is Faith? rev. ed. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1991), 153.

Photo by Josh Boot on Unsplash

Answering Claims That the Bible Contains Errors, and Why It Matters That It Doesn’t

When people say they believe the Bible contains errors, it’s a good practice to ask them to name those errors so you can open a Bible and look at them together.

Sometimes they will raise old and easily answered questions such as “Where did Cain get his wife?” But usually they can’t name many supposed errors, if any at all. Often, they’ve taken as truth the word of other people that the Bible contains errors, without investigating for themselves.

When you take the time to talk about their concerns, you can demonstrate that you have investigated it for yourself, that you've done your homework, and are convinced that when God says all Scripture is “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16), He means that it is all accurate and reliable. Of course, if you haven’t actually done that, it’s time to start! Don’t be afraid, because God’s Word will hold up under your scrutiny. (It certainly has under mine!)

Remember, if someone asks a question you don’t know the answer to, it’s okay to say, “That’s a great question. Let me research it, and I’ll get back with you.” The Christian Research Institute gives this advice: “…rather than taking a fearful attitude when faced with an alleged biblical contradiction, we should view these occasions as opportunities to search and explore the Scriptures. One thing I can guarantee is this: your awe of the majesty of Scripture will deepen.”

Where Did Cain Get His Wife?

Let’s go back to Cain’s wife. She is referred to in Genesis 4:17 as the mother of Enoch. The typical claim is that Cain couldn’t have had a wife since only he and Abel were born to Adam and Eve.

This fails to recognize that Genesis 5:4 specifically tells us that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters. Considering their long lifespans they likely had many childbearing years. But is there a problem since Genesis 4:17 precedes Genesis 5:4? Not at all. The narrative is not strictly sequential. It’s very common for books of history to talk about one person’s life, tracing out what they did for decades, then move back to deal with another of their contemporaries. With Cain, the text of Genesis has fast-forwarded decades, and by then he likely had a number of sisters of marriageable age. He obviously married one of them, or if it was multiple decades later, possibly one of his nieces. If in those days no one had children by a close relative, the human race would have quickly become extinct.

The problem of Cain’s wife is no problem to anyone but the most superficial reader of Scripture (and to those who have heard others say it is a problem).

What about Other Supposed Errors?

There are many claims of various errors in the Bible; I’ll deal with just a couple.

Some say that since it groups bats with birds, the Bible falsely teaches that bats are a type of bird (Deuteronomy 14:11, 18). First, there was no scientific definition or established classification of a bird in that time. It makes perfect sense that bats could be grouped with birds due to the fact that both fly.

The inspired original manuscript, in reference to bats, used a Hebrew word meaning a kind of animal that can fly. Unfortunately, some English translations render the word as “bird.” When a bat is involved, a better English translation would be “flying animal.” Obviously, it’s not an error to categorize a bat as a flying animal! 

Some critics claim attribution errors, such as in Matthew 27:9-10: “Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.’” This reference is actually found in Zechariah 11:13, not in the book of Jeremiah.

The answer to this lies in early Judaism’s understanding of the canon of the Old Testament. The standard Jewish practice was to group the prophets together, even as Jesus did in referring to “the Law and the Prophets” in Matthew 22:40. According to Jewish scholar Nahum Sarna, Jeremiah was once regarded as the first book of the prophets, before Isaiah. He further explains “…in the Jewish way of labelling things you call a book by its first few words, and you call a collection of books by the first book in that collection.” So a learned Jewish exegete would see nothing strange in Matthew’s attributing this fulfilled prophecy of the potter’s field to Jeremiah.

Was Jesus Wrong about the Mustard Seed?

Some claim that when Jesus said the mustard seed was the “smallest of all the seeds on earth” (Mark 4:31), He was mistaken, since there are smaller seeds.

According to botany experts, the seed of the black mustard variety was in fact the smallest garden-variety seed commonly used in Palestine—even the entire eastern world—at that time. It grew into a very large shrub. Jesus used it as an illustration twice, and both times was speaking proverbially with statements about faith (Matthew 17:14-20) and the Kingdom of God (Mark 4:30-34).

John Piper lends a helpful perspective by clarifying the proper definition of error for judging the reliability of any literature. Thus when Jesus said the Kingdom of God is “like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth” (Mark 4:31), His basic intention was “not in the least botanical…Jesus capitalized on the proverbial smallness of the mustard seed to make a perfect, inerrant point about the kingdom of God.” 

Why Does All This Matter?

It matters because if we cannot trust the Bible—if we can’t rely on it to tell us the truth in everything it speaks to—then it cannot be, as 2 Timothy 3 says, “profitable” for us. We can’t correct ourselves with it if it's sometimes incorrect.

And if it isn’t reliable in this and that area, why would I think it is correct about love, holiness, grace, justice, idolatry, greed, gossip, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, or even the Gospel itself? If the Bible cannot be trusted to tell us the truth in all things—big or small—how can it be trusted at all? And if God considers truth so precious, and His Word so powerful, why would He claim to breathe out Scripture from His mouth (2 Timothy 3:16) and carry along the writers of Holy Scripture (2 Peter 1:21), and then fail to guard that Scripture against error?

In the early church, God’s Word, all of it, was viewed as the standard by which God’s people should evaluate any and all teachings. The Berean Christians were commended for measuring the apostle Paul’s words against the Old Testament Scriptures: “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11, NIV).

Unless the Bible were fully inspired, fully true, “examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were true” would be meaningless. We can't take something containing untruths—with no objective way to decide what’s true and what isn’t—and use it to measure whether something else is untrue. If you had a tape measure you knew to be inaccurate, would you bother using it?

Ironically, without studying Scripture or researching the actual facts, countless believers embrace the claims of the Bible’s critics. Yet most of those critics’ claims are nothing new. The Bible has been criticized incessantly for the last 150 years, and long before that. The charges just haven’t stuck. “Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens” (Psalm 119:89).

I’m reminded of what the Huguenots said of the Bible and its critics: “Hammer away ye hostile hands; your hammers break, God’s Anvil stands.”

Read Randy’s longer article on inerrancy, Can We Trust the Bible? Is It Without Error? Also, see his devotional Truth: A Bigger View of God's Word.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Abba, Father: What Having God as My Heavenly Father Means to Me

I grew up with a dad who slept at home, but generally wasn’t there for me or my brother. He was a good provider, and I was proud of his extraordinary physical strength, but he didn’t come to my games or any school activities. I never had the experience of playing catch or going camping or fishing with him. He was a skilled mechanic, but didn't take the time to teach me how to work with my hands. He was always off to work or when home, working on something else or reading the newspaper. Beyond telling me to do various chores, he rarely spoke to me and I had little access to him. While my mom was always there and approachable, it seemed my father wasn’t interested in me.

Everyone is different, but what happened to me was that my earthly father’s absence made me all the more appreciative when I entered into a relationship with Jesus, and thereby into a relationship with my Father in Heaven. This Father loved me unconditionally, and despite His high expectations, He never told me to do anything that He didn’t give me the strength to do, and was quick to forgive me when I failed, which I often did.

I found God the Father 100% trustworthy, an infinitely powerful provider who created the universe itself, not only for His glory but also for my good, as His son. I believed Him to be, and do now more than ever, personally and genuinely interested in my life. He wired me a certain way, and when I use my gifts and abilities to serve Him, I am His apprentice, having learned at His feet, under His guidance. It is an honor and joy when I show some resemblance to my Father in Heaven. He means everything to me.

I base these concepts not on wishful thinking, but on God’s revealed Word, and its blood-bought promises. I am a child of God, born into His family: “Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13, NIV).

But as if being born into His family weren’t enough, Scripture says He also chose to adopt me: “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15). He’s not a distant and unapproachable Father. I am delighted to call Him “Abba, Father.”

I always have access to Him, the King of the universe. His throne room is continuously available to me, His child, and He always has time for me: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16, KJV).

While my earthly father often seemed impossible to please, my heavenly Father seems eager to say to me, “Well done.” Not only is He willing to spend time with me, He’s also eager to do so, and went to incredible lengths that I might spend eternity living with Him in His place, with Him always there for me, and me always able to proudly serve under Him. It’s my privilege to worship Him, and call Him my Father.

I later had the privilege of leading my dad to Jesus when he was 84 years old. For the final five years of his life, when he was failing and needed my help, at last we became close. (Read the full story.) I can’t wait to reunite with my earthly father in Heaven, transformed into the image of our mutual Father in Heaven.

For more on fatherhood, see Randy's novel Courageous, as well as The Resolution for Men (by Stephen and Alex Kendrick, with Randy Alcorn as contributor).

Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash