Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 13

How You Can Help Persecuted Believers in Nigeria Grieving Their Murdered Loved Ones

Note from Randy: My thanks to Stephanie Anderson on the EPM staff, and Kathy Norquist on the EPM board, for their help putting together this information.

Christmas is a time of celebration for millions of believers around the world. But for some of our brothers and sisters in Christ, Christmas 2024 meant persecution and grief. Open Doors Canada Reports, “The Week of Christmas 2024 brought with it multiple fatal attacks on Christians in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.”

My Nigerian friend Samuel Kunhiyop keeps our ministry updated with what is happening in Nigeria. His most recent news was that on December 22, 15 Christians were brutally murdered in the town of Gidan Ado.

Sam writes:

“The highway runs through the middle of the town. I drive through that almost every week and am very familiar with the town. The inhabitants of the village are 100% believers, and our church has most of the believers attending the church. They are all farmers all year round. On that fateful night, Christmas Eve, the terrorists attacked innocent people around 7:30 pm and murdered 15 men who were carefully selected and shot in the head. It was just gruesome and inhuman. All those murdered were breadwinners in their various households. 13 were buried in a mass grave and two were buried individually. Now, apart from the destruction of property, we have 15 widows and orphans who have lost their husbands and fathers within a very short time. You are probably asking, what is the government doing? All they say is that they are investigating—a very familiar story we hear all the time.”

A heartbreaking video that Sam shared shows the stark and horrible reality of these murders, including widows weeping for their lost husbands. (You can watch it here, but please be aware that it includes disturbing footage of those murdered, demonstrating the level of atrocities committed.)

Please pray for these dear people and the ongoing fear and vulnerability of the people in the region. There is much frustration and heartache for the people who are left without protection. Pray the government authorities will take action and bring justice to the perpetrators.

In addition to praying, these 15 families need food for the next few months until the rainy season begins in May. If you’d like to give, you can donate through EPM and select the special fund “Persecuted Church.” Through January 31, 100% of what’s given to this fund will be directed to BILD International, an organization partnering with Samuel to help persecuted believers in his region.

Sam writes, “I wish we can get the international community to be aware and condemn these atrocities and criminality against fellow human beings created in God's image.”

He added, “Thanks for sharing our pains and praying.”

Consider Reading the Bible Chronologically This Year

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 2025 will bring, you’ll find abiding happiness as you go back to God’s Word again and again.

One Bible reading program to consider is the Bible Recap, a chronological read through with Tara-Leigh Cobble. Several of our EPM staff did it in 2024, and highly recommend it. You read 2-3 chapters of Scripture each day, then listen to a (free) 7-10 minute podcast where Tara-Leigh helps you understand what you read, where it fits in Scripture, and what we learn about God from it.

One of our staff members says, “It’s like going through the Bible with a wise friend who can help you make sense of what you’re reading. That’s especially helpful when you get to some of the tricker passages of the Bible! My knowledge of Scripture and God’s character has grown so much doing this read through.” You can learn more about the Bible Recap here.

Why can a chronological read through be especially helpful? Tara-Leigh Cobble writes in her book The Joy of the Trinity:

Contrary to popular thought, God doesn’t undergo a personality transplant at the end of the Old Testament. When we follow the story line of Scripture, we see a God who created mankind out of an overflow of love, who clothed Adam and Eve before they even repented, who rescued the Israelites out of slavery, joyfully choosing to set up camp in their midst and repeatedly forgiving them, blessing them, and reminding them He was sending a Messiah to rescue them. This is the heart of God evident in the scope of the Old Testament’s metanarrative. All along He dropped hints of what was coming, and then He delivered on His promise!

Of course, if we drop down in the middle of the Old Testament in a time when He’s punishing the Israelites, He seems harsh. We won’t understand why His laws were helpful and necessary. We’ll fail to notice He’s already told them repeatedly not to do that specific sinful thing, told them what type of punishment to expect if/when they do it, and then continued to provide for them and protect them despite their rebellion. With our limited information, we’ll view Him as strict or angry, and we won’t draw near to Him. We’ll prefer to stay in the New Testament where we can read about Jesus, who paid for all the sins we know we’ve committed. This is a common problem we encounter when we don’t read the story of Scripture chronologically (in the order it happened, not the order it is laid out). Reading the Bible at all is an important endeavor, but reading chronologically can help us get to know God in the order He chose to reveal Himself through progressive revelation.

There is a necessary process of the gospel: we must be confronted with God’s laws and requirements, see that we fall short and can’t obey His laws, and realize our need for rescue. Jesus came to be that Rescuer. He not only paid our sin debt, but He also granted us His righteousness! This is how progressive revelation works in our relationship with God, and it’s the reason we still desperately need the truths of the Old Testament to see Him rightly!

Ligonier Ministries also has a great list of Bible reading plans to choose from.

Whatever Bible reading program you decide on (and I highly recommend you choose one and stick with it), may your coming year be filled with the deep, abiding joy and happiness of knowing Jesus Christ!

Biblical Optimism for the New Year

Regardless of our expectations or resolutions, this new year, like every year since we were evicted from Eden, will bring both wonderful and profoundly difficult moments.

What we need is a perspective on our coming year that’s hopeful, yet grounded in eternal certainties. No Christian should be a pessimist. We should be realists—focused on the actuality that we serve a sovereign and gracious God. Because of the reality of Christ’s atoning sacrifice and His promises, biblical realism is, ultimately, optimism.

If we build our lives on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ’s eternity-shaping redemptive work, we can be optimists. Why? Because even our most painful experience is but a temporary setback. Our pain and suffering may or may not be relieved in this life, but will certainly be relieved in the next. That is Christ’s promise—no more death, crying or pain; he will wipe away all our tears (Revelation 21:4). Indeed, any other foundation is sand, not rock. It will inevitably disappoint us

Knowing that our suffering will be once and for all relieved and God will use it for our eternal good (Romans 8:28) doesn’t make it easy, but it does make it bearable. So too does the promise, “The sufferings of this present time aren’t worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). Same for the profound truth that our present sufferings are light and momentary, but are achieving for us something weighty, glorious and eternal (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Locking our minds onto these truths allows joy in the midst of suffering. Jesus said, “Happy [makarios] are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you. . . . Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven” (Luke 6:22-23). We who will one day enter into our Master’s happiness can frontload that happiness into our lives today.

Paul said, “I rejoice in my sufferings” (Colossians 1:24), and James said, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2). The apostles didn’t enjoy suffering, but they rejoiced in the midst of it, because they trusted their gracious God’s sovereign plan. They believed in His constant presence, that we are more than conquerors through Him, and nothing shall separate us from the love of Jesus (Romans 8). They looked forward to Christ’s return, their bodily resurrection, and the redemption of God’s creation.

Christ said to His disciples, who would suffer much, “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Our optimism isn’t “health and wealth gospel” wishful thinking which claims that God will spare us from suffering here and now. Peter said, “Rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:13). Christ’s future glory, in which His children will participate, is the reason for our present rejoicing while suffering.

As Christ’s followers, we know this world isn’t evolving into something better. Even if bright spots seem few, we have much to be grateful for. Thanking God and others feeds our perspective and helps us enter into our Master’s happiness today. It then spills over to those around us.

Understanding the biblical doctrine of Heaven, the New Earth and the resurrection will shift our center of gravity and radically change our perspective. We'll realize we never pass our peaks in this life. We don’t need a bucket list because we'll live forever as part of a great adventure far better than anything here and now. This realization is what the Bible calls “hope,” a word used six times in Romans 8:20-25, the passage in which Paul says that all creation longs for our resurrection and the world’s coming redemption.

Don’t place your hope in favorable circumstances, which cannot last. Place your hope in Christ and His promises. Jesus promised He will return, raise us, and live with us on a new, Redeemed Earth, where we’ll behold God’s face and joyfully serve Him forever (Revelation 22:3-4).

I’m not optimistic about everything, but I am very optimistic about the future of all who trust Jesus. Our glass is already half full and will one day, for God’s beloved children, be completely and eternally full to overflowing.

In Tolkien’s Return of the King, Aragorn says, “Dawn is ever the hope of men.” King David wrote, “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

The night may seem long for God’s people, but the truth is: once morning comes, it will never end. Neither will Joy.  Every day will be better than the one before. It isn’t Pollyanna but Jesus who promises we really will live happily ever after.

God Is Using Our Ministry to Share the Hope of Heaven with Those Grieving

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (NIV). Nanci’s death, and grieving our temporary separation, has given me many opportunities to write and speak about grief and share an eternal perspective.

My new booklet Grieving with Hope was born out of what I’ve learned during the last 2 1/2 years since Nanci relocated to Heaven. Below are some notes we’ve received from readers who have been helped by EPM’s resources on Heaven and grief:

“God has given me a grief ministry for the past six years after my husband’s death. So much of what Randy writes resonates deeply with me and I find myself saying AMEN a lot! Grateful for this ministry.”

“Three years ago today my beloved husband met Jesus face-to-face. While the pain of separation has been hard, the truth of knowing he still lives with Jesus while we await our reunion as believers has comforted and carried me. Randy’s teachings have been instrumental in my grief journey and healing because they are based in the truth of God’s Word.”

“Since my beloved husband died earlier this year, I’ve been reading your book on Heaven and listening to your interviews from after your dear Nanci went to be with Jesus. I can honestly say my relationship with Jesus has become so strong and I grieve with the hope of seeing my husband again but full understanding God’s not finished with me. I feel honored to be able to listen and read your material and of course, the Scriptures that you make reference to.”

“When our daughter breathed her first breath in glory, Heaven is one of the books that God used to bring such comfort and perspective in the midst of our grief. I had a friend who came over once a week to watch our other children so that I could take long walks near our home. I would listen to the audiobook of Heaven while I walked and cried many tears of grief and joy as I thought about where my daughter is and where I will one day live as well!”

“The questions I, a 54+ year believer, had after my husband died were interminable. We Will See God helped me so much along the journey of faith and discovery. Thank you for using God’s gifts to help others.”

“I found your magazine in the hospital waiting room. I looked at the open page with the Q&A about pet grief which I am presently going through with my wonderful dog. It caught my eye and then I saw the author’s name, and I knew it was God sent. Randy Alcorn became my favorite Christian author after I read his book on Heaven—at least seven times plus on tape many times, following the loss of my dear husband. Thank you for being there just when I needed you most.”

“We’re a few months out from the three-year mark of our son going Home. Having a godly/eternal perspective is the only way we continue to make it. I ordered a handful of your booklets yesterday to have one always ready to share.”

“There are so many books and helps on grieving available. When I lost my wife, I read a few and of those I read, I found very few to be that helpful. The void that is left by the loss of a loved one and the resulting sense of loss and loneliness can be overwhelming. Of all that I have heard and read, Randy’s comments about communion with Jesus is by far the best. I so much appreciate that wisdom and ‘Eternal Perspective.’ Nothing else comes close. No one else can fill that void and sense of loneliness like Jesus.”

A special thanks for the ongoing support of our donors. You are the backbone of this ministry and enable us to keep serving in Jesus’s name. I am profoundly grateful for your kind support. Thank you for helping us reach many with this message of our rock-solid hope in Jesus!

If you’d like to be part of our efforts to reach out to people in Christ’s name and to keep producing resources with an eternal perspective, we invite you to consider making a one-time or recurring donation. It’s the generous support of our ministry partners that enables us to continue our eternity-shaping work. (I encourage you to start by giving to your local church where you are taught God’s Word, enjoy the fellowship of God’s people, and collaborate to take the Gospel to the world. Secondarily, you may choose to support other ministries such as EPM.)

We’re here to serve everyone without cost, so please don’t feel obligated to give to us. Jesus said, “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). It’s our privilege and joy to share freely what God has so graciously given us.

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

What Love Looks Like

When a religious leader asked which command was the greatest, Jesus responded, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands” (Matthew 22:37-40, CSB).

Love isn’t something we display on a wall hanging; it’s something we do: “Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth” (1 John 3:18, BSB). Jesus’ teaching often centered on loving people, as in the story of the Good Samaritan who freely gave of his time and money to care for a stranger who’d been beaten and robbed (Luke 10:25-37). He said we should tend to the disadvantaged just as we would if He Himself were the one in need (Matthew 25:31-46).

Jesus also said to love the spiritually poor by bringing them the gospel (Matthew 28:19-20) and by praying that God would send out workers to reach them (Matthew 9:37-38).

Each of these passages, and many others, demonstrate that loving the physically poor and the spiritually poor both involve generously giving of ourselves and our resources. Loving others is really living large because it breaks us out of our own minuscule orbits. It puts us in orbit around God, who graciously meets the needs of those who meet the needs of the needy.

Love Can’t Help but Give

In the King James Version, the Greek word agape is often translated “love.” But twenty-nine times, this same word is translated “charity.” Translators believed that when the word was used of vertical action, whether God toward us or us toward God, “love” was the proper translation. But when used of horizontal actions (toward a neighbor or an enemy), “charity” served the meaning best. Why? Because loving someone is inseparable from giving to them. If you love, you give. If you don’t give, you don’t love.

John 3:16 is one of the best-known Bible verses: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” In short, love gives. Love gives time. Love gives money. Love gives privileges. Love gives what others might consider ours but what we know to be God’s.

The life God’s Son offers us cost Him His life. That’s the essence of love, defined by example in the greatest act of love in the history of the universe: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10, NIV).

Generosity Is Love in Action

Imagine if God, instead of sending His Son, sent us a message through an angel: “Too bad you’re going to Hell. Remember, though, I love you!” Instead, He loved us as Immanuel, God with us.

If you still doubt that love is about generous giving, consider these words: “By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:16-17, BSB).

This passage portrays love as inseparable from giving. No, we can’t give everything to everybody. Yet to withhold our money and possessions from the needy is to withhold from them God’s love and compassion. God doesn’t need our help—He could do everything without us. As the body of Christ, we are His hands and feet to the needy.

We can ignore people without hating them. But in the end, if we don’t help them, it will be no consolation that we didn’t hate them. As Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel famously said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”

The abundant life, which is itself a gift to us from the God of love, pours forth abundant love to others. That is the essence of giving.

What Story Do Your Financial Habits Tell about Your Loves?

Evangelist John Wesley didn’t just preach the gospel, he lived it.

Wesley had just bought pictures for his Oxford room when he noticed that the chambermaid at his door was cold. She needed a winter coat, but he had very little money left to give her. He asked himself, Will thy Master say . . . “Thou hast adorned thy walls with the money which might have screened this poor creature from the cold!”

Wesley started limiting his expenses so he would have more to help the poor. At one time his book royalties gave him an annual income now worth about $160,000. Yet he lived like someone today might at an income of $20,000. His lifestyle increased marginally while his giving increased dramatically.

Perhaps you aren’t as radical as Wesley—I’m certainly not—but his example of love and generosity inspires me to reevaluate my lifestyle and giving as well as the way I view the people I encounter daily.

You Don’t Have to Be Rich to Give

Generosity isn’t dependent on how much we make but on what’s happening inside our hearts. It’s the overflow of our love for Jesus and for others.

The greatest scriptural example of a group of people giving generously is the Macedonian churches of 2 Corinthians 8, whom Paul commended for insisting on taking an offering to help the needy saints in Jerusalem. The apostle said of these believers, “In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” (verse 2, NIV). Notice that their giving was the opposite of dutiful drudgery—it came out of “overflowing joy.” Giving was their way of living the good life.

On a trip to Ukraine, we spent the evening with a large family, feasting and singing hymns and laughing and exalting Jesus together. Our hosts served an entire month’s ration of butter at the meal, but we were assured there was nothing they would rather do.

To the selfish person, a giver’s behavior appears foolish and against their best interests. (Why part with a month’s ration of butter to serve rich visitors who have unlimited amounts of butter at home?) Scripture says the opposite: “One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty” (Proverbs 11:24, NIV).

I’ve certainly known generous people who were facing serious problems, but I’ve never known a generous soul—of any income level—who was chronically unhappy. That wonderful Ukrainian family might have missed their butter, but the payoff of loving Jesus and us by showing hospitality was, to them, a far greater treasure.

Giving from the Heart Really Matters

Jesus said our greatest joy comes when we give to others: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving” (Acts 20:35, GNT). Notice what Jesus did not say: “Naturally, we’re happier when we receive than when we give, but giving is a duty, so grit your teeth, make the sacrifice, and force yourself to give.”

Money won’t make us happy, but giving away money can make us profoundly happy! When we give out of love for Christ and others, living a life of overflowing love and joyful generosity is a no-brainer.

Adapted from Randy’s book Giving Is the Good Life .

Charles Spurgeon on Celebrating the Savior’s Birth

Charles Spurgeon closed his 1854 sermon entitled "The Birth of Christ" with the following, in a Christian context that was often critical of Christmas celebration because some people embraced sin and not the Savior. May his words for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day apply to the days ahead of us:

Now a happy Christmas to you all; and it will be a happy Christmas if you have God with you. I shall say nothing today against festivities on this great birthday of Christ. We will tomorrow think of Christ's birthday; we shall be obliged to do it, I am sure, however sturdily we may hold to our rough Puritanism. And so, 'let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.'

Do not feast as if you wished to keep the festival of Bacchus; do not live tomorrow as if you adored some heathen divinity.

Feast, Christians, feast; you have a right to feast. Go to the house of feasting tomorrow, celebrate your Saviour's birth; do not be ashamed to be glad; you have a right to be happy. Solomon says, "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment."

Religion never was designed to make your pleasures less.

I finish by again saying—“A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!”

Have a wonderful Christmas with your friends and families! May your hearts overflow with the love of Jesus.

Readers Share How the Heaven Book Has Impacted Them

Note from Randy: I continue to be humbled and amazed at the ways that God has used the Heaven book. As our ministry celebrates the 20th anniversary of the book’s release, we’re grateful for the notes we’ve received from readers sharing how the book has impacted their lives. Here are just a few of them. (See also this interview I did about the book’s anniversary.)

Great Peace
Thank you, Randy, for this book. Our daughter left us eight years ago, and I clung to this book every day for months. It brought me so much peace.

Renewed Faith
I’m about in the middle of reading your book Heaven. My walk was not in a good place. I couldn’t find my way into a better state of mind. I started reading your book, and it’s put everything in perspective. I didn’t even realize that I had some wrong beliefs about Heaven. It’s renewed my faith.

Hope in Grief
Today is the nineteenth anniversary of the day our four-year-old flew to the arms of Jesus. Your book Heaven was a lifeline to me in the early days. Knowing where she is and how she is made so much difference in both my and my husband’s grief journey. The tears still fall, and I will not be whole until that day when we are reunited, but the promise of Heaven is everything to me.

Eternal Perspective
After losing my fourteen-year-old to suicide three years ago, I questioned many things, including my faith. Your book Heaven, and the Bible, of course, are the two things that brought me great comfort each day. Suicide will never make sense, but I am learning to trust that Jesus knows and sees ALL things, and this is all I need to know while I am on this earth.

Comfort in Loss
I have almost devoured Heaven, reading it over and over. I learned about the book shortly after my husband of 54 years went to be with Jesus, and the comfort it brought me was more than I could ever put in words.

Motivated Faith
Besides the Bible, of course, Heaven is one of my two favorite Christian books, along with The Pursuit of Holiness, and made me so much more excited about my faith. It motivates me all the more to be about the Father’s business in the present.

Courage to Face Death
Your book Heaven gave me the courage to look at the imminent loss of both of my parents while I saw their decline side-by-side. It gave me comfort again when they passed into Heaven, and still gives me hope and anticipation for when that time comes for me and other loved ones.

Strength in Suffering
I read your book Heaven while recovering from a knee fracture, and exactly one year later, my husband got a cancer diagnosis. Six months later, he passed. I would’ve been a puddle on the floor if I hadn’t spent so much time in the Word and learning about Heaven prior. Jesus was preparing me.

Preparation for Eternity
My dad was on hospice for nineteen months. He read your book Heaven three times before he went there. I asked him, "Why read it again?" He said that when he plans a trip, he learns all that he can about where he is going. This (along with reading his Bible) was his prep for Heaven! It has greatly encouraged me, too.

An Invitation from Eternal Perspective Ministries

If you’ve found our books, articles, social media posts, and/or magazine to be helpful, would you prayerfully consider supporting EPM and being a part of this eternity-shaping ministry in 2025? If you wish to make a year-end, tax-deductible donation, please note donations postmarked no later than December 31, or received online by 11:59 p.m. PT on December 31, will be included on this year’s tax receipts.

Please note EPM’s philosophy is based on the words of Jesus in  Matthew 10:8 : “Freely you have received; freely give.” God graciously provides for us, so please do not feel any obligation to support us. We realize it isn’t God's will for everyone to support every ministry! We are glad to share freely with anyone what God has given to us. 

The Comfort and Friendship of Jesus in Our Grief

Over the four-plus years my beloved wife Nanci faced cancer, there were many good reports and many bad ones. We rode a roller coaster of emotions throughout her three surgeries, three rounds of radiation, and three rounds of chemo.

I vividly remember the day when the doctor said it was now stage-four cancer that had spread to her lungs. That night we prayed together, and then I went downstairs, got on my knees by the couch, buried my face in my hands, and wept. I poured out my heart to God, begging Him to intervene. I  did what 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to do: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (NIV).

Suddenly I felt a presence beside me. I opened my eyes and saw our Golden Retriever Maggie’s front paws next to my hands. She gave me a look of loving concern, licked my tears, and then made a loud mournful sound she had never made before and never did after. I can only describe it as a groan. It startled me.

I thought immediately of Romans 8 which tells us that we groan, the whole creation groans, and God’s Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. I realized that three of us were groaning together for Nanci, who we all loved—our God, myself, and our dog. And then I wept more, this time finding great comfort in both my companions.

The God of All Comfort

A year later, I was there when Nanci took her last breath. I felt profoundly sad, yet so privileged to have been her husband and to be there till death did us part. In the over two years now since she relocated to Heaven, her absence has been palpable. I miss her frequent texts about dogs and football and great quotes from Charles Spurgeon and J. I. Packer and others. I miss the sound of her voice and her laughter, always so loud and contagious.

The grief has been difficult. Yet God has been doing a work of grace in my life, bringing me comfort that allows me to go forward without her. (This is greatly helped by the anticipation of one day being with her again in the presence of Jesus!) In Psalm 16:8 David says, “I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” To set God before me is to recognize His presence and constant help.

When a child falls off a bike, she doesn’t need her father to say, “Sweetheart, here’s why it happened—given your speed and the weight of this bike, it couldn’t tolerate that sharp turn and…” No. The child simply wants comfort. We don’t need explanations, most of which we wouldn’t understand anyway. We need “God, who comforts the downcast” (2 Corinthians 7:6). Millions of people, including me, attest to the comfort He has brought them in their darkest hours. “…you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me” (Psalm 86:17).

Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes write in When God Weeps,

God, like a father, doesn’t just give advice. He gives himself. He becomes the husband to the grieving widow (Isaiah 54:5). He becomes the comforter to the barren woman (Isaiah 54:1). He becomes the father of the orphaned (Psalm 10:14). He becomes the bridegroom to the single person (Isaiah 62:5). He is the healer to the sick (Exodus 15:26). He is the wonderful counselor to the confused and depressed (Isaiah 9:6).

Paul says, “[The] God of all comfort... comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4). Often when we are grieving, we think only of receiving comfort, not giving it. There are times in grief when receiving needs to be our sole focus. But when God comforts us, we are enabled to also use that same comfort to console others.

While He pours out His comfort to us directly by a ministry of His Holy Spirit, God is also fond of using other people to comfort us. I have experienced this through my friends and family members. There is great pleasure in both giving and receiving comfort in God’s family. It’s fulfilling to be His instrument, and that’s a source of comfort as well.

The Friendship of Jesus

Jesus says, “No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends” (John 15:15). This stunning truth has become a deep daily comfort to me. Ever since I came to know Jesus as a teenager, I’ve had a friendship with Him; but it really hit home when my second best friend, Nanci, was no longer here for me. While other friendships have helped, nothing has meant more to me than the friendship of Jesus. It still does. Every day.  

I have never felt closer to Him than I do now. I tell myself that Nanci now lives  with her best friend and mine. And I am experiencing and sensing His presence with me every day. At her death, neither of us lost our best friend. He is still with both of us, even though we are not yet reunited.

That Jesus truly is and wants to be our friend is a revolutionary concept to many Christians. True, we should never deny or minimize the fact that we are God’s servants, and that itself is a high calling. But we should simultaneously affirm the wondrous fact that we are His children and friends. God can and does love His servants, but He certainly loves wholeheartedly His children and His friends. And He intends to do His best for us, even when that best takes a different form than we might have chosen.   

Dwight L. Moody said, “A rule I have had for years is to treat the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal friend. His is not a creed, a mere doctrine, but it is He Himself we have.”

As we grieve, we find that grief itself is a companion; but our greater companion and closest friend is Jesus. He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Jesus is our mentor and best friend, as well as Savior and Lord. Our relationship with Him grows as we spend time with Him—talking and listening to Him. As Oswald Chambers wrote, “The dearest friend on earth is a mere shadow compared to Jesus Christ.”

We Will Behold His Face

Suffering and weeping are real and profound, but for God’s children, they are temporary. One day, grief will end. Forever. Eternal joy is on its way. Jesus, our forever friend, “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain.” This is the blood-bought promise of Jesus.

In the meantime, when our hearts ache, let’s turn to Jesus, our greatest source of comfort and peace. “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life” (Psalm 119:50).

The Awe and Wonder of My Childhood Christmases Pointed to Jesus

I grew up near Gresham, Oregon. I treasured those Christmases when it snowed. I loved sledding and running in the snow with my Golden Retriever Champ, and snowball fights with the Kims and Swans and my best friend Jerry Hardin.

With my wife Nanci and daughters Karina and Angela, I had many wonderful Christmases later, only a mile and a half from my childhood house. But when I remember my first Christmases, I see above all the smiling face of my mom, who left this world in 1981. I wasn’t raised in a Christian home. No one in our family attended church or understood the meaning of the Son of God’s incarnation and redemption. Yet, somehow, my mom embodied Christmas. She decorated the whole house, nativity scene included, and to this day I can’t think of Christmas without picturing her. My dad was a tavern owner, a no-nonsense tough guy, but even he was won over by my mom’s love for Christmas.

My family celebrated on Christmas Eve, when we had our big meal, a Thanksgiving-like feast complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, homemade rolls dripping with butter and strawberry jam, and big glasses of cold milk.

On Christmas morning, we’d open our mom-sown stockings, ignore the obligatory toothbrush, and sort the malted milk balls, Butterfingers, Snickers and Whitman’s Samplers, in those little yellow boxes with the green italic font, containing four chocolates. My brother Lance and I would trade with each other for the ones we liked best.

It wasn’t until I was fifteen, a sophomore at Barlow High School, the second year the school existed, that I personally came to know Jesus and first learned the true meaning of Christmas, that the God-Man came to live in our world to bring us forgiveness and salvation, and to show us how to love Him and each other.

Yet I still look back at all those childhood Christmases with awe and wonder. There was something so good and right and happy about my mom’s Christmases that even though Jesus wasn’t yet in my life or hers, I can retroactively read His loving presence back into my childhood, knowing His eye was already on me and has been ever since.

Happy birthday, Jesus!

One Conspiracy Theory That Is Grounded in Scripture

Evangelist and author Greg Stier shared this on X:

WHY I’M A CONSPIRACY THEORIST!

Behind every evil in this world there is a closely knit network of highly resourced influencers who manipulate the system (Hollywood, politics, media, etc.) and are conspiring to take down evangelical Christians and destroy the global church.

It’s not the Illuminati.

It’s not extreme left wingers.

It’s not the Deep State.

It’s deeper than that.

It’s Satan and his invisible army of fallen angels, nicknamed “demons.”

They never sleep. They are organized and synthesized to terrorize believers and compromise the church.

And believers in Jesus know this—they hate you with an unimaginable hatred, because we have received by grace what they failed to take by force…the kingdom of God (Revelation 1:6.)

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood (progressives, atheists, LGBTQ, etc.); it’s with the invisible enemy who is pulling their strings.

Our solution is not moral, political, or societal reformation. It’s in spiritual transformation.

But this transformation won’t take place without a confrontation. It won’t take place without a fight.

So get prayed up, put your armor on, and be battle ready to fight for lost souls and rescue them from Satan’s grasp.

The conspiracy is real. The danger is real. The Devil is real.

But through Christ, our victory is sure!

Heed the words of the Apostle Paul who challenged us to face this conspiracy head on:

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:12,13)

Greg’s words are in line with the premise behind my novel Lord Foulgrin’s Letters: given demons’ insights into reality and their plot to deceive and destroy us—this is one conspiracy theory that’s right on target—wouldn’t it be a major coup for us to place a wiretap in hell’s war room? What if we could plant a bugging device where we could overhear our enemies assessing our weaknesses and strategizing how next to attack us? The book contains letters written by a demon to his subordinate Squaltaint. Lord Foulgrin advises Squaltaint how to tempt and deceive Jordan Fletcher, the human "vermin" or "sludgebag" to whom he's assigned. 

Lord Foulgrin’s Letters isn’t necessarily dark, though it is very sobering at points. There’s satisfaction in knowing you’ve heard the opposing coach sketch out his plays for the second half and you know what to expect, how to fight back and win.

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

My impudent Squaltaint, You admit Fletcher’s been praying “deliver us from the evil one”? He’s even taped a card on his dashboard saying, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”? You complain this makes you jumpy. You whine that with everything going on in his life, sometimes you can hardly stand to hang around him.

Oh, you poor devil. You have my deepest sympathy.

Moron! Whatare you looking for, group therapy? Erebus has no counseling depart­ment. Get over it, fool.

Your reports are woefully incomplete, but it’s obvious the Enemy is accomplishing far too much in Fletcher. You gloat that although he was on his knees forty minutes, you managed to distract him most of the time from focusing on the Enemy. But you minimize the monumental—the man was on his knees forty minutes?

I fear no prayer spoken to some vague “higher power” who’s nothing more than an invention of their own minds. But since Fletcher’s view of the Enemy is being shaped by the forbidden Book, it makes his prayers dangerous. The threat of forbidden talk isn’t in what they’re saying as much as who they’re saying it to. This is why the posture of his prayer concerns me. If he’s on his knees or facedown on the floor, he may begin to believe in his own unimportance and the greatness of the One he prays to.

Make them think they’re “just” praying, as if it were not action of the most potent kind. Prayer isn’t simply preparation for battle, it is the battle. I fear nothing of prayerless studies, prayerless work, or prayerless parenting. I laugh at their most diligent efforts and most profound insights when disconnected from prayer. The forbidden talk is what infuses them with the Enemy’s presence and power. Minimize it at all costs.

You brag you’ve befuddled him in his daily Bible study. What will you boast of next— that you made him hungry while he’s fasting? The fact he’s having a daily Bible study shows your failure. Even if forbidden talk and Bible study seem fruitless for a while, if Fletcher keeps at it, the Enemy will suddenly set his study and prayers on fire. Before you know it, the sludgebag’s heart will burn with praise, adoration, and every foul thing you can imagine.

Convince Fletcher that today he doesn’t have time for the Book and the talk. Then do it again tomorrow and the next day and the next. He’ll never make a conscious decision to stop prayer and Bible study, but the bottom line will be the same.

Turn forbidden talk and Bible reading into an intention, something he’ll do when he has time. Then all you have to do is make sure he never has time. The intention to pray and read the Bible is no threat whatsoever to us. It’s the actual doing it that’s the danger. When it’s put on the calendar, when the alarm clock is set because of it, that’s when it’s time to panic.

After reading his Bible, praying, going to church, and sharing his faith, he always feels better, doesn’t he? Then why is it the things he feels best after doing are the things he most doesn’t want to do? This is a question for you, not him. The obvious answer is us. If he realized there’s a supernatural explanation for his reluctance to do what brings him joy, we’d lose our clandestine edge. He’s increasing in humility? Then make it a point of pride. If he becomes aware of his pride about being humble, then confesses it, make him proud he was humble enough to confess his pride at being humble.

You deliberately neglected to tell me they decided to forgo a new car to give to the needy. If the Enemy is getting hold of their money, it’s a sure sign He’s gotten hold of their hearts. The worst is, everything they give away increases their joy.

Conhock told me the vermin and his wife agreed to go on that summer missions trip. Do you see what’s happening? They’re relocating their treasure, and the Enemy’s relocating their hearts. You’re being beaten at every turn, Squaltaint. What more can go wrong?

If Fletcher sells the boat, next thing you know he may sell his second house and do Satan-knows-what with the money. If he becomes free from debt, he’ll be more free to serve the Enemy, more free to say yes to His promptings, to make a habit of these miserable missions trips, to pull up stakes and follow Him elsewhere, or serve Him where he is now with far less distraction.

What can I say to convince you of how disastrous this is?

You must persuade Fletcher that when the Enemy provides more money He’s expect­ing them to raise their standard of living, not their standard of giving. Remind him of a thousand practical reasons it’s nuts to give up a new car. Let him buy up shares of Microsoft or General Motors, but never the Enemy’s kingdom. Keep his vested interests on earth, not heaven.

As long as the check hasn’t been put in the plate, it’s not too late to persuade Fletcher and his wife to postpone their giving. Do it like you postpone prayer, Bible reading, baptism, evangelism, and everything else. There’s a word for postponed obedience: disobedience. That’s what we’re looking for.

You must take decisive action to bring him down before the Enemy’s hold on him tightens further. Work relentlessly to link him back to his secretary. It’s still not too late, I tell you! He must look at her, think about her, lust for her. Go after him—hunt him down as you would a wild animal. Lead him by his glands to the slaughter.

Where’s your vision, Squaltaint? A broken home, betrayed wife, violated children. We can breed from them another generation of heartbroken hardened little vermin with no concept of moral permanence. They’ll grow up suspicious and skeptical of marriage. If they enter it, divorce will be the back door to which they run. Wife and children will be embittered toward the Enemy because they’ve been betrayed by a man who professed to be His follower. It can still happen, I tell you, Squaltaint. Don’t give up!

Do not disappoint me! We must take him down; we must have him; we must consume him.

If you don’t pry Fletcher from the Enemy, I won’t be able to protect you from the consequences.

Empowered by my hatred,

Lord Foulgrin