Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 138

Together, Let God’s Family Join the Angels’ Joyful Song This Christmas Weekend

Perhaps this Christmas season is a difficult one for you. Perhaps it reminds you of loved ones who are no longer part of your life, due to death or strained relationships.

Life can be hard in very real and different ways. While our problems may be many and varied, there is one main solution: Jesus. And Jesus—no one and nothing else—is at the heart of Christmas. Yes, family is precious and important. But the truth is, many families are fractured, and while we should make every effort to forgive and ask for forgiveness, sometimes we simply don’t have the power to change the hearts and desires of estranged family and friends.

This season can be a painful reminder of who is and isn’t in the room and at the table.  One who was with us last year may now be gone from this world. Another may have chosen not to join the family to celebrate Christmas. They may be in pain, and the rest of the family in pain and confusion or dismay.

Yet to those who love Him, “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5). Jesus said, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

May we all be reminded of the angel’s message to the shepherds at Christ’s birth: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10). The Greek adjective translated “great” here is megas—this isn’t just news, but good news of “mega-joy.”

This is the best news there has ever been or ever will be: because Jesus has come, in the end, life conquers death, joy triumphs over suffering. Happiness, not sorrow, has the last word—and it will have the last word forever. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

In his sermon “The First Christmas Carol”, Charles Spurgeon preached on the angels’ joyful song at the birth of Jesus: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). He then talked about how their example should impact our view of happiness at Christmastime:

Friends, does not this verse, this song of angels, stir your heart with happiness? When I read that, and found the angels singing it, I thought to myself, “Then if the angels ushered in the gospel's great head with singing, ought I not to preach with singing? And ought not my hearers to live with singing? Ought not their hearts to be glad and their spirits to rejoice?” Well, thought I, there are some somber religionists who were born in a dark night in December that think a smile upon the face is wicked, and believe that for a Christian to be glad and rejoice is to be inconsistent. Ah! I wish these gentlemen had seen the angels when they sang about Christ; for angels sang about his birth [and] certainly men ought to sing about it as long as they live, sing about it when they die, and sing about it when they live in heaven for ever.

…Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say unto you rejoice. Specially this week be not ashamed to be glad. You need not think it a wicked thing to be happy. Penance and whipping, and misery are no such very virtuous things, after all. The damned are miserable; let the saved be happy. Why should you hold fellowship with the lost by feelings of perpetual mourning? Why not rather anticipate the joys of heaven, and begin to sing on earth that song which you will never need to end?

This weekend, may you and your family experience a deep, God-given happiness as you celebrate His first coming, and look forward His second one—when all that’s broken in this world will be made right.

Merry Christmas from Nanci and me, and from all of the EPM staff! We know many of you and we love and appreciate you deeply. Those we don’t yet know we will someday, all who are fellow members of God’s family! When we sit in a living room and a table together this Christmas, let’s remind ourselves we will sit at a larger table that includes all of God’s children from throughout human history and around the world today, some here in this world, some already with our Savior and King.

We are true family, brothers and sisters who are children of our common Father, and together are the bride of our beloved Jesus Christ. Wherever we are, whatever our circumstances, whether we gather for the holidays in homes full of love and grace, or in ones full of tension and strife or sadness and loneliness, may we sense our connection to our Lord and to each other in the greater family of God.

Randy Alcorn

Jesus was still speaking to the crowds when suddenly His mother and brothers were standing outside wanting to speak to Him. Someone told Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to You.”

But He replied to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven, that person is My brother and sister and mother.”

Matthew 12:46-50, Holman Christian Standard Bible

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David Mathis on Jesus Christ’s First Thirty Years on Earth

Experiencing growth and process are integral to the human experience. The first humans lived in process, as God ordained them to. Adam knew more a week after he was created than he did on his first day.

Nothing is wrong with process and the limitations it implies. Jesus “grew in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52). Jesus “learned obedience” (Hebrews 5:8). Growing and learning cannot be bad; the sinless Son of God experienced them. They are simply part of being human.

I love this article from David Mathis (executive editor for DesiringGod.org, and author of Habits of Grace) on the first thirty years of Jesus’ life. As you read his reflections this Christmas season, contemplate what amazing grace God showed to us by inhabiting space and time as a human being.

And consider too the implications that the eternal and omnipresent Son of God will, in ways difficult to grasp but which should prompt us to worship, remain embodied as a resurrected human being forever! —Randy Alcorn

How God Became a Man: What Jesus Did for Thirty Years

By David Mathis

It is striking how little we know about most of Jesus’s life on earth. Between the events surrounding his celebrated birth and the beginning of his public ministry when he was “about thirty years of age” (Luke 3:23), very few details have survived.

Given the influence and impact of his life, humanly speaking, we might find it surprising that so little about his childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood is available — especially with the interest his followers, who worshiped him as God, took in his life. That is, unless, divinely speaking, this is precisely how God would have it.

After the birth story, the first Gospel tells us about the visit from magi, pagan astrologers from the east (Matthew 2:1–12), the family’s flight to Egypt for haven (Matthew 2:13–18), and their eventual return upon the death of Herod (Matthew 2:19–23). Matthew then jumps immediately to the forerunning ministry of John the Baptist, and Jesus as a full-grown adult — with nothing at all about the intervening thirty-plus years of childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood.

Development Dignified

The third Gospel has more to say, but captures three decades of the most important human life in the history of the world in remarkably simple terms. Luke tells of the high angelic announcement to lowly shepherds (Luke 2:8–21) and the young family’s first visit to the temple (Luke 2:22–38). He then summarizes Jesus’s first twelve years of life in astonishing modesty:

The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him. (Luke 2:40)

Then, after recounting the story of a 12-year-old Jesus impressing adults at the temple (Luke 2:41–51), Luke reports some two decades — well more than half the God-man’s dwelling among us — in this simple sentence:

Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:52)

How fascinating would it be to know what life was like for the boy Jesus? Did he plainly outpace his peers in learning? Did his sinlessness infuriate fallen siblings? How skilled was he as a worker? Was his carpentry “perfect,” or did it make good sense around town when he transitioned into public ministry?

But it’s easy to digress into speculation and miss the powerful point of these important summary verses in Luke. God has something to teach us here in the precious few details. That he would send his own Son to live and mature and labor in relative obscurity for some three decades, before “going public” and gaining recognition as an influential teacher, has something to say to us about the dignity of ordinary human life and labor — and the sanctity of incremental growth and maturation.

God could have sent a full-grown Christ. And from the beginning, he could have created a world of static existence without infants, children, awkward teens, middle-agers, and declining seniors — just a race of young, spry, “mature” adults. But God didn’t do it that way. And he doesn’t do it that way today. He designed us for dynamic existence, for stages and seasons of life, for growth and development in body and in soul, both toward others and toward God.

The lion’s share of Jesus’s earthly life powerfully dignifies the everyday pains of maturity and growth common to humanity.

Jesus Grew in Stature

The ancient creed confesses his full humanity, in both body and inner person. Jesus is both “truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and body” (Chalcedon, AD 451). Having a “true human body,” Jesus was born, he grew, he thirsted, he hungered, he wept, he slept, he sweated, he bled, and he died.

All four Gospels unfold his three-year public ministry, and give nearly half their space to the final week of his life. But what was the God-man doing most of his earthly life? He was growing. What did he do for three decades between his celebrated birth and his unforgettable ministry? He walked the ordinary, unglamorous path of basic human growth and development. He grew.

The man Christ Jesus did not simply emerge from the wilderness preaching the kingdom. He learned to latch and crawl, to walk and talk. He scraped his knees. Perhaps he broke a finger or wrist. He fought off the common cold, suffered through sick days, and navigated his way in the awkwardness of adolescence. He learned social graces and worked as a common laborer in relative obscurity more than half his earthly life.

Jesus Grew in Wisdom

But Jesus grew not only in body, but also in soul, like every other human, in wisdom and knowledge. Even by age 12, Luke could say Jesus was “filled with wisdom” (Luke 2:40), not because he got it all at once, or always had it, but because he was learning.

Through sustained effort and hard work, he came into mental acumen and emotional intelligence that he did not possess as a child. And he didn’t receive it all in one moment, but he grew in wisdom, through the painful steps of regular progress. His human mind and heart developed. He grew mentally and emotionally, just as he grew physically. As Donald Macleod captures it, “He was born with the mental equipment of a normal child, experienced the usual stimuli and went through the ordinary process of intellectual development” (The Person of Christ, 164).

Surely, we find extraordinary instances later in his life of supernatural knowledge, given by the Spirit, in the context of ministry. He knew Nathanael before he met him (John 1:47), that the Samaritan woman had five husbands (John 4:18), and that Lazarus had died (John 11:14). Once he even knew that Peter would find a shekel in the mouth of the first fish he caught (Matthew 17:27). But we shouldn’t confuse such supernatural knowledge, given by special revelation, with the hard-earned, infinite learning of his upbringing.

Jesus learned from the Scriptures and from his mother, in community and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and he increased in wisdom by carefully observing everyday life and how to navigate God’s world.

Jesus Learned Obedience

An essential aspect of his growth in stature and wisdom was his learning obedience, both to his earthly parents (he “was submissive to them,” Luke 2:51) and his heavenly Father.

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. (Hebrews 5:7–9)

That he “learned obedience” does not mean that he began as disobedient, but that he began as unlearned and inexperienced, and the dynamic existence of human life gave him experience and know-how. That he was “made perfect” doesn’t mean that he began as sinful, but that he began in sinless immaturity and grew into maturity.

In Favor with God and Man

When Luke 2:52 echoes the words of 1 Samuel 2:26 (“Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man”), he breaks through a potential hiccup in our perspective on human growth — both Jesus’s and our own.

True human growth is not Godward at the expense of love. And development in love should not serve as a distraction to Godward advance. The first commandment is love God. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself.

No human, not even the God-man himself, skips the growth and maturation process, and no true growth is one-dimensional, but both toward God and man, with all the attendant pains.

Don’t begrudge God the glory of your long, arduous maturation process. In it you are tasting the growing pains that Jesus knows very well. And he stands ready to help you persevere until God’s process is complete.

This post originally appeared at desiringGod.org. 

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Will There Be Seasons and Varying Weather on the New Earth?

Some people have never thought about Heaven’s weather because they don’t think of Heaven as a real place, certainly not on the New Earth. Or they assume the New Earth will have bright sunshine, no clouds, no rain . . . forever.

In a passage that promises rescue, security, and no more famine or fear for His people, God says, “I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops” (Ezekiel 34:26-27).

Is rain a bad thing? No. It’s good. We’ll see trees bearing fruit on the New Earth. Will they be rained on? Presumably. Will rain turn to snow in higher elevations? Why not? If there’s snow, will people play in it, throw snowballs, sled down hillsides? Of course. Just as resurrected people will still have eyes, ears, and feet, a resurrected Earth will have rain, snow, and wind.

As I wrote these words for my book Heaven on a cold December day, a strong wind was blowing. Nearly bare trees were surrendering their last leaves. A row of fifty-foot-high trees, a stunning bluish green, were bending and flailing. It was a powerful, magnificent sight that moved me to worship God. We were expecting our first winter snow. The feeling of warmth and serenity in the protection of our house was wonderful. It made me ponder the protecting, sheltering, secure hand of God. I’ve often had similar feelings during pounding storms. Lightning, thunder, rain, and snow all declare God’s greatness (Job 37:3-6). Is there any reason to conclude such things will not be part of the New Earth? None. Of course, no one will die or be hurt by such weather. No one will perish in a flood or be killed by lightning, just as no one will drown in the river of life.

When we live on the New Earth, could we go hiking in a snowstorm without fear of trauma or death? Could we jump off a cliff into a river three hundred feet below? Could we stand in an open field in flashing lightning and roaring thunder and experience the exhilaration of God’s powerful hand? Must the New Earth be tamed, stripped of high peaks, deserts, waterfalls, and thunderstorms because these sometimes caused pain and death in this world? Nature, including variations in climate, will be a source of joy and pleasure, not destruction. If we stand amazed now at the wonders of God’s great creation, we’ll be even more amazed at the greater wonders of that greater creation.

I love the seasons, each of them. The crisp fall air, the brilliant yellows, oranges, and reds, the long good-bye to summer. The snow blankets of winter, the freshness and erupting beauty of spring, the inviting warmth of summer. Who are all those from? “God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season” (Jeremiah 5:24).

Will there still be seasons on the New Earth? Why wouldn’t there be? Some people argue that because fall and winter are about dying, we won’t experience them in Heaven because there will be no death there. I’m not convinced that seasons and their distinctive beauties are the result of the Fall. God is depicted as the seasons’ Creator, and we’re not told they didn’t predate the Fall (Genesis 8:22). The “no more death” of Revelation 21 applies to living creatures, people and animals, but not necessarily to all vegetation. Even if it does, God can certainly create a cycle of seasonable beauty apart from death.

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Smart Study of God’s Word

Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.  And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, NLT)

How happy is the man…his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2, HCSB)

Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. (Joshua 1:8, NLT)

Biblical meditation doesn’t mean taking a few words taken out of context that we feel free to apply to our own lives in whatever random ways come to mind. We need to view the Bible as God coherently speaking to us in trains of thought. He is a master communicator, so He chose the words carefully. It’s not only the words that matter, but also the particular meanings God attaches to those inspired words—meanings determined by context.

Meditation ungrounded in thoughtful, rational biblical interpretation is not smart or productive meditation. Why? Because it bypasses the actual thoughts of God carefully expressed in God-breathed words. These words are definitely important. They are intended to communicate specific truth to us. But if we latch onto a few of those words and then attach our subjective personal meanings to them, then we substitute our thinking or human speculation for God’s own words. In turn, we act as if our thoughts are His inspired thoughts. That may cause a major corruption of those thoughts.

For instance, we might read Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God…” We could meditate on the idea that since some things are secret we should not push ourselves to better understand God’s Word. We shouldn’t bother to contemplate divine sovereignty and human responsibility, or to ponder the wonders of the Trinity. Why? Because those things are not for us to know. But in fact, that is not the meaning of the passage. The second part of the verse demonstrates this: “…but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.”

Many passages say we’re to contemplate the great truths of God’s Word. Only then can we break away from the shallowness of our culture. We have too many unthinking, superficial Christians who are either too lazy or unmotivated to study God’s Word. They say, “We know too much doctrine. What we need to do is just live it out.” But in fact, we know less doctrine than the church of Jesus Christ has ever known, and much of our failure to live it out is due to the fact that we’ve never made the effort to learn it in the first place.

Similarly, we can read, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). We can stop there and erroneously apply it to Heaven, which is not the central subject Paul is talking about. We can also ignore the critical statement in verse 10: “…these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit…”

In context, the revelation by God’s Spirit is the inspired Word of God. Hence, we believe what eyes have not seen, nor ears heard, and have not entered into our thoughts except by God’s revelation to us in His Word. Therefore our eyes are to see and our ears are to hear it and they are to enter into our hearts precisely because God has spoken to us, and we have taken the time and effort to study His Word!

Here are some great quotations that further develop these thoughts:

To get the full flavor of an herb, it must be pressed between the fingers, so it is the same with the Scriptures; the more familiar they become, the more they reveal their hidden treasures and yield their indescribable riches. — John Chrysostom, 347-407   

…the common people cry out for the scripture, to know it, and obey it, with great cost and peril to their lives. — John Wycliffe, 1395   

I had perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text. — William Tyndale, 1530   

How shouldest thou understand, if thou wilt not read, nor look upon it? Take the books into thine hands, read the whole story, and that thou understandest, keep it well in memory; that thou understandest not, read it again, and again. If thou can neither so come by it, counsel with some other that is better learned. Go to thy curate and preacher; show thyself to be desirous to know and learn, and I doubt not but God—seeing thy diligence and readiness (if no man else teach thee)—will himself vouchsafe with his holy spirit to illuminate thee, and to open unto thee that which was locked from thee. — Thomas Cranmer, 1540   

All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them...The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly. — Westminster Confession of Faith, 1647

I want to know one thing, the way to heaven: how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price give me the Book of God! …I…search after and consider parallel passages of Scripture, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. I meditate thereon, with all the attention and earnestness of which my mind is capable. If any doubt still remain, I consult those who are experienced in the things of God: And then, the writings whereby being dead, they yet speak. And what I thus learn, that I teach. — John Wesley, 1746

I had then, and at other times, the greatest delight in the holy Scriptures, of any book whatsoever. Oftentimes in reading it, every word seemed to touch my heart. I felt a harmony between something in my heart, and those sweet powerful words. I seemed often to see so much light, exhibited by every sentence, and such a refreshing ravishing food communicated, that I could not get along in reading. Used oftentimes to dwell long on one sentence, to see the wonders contained in it; and yet almost every sentence seemed to be full of wonders. — Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758

It is strange how powerful is the tradition of the pulpit; how often able and thoughtful men will go all their lives taking for granted that an important passage has that meaning which in youth they heard ascribed to it, when the slightest examination would show them that it is far otherwise. — John A. Broadus, 1827-1895

In order to be able to expound the Scriptures, and as an aid to your pulpit studies, you will need to be familiar with the commentators: a glorious army, let me tell you, whose acquaintance will be your delight and profit. Of course, you are not such wiseacres as to think or say that you can expound Scripture without assistance from the works of divines and learned men who have laboured before you in the field of exposition…It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others. — C. H. Spurgeon, 1890

We fail in our duty to study God’s Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy. — R. C. Sproul   

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Five Examples of How Persecution in Iran Has Backfired, and Grown the Church

Today’s guest blog is from David Yeghnazar, the executive director for Elam Ministries. EPM has had the privilege of supporting Elam, which exists to strengthen and expand the church in the Iran region and beyond. With all of the bad news we hear out of the Middle East, it’s easy to overlook how God is at work in this region in incredible ways, drawing people to Himself and growing His church. I think you’ll be encouraged by what David has to share. It’s also a good reminder that as persecution increases in the western world, God can do a great work of grace in us too. —Randy Alcorn

The Bible is full of stories reminding us that, whatever the opposition, God is always victorious.

It’s the story of Joseph before Potiphar’s wife, of Moses before Pharaoh, of Daniel before the lions, of Esther before King Ahasuerus, of Peter and John before the Council. Supremely, it’s the story of the Lord Jesus, who was crucified and rose for our salvation.

It’s also the story of the Iranian church in my lifetime. When I was a child, persecution threatened to wipe it out. Instead, the church in Iran has become the fastest-growing evangelical church in the world today—and it’s affecting the region for Christ. 

Scripture is clear that God often uses his people’s suffering to advance his kingdom. In his providence, the Islamic regime’s strategies to stamp out the Persian-speaking church in Iran have backfired—resulting in further church growth. Here are five examples.

1. Banning the Bible has backfired.

In addition to banning the printing of the Bible in Persian, closing down the Bible society, and burning Bibles, Iranian government officials have warned citizens against reading the Bible. Apparently, this warning has caused many Iranians, already disillusioned with their government, to become all the more eager to obtain a copy of the Bible. And many have put their faith in Christ after finding and reading one.

A few years ago, a government official waved one of the New Testaments printed by our ministry (Elam) on national television and warned the population to avoid it. Demand for the New Testament soared as a result. Many who receive a copy through our street evangelism efforts say they’ve been searching for a copy. Some say they’ve been searching for years.

2. Closing church buildings has backfired.

The Iranian government’s closure of churches over the past few years has forced Christians of Muslim background to meet in underground house churches. These usually grow and multiply as friends, family, and neighbors give their lives to Christ. Though government security agents work hard to crack down on these outlawed house churches, there are so many—and new ones are formed so regularly—that it’s impossible to find them all.

3. Censoring television and blocking websites has backfired.

Christian websites are routinely blocked and TV channels scrambled in Iran. This censorship makes more people curious about what the government doesn’t want them to know. Despite these censorship measures, blocked websites can still be accessed through VPNs (virtual private networks) and scrambled programs through satellite television. 

I know of at least 30 new house churches planted through satellite television and follow-up ministry last year alone.

4. Killing leaders has backfired.

Eight pastors have been martyred in Iran since 1980 because of their ministries. Their deep affection for Christ—and their willingness to suffer for him—has made these leaders compelling examples for the rest of the church to follow. Their martyrdom accounts are well known among Iranian Christians, many of whom desire to imitate their leaders’ deep love and courage for Christ.

Because of their leaders’ example, many Iranian believers are increasingly willing to take risks in order to share the gospel.

5. Imprisoning Christians has backfired.

Persecution is intended to instill fear and paralyze the church. Instead, seeing Christians willing to suffer often draws unbelievers closer to Christ. They ask, Who is this Jesus that people are so willing to suffer for?

One recently baptized man began his journey to Christ when he heard on the news that Iranian Christians had been arrested for their faith. Their willingness to go to prison for their beliefs made him curious, and so he googled “Christianity.” The Lord used that internet search to eventually lead him to surrender his life to King Jesus.

Painful Path, Sovereign Christ

We glorify God for how he is accomplishing his sovereign purposes in Iran. Yet persecution remains deeply painful. Lives have been lost; homes, businesses, and inheritances stolen; families torn apart. Some will carry the physical and emotional scars of suffering for the rest of their lives.

But we won’t shrink back. As the apostle Paul declares, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3–5).

Suffering has not destroyed the church in Iran. Rather, suffering has deepened its dependence on God, which in turn has increased its endurance, character, and hope.

A few years ago, an interrogator admitted to an imprisoned pastor, “We know we cannot stop the church. We can only try to slow it down.” Two thousand years ago, King Jesus promised to build his church (Mattnew 16:18). He is doing so in Iran today. Nothing can stand against him. With humble confidence, then, we continue to press forward with the work we’ve been given to do. 

Please keep your Iranian brothers and sisters in prayer. Pray for continued openness to the gospel among the Iranian people. Pray for genuineness of faith among professing Christians. Pray for perseverance and for the establishment of faithful churches.

Never before have we seen such opportunity for ministry among Iranians.

This post originally appeared on The Gospel Coalition.

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Why Didn't God Send Jesus Right After Adam and Eve Sinned?

A reader asked me,

Why didn’t God send Jesus to the earth to die right after Adam and Eve sinned? Why did God wait all that time between Adam and Eve and the cross?

This is a good question. I don’t mean to be dismissive, but after having considered who God is, the first answer to this question is “because God didn’t want to.” Though we’ll talk about the possible whys, that’s the place to start. Just trying to understand what God has revealed is difficult enough. It would be presumptive to try to understand what He has not revealed. So I admit I really don’t know why He designed His plan the way He did. But I do know it is perfect.

Having said this, I can suggest some possible reasons that make sense to me as to why God didn’t immediately send Christ. They’re all related to the fact that we learn within time, not simply as individuals, but as a human community. As creatures we are bound to time and space, process is important, and developing events in human history is important.

What God immediately did after Adam and Eve sinned was promise He would save fallen mankind. Genesis 3:15 is the beginning of the gospel announcing that someone (we now know it was Jesus) born of a woman would ultimately triumph over Satan: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Satan thought he crippled (bruised heel) Jesus on the cross, but the resurrection fatally wounded (bruised head) Satan’s power. This is the first of many promises that God made, and every one He has faithfully kept. “So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

By God waiting to bring both redemption and judgment, we learn more about His faithfulness. Since He always does what He promises, we learn more about His truthfulness. “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19). We learn to exercise faith and perseverance and believe in God’s praiseworthy attributes:  “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).

Jesus was the Lamb, a sacrifice, the Passover, Priest, Prophet, King, the fulfillment of the law, the Bread of Life, the Word. Without time to develop these ideas throughout history and through the writings of the Scriptures, we would never have understood the depths of the Godhead.

Of course, God always knew the exact moment He intended to send Christ to the earth. Galatians 4:4-5 is a beautiful statement of this: “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

When the Gospel was manifested in Christ, after thousands of years, God made sure the world had experienced enough of life without the Messiah to appreciate Him and see their desperate need for “the good news of happiness” (Isaiah 52:7). God designed the world in such a way that He knew to send Messiah in just the right time.

God tells Abraham, “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Genesis 15:16). God had a plan to deliver His people from Egypt at just the right time to position them for conquering the inhabitants of the land that they would occupy as the Promised Land.

In order that we might learn faith, Christ didn’t come earlier than He did. “But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:23-24).

In the same manner, we learn about longsuffering, glory, and mercy because God chose to wait: “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:22-23).

An equally valid corollary to the question, “Why didn’t God send Christ to Adam and Eve?” is “Why didn’t God send His wrath immediately on sin?” Peter answers this saying that God’s love will not allow one person, who will believe, to be denied the necessary time: “But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:7-9).

It’s an amazing and wonderful thing to realize that God devised His plan, created us, and is perfectly executing the plan, so that we could enjoy Him. He was infinitely satisfied within Himself, the Godhead, before creation. He didn’t create for Himself; rather, at His pleasure He created for us. Just to have lived is a gift beyond measure. That God would allow some of His creatures to live for eternity in a relationship with Him is beyond comprehension.

I can’t understand everything about God’s plan and His timing, either in human history or my own life. But that doesn’t keep me from believing it. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-7).

You might like to also check out a recent Ask Pastor John Piper episode, “Why Did Jesus Delay So Long Before Entering Human History?”

God Is Still Sovereign, Even When the Diagnosis Is a Birth Defect

In an earlier blog, Stephanie Anderson, on our Eternal Perspective Ministries staff, told the story of her disabled son Isaiah who died before his birth. Here Steph speaks of her beloved sister Tricia, who had a different disability. When she speaks of God’s sovereignty in birth defects, she speaks with an extraordinary amount of experience and insight, not only for a 30 year old, but for anyone of any age. I deeply appreciate Steph, and I am grateful for her words which speak powerfully to me and, I think, to all of us. —Randy Alcorn

There’s a saying we’ve all heard over the years: “Lightning never strikes the same place twice.” Did you know it’s a myth? It’s simply not true. As one storm chaser writes, “Lightning can strike any location more than once.”

If I knew that fact before, I guess I must have forgotten it. Because when I first knew something was very wrong with our baby, and that it was quite possibly a chromosomal defect, I was dumbfounded. How could lightning “strike twice” in my family?

Six years before I was born, my parents had a daughter with Wolf Hirschhorn Syndrome, a very rare chromosomal defect (1 in 50,000 births) resulting in profound disabilities. After testing, they were told it was a de novo occurrence not linked to anything in my parents’ genetic makeup. She lived for 27 years and passed away the January before my husband Dan and I got married.

My mom was a dedicated, loving, and faithful mom to Tricia. But I also saw how very hard her disability was on my parents. Initially not knowing the extent of our child’s issues, I will admit that my fear was, “What if we are looking at raising and loving a severely disabled child long-term?” I had seen firsthand how difficult it could be.

We soon found out from the amniocentesis results that as the doctor suspected, Isaiah did have full Trisomy 18, which affected every cell in his body. And it was another de novo occurrence, not caused by anything in either of our genetic makeups. While Trisomy 18 is one of the most common chromosomal abnormalities, it still only occurs in 1 in 5,000 births. As Dan put it, it’s like we “won” the genetic lottery.

So how could God possibly allow both my mom and me to experience having a child with a chromosomal defect? I never in a million years would have guessed we’d share that in common.

Perhaps the world might say, “This was just random lightning strikes, which happened to land in the same place. Random accidents caused by faulty cells.” I think a Christian perspective says that as difficult as it might be to accept, God has a plan and a purpose behind allowing, and even planning, these children to be born with disabilities.

That is not an easy truth for me, or really for anyone, to swallow. We can be okay with the idea of God just permitting something that Satan planned for our hurt, or with the idea that sin caused something to happen, and God is sad about it, but He would never have chosen it for us. Maybe there’s a sense that we let God “off the hook” in tough situations.

But I’m not certain those perspectives are as comforting as we might think.

Charles Spurgeon put it this way:

It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by His hand, that my trials were never measured out by him, nor sent to me by His arrangement of their weight and quantity.

I love that. There is comfort in trusting God’s control, His plan, His sovereign purposes—even when they seem impossible to grasp from our perspective. It doesn’t necessarily take away the pain from hard things, but I’m glad to know my life isn’t at the whim of random chance and evil intents.

I know Christ-loving people will land in different places about the doctrine of God permitting, allowing, or planning difficult things. Certainly we can all agree that because of human sin, this world isn’t the way God originally intended.

I do know that Scripture isn’t apologetic about God’s creation of what we humanly see as “imperfections.” Psalm 139 is a beautiful description of God’s personal involvement with crafting a tiny person in utero. Each person He creates is worthy of marvel.

I also know He claims to be behind even what’s seemingly only random: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD” (Proverbs 16:33). He even doesn’t shy away from claiming His sovereign purposes in creating people with disabilities. In Exodus 4:11, the Lord tells Moses,

“Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” 

In his book If God Is Good, Randy Alcorn talks about David O’Brien, a brilliant man with severe cerebral palsy, who’s now with the Lord. In a talk he gave years ago, David referenced John 9:1-3. Randy describes the heart of David’s message:

The disciples wanted to attribute a man’s blindness to human sin, either his or his parents’. Jesus corrected them: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” Then Jesus stated the disability’s purpose: “This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” The “so that” is critical. David said it rules out haphazardness, demonic control, or bad luck. Rather, Jesus declares a deliberate, divine purpose in that blindness. While God would receive great glory in the man’s healing, surely he had a purpose for the man’s life long before his healing.

I don’t pretend to understand God’s purposes in allowing Isaiah to have Trisomy 18, or my sister to have Wolf Hirschhorn Syndrome. And I’m beginning to realize that in some ways, that is okay. I don’t need to perfectly understand in order to trust. One of my favorite songs puts it this way: “I don’t need to see everything. Just more of You.”

Perhaps one day in His presence, God will make His purposes abundantly clear. For now, His sovereignty is a good place to rest.

We never explain suffering by saying God is helpless or that Satan got the upper hand or that there are mere accidents in the world. We always handle suffering, our suffering by saying, even though we don’t understand all the answers for why this particular suffering came or that particular suffering came at this particular time or this particular intensity—we don’t understand those particulars—nevertheless, we do understand what God has taught us; namely, that he is sovereign, that he is good, and that he always has purposes for our everlasting joy. —John Piper, “How Do We Prepare Our Children for Suffering?”

Choosing Thanksgiving for a Stillborn Child’s Life

Stephanie Anderson is part of our staff at Eternal Perspective Ministries. She is a delightful and godly follower of Jesus, and I deeply respect her. Steph is also a skilled editor who helps me on my books, and blogs. She’s one of the most talented people I’ve ever known. And as you’ll see, she’s an excellent writer too.

Steph’s husband is Dan Anderson, and their daughters Evelynn and Sienna are ages 7 and 2. When Steph recently lost her baby Isaiah, after receiving a prenatal diagnosis of Trisomy 18, Nanci’s and my hearts were deeply touched. We had the privilege of attending Isaiah’s memorial service in the home of their pastor and my long-time  friend Barry Arnold, of Cornerstone Church in Gresham, Oregon.

I asked Steph to share her heart-touching, prolife, and Christ-honoring story. I hope her words speak to you as they do me. I can’t wait to meet Isaiah in a better world. Or to hold a grandchild of Nanci and mine that we haven’t yet had the privilege of meeting—what a glorious day that will be! —Randy Alcorn

Both secular sources and Christians say there’s something powerful about gratitude—something about the act of giving thanks that changes us. Scripture says, “I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD” (Psalm 116:117). Choosing to give thanks is sometimes more of a sacrifice than at other times.

There is still so much I don’t understand about my recent pregnancy and the “whys” of God allowing certain situations, including our son's chromosomal abnormality. Isaiah’s whole life was a surprise to my husband Dan and me, and though we never felt the timing was ideal, we knew we would love this child when he or she arrived, just as much as we love our girls. My pregnancy with our oldest, Evelynn, was a surprise too, but as the months went on and we knew we were expecting a healthy little girl, we found it easy to thank God for the unexpected blessing of her life. I felt strongly that God had a special purpose for creating her and the timing of her life and birth.

I admit it was harder to affirm this time when everything seemed like such a disaster. I struggled to find joy in this pregnancy, and after we received our news, I wondered, Why did God give us this surprise, only to give us a baby boy that has Trisomy 18? But I know there’s value in thanking God for Isaiah’s little life, no matter how short it was and how broken his little body was. I want to keep the practice, even if I don’t always feel like it or see the “why” in the moment.

Though our hearts were heavy, on the day Dan and I went to the hospital to begin the induction process, we could still see evidence of God’s hand. Here are some things we thanked Him for that day:

We had already previously planned for our girls to spend this particular weekend with their Nana. They were safe and would enjoy time with her, and we didn’t need to worry about childcare.
We had a restful night’s sleep, the best both of us had experienced in a long time.
Because I had some forewarning with Isaiah not moving, I had time to prepare my heart for the news, and also time to put some things in order for work and our home.
The doctor’s office was so accommodating, fitting us in to get an ultrasound.
After the ultrasound, our doctor’s office got us scheduled to have a photographer from Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep take keepsake pictures after Isaiah’s birth. That meant the world to me.
The sunshine that Saturday morning was beautiful. After days of gray, dreary Oregon rain, I loved seeing the sun and the fall colors it brought out on the trees.
A few weekends before, our pastor had talked about “adversity friends”, the kind of friends who rally around you in times of difficulty. What a precious gift our friends and family were to us in this time, with their acts of love, words of kindness, and prayers. They have taught us how to love others in their times of adversity.
We knew we favored burial for Isaiah over cremation, but were discouraged about looking into options for burying him because the cost is so excessive. One of our wonderful pastors helped us find a local funeral home that provides a casket at cost for bereaved families of infants, and a cemetery that donates the plot. It meant so much to us to know we will have a place to go to honor and remember him. (We later had a small service to honor Isaiah’s life, and Dan read this letter to him from us.)

When I was driving to Bible Study the week prior to our baby’s home going, I found myself praying two things: that Isaiah would know that he is loved, and that the Lord would take him peacefully into His arms.

I had no idea God would answer those prayers so quickly.

After we received Isaiah’s diagnosis, a sweet friend gave me the gift pictured here. She wrote me later, “You are sharing Isaiah with the angels. Looks like they get to be the ones to teach him how to walk.”

When I opened her gift, it reminded me of a story I read years ago in one of Dr. Walt Larimore’s memoirs, Bryson City Secrets, about the miscarriage he and his wife experienced. (You can listen to Dr. Larimore share his story here, and I highly recommend it.)

After his child’s death, Dr. Larimore was devastated. In his words, “I cursed my Father. I fumed, I wrestled. And He was quiet. He said nothing.” Dr. Larimore sat down in his quiet time chair, and began to search God’s Word. He doesn’t remember what He read, but he walked away with the sense that “God is good, that He is right, that He is righteous, that His love for us knows no bounds. And in all that He does and allows, whether good or bad, if we love Him and are called according to His purpose, He works it for our good.”

Dr. Larimore continues, “I felt arms come around me, and I had the sense that I was sitting in a lap, that I was being comforted by someone who loved me and understood pain.”

Sometime later, Dr. Larimore took care of a little boy who was diagnosed with bone cancer. Little Danny was a child of great faith, who loved Jesus and His Word. His cancer progressed, and eventually he was on hospice, close to death. During his last visit to Danny, Dr. Larimore took his hand and prayed that Danny’s passing would be peaceful. That’s when Danny opened his eyes and said, “It will be, don’t worry – I know I won’t be here much longer, but Dr. Walt, I know where I’m going.”

“Where?” Dr. Larimore asked.

“I am going to Heaven,” Danny replied.

“How do you know?”

Danny was quiet for a moment before replying. “Because Azar told me so.”

“Who is Azar?” Dr. Larimore asked.

“You don’t know Azar? He is my guardian angel, and he comes here and sits with me and we talk about Heaven.”

“What does he look like?”

“He’s big and he’s strong, and he has golden hair, and he carries a big sword. Azar is my angel and my family’s angel. It is Azar who says He will take me to Heaven.”

Danny continued, “You haven’t met him? Are you sure?”

“Not that I remember,” Dr. Larimore said.

“That’s very interesting.”

“Why is that very interesting?”

“Well, because he says he’s your guardian angel too, and your wife’s and Kate’s [Dr. Larimore’s first daughter],” Danny explained.

“Azar was with you the night that you lost your baby, and it was Azar who took your baby to Heaven. It was Azar who held your wife as she wept.”

Dr. Larimore writes in his book what else Danny said:

“Azar told me about it. He said that one day you were very sad, Dr. Larimore. Azar told me that he was with you. And he said that after you had wrestled with him all afternoon, you finally crawled up in his lap, and he held you close while you cried. He told me he cried with you. …Azar took your baby to Heaven, and then he came back and was with you that day. He comforted you.”

…I could not remember telling anyone the story of my afternoon after the loss of our unborn child—not even Barb.

I remember being touched the first time I read this story, and it has new meaning now. I love that Scripture tells of us of God’s tender care for His smallest people:

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10)

How we look forward to meeting our son. Heaven is sweeter with him there. Thank you, Lord, for Isaiah’s life.

J. I. Packer on Having the “Christmas Spirit” and the “Christian Snob”

I appreciate these challenging words from J. I. Packer about what it means to truly have a God-honoring “Christmas Spirit.”

May God one day say of us what He said of King Josiah: “He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” (Jeremiah 22:16)

We talk glibly of the “Christmas spirit,” rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But . . . it ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of him who for our sakes became poor at the first Christmas. And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all the year round.

It is our shame and disgrace today that so many Christians–I will be more specific: so many of the soundest and most orthodox Christians–go through this world in the spirit of the priest and the Levite in our Lord’s parable, seeing human needs all around them, but (after a pious wish, and perhaps a prayer, that God might meet those needs) averting their eyes and passing by on the other side. That is not the Christmas spirit. Nor is it the spirit of those Christians–alas, they are many–whose ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle-class Christian home, and making nice middle-class Christian friends, and bringing up their children in nice middle-class Christian ways, and who leave the submiddle-class sections of the community, Christian and non-Christian, to get on by themselves.

The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor–spending and being spent–to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others–and not just their own friends–in whatever way there seems need.

There are not as many who show this spirit as there should be. If God in mercy revives us, one of the things he will do will be to work more of this spirit in our hearts and lives. If we desire spiritual quickening for ourselves individually, one step we should take is to seek to cultivate this spirit. “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). “I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart” (Psalm 119:32 KJV).

From Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Copyright (c) Intervarsity Press.

Heaven Could Never Be Boring

Some imagine that in Heaven we’ll be all dressed up with nowhere to go and nothing to do. (Except take an eternal afternoon nap, strum that harp, and polish that gold.) I’ve concluded there’s an unspoken assumption behind this pervasive notion that Heaven will be boring. That assumption is that life without sin would not be interesting. The idea is, “What will we do for entertainment if there’s no sin?”

The fact that such a notion would even occur to us demonstrates the extent to which we’re blinded by the evil one. His most basic strategy, exactly the one he employed with Adam and Eve, is to make us believe sin will bring us fulfillment.

But sin is not what brings us fulfillment—it’s what robs us of fulfillment! Sin isn’t what makes life interesting, it’s what makes life empty. This emptiness inevitably leads to boredom. When there’s fulfillment, when there’s beauty, when we see God as He truly is, boredom becomes an impossibility. In Heaven we will be filled, as Psalm 16:11 describes it, “with joy” and “with eternal pleasures.”

Heaven is God’s home, the dwelling place of the One who is infinite in creativity, goodness, beauty and power. How could the home of someone like that be anything less than thrilling?

I share some related thoughts in this 3-minute video:

Photo: Unsplash