Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 148

Robertson McQuilkin, an Example of Faithful Love, Now with Jesus

Thursday, June 2, Robertson McQuilkin went to be with Jesus at 88 years old. I wrote about Robertson in my book If God Is Good, sharing how at the peak of his career, he resigned as president of Columbia Bible College in 1990 to become the full-time caregiver for his wife, Muriel, who had Alzheimer’s. Robertson did this, he said, because Muriel was much happier when he was with her.

Writing for Christianity Today in his article “Living by Vows,” he shared about the time before his resignation:

The board arranged for a companion to stay in our home so I could go daily to the office. During those two years it became increasingly difficult to keep Muriel home. As soon as I left, she would take out after me. With me, she was content; without me, she was distressed, sometimes terror stricken. The walk to school is a mile round trip. She would make that trip as many as ten times a day. Sometimes at night, when I helped her undress, I found bloody feet. When I told our family doctor, he choked up. “Such love,” he said simply. Then, after a moment, “I have a theory that the characteristics developed across the years come out at times like these.” I wish I loved God like that—desperate to be near him at all times. Thus she teaches me, day by day.

I remember listening years ago to McQuilkin’s announcement of his retirement from being president of Columbia Bible College to care for Muriel. Here’s the audio with some pictures. I find it very touching and Christ-honoring.

Years later in a radio interview, Dennis Rainey asked if he had any regrets about the transition from college president to caregiver. McQuilkin said,

I never think about “what if.” I don’t think “what if” is in God’s vocabulary. So I don’t even think about what I might be doing instead of changing her diaper or what I might be doing instead of spending two hours feeding her. It’s the grace of God, I’m sure.

Rainey asked a follow-up question: “But do you ever think about what you may have given up to care for her?” McQuilkin responded,

I don’t feel like I’ve given anything up. Our life is not the way we plot it or plan it.... All along I’ve just accepted whatever assignment the Lord gave me. This was his assignment. I know I’m not supposed to have that kind of reaction, but you asked me, and I have to be honest. I never went to a support group. I had enough of my own burdens without taking on everybody else’s. Sometimes I have accepted an invitation to speak at one of these. A lot of angry people. They’re angry at God for letting this happen—“Why me?” They’re angry at the one they care for, and then they feel guilty about it because they can’t explain why they’re angry at them.... I say, in acceptance there’s peace.[i]

(You can listen to Robertson’s 4-part interview on FamilyLife Today.)

He wrote about his care for Muriel:

People who do not know me well have said, “Well, you always said, ‘God first, family second, ministry third.’” But I never said that. To put God first means that all other responsibilities he gives are first, too. Sorting out responsibilities that seem to conflict, however, is tricky business.

…It is not like meeting a $10 million budget or designing a program to grasp some emerging global opportunity, to be sure. And it is not as public or exhilarating. But it demands greater resources than I could have imagined, and thus highlights more clearly than ever my own inadequacies, as well as provides constant opportunity to draw on our Lord's vast reservoir of resources.

…When the time came, the decision was firm. It took no great calculation. It was a matter of integrity. Had I not promised, 42 years before, “in sickness and in health . . . till death do us part”? This was no grim duty to which I stoically resigned, however. It was only fair. She had, after all, cared for me for almost four decades with marvelous devotion; now it was my turn. And such a partner she was! If I took care of her for 40 years, I would never be out of her debt.[ii]

Reflecting on the attention given to his resignation, Robertson said:

I have been startled by the response to the announcement of my resignation. Husbands and wives renew marriage vows, pastors tell the story to their congregations. It was a mystery to me, until a distinguished oncologist, who lives constantly with dying people, told me, “Almost all women stand by their men; very few men stand by their women.” Perhaps people sensed this contemporary tragedy and somehow were helped by a simple choice I considered the only option.[iii]

Thank you, Robertson, for your example of faithful love to your wife and above all to our Savior. And thank you, Jesus, for raising up your people who leave footsteps for us to follow.

[i] “A Promise Kept,” interview with Robertson McQuilkin, Family Life Today, August 14, 2008.

[ii] Robertson McQuilkin , “Living by Vows,” Christiantiy Today, February 1, 2004.

[iii] Ibid.

11 Ways to Become a “Global Christian” and Develop Your Heart for the Lost

Karen Coleman is a dear sister I worked with many years ago at my home church, Good Shepherd. She and her family spent 23 years in Cameroon, West Africa involved in Bible translation and missionary care, and now we have the privilege of having her on our EPM staff. I can’t think of anyone better qualified to write about developing a heart for missions.

David Bryant asks, “Who wouldn’t like to end each day, putting our heads on our pillows, confidently saying, ‘I know this day my life has counted strategically for Christ’s global cause, especially for those currently beyond the reach of the gospel’?”

May that be true of all of us.  —Randy Alcorn

It might come as a surprise to some, but if you do a Bible search for the words “mission” or “missionary”, you aren’t going to find much. To understand the role of believers in reaching the world, we have to dig a little deeper.

The heart of missions, when we get down to it, is God’s heart for lost people. It’s the Gospel, the Good News of Christ’s completed work for us through His death on the cross and His resurrection. And it’s not just for people who look like us, speak like us, or live near us. It’s for everyone.

So how can you become a more “Global Christian,” that is, someone who thinks and loves like God, who has God’s heart for the world and the lost? (Obviously, by that definition, every Christian should strive to be a Global Christian!)

1. As you read the Bible, mark any passage that relates to world ministry. I have “WM” marked all through my Bible. For example, The Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 and the “Be my witnesses” passage in Acts 1:7-8 come to mind quickly. But world ministry goes all the way back to Genesis 3:15, the prophesy of crushing the serpent’s heal, and Genesis 12 in the Abrahamic Covenant, where God promises to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham’s line. With hindsight, we now know both of those passages are references to Christ Himself—the seeds of the Gospel in Genesis!

Proverbs 24:11-12 speaks of rescuing those who are being taken away to death. Isaiah 9 tells us of the Child who comes to bring light and joy, as well as justice and righteousness. With an eye for this, you will start to see the ministry of God to the world everywhere in His Word.

2. Meditate on and memorize passages that have to do with God’s heart for the world. Here are some of my favorites to get you started:

Jesus was arguably the first missionary. Read His own words in John 4:31-38 (“The fields are white for harvest…”) and Matthew 9:37-38 (“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field”).
Paul—another pretty famous missionary— said in 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 that he became all things to all people, that by all means he might save some.
Revelation 5:9-10 tells us there will be people in Heaven from “every tribe and language and people and nation…”

3. Pray for God’s wisdom and guidance. It’s worth noting that after Jesus told His disciples to ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers, He sent them. He intends for us to have a heart that cares for the world around us, and instructed His followers to pray to that end.

4. Sign up with the Joshua Project to discover who that “world” is. To learn more about Unreached People groups, the Joshua Project will send you (daily or less often if you choose) a little information about one group with progress to date, obstacles to the Gospel, prayer requests, and one photo of a person in that group that helps you realize these are real people headed for a Christless eternity.

They also have a section on hot spots. I’ve heard it said that most of the “easy” groups have been reached with the Gospel. There are many obstacles to reaching those that remain: their languages may be more difficult to learn; they may live in some of the most inhospitable places on the planet; they are mostly in closed countries where missionaries aren’t welcome (that’s putting it nicely). Therefore, extreme commitment is required, as well as extraordinary sensitivity and innovative strategies. But no obstacle decreases the need for those people to hear the Gospel!

5. Read good missionary biographies. They can be just as exciting as any fiction! Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

Anything about or by the band of men who launched Operation Auca in 1956 in Ecuador—Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, and Pete Fleming. I recommend Through Gates of Splendor , Shadow of the Almighty , Jungle Pilot, and The Journals of Jim Elliot, as well as the movie End of the Spear . The dedication of these men and their families to Christ’s cause has had a profound effect on thousands of people.
Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret by Dr. Howard Taylor (a classic)
Peace Child by Don Richardson (about an incredible analogy to the Gospel that existed among an isolated people group)
From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya by Ruth Tucker (an encyclopedia of missionaries, but it reads more like a novel)
Eternity in Their Hearts by Don Richardson (how God prepares entire people groups for the Gospel—fascinating)
Bruchko by Bruce Olson (a 19-year-old captured and tortured by Columbian guerillas—better than what Hollywood could dream up)

6. Meet with your pastor, or the missions person at your church, to let them know of your interest. Ask them for ideas on how to learn more, and ask them to pray for you.

7. Take a course such as “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement.” This life-changing 15-week class is being offered in Portland, Oregon starting this August. It can also be taken online, but the regular classes are recommended.

8. Attend a conference like Mission Connexion or Urbana. There are excellent speakers and workshops, and representatives from various organizations you could interact with. You can go online and listen to past messages at Urbana.  Multnomah University in Portland, Oregon has a similar conference for their students, and you can listen to messages from past conferences. (A connection I made there is how I ended up in Africa for 23 years!)

9. Find out about the missionaries your church supports. Sign up to receive their regular updates and pray for them. Write them an email and tell them you’re praying for them. See if there are any currently on home assignment and living in the area. Have them over for a meal and ask lots of questions.

10. Browse through this inspiring list of missionary quotes.

11. Look around you close to home for opportunities to interact with and learn about people of other cultures. It could be something easy like having dinner at an authentic Ethiopian restaurant, or something more stretching like finding international students or refugees in your area to connect with and serve in some way. God is literally bringing the world to our doorstep—what a great chance to be Global Christians in our own communities.

A warning: If you pursue these goals, you’ll start to think differently! A Christian who thinks globally will begin to change his or her views on many things like possessions, relationships, compassion, success, what is Biblical versus what is merely cultural, choosing a major in college, wealth, security, vocation, refugees, use of time, retirement, ethnocentricity, and so much more. It becomes a grid through which you view our very big God and the entire world He loves. I believe it’s a very God-honoring grid.

If you sense God’s call to consider serving overseas, here are some long-range goals for becoming a Global Christian:

1. Continue to involve the leadership at your church in your discoveries and plans. Everyone serving God in a global capacity needs the strong backing and prayer support of the local church. (If your church doesn’t have someone focusing on missions, God just might want you to be that person!)

2. Join a team to go on a short-term missions trip. The needs, opportunities and possibilities are endless, and this will stretch you out of your comfort zone for sure. For example, one opportunity with Operation Mobilization is to serve on the Logos Hope ship. You can sign up for two weeks, two months, or one to two years. My son Zac is currently serving on the ship and by the time he finishes, he’ll have visited about 18 countries and had amazing opportunities to be a Global Christian. My other son Noah is studying agriculture in college and is currently in Uganda to disciple young men while teaching farming methods.

3. Consider possibilities for additional Bible training with a cross-cultural emphasis. There are many Bible schools and Christian universities that have certificate or degree programs with a concentration in missions. It’s good to understand worldview, apologetics, and church planting, and to know something of the history and theology of missions. Learning specific strategies of how to be a Global Christian from those who have already done that work makes a lot of sense. Just make sure the doctrinal statement of any school you consider is solidly biblical.

4. Research and make connections with a sending organization. Sending agencies are groups that facilitate missionaries getting to the field through training and handling logistics, and they often have a particular focus like church planting, Bible translation, relief and development work, etc.

By the way, the word “missions” is used less these days. It can have a negative connotation in some places. Some people and organizations have switched to phrases like Global Outreach or Global Ministries. For security reasons, missionaries may be called “workers” now. In some closed countries, there are laws against becoming a Christian and a visa would never be granted to someone asking to enter as “missionary.” So people go in as teachers or businessmen or other professionals. This is often referred to as “tent-making,” a reference to the Apostle Paul’s trade which he used to support himself while he traveled to share the Gospel.

5. Pray for God’s wisdom and guidance. (Are you noticing a pattern?) As you seek God’s will, here’s a word about danger: if a Christian is in the center of God’s will, it’s the safest place on earth to be. It may not seem that way to others, but I believe that’s how God sees it. Corrie Ten Boom put it this way: “There are no 'if's' in God's world. And no places that are safer than other places. The center of His will is our only safety—let us pray that we may always know it!”

Many things in God’s economy appear upside down to the world’s eye. He has His own definitions for things like safety and danger and risk. In Psalm 4:8, David reminds us that it is God alone who makes us dwell in safety.

Lastly, here is a quote by Nate Saint which had a profound effect on my life. It was written in December 1955, about a month before he was martyred by the people he was trying to reach with the Gospel:

As we have a high old time this Christmas, may we who know Christ hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christless night without ever a chance. May we be moved with compassion as our Lord was. May we shed tears of repentance for these we have failed to bring out of darkness. Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha…If God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short, we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ. May God help us to judge ourselves by the eternities that separate the Aucas from a Comprehension of Christmas and Him, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor so that we might, through His poverty, be made rich.

If you take the time to let those truths sink in, I’m not sure how you can carry on with “normal” life and not become more of a Global Christian. If something breaks God’s heart, it should certainly break ours.

May God give you His heart for His world!

Photo by João Silas via Unsplash

Some Thoughts About Racial Profiling

A reader recently asked me a thoughtful question about something I posted on Facebook that used the term “racial profiling.” As a police officer, he was wondering what I meant by that, and whether I was referring specifically to profiling by law enforcement.

This is an important question, so I will give it a thorough answer.

I Googled “racial profiling” and this is what came up first: “the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense.” That's what I meant. I wasn’t thinking specifically of law enforcement.

It happens all over the world, not just in the U.S., and in fact is far worse in some places. Hitler was a racial profiler in the most deadly sense. He regarded Jews and Gypsies, for instance, as dangerous, criminal, and unfit to live. 

On the other hand, books and movies in which Germans were always “the bad guys” were in one sense understandable given two World Wars, but that didn’t make it right. Racial profiling was done when loyal Japanese American citizens were suspected or assumed to be complicit with the enemy, and were placed into internment camps.

Today there are certain races that are more frequently detained in security. While some argue that it’s reasonable since statistically Arabs are more likely to be terrorists than say, Swedes, it’s easy to infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens because of racial profiling and stereotyping.

When writing my novel Dominion, I interviewed many African-American men who lived all across the country and had never met each other. Yet they told me the same stories, of being followed by store security, people pulling back from them on the street and in elevators, being pulled over without cause while driving, etc. Of course, in some cases they might have been guilty of a traffic violation, but in many cases honest Christian men told me they are frequently pulled over even though they aren’t guilty, and it’s traumatic because they fear what could happen to them.

In the U.S. profiling is sometimes done in stores where security routinely follows people of a certain color, or in neighborhoods or apartment complexes where it's assumed people of certain ethnicities won't be good neighbors and in fact are probably criminals, in churches where people are considered suspect because they don't look like the rest of the church, and in academics where certain races are profiled as being smarter and others as being dumber, and are sometimes given erroneous placement accordingly.

While this is far broader than law enforcement, it does include it.  But despite the fact that I wasn't referring specifically to law enforcement, I can see why a police officer could think I was targeting law enforcement, so perhaps I should have used a different and more generic term, or at least clarified by using a broad range of examples, as I’ve just done.

I have the highest respect for what police officers do. I have many good friends who are cops, and I know it's extremely difficult. They will be falsely accused of racism many times, though sometimes, unfortunately, it’s true of some cops. Like everyone else, including pastors and writers and athletes and farmers and business people, cops are human, and humans are sinners. So a minority of cops will be guilty of racism, and I believe a majority is not, but those innocent of it will feel the sting of the assumption. In other words, cops can be profiled as racists, so that would be “vocational profiling.” Another example of that would be “priests are pedophiles” or even “bosses are jerks.”

Of course, there are many false accusations of profiling and racism, just as there are false accusations of police brutality, parental child abuse, student plagiarism, and everything else. Unfortunately, when it happens to a cop (or a parent, in the case of child abuse) the consequences are far greater than most instances in other professions, and sometimes tragic. As true racism by a cop can result in disaster, false assumptions about the majority of cops can also be devastating, giving people a warped lens through which they view the police. Sadly, the true cases of police brutality and racism feed the unfair prejudice against cops in general, as the true cases of criminals being of a particular race feed the labeling that “this guy is probably a criminal.”

Related to this topic, I highly recommend Benjamin Watson's thoughtful and well-written book Under Our Skin. (Much of what Benjamin writes about reminded me of what I learned in researching for Dominion.) In one of the chapters Ben tells a story of coming to a police roadblock and everything in him panicking and wanting to find a back street to turn down and escape. Though he hadn't done anything wrong, his life experience, or his interpretation thereof, convinced him that as a big black man he would be suspected, disrespected, and likely arrested. He knew if he fled he would appear to be guilty, but the “if you're innocent you have nothing to fear” rationale was counteracted by various life experiences so he couldn't push it out of his mind.

Now, to some that's irrational; to others it’s built into the very fabric of their being, and they will read into every cop the bad experiences they (and their parents and grandparents and siblings) had with others. (Like a woman who was abused by her father and boyfriend will naturally profile men as abusers.) Watson does an excellent job of encouraging people to not act according to those fears and to never run from a cop, for everybody's sake, but he also encourages cops of all colors to understand why sometimes a truly innocent person wants to run. Under Our Skin is unusually penetrating and insightful.

I’m grateful for everything that police officers do for their communities. We are all in debt to those who serve in law enforcement.

Here are some further articles that may be of interest:

Stereotypes, Generalizations, and Racism, by John Piper

On Race and Love and Trying to Understand, by Kevin DeYoung

Why Statistics Don’t Justify Our Prejudice or Our Profiling, by Thabiti Anyabwile

Shopping While Black: The Problem of Racial Profiling, by Jemar Tisby

Brotherhood and the Color of Our Skin, a post on my blog that includes a dialogue excerpted from Dominion

Photo by Malik Earnest, via Unsplash

Who Will Our Friends Be in Heaven?

Augustine and Aquinas—two of history’s most influential theologians—imagined that in Heaven people would focus exclusively on God and that relationships between human beings would be minimal or insignificant.[i]

These great theologians were swayed by Christoplatonism. For the most part, they didn’t seem to grasp that the eternal Heaven will be on Earth, where people will live and work in a relational society, glorifying God not merely as individuals but as a family in rich relationship with each other.

Near the end of his life, however, Augustine significantly changed his view of Heaven. He said, “We have not lost our dear ones who have departed from this life, but have merely sent them ahead of us, so we also shall depart and shall come to that life where they will be more than ever dear as they will be better known to us, and where we shall love them without fear of parting.”[ii] He also said, “All of us who enjoy God are also enjoying each other in Him.”[iii]

Do you have a close friend who’s had a profound influence on you? Do you think it is a coincidence that she was in your dorm wing or became your roommate? Was it accidental that your desk was near his or that his family lived next door or that your father was transferred when you were in third grade so that you ended up in his neighborhood? God orchestrates our lives. “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live” (Acts 17:26).

Since God determined the time and exact places you would live, it’s no accident which neighborhood you grew up in, who lived next door, who went to school with you, who was part of your church youth group, who was there to help you and pray for you. Our relationships were appointed by God, and there’s every reason to believe they’ll continue in Heaven.

God’s plan doesn’t stop on the New Earth; it continues. God doesn’t abandon His purposes; He extends and fulfills them. Friendships begun on Earth will continue in Heaven, getting richer than ever.

Will some friendships be closer than others? Augustine claimed, “In the city of Godthere will be no special friendships. . . . All special attachments will be absorbed into one comprehensive and undifferentiated community of love. . . . The universalized love of heaven permits no exclusive, restricted circles of friends.”[iv]

But how does this position stand up to Scripture?

Just because we’ll be sinless doesn’t mean we won’t be drawn to certain people more than others. We’ll like everyone, but we’ll be closer to some than others. Jesus was closer to John than to any of the other disciples. Jesus was closer to Peter, James, and John than to the rest of the Twelve, and closer to the Twelve than to the seventy, and closer to the seventy than to His other followers. He was close to Lazarus and Martha, and closer still to their sister Mary. He was so close to His mother that while He was dying on the cross, He instructed John to care for her after His death. Since Christ was closer to some people than to others, clearly there can’t be anything wrong with it.

In Heaven there won’t be cliques, exclusiveness, arrogance, posturing, belittling, or jealousy. But when friends particularly enjoy each other’s company, they are reflecting God’s design. If, as you walk about the New Jerusalem, you see Adam and Eve holding hands as they look at the tree of life, would you begrudge them their special friendship?

Perhaps you’re disappointed that you’ve never had the friendships you long for. In Heaven you’ll have much closer relationships with some people you now know, but it’s also true that you may never have met the closest friends you’ll ever have. Just as someone may be fifty years old before meeting her best friend, you may live on the New Earth enjoying many friendships before meeting someone who will become your dearest friend. Maybe your best friend will be someone sitting next to you at the first great feast. After all, the sovereign God who orchestrates friendships will be in charge of the seating arrangements.

On the New Earth we’ll experience the joy of familiarity in old relationships and the joy of discovery in new ones. As we get to know each other better, we’ll get to know God better. As we find joy in each other, we’ll find joy in Him. No human relationships will overshadow our relationship with God. All will serve to enhance it.

[i] Augustine, quoted in Colleen McDannell and Bernhard Lang, Heaven: A History (New York: Vintage Books, 1988), 58.

[ii] Ibid., 60.

[iii] Augustine, On the Christian Doctrine, 1:32–33.

[iv] Augustine, quoted in McDannell and Lang, Heaven: A History, 64–65.

Photo by Gerrit Vermeulen, via Unsplash

Phenomenal Growth, Great Persecution: The Church in Iran

My thanks to Kathy Norquist, EPM staff member, for sharing this report on the persecuted church in Iran. Our Iranian brothers and sisters in Christ are carrying on a long tradition of God’s people: “Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison… destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them” (Hebrews 11:35–38).

May we do what Scripture commands us to do: “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body” (Hebrews 13:3). —Randy Alcorn

Iran has the fastest growing church in the world. However, the moment an Iranian says “yes” to Jesus, persecution begins.

Eternal Perspective Ministries recently had the privilege of a visit from an Iranian pastor, Matthew, and his wife Anahita, representing Elam Ministries. Matthew spent 14 months in prison (45 days in solitary confinement), and Anahita spent 34 days in solitary confinement in a 5 x 9 foot empty cell.

When I asked Matthew about the hardest part of his persecution in prison, he said two things: the isolation from people and concern for the people of his church. “It wasn’t easy,” he said, “but I had a really good time with God.” When they were being interrogated, it would last from morning to night with loud voices and cursing. They were told many lies, including that all their friends had returned to the Muslim faith. The interrogators pressured them to do the same and to give up names of fellow believers. Then there would be days and days of no contact with the outside world. Matthew saw the sky once in 45 days.

The Iranian government is now saying they can’t stop the church in Iran, so their goal is to slow it down. They’re doing this with visits from the security police, the worst form of government intrusion, which often leads to arrests and imprisonment. When Anahita was approached by the security police, she told us, “I was not afraid of them. I had complete peace.”

When asked, “Why are people drawn to Jesus from the Muslim faith?”, Matthew and Anahita responded, “Because Jesus’s love is a different kind of love. Jesus offers forgiveness. Jesus loves you as you are.”

Matthew’s complete testimony will be appearing in the upcoming Elam magazine. Contact elam.com if you’d like to receive a copy.

Also, because there is such a thirst for God’s Word in Iran, Elam is raising money to print 200,000 more Bibles this year. Many Iranians testify to the importance of reading the Bible in their journey to faith. Bibles are also vital for discipling the ever-growing number of new believers. If you’d like to support this ministry and participate in their matching grant, you can donate online.

Elam Ministries has put together helpful information on “Praying For Christian Prisoners in Iran” as you intercede for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

What We Lose When We Yawn at God

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of the children asks Mr. and Mrs. Beaver about Aslan the Lion, who is a figure of Christ:

“Is Aslan quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or just plain silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

God is good. But until we understand the truth that He is not safe, that He is not under our control, until we come to grips with His holy majesty, transcendence, and utter independence, we will never begin to appreciate His fascinating and awe-inspiring character. Indeed, we will find Him boring—as all man-made gods are, and as the one and only true God is anything but.

In his article “Stop Apologizing for God,” Tony Reinke hits on this vitally important subject as presented in a book by Drew Dyck. Tony is a content strategist and staff writer for Desiring God and the author of Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books and Newton on the Christian Life: To Live Is Christ. (He also hosts the Ask Pastor John and Authors on the Line podcasts.) I love the way Tony thinks as he analyzes Dyck’s book:

Stop Apologizing for God

When I got my hands on the new ESV Reader’s Bible, I opened first to Ezekiel. I’m not sure why, except I’d long neglected this book, and it seemed like a good one simply to read straight through, unhampered by headings and chapter and verse numbers.

When I came to the end of the Ezekiel, I started over. And then I read it a third time.

Each time I was more struck by the rawness of the book. The prophetic books (like the prophets themselves) are jagged. Ezekiel is abrasive. The images of God are forceful, even when they are sometimes too incredible for the human imagination to picture. Some scenes seem like something out of a sci-fi movie. Other scenes are unvarnished street theater. At all times the book startles with symbolism and heartbroken laments, weighing the reader down under the weight of God’s holy transcendence, almost to the point where we will shatter. And, then, in the turn of a moment, God’s steadfast love draws close, promises to dwell with his people, even to dwell inside his people.

I finish Ezekiel a third time, my mind still swirling, look over at my stack of new books fresh off the printing press from Christian publishers, page through a few of them, but nowhere find a glimpse of the God of Ezekiel I had only a moment beheld.

Except for one. There’s one new title that reads differently. Yawning at Tigers: You Can’t Tame God So Stop Trying, is a new book written by Drew Dyck, the managing editor of Leadership Journal. It’s a book that reclaims the awesome God of Ezekiel.

Read the rest.

Photo by Rafael H, via Unsplash

I Can Do Nothing on My Own: An Excerpt from The Gospel of John Movie

The Gospel of John is one of my favorite movies on the life and words of Jesus. Most movies draw predominantly from Matthew, Mark and Luke, while this one comes across differently because of the unique content of John’s Gospel. In many ways I find it the most endearing and personal portrayal of Jesus, and above all it's faithful to the text of Scripture. It combines narration with dialogue and action.

This is certainly something you could watch with unbelieving friends, or give as a gift. You could watch it in weekly segments and just talk about it. It comes in both the full three-hour edition and an abridged for television two hour edition. Both are great. 

I recommend that you watch the entire movie, but here’s a 3-minute excerpt.

Why Are Christians Bitter and Unhappy?

In the opening chapter of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck lives with Miss Watson, a Christian spinster. She takes a dim view of Huck’s fun-loving spirit and threatens Huck with the fires of Hell. She speaks of Heaven as a place everyone should want to go, but Huck sees it this way:

She went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn’t think much of it. . . . I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together.[i]

It wasn’t only an unhappy Heaven that Miss Watson projected. It was an unhappy present life, full of obligation and self-inflicted misery. And although she may not have made such a claim out loud, the clear subtext is that if God is the author of a Christian life that’s unhappy, God himself must be unhappy too.

Had Huck seen in Miss Watson a deep, cheerful affection for Jesus and consequent grace that overflowed toward him and Tom and others, perhaps he would have also seen Christ, the church, and Heaven as attractive.

Huck’s view of God reflected that of author Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain.[ii] I wonder if anyone told Clemens that the God he saw as so stern and humorless was, yes, a holy God, but he was also a happy God who invented playfulness, fun, laughter, and whitewash—and was the source of Twain’s wit and humor.

Sadly, the same perceptions exist today. Many non-Christian young adults view Christ’s followers as “hypocritical,” “insensitive,” and “judgmental.”[iii] These words all describe unhappy people. (If the world judges us, so be it, but it shouldn’t be because we’re chronically unhappy.)

Unfortunately, the world’s characterization of unhappy believers is too often correct. I see too many long-faced Christians who seem continuously angry, disillusioned, and defensive over politics and the infringement of their rights.

Francis de Sales, the bishop of Geneva (1567–1622), said, “I cannot understand why those who have given themselves up to God and his goodness are not always cheerful; for what possible happiness can be equal to that? No accidents or imperfections which may happen ought to have power to trouble them, or to hinder their looking upward.”[iv]

One explanation for our cheerlessness is simple: many of God’s people don’t believe that the Christ we serve is cheerful.

If we see God as happy, suddenly the command for us to “find your joy in him at all times” (Philippians 4:4, Phillips) makes sense. God is saying, in essence, “Be as I am.” Paralleling “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16, NIV), the answer to the question “Why should God’s children be happy?” is “Because our Father is happy.”

By studying and understanding what Scripture says about God’s happiness and ours, and letting those truths spill over into our lives, I believe we can reverse this trend. Then, even when we’re dealing with tough issues, both personally and in our culture, we can do so with a smile, and a sense of peace and pleasure in Christ.  That doesn’t mean we back away from clearly sharing God’s revealed words, but it does mean that we do it with a spirit of grace and truth, seeking to be like Jesus (John 1:14).

Joy and laughter should be the church’s norm, not the exception. And no, I’m not talking about pasting on a false smile in the midst of heartache. The Bible doesn’t back away from but addresses the realities of life in a world under the curse. The Apostle Paul himself said he was “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). Sorrow and joy can and do coexist, for now. (Note that the “always” in this verse is applied to rejoicing, not being sorrowful.)

If we constantly focus on all that’s wrong with the world, then sorrow or anger will be our default. But the apostle Paul, writing from prison in Rome, calls on us to rejoice in the Lord not periodically, but always.

It’s not insensitive, unkind, or wrong to be happy. By being happy in Christ, we lay claim to the fact that God is bigger than the Fall and affirm that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will reverse the Curse and reign over a new universe. Our happiness shouts that our happy God is present with us and at work in the world every minute of every hour of every day. The narrower our view of God’s presence in this world—and in our daily lives—the less happiness we’ll experience.

Parents repeat instructions to children because kids tend to miss it the first time. Hence Paul said, “Again I will say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). He wanted to make sure we’d get it. Synonyms for happiness appear repeatedly throughout Scripture. If God says it enough, shouldn’t we get it? Still, most of us have failed to notice the cumulative force of the biblical revelation that we are to be consistently happy in God.

Happiness in Christ is one of our most powerful evangelistic tools. People are drawn to Christ when they see true happiness in his followers and are pushed away when they see us chronically unhappy.

John Piper says, “If you ask me, ‘Doesn’t the world need to see Christians as happy in order to know the truth of our faith and be drawn to the great Savior?’ my answer is ‘Yes, yes, yes!’ And they need to see that our happiness is the indomitable work of Christ in the midst of our sorrow.”[v]

[i] Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1996), 6.

[ii] See Samuel Clemens, “Letter to Olivia Clemens,” July 17, 1889; Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), 186–87; Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain: A Biography, vol. 1 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1912), 412–13.

[iii] David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity . . . and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007), 27.

[iv] Francis de Sales, “Spiritual Life,” Christian Register, December 28, 1916.

[v] John Piper, “Sorrowful yet Always Rejoicing,” Desiring God, December 29, 2012.

Photo by Thong Vo, via Unsplash

SLED: A Simple Way to Talk with Those Who Are Prochoice About the Personhood of the Unborn

In my book Why ProLife? I say that every argument for abortion which appeals to a woman’s inconvenience, stress, and financial hardship can be made just as persuasively about her two-month-old, her two-year-old, her teenager, her husband, or her parents. In many cases older children are more expensive and place greater demands on their mother than an unborn child.

People immediately recognize those arguments as invalid when it comes to killing older children. So why not the unborn? After all, a three-month-old is much smaller than a ten-year-old, far less developed, and just as incapable of taking care of himself as an unborn.

Scott Klusendorf of Life Training Institute points out there are only four differences between a preborn and a newborn, and none of those differences justify killing unborn children. They can be remembered through the acronym SLED, which I’ll briefly summarize:

Size: Does how big you are determine who you are?

Level of development: Are twenty-year-olds more human than ten-year-olds, since they are smarter and stronger?

Environment: Does being inside a house make you more or less of a person than being outside? Does being located in his mother’s body rather than outside make a child less human?

Degree of dependency: Does dependence upon another determine who you are? Is someone with Alzheimer’s or on kidney dialysis less of a person? (Am I, an insulin-dependent diabetic, less of a person than before I developed the disease in 1985?)

In this 6-minute audio, Scott shares the SLED acronym with both humor and insight.

Alan Shlemon writes:

Although many abortion-choice advocates agree the unborn are human, they deny they are valuable human beings. They think this distinction justifies killing the unborn.

Often they use personhood language to express this view. They say the unborn might be human, but it’s not a person.

When confronted with this claim, ask a simple question: “What’s the difference between a human being and a human person?” They must answer this question. Why? They’ve just made the incredible claim that there are human beings that can be killed with impunity because they are not persons. What are their reasons for this view? What’s the difference between a born human and an unborn one that justifies killing the latter?

…The SLED tactic exposes the argument for abortion for what it really is: unjust discrimination. Abortion-choice advocates deny that all human beings are valuable and deserve protection. Which ones don’t qualify? The ones that are too small, not developed enough, in the wrong location, and are too dependent on other people.

The final question is not how old or big or smart or inconvenient the unborn are, but who they are.

The answer is simple: they are human beings, people fully deserving of protection.

Photo by Benjamin Earwicker

Let’s Stop Asking God to Be Our Backseat Driver for Familiar Places—and Let Him Guide Us to New Ones

I really appreciated these insights from Andy Abelein, a young man I love, and who loves Jesus. (He’s the son of Brenda, one of our wonderful ministry assistants at Eternal Perspective Ministries.) Andy recently graduated from California Baptist University and works on staff at The Grove Community Church in Riverside, California.

As you read Andy’s thoughts, I hope you’ll open up your heart and mind and consider what new places and situations God may want to guide you to. And may I do the same! —Randy Alcorn

What if God wants us to actually learn and remember what it looks like to follow Him, instead of having to ask Him for a map and directions every time?

I don't know about you, but when I drive places, I usually use my GPS. It tells me step by step how to get somewhere; where to turn, how fast I can go, where and how soon my next turn is going to be. It guides me there. And it's a useful, and sometimes necessary, tool when I'm going somewhere new; a place I'm not familiar getting to. But eventually, I ditch the GPS because I remember how to get there. I'm familiar with getting there. I've been there so many times with the guidance of my GPS, telling me how to get there safely and where to turn, that I don't need it anymore. I know the turns. I know the directions. I have them in my memory. Therefore, I have no real need to see them anymore. In fact, many of us (myself included) get annoyed when someone tells us how to get somewhere we already know how to get to, right? We call them backseat drivers. And we hate them!

But what if that's exactly what we are asking God to be? What if we just want Him to be our backseat driver? Constantly telling us what He's already told us and leading us somewhere He's already led us many times over. Now don't get me wrong, we HAVE to ask for God's guidance. We HAVE to rely on His strength and guidance. Without it we are all lost. But what if God expects us to learn and remember the directions He gives us? What if He is more interested in navigating us to NEW territories? To NEW locations? To places that we MUST rely on Him. Places that we need a GPS to get to and navigate through. Places that we have no choice but to either be completely lost on our own or completely reliant on His guidance.

Maybe if you know how to handle everything in your life and you’re comfortable with all your everyday situations, it’s time to lean into God and let Him lead you somewhere new. Somewhere unknown and scary. Somewhere that you can’t get to on your own.

Just a thought for today.

Photo credits: map photo by Milada Vigerova / Other photos courtesy Andy Abelein