Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 154

Trip Lee on Why You Need the Local Church to Be Healthy

I love Trip Lee, who is a talented and well known rapper (see one of many examples, this song he does with Lecrae). I especially love hearing young people say that Jesus-followers need to be part of a local church.

Read the transcript on Desiring God.

The Two Sworn Enemies of Our Joy

The following is an edited transcript of my interview with Tony Reinke, who invited me to be a guest on Desiring God’s “Ask Pastor John” podcast. You can also listen to the audio of this interview.

Randy, today I want to talk about two of the sworn enemies of our joy—sin and anxiety. Let’s start with sin. How does sin poison our joy?

Martin Luther said, “Sin is pure unhappiness. Forgiveness is pure happiness”, which is a pretty succinct way to put it. And again Psalm 32:1–2 says, “Happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity.” William Whitaker, who was a Puritan and a Cambridge University professor in the 16th century, spoke of “sinning away that happiness wherein we were created.” And that is a very graphic picture not only of what Adam and Eve did, but also what we who are conceived as sinners and have a sin nature do, realizing that Christ became sin for us—he “who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

But we still are capable of sinning away happiness in this life, in this world, under the curse. And I think this is such a graphic portrayal of humanity’s God-granted happiness. Likewise, He grants to us in Christ an eternal source of happiness. The God who created the universe, who went to the cross receptively for me, indwells me, and intercedes for me. “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). Yet we still have this capacity and even inclination to sin away happiness.

And I think one of the things we’ve got to do, Tony, is to stop making this distinction between: If you want holiness, come to the church and to Jesus. But we give people the impression, and sometimes we virtually state it directly, that to get happiness, you’re going to have to find that out in the world. And sometimes we even end up preaching messages that are negative toward happiness.

We get happiness at the barbecue. We get happiness when we go swimming or surfing. We get happiness when we hang out with friends or go to a ball game. But we don’t associate happiness with the church, the body of Christ, the ways that we should. We don’t associate happiness as David does in the Psalms. Take Psalm 119 alone. Numerous verses associate time spent in God’s Word and delighting in God through His Word with these words of happiness and joy. They are just countless.

Amen. We can sin our happiness away. Tragic. Talk to me about anxiety. How does worry poison our joy?

Worry is something which involves high stakes and low control. That’s one way to put it. And I think what happens is that in the process of worrying, we’re failing to recognize that even though we’re not in control, the fact is, something better is true: God is in control. And the way sin results in worry is that it cuts us off from the very One whom we are to trust and it makes us think we’re in control of our life or must take control of our lives. And of course we’re supposed to do certain things. But we’re to remind ourselves, for instance, that we fantasize so many of our worries and troubles, like the French philosopher who said, “My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened.” And that’s what happens in worry.

The Greek word for worry means to divide the mind—and our mind gets divided. And the most striking characteristic of worry and the way that it kills joy is through its absolute impotence. Because no tornado has ever been stopped, no drought has ever been averted, no plane crash has ever been prevented by worry. And so what happens is we pour our time and energy into it, and then if it really did something of any benefit whatsoever, we could at least say, “It was worth all the good that came out of my worry”—except no good ever comes out of it. And so Jesus assures us that if we put God and His kingdom first, in His sovereignty He will take care of us (Matthew 6:33). In the next verse He says, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

However, I would say this: In the context of Matthew 6 He has just called upon the people He is addressing to be sure they store up their treasures in Heaven, not on earth—to be sure they adopt the right perspective, not the wrong one, the good eye versus the bad eye (verses 19–23). And then He tells them no one can serve two masters. You can’t serve both God and money (verse 24).

So if you’re investing your life in the right treasury, if you’re adopting the right perspective, the eternal perspective, and if you’re serving the right master, then He says, “Therefore, do not worry” (verse 25). In other words, if we don’t have those things true in our lives, we have a great deal to worry about. What we need to do then is to repent, turn to God, and say, “Help me to focus on you, the Source of my joy.”

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Is Happiness Different from Joy?

The following is an edited transcript of my interview with Tony Reinke, who invited me to be a guest on Desiring God’s “Ask Pastor John” podcast. You can also listen to the audio of this interview.

By the way, I’m truly honored that Tony, an excellent writer and expert "book guy" whose opinions I greatly respect, announced my book Happiness as his pick for the 2015 book of the year. When I look at all those other books on his list, great books, I am humbled and grateful. And when I first heard about it I was certainly surprised! Check out Tony’s other 14 top books as well as his earlier list of 70 candidates for year's best books.

Randy, as you know there’s a longstanding division in Protestant theology that goes like this: Happiness is a bubbly and superficial and circumstantial feeling that comes and goes. Joy is a deep-seated and enduring affection that endures. We see this in books and we hear this in sermons all the time. Joy and happiness are fundamentally different. You wrote your book to refute that discrepancy. So in summary fashion, how should Christians rightly think about happiness and joy?

I think the first thing we need to realize is that historically there was no such distinction in the church and in the English language. Simply look up joy in a secular dictionary, say Webster’s Dictionary, and you’ll see it defined as happiness and, happiness defined as joy. They are synonyms with overlapping meanings. I’ve asked people, “Could you show me any passage from Scripture that suggests some contrast or even substantial difference between happiness and joy?” And there just is no such thing.

When I researched Happiness, I used the Logos Bible software and went through the Puritans and Spurgeon and Wesley and found they used the words “joy” and “happiness” in close proximity, often within five, six, seven words of each other. I found again and again they were used synonymously—completely interchangeably.

Here are examples of that: Jonathan Edwards cites John 15:11 (that Jesus’s joy might remain in you) to prove this point: “The happiness Christ gives to his people is a participation of his own happiness.” He didn’t have to say, “I actually mean joy.” Well, of course that’s what he meant. And Richard Baxter said, “The day of death is to true believers a day of happiness and joy.” And William Law spoke of the happiness of a lively faith, a joyful hope.

Then there’s Spurgeon, who again and again said, “The more often I preached, the more joy I found in the happy service.” And he said, “Despite your tribulation, take full delight in God, your exceeding joy this morning and be happy in him.” He started one sermon this way: “Oh, cheerful, happy, joyous people. I wish there were more of you…Let the uppermost joy you have always be ‘Jesus Christ himself.’” And then one other Spurgeon: “May you so come, and then may your Christian life be fraught with happiness and overflowing with joy.”

So this distinction is a recent thing that developed, and one of the first people I found who really spoke out against happiness and contrasted it with joy was Oswald Chambers. And I love Oswald Chambers! My Utmost for His Highest is a great book and so are other books that he wrote. But some of the dramatic anti-happiness things he said were pretty startling.

But if you look at various Bible translations, there are actually more than 100 verses in Scripture that use the words joy and happiness together. Now I’m not talking about paraphrases like The Message, but actual Bible translations with teams of Hebrew and Greek scholars who are also English experts—and they use happiness and joy together in these 100+ verses.

For instance, Esther 8:16 in the NIV says, “For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor.” Or Jeremiah 31:13 in the Holman: “I will turn their mourning into joy . . . and bring happiness out of grief.” Or the NLT: “Give your father and mother joy! May she who gave you birth be happy” (Proverbs 23:25). And these examples go on and on. Consider these verses from the New English Translation: “You, O Lord, have made me happy by your work. I will sing for joy because of what you have done” (Psalm 92:4). Or Psalm 32:11: “Rejoice in the Lord and be happy, you who are godly.”

So it’s a false affirmation that happiness and joy are fundamentally different. John Piper writes about this very thing: “If you have nice little categories—joy is what Christians have and happiness is what the world has—you can scrap those when you go to the Bible because the Bible is indiscriminate in its uses of the language of happiness and joy and contentment and satisfaction.” And Joni Eareckson Tada says similar things. She says, “Scripture uses the terms interchangeably along with words like ‘delight,’ ‘gladness,’ ‘blessed.’ There is no skill of relative spiritual values applied to any of these.”

I think it’s one of those things we need to closely examine and then say to believers, “Look, don’t talk of joy as this unemotional transcendent thing and happiness as this worldly thing, because when we do that, we’re pushing people, who all seek happiness, away from the gospel.” Both the ESV and the NASB translate Isaiah 52:7, which refers to the gospel in the early context of the Messiah’s redemptive work, as “the good news of happiness.”

Amen! Well said. And you yourself did the lexical work behind all this. How many Greek and Hebrew terms did you study?

I think there were about 22 primary Hebrew words and about 15 primary Greek words, all of which are interchangeable. It’s just amazing. You especially see this in the parallelisms in the Psalms. Sometimes four different Hebrew words for happiness or gladness are used in the same verse. It’s just like we do in English if we say it is a bright, beautiful, sunny day. The sky is blue. We’re not saying a bunch of different things; we’re saying the same thing using different words.

You mentioned Oswald Chambers distinguishing happiness/joy, and it’s problematic. His impulse, and that of others, is to distinguish Christian joy from non-Christian happiness. If we use the same language, happiness and joy, how do we make this distinction between the joy of Christians and non-Christians?

Well, it’s interesting that in Acts 14:17 the apostle Paul, who is speaking to unbelievers at Lystra, said of God, “He did not leave himself without a witness, since he did what is good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and satisfying your hearts with food and happiness.” And some translations say “gladness.” They could say joy. But what he is saying is that in God’s common grace He gives provisions such as food and even happiness to unbelievers. So being made in God’s image, an unbeliever, even under the fall and under the curse, can have a certain taste of happiness.

So I think what Paul was doing was building a bridge to the gospel through identifying God as the universal source of happiness. But, yes, of course, there is a significant difference between the happiness of believers and unbelievers. In Psalm 17 and in other Psalms, David spoke of people whose reward is in this life. And Abraham spoke to the rich man in hell saying, “Remember that in your lifetime you received your good things” (Luke 16:25). And what he is saying there is: You had your opportunity, and God in his common grace gave you an experience of good things, including tastes of happiness, because God is the primary source of happiness, and the world is full of secondary reference points of happiness. But they’re over now that you have died.

Even the atheist when he takes a walk in the woods and sees the beauty—he may in his own way celebrate the beauty and see a deer and just marvel at this—the happiness he’s experiencing is coming from the hand of God. The fact that people don’t believe in God doesn’t change the fact that God is the only source of happiness. Tragically, however, if he dies in his atheism and goes to hell, hell is the one place in the universe where God is not present, except in his wrath. And, as a result, the athiest is cut off from happiness.

No God, no happiness. No God, no good.

David Murray, who we both appreciate, identifies six different kinds of happiness. He talks about nature happiness, social happiness, vocational happiness, physical happiness, intellectual happiness, and humor happiness. All of those in God’s common grace are available, except the final one which David calls “spiritual happiness.” He calls it a joy that at times contains more pleasure and delight than the other six put together. And that’s the thing you can’t have until your sins are forgiven and you are reconciled to and made right with Him.

That’s why Psalm 32:1, using the Hebrew word asher (a very common word that means “happy”) says, “Happy is the man whose sins are forgiven.” And then in verse 2, “Happy is the one whose transgressions are not counted against him.” When you are reconciled to God, you have a deep, reality-based happiness. It’s based upon the truth that you’re made right with the happy God of Scripture who created you and wired you to be happy. But up until now, up until your sins are forgiven, you’ve been trying to satisfy your happiness and find it in all of these cul-de-sacs and dead-end streets. But now you truly found it in God.

And when you find it in God, then you can look at nature and have greater pleasure in it. It’s what Lewis talked about with the first things and the second things. If you put the second things first, then you lose, in many ways, the value of those second things. But if you put the first things first, and the first thing is really the first person—God—then everything else falls in place.

And as Chesterton said, the atheist sees beauty but has no one to thank, thus no one to be happy in.

Yes, exactly.

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Nine Consequences of Debt

Scripture discourages debt. It condemns the misuse of debt and the failure to repay debts (Psalm 37:21; Proverbs 3:27-28). If we take God’s Word seriously, we should avoid debt. In those rare cases where we go into debt, we should make every effort to get out as soon as possible (2 Kings 4:1; Matthew 5:25-26; 18:23-24). The question isn’t, “Why not go into debt?” but why? Unless the answer is extraordinarily convincing, we shouldn’t do it.

What are some of the consequences of a debt-laden lifestyle?

1. Debt lingers. The new boat is fun for a while, but two years later, when it’s sitting in storage, the motor needs repair, and the kids don’t want to ski anymore, we’re still paying for it.

2. Debt causes worry and stress. Stress experts say that the bigger a person’s mortgage (or any debt), the bigger the stress. Debt is a serious enemy of mental health.

3. Debt causes denial of reality. We drive our bank-financed cars, running on credit card gas, to open a department-store charge account so we can fill our savings and loan-funded homes with installment-purchased furniture. We’re living a lie and hocking the future to finance it. When creditors call many people won’t answer, believing that somehow they can go right on spending money they don’t have. One day it catches up—but by then integrity, relationships, and credibility have been ruined.

4. Debt leads to dishonesty. “The check’s in the mail” isn’t funny when you’ve heard it repeatedly from a Christian brother who is enslaved to debt—and now to dishonesty. Some people lie on credit applications, not revealing debt for fear they’ll be disqualified for further loans. Others desperately resort to criminal acts to try to keep up with their debt payments.

5. Debt is addictive. There are striking comparisons between debtors and drug addicts. The way out of both addictions can be very difficult. Those in debt with one income will almost always go into debt with two incomes, just as they will if the one income is doubled. Ninety-eight percent of the time debt is an internal problem, not an external one. It isn’t a matter of insufficient funds but insufficient self-control.

6. Debt is presumptuous. Scripture says the just shall live by faith. The borrower, however, lives by presumption. Undertaking any debt is a gamble that our future income will be sufficient to make payments. The Bible says we don’t know what a day may bring forth and we should not presume (Proverbs 27:1).

7. Debt deprives God of the chance to say no or to provide through a better means. God can give us direction either by providing funds or withholding them. When we borrow, we eliminate that second option and thereby blur God’s leading. If we really need something, there are alternatives to debt. One of them is to accumulate savings that will allow us a margin on which to draw when needed. But if the money for a need isn’t there, our first course should be to seek provision from God, not the banker (John 14:13-14).

8. Debt is a major loss of opportunity. Our loss isn’t simply the interest we’re paying. Our true loss is the difference between the money we’re losing and the money we could have earned with it. Worse yet, debt is a loss of opportunity to invest in eternity. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of debt is that it results in diminished giving, loss of opportunity to help others, and loss of eternal rewards.

9. Debt ties up resources and makes them unavailable for the kingdom of God. Whenever we’ve taught on giving at our church, many people say: “Now that I understand God’s principles of giving, I’d love to double or triple our giving, or even more. But we’re so strapped with debt, it’s just impossible.” Past unwise decisions inhibit present and future generosity. The solution is not to shrug our shoulders helplessly, but to give as much as we can now and commit ourselves to get out of financial bondage so we can give more in the future.

Without a firm conviction against going into debt, people will inevitably find the “need” to borrow. Those with convictions against borrowing will always find ways to avoid it. (In other words, they’ll choose to spend less money.) The more you’re inclined to go into debt, the more probable it is that you shouldn’t.

The basic question is this: Is the money I will be obligated to repay, and the bondage it will create, worth the value I’ll receive by getting the money or possessions now?

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Still Wrestling with the Syrian Refugee Issue

People have been discussing this issue for weeks, generating a lot more heat than light. Angry and dismissive responses to others’ positions have been routine. I think it’s worth continuing the discussion, since even after this particular issue passes, a host of similar ones await us. 

Earlier I linked on my Facebook page to a Desiring God article, “Eight words from Jesus in a world of Refugees.” Last week I posted a video from Dan Franklin with some further thoughts.  In response, a reader sent me a link to a video from Todd Wagner, pastor at Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas. Before I take you to Todd’s video, which provides some balance to what I’ve cited earlier, I want to make some comments.

First, I know and deeply respect both Dan and Todd, two evangelical pastors who are in agreement about the inspiration of Scripture, the lordship of Christ and all the central doctrines of the Christian faith, even if they may lean different ways in how to approach this crisis. Dan Franklin's video does a great job addressing the problematic tone of the arguments about this among believers. Christians should certainly be able to understand and empathize with their brothers and sisters who take a different position on this, because it’s not an easy issue. From the tone he takes in his video, it’s apparent that Todd shares that same concern. 

There’s a lot I’m not sure of related to this issue. But I am sure that the rush to judgment and hostility and name-calling among Christ-followers is displeasing to God (and certainly not limited to this one issue).

“If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame” (Proverbs 18:13). A lot of people are clearly not listening to each other. The truth is, Bible verses can be cited to make opposite points. And if you listen to just one side, you’ll likely mindlessly accept it and parrot it: “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him” (Proverbs 18:17).

I don’t appreciate, on the one hand, the purely fear-driven approach to this issue that says, “All these refugees would kill us if we let them in!” On the other hand, I also don’t appreciate the idealistic but unrealistic approach that says, “We should let anyone and everyone into this country.” (Since if we actually did that, we would cease to be “this country” that has so much to offer the world).

The church and America are not the same. Nonetheless, historically America’s identity has had spiritual qualities, including “E Pluribus Unum” (“from many, one,” embracing both diversity and unity).  This welcoming of the needy has always been a part of our country. As Emma Lazarus wrote, cited on the Statue of Liberty,

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

If we are unwilling to take any risks whatsoever, the USA should just take down the Statue of Liberty and stop all immigration and accept no new citizens, and change our slogan to “Just Say No to Compassion.” On the other hand, if we are unwilling to do everything possible to establish a vetting process by which we evaluate and deny entry to those refugees/immigrants who are likely to despise our country and inflict violence on our citizens, we should change our slogan to, “Just Say No to Wisdom.”

The slogan on the Statue of Liberty has never meant that U.S. borders are open to anyone no matter what. There has always been some care taken in terms of who is allowed into the country and who isn’t. Yet, there has also been a willingness to take a measured risk of admitting people who might prove to make a valuable contribution and become loyal citizens, but might also prove to become a burden or even a threat. 

We can’t be omniscient, but God calls us to both compassion and wisdom. Not all compassion involves opening our borders to all needy people—it can also involve helping them settle in other nations. Here’s an example of the biblical call to measure danger and take it into consideration in how we respond: “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty” (Proverbs 22:3, NIV).

Yet wisdom as a value also doesn’t stand on its own—that same book of Proverbs, the greatest source of wisdom in all Scripture, says “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed” (Proverbs 19:17, ESV). It also says “Those who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses” (Proverbs 28:17). Hence, what is compassionate is also ultimately wise, because God rewards it.

Lest we think these passages only relate to giving money, the “poor” and needy aren’t just the underfinanced. There are Old Testament themes of caring for those lacking freedom and safety (Isaiah 58:6-7). Peaceful foreigners living among God’s people were to be welcomed and embraced (Leviticus 19:34). “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt” (Exodus 22:21). On the other hand, sanctuary and subsidy wasn’t offered to known enemies of the state.

As Christians we are to love and pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44), but that doesn’t mean we are called to enable people to inflict harm on our nation, churches and families. Indeed, since those who harm others will be condemned for doing so, enabling people to do harm is not loving them.

Compassion without thought and discernment has predictably bad consequences: “A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences” (Proverbs 27:12, NLT, which repeats the earlier cited 22:3).

There’s nothing simple about being true to all these principles and passages. We must simultaneously embrace biblical teachings that stretch us to our limits in trying to achieve a balance that’s both loving and reasonable.

If we label others who disagree with us as “bleeding-heart liberals who want to sacrifice our national security” or “heartless conservatives who don’t believe in Christ’s love for the needy” then we are, ironically, guilty of lacking both compassion and wisdom not only toward the refugees, but each other.

We should act in compassion and wisdom, not one without the other. The trick is, how do we do both at once in this particular situation? While the large principles of compassion and wisdom are clear, I confess that I’m torn on the practical implications of how to balance them. It’s worth thinking and praying about because other situations have and will call upon us to figure out how to be compassionate and wise at the same time—with a compassion that doesn’t nullify wisdom, and a wisdom that doesn’t nullify compassion.

In the video below, Todd Wagner speaks of the need for vetting potential immigrants, which of course can never be 100% effective, and therefore still involves risk. But it’s a measured risk rather than a reckless one. If we are determined to eliminate all risk, we will inevitably fail to love those in dire need and collapse into the black hole of self-insulation. Reasonable steps to insure safety are one thing; isolation from the world and the needy is another.

Todd points out that our role as Christ-followers is not always the same as our country’s. My conviction is that God often calls the church, His people, to risk our lives by going to help the needy in the most volatile situations. But that doesn’t mean it’s our country’s job to take the same level of risk that missionaries have taken throughout church history. The USA’s first responsibility is to protect its citizens and provide for their safety. (This doesn’t mean taking no risks, but often will mean taking fewer risks than Christians, churches and missions organizations.) Our government’s role is different than, but isn’t inherently contradictory to, the church’s responsibility to call upon its people to take great risks for the cause of Christ.

Listen to what Todd has to say in this twelve-minute video. You don’t need to agree with all of it to realize it contains valuable insights.

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A Pro-Life Response to the Colorado Planned Parenthood Shooting: All Human Lives, Both Born and Unborn, Matter

My heart goes out to the families of the three victims who died in last Friday’s shooting at the Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs. I was especially touched to read about the courage of 44-year-old Garrett Swasey, the police officer who died in the line of duty. Swasey was also a co-pastor at his church and had pro-life convictions.

Because of the location of the shooting, and because shooter Robert Lewis Dear supposedly said something about “No more baby body parts” after he was apprehended, there’s been much conjecture, and outright statements, in the media and the public square about Dear’s motives and his connection to the pro-life cause.

Trevin Wax writes:

My pro-choice friends pin the blame of last week’s attack on the renewed wave of activism in light of the recent Planned Parenthood videos. That is a simplistic and unprovable assumption, one that is directly countered by the example of the selfless officer who, while deploring the abortion industry, raced inside to rescue its employees.

The most effective way for abortion clinics to gain public sympathy and damage the reputation of prolifers is to portray themselves as the victims of prolife violence. But the horrific—and rare—actions of those like Dear do not discredit the peaceful efforts of 99.99 percent of prolifers. To blame the prolife movement for such isolated events is like discrediting the antislavery movement because some zealous abolitionists burned the crops of slave owners or like blaming all prochoice people for the personal threats received by some prolife advocates. It’s worth pointing out that the pro-life movement has been considerably less violent than the civil rights movement, yet most people immediately see the illegitimacy of trying to discredit that movement because of the violence of some.

It seems the real issue for pro-choice advocates is that by simply stating the fact that abortion kills human beings, all pro-lifers are considered extreme and inflammatory. As Ramesh Ponnuru points out:

Pro-choicers who want pro-lifers to stop saying that abortion kills unborn children aren't objecting to the pro-life movement's rhetoric; they're objecting to its existence.

The irony in the prochoice response to this tragedy is that it’s only the pro-life position that’s against all violence done to all people at abortion clinics. In contrast, the prochoice position is against violence only to those who have the advantage of already having been born. Those who are young and small and defenseless and dependent enough are allowed to legally be killed. So while we should rightly mourn and decry the deaths of those killed in the shooting, we also shouldn’t forget the countless unborn children who have lost their lives to abortion. In a consistent pro-life worldview, all human lives matter.

As I shared after the 2009 killing of abortionist George Tiller, my concern with an event like this is that people will say, we can’t speak out in favor of saving unborn children, because then we’re going to be encouraging the killing of abortionists. Tim Braham develops the danger of this thinking in his article “Why Pro-Life Advocates Are Not Responsible for the Planned Parenthood Shooting”:

If a non-violent statement becomes transformed into a violent statement the second a crazy person shoots someone and mentions you, the world would be an absurd place. It would be a world where literally any statement can be a violence-inciting statement; you just need a mentally ill person to act violently and then blame you for it. This would be a world where we cannot condemn any kind of evil or injustice because any statement condemning anything could make us culpable for a murder if we stated our opinion openly and a crazy person happened to be present. As David French said, “To clamp down on speech (or even self-censor) for fear of bitter hermits and angry lunatics is absurd.”

The rest of Tim’s article is quite long, but for those interested it has some great insights. 

The Refugee Question, and How We’re Talking About It

Thanks, Dan Franklin, for your excellent insights not only on the Syrian refugees, but also on the tone of the debate among believers. God, help us to be compassionate, understanding, reasonable, wise and biblical all at the same time. There are important points made on all sides of the issue, and while it's okay to have strong opinions, it's not okay to be dismissive and superior and fail to understand why there are good people who think differently than we do. This Christmas season, let's join in our gratitude to God for all He has given us in Christ and as a nation, and recognize that to whom much is given, much will be expected.

 

Here's a brief (probably not brief enough) video with both my take on the refugee question and also my take on how we are talking about the refugee question.

Posted by Dan Franklin on Tuesday, November 24, 2015

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I’ll [Not] Have a Blue Christmas: Reasons to Rejoice and Be Happy This Christmas

All of us, for better or for worse, experience the holidays each year. From mid-November to early January, our lives change, bringing many delightful things, but also stress and fatigue. Family tensions (whose house do we go to when?), never-ending to-do lists, financial difficulties, unrealistic expectations—reasons for unhappiness abound.

Is it possible to find genuine happiness during the Christmas season, even in the midst of the pressures? Yes. True happiness—the kind Jesus offers—is at the heart of what Christmas is all about!

Consider the angel’s message to the shepherds at Jesus’ 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.” It’s the best news there has ever been or ever will be.

What characterizes this good news is deep, everlasting joy for those who receive it. The Contemporary English Version renders the verse this way: “good news for you, which will make everyone happy.”

Isaiah 52:7 says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness” (ESV). Here God tells us directly that our mission is bringing everyone the “good news of happiness” about Jesus. . 

If the message we share and model at Christmastime and all year long doesn’t include happiness, then it contradicts God’s direct words in Isaiah 52:7. The gospel offers an exchange of misery-generating sin for happiness-giving righteousness provided by Jesus himself—joy incarnate, happiness in human flesh. The gospel is happy-making!

Each stanza of “O Come All Ye faithful” contains sentiments of true happiness: “joyful and triumphant,” “sing in exultation,” “born this happy morning.” Joy, exultation, and happiness are proper responses to Jesus. A gospel not characterized by overwhelming gladness isn’t the gospel. A Christmas without a deep, God-given happiness isn’t reflecting the good news of Jesus.

So how do we experience true happiness during this season? It starts with a godly perspective, a right way of looking at life.

An Eternal Perspective

A reconciled relationship with God, coupled with an understanding of the biblical teaching of a resurrected Heaven and Earth, assures us utter happiness will be ours forever. This happiness will be fully realized in the promised culmination of God’s redemptive plan, in the New Heaven and New Earth.

For various reasons, Christmas can be a difficult season for many people. Yet God comforts his people in suffering, saying, “Look, I am ready to create new heavens and a new earth!” (Isaiah 65:17, NET). What should be our response to this promise? God uses joy-drenched words to describe this New Earth, a place where his people will bring happiness not only to each other but also to him:

Be happy and rejoice forevermore over what I am about to create! For look, I am ready to create Jerusalem to be a source of joy, and her people to be a source of happiness. Jerusalem will bring me joy, and my people will bring me happiness. The sound of weeping or cries of sorrow will never be heard in her again.  Isaiah 65:18-19, NET

The forever that awaits us should color our lives now. We should daily frontload eternity’s joys into our present experience by focusing on Christ and anticipating the Heaven that awaits us.

Right Expectations about Life and Suffering

This same eternal perspective will help us adjust our expectations about life under the Curse, especially during the holidays. A biblical worldview is supremely optimistic and joyful, but it also recognizes the present reality of a fallen world.

By lowering our expectations that all should go our way presently, and raising our expectations of eternal life, we can experience true happiness now. Considering the judgment we deserve, every happiness, small or large, is an undeserved gift—the grace of God. When we experience happiness now, we’re grateful; when we don’t, we know someday our happiness will be complete and never-ending. 

God doesn’t say we’ll never have hardship or suffering—he specifically promises we will (John 16:33). We’re not to be surprised when we face difficulties, even around Christmastime. Whether it’s something as insignificant as a burnt turkey or as overwhelming as the loss of a loved one, God tells us: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). If we expect God to make our lives easy, our expectations are unbiblical.

As Christians, we’ll be delivered from eternal suffering. Even now, God will give us happy foretastes of living in his presence where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). That’s his promise. And what better time to focus on living in his presence than Christmastime?

Our outlook is changed when we remember that our afflictions are Father-filtered by the God who knows all, governs all, and sovereignly weaves all together for our good: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

The more we grow in our understanding of God’s sovereign grace and loyal love, the happier we become. We don’t have an all-powerful God who doesn’t care; neither do we have a caring God who is powerless to make good things happen. We serve a Creator who loves us and is sovereign over the universe, including all evil.

Our circumstances do matter. Broken relationships can be felt more deeply at Christmastime. Expectations about gifts received or given can bring anxiety. Comparing how others celebrate Christmas can bring sadness, especially if we feel left out. But all circumstances are opportunities for growth and our ultimate good. When they threaten to overwhelm us, these difficulties remind us to look to our Rock and Redeemer (Psalm 19:14). Truly, “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).

This is also an encouraging message for those who feel lonely around the holidays, and wish their lives weren’t less busy, but more. Even if not many friends and loved ones are nearby, Christ promises he will be with people always (Matthew 28:20), and will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

Acting on the Right Perspective

We can control our thoughts and attitudes. They’re not foreign invaders against which we are helpless.

Paul said, “Fix your thoughts on what is true. . . . Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8, NLT). This doesn’t happen automatically. But once we develop the habit and experience its rewards, we instinctively turn our minds to what makes us happy in Christ.

Of course, we should never flippantly say, “Happiness is a choice.” It’s not always easy to choose happiness in Christ. Embracing happiness is not merely working harder to pull up our minds and moods, as we would our bootstraps. Rather, it’s gratefully receiving God’s grace and happiness.

God provides everything we need to be happy, and empowers us through his Spirit to believe in him and obey. At the same time, he leaves it to us to adopt a right perspective and make the choices that result in happiness. God empowers us through his Spirit to believe in him and obey him. He also calls upon us to genuinely cooperate with him, which requires our effort as we draw on his strength and grace (Philippians 2:12-13). 

Happiness from Gratitude Coupled with Humble Service

When life is viewed with a spirit of thankfulness, we’ll see the reasons for happiness that surround us. God gives us hundreds of reasons to be grateful every hour—ask him to open your eyes to them, especially during what should be a joyful season of celebrating Christ’s birth! Developing the discipline of gratitude brings greater praise to God and greater happiness for ourselves. When life’s tough, we can still be grateful that God is with us and that he’s using it for our good.

No matter your circumstances this Christmas, there’s happiness to be found in being grateful for God’s provision, and seeking to serve and help others. “In humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).

Cultivating Christ-Centered Holiday Happiness

Happiness comes naturally in the same sense that fruit comes naturally from a tree. If the tree gets sufficient sunshine and water, if the ground is nutrient-rich, then yes, it “naturally” produces fruit. Yet the joy spoken of in Galatians 5:22 is also the supernatural fruit of the Spirit who indwells God’s children. We must plant ourselves in the rich soil of God’s Word, soak in the living water of God and his people, and bask in the radiant sunlight of his grace.

Then happiness will come (super)naturally—happiness made possible by our God who became a man, who suffered, died and rose again so we could experience substantial happiness now, as well as ultimate and unending happiness in our eternal home.

Learn more in Randy's book Happiness. 

This article also appears in the November/December 2015 issue of More to Life magazine.

Giving Brings Happiness, During Thanksgiving, Christmas and All Year Long

It might surprise you to learn that secular studies are emphatic in their assertion that giving makes people happier. A survey of thirty thousand American households showed that “people who gave money . . . to all types of religious and secular causes were far happier than non-givers.”[i] Most of the people who conduct these studies don’t realize they’re agreeing with Jesus, who said: “It is more blessed [makarios: happy-making] to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

Yes, we should give because it’s right but also because it’s smart and gladness-generating. When we give, everyone but Satan wins. God is happy, those who receive our gifts are happy, and we’re happy. Scripture tells us that “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). God takes delight in the believer who takes delight in giving.

Note the contagious nature of giving in this verse:

The people had given willingly to the Lord, and they were happy that so much had been given. King David also was extremely happy. 1 Chronicles 29:9, GNT

Seeing their joy, King David rejoiced over his people’s generosity, and his joy no doubt enhanced theirs. God’s people throughout the ages have discovered the same truth: benevolence begets happiness.

Hudson Taylor, a nineteenth-century missionary to China, lived a simple life, giving away two-thirds of his income. He said, “My experience was that the less I spent on myself and the more I gave to others the fuller of happiness and blessing did my soul become.”[ii]

A friend asked me recently, “Do you know any generous person who’s unhappy?” I gave it a lot of thought. I know many generous people. Some have been through great tragedies. Some have dealt with seasons of depression and anxiety. But would I, overall, describe any of them as unhappy? No. Their generosity infuses joy into their lives and eclipses their many reasons to be sad.

So I asked myself another question, “Do I know any stingy person who’s happy?” The answer came quickly: “Not a single one.” And I have yet to think of an exception. Stingy people imagine they’re better off not giving, but their failure to give costs them dearly.

Playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) said, “Money may be the husk of many things, but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not faithfulness; days of joy, but not peace or happiness.”[iii]

We all need money, but the greatest happiness comes not in spending but in generous giving. There are many reasons for this joy in giving. One is that we are being like Christ, and thereby entering into his happiness. Another is knowing that we’re investing in eternity and that one day in the heavenly kingdom we’ll see the tangible results of our giving. There’s an ongoing drama of human request and divine response in which God the Director offers us the part of the giver.  

God’s giving to us results in our thanksgiving to Him. Giving infuses life with joy. It interjects an eternal dimension into even the most ordinary day. May we and our families experience such grace-filled happiness this entire Thanksgiving-Christmas season, and throughout the year! Having received it ourselves, may we extend God’s grace to others through our giving.

Next Tuesday, December 1, is the fourth annual Giving Tuesday, the philanthropic community’s response to the consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It’s designed to provide people with a charitable day to consider giving as they go into the holiday season.

You can give to any ministry you choose. (In fact, we don’t turn down gifts to EPM!) But one of our favorite ministries participating in Giving Tuesday is the JESUS Film Project. This year, they are giving donors the chance to help fund the translation of “JESUS”—the gospel on film in their heart language—for the Northwestern Tamang people of Nepal. (I’m including here a picture of my book Heaven translated into Nepali. With the earthquakes that occurred in the country earlier this year, I can’t think of anything better than knowing that these people could read about the hope of eternity as well as hear about Jesus’ love and offer of salvation through the JESUS Film!)

If you wish, you can give through EPM and we’ll pass on 100% of the designated donations. Select the special fund “JESUS Film” at www.epm.org/donate.

[i] Daniel M. Oppenheimer and Christopher Y. Olivola, eds., The Science of Giving (New York: Psychology Press, 2011), 8.

[ii] Howard Taylor and Geraldine Taylor, Hudson Taylor in Early Years: The Growth of a Soul (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1912), 121.

[iii] Henrik Ibsen, quoted in Diane K. Dean, From Ordinary to Extraordinary (Mustang, OK: Tate, 2009), 12.

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The Joy and Happiness of Giving Thanks in Every Circumstance

Before I get to today’s blog, I’d like to encourage you to listen to this recent interview I did with Susie Larson on her program Live the Promise. We had a great discussion about happiness and what God’s Word says about our true circumstances in Him! Those circumstances are well worth contemplating and praising God for this Thanksgiving week.

I heard a story of someone who asked a man why he was so happy. The man picked up a binder filled with hundreds of handwritten pages and explained, “Every time someone does something kind for me, I write it in this book. And every time I feel very good about something, I write it in this book.”

The questioner said, “I wish I could be as happy as you.” “If you kept a book like this, you would be.”

“But the book is so big . . . I haven’t had many kind things done for me, and I haven’t felt good very often.”

“I might have thought that too, if I hadn’t recorded them all. I’ve learned to see and remember and be grateful for kindness and happiness when they come. Try it. Every time you doubt, read your entries and you’ll see all you have to be grateful for.”

Guerric (1070–1157), the Abbot of Igny, wrote, “O happiness of these times! O unhappiness of these times! Is it not happiness, when there is such plenitude of grace, and of all good things? Is it not unhappiness, when there is so much ingratitude of those that are redeemed?”[i]

The same is true of any time in history. Happiness and unhappiness are in direct proportion to gratitude and ingratitude.

Ephesians 5:18-20 says, “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Being Spirit-controlled is inseparable from giving thanks in everything.

Whether we find ourselves having reason to celebrate or to mourn, there’s never a time not to express our gratitude to God. Psalm 140:13 declares, “Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name.” Giving thanks is what God’s people do.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) wrote, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”[ii] If we’re not falling over ourselves giving thanks to God, we’re not seeing God’s grandeur, which brings the light of hope and happiness to a fallen world.

The Curse cast a shadow over happiness; heartfelt gratitude to God is a light that cuts through the shadow. Rather than enjoying the happiness of the moment, we tend to start searching for something to make us still happier, poisoning even our happy times.

Ann Voskamp writes,

As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible. Joy is always possible. Whenever, meaning—now; wherever, meaning—here. The holy grail of joy is not in some exotic location or some emotional mountain peak experience. The joy wonder could be here! Here, in the messy, piercing ache of now, joy might be—unbelievably—possible![iii]

While it may seem hard to “make ourselves happy,” it’s not hard to choose to give thanks, which invariably kindles happiness. We can always list things we’re grateful for and recite them to God. We can share them with friends and loved ones, including our children, grandchildren, or other relatives. No matter how difficult our circumstances, the happiness that comes with thanksgiving is always within our reach.

Try it and see! Voskamp says, “No amount of regret changes the past. No amount of anxiety changes the future. Any amount of grateful joy changes the present.”[iv] Even if the worst suffering of our lives still lies ahead of us, our loving God assures us it will be for only a short time. Then, either at Christ’s return or at our death, our suffering will end forever. This eternal perspective—the constant awareness that we aren’t living primarily for the here and now but rather for the world to come—is something we desperately need. That’s why Scottish evangelist Duncan Matheson (1824–1869) prayed, “Lord, stamp eternity upon my eyeballs.”[v]

As God’s children, we should gratefully remind ourselves that our happiness is limited in this life but unlimited in the life to come. A “normal day” as resurrected people on the New Earth will be incredibly better than the best day we’ve ever experienced here.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss writes, “The person who has chosen to make gratitude his or her mindset and lifestyle can view anything—anything!—through the eyes of thankfulness. The whole world looks different when we do.”[vi]

Once we experience thanksgiving as our default condition, we’ll find it’s inseparable from our happiness, and we’ll never want to go back to the barren wasteland of ingratitude. We will stop asking God, “Why have you done this to me?” and instead, looking at Christ’s redemptive sacrifice, we will ask God, “Why have you done this for me?”

May you and those you love have a happy, Christ-centered, full-of-gratitude Thanksgiving!

[i] Guerric of Igny, Mediæval Preachers and Mediæval Preaching: A Series of Extracts, Translated from the Sermons of the Middle Ages, Chronologically Arranged, ed. J. M. Neal (London: J. Masters, 1856), 152.

[ii] Gerard Manley Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur” and Other Poems (New York: Dover, 1995), 15.

[iii] Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, 33.

[iv] Ann Voskamp, Twitter post, July 14, 2014, 4:39 a.m., http://twitter.com/AnnVoskamp.

[v] Duncan Matheson, as quoted in C. R. Hurditch, ed., Footsteps of Truth, vol. 1 (London: J. F. Shaw, 1883), 393.

[vi] DeMoss, Choosing Gratitude, 62.

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