Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 155

One Couple’s Story of Finding Great Happiness in Investing in Eternal Things

One of the things closest to my heart is seeing the lives of God’s people changed as they are touched by His grace and learn the joys of generous giving. Statistically, the sad fact is that most western Christians do not experience its joy. In fact, many unbelievers have discovered the relationship between giving and happiness that countless believers still do not understand.

Glorifying God in how we use His money and invest it in worthy ministries isn’t merely a duty; it’s a delight! Giving brings great happiness, and our happy God rejoices when our hearts celebrate. In the only statement of Jesus in the book of Acts that’s not in the Gospels, Jesus said, “It is more blessed [makarios, happy-making] to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). The grace of God is the lightning that produces in our lives the thunder of giving. Where God’s grace has truly touched our lives, generous giving will surely follow.

Several months ago, Spence and Tara Hackney, a dear couple who have been supporters of our ministry, came to Portland to attend a Theology of Happiness class I was teaching. During their time here, they graciously offered to share their story about how my books The Treasure Principle and Heaven have led them to find great happiness in giving. I think you’ll be encouraged as you hear how sending their treasure on ahead has brought them such delight:

Spence and Tara Hackney's Story

We invite you to consider partnering with us in spreading the “good news of happiness” (Isaiah 52:7). If you’d like to be a part of the work EPM is doing to impact lives for eternity, learn more. 

Christian Joy and Feasting

The following is an edited transcript of my interview last month 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, what is the relationship between spiritual joy and joy of God-honoring parties and feasts? How should we think about spiritual joys and enjoyment of great food and friends?

Well, it’s amazing. When you look at Scripture. you see all these Old Testament passages about the parties and the feasts (and that is what feasts were—they were parties). They would often involve sacrifices, but most of the time was spent eating and drinking and basically having fun and taking time off. You see in Leviticus 23:40 God says, “You shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.” This is a seven-day party of rejoicing in God, and the Old Testament is full of God-ordained celebrations for the Israelites.

God built into Israel’s calendar seven holidays, amounting to about thirty days of feasts per year. Add the weekly Sabbaths, and the total comes to around eighty days of feasting and rest annually. Add the later feasts of Purim (one day) and Hanukkah (eight days), plus weddings and birth celebrations, and the amount of time off for celebration and worship exceeded three months annually!

Deuteronomy 14 is a passage that I was so struck with. In verses 24–26 in the ESV it says, “If the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the LORD your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the LORD your God chooses, to set his name there, then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the LORD your God chooses and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice.”

What strikes me, first of all, is the language. You talk about hedonism—I mean this is God-directed hedonism. He’s saying, “Whatever your appetite craves, get the best of whatever you want to eat and drink: wine, strong drink. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice.” And I love that it says “before the Lord your God.” Happiness and joy are not things we’re to experience behind God’s back, as if that were possible! But he calls upon them: “Do it all before me. And I am by implication going to be there with you. I am going to enjoy it with you. And so when you are partying, I will be partying with you.”

Think about the rejoicing that takes place in the presence of the angels of God that Jesus speaks of twice in Luke 15:7, 10. Who is in the presence of the angels? God is. God’s people are in the presence of the angels and, of course, the angels themselves are there. All heaven is throwing a party and rejoicing over conversions on earth. And these are things that we’re to celebrate. In 2 Chronicles 30:21–23 it talks about how the people of Israel kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with great gladness. The word “gladness” and the various happiness-related Hebrew words are used for all of these Old Testament celebrations.

How much different it would be if people looked less at the church as a group of always critical, always complaining, always feeling persecuted bunch of curmudgeons—which sometimes we can project that image to the world, no doubt. And we can also project it even to our children growing up in Christian homes. They hear what mom and dad are saying and the critical spirit and the complaining and the ingratitude and all that sort of thing. But what if we as believers were known as the people of celebration and gladness, and the church as the place of feasting?

And it wasn’t just Old Testament—in the New Testament, the church celebrated the Lord’s Supper, the love feast. Now we’ve got the cracker and the juice, you know? And it’s fine symbolically, but we really need to have feasts. What if the church led the way in participating on March 20 in what the United Nations unanimously appointed as the International Day of Happiness, by celebrating the good news of happiness that Isaiah 52:7 talks about?

More feasts in either case. Thank you, Randy. In our circles, we like to say that external circumstances of life do not determine our happiness. This is helpful for those who are suffering, and it’s an important pushback to our world that says outward circumstances in life are essential for true happiness. That’s false. But it also seems disingenuous to say that outward circumstances play no role in our God-glorifying happiness. How do we talk about joy in God in God-glorifying circumstances of life?

Well, I think, first of all, we see Paul rejoicing over circumstances. Consider the Greek verb kairo and the noun form korah that are translated “rejoicing” and “joy.” Those words are associated with Paul when he finds out that Epaphroditus, who these people were very deeply concerned about, was better (Philippians 2:28–30). He came close to death, but now they’re rejoicing that he is well. That is a circumstance. That’s a good friend who was in trouble and now is okay, so they’re rejoicing in that. It’s fine to rejoice in circumstances. If you get a raise, great! Rejoice. Be happy. That is circumstantial. But at the same time it’s a blessing of God. Many of God’s common graces are circumstantial.

However, we cannot rest our ultimate joy and happiness upon the circumstances in our lives. I remember as a young Christian when I was a teenager reading Richard Wurmbrand’s Tortured for Christ, Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place and Brother Andrew’s God’s Smuggler, and all of these great stories of people in huge tribulation. They went through horrific things, yet in the midst of them, experienced a transcendent joy, happiness, gladness, delight, pleasure in God.

Usually when we think of circumstances we’re almost kind of dismissive about them. But Scripture says to give thanks in all circumstances in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. And Paul says, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11–13).

But I also think we need to focus on what I would call our true circumstances—not all circumstances are visible. To start with, we’re created by a good and happy God. We were created in His image. He gave us the capacity to be happy. We’d have plenty to contemplate about what Scripture says about our true circumstances if we just took Romans 8 alone. Think of verse 1: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

In Jesus I’ve been set free from sin and death, and God sent his Son to save me (verse 2). I can set my mind on the Spirit, and that is life and peace (verse 6). God’s Spirit indwells and empowers me (verse 11). God has adopted me, and I can call him, “Abba, Father” (verse 15). I am an heir of God and a fellow heir with Christ (verse 16). The sufferings of this present time aren’t worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us (verse 18).

Creation will be delivered to the freedom and glory of God’s children. The world itself, the universe itself, will be ultimately redeemed during the redemption of our bodies (verse 23). The Spirit prays for us in our weakness (verse 26). Christ Himself intercedes for us (verse 34). They indwell us. We have been called to a life in which God promises that He will cause all things to work together for our good (verse 28).

We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (verse 37). And how much more will God, who gave us His Son, give us all things (verse 32)? And then finally, to top it all off, nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ (verses 35, 38–39). Those are the true circumstances of the Christian life. Let’s meditate on those circumstances which are a true ground for eternal and present happiness.

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His Sovereign Work in Sending the Light

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11 NIV)

Read Luke 1 and 2, and marvel at the sovereign work of our Father, sending His Son, our Savior, into this world. He did it for us, to be our Redeemer. Weep at the sheer power of God’s amazing grace and the greatness of His eternity-shaping plan. When you celebrate Christmas this year, may you enjoy His sovereign grace, and clearly sense His steadfast love for you.

“…there’s nothing like creating the real Christmas spirit by focusing on just why you need a Savior—why you desperately need Jesus.  Oh, thank you Jesus for coming and bringing your light into our dark world.” —Joni Eareckson Tada

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

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Gospel Doctrine Creates Gospel Culture

Sometimes I read something that is beautifully worded and right on target. These insights from Ray Ortlund, on churches as gospel culture, is terrific. This, I think, resonates with Scripture, and should be the goal of God’s people everywhere. Gospel doctrine is absolutely necessary, but it is not sufficient. When it has the effect God intends, Gospel doctrine creates gospel culture and that’s what draws people to Jesus.

Gospel doctrine, gospel culture

Gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. The doctrine of grace creates a culture of grace, as Jesus himself touches us through his truths. Without the doctrines, the culture alone is fragile. Without the culture, the doctrines alone appear pointless. But the New Testament binds doctrine and culture together. For example:

The doctrine of regeneration creates a culture of humility (Ephesians 2:1-9).

The doctrine of justification creates a culture of inclusion (Galatians 2:11-16).

The doctrine of reconciliation creates a culture of peace (Ephesians 2:14-16).

The doctrine of sanctification creates a culture of life (Romans 6:20-23).

The doctrine of glorification creates a culture of hope (Romans 5:2).

The doctrine of God creates a culture of honesty (1 John 1:5-10). And what could be more basic than that?

If we want this culture to thrive, we can’t take doctrinal short cuts. If we want this doctrine to be credible, we can’t disregard the culture. But churches where the doctrine and culture converge bear living witness to the power of Jesus.

Churches that do not exude humility, inclusion, peace, life, hope and honesty—even if they have gospel doctrine on paper, they undercut their own doctrine at a functional level, where it should count in the lives of actual people. Churches that are haughty, exclusivistic, contentious, exhausted, past-oriented and in denial are revealing a gospel deficit.

The current rediscovery of the gospel as doctrine is good, very good. But a further discovery of the gospel as culture—the gospel embodied in community — will be infinitely better, filled with a divine power such as we have not yet seen.

I expect it’s what revival will look like next.

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If God Is Happy, Why Does He Seem Bad-Tempered?

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, as you know, God is happy. Scripture tells us that. So if God is so fundamentally and essentially happy all the time in Himself, why does He often seem ill-tempered in the biblical stories?

Well, I think we need to realize that sin and the consequent suffering that comes out of it is a reality in this world. We’re under the fall and the curse. Even though Christ has become a curse for us who believe in Him, we recognize that we still face the realities of sin and suffering in this life. And this sin that infiltrates the world is a temporary condition. I think this is the key to understanding how it is that God could be from eternity past utterly happy within Himself—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit delighting in each other.

I developed this theme of the union of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the book and others have developed it, of course. (John Piper develops it tremendously in The Pleasures of God and somewhat in Desiring God as well.) The Father says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). And Luke 10:20–21 says that Jesus then rejoiced in the Holy Spirit after telling his disciples to rejoice that their names are written in heaven.

But He has always been happy. He will always be happy. And He is predominantly happy now. Sin is a temporary condition. So the causes for God’s unhappiness are themselves temporary. His primary identity is as a happy God, not an unhappy one.

Sin is so prevalent and the Bible is written to point out and deal with the sin problem. Hence, we often do see a God with anger and wrath, and it’s easy to overlook all of the lovingkindness passages and all the passages about God delighting in His people and God being pleased. We can miss the master, in Jesus’s words, saying to the servant, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into your master’s happiness.” Enter into a happiness far more ancient than the world itself—a happiness that preceded all creation, a happiness that goes on undaunted and will continue forever (see Matthew 25:21).

And God not only says this to us so that at the end of our life we might be welcomed into His happiness, but also so that we can frontload, so to speak, that happiness into our life right now because of His redemptive work. But even then people will say that Jesus is called “the man of sorrows.” And I heard this from a lot from people when I told them I was writing a book called Happiness.

By the way, unbelievers would always think it was great when I’d tell them I was writing about happiness. But when I’d say it to believers they’d scrunch up their faces and say, “Oh, wait a minute. Did you mean joy? What are you doing talking about happiness?” I received a letter from a pastor telling me why I shouldn’t write on the subject of happiness. But for unbelievers they see the appeal of it, because that’s what they long for.

But look at Jesus. He’s called “the man of sorrows,” which people point out, but that’s in Isaiah 53:3—and it’s specifically in relationship to his redemptive work: “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” And He is pierced for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and all of that (verse 5). But even that redemptive work was done for the joy set before him according to Hebrews 12:2.

So if we picture Jesus going around in perpetual sadness or anger, grumbling, and looking to condemn more than to extend grace, then we’re really not seeing the Jesus of the Bible. And children were attracted to Him, by the way. And who are children attracted to? They’re not attracted to unhappy people.

People today sometimes say, “I’ve got the joy of Jesus way, way deep in my heart, even though my life is pretty miserable.” It’s like, “Well, you know what? I think that joy needs to work its way to your face once in a while.” After all, we’re called to “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). And if God weren’t happy, He wouldn’t call us to be happy. And furthermore, if God were not happy, He couldn’t be the source of our happiness, because God can’t give us what He doesn’t have. We’re to value joy, happiness, gladness, delight precisely because our God is characterized by them, and the gospel we preach to people should be a gospel of a holy God, yes, but also of a happy God.

Passages like 1 Timothy 1:11 and 6:15 explicitly tell us God is happy, or “blessed” as most translations put it. I heard you recently argue, in another interview, that all the times in the Bible that talk about God seeking to delight in someone or something, means that God is essentially joyful, because He is always postured to delight. That’s a fascinating point.

Exactly, because who delights? A person who has the capacity to delight and the desire and orientation to delight, a person who delights in delighting, who is pleased by pleasure, who is happy in happiness.

So insightful. And some theologians say that God’s wrath is the flip side of His love. No love, no wrath. Can we say that God's anger against sin is the flip side of His desire for his creation to rejoice?

Yes, absolutely. I think the very fact that He’s unhappy with sin is an indicator that sin is what robs people of happiness. So He’s happy with that which is not only in conformity to His holy standards, but also that which is in conformity to His happiness and delight. He wants the best for us. He sincerely wants for us to participate in His happiness and His joy and His delight. And sin is the enemy of all that.

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A Happy Invitation to Invest in Eternity

Many thanks to all of you who’ve supported this ministry through your prayers, your giving, your time or your interest in who we are and what we do. Nanci and I are deeply grateful to God and to you. Merry Christmas to all! —Randy

At Eternal Perspective Ministries, we’re dedicated to investing in eternity and joyfully helping others do the same. This perspective is the heartbeat behind all we do.

But we can’t do it alone! Since 90% of Randy’s royalties are given away to other worthy ministries, and only 10% given to EPM (to help offset the costs related to writing and editing the books), we’re not a self-supporting ministry. (If you wonder why we do this, learn more here.) Therefore, we’re deeply grateful for the generous partnership of our donors, which allows us to continue our work for Christ. Your eternal investment in EPM’s general fund assists us in the following ways:

- Enables us to continue providing quality, Christ-centered content. Through our ever-expanding audience on Randy’s blog, our website, and social media, we have the opportunity to provide free resources on Heaven, sexual purity, suffering, and other topics that will help readers in their walk with Christ. We’re also seeking to provide more resources in other languages so we can impact readers worldwide.

- Helps fund Randy’s writing of books, and the EPM staff’s work as they assist him. Writing a book is a team effort. Not only does much work from Randy go into researching and writing a book, but also various EPM staff are involved in the editing process (as well as others who free Randy up by taking care of numerous ministry responsibilities). Through these books, many are introduced to Christ and others are encouraged to seek a deeper walk with Him. We receive many testimonies of this. One reader wrote:

My sister had cancer and she passed away a year ago. My preacher gave her your book Heaven because she was terrified of passing away. This book brought her to Christ and calmed her fears. She passed in her sleep peacefully and she was ready. I thank you for this book! It gave me a biblical view of Heaven.

- Supports EPM’s staff in reaching out in Jesus’ name to all those we come in contact with. Each month our staff has on average over 200 meaningful interactions with those contacting our ministry for help, encouragement, and resources. Each phone call, email, and social media comment is an opportunity to reflect the grace and truth of Christ.

- Provides for our ministry to prisoners. Each year, EPM sends thousands of books to inmates in facilities across the United States. This past year alone we sent over 6,400 books. Sharon, one of our staff members, personally responds to letters from prisoners. This outreach to those who are often forgotten by society is bearing much fruit for the kingdom! One prisoner wrote to say, “I am in an 8-man tank and we take turns reading your books. They are so life changing and spiritually touching. Some have even been saved based on some of your books.”

So we invite you to consider partnering with us in spreading the “good news of happiness” (Isaiah 52:7). Every gift, no matter the size, is an opportunity to make an eternal investment. We pray that doing so will bring God much glory and you great happiness.

If you'd like to make a year-end, tax-deductible donation to EPM, please note that donations postmarked no later than December 31, or received online by 11:59 p.m. PT on December 31, will be included on this year’s tax receipts. If God lays it on your heart to give to our ministry, or to pray for us (the greatest gift you can offer), know that we are grateful. 

Merry Christmas to all!

With great appreciation,

Randy & Nanci Alcorn, and the Staff of Eternal Perspective Ministries

P.S. Here’s a creative 90 second video you might enjoy, about investing our treasures in Heaven. And if you’d like to learn more about EPM’s core mission, beliefs and finances, visit our site.  

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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