Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 155

Why I Write Big, Small and Medium-sized Books

I’ve written thirteen works of fiction, four large, five medium and four small. I enjoy writing a variety of genres, including murder mysteries (Deadline, Dominion and Deception), contemporary fiction (Safely Home, Courageous), spiritual warfare (Lord Foulgrin’s Letters, The Ishbane Conspiracy) other world fantasy (Edge of Eternity and The Chasm), and children’s stories (Tell Me About Heaven and Wait Until Then).

I loved writing my graphic novels Eternity and The Apostle because they speak the heart language of many, both young and old. The fantastic art is appealing and helps readers, including children and those who speak English as a second language, engage with and understand the words.

Counting my book Grace (releasing July 2016), of my twenty-nine nonfiction books still in print, six are large, seven medium and sixteen small. (My largest is Eternal Perspectives, a collection of Heaven and New Earth quotations that I believe are life-changing!)

Last month I came out with two books. Happiness is a comprehensive study of what the Bible and God’s people throughout church history have said about happiness, joy, gladness and delight. It’s 444 pages, plus two appendices and lots of endnotes. The second is a small book, God’s Promise of Happiness, 92 pages, which most people could read in an hour.  

I’m looking forward to completing a medium-sized devotional called 60 Days of Happiness. And because Heaven for Kids has been well-received, I’d love to write Happiness for Kids.

Why write different sized books on one subject? Because they’re designed to reach different audiences with varying interests and preferences. The big books are for pastors, teachers and serious Bible students who want to dig in and explore the depths of what Scripture and theologians say. They’re not meant for those who want a quick read and prefer small books or devotionals.

Likewise, those who want a thorough treatment of a subject want more than what small books offer. As in The Three Bears, for some the small version is “just right.” But the right fit for Baby Bear or Goldilocks is the wrong fit for Papa or Mama Bear!

When I wrote Heaven for Kids and Tell Me About Heaven, I drew from my extensive research for the big Heaven book, and added things unique to each of those small books. I wrote 50 Days of Heaven by selecting the material most suitable for a devotional, then rewriting it in a different style. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven is the Reader’s Digest version of Heaven, written for adults but with simplified wording. In We Shall See God, I took excerpts from Charles Spurgeon’s great sermons on Heaven, and supplemented them with my own meditations.

Similarly, after writing the comprehensive If God Is Good, I composed a booklet of the same name, a small book called The Goodness of God and a medium-sized devotional 90 Days of God’s Goodness.

My small books greatly benefit from the extensive research done for my big books. Those who read the small and medium books profit from the years of work I invest in the big ones, even if they never read them. The smaller books allow me to focus not on researching new material, but on shaping what I’ve already discovered to fit the audience I’m trying to reach.

Those who prefer the big books enjoy passing on smaller ones to their believing and unbelieving friends. For instance, those who appreciate my extensive Money, Possessions and Eternity often give their friends my medium-sized Managing God’s Money or my small book on giving, The Treasure Principle, or The Law of Rewards. Money, Possessions and Eternity has reached a wide audience and, by God’s grace, had a life-shaping effect on the four founders of the world-impacting ministry Generous Giving (see www.generousgiving.org). While the big book uniquely influenced them, they’ve passed along not only it, but countless copies of the smaller books.

The Heaven and If God Is Good booklets have been used extensively to share the gospel. The Heaven booklet has sold as many copies as the Heaven book, each over a million. The booklet’s been handed out at countless funerals and memorial services. I’m praying my mini-book God’s Promise of Happiness might have similar impact. It uses the universal human longing for happiness as a bridge to the “good news of happiness” (Isaiah 52:7) in Jesus.

My first book Christians in the Wake of the Sexual Revolution, written in 1985, ultimately gave birth to my booklet Sexual Temptation and my little book The Purity Principle. My big book ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments helped shape my little books Why ProLife? and Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?

Surprisingly, my big books have consistently outsold the medium ones, and most of the small ones too. The two dramatic exceptions are The Treasure Principle, with two million sold, and the Heaven booklet. While I write 2-3 small nonfiction books for every large one, it’s hard to measure their relative impact—the answer is always that some people benefit most from the big books, others from the small, and still others the medium-sized.

My big books have had the most impact on pastors, many of whom have based sermon series on them, thus influencing their churches. A pastor who’s been taught that happiness and joy are at odds, and we shouldn’t seek to be happy only holy, will need strong biblical, linguistic and historical evidence to change his thinking—that’s what I offer in the big book. Though the small book summarizes that evidence, and will be sufficient for some casual readers, serious students will need more.  While some people will tune out discussions of the meaning of Scripture’s Hebrew and Greek words, others won’t be convinced unless those words are addressed.

In my experience, lay people—and Christian publishers—underestimate their ability to grapple with and understand theological and historical material. We can say no to the superficial “I don’t have time to think” mentality of modern culture. I’ve received many letters from people who’ve never been to college but have read, understood and benefited from my big books.

I delight in addressing a variety of subjects, and writing different lengths and types of books. Two of my favorites are the little books The Grace and Truth Paradox and the devotional Seeing the Unseen, which is published by our ministry (as is Help for Women Under Stress).

Sometimes people criticize small books because “the author didn’t say anything about….” But there’s a lot of information small books can’t possibly include! Similarly, people criticize a large book because it deals in detail with theological issues that don’t interest them. But it’s not written for them. It’s for those who want a thorough treatment they can’t get elsewhere.

We shouldn’t criticize big books for not being a quick or easy read any more than we’d criticize a small book for not being comprehensive or a devotional book for not being scholarly. Usually they aren’t intended to be those things. They serve a different purpose.

That’s exactly why I write books that are big, medium and small, some more comprehensive, others more devotional, some for children, some for comic-lovers, some for those who enjoy murder mysteries. Not all people are alike, so not all books should be. It’s my joy and privilege to write different books on different subjects for different people, meeting different needs.

Paul said, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). What’s true in reaching people with the gospel is also true in teaching them God’s truth. Some want quick reads, with the cookies on the lower shelf. Others benefit more from reaching up to the counter and even the cupboard to get not only the cookies, but a lot more. Neither desire is wrong.

When it comes to books, “One size [or kind] does not fit all.” Different people from a variety of backgrounds, at different ages and stages of their lives, are changed by different sorts and sizes of books. My life has been shaped by all kinds of writings that have pointed me to God’s Book. I love writing different books to reach more people in more ways, by God’s grace, with the life-changing truths of His Word.

An Opportunity to Help Bring the Gospel to Southeast Asians This Christmas

Some dear friends of our ministry recently made us aware of a great opportunity to help bring the good news of Jesus to those who’ve never heard of him before, through helping to fund the printing of an evangelistic booklet that will be used in Southeast Asia. They are seeking to raise $25,000 by November 24 to print 150,000 copies in time for Christmas. I can’t think of a better way for you and your family to invest in eternity this holiday season! My thanks to EPM staff member Karen Coleman for putting together the information below. —Randy Alcorn

Imagine a large extended family living in a tiny apartment in the steamy capital of a Southeast Asian country. They are eking out a living, but barely. The patriarch of the family trudges habitually and dutifully to the local temple to worship, leaving flowers or food. And each time, he returns home, unchanged.

December 25 will pass as any other ordinary day for this family and countless others, since they know nothing of the Savior whose birth Christians joyfully celebrate. Many even think the religion of Christianity began in the United States.

Now imagine if before Christmas this year, a small booklet called “The Ancient Path” was given to that same elderly patriarch. He curiously reads it and then shares it with the rest of his family. It tells the story of a Path older than the way of Buddha or Confucius, a Way that is Truth and Life. It’s written in their heart language, in words they can understand. The Truth starts sinking in to their hearts and minds, the miracle of salvation takes place, and the angels of Heaven rejoice!

“The Ancient Path” was written by a missionary to Southeast Asia in 2002. Ninety thousand copies were printed in the country where it was first written, and since then it’s also been translated into four other Southeast Asian languages. (Randy personally knows the missionary and his wife and endorses both their ministry and this booklet.)

Please take three minutes to watch this video that shows how “The Ancient Path” is effectively explaining the faith of the Bible, and how it’s being passed from hand to hand in mountain villages and densely populated Asian cities.

The demand has gone beyond the resources of these missionaries—for example, in one country where Christianity is suppressed and even prohibited, local leaders want to put “The Ancient Path” in the hands of every visitor who attends church-sponsored Christmas outreach events.

We at EPM would like to encourage you to support the immediate need of those church leaders in Asia for 150,000 more copies of “The Ancient Path” to be printed in time for Christmas. Funds for printing the booklets are needed by November 24 in order to print and distribute prior to Christmas. So if you feel God’s prompting to give through their GoFundMe campaign, please do it now.

Imagine meeting that same Asian family in Heaven, and knowing you had a small part in helping them find the Ancient Path—Jesus Christ.

photo credit: Hà Nội, 5/2014 via photopin (license)

Reflections after the Paris Attacks: The Brevity of Life, God’s Sovereignty, and Our Solid Hope

Like all of you, I was greatly saddened to hear of the attacks in Paris last Saturday. Nanci’s and my prayers have been with the people of France. Many have wept for their pain and suffering. But we’ve also wept because we know this: it could happen to us. Next time it could be me or my family. There is nothing I can do to guarantee it won’t be. (Because our loving God is in control, this is not fatalism.)

“No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death” (Ecclesiastes 8:8). It is presumptuous to think otherwise. We often live under the illusion that our lives are in our hands. But God’s Word warns us otherwise:

“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil” (James 4:13-16).

Our life on Earth is brief—“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:6-8). Understanding this is the key to being wise rather than foolish. In the oldest psalm, Moses prayed, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

It might seem that acknowledging we aren’t in control would raise our level of fear. But that’s not true. Recognizing God’s in control should allow us to relax, resting in His sovereignty. A spirit of fear and timidity is not from God (2 Timothy 1:7).

Because God loves us, we can trust that His sovereign will for us is in our best interests. Where God wants us is the very best place to be, the only safe place. As Corrie ten Boom reminds us, “There are no 'if's' in God's world. And no places that are safer than other places. The center of His will is our only safety—let us pray that we may always know it!”

In a time of dark suffering and dread, David affirmed,

The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?... Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confi­dent.... Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.... I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. (Psalm 27:1, 3, 10, 13–14)

The hope of God’s people’s shouldn't be the illusion that we won’t suffer. Our hope should be in Jesus Christ, and that one day God will end our suffering (Revelation 21:4). Our hope should be in the fact that nothing in this world or outside it—no tragedies or accidents or terrorist attacks or anything else—shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39).

To many of us, “hope” sounds wishful and tentative, but biblical hope means to anticipate with trust. We expect a sure thing, purchased on the Cross, accomplished and promised by an all-knowing God.

Hope points to the light at the end of life’s tunnel. It not only makes the tunnel endurable, it fills the heart with anticipation of a world alive, fresh, beautiful, without pain, suffering, terrorists or war. A world ruled by the only One worthy of ruling (see Revelation 5:12). Though we don’t know exactly when, we do know for sure that either by our deaths or by Christ’s return, our suffering will end. From before the beginning, God drew the line in eternity’s sand to say for his children, “This much and no more, then endless joy.”

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

The night may seem long for God’s people, but the truth is this: once it comes, the morning will never end.

Neither will the joy.  

Photo credit: Bianca Dagheti via Flickr / Creative Commons

The Joy of Forgiveness

I’ve seen families, friends, neighbors and churches torn apart by refusal to forgive. If we believed in the joy-giving power of forgiveness, it would transform our perspectives and help us live happier, more God-honoring lives.

Everyone could call up a catalogue of grievances done to them by their children, parents, friends, spouse, employers, neighbors, the DMV, the phone company. Some wrongs are real and serious, others are imaginary or exaggerated, but all sabotage happiness unless there’s true forgiveness demonstrated by refusal to rehearse them. Lewis Smedes writes, “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

This reminds me of Corrie ten Boom's story. I heard her talk once of meeting a sadistically cruel guard from the death camp Ravensbrück, where she'd been a prisoner. As you read her account of this meeting, recorded in her book Tramp for the Lord, marvel at the Messiah's grace, and His empowerment to His people to extend that grace to others:

It was in a church in Munich that I saw him—a balding, heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken, moving along the rows of wooden chairs to the door at the rear.

It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives.

It was the truth they needed most to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture. Maybe because the sea is never far from a Hollander’s mind, I liked to think that that’s where forgiven sins were thrown. “When we confess our sins,” I said, “God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever…”

The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe. There were never questions after a talk in Germany in 1947.

People stood up in silence, in silence collected their wraps, in silence left the room.

And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights; the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor; the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were!

Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: "A fine message, Fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!"

And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course—how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?

But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. I was face-to-face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.

“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying, “I was a guard there.” No, he did not remember me.

“But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein,”—again the hand came out—“will you forgive me?”

And I stood there—I whose sins had again and again to be forgiven—and could not forgive. Betsie had died in that place—could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

It could not have been many seconds that he stood there—hand held out—but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.

For I had to do it—I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us.

“If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality. Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.

And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion—I knew that too.

Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

“… Help!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”

For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then…

But even so, I realized it was not my love. I tried and did not have the power. It was the power of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Romans 5:5… “because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.”

Insights from a Kenyan Brother: No One Cried at My Friend’s Funeral

Media Associates International (MAI) is a great ministry that equips and encourages talented men and women all over the world with a passion for producing Christian literature for their own people. Believers in many other countries do not have access to Christian literature in their own unique voice that is so readily available to us in the US. We want to support their efforts so Eternal Perspective Ministries has supported MAI, and I recommend you consider supporting it, too. I appreciated this powerful and insightful message from one of their blog posts:

No One Cried at My Friend’s Funeral

By John Gathuku, Kenya

Yesterday we lay to rest the man who literally took me to church. No one cried at the funeral; his wife and children didn’t shed a tear.

He was our neighbor and a faithful choir member at a church in our hometown. He brought me along when he went for choir practice. We had a unique father-like friendship. On Sundays he dropped me off at children’s Sunday School. That was 30 years ago! I am now a grown man with three children. We kept in touch once in a while over the years and were always joyful to meet.

My friend was a super achiever. He pursued a bachelor’s degree at age 45 and was about to finish a doctorate at 63. His determination and tenacity was admirable. He uplifted his extended family economically and financially assisted many other people.

However something was amiss…

Read the rest

Is There a Difference Between Happiness and Joy?

An ungrounded, dangerous separation of joy from happiness has infiltrated the Christian community. The following is typical of the artificial distinctions made by modern Christians:

Joy is something entirely different from happiness. Joy, in the Biblical context, is not an emotion. . . . There is a big difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is an emotion and temporary; joy is an attitude of the heart.[i]

Judging from such articles (and there are hundreds more out there), you’d think the distinction between joy and happiness is biblical. It’s not.

John Piper writes, “If you have nice little categories for ‘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.”[ii]

Here’s a sampling of the more than one hundred Bible verses in various translations that use joy and happiness together:

For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor. (Esther 8:16, NIV)
I will turn their mourning into joy. . . and bring happiness out of grief. (Jeremiah 31:13, HCSB)
Give your father and mother joy! May she who gave you birth be happy. (Proverbs 23:25, NLT)

The relationship between joy and happiness in these passages refutes two common claims: (1) that the Bible doesn’t talk about happiness, and (2) that joy and happiness have contrasting meanings. In fact, the Bible overflows with accounts of God’s people being happy in him.

Depicting joy in contrast with happiness has obscured the true meaning of both words. Joyful people are typically glad and cheerful—they smile and laugh a lot. To put it plainly, they’re happy!

Opposition to the word happiness is a recent development in the church.

There’s a long rich, history of equating joy with happiness in Christ. For example, Jonathan Edwards cited John 15:11 (“that [Jesus’] joy might remain in you,” KJV) to prove this point: “The happiness Christ gives to his people, is a participation of his own happiness.”

Charles Spurgeon said, “May you so come, and then may your Christian life be fraught with happiness, and overflowing with joy.”[iii] Spurgeon’s views of happiness and joy, evident in hundreds of his sermons, are completely contrary to the artificial wall the contemporary church has erected between the two.

In stark contrast to believers prior to the twentieth century, many modern Christians have portrayed happiness as, at best, inferior to joy and, at worst, evil. Oswald Chambers (1874–1917), whom I greatly respect, is one of the earliest Bible teachers to have spoken against happiness. Chambers wrote, “Happiness is no standard for men and women because happiness depends on my being determinedly ignorant of God and His demands.”[iv]

After extensive research, I’m convinced that no biblical or historical basis exists to define happiness as inherently sinful. Unfortunately, because Bible teachers such as Chambers saw people trying to find happiness in sin, they concluded that pursuing happiness was sinful.

Chambers, a truly great Bible teacher and Christ-follower, claimed that “there is no mention in the Bible of happiness for a Christian.” Likewise, it’s common to hear people make claims like this: “Joy is in 155 verses in the KJV Bible, happiness isn’t in the Bible.”[v]

The problem with these statements is that they simply aren’t true. Happy is found in the King James Version, which Chambers used, a total of twenty-nine times. For example, Jesus told his disciples, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:17). The apostle Paul wrote these words to Christians: “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth” (Romans 14:22).

Just as holy speaks of holiness and joyful speaks of joy and glad speaks of gladness, obviously happy speaks of happiness!

Is it true that joy is not an emotion?

The idea that “joy is not an emotion” (a statement that appears online more than 17,000 times) promotes an unbiblical myth.

A hundred years ago, every Christian knew the meaning of joy. Today, if you ask a group of Christians, “What does joy mean?” most will grope for words, with only one emphatic opinion: that joy is different from happiness. This is like saying that rain isn’t wet or ice isn’t cold. Scripture, dictionaries, and common language don’t support this separation.

Some claim that joy is a fruit of the Spirit, not an emotion. But in Galatians 5:22, love and peace surround the word joy. If you love someone, don’t you feel something? What is peace if not something you feel?

I googled “define joy,” and the first result was this dictionary definition: “a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.” This definition harmonizes with other dictionaries and ordinary conversations, yet it contradicts countless Christian books and sermons.

God created not only our minds but also our hearts. It’s ill advised to pit happiness and joy against each other rather than embracing the emotional satisfaction of knowing, loving, and following Jesus.

Happiness is a synonym for joy.

Consult English dictionaries and you’ll see how contrived this supposed contrast between joy and happiness is. The first definition of joy in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is “a feeling of great happiness.”[vi] The American Heritage Dictionary defines joy as “intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness.”[vii]

What about Christian dictionaries? The Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology defines joy as “happiness over an unanticipated or present good.”[viii] The Dictionary of Bible Themes defines happiness as “a state of pleasure or joy experienced both by people and by God.”[ix] Happiness is joy. Joy is happiness. Virtually all dictionaries, whether secular or Christian, recognize this.

Consider our common expressions:

“He jumped for joy.”
 “He is our pride and joy.”
“I wept for joy.”

According to the vast majority of the usages of these two words in (1) English history, (2) English literature, (3) Bible translations, and (4) English dictionaries, the words have far more in common with each other than not.

Modern distinctions between happiness and joy are completely counterintuitive.

For too long we’ve distanced the gospel from what God created us to desire—and what he desires for us—happiness.

We need to reverse the trend. Let’s redeem the word happiness in light of both Scripture and church history. Our message shouldn’t be “Don’t seek happiness,” but “You’ll find in Jesus the happiness and joy you’ve always longed for.”

Learn more in Randy's book Happiness.

[i] Brian Cromer, “Difference between Joy and Happiness,” Briancromer.com (blog), April 28, 2008.

[ii] John Piper, “Let Your Passion Be Single,” Desiring God, November 12, 1999.

[iii] Spurgeon, “A Happy Christian” (Sermon #736).

[iv] Oswald Chambers, Biblical Ethics (Great Britain: Oswald Chambers Publications, 1947), 14.

[v] “In Your Opinion, What’s the Difference between Joy and Happiness?” Yahoo! Answers.

[vi] Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (Britannica Digital Learning, 2014), s.v. “joy."

[vii] American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., s.v. “joy.”

[viii] Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996), s.v. “joy.”

[ix] Martin H. Manser, Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies (London: Martin Manser, 2009), s.v. “happiness.”

photo credit: Осень в миниатюре via photopin (license)

When Social Media Become Addictive

There’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn…and that’s not counting email or YouTube or other online time-consumers that aren’t social media but which can call out to us daily.

There’s nothing wrong with any of these. Used selectively and wisely, in moderation, they can accomplish a good purpose—maybe you get updates from family and people you care about, or perhaps prayer requests and thoughts and Scripture quotes that can help you live with a Christ-centered perspective. And there’s nothing wrong with entertainment that’s positive and pure.

But when social media and online time is out of control, like television watching or talk radio or sports or stamp collecting, it can become an addiction—just like anything else. Those who are addicted to Facebook, for instance, and use it to relieve boredom imagine it’s a solution to their unhappiness. Sadly, the addiction brings the very unhappiness they’re intended to relieve.

Ed Welch, author of the excellent book Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave, writes, “Your addictions are linked to your relationship to God more than you realize. You can’t ignore that.”

We need to understand that our thirst for happiness and excitement and pleasure can ultimately only be fulfilled in Jesus Christ: “in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). 

I appreciated this article by Tony Reinke that explores the consequences of boredom-induced addiction to Facebook:

Facebook Obsession and the Anguish of Boredom

Facebook has never been more addictive.

In 2013, it was 63% of Facebook users who checked in daily. In 2014, that number shot up to 70%. If you check Facebook day after day, you join over 864 million others with the same compulsive routine.

For many of us, Facebook is a kind of addiction, a default habit that is now rewiring our brains.

Read more

The One Thing My Daughter Remembered Most about My Parenting

Some years ago, I sat with my daughters at a wonderful father/daughter banquet at our church. Someone at the table asked my youngest daughter, Angela, what I’d done that made the biggest impression on her. I had no idea what she would say, but of course I hoped for something spectacular. :)

I’ll never forget what she shared because it was so powerful to me. She said, “I remember one time when dad was harsh with me. Then a few minutes later he came back into my room, and he cried and asked my forgiveness. I’ve never forgotten that.”

That’s what Angie remembered as having the most impact on her—something I had actually done wrong, and then asked her forgiveness for! I thought, Isn’t that interesting? It shows how being a good example isn’t limited to doing great and magnificent things. Sometimes it’s when we admit we did wrong things.

This is God’s grace—He can redeem even our failures! (Provided we recognize and confess them to our children.) Saying "I'm sorry, please forgive me," may teach your children more than you would have by never failing, and far more than pretending you never fail.

How humbling and also encouraging to know that parents who admit their shortcomings don’t lose their children’s trust. They gain it.

Following are some parenting books I would recommend on parenting: Gospel Powered Parenting by Bill P. Farley, Shepherding A Child’s Heart by Ted Tripp (I read Tripp’s book when our girls were young, and I think it’s great), and What the Bible Says about Parenting by John MacArthur.

Seeking to Be Happy in Christ: My Interview with Bible Gateway

This interview with Jonathan Petersen, manager of marketing for Bible Gateway, was originally posted on biblegateway.com ,

Your book  Happiness  challenges the idea that God wants his followers to be holy but not happy. What do you mean?

Holiness doesn’t mean abstaining from pleasure; holiness means recognizing Jesus as the source of life’s greatest pleasure. Spurgeon put it this way: “Holiness is the royal road to happiness. The death of sin is the life of joy.” For those of us who are Christ-centered believers, our lives should overflow with both holiness and happiness.

In Revelation 20:6, makarios, a Greek word meaning “happy,” is joined with hagios, meaning “holy.” The following versions capture this beautiful combination:

Happy and holy [is] he who is having part in the first rising again. (Rev. 20:6 Young’s Literal Translation)
Those who are raised from the dead during this first time are happy and holy. The second death has no power over them. (Rev. 20:6 New Life Version)
Happy and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! (Rev. 20:6 PHILLIPS)

Sadly, too often our message to the world becomes a false gospel that lays upon people an impossible burden, as in “to be a Christian, you must give up wanting to be happy and instead choose to be holy.” In fact, happiness and holiness are inseparable. “Give up happiness; choose holiness instead” is not good news, and therefore it is not the “good news of happiness” spoken of in Scripture (Isaiah 52:7)!

Does it matter whether we believe that God is happy?

It matters immensely. If God isn’t happy, he can’t be our source of happiness. An unhappy God would never value nor assure the everlasting happiness of his creatures. We would never ask for grace from an ungracious God, kindness from an unkind God, or happiness from an unhappy God. It would be like asking a poor man for a million dollars. He can’t give what he doesn’t have.

If God were not happy, the fact that all people seek to be happy—as Augustine, Aquinas, Pascal, the Puritans, Wesley, Spurgeon, and many others have observed—would be a cruel tragedy, since it would mean that God cannot give us what we most deeply desire. At best he might deliver us from the miseries of Hell. But Heaven can overflow with happiness only if God himself overflows with happiness. Our Creator’s happiness guarantees a happy ending to the story that will never end.

The Bible frequently depicts God as being delighted and pleased, and twice God is described as makarios (1 Tim. 1:11; 6:15).

Does the Bible distinguish between happiness, blessedness, joy, and gladness?

We imagine sharp distinctions between Hebrew and Greek synonyms and also the chosen English words, such as joyful, glad, or happy. Only when we recognize how meanings overlap in words from the same semantic domain, or word family, will we be saved from making artificial distinctions between the corresponding English words. In fact, these words are far more alike than different.

Is happiness much different from joy?

Judging from countless hundreds of articles, books, and sermons, you’d think the distinction between joy and happiness is biblical. It’s not. Here’s a sampling of the more than one hundred Bible verses in various translations that use joy and happiness together:

For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor. (Esther 8:16, NIV)
I will turn their mourning into joy…and bring happiness out of grief. (Jeremiah 31:13, HCSB)
Give your father and mother joy! May she who gave you birth be happy. (Proverbs 23:25, NLT)

The relationship between joy and happiness in these passages refutes two common claims: (1) that the Bible doesn’t talk about happiness, and (2) that joy and happiness have contrasting meanings. In fact, the Bible overflows with accounts of God’s people being happy in him.

How should the Beatitudes be viewed in light of happiness?

In the Beatitudes (see Matthew 5:2-12 and Luke 6:20-23), the word makarios occurs repeatedly. It’s significant that Jesus didn’t say, “Happy in God are the following…” and then give a grocery list including “the poor in spirit,” “mourners,” and “the meek.” Instead, he repeated makarios with each statement, revealing this word as his central emphasis.

The word “happy” isn’t just the literal meaning of asher and makarios—it’s also a commonly used word that most people understand. First-century readers of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke also knew the meaning of makarios. So in the Beatitudes, the down-trodden, weary, and sorrow-laden listeners heard Jesus say, nine times in a row, “Happy are you…” These statements must have stunned them.

In what way are churches failing to offer the happiness the world longs for?

The gospel of Messiah’s redemptive work is called “good news of happiness” (Isaiah 52:7 ESV), synonymous with what Luke calls “good news of great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10).

Unfortunately, I believe the modern church is often driven more by duty than delight in God. The misguided distinction between joy and happiness has played a part in driving people away from the happiness the Gospel offers. To declare joy sacred, and happiness secular, closes the door to dialogue with unbelievers. If someone is told that joy is the opposite of happiness, any thoughtful person would say, “In that case, I don’t want joy!”

The word “happiness” has historically had a common meaning for both believers and unbelievers—and for many it still does. Until recent decades, it’s been a bridge between the church and world—one we can’t afford to burn. If we say the gospel won’t bring happiness, any perceptive listener should respond, “Then how is it good news?” We need to reverse the trend. Let’s redeem the word “happiness” in light of both Scripture and church history. Our message shouldn’t be “Don’t seek happiness,” but “You’ll find in Jesus the happiness you’ve always longed for.”

What do you want readers of  Happiness  to do once they finish it?

First, my hope is that readers will meditate on and embrace the Scriptural teaching about God’s happiness. “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). Much of the battle for joy hinges on whether we believe God is happy and wants us to be too.

Second, I hope readers will seek to cultivate a Christ-centered happiness that will affect every area of their lives and will spill over into the lives of their family, friends, and acquaintances. People are drawn to Christ when they see true happiness in his followers and are pushed away when they see us chronically unhappy. (Sure, we sometimes sorrow or battle depression, but rejoicing in God is still possible.)

What are your thoughts about how using Bible Gateway and/or the  Bible Gateway App  can contribute to a person’s happiness?

I use Bible Gateway or its app virtually every day; usually multiple times a day. I went to it frequently to compare translations of nearly every verse I cite in Happiness, the book, and God’s Promise of Happiness, the booklet.

Here’s an example of the feature I use most. Look up Psalm 1:1 in Bible Gateway, then go to the lower left and click “Psalm 1:1 in all English translations.”

Next, use your keyboard function (for example, for PC users depress the “Ctrl” and “F” keys simultaneously) to search for the word “happy” on that same page and you’ll immediately see it highlighted in 14 translations that use “happy” instead of “blessed.” In 1611, when the King James Version used it in the Psalms and beatitudes, “blessed” meant to be happy in God. Today, though, it sounds more like a holiness word than a happiness word.

People are unhappy because they listen to the thousands of unhappy voices clamoring for attention. Joy comes from listening to and believing words of joy from the source of joy. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). When we follow him, we’re happy. When we don’t, we’re not.

There’s no place we can go to hear God speak authoritatively, to hear his voice with complete confidence, other than the Bible itself.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul…. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart” (Psalm 19:7-8 NASB).

As we listen to, meditate on, and respond to God’s Word, our souls are restored from sin and unhappiness to righteousness and happiness.

photo credit

The Reluctant Churchman: C. S. Lewis

Before I get today’s blog, in case you missed it, you can view photos and videos from EPM’s 25th anniversary celebration on my blog. Also, I’m truly humbled that some special friends of Eternal Perspective Ministries kindly shared video messages expressing their congratulations on our 25 years of ministry. You can view them on our site. These encouraging words are from Joni Eareckson Tada, Joshua Harris, Ron Blue, John Piper, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Dennis Rainey, David Wills, Greg Laurie, Jerry Jenkins, George Verwer, Todd Wagner, and Forrest Reinhardt. 

Consider this, in light of the number of people who have withdrawn from the local church because it "does not meet our needs”: Church is about more than meeting your needs. It is about identifying with Christ and with people who otherwise we would never engage with. Some of these people will be very different than us; some of them will be difficult. But we are difficult too, aren't we? 

We need to recognize the value of the local church, and not abandon it despite all its imperfections (and each of us is included in those imperfections).

The following article by Wayne Martindale quotes C. S. Lewis, who addresses the value of being part of a local church. Namely, mixing it up with people we otherwise would not connect with or relate to:

C. S. Lewis, Reluctant Churchman

The Church has long felt comfortable with C. S. Lewis. He is quoted regularly from the pulpit and in Christian books and periodicals, not to mention the massive popularity of his own works. But Lewis was not always comfortable with the Church. He was repelled by much that he saw, both in the Church as the local congregation of worshipers and the Church as the universal body of all believers. First, the local congregation.

Lewis had no natural fondness for church-going. He found the sermons often dull, and he disliked hymns and organ music, which he described as “one long roar.” In his spiritual autobiography Surprised by Joy—speaking of his 1929 conversion to a belief in God (two years before his full conversion to Christianity)—Lewis refers to himself as “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” Though reluctant, his reason commanded assent.

He was equally reluctant about church. But he went. Why? He went at first because he felt he ought to: the Scriptures that had won his reasoned assent commanded it. He went later because he learned that it was good for him and necessary for his spiritual growth. In an essay written many years after his conversion, Lewis recalls both his disgust at the services he attended and the grace that came through them:

"When I first became a Christian, about fourteen years ago, I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and I wouldn’t go to the churches and Gospel Halls; . . . I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But as I went on I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren’t fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary conceit." 

Read more.