Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 167
April 1, 2015
Hail of Bullets...And a Miracle of God
The JESUS Film is arguably the single greatest evangelistic tool in history apart from the Word of God itself. I’ve visited their work in four countries and love what they do. I'll never forget years ago crowding into two homes in East Asia where Christians were showing the JESUS video to their neighbors. I counted 33 in one home and 37 in the other, eyes glued to the screen, listening in their own language to every word spoken by Jesus, straight from the Word of God.
I loved this recent story they shared from a dedicated evangelist leading a team in a dangerous nation:
“We were driving from the meeting place where many had just become followers of Jesus, many through the JESUS film. Five Christians of our evangelistic team were in one car, and 15 in a van.
“As we passed through the gate I saw two men with assault rifles. They motioned for us to stop. I shouted to the driver, ‘Don’t stop…move…move!’
“As we sped away they showered our vehicles with a hail of bullets. We could hear the bullets striking the metal. But no one was hit. When we arrived at our base, and got out to examine the damage, there was not a single mark, not a single bullet hole on either vehicle!
“We were all amazed. God had protected us miraculously. Had we stopped, they would have killed us all. We knew then He had more plans for us…”
That plan is a passionate vision…to place a DVD of “JESUS” in every home in their closed nation.
Right now, throughout the Middle East, staff and workers are requesting 64,000 DVDs to give out over the next three months. Your gift of $48 will provide them with 12 DVDs. You can make it possible for families cut off from the gospel by terrain, culture…or fear for their own safety…to watch “JESUS” again and again, in the privacy of their homes.
The JESUS Film is one of the ministries EPM is honored to support. I’ve seen the work and the workers first-hand, and can vouch for the integrity, vision, and biblical foundation of this ministry. I encourage you to consider if God would have you invest in eternity by getting involved in financial or prayer support for this wonderful work of the Lord. If you’d like to support their efforts to send DVDs to the Middle East, visit their site.
March 30, 2015
The Trend in the Church Towards Silence
Ephesians 4:15 tells us we need to “speak the truth in love.” As Christ-followers, we are not to choose between being loving and being truthful. We are to be both. And notice too that we are to speak.
Yes, there is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). But we dare not embrace the ease of silence and turn our backs on the hard work of truth-telling done in love.
When we believe and teach the Bible with courage and compassion, it’s guaranteed you and I will be seen as bigots—unless we either outright deny the Scriptures or are so quiet about our beliefs that no one finds us out. (Imagine an ambassador who lives in fear of divulging his King’s policies.)
Of course we will be mocked and despised by some. But our call is clear: in the balance of grace and truth, to follow the example of Peter and the Apostles, who told the Sanhedrin: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
I appreciate what Andrew Wilson has to share about the subject of silence in the church, especially in regard to sexuality. (I originally saw what follows, including the summary, on Justin Taylor’s excellent blog.)
Andrew writes:
I’ve heard rumours of a silent trend beginning to take hold in some city churches in the UK and the US. I don’t just mean a trend that takes hold silently; presumably most trends do that. I mean a trend towards silence: a decision not to speak out on issues that are considered too sticky, controversial, divisive, culturally loaded, entangled, ethically complex, personally upsetting, emotive, likely to be reported on by the Guardian or the New York Times, uncharted, inflammatory, difficult, or containing traces of gluten. Since I do not attend a city church, but am a proud member of the backward bungalow bumpkin brigade, this is coming to me second hand, and it may turn out to be a storm in the proverbial teacup, or even (for all I know) entirely fictional. But let’s imagine that there were such things as well-written booklets which had been discontinued simply because they were about sexuality, and leaders who were avoiding making any public comments at all on controversial ethical issues, or churches whose lectionaries or sermon series were systematically avoiding passages which addressed pressing contemporary questions, presumably in the name of being winsome or wise or likeable or culturally sensitive, because of the number of Influencers and Powerful People in the area. Without knowing any of the behind-the-scenes discussions that had taken place – all well-intentioned, I’m sure—what would I say then?
In seven points, Wilson shares his response:
Winsomeness is a good servant and a terrible master.
Likeability stops at the water’s edge.
Pastors are to proclaim the whole counsel of God, not just the parts that won’t cause any fluttering in the Fleet Street dovecotes.
Ducking difficult ethical questions leaves churches in confusion when they most need clarity.
Ethical confusion makes church discipline much, much harder.
Silence unwittingly reinforces the dominant cultural narrative.
Those of us who instinctively cheer when we read the previous six points are probably in the greatest need of hearing what the advocates of silence have to say.
Go to Wilson’s blog to read the full article.
photo credit: A World without Words via photopin (license)
March 27, 2015
Going to the Party
Imagine someone takes you to a party. You see a few friends there, enjoy a couple of good conversations, a little laughter, and some decent appetizers. The party’s all right, but you keep hoping it will get better. Give it another hour, and maybe it will. Suddenly, your friend says, “I need to take you home.”
Now?
You’re disappointed—nobody wants to leave a party early—but you leave, and your friend drops you off at your house. As you approach the door, you’re feeling all alone and sorry for yourself. As you open the door and reach for the light switch, you sense someone’s there. Your heart’s in your throat. You flip on the light.
“Surprise!” Your house is full of smiling people, familiar faces.
It’s a party—for you. You smell your favorites—barbecued ribs and pecan pie right out of the oven. The tables are full. It’s a feast. You recognize the guests, people you haven’t seen for a long time. Then, one by one, the people you most enjoyed at the other party show up at your house, grinning. This turns out to be the real party. You realize that if you’d stayed longer at the other party, as you’d wanted, you wouldn’t be at the real party—you’d be away from it.
Christians faced with terminal illness or imminent death often feel they’re leaving the party before it’s over. They have to go home early. They’re disappointed, thinking of all they’ll miss when they leave. But the truth is, the real party is underway at home—precisely where they’re going. They’re not the ones missing the party; those of us left behind are. (Fortunately, if we know Jesus, we’ll get there eventually.)
One by one, occasionally a few of us at a time, we’ll disappear from this world. Those we leave behind will grieve that their loved ones have left home. In reality, however, their believing loved ones aren’t leaving home, they’re going home. They’ll be home before us. We’ll be arriving at the party a little later.
Remember, Jesus said, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh” (Luke6:21). He said, “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke15:10). Laughter and rejoicing—a party awaits us. Don’t you want to join it? Yet even that party, in the present Heaven, is a preliminary celebration. It’s like the welcome at the airport for a woman who’s come home for her wedding. Sure, she’s home now, and it’s wonderful, but what she’s really looking forward to is the wedding, and the wedding feast, which will be followed by moving into her new home with her beloved bridegroom.
To be in resurrected bodies on a resurrected Earth in resurrected friendships, enjoying a resurrected culture with the resurrected Jesus—now that will be the ultimate party! Everybody will be who God made them to be—and none of us will ever suffer or die again. As a Christian, the day I die will be the best day I’ve ever lived. But it won’t be the best day I ever will live. Resurrection day will be far better. And the first day on the New Earth—that will be one big step for mankind, one giant leap for God’s glory.
March 25, 2015
Do We "Go to Sleep" When We Die?
“Soon you will read in the newspaper that I am dead. Don’t believe it for a moment. I will be more alive than ever before.” —D.L. Moody
Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, “The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” Regardless of how literally or figuratively it can be interpreted, the natural understanding of Christ’s story of the rich man and Lazarus is that at death, the human spirit goes either to Heaven or Hell, one a places of conscious happiness, the other of conscious misery (Luke 16:19-31). Other passages that aren’t parables seem to make this very clear, including Luke 23:39-43, 2 Corinthians 5:8 and Philippians 1:23.
However, while I believe this, as I develop in my book Heaven and this brief article, the fact remains that some sincere Christians believe in “soul sleep,” the idea that when we die we lose consciousness until the resurrection. I’ve received many letters from people who argue this coherently and passionately, and cite Scripture to support their position. In the following video, EPM’s Julia Stager offers the finest and most complete summary of the pros and cons of soul sleep that I’ve ever seen. She concisely, clearly and carefully examines what the Bible has to say. All in less than five minutes!
I highly recommend that you not only watch this video, but consider showing it to friends, family, your Bible study group or playing it for your church or class and/or drawing attention to it in social media. In my opinion, you may never hear a better explanation than this one:
While teaching a college class on Heaven, I briefly commented on the meaning of Philippians 1:23 and the question of soul sleep.
March 23, 2015
Alex and Brett Harris: Continuing to Do Hard Things
Nearly seven years ago, I shared on my blog about the release of an excellent book called Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations, by Alex and Brett Harris. It’s still a book I highly recommend to all young people. And middle aged people. And old people!
I said then, and still wholeheartedly believe, that Alex and Brett are the real deal—Christ-centered young men of character and vision, committed to serving Jesus with humility and excellence.
I did their dear mother’s memorial service in 2010, and dedicated my book 90 Days of God’s Goodness to her. I keep in touch with Brett and Alex. I love these two young men, and the wonderful wives God has given them.
So where has the Lord taken the Harris twins since Do Hard Things was published? This article from The Gospel Coalition shares how Brett and Alex have remained faithful while doing hard things in very different ways—each true to their particular calling and life circumstances. This is worth reading:
Alex and Brett Harris Are Doing Hard Things
By Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra
“Do hard things,” Alex and Brett Harris told their fellow teenagers six years ago. Get up early. Step out of your comfort zone. Do more than what’s required. Find a cause. Be faithful. Go against the crowd.
Be better than your culture expects.
The Harris twins, then 18, were leading by example. They worked through the summer to finish their (homeschool) high school at 16, then clerked with the Alabama Supreme Court. They organized a statewide grassroots political campaign. They started a blog, coined the “Rebelution” movement (the website has more than 40 million pageviews), wrote a book (which has sold 470,000 copies), and spoke at conferences.
And then they turned 20.
But they didn’t slow down. The twins enrolled at Patrick Henry College, took first place in the moot court nationals, and wrote another book. They dated and married their wives, cared for and buried their mother, and chose directions for their careers. Since then God has taken Alex and Brett, now 25, in starkly different directions that illustrate the Lord's mysterious plans and purposes as he calls us to forsake all and follow him.
March 20, 2015
Overcoming Pornography: Cultivating Our Inner Lives
Today’s blog is the final post in a three part series on overcoming pornography (see part one and two). In this post, I’d like to talk about the importance of cultivating our inner lives.
1 Peter 1:13 says we are responsible for the way we think. We are to take charge of our minds and focus them on what is right, not wrong: “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
How do we renew our minds? By filling them with what’s right and true, especially God’s Word. Psalm 119:11 says “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Note this verse says that sin is prevented not simply by restraining the body, but by retraining the heart, from which actions flow.
The battles that are waged every day in our minds and on our computer screens take their spiritual toll. By cultivating our inner lives, we are more likely to experience daily victories.
It’s difficult to delete bad files in our brain’s hard drive, but we can restrict the number of new bad files. Then we can open many good files. This is cause and effect. The more we fill our minds with purity and the less with impurity, the greater our purity and resistance to temptation. We can build our relationship with Christ by praying, reading God’s Word and meditating on it, reading great books, listening to Scripture and audio books and teaching from God’s Word. We need to fill our lives with the best things, those that glorify God. Then when we see how satisfying they are, it will be easier to resist the things that tempt and destroy us. “In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11).
As we eliminate the garbage, and replace it with what honors God, we will find it easier to obey Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
When we choose to feed our righteous desires and starve our unrighteous ones, by God’s grace we will program our lives for righteousness. We will begin to think and live like the new creatures God has made us in Christ. We can experience victory in the war against pornography.
May we walk in that victory and experience the joy and freedom of purity.
Recommended ResourcesSexual Purity Books for Men
Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave by Ed Welch
False Intimacy: Understanding the Struggle of Sexual Addiction by Harry Schaumburg
Sex Is Not the Problem (Lust Is): Sexual Purity in a Lust-Saturated World by Joshua Harris
Sexual Detox by Tim Challies
Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain by William M. Struthers
Sexual Purity Books for Women
No Stones: Women Redeemed from Sexual Addiction by Marnie C. Ferree
Dirty Girls Come Clean by Crystal Renaud
Online Help with Pornography Addictions
photo credit: Nothing better via photopin (license)
March 18, 2015
Overcoming Pornography: Changing Our Behavior
In Monday’s blog, I shared about the first step of choosing obedience in the fight against pornography. Today, I’d like to talk about changing our behavior—and how it’s possible through the power we have in Christ
One night as a young pastor I chose to view pornography. I felt terrible. I’d failed my Lord, my wife, my church. I’d been a fool. I caught a horrifying glimpse of what I could easily become. But shame did nothing to deliver me. I had to start thinking—and choosing—differently.
We must realize it is possible to control our behavior and choices no matter how vile or persistent the temptations. I know many men (and some women) who face temptation toward pornography, but they consistently resist both the thoughts and the actions.
The existence of a desire does not justify or necessitate succumbing to that desire. We live in a hedonistic society that tells us desires are meant to be fulfilled. But every desire need not be fulfilled, and indeed, in many cases, should not be. We are not animals blindly compelled by desire. We are human beings, created in God’s image, with the capacity to choose. We are not victims. Every action is a choice. Every sin is a choice. Every right behavior is a choice.
If we feel our desires are so strong that we “must” look at pornography, we should ask ourselves the question, “Would I still do this if someone pointed a gun at my head and promised to fire it if I did?” If the answer is no—and of course it is—it demonstrates that we don’t have to make this choice, but merely that we want to and choose to. (Once we’re in Heaven with Christ there will be no more sin or even temptation. Until then we have to face temptations, but we don’t have to succumb to them.)
We must actively resist and refuse to give in to the evil desires and fantasies that push themselves upon us. “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5). This isn’t impossible. God is not cruel. He never commands us to do something without giving us the power in Christ to obey Him. We can call upon Christ for that power.
It is possible over time to redirect and change our hearts. Jesus said sexual sin begins in the heart—“I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:27-28). All evil resides and is cultivated in the heart, and outward behavior is the product of this inner evil. That means that we need a heart transplant, a mind reprogramming, a change in our inner beings.
God says “If any man is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17). If we have truly turned to Christ, truly confessed ours sin and utter unworthiness, truly trusted him to save us from our sins, then we are a new person. In order to live like a new person, we need to meditate on and embrace this new reality. The old habits of sinful thought and action have embedded patterns. To break those habits and establish new patterns we must appeal to and cultivate our new identity in Christ, establishing a new set of habits that reinforce it.
In Friday’s blog, part three of this series, we’ll look at the importance of cultivating our inner lives.
Recommended ResourcesSexual Purity Books for Men
Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave by Ed Welch
False Intimacy: Understanding the Struggle of Sexual Addiction by Harry Schaumburg
Sex Is Not the Problem (Lust Is): Sexual Purity in a Lust-Saturated World by Joshua Harris
Sexual Detox by Tim Challies
Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain by William M. Struthers
Sexual Purity Books for Women
No Stones: Women Redeemed from Sexual Addiction by Marnie C. Ferree
Dirty Girls Come Clean by Crystal Renaud
Online Help with Pornography Addictions
March 16, 2015
Overcoming Pornography: Choosing Obedience
Explicit images are far more readily available than ever before. It used to be that in order to acquire pornographic magazines or videos, you actually had to purchase or rent them. But now, with just a few key strokes or moving a fingertip on a computer, laptop, or cell phone, anyone has instant access to thousands of pornographic images and videos.
Numerous studies have shown that a majority of men who profess to be Christians view pornographic images in any given week. Countless believers are in bondage to this sinful behavior and many feel hopeless about being able to overcome it. We’re in a battle—big time—and we need a strategy to have victory in this area of sexual temptation. This is a spiritual battle (Eph. 6:12), but as children of God, we are equipped to win it (1 Cor. 10:13).
In today’s blog, part one of a three part series, we’ll look at the first step of choosing obedience.
Scripture says that Satan goes around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He wants us in bondage; Christ wants us free to live in obedience. Disobedience is contagious, but so is obedience. The more we do it, the more it becomes the pattern of our lives.
We must call upon the resources of Christ granted to us, and depend upon Him, while decisively making the choices to remove temptation. If internet access, even on a cell phone, is a source of temptation, then we need to cut it off. Internet access is not a biblical mandate. To a person who goes to pornographic sites, having them just a double click away is utterly foolish. It’s like keeping explicit magazines on our bookshelves, waiting for us to come to them in a weak moment. If purity is optional, we will never experience it.
Right now, in moments of strength, we must make choices that will serve us well in moments of weakness. If we don’t radically cut off the sources of the temptations that pursue us, then we are just playing games, and have no intention of obeying Christ. (Yes, some of these temptations we can’t cut off without being hermits, but many of them we can.) We can take decisive actions by getting rid of anything in our homes and workplace that draw us to sin—including books, magazines, newspaper ads, pictures, posters, movies, TV, and internet access. We can’t expect God to call the cable company and cut off our service, if that’s necessary to avoid temptation. That’s our job.
Scripture says to “Flee from sexual immorality” (1 Cor. 6:18). This is not a suggestion, it’s a command. We disobey it to our own destruction. We must not just walk away from temptation; we must turn and run from it. It’s a good idea to write out this verse and put it where you will see it: “Turn my eyes from worthless things; renew my life according to your Word” (Ps. 119:37).
I highly recommend that those struggling with pornography get involved with a recovery group for accountability. In my experience with others, no one who tries to dig out of this by himself ultimately succeeds. We need the Lord, but we need His people to help and confront and ask and stand with us.
In addition, there are many quality books and resources about battling sexual immorality, and specifically pornography.
God is ready and willing to do a work of grace and cut through the blindness and the old habits and patterns that enslave us. He wants what’s best for us; the evil one wants what’s worst. Let’s choose what’s best: life, not death (Deut. 30:19). Through the power of His Spirit, we can do this.
In Wednesday’s blog, part two of this series, we’ll look at changing our behavior in the fight against pornography.
Recommended ResourcesSexual Purity Books for Men
Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave by Ed Welch
False Intimacy: Understanding the Struggle of Sexual Addiction by Harry Schaumburg
Sex Is Not the Problem (Lust Is): Sexual Purity in a Lust-Saturated World by Joshua Harris
Sexual Detox by Tim Challies
Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain by William M. Struthers
Sexual Purity Books for Women
No Stones: Women Redeemed from Sexual Addiction by Marnie C. Ferree
Dirty Girls Come Clean by Crystal Renaud
Online Help with Pornography Addictions
March 13, 2015
New Discovery: We Live in a Supercluster of Galaxies with a Hawaiian Name
From childhood I’ve loved astronomy. Night after night I would gaze at the stars, clueless about a Creator, but longing for something more. I yearned for something bigger than myself.
One night I discovered the great galaxy of Andromeda, with its trillion stars, 2.5 million light years away. I was filled with awe. I longed to go there and explore its wonders, and lose myself in something greater than I was.
My wonder was trumped by an unbearable sense of loneliness and separation. I wanted to worship, but I didn’t know who. I wept because I felt so incredibly small. Unknown to me, God was using the wonders of the universe to draw me to Himself. As Romans 1 says, I was seeing in what He had made “his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature.”
One night several years later, I opened a Bible and saw these words for the first time: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And then I read verse 14, the greatest understatement ever: “He made the stars also.” A universe one hundred billion light years across, containing countless trillions of stars, and the Bible makes them sound like a casual add-on!
The celestial heavens declare God's glory (Psalm 19). There is so much we don't know, but astronomers are always discovering something new for which God deserves the credit. Here's one of the latest. Did you know that you live in a place, a super cluster of galaxies, named Laniakea? Learn more over on the Huffington Post.
March 11, 2015
A Glimpse into an African Ordination
My friend Garry Friesen was a member of the Bible College faculty at Multnomah University for 37 years. He is now in his second “dream job”, teaching at Africa College of Theology (ACT) in Kigali, Rwanda.
I was struck by Garry’s description of an African ordination of pastors, which he shared recently on his blog:
Last Sunday afternoon was the ordination testing of four pastoral candidates. I expected a distinctive African flavor. I predicted instead of 90 minutes long, it would be four hours long. That was correct. The rest was a surprise. About 200 people came to watch and cheer on the new candidates. They were asked to summarize Scripture books and theological topics.
After 3 hours it went into high gear. Each candidate was asked to quote 50 Bible verses. They did not falter or hesitate. Each one started then picked up speed and more zeal as they quoted. The audience started to respond right during the quoting. They stood up as the quotes rose to a fever pitch. Then they began cheering and taking pictures. The candidates were not just reciting, but passionately declaring the words of Scripture as the best news ever heard. It was better than football, because the audience felt every verse was a glorious goal.
When the four finished quoting, the audience surged forward to hug, kiss and congratulate their husbands, fathers and friends. The candidates beamed and sweated with relief. The council went out to deliberate, but I thought, “If they don’t come back with a positive report they might have a church mob on their hands.” After four hours we had four new victorious candidates.
Wow. Imagine if we always approached hearing God’s Word with such enthusiasm and joy!
(My thanks to Garry for providing the picture of Francis, on the left, one of the candidates.)
