Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 171

Afraid? Of What?

 

In my novel Safely Home, while facing martyrdom, Li Quan quotes a poem called “Afraid.” A reader recently asked about the origin of that poem. On his blog, Tim Challies shares this explanation:

The poem, entitled “Afraid?” was written by Presbyterian missionary E.H. Hamilton following the recent martyrdom [in 1931] of one of his colleagues, J.W. Vinson, at the hands of rebel soldiers in northern China. A small Chinese girl who escaped from the bandits related the incident that provided the inspiration for Hamilton’s poem.

“Are you afraid?” the bandits asked Vinson as they menacingly waved a gun in front of him.

“No,” he replied with complete assurance. “If you shoot, I go straight to heaven.”

His decapitated body was found later.

E.H. Hamilton wrote:

Afraid? Of what?
To feel the spirit’s glad release?
To pass from pain to perfect peace,
The strife and strain of life to cease?
Afraid? Of that?

Afraid? Of what?
Afraid to see the Saviour’s face,
To hear His welcome, and to trace,
The glory gleam from wounds of grace,
Afraid? Of that?

Afraid? Of what?
A flash - a crash - a pierced heart;
Brief darkness - Light - O Heaven’s art!
A wound of His a counterpart!
Afraid? Of that?

Afraid? Of what?
To enter into Heaven’s rest,
And yet to serve the Master blessed?
From service good to service best?
Afraid? Of that?

Afraid? Of what?
To do by death what life could not -
Baptize with blood a stony plot,
Till souls shall blossom from the spot?
Afraid? Of that?

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The Deepest Prayer of My Heart This Christmas

 

My prayer is that people would understand that Jesus is the person they were made by and made for. That they would understand that He loved them enough to go to the cross for them and pay the price for their sins so that they could live forever with Him on the New Earth, the eternal Heaven.

There’s a true story of a Christ-loving man who lay dying. His son asked, “Dad, how do you feel?”

His father replied: “Son, I feel like a little boy on Christmas Eve.”

Christmas is coming. We live our lives between the first Christmas and the second. We look back to that first Christmas and the life of Jesus on the earth for some 33 years—but we look forward to the Christmas in which the resurrected Christ will return and we, His resurrected people, will live with Him forever on the New Earth. And right when we think, “It doesn’t get any better than this”....it will!

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

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Why the Cross?

No man understands the Scriptures, unless he be acquainted with the cross. —Martin Luther

In part one of this thoughtful two part video series on the atonement, EPM’s Julia Stager talks about why the cross was necessary:

If you’re interested in watching the rest of Julia’s videos, you can subscribe to her YouTube channel: Crossover.

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Will We Travel in Time in Heaven?

Even though I believe we’ll live in time in Heaven, God is certainly capable of bending time and opening doors in time’s fabric for us. Perhaps we’ll be able to travel back and stand alongside angels in the invisible realm, seeing events as they happened on Earth. Maybe we’ll learn the lessons of God’s providence through direct observation. Can you imagine being there as Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount? Perhaps you will be.

Want to see the crossing of theRed Sea? Want to be there when Daniel’s three friends emerge from the fiery furnace? It would be simple for God to open the door to the past.

Because God is not limited by time, He may choose to show us past events as if they were presently happening. We may be able to study history from a front-row seat. Perhaps we’ll have opportunity to see the lives of our spiritual and physical ancestors lived out on Earth.

Usually we’re not able to see God’s immediate responses to our prayers, but in Heaven God may permit us to see what happened in the spiritual realm as a result of His answers to our prayers. In the Old Testament an angel comes to the prophet Daniel and tells him what happened as the result of his prayers: “As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you” (Daniel 9:23).

Will God show us in Heaven what almost happened to us on Earth? Will He take us back to see what would have happened if we’d made other choices? Perhaps. Will the father whose son had cerebral palsy see what would have happened if he’d followed his temptation to desert his family? Would this not fill his heart with gratitude to God for His sovereign grace?

Will I see how missing the exit on the freeway last night saved me from a crash? Will I learn how getting delayed in the grocery store last week saved my wife from a fatal accident? How many times have we whined and groaned about the very circumstances God used to save us? How many times have we prayed that God would make us Christlike, then begged Him to take from us the very things He sent to make us Christlike? How many times has God heard our cries when we imagined He didn’t? How many times has He said no to our prayers when saying yes would have harmed us and robbed us of good?

Perhaps we’ll see the ripple effects of our small acts of faithfulness and obedience. Like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, perhaps we’ll see how we affected others, and how living our lives differently might have influenced them. (May God give us the grace to see this now while we can still revise and edit our lives.)

If we believe in God’s sovereignty, we must believe God would be glorified through our better understanding of human history. We’ll no longer have to cling by faith to “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God” (Romans8:28, NASB). We will see history as definitive documentation of that reality.

Does this discussion seem to you a bit bizarre? Consider it further. Surely you agree that God is capable of sending resurrected people back in time or of pulling back the curtain of time and allowing us to see the past. If He couldn’t do this, He wouldn’t be God. So the question is whether He might have good reasons to do so. One reason might be to show us His providence, grace, and goodness in our lives and the lives of others. Wouldn’t that bring God glory? Wouldn’t it cause us to praise and exalt Him for his sovereign grace? This is surely a high and God-glorifying response. Couldn’t this fit His revealed purpose “that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace” (Ephesians 2:7)?

C. S. Lewis wrote, “Don’t run away with the idea that when I speak of the resurrection of the body I mean merely that the blessed dead will have excellent memories of their sensuous experiences on earth. I mean it the other way round; that memory as we know it is a dim foretaste, a mirage even, of a power which the soul, or rather Christ in the soul . . . will exercise hereafter. It need no longer . . . be private to the soul in which it occurs. I can now communicate to you the fields of my boyhood—they are building-estates today—only imperfectly, by words. Perhaps the day is coming when I can take you for a walk through them.” [i]

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[i] C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1963), 121–22.

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Live for the Line, Not the Dot

 

Jesus said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness” (Matthew 6:22-23). He makes it clear that our vision is faulty. We need His help to see our life through different eyes—eyes focused on the eternal. Physical vision is used here as a metaphor for spiritual vision, or perspective—the way we look at life.

As believers in Christ, our theology gives us perspective. It tells us that this life is the preface—not the book. It’s the preliminaries—not the main event. It’s the tune-up—not the concert.

Just prior to this, in Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus speaks about storing up treasures in Heaven, not earth…something that requires an eternal perspective. I think of our lives in terms of a dot and a line, signifying two phases. Our present life on earth is the dot. It begins. It ends. It’s brief. However, from the dot, a line extends that goes on forever. That line is eternity, which Christians will spend in heaven. Right now we’re living in the dot. But what are we living for? The shortsighted person lives for the dot. The person with perspective lives for the line.

That’s the heart behind Eternal Perspective Ministries: investing in the things that will last for eternity. To learn more about living for the line, not the dot, watch this short video:

Would you like to support EPM’s joyful efforts to reach more people with the message of living in light of eternity? We invite you to partner with us in prayer, and if the Lord leads you, by giving to our ministry. (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.)

Nanci and I and our EPM staff want to say a heartfelt thanks for your partnership in the Gospel of Jesus!

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Prayer, Dependence, and Our Unhindered Access to God’s Throne

It has always been difficult for me to spend great lengths of time in prayer, and sometimes it’s been a cause of discouragement. On the other hand, God has graciously taught me about prayer and dependence on Him throughout the day. I often get on my knees for brief periods in my office. I pray as I hear of needs. Nanci and I stop and pray together various times throughout the day. I ask God to help me see prayer as an adventure in which I come into His presence and behold Him, and become so absorbed with Him that I don’t want to do anything else. I’ve had tastes of that, but long for more.

I believe that the more conscious my dependence on Christ, the more I will pray without ceasing and obey Scripture’s command to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” (Ephesians 6:18). 

Preaching on 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing,” Charles Spurgeon said:

Our Lord Jesus Christ in these words assures you that you may pray without ceasing. There is no time when we may not pray. You have here permission given to come to the mercy-seat when you will, for the veil of the Most Holy place is rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and our access to the mercy-seat is undisputed and indisputable.

…The dead of night is not too late for God; the breaking of the morning, when the first grey light is seen, is not too early for the Most High; at midday he is not too busy; and when the evening gathers he is not weary with his children's prayers. "Pray without ceasing," is, if I read it aright, a most sweet and precious permit to the believer to pour out his heart at all times before the Lord.

We’re told in Hebrews 10:19 that “We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus.” Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.”

These verses tell us something wonderful beyond comprehension: the blood of Jesus has bought us full access to God’s throne room and his Most Holy Place. Even now, He welcomes us to come there in prayer. In eternity, when we’re resurrected beings, not only will He permit us to enter His presence in prayer, but He will welcome us to live in His presence as resurrected beings.

I often think about how wonderful it will be on the New Earth, as resurrected beings, to see God’s face, to consciously delight in everything around me as a direct extension of God’s magnificence. I will never have to guard my eyes, restrain my thoughts, question my motives, or wonder what else I need to confess. In short, I’ll be free of my sin-tainted self, and fully free to be the Christ-empowered righteous self that God designed me to be, in continual conscious recognition of Him. This is at the heart of prayer, I think, and I ask God to help me taste that now not only in the short sessions throughout the day, but also in longer prayer times as well.

Occasionally EPM sends out specific prayer requests related to my writing and speaking ministry. Nanci and I deeply appreciate those who pray for us and for EPM, and often I am profoundly aware of the difference prayer makes in my life and writing and speaking. If you would like to join our prayer team, you can sign up here. If you feel led to do that, we will thank God and you for participating in our lives and ministry.

“No man can do me a truer kindness in this world than to pray for me.” —Charles Spurgeon

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A Great Message by Dan Franklin on the Problem of Evil and Suffering

 

The problem of evil and suffering is something I’ve read many books concerning, and heard some great presentations on. I’ve written on this problem and spoken on it myself. But I’ve never listened to any treatment of it better than this one by Dan Franklin, teaching pastor at Life Bible Fellowship in Upland, California.

Dan is married to my daughter Karina, and the father of three of my grandsons, but that’s not the main reason he’s one of my favorite teachers. He was one of our speaking pastors at my church for years, and I really miss his teaching. But since he speaks more at the church he’s at now, I’m able to hear him more online, and that’s my consolation. I highly recommend this message:

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From Eternal Perspective Ministries

Interested in reading more on the problem of evil and suffering?

Check out Randy’s books:

If God Is Good
The Goodness of God
90 Days of God’s Goodness

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You May Yet Discover Your Favorite Food on the New Earth

What are your favorite foods? If someone were to ask me, I’d have to say Mexican. My wife Nanci makes a killer burrito with the works, and sour cream enchiladas. I'm also a fan of Nanci's steak salad, crispy chicken salad, beef stew and cornbread muffins, chili with cheddar cheese and onions and...the occasional pizza too.

The person who’s eaten the widest variety of meals on Earth still hasn’t tasted countless others. How many special dishes will you discover on the New Earth? As yet, you may not have tasted your favorite meal—and if you have, it didn’t taste as good as it will there. (After all, our resurrected bodies will have resurrected taste buds!) The best meals you’ll ever eat are all still ahead of you on the New Earth.

One wonderful thing about Heaven is that we’ll be able to enjoy such amazing food without having to battle sin. There will be no gluttony and eating disorders, no indigestion, no high or low blood sugars, which is good news to an insulin-dependent diabetic like me. However, not all Christians believe that we will eat and drink in Heaven. Some people cite Romans 14:17: “ThekingdomofGodis not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” But this passage isn’t about the afterlife. Paul is speaking about our walk with God and the importance of not making other people stumble over what we eat and drink.

Before the resurrection, in the present Heaven, it seems unlikely we could eat. However, there is the tree of life, from which God says overcomers may eat (Revelation 2:7). The fact that a tree with possibly edible fruit is currently located in the intermediate Heaven at least raises the question of whether people can eat there now. But still, since it’s pre-resurrection, it seems likely there’s no eating in the present Heaven.

Strangely, however, many people also believe we won’t eat or drink in the eternal Heaven, which is centered on the New Earth. They assume the biblical language about eating and drinking and banquets is figurative and that we will eat only “in a spiritual sense.” But why is there a need to look for a spiritual sense when resurrected people in actual bodies will live on a resurrected Earth? Christoplatonism lurks behind this understanding.

The resurrected Jesus invited His disciples, “Come and have breakfast.” He prepared His disciples a meal and then ate bread and fish with them (John 21:4-14). He proved that resurrection bodies are capable of eating food, real food. Christ could have abstained from eating. The fact that He didn’t is a powerful statement about the nature of His resurrection body, and by implication, ours, since Christ “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians3:21).

Other passages indicate that we’ll eat at feasts with Christ in an earthly kingdom. Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (Luke22:18). On another occasion Jesus said, “Many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew8:11). Where will thekingdomofGodcome? To Earth. Where will God’s Kingdom reach its ultimate and eternal state? On the New Earth.

An angel in Heaven said to John, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Revelation 19:9). What do people do at any supper—especially a wedding supper? Eat and drink, talk, tell stories, celebrate, laugh, and have dessert. Wedding feasts in theMiddle Eastoften lasted a full week. When we attend the wedding supper of the Lamb, we won’t be guests—we’ll be the bride!

It’s true Scripture contains many figures of speech. But it’s incorrect to assume that because some figures of speech are used to describe Heaven, all that the Bible says about Heaven therefore is figurative. When we’re told we’ll have resurrection bodies like Christ’s and that He ate in His resurrection body, why should we assume He was speaking figuratively when He refers to tables, banquets, and eating and drinking in His Kingdom?

We’re commanded, “Glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians6:20, NKJV). What will we do for eternity? Glorify God in our bodies. Scripture tells us, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians10:31). What will we do for eternity? Eat, drink, and do all to the glory of God.

If it seems trivial or unspiritual to anticipate such things, remember that it’s God who promises that on the New Earth we will sit at tables, at banquets and feasts, and enjoy the finest foods and drinks. And to top it off, our Father promises that He Himself will prepare for us the finest foods :

 In Jerusalem, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world. It will be a delicious banquet with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat (Isaiah 25:6).

Of course, the best part about everything on the New Earth will be living daily in the presence of Jesus. But when He talks to us about feasts and delicious banquets and choice foods, don’t you think He wants us to look forward to eating at His table?

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Four Ways Generosity Benefits Us

I appreciate this video from the National Christian Foundation, encouraging us to think about the ways our generosity can make a difference in others’ lives, for Christ’s glory.

By God’s grace, it’s not only others who benefit when we give. Here are just four of the many benefits we receive when we choose generosity:

1. We become more Christ-like.

My friend Dixie Fraley told me, “We’re most like God when we’re giving.” Gaze upon Christ long enough, and you’ll become more of a giver. Give long enough, and you’ll become more like Christ.

Our giving is a reflexive response to the grace of God in our lives. It doesn’t come out of our altruism or philanthropy—it comes out of the transforming work of Christ in us. This grace is the action; our giving is the reaction. We give because He first gave to us. The greatest passage on giving in all Scripture ends not with “Congratulations for your generosity,” but “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

2. We gain freedom from materialism.

Another benefit of giving is freedom. It’s a matter of basic physics. The greater the mass, the greater the hold that mass exerts. The more things we own—the greater their total mass, and the more they grip us, setting us in orbit around them. Finally, like a black hole, they suck us in.

Giving changes all that. It breaks us out of orbit around our possessions. We escape their gravity, entering a new orbit around our treasures in Heaven.

3. We are infused with joy.

When I speak on giving at conferences, donor gatherings and churches, I repeatedly see people with joy in their eyes telling how God has touched their lives through helping the needy, in hands-on ways as well as through their giving.

When Jesus spoke of the man who found the treasure in the field, he emphasized how "in his joy" the man went and sold all that he had to gain the treasure (Matthew 13:44). We're not supposed to feel sorry for the man because it cost him everything. Rather, we're supposed to imitate him. It cost him, yes, but it gained him everything he wanted! It filled him with joy. The benefits vastly outweighed the costs.

The more we give, the more we delight in our giving—and the more God delights in us. Our giving pleases us. But more importantly, it pleases God: “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

God delights in our cheerfulness in giving. He wants us to find joy. He even commands us to rejoice (Philippians 4:4). What command could be a greater pleasure to obey than that one? But if we don’t give, we’re robbed of the source of joy God instructs us to seek!

4. We store up eternal rewards in Heaven.

We are given these eternal rewards for doing good works (Ephesians 6:8; Romans 2:6, 10), persevering under persecution (Luke 6:22-23), showing compassion to the needy (Luke 14:13-14), and treating our enemies kindly (Luke 6:35).

God also grants us rewards for generous giving: “Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (Matthew 19:21). It can’t be wrong to do that or He wouldn't have commanded it! Our job is to follow Christ and leave the rewarding to Him. But our job is also not to disbelieve or minimize what He said about rewards.

We are to want rewards because it pleases Him to give them to us...and what pleases our Father should give us delight.

So I invite you to transfer your assets from earth to Heaven, and to give humbly, generously, and frequently to God’s work. Excel in giving so that you may please God, serve others, and enjoy treasures in Heaven. When you do, you’ll feel the freedom, experience the joy, and sense the smile of God.

"I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of God. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving or keeping it I shall most promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time or eternity." —David Livingstone

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Things We Won’t Regret

Kevin DeYoung’s blog is one of my favorites. I loved this post he wrote, and encourage you to consider the things in your own life you one day won’t regret taking time for.

What We Won’t Regret

Recently I got to thinking about all the things we are likely not to regret when we get to the end of our days.

We won’t regret playing hide and seek with our children.

We won’t regret turning off the t.v. and putting the phone away.

We won’t regret that one night (or week, or even season of life) we let the kids get happy meals just so they would be happy and we could survive.

We won’t regret singing the same hymns over and over until they became familiar enough to sing with the saints around a hospital bed.

We won’t regret the time we spent hiding the word in our hearts.

We won’t regret jumping in a pile of leaves every fall.

We won’t regret overlooking a lot of little things that bother us about our spouses.

We won’t regret kissing our spouse in front of the kids.

We won’t regret going to bed with a messy house if that meant we had time to chase the kids around in the backyard.

We won’t regret all the wasted time with friends.

We won’t regret laughing often and laughing loudly.

We won’t regret hugging our kids whenever they’ll let us.

We won’t regret the times the kids slept in our beds and the times in the middle of the night we had to carry them softly back to theirs.

We won’t regret being a little bit goofy.

We won’t regret asking for forgiveness, and we won’t regret forgiving those who ask.

We won’t regret dancing at weddings–fast and silly with our kids, slow and sweet with our spouse.

We won’t regret giving most people the benefit of the doubt.

We won’t regret committing to a good church and sticking around.

We won’t regret learning to play the piano, read music, or sing in parts.

We won’t regret reading to our children.

We won’t regret time spent in prayer.

We won’t regret going on long road trips filled with frustrations, but full with memories.

We won’t regret letting our kids be kids.

We won’t regret walking with people through suffering.

We won’t regret trusting Jesus.

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