Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 180

Heaven Is for Real, the Movie

The phenomenally popular book Heaven Is for Real—the bestselling evangelical book in the last ten years—has remained on the New York Times best-seller list after more than three years, with nearly 8 million copies sold. It’s also been translated into 25 languages and has now been made into a major movie by Sony Pictures, released in theaters this week.

The book was written by an evangelical pastor, Todd Burpo, and tells of his then four-year-old son Colton, who survived emergency surgery and later told his family that he went to Heaven. Colton described seeing Jesus and meeting his miscarried sister and his great-grandfather, who died before he was born.

Since I’ve written a book on what the Bible says about Heaven (though I’ve never been there), I’ve been asked a lot of questions about the Heaven Is for Real book, and now the movie.

As I shared in my past blog, I don’t see a false gospel in the book’s account of Heaven. I rejoice that Jesus is portrayed as the only way to God, in keeping with John 14:6 and Acts 4:12. I could have wished for a greater emphasis on confession of sin and repentance, but on major biblical issues I don’t think Heaven Is For Real, the book, contradicts Scripture.

Yet on some details, such as people in Heaven having wings and halos, something the Bible never depicts, I’m honestly just…uncomfortable. Still, God uses many things without my permission, and despite my reservations! I emphatically agree with the title: Heaven Is for Real. However, it is not because Colton Burpo says he’s been there, but because the Bible says so!

When I’ve read a number of the to-heaven-and-back accounts of Heaven, it has troubled me that people don’t say they were awestruck just to be in the presence of Jesus. The Apostle John was closer to Jesus than any of the disciples or any of us. Yet when he saw Him in Heaven, so powerful and full of glory, he fell at Jesus’ feet “as if dead” (Revelation 1:13-17). The fact that this seems not to happen when people tell their stories of going to Heaven makes me wonder why their experience was so different than John’s. (Does it suggest that it may have been a dream or their imagination rather than reality?)  

I was given the opportunity to watch Heaven Is for Real before its release. I liked much of the movie. I felt overall the acting, pace and story-development were good. We can always see room for improvement, but it seemed like an honest and generally positive portrayal of a Christian family. (Check out Focus on the Family’s PluggedIn review of the movie for a more in-depth analysis of various elements.)

I’ve met the director of the film, Randall Wallace, and enjoyed a long and delightful conversation with him several years ago. He wrote the screenplay for Braveheart, and directed The Man in the Iron Mask and Secretariat, a movie Nanci and I really enjoyed. I really like Randall, and he struck me as a sincere believer in Jesus.

I have to say it concerns me that the movie seemed to leave out any mention of sin or the gospel, or any focus at all on God’s good news of salvation in Christ alone. Jesus is in the movie, to be sure, and the marks in His hands are mentioned. But I did not see the need to turn to Christ and believe in Him, to confess and repent of sins and bow our knees to Him as Lord.

It’s true that believers watching it already know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). But I’ve heard people speak of what a great outreach movie this is for unbelievers. It seems like the movie, unintentionally,  may  confirm the false assumption that they too will one day enter Heaven just as they are, and don’t need to come to grips with their sin and turn to Christ, who seems likely to lovingly welcome them into Heaven when they die.

There was one part of the movie that made me decidedly uncomfortable. It portrays a graveside conversation between Pastor Todd Burpo, Colton’s dad, and a woman in the church whose son, a soldier, had died. The woman asks the pastor whether he thinks her son is in Heaven. He in turn asks her whether God loved her son who died as much as He loves Todd’s son, Colton. The pastor’s logic seemed to me to be that if God took Colton to Heaven, and if He loves this woman’s son as much as Colton, then surely her son would be in Heaven too.

This reasoning is fatally wrong.  God loved the world so much that He sent His Son (John 3:16), yet there is also the need to turn to Christ for salvation (John 1:12; Romans 10:9-10). In the movie, Heaven is apparently a place of great comfort and beauty where most everyone automatically goes—at least, there seems to be no suggestion to the contrary. As far as I saw, there was not a hint of the Bible’s teaching of Hell as our default destination unless we are converted and regenerated and thereby can enter Heaven with the righteousness of Christ.

The last lines of the movie come from Todd Burpo, who says: “God had a different plan. God crushed my pride, opened my heart to love. And all I have to do, the one thing this love requires, is that I let others know they're not alone.” That line might feel good, but it sounds hollow when compared to the gospel of Jesus. A more biblically accurate line would be, “The one thing this love requires is that I let others know Jesus died for their sins on the cross, rose from the grave, and invites them to believe in Him and receive His gift that they may live forever in Heaven instead of perish in Hell.”  Okay, that’s a long line, but you get the drift. :) That the one thing love requires is to tell people they’re not alone is something it is hard to imagine Jesus, Paul or John saying. Why not just quote John 3:16, which tells us about what God in His love actually did: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”?

This movie has some good themes for Christian living, but it speaks very little about who Jesus really is and what He has done to secure the offer of salvation. It powerfully portrays Todd’s personal struggles with his faith, but it’s disappointing that with the title Heaven Is for Real and with the Burpos’ genuine Christian faith (which I do not doubt for a moment) there is no mention of what is necessary to find eternal life and actually go to Heaven.

Yes, I’m well aware that the presence of the gospel in the story, the mention of sin and repentance and the need to turn to Christ in faith, would not be popular among many critics and viewers. But when the movie is about a Christian pastor and his family and the central theme is about going to Heaven, it does seem reasonable to expect the gospel to be made clear, even if briefly.  

It’s also puzzling that there’s very little Scripture in the movie. One of the rare times Scripture was used, “on earth as it is in heaven,” it was taken out of context. I was not looking for sermons and long Bible citations, but there is nothing like the power of God’s Word (in context).

One other concern is that I have seen such great excitement among Christians in response to this book, and I’m sure that will be true of the movie too. I’m not questioning anyone’s sincerity, but this is an experiential account which, if it really happened, at its best simply confirms what Scripture has said all along. Yes, Heaven is real, but we already knew that, didn’t we? God’s Word has told us that all along. When there is so much fanfare about accounts that simply confirm what the Bible says, I wonder if we trust the accounts more than the Bible itself. 

I do believe that something is seriously wrong if people take more time to contemplate and discuss Colton Burpo’s account than they do studying what the Bible actually says about Heaven. The back cover of the book says "Heaven Is for Real will forever change the way you think of eternity.” I would say, “Seek to let the Bible change the way you think of eternity.”

As I share in a post about Dr. Eben Alexander’s visit-to-heaven book, while I am not the judge of who has really been to Heaven or Hell, I believe every near-death (or supposed “after-death”) experience must be evaluated in light of God’s Word. While curiosity is understandable, don’t base your theology of Heaven on any book or movie that tells of someone’s personal experience and memories, no matter how sincere they may be. And as I share in another post about Mary Neal’s book To Heaven and Back, I am concerned that even evangelical publishers are now disseminating false doctrine through personal stories of visits to Heaven.

In the movie, Todd Burpo’s character has a line that says, in effect, that the Bible tells us to believe as children. Respectfully, while childlike faith is commendable, as our Lord teaches (Luke 18:16), that does not mean we should automatically believe anything or anyone, child or not. Certainly I would not expect you to automatically believe anything I say.  

In fact, the Bible, in numerous passages, emphatically warns us not to believe whatever we hear. We should not be gullible, as this opens the door to false doctrine (1 John 4:1; 2 Peter 2:1; 2 Corinthians 11:4; 2 John 1:10). I am not saying the movie is heretical. I am saying that like everything else, it is subject to biblical scrutiny. I know this will appear to some to be overly critical and nit-picky, but when it comes to the basis on which people go to Heaven after they die, I think it’s worth getting it biblically right.

Acts 17:11 says, “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” We should eagerly receive God’s Word, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether whatever else is not God’s Word is true. My books are not God’s Word. Heaven Is for Real (the book or the movie) is not God’s Word. The Bible does not tell us to believe whatever anyone says, whether adult or child. It tells us God loves children, but we are to weigh all claims to experience and truth by God’s Word.

I know some people will be disappointed that I’m not more enthusiastic about a much-anticipated movie that countless people will love. They’ll consider it judgmental that I could criticize it. I don’t mean no good will come from this. My prayer is that God will use the interest around the movie to open doors for believers to be bold in sharing what Scripture has to say about Heaven and the need for everyone to place their faith in Jesus Christ. While the movie doesn’t make the gospel clear, it can certainly open up doors of conversation with friends and family, in which we can share the gospel. If this happens, God will be pleased.

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22:17). 

P.S. You may wish to watch these video comments on Heaven Is for Real, and related books, from David Platt.

Each blog regularly appears on my Facebook page where people often comment on it. If you’d like to comment or see others’ comments, we invite you to join us there.

G. K. Chesterton on the Resurrection

The physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of redemption—both for mankind and for the earth. Indeed, without Christ’s resurrection and what it means—an eternal future for fully restored human beings dwelling on a fully restored Earth—there is no Christianity.

I love this quote from G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man:

On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realized that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but the dawn.

Wishing you and your family a joy-filled, happy-making Easter Sunday as you celebrate Christ’s resurrection, and look forward to the coming New Earth.

          

Each blog regularly appears on my Facebook page where people often comment on it. If you’d like to comment or see others’ comments, we invite you to join us there.

photo credit: Fr. Stephen, MSC via photopin cc

Ron DiCianni’s Reflections on the Resurrection

Artist Ron DiCianni is a good friend who I first met at the Christian Bookseller’s Convention (now called ICRS), probably twenty years ago. We have hung out a number of times over the years (these two pictures of us go back a ways!). We’ve done book signings together and walked the convention floors, just having a great time (there’s a lot to joke about).

When I think of Ron, I think of what God’s Word says about another artist: “And he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs…” (Exodus 35:31-32).

Years ago, Ron Beers, Tyndale House publisher, asked me to write a novel inspired by Ron DiCianni’s powerful painting called Safely Home. It’s the one that’s inside the cover of each copy of the book. The painting Ron signed and sent me still hangs on my office wall. Had Ron not done the painting, I would likely never have written that book, which by God’s grace has touched many lives.

Ron also did a number of new paintings for my kids’ book Tell Me About Heaven. I was able to describe scenes I’d love for him to paint. I even managed to get him to include a Springer Spaniel, in honor of our family’s first dog, Champ. He even made his way onto the cover!

Writing the book with Ron creating the art was an absolute delight. I thank God for this brother, who uses his gifts well. And, no less than three of the paintings from that book hang in our house and in my office. If you wish to become more familiar with Ron’s paintings, see the Tapestry Productions site.

Ron had filled me in over the years on the resurrection mural he’s worked so hard on. I just saw this great video, which really captures the Easter mood in a very unique way as he explains the components of his fantastic painting. This is truly worth watching:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

          

Each blog regularly appears on my Facebook page where people often comment on it. If you’d like to comment or see others’ comments, we invite you to join us there.

The Panda, One of God’s Creatures

God says He reveals His attributes in His creation. Check out and enjoy just one of thousands of His creatures—the Panda. (I can’t find who to credit and link to for these photographs sent in a forward with the captions, but I enjoyed them and hope you do too!)

Mom? Can you come and get me down now? 

C'mon guys, you can do it, 1, 2, 3.... Lift! 

 

Peek-A-Boo.... 

 

It wasn't me! 
It was just sitting here, I swear it! 

 

Tell me where it is or I'll tickle you... 

          

Each blog regularly appears on my Facebook page where people often comment on it. If you’d like to comment or see others’ comments, we invite you to join us there.

His Strength and Grace in Our Weakness

Through eternal perspective and faith we can see God’s goodness in our weaknesses and rejoice that our weakness provides a platform for showing his strength.

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations,” Paul wrote, “there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:7–10).

As a teenager who had just come to faith in Christ, I read this passage with perplexed interest. I believed it because it was God’s Word—but it made little sense to me. Now, forty years later, it makes a great deal of sense. As an insulin-dependent diabetic I have lain helpless, stiff as a board, not in my right mind, needing my wife to get sugar in my mouth. My once-strong body grows weak. Low blood sugar clouds my judgment and leaves me with a memory of having said stupid things, like a drunken man. Several times a year I have severe reactions in which I don’t know what’s happening to me.

This humbles me, but I can honestly say I am grateful for it; yes, I even delight in it, because I recognize the value of being humbled, for “when I am weak, then I am strong.” My weakness drives me to greater dependence upon Christ. I wouldn’t begin to trade the spiritual benefits I’ve received.

As a young pastor I loved God sincerely; but like my tavern-owner father, I was independent, self-sufficient, and prone to do things on my own. Christ’s words, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), rang true—but I did a lot of things without drawing on his strength. So from eternity’s viewpoint, those things amounted to nothing.

Seventeen years ago I sat in a courtroom and heard abortion-clinic employees tell lie after lie, all under oath. When I heard a judge tell the jury they must (it was a directed verdict) find us guilty and impose severe financial punishments on us—all for peaceful, nonviolent civil disobedience—I knew I had no power to get what I wanted. None. Yet despite the difficulty and injustice, what God did in that situation was wonderful. I delighted in my weakness, for I found joy in depending on Christ.

During that thirty-day court trial, I often recited to myself God’s Word, including the assurance that the Judge of all the earth will do right (see Genesis 18:25). Like Jesus, I needed to entrust myself to a faithful Creator who will work all things together for good. (And I have subsequently seen amazing ways he has done just that, none of which I could see at the time.)

God uses my weakness and inadequacy not only to build my character, but also to manifest his strength and grace to me and through me. That’s why I see his goodness in giving this weakness to me to accomplish his good purposes. Not only will I celebrate those purposes in eternity, I am celebrating them now.

          

Each blog regularly appears on my Facebook page where people often comment on it. If you’d like to comment or see others’ comments, we invite you to join us there.

photo credit: slalit via photopin cc

Meteor Showers and the New Heavens

At 2:30 a.m., on November 19, 2002, I stood on our deck gazing up at the night sky. Above me was the Leonid meteor shower, the finest display of celestial fireworks until the year 2096. For someone who has enjoyed meteor showers since he was a kid, this was the celestial event of a lifetime.

There was only one problem: clouds covered the Oregon sky. Of the hundreds of streaking meteors above me, I couldn’t see a single one. I felt like a blind man being told, “You’re missing the most beautiful sunset of your lifetime. You’ll never be able to see another like it.”

Was I disappointed? Sure. After searching in vain for small cracks in the cloud cover, I went inside and wrote these paragraphs. I’m disappointed, but not disillusioned. Why? Because I did not miss the celestial event of my lifetime.

My lifetime is forever. My residence will be a new universe, with far more spectacular celestial wonders, and I’ll have the ability to look through the clouds or rise above them.

During a spectacular meteor shower a few years earlier, I had stood on our deck watching a clear sky. Part of the fun was hearing oohs and aahs in the distance, from neighbors looking upward. Multiply these oohs and aahs by ten thousand times ten thousand, and it’ll suggest our thunderous response to what our Father will do in the new heavens as we look upward from the New Earth.

Just as we are not past our prime, the earth and planets and stars and galaxies are not past their prime. They’re a dying phoenix that will rise again into something far greater—something that will never die.

I can’t wait to see the really great meteor showers and the truly spectacular comets and star systems and galaxies of the new universe. And I can’t wait to stand gazing at them alongside once-blind friends who lived their lives on Earth always hearing about what they were missing. Some believed they would never be able to see, regretting the images and events of a lifetime beyond their ability to perceive. The hidden beauties will be revealed to them, and to us.

Those of us who know Jesus will be there to behold an endless revelation of natural wonders—likely including spectacular meteor showers that display God’s glory—with nothing to block our view.

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17).

          

Each blog regularly appears on my Facebook page where people often comment on it. If you’d like to comment or see others’ comments, we invite you to join us there.

photo credit: j-dub1980(THANK YOU FOR 100k+ Views) via photopin cc

The Law of Love

In Leviticus 19 the people of Israel are told to make provision for the poor and alien through leaving the gleanings of the field for them to harvest. God’s people are told to not steal, not deceive one another, defraud or rob our neighbor. We are not to withhold wages, and we are strictly told not to take advantage of the handicapped: “Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind” (Leviticus 19:14). We are not to pervert justice, show partiality, or do anything that endangers another’s life.

Go summarizes these commands in a single statement: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Here, buried in the midst of this series of commands, is what rises to be the second most important command in all of Scripture, inseparable from the first.

Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:37). But he did not stop there. He immediately added the quote from Leviticus 19, “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:39-40).

While Scripture does not address every given situation in any place and time, Jesus does give us a twofold guiding ethical principle that can be applied in every situation. Love God with abandonment, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. That central principle is the very heart and soul of Scripture, so much so that all the rest of the Bible is said to orbit around it and be subordinate to it.

Jesus concurred with the statement that loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself “is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:33). The law required offerings and sacrifices. Yet God places the law of love even above obeying other important commands.

What does it mean to love our neighbor as yourself? It means to show the same care for others as we show for yourself. A husband is to love his wife as he loves his own body (Ephesians 5:28). How do we love our body? Not by looking in a mirror and admiring it. Nor by making public statements about how wonderful our body is. We simply feed and care for it (Ephesians 5:29). To love ourselves is to take actions for our self-preservation. Because we love ourselves we jump out of the way of a speeding car. If we love our neighbor as ourselves, we will also pull our neighbor out of the way of a speeding car.

James called this “the royal law” (James 2:8). It is the law that reigns over all laws. The golden rule is an extension of the same principle. It says, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31). Do for others the same you would do for yourself in their circumstances, and do for others the same you wish them to do for you in the same circumstances.

When we focus on this overriding ethical imperative, seemingly complex dilemmas suddenly become much more clear. “Should I tell this person everything that’s really wrong with this car I’m trying to sell him?” The answer becomes a simple matter of “if I was buying a car from someone, would I want him to tell me everything that was wrong with it before I decided whether to buy it?” The answer is “of course,” and so the answer to my ethical dilemma is surprisingly simple. “Of course I should tell him what’s wrong with the car.” The question is no longer gray, but black and white. The law of love cuts through the fog and shows me the right action to take.

          

Each blog regularly appears on my Facebook page where people often comment on it. If you’d like to comment or see others’ comments, we invite you to join us there.

photo credit: Jlhopgood via photopin cc

Living for What Will Matter Thirty Million Years from Now

 

When it comes to money, financial planners often tell us, “Don’t think just three months or three years ahead. Think thirty years ahead.” Christ, the ultimate investment counselor, takes it further. He says, “Don’t ask how your investment will be paying off in just thirty years. Ask how it will be paying off in thirty million years.” That’s not only true of how we invest our money, but every part of our lives, including our God-given resources of time and talents and possessions.

This life is the headwaters out of which life in heaven flows. Eternity will hold for us what we’ve poured into it during our lives here. When we view our short today in light of the long tomorrow of eternity, even the little choices we make become tremendously important. No wonder Scripture commands us, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2).

Your life on earth is a dot. From that dot extends a line that goes on for all eternity. Right now you’re living in the dot. But what are you living for? Are you living for the dot or for the line? Are you living for earth or for heaven? Are you living for the short today or the long tomorrow?

In this great 6-minute video, Francis Chan uses another illustration, somewhat similar, that demonstrates just how short-sighted living only for this present life is:

This is a great reminder to invest in what will last, and to center your life around God, His Place, His Word, His people, and those eternal souls who desperately long for His person and His place. Do this, and no matter what you do for a living, your days here will make a profound difference for eternity—and you will be living not for the dot but for the line (or in Chan’s case, the rope)!

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

          

Each blog regularly appears on my Facebook page where people often comment on it. If you’d like to comment or see others’ comments, we invite you to join us there.

 

What about Life Insurance?

A reader recently asked on Twitter, “Based on The Treasure Principle, I wonder if you oppose life insurance that is greater than the amount needed to pay for a funeral?”

Life insurance is actually death insurance, because it’s payable upon the death of the insured. The major purpose of life insurance is to replace the provider’s income. If you’ve ever sat through an insurance sales presentation, you know that the agent will explain how you must have a certain amount of insurance in order for your dependents to be taken care of at your present standard of living (allowing for inflation) for another five, ten, or twenty years after your death. Typically, the agent will summarize the results on a computer printout, suggesting a huge amount of coverage requiring large insurance premiums.

But where does God fit into all this? If a man dies tomorrow, it seems reasonable in this economy to have a moderate amount of funds designated to care for many of his family’s basic needs. On the other hand, to supply them with a huge chunk of money to be appropriated over the next fifteen years until his children are grown, and another thirty years until his wife may die, seems like too much. If life insurance is appropriate, its purpose should be to provide for a family for a season, not to protect them against any and every eventuality, and certainly not to profit them by their loved one’s departure.

I’ve had distraught unemployed men tell me that due to their large life insurance policies they’re worth more to their family dead than alive. One of them seriously contemplated suicide for this exact reason. Something’s terribly wrong when a man’s most effective avenue of material provision for his family is his own death.

When I die, I don’t want our church to say, “Randy was a good provider—all his wife’s needs are taken care of.” I want them to realize that my wife does have needs and will continue to have them. Yes, I may have seen to some of her ongoing material needs through a house, some savings, some retirement funds, and a modest life insurance policy. But she’ll need the ongoing help and support and wisdom and counsel and encouragement of the church, just as my children would have when they were younger. In fact, at some point my loved ones might need material help as well. Would that be so terrible? Isn’t it OK to sometimes need help from others in Christ’s body?

Time and time again, I’ve seen Christians keep their distance from hurting brothers and sisters because they believe the insurance company, government, hospice, or some benevolence organization is taking care of them. When it comes to caring for their needy, even some of the pseudo-Christian cults put evangelicals to shame.

Life insurance agents don’t account for many things that could and probably will happen over the next five, ten, or twenty years. Not the least of these, I hope, would be my wife’s remarriage. Of course, this isn’t certain, and it might take several years. (And I’m grateful she hasn’t already picked someone out!) I believe it’s often unhealthy for a woman to bring a large amount of money into a second marriage. Although many men have failed to provide life insurance that would have been a big help to their wives, many others have provided so much that it actually works against them. (For instance, children can be hurt when they are lavished with many possessions and vacations that the family couldn’t afford when Dad was alive.)

Our children need to know that God is the One who will meet their needs. Having enough insurance to be responsible is one thing. But playing God by factoring in every conceivable future scenario, and thereby over insuring, is another.

Because no parallels to the kinds of insurance policies we buy today are mentioned in Scripture, it’s impossible to prove that life insurance is right or wrong. Some would consider insurance as a legitimate way of providing for their family. Others see it as a lack of dependence on God. The sin of presumption could be committed in either case.

Our own choice has been to use insurance sparingly. Naturally, Nanci and I buy insurance when it’s legally required. We’ve never had disability or mortgage insurance. Our ministry provides a life insurance policy. (Normally, with a few exceptions, term insurance makes more financial sense than whole life.)

In short, we do have insurance—more than some, less than others. We want to be responsible, yet leave plenty of room for God. We also want to be able to use the money for God’s kingdom that would otherwise go to pay additional premiums.

I’m not trying to set a standard for others to follow. Everyone must measure his or her own situation and convictions, following Christ’s lead as best they can discern it.

          

Each blog regularly appears on my Facebook page where people often comment on it. If you’d like to comment or see others’ comments, we invite you to join us there.

Image credit: Capgros via sxc.hu

Shaping Our Words after His

The power of the words we speak is far greater than we realize. “Life and death is in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21).

God gives me no task except that which requires my dependence on Him to do it. Therefore, there is nothing I should regard as automatic. No conversation should be on auto-pilot. I need to ask for His guidance, His wisdom and His empowerment so my words please Him; so I will not have to account for careless words on the Day of Judgment.

If we want our words to have lasting value and impact, they need to be touched and shaped by God’s words. That will happen as we make an ongoing daily choice to expose our minds to Scripture, to meet with Christ, and let Him rub off on us.

Perspectives from God’s Word

“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:36).

“So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

Perspectives from God’s People

“An unbridled tongue is the chariot of the devil, wherein he rides in triumph.” —Edward Reyner

“God has given us two ears, but one tongue, to show that we should be swift to hear, but slow to speak. God has set a double fence before the tongue, the teeth and the lips, to teach us to be wary that we offend not with our tongue.” —Thomas Watson

          

Each blog regularly appears on my Facebook page where people often comment on it. If you’d like to comment or see others’ comments, we invite you to join us there.

photo credit: Bruno Belcastro via photopin cc