Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 181

The Greatest Redemptive Story Ever Told

Why do we love great stories? Because they are pictures of the greatest story. There hasn’t ever been a story yet with people living happily ever after, since people die. But one story will come out that way. It’s a true story, and you and I are part of it.

Our Redeemer is our King, who took on death and hell, and defeated them. The first three chapters of God’s story, as told in the Bible, set up the unfolding drama of redemption. The last three chapters show how God will judge evil, reward good, and come down to the New Earth to live with His children forever. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more suffering and evil.

This is the greatest story ever told. Secular reviewers often say of a book, “This is a powerful redemptive story.” The very concept of a redemptive story flows from the Bible’s story of redemption. It’s the prototype of all great stories.

As a young Christian, I lost myself in the fiction of C. S. Lewis and J.R. R. Tolkien because they reflected a drama with eternal stakes. Though they were fiction, they were filled with far more truth than the world’s nonfiction. Tolkien and Lewis spoke of “true myth”, describing how the real epics of God’s creation and redemption are the substance that casts the shadows of the world’s myths. The myths are signposts pointing to truths far greater and truer than themselves.

People long for stories that give their lives meaning. You couldn’t make up a better story than the truth of God’s unfolding drama of redemption. You can’t find a greater hero than Jesus. The climax will be the return of the King and the establishing of His kingdom.

          

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The Art of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the ultimate pain reliever. In forgiving others we unclench our fists and get off the offensive.

Jesus taught that forgiving others is part and parcel of our own forgiveness:

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.… For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.… (Matthew 6:12, 14–15, ESV)

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21–22, NASB)

Christ goes on to tell the story of a servant who owes his master a huge amount, yet whose master forgives him for it. But that servant refuses to forgive the debt of a fellow servant who owes him a much smaller amount. When the King discovers this he says,

“You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. (Matthew 18:32–35, ESV)

This forceful language proves that God takes our failure to forgive seriously!

Forgiveness is clearly a matter of choice, not feelings. Yes, we may remember the facts of someone’s offense, but we must not allow ourselves to dwell on them. We cannot change the past but we can and must change our present attitude toward the past. It is possible to “forgive and forget” if we truly do forgive. But we will never forget what we choose to brood over. And if we allow ourselves to brood, we have not truly forgiven.

Time does not heal all wounds. Time alone will only allow the cancer of bitterness to grow. When we refuse to cater to our emotions and refuse to indulge our fatal tendency toward bitterness, only then will time bring healing.

“How will I know if I really haven’t forgiven someone?” Do you often think about his offense? Do you throw his sin back in his face from time to time? Do you take opportunities to bring up his offense to others? Do you give him darting glances, or a cold shoulder? Then you haven’t forgiven him. And until you do, you won’t be free. It is the unforgiving person—not the unforgiven one—who is truly in bondage. An unforgiving person is invariably a stress-filled person. In your desire to punish someone else, you punish yourself. As the saying goes, “Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

Forgiveness is not unrealistic. The woman whose husband continues in unrepentant adultery shouldn’t pretend nothing is going on. She must exercise tough love and take corrective steps that may include separating herself and the children from him. Certainly she must let him see that continued sin of this sort is unacceptable and is bringing great harm to her and the children, as well as to him. She should forgive him “seventy times seven,” but that does not mean that when he continually rips apart the very fabric of their marriage she will be a party to his sin by keeping up the front of an unbroken home.

It does mean that she will pray for his repentance and offer restoration if it comes. It also means that—realizing she cannot control him and he will answer not to her but to God—she will surrender to God her claim on his life. She will refuse to rehearse and dwell on his abuses. Even if he never repents and she never lives with him again, she is called upon to offer him forgiveness.

There is no sin Christ didn’t die for, no sin He cannot forgive, and therefore no sin that we, in His strength, cannot forgive.

We must bury the sins of others as God has buried our own: “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). And we must commit ourselves never to dig them back up and chew on them, wave them in front of others as gossip, or use them as weapons of revenge or tools to barter and manipulate. If we do, we show we are preoccupied with sin instead of the Savior, and give more credit to its power than to His.

Paul said, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13–14). He knew that the only experience comparable to the freedom of being forgiven is the freedom of forgiving.

          

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.

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When the Dog Stays at Home Alone...

Our dear friend Diane Meyer, always alert to dog videos, passed this one on to us, and we enjoyed it. Also for cat lovers, though the cat has only one action scene:

          

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 Seed Company: Reaching 1,000 Languages with God’s Word

The Seed Company is one of the best Bible translation organizations, and the one most heavily supported by EPM. This year, they’re celebrating the beginning of their 1,000th language translation. Cumulatively these translations have helped to bring God’s Word to more than a billion people! There are still approximately 2,000 languages that need the Bible, but The Seed Company believes that by 2023, Bible translation could be underway for virtually every people group, in their own language.

A distinctive of this ministry is that they partner with national and indigenous believers to help them do their own Bible translation. "How Does Translation Work?” is a fun-to-watch 6-minute video that will give you some great insight into the process:

What a privilege to participate in getting God’s Word to people. Giving to The Seed Company is truly making an investment in eternity. Those of us who know Christ will celebrate the fruits of this ministry throughout the ages to come, when we meet and develop friendships with people of every tribe, nation and language, some of the very people who received the Word of God because of our giving and our prayers. What could be better than that? What could bring greater happiness?

          

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.

Some Wise Words about Facebook

Like many readers I spend some time on Facebook—enough to have seen it at its best and worst. It isn’t a big part of my life, but when kept in its place, it can be good and healthy. If I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t have a Facebook page, and I wouldn’t ever look at anyone else’s.

However, like nearly every good thing, Facebook can become a source of temptation and can both express and feed a critical spirit. Our daughter Angela Stump is women’s ministry director at nearby Gresham Bible Church, a Christ-centered Bible-teaching fellowship I HIGHLY recommend. (Here’s a picture of her and her husband Dan and sons Jake and Ty.) Ang recently sent this note to the women of her church. It applies as much to men as women. And it also applies to other social media besides Facebook. I encourage you to listen to Angela, who is one of the wisest young women I know.

I, maybe like some of you, have a serious love/hate relationship with Facebook. I love to reconnect with old friends, to keep up relationships with people who live far away, and to see worlds collide when someone from my work is friends with someone I went to high school with. Love it!

And then I hate it. Sometimes I see people, often not realizing it, post something that really rubs me the wrong way. Should I comment or keep my mouth shut? I also hate it because checking it "for a few minutes" often turns into 45 minutes...or more. And I hate it because sometimes I see all the wonderful things people are doing and feel like a failure.

Over the last few months I've heard from a whole lot of women who have various struggles with Facebook. I just wanted to share a few thoughts to encourage and challenge each of us (yes, I'm preaching to myself, too!) Oh, and these points don't just apply to Facebook, but to real life friendships too.

First, when you post something on Facebook, please check your motives. Always ask yourself, "Why am I posting this?" Are you posting something for the sole purpose of getting comments to boost your ego or to have people add fuel to a fiery rant you're getting off your chest? I think it's fine to want to share a cute picture, or even be honest about a struggle you're having. As long as you're not doing it just to get a pat on the back, or to give the impression that you have a perfect life, or to seek encouragement for a poor attitude.

Secondly, when you post on Facebook, please remember your audience. Not everyone is single, or married, or has kids. Not everyone who IS single is either A. desperately looking for a man, or B. not praying hard enough for one. Not everyone who IS married is living happily ever after. Not everyone who HAS children is loving being a mom every second of the day. Not every woman works, and not every woman stays at home. Not everyone has money to go out to dinner every week...or at all. Not everyone who has money spends it in the same way that you do. Not everyone loves Jesus. And this one is huge: Not everyone who loves Jesus is at the same place in their spiritual walk as you are. Be sensitive. Be gracious. Be kind. Be an example to those who don't love Jesus, or who are really struggling with their faith.

Thirdly, choose to believe the best about people. Believe that the mom being honest about the difficulties of raising kids isn't trying to hurt the women desperately trying to get pregnant, or who have just miscarried. Also remember that you don't know the story behind every post. The brand new car might have been a gift, not an unwise financial decision. The woman posting about her "awesome husband" might be praising the one positive quality she can think of because she's fighting to save her marriage.

Fourth: PLEASE don't compare. Just because so and so is doing such and such doesn't mean that you're a failure if you're not doing the same thing. God has a unique plan for each of us and has given us different gifts and abilities. We're not all the same, nor should we be! And on the other end of the spectrum, just because someone is (or isn't) doing something doesn't mean you're better than they are. Remember the log and the speck? Be careful not to judge others before you've examined yourself!

This last one is really convicting to me personally. Be happy for each other. When someone talks about buying a new house, or celebrating an anniversary in the tropics, or the fun girls' weekend they just had, whether or not it's your first reaction, make a conscious thought to be excited for them. Satan wants us to be focused on ourselves, but God wants us to love others more than ourselves. If a sister has a moment of delight, rejoice with her! Just as we should bear each other’s' burdens, we should share in each other’s joys.

It really all comes down to giving each other grace because of the grace that we have received in Christ. It's about loving others because of the love the Father gives to us. It's about living out the gospel, and putting Jesus on display in everything we do.

If you feel like you're having trouble with one or more of these, I encourage you to take a Facebook break for a while, even if it's just for a day or two. It's amazing how Satan can use a seemingly innocent thing like Facebook to hold us back from growing in our relationships with God and with each other.

Praying that we all will represent God well to our fellow sisters in Christ, our families, our friends outside of the church...and even Facebook.

Ang Stump

          

Related Resources

Blog: Living Life or Documenting Insignificance?
Blog: Facebook and Twitter: Are They Worth It?

What should our perspective be on growing older?

Someone asked, Many people—both young and old—dread aging. What should our perspective be on growing older?

First, realize that fifty isn’t old, neither is sixty. Seventy and eighty don’t have to be old either. Your mindset is much more important than your age. But if God keeps you here long enough to really get old, then be grateful you’ve lived so long! And determine to enjoy every day, month, and year that God gives you. Remember, if He didn’t have a purpose for you here, you wouldn’t be here.

Most societies venerate the elderly. Think of the experience and wisdom the older person has gained in all his or her years of life. They have so much to offer others. I love to be around older people—that is, older people who have sweetened with age, not those who have soured. Choose which you’d rather be.

As you grow older, you can be one of those godly old saints people love to be around. The more you’ve walked with the Lord the more you’ll have to offer your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, friends, neighbors, and church family.

No matter your age, remember that who you are is rooted in Christ and who He has made you, not in your outward appearance or performance. Rehearse the fact that the most important part of your life is the part that only God sees. His deepest concern is about the inner you. True beauty is inner beauty, and it does not diminish but deepens as you grow older and your friendship with Him develops.

I won’t pretend that growing old is easy. It isn’t. But there is still something beautiful about it for the Christian. There are always people to share your life with—people to help and people to help you. And with you is your God, who knew you before birth and will take you through death to the glory of His presence. Robert Browning’s words can be applied to our relationships with our loved ones and with God:

Grow old with me; The best is yet to be.
The last of life, For which the first was made.

And in fact, for believers, more accurate poetic lines would be,

The best is yet to be,
The next of lives, For which the first was made.

The last of our life before we die is in fact not the last of our life! We’ll go right on living in another place. And one day, in the resurrection, we’ll live again on Earth, a life so rich and joyful that this life will seem impoverished in comparison. Millions of years from now we’ll still be young.

In our society many people look to cosmetic surgeries, implants, and other methods to remodel and renovate their crumbling bodies. We hold to youthfulness with a white-knuckled grip. Ultimately it’s all in vain. But the gospel promises us eternal youthfulness, health, beauty, and happiness in the presence of our God and our spiritual family. It’s not ours now—but it will be, in the resurrection of the dead.

          

This article also appeared in the Spring 2014 issue of Eternal Perspectives magazine. You can read the magazine online for free. 

This issue includes:

Genuine Grace, Unedited Truth by Randy Alcorn
Never Stop Being a Student by Paul David Tripp
Kinder than Kind by Jerry Jenkins
...and more.

God Rejoices to Do Us Good

In researching and writing on the topic of happiness, one of the verses I've enjoyed mediating on is Jeremiah 32:40, 41, where God says, "I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them ... I will rejoice in doing good to them.”

Here we see the joyful enthusiasm of God in keeping all His promises. Imagine the warmth and gladness in your heart as you do something special for your child or grandchild—now magnify that many times to begin to appreciate the love and happiness of God’s heart toward us.

Writing about these verses, John Piper says,

This is one of those promises of God that I come back to again and again when I get discouraged (yes, that happens to pastors).  Can you think of any fact more encouraging than that God rejoices to do you good?  He doesn't begrudgingly fulfill His promise (Romans 8:28).  It is His joy to do you good.  And not just sometimes.  Always!  "I will not turn away from doing good to them."

But sometimes our situation is so hard to bear we just can't muster any joy.  When that happens to me I try to imitate Abraham:  "In hope he believed against hope" (Romans 4:18).  God has always been faithful to guard that little spark of faith for me and eventually (not right away) to fan it into a flame of happiness and full confidence.

O how glad I am that the thing that makes Almighty God happiest is doing good for you and me!

Article from DesiringGod.org .

          

photo credit: Philerooski via photopin cc

Five Things We Miss If We Don’t Give, Especially to the Needy

If we don’t reach out in our giving, as individuals and as churches, we miss out on a central aspect of biblical teaching: God’s deep concern for the poor and needy. It was said of King Josiah, “He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” (Jeremiah 22:16).

When we choose not to give, we miss out on several things:

1. Christlikeness

Christ is the ultimate giver (2 Corinthians 8:9). “Grace” is giving, and Jesus was full of grace and truth. Giving is an expression of his basic nature. We give because he first gave to us.

2. Great Privilege

When the Macedonians were told they didn’t need to give because they were so poor themselves, they “urgently pleaded…for the privilege” of giving to the needy (2 Corinthians 8:4).

3. Blessing

Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

4. Evangelistic Opportunities

So many of these opportunities come when we reach out to the poor. ­Jesus said people would know us by our love for one another. After explaining how the early church would sell their assets to give to the needy, Scripture tells us God added to the church’s numbers daily (Acts 2:47). No wonder, since their radical concern for the needy could ­only be explained by a powerful work of God.

5. Eternal Rewards

By failing to reach out to the needy, we miss out on eternal rewards, because ­Jesus said if we give to those who can’t pay us back, God himself will pay us back by rewarding us in heaven (Luke 14:14).

          

Related Resources

Blog: Caring for the Needy: What God Says
Book: The Treasure Principle

Photo credit: omar_franc via sxc.hu

The Need for Pro-lifers to Be Consistent When It Comes to Miscarriage

A friend who recently experienced a miscarriage shared this powerful blog post with me (it’s received over 1,100 comments, so obviously it resonated with many). I agree with the writer’s assertion that it does seem the prolife response to miscarriage lacks consistency.

I’ve long felt this issue of inconsistency, though as a man, and as someone who has not experienced it personally, the closest I’ve experienced it is when someone very precious to me lost their child. I was devastated. But that’s not the same as what the mom goes through, or the dad.

I think those going through the loss of a child by miscarriage need to be told it’s ok to grieve, knowing they’ve been parted from their real child in a real and heartbreaking way. We should pray for their healing, but NOT at the expense of reality and grieving, which are an important part of a baby-honoring and God-honoring process.

Why miscarriage matters when you're pro-life

By Rachel Lewis

Back in my former life, I was a proofreader.

We were a fabulous group of gals. But, I'm not going to lie—we were pretty nitpicky. And NOT the most popular in the office. In fact, we had not just one book, but multiple books by which we would mentally check each word, each phrase, each sentence.

We had rules about whether a dash should be the size of a capital "N" or a capital "M" (and yes, we did measure). We ensured the proper use of "insured," then assured all the writers that, yes, everyone gets those words mixed up. And of course, we must never forget to correct the spacing on an ellipsis. (#.#.#.#). Very important, that one.

But we had one rule that trumped all rules:

Consistency was king.

You see, on most issues, you could get away with breaking a rule or two -- as long as you were consistent.

And now, after both quitting my job and going through 3 first-trimester losses in a row (primarily surrounded by pro-lifers), I really wish I could say the same thing about life. And about pregnancy loss.

I must make a disclaimer (to all my friends and family reading this)—You did the best you could. And for the most part, I felt loved and I knew that so many of you grieved with me.

To be perfectly honest, before my losses, I didn't quite understand that the way we pro-lifers treat miscarriage is important.

And yet after we lost Olivia, it didn't take long for me to realize that in this Christian microcosm of ours, somehow an aborted baby had so much more to offer the world than a miscarried one.

Both babies may have died at the same gestation —one by choice, the other by chance. But the value attached to each child completely depended on how that child died.

Continue reading

          

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Believers in a Culture That Is Increasingly Hostile to Christianity

In an interview I was asked, What is your advice on how believers should deal with a culture that is increasingly hostile to Christianity?

Jesus said, “No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20). Followers of Jesus should expect injustice and misrepresentation. I’m grateful there are organizations working to protect the rights of Christians. But I’m concerned if we view ourselves as one more special interest group, clinging to entitlements and whining when people don’t like us. God’s people have a long history of not being liked.

Of course, this does not mean being hateful or seeking to be hated. It's important that we represent the Gospel well, and I am all for graciousness, kindness and servant-hearted love as we speak the truth. Romans 12:18 says, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all."

But the fact is, while the gospel is good news, it is also insulting. Many people don’t like being called sinners and told they deserve to go to hell. Peter said, “Don’t be surprised at the fiery ordeal you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12).

If our eyes are on anyone but Jesus, we’re not going to have the stamina to put up with criticism or outright hostility. Paul said, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

Jesus is the Audience of One. We will stand before His judgment seat, no one else’s. We should long to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” What other people think won’t matter.

          

Image credit: alifarid via sxc.hu