Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 186
January 6, 2014
Should We Be for Adoption or Against Abortion?
I appreciated this article by Michael Spielman, director of a great organization called Abort73. (Spend half an hour poking around this website and I think you’ll be amazed at how thoughtfully done and effective their site is. They reach young people in ways most prolife websites won’t.)
Michael hits on something very important—the fact that we do need to tell people the truth about abortion, saturated with grace and kindness and empathy. Abraham Lincoln said, “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” Silence is never the solution. When churches are silent about abortion, we encourage it. Silence becomes a form of consent, a quiet permission. Let’s not be cowards. Let’s stand up for truth; let’s reach out in compassion.
And in doing so, we can also uphold the dignity and beauty of adoption. Being known as prolifers, we want to be completely consistent with our message. If we’re saying that these so-called “unwanted children” should be brought into the world, then of course we should be thinking of what we can do to care for those who need to be placed somewhere because their parents can’t care for them.
Here’s what Michael has to say:
For Adoption or Against Abortion?
By Michael Spielman
If you’ve been in the church for any length of time, you’ve almost certainly heard some variant of the following sentiment:
Christians should be known for what they’re for, not for what they’re against.
If you’re like me, you’ve heard this maxim more times than you can count, and while it holds some helpful truth, I wonder if it doesn’t also set up a false dichotomy — giving aid and comfort to some thoroughly unchristlike behavior.
In theory, this simple pronouncement encourages Christians to extend grace and humility, instead of anger and condemnation. It urges us to be more concerned with proclaiming the name of Jesus than with hammering away at society’s ills. But in practice, I fear it may cause some of us to hold our tongues when we should be shouting something from the rooftop.
Not Wary of Against
The problem is this: You can’t be for one thing without being against another. Even a cursory glance at Jesus’s life makes this abundantly clear. Clearing the temple, hurling insults at the religious elite, driving away “seekers” by pointing to the law — these are not the actions of someone who is wary of taking a public stand against something. Jesus’s behavior was sometimes gentle and sometimes harsh. It rarely accommodates our pithy conventions. Why? Because Jesus wasn’t sometimes loving people and other times hating sin. He was always doing both. It is only the expression of this ongoing duality that changes from context to context.
In the vocational context in which I operate, millions of children have been torn to pieces for our failure to faithfully, courageously, and creatively express the fact we are against abortion. Few pastors will publicly say with R.C. Sproul, “If I know anything at all about God, I know that God hates abortion.” Rather, too many Christians have largely embraced a “no offense” approach to abortion. Not wanting to sully our hands by entering the fray directly, we take what is perceived to be the moral high ground. If there is any engagement on the abortion front, it tends to be indirect — by promoting adoption and/or supporting a crisis pregnancy center.
These are both good things, but they do too little to curb abortion in the mainstream.
Driven by Ignorance and Evil
Abortion is not driven by a lack of adoptive parents or a lack of low-cost, prenatal services. Abortion is driven by ignorance and evil. And so long as Christians are unwilling to call a spade a spade, this will continue. In the realm of abstract morality, it may seem noble to keep your opinion to yourself, but what about those more concrete realms where unchecked immorality is literally killing thousands of innocent human beings every day?
The difficulty is this: We all want to be liked, and the “be known for what you’re for” mantra offers a convenient rationale for not speaking out against something that is likely to ruffle some feathers — and few things ruffle more feathers today than the open, unapologetic condemnation of abortion.
Are We Inordinately Polite?
C.S. Lewis wonders in his Reflections on the Psalms whether the end result of our hyper-focus on politeness is actually a net loss. While granting that his argument is open to abuse, he speculates that if there were a higher social cost for wretched behavior, the world would be a better place. He writes,
It may be asked whether that state of society in which rascality undergoes no social penalty is a healthy one; whether we should not be a happier country if certain important people were pariahs as the hangman once was. . . . It can be argued that if the windows of various ministries and newspapers were more often broken, if certain people were more often put under pumps and (mildly — mud, not stones) pelted in the streets, we should get on a great deal better. It is not wholly desirable that any man should be allowed at once the pleasures of a tyrant or a wolf’s-head and also those of an honest freeman among his equals. (Kindle Locations 710–716)
Think about that in the context of abortion. For fear of appearing self-righteous, our general silence has provided Planned Parenthood with a modicum of social respectability that is nothing short of outrageous.
Lewis concedes that Christians shouldn’t be always making a fuss, but he then continues,
There comes of course a degree of evil against which a protest will have to be made, however little chance it has of success. There are cheery agreements in cynicism or brutality which one must contract out of unambiguously. If it can’t be done without seeming [self-righteous], then [self-righteous] we must seem. . . . If we sufficiently dislike making the protest, if we are strongly tempted not to, we are unlikely to be [self-righteous] in reality . . . though it is very bad to be a prig, there are social atmospheres so foul that in them it is almost an alarming symptom if a man has never been called one. (Kindle Locations 772–778)
The Need for Both
By the latest count, there are 15 infant adoptions in the United States for every 1,000 abortions. That’s 67 abortions for every one adoption. Among women who visit Planned Parenthood, the results are even worse. According to their own numbers, they perform 392 abortions for every adoption. All the while, the National Council for Adoption states that “hundreds of thousands of families are now available to adopt” (Adoption Factbook, 2011, 9).
The problem is not our unwillingness to embrace adoption; it’s our unwillingness to meaningfully oppose abortion. So long as abortion is kept beyond the realm of moral critique, adoption will continue to be an afterthought. It is only when abortion is removed from the realm of moral acceptability that adoption becomes a real and viable solution to unwanted pregnancy.
Jesus once said that whoever is not for him is against him (Matthew 12:30). Along these same lines, I would suggest that whoever is not against abortion is for it. It’s as simple as that. So, if the question is whether we should be for adoption or against abortion, the answer is emphatically, “Yes!”
Related Resources
Book: Why ProLife?
Blog: Will we intervene for the least of these?
Video: Sanctity of Human Life Message
January 3, 2014
Real Choices without Consequences?
Romans 8:28 promises that God will work everything together for good for those who love Him and keep His commands. It’s not easy to understand how God can take the results of evil choices and create good. In this conversation from my novel Deception, Jake and Clarence challenge Ollie’s desire for both freedom to choose and freedom from evil’s consequences:
“You believe in free choice?” Jake asked.
“Yeah.”
“Doesn’t free choice demand the freedom to choose evil?”
“Not if it causes this much suffering.”
“How much suffering is acceptable? Can you have real choices without consequences, both good and bad?”
I [Ollie] shrugged.
“Isn’t it inconsistent,” Clarence piped in, “to say it’s good for God to give us free choice, but then say He shouldn’t allow evil consequences from evil choices?”
“You can’t have it both ways,” Jake said.
These guys were a regular tag team.
“I’ve made some bad choices,” I said. “If I had it to do over again, I’d have been there for my daughters. But if God’s all-powerful, couldn’t He have made me do it right in the first place?”
“Made you do it right?” Jake asked… “If I were to offer to make things okay in your life, but to do it I had to take away your ability to choose, would you take me up on it? Ask me to make all your decisions for you?”
“Then it would be your life, not mine,” I said.
“Exactly. So how can you expect God to give us free choice, then fault Him because He did? What could He do to make you happy?”
I explore this topic more in the article “Do human beings really have free will? How does that fit with God’s sovereignty?”
Related Resources
Book: If God Is Good
Video: Does the inability to sin in Heaven violate free will?
photo credit: Bogdan I. Stanciu via photopin cc
January 1, 2014
Planning Your New Year and Making God’s Word a Priority
As we start this New Year, let’s remember that there is no substitute for time spent with our Father in Heaven. Time in His Word and prayer is never wasted. It sets our compass needle to true north, and brings a quality to all the rest of our time. “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you…” (Psalm 63:1).
Looking to make a New Year’s resolution? A great place to start is with what Colossians 3:16 says: “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Holy habits such as meditation, prayer, and church should be determined commitments. Our choices show what we value most: TV, internet, sports, hobbies or God’s Word? “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
Our hearts and character won’t change until our habits change. Time in God’s Word doesn’t just happen. You must choose wisely to make it happen. “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).
And what a privilege it is to spend time in God’s Word! There's nothing like it. Its depths are endless. You can never exhaust it. Day after day, year after year, it always has more to offer. “Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders” (Psalm 119:27).
John Piper shares some thoughts on the importance of planning and making God’s Word a priority as you start 2014:
Very specifically my plea to you this new year is that you take time to plan the most important things in your life. …Plan how you are going to spend time with your spouse to deepen and strengthen the relationship. Plan how you are going to spend time playing with and teaching the children. Plan how you are going to get the amount of exercise you need to stay healthy. Plan how you are going to get enough sleep. Plan how much you should eat and how you are going to limit yourself. Plan your vacation so that it really gives rest and spiritual renewal.
And most important, plan how prayer and meditation on the Word are going to be significant parts of your life. Without a plan these most important things always get pushed aside by urgent pressures.
Make Planning a Regular Part of Your Life
But it won't work just to plan something tonight or tomorrow. Planning must be a regular part of your life.
…So my plea to you is that you set aside time each week to plan, especially to plan your life of prayer and Bible study. For example, since Sunday is the first day of the week (not the last day of the weekend!) and belongs to the Lord, take ten or fifteen minutes each Sunday and think through when you will pray and what you will study that week. Give some thought how God might want to use you that week in a special way. Plan the letters you need to write, the Bible verses you want to teach your children, the visit you want to make, the book you want to read, the neighbor you want to talk to, etc.
…God is a God who does all things according to plan. And Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem because of the most loving plan ever devised. He planned for our joy; we ought to plan for his glory.
Jesus said, “I have told you this so that you can share my joy, and that your happiness may be complete” (John 15:11, Phillips). May your New Year be centered on Jesus and happy in Him!
Related Resources
Book: We Shall See God
Blog: A New Year's Resolution from Philippians 3
Article: Into the Depths of God
Stock image credit: ba1969 via rgbstock.com
December 30, 2013
The Problem with the Term “Pro-Choice”
I confess that I dislike the term pro-choice. As I explain in my book Why ProLife?, I use it only because it has become the dominant term used in our culture. But it is profoundly misleading.
When we talk about someone being pro-environment, pro-business, or pro-marijuana, we have a good idea what they mean. But what if someone insisted we not use the words environment, business, or marijuana? No, we must just call these positions pro-choice.
But choice is not a synonym for environment, business, or marijuana. The term pro-choice obscures the subject we are talking about, because it demands the explanation, “pro-choice about what?” If our attention is on the “right to choose,” we can be distracted from the subject at hand.
The term pro-abortion tells us that someone thinks abortion is okay. Whether or not they would have one, they favor abortion’s legality. Okay, we can agree or disagree, but at least the term tells us what we’re talking about.
The term pro-choice tells us that someone thinks choice is okay. Well, of course. But what does that mean?
All of us are pro-choice when it comes to where people live, what kind of car they drive, what food they eat, and thousands of personal preferences. We’re also pro-choice in matters of religion, politics, and lifestyle, even when people choose beliefs and behavior we don’t like. Indeed, I am pro-choice about the great majority of things in life, even when I personally don’t agree with someone’s choice. I have no interest in dictating their choices, nor do I want them dictating mine.
But that’s not the end of it, because there are many things almost none of us are pro-choice about—including whether someone has the right to choose to assault you, break into your house, steal your car, or cheat you in a business deal.
Of course, it’s self-evident that people have the freedom to make these choices. But that doesn’t mean they have the right to make them.
What would you think of someone who said, “I wouldn’t rob you myself, but I am pro-choice about robbery.”
Well, not only would we say they are wrong to defend robbery, we would not allow them to hijack the term pro-choice as their means of taking the moral high ground. We would say, “Stop talking about choice—the issue is robbery! You are not pro-choice, you are pro-robbery!”
The term pro-choice entirely shifts the abortion issue away from abortion itself. It attempts to take the moral high ground, as if it would be cruel to rob people of a “right” no one should have—to kill innocent preborn children.
Both the terms pro-life and pro-choice, by avoiding the word abortion, can obscure what’s at stake—an innocent preborn child’s right to live.
From a propaganda point of view, I must admit that the pro-abortion movement has won the battle of semantics. Choice has become a euphemism for abortion that veils abortion’s horrors. Arguing against abortion appears to be arguing against choice.
Pro-lifers must never argue against choice—that’s a battle that can’t be won, and shouldn’t be fought even if it could be won. Rather, we must argue against the real issue—abortion.
Whenever we hear “pro-choice,” we must ask, and urge others to ask, “Exactly what choice are we talking about?”
If its abortion, the question is, “Do you think people should have the right to choose to kill children?” By opposing abortion we are not opposing choice in general. We are opposing one choice in particular—child-killing.
Consider the popular pro-choice question, which I’ve seen on bumper stickers: “If you don’t trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a child?” It’s intended as a discussion stopper. But notice how choice is substituted for abortion. When we insert words that reflect reality, the question becomes, “If you don’t trust me to kill a child, how can you trust me to raise a child?” . . . Huh?
When we oppose the “right to choose” rape or “the right to choose” abortion, we aren’t opposing a right. Rather, we’re opposing a wrong. And we’re not narrow-minded and bigoted for doing so.
Related Resources
Book: Why ProLife?
Blog: The Uncomfortable Truth: The Humanity of the Unborn
Image credit: baikahl via sxc.hu
December 27, 2013
Should the gift of eternal life change how we live our lives here on earth?
The reality of eternal life should definitely change how we live! In fact, we’re directly told that in 2 Peter 3. In verse 10 Peter says, “The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.” We need to look at this present Earth as a passing, temporary time where what matters is how we live now and how we invest in eternity.
Peter continues, “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. …in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (verses 11-12a, 13).
When you know Jesus and realize that you’re going to live forever in a world that is the home of righteousness, then you want to get a head start on living the righteous life, to God’s glory and by His empowerment, right here and now! There’s continuity between this life and the next. We will stand before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). Not people who once were us, but we ourselves—that is continuity. So how we live now does matter.
Then Peter says in verse 14: “So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” Our reference point for the past is Eden. For the present, it is the redemptive work of Christ on our behalf—having a relationship with Him and living each day seeking to become more conformed to His image. For the future, it’s the New Earth, where God will dwell with His people forever.
This changes our perspectives. It’s revolutionary to realize, “I don’t have to spend all this money on myself. I can understand that I’m like God’s ‘FedEx guy.’ He has entrusted these resources to me to help others who need to hear the Gospel and need to be fed and clothed. I can do this, knowing what awaits me in God’s presence.”
But if you don’t have a clear picture of all that is ahead of us in eternity—that which is promised by God that we can invest in right now and experience eternal reward for—then you’ll think, “I’ll just grab onto this life right now to make myself happy. I’m going to do whatever I think it takes to make me happy.”
Nothing could be more short-sighted in light of the long tomorrow.
Related Resources
DVD: Eternity 101
Blog: Deposting This Life in Eternity's Account
Article: What does eternal life mean?
Stock photo credit: anyone71 via sxc.hu
December 25, 2013
This Christmas, Let’s Rejoice in the Far Reaches of Christ’s Redemptive Work
If you had asked me my favorite Christmas song when I was a kid, it would have been “Silent Night,” even though I didn’t understand the meaning. Now my favorite is “Joy to the World,” because as my wife Nanci pointed out to me years ago, it’s the Christmas song that looks forward to Christ’s return and the New Earth.
How far will God’s blood-bought redemption reach? Isaac Watts, not only a great hymn writer but also an accomplished theologian, nailed it in his lyrics:
Joy to the World, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
“He rules the world with truth and grace.” That’s what my heart longs for. “No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.” Christ’s redemptive work will restore the earth to what God originally intended. Everything touched by the curse will be renewed and transformed into something great. “Joy to the World”—by the power of the risen Christ, the old world will be transformed into the new!
Merry Christmas to you, and all glory to Christ, who one day will transform this earth we live on into all He intended it to be.
Related Resources
Book: 50 Days of Heaven
Blog: Snow on the New Earth, and a New Year's Resolution
Article: The Far Reaches of Christ's Redemptive Work
"Joy to the World" sheet music credit: The Old Design Shop
December 23, 2013
Grandchildren, Grandparents, and Spiritual Heritage
My home church, Good Shepherd Community Church, recently showed this delightful video. In God’s providence we were seated behind Owen’s parents and grandparents when this was shown. Among other things, it demonstrates the power of a Christian heritage, and the potential spiritual influence of grandparents. As a granddad of five, I look for opportunities to influence them for Jesus, and I found this video very encouraging. Hope you enjoy it.
Teaching Owen to Pray - Being the Great Community from Good Shepherd Community Church
Related Resources
Book: Tell Me About Heaven
Blog: Some Thoughts about Fathering (and Grandfathering)
Video: Heaven, Heritage, and Tell Me About Heaven
December 20, 2013
Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, and the Joy of Giving
There’s one statement of Jesus recorded in Acts that doesn’t appear in the Gospels. Perhaps God added it later so it would stand out:
“The Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35)
Giving is doing what we were made for: loving God and our neighbors (Matthew 22:36–40). It is a blessed act that leads to joy.
A graphic example of this joy is found in Charles Dickens’s classic story A Christmas Carol. I highly recommend you go back and re-read this very powerful story. Nanci and I try to listen to it on audio over the Christmas season.
When the story begins, Ebenezer Scrooge is wealthy and miserable. He’s a miser—caustic, complaining, and horrendously greedy. (The word “miser” is related to another word that we’re familiar with: miserable. Isn’t that interesting? A miser has way more than other people, but he is miserable because he’s a keeper.)
After encounters with three spirits on Christmas Day, Ebenezer is given a second chance at life. I’m struck by the description of the transformed Scrooge:
He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows; and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk—that anything—could give him so much happiness.
Scrooge walks through the streets of London after his transformation, freely distributing his wealth to the needy. He’s giddy with delight. He, who only yesterday had scoffed at the idea of charity, now takes his greatest pleasure in giving. Here’s a man who goes from the most miserable human being that you’d ever met, to a person whose heart is full of joy, and the joy is in proportion to him giving away money. (By the way, think about how the story would have been different if Ebenezer Scrooge had decided to give away money only out of a guilt-driven, begrudging sense of duty. Would he have been overcome with joy? No. Giddy? No. Happy? No. That is not a great story. The greatness of the story is in the joy of giving.)
What was the source of Scrooge’s joy-filled transformation? Gaining an eternal perspective. Through supernatural intervention, Scrooge was allowed to see his past, present, and still-changeable future through the eyes of eternity. (Let’s ask God for the same insight into our lives!)
On the story’s final page, Dickens says of Scrooge:
Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them.... His own heart laughed, and that was quite enough for him. And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.
It’s significant that this story all relates around Christmas. Scrooge begins to sees his life in light of the Christmas season, when Jesus came into the world. Christmas is wrapped up in the joyful spirit of giving, with the ultimate gift being the Spirit of God giving His Son.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Related Resources
Book: The Treasure Principle
Blog: A Man from Heaven: How Would He Spend His Money?
Article: Cultivating Joy in Our Giving
December 18, 2013
The Protection of God’s Guardrails
There are a lot of people who think that Scriptures’ warnings and commands are restrictive, hampering our freedom. We want to be free to do whatever feels best to us.
But as a loving father, God builds boundaries to protect us. In my book The Purity Principle, I write about how God’s guardrails are His moral laws. They stand between us and destruction. They are there not to punish or deprive us, but to protect us. And if we stay within the boundaries He has put up for us, we experience not frustration, but joy. Not bondage, but freedom.
A smart traveler doesn’t curse guardrails. He doesn’t whine, “That guardrail dented my fender!” He looks over the cliff, sees demolished autos, and thanks God for guardrails.
A friend sent me an email with these pictures and a story of how guardrails narrowly but dramatically saved the lives of this driver and his passenger:
Look at the picture above and you can see where this driver broke through the guardrail, on the right side of the culvert, where the people are standing on the road, pointing.
The pick-up was traveling about 75 mph from right to left when it crashed through the guardrail.
It flipped end-over-end, bounced off and across the culvert outlet and landed right side up on the left side of the culvert, facing the opposite direction from which the driver was traveling.
The 22-year-old driver and his 18-year-old passenger were unhurt except for minor cuts
and bruises.
Just outside Flagstaff , AZ on U.S. Hwy 100.
Now look at the second picture below...
(In case you’re curious, the pictures have been confirmed on Snopes.com.)
Thank you, Lord, for loving us enough to put up guardrails for our protection.
Related Resources
Article: Sexual Temptation: Three Critical Facts Every Christian Needs to Know
Blog: Fences and Freedom
Book: The Purity Principle
Stock photo credit: arinas74 via sxc.hu
December 16, 2013
Why is an eternal perspective so important?
"I value all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity." —
John Wesley
Having an eternal perspective is in so many ways the key to living out a true Christ-following life. If we take our cues from the world around us, we’re not going to have that kind of perspective. Everything is viewed in light of the short term: go after this, try to find happiness here, buy this car, have this cup of coffee, go to this clothes store, do these “big payoff” things (which, in reality, don’t enrich the soul). This is the world we live in.
But Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” What will last forever? God’s Word. People. Spending time in God’s Word and investing in people will pay off in eternity and bring me joy and perspective now.
In our ministry, we encourage believers to look at life differently—like Elisha’s servant whose eyes were opened so that he could see the angels around them, protecting them (2 Kings 6). It wasn’t that suddenly those angels were there. They were there all along. It’s just that suddenly he had the eyes to see invisible realities.
Now I’m not saying that we’re going to be seeing angels and demons if we have an eternal perspective! What I am saying is we need to ask God to open our eyes to what’s at stake—to the unseen world and the reality of Heaven, our eternal destination. This life need not be wasted. In small and often unnoticed acts of service to Christ, we can invest this life in eternity, where today’s faithfulness will forever pay rich dividends.
If you’ve placed your faith in Christ and trusted Him for your salvation, this world is the closest thing to Hell you will ever experience. Everything that is wrong in this life will be made right in that place you’ll live in forever, the New Earth. “Thanks, Lord, that the best is yet to be.” That’s my prayer. God will one day clear away sin, death, and sorrow, as surely as builders clear away debris so they can begin new construction.
When you live with eternity in mind, it infuses you with a joy that sustains you in your daily life, even as you face difficult things. Believing that God is working all things together for good (Romans 8:28) takes faith. It takes trust. And it requires an eternal perspective.
Father, you tell us not to fix our eyes on popular culture, not on fleeting accomplishments and wealth, but upon what is eternal, what will still matter a billion years from now. Give us the eyes of faith, and remind us to focus on you, our soon-returning Savior.
Related Resources
Audio: Discussing Heaven and an Eternal Perspective on "The World and Everything In It" Podcast
Blog: Spend Your Day with Eternity in Mind
Book: Eternity (graphic novel)
Photo credit: L-O-L-A via sxc.hu
