Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 188

Randy’s novel Edge of Eternity

Edge of Eternity is one of Randy’s novels that’s quite different from some of his other fiction works; it takes place in an imaginary world that allowed him to depict invisible spiritual realities in visible ways. Nick Seagrave, a disillusioned business executive, finds himself inexplicably transported to what appears to be another world. Suddenly, he’s enabled to see, hear, taste, and smell the realities of both Heaven and Hell.

Writing about Edge of Eternity, Randy says, “I believe we all have moments, if we stop and pay attention, where we can sense being on the edge of eternity. And we know in those moments that we’re not made for this world, but for another world—where we’ll see the King at last.”

He continues, “I hope Edge of Eternity will help people see Christ in a fresh and powerful way and trust Him in areas where we don't see the results or rewards. We all need to be reminded of God's sovereignty and of the tangible reality of Heaven as our home. Through writing this book, the reality of my citizenship in Heaven hit home to me—and the reality of Hell, too, and the fact that we all have one chance to live life on this earth. Five minutes after we die, we'll know exactly how we should have lived. Fortunately, God has given us His Word and His Spirit and His people so we can live that way now.”

We recently received this encouraging note about the book:

A couple years after college, I had a dramatic encounter with God and turned my life over to him.  A few years later, I read Edge of Eternity and thought the description of Christ's work on the cross was super powerful. Less than a year after reading the book, an old college friend and her husband were coming by where I now lived.  My wife and I were excited to see them and wanted some natural way to share the Good News of Christ. They mentioned they loved to read books as they drove together.  We told them we had an interesting book called Edge of Eternity. They took the book, said thanks and left after lunch together. 

About 5 months later, an evangelistic festival was happening in our town. It just so happened that my friend was interested in what I now did for work, and I worked for the association putting on the festival.  As the speaker gave people a chance to respond, my wife sat down next to my friend and asked what she thought about the message and invitation.  She said she and her husband already did this.  As they drove and read Edge of Eternity, they were impacted by the story.  When they got to the end of the book, there is a prayer to receive Jesus Christ, and they came to know him while driving down the freeway. Now, 14 years later, they continue to walk with Jesus.  

Have you had a moment when you sensed being on the edge of eternity?

Stephanie
Eternal Perspective Ministries

Related Resources

Book:  Edge of Eternity
Blog: Do you plan to write more fiction?
Article: Question and Interesting Facts about Edge of Eternity

Eleven Giving Guidelines to Fight the Pull of Materialism

I believe the only way to break the power of materialism is first, to see ourselves as stewards that God has entrusted these money and possessions to, and second, to give. Jesus says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). As long as I still have something, I believe I own it. But when I give it away, I relinquish the control, power, and prestige that come with wealth. At the moment of release, the light turns on. The magic spell is broken. My mind clears, and I recognize God as owner, myself as servant, and other people as intended beneficiaries of what God has entrusted to me.

The New Testament offers guidelines for giving that can help us fight the pull of materialism:

1.  Give. Giving affirms Christ’s lordship. It dethrones me and exalts Him. It breaks the chains of mammon that would enslave me and transfers my center of gravity to Heaven.

2. Give generously. How much is generous? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. If you’ve never tithed, start there—then begin to stretch your generosity.

3. Give regularly. Stewardship is not a once-a-year consideration, but a week-to-week, month-to-month commitment requiring discipline and consistency.

4. Give deliberately. Giving is at its best when it’s a conscious effort that’s repeatedly made.

5. Give voluntarily. When we catch a vision of God’s grace, we will give beyond our duty.

6. Give sacrificially. We don’t like risky faith. We like to have our safety net below us. But we miss the adventure of seeing God provide when we’ve really stretched ourselves in giving.

7. Give excellently. Paul says, “See that you also excel in this grace of giving” (2 Corinthians 8:7).

8. Give cheerfully. If we’re not cheerful, the problem is our heart, and the solution is redirecting our heart, not withholding our giving.

9. Give worshipfully. Our giving is a reflexive response to God’s grace. It doesn’t come out of our altruism—it comes out of the transforming work of Christ in us.

10. Give more as you make more. Remember: God prospers us not to raise our standard of living,
but to raise our standard of giving.

11. Give quietly. Showiness in giving is always inappropriate. (But sometimes our acts of righteousness will be seen by men and even should be.)

         

Related Resources

Blog: Surviving the Dangers of Prosperity
Book: Managing God's Money
Audio: How did you discover the joy of giving?

Is God happy?

In this video interview with EPM staff member Julia Stager, we discuss the question: Is God happy?

Randy: I think this is a great question. Many people think of God as being happy about some things and unhappy about other things. To a certain degree that’s true. We see that He is happy when His children love Him and obey Him. He’s unhappy and displeased when people sin.

But I think the more basic question is, what is God like intrinsically? Before creatures ever came into the equation, what was God like? His basic persona and His character, that’s who He is. And I believe, absolutely, God was happy from eternity past. Happiness is built into Him. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always enjoyed a happy relationship.

You see in both the baptism of Christ and the transfiguration, “This is my Son, the beloved one, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5). The Father takes pleasure in the Son. You also see this in John 17 and other passages where the Father, Son and Holy Spirit enjoy this great relationship and are pleased with and happy with each other. They always have been and always will be.

This means that God in His core is truly happy.

Julia: Another part of God is how complex He can be in His emotions. I think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He was in so much agony, but also filled with so much love and submission to the Father. It takes a lot of emotional maturity for a human to feel such conflicting emotions. But it seems like the God of the universe can feel multiple things at once.

Randy: That’s right. You see this even for us: we’re sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (2 Corinthians 6:10). We weep with those who weep, we rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15). Are we happy or unhappy? Well, we are happy some of the time, and we’re unhappy some of the time. But the day is coming when those who know God and are His children will be happy for all eternity.

In fact, when we enter into God’s presence, what are we told? We’re told, “Well done, good and faithful servant. …Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). In other words, enter into a happiness that has always been, and will always be—the happiness of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is what you were made for. It is the source of all happiness. He is, in and of Himself, happy. We will enjoy happiness forever because the God of all creation, our God, our Lord, and our Savior, is forever happy. 

         

Related Resources

Blog: Seeking Our Happiness in God
Book: Seeing the Unseen
Video: God, Our "Happy Making" Sight 

The Christ-exalting 2013 Desiring God National Conference

“For my name's sake I defer my anger,
    for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
    that I may not cut you off.
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
    I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
    for how should my name be profaned?
    My glory I will not give to another. Isaiah 48:9-11, ESV

Our God loves so deeply that He went to the cross for us. But He does not exist for our glory. We exist for His.

The Desiring God National Conference in Minneapolis this past weekend was magnificent precisely because it celebrated His glory. The Christ-centered worship was heart-moving. One of the highlights was being with Nanci, who has often said this is her favorite of all conferences.

Our daughter Angela and husband Dan Stump sat by us in most of the sessions. My wonderful assistant Kathy Norquist and her husband Ron, as well as EPM board member Robin Green and her husband Lawrence, were there. So was Paul Martin, also on our board, and his brother Dave. So good to connect with these dear friends.

One of the many great things about Desiring God is that it not only broadcasts its sessions live online, but also posts them all so those who can’t afford the time or money to attend the conferences can benefit. I’ll provide links to the presentations I mention.  

It was great spending time with the other speakers at dinners and lunches. I had never met Philip Ryken, president of Wheaton College, who I found to be an intellect full of imagination. Speaking of imagination, Kevin Vanhoozer is one of the most prominent evangelical theologians in the country, and did a fine job addressing “In Bright Shadow: C.S. Lewis on the Imagination for Theology and Discipleship.” Doug Wilson is one of a kind, as anyone who knows him or has read his books knows. Nanci and I found Doug and his wife Nancy to be delightful people. John Piper, the founder of Desiring God, who I’ve known for years, was his usual thought-provoking and engaging self both in person and in his two fine messages (The Central Story of Lewis's Life: Why We Call Him a "Romantic Rationalist" and Sanctified by the Word and Prayer: St. Paul and C. S. Lewis on the Holiness of Creation). God has used very few still-living men to influence me as John has.

I don’t usually sit in the front row, but took advantage of the reserved seating this time for most of the sessions. One of the highlights for me was being on the panel with men (new friends and old) whom I respect, talking about Jesus first and above all, and Lewis, a secondary and imperfect person who God has used so significantly in each of our lives. (I also shared Saturday night at a session titled “C. S. Lewis on Heaven and the New Earth: God’s Eternal Remedy to the Problem of Evil and Suffering.”)

For those understandably wondering “Was this conference about exalting Lewis over Christ?, you could not actually have been at the conference or listened to the panel or messages and wondered that. There were many points of disagreement with Lewis, demonstrating that we were not a bunch of Lewis groupies who don’t recognize his flaws. Rather, we have all been touched by God through his books in profound ways.

Phil Ryken gave the finest presentation I’ve ever heard on Lewis’s view of the inspiration of the Bible. Ryken was careful and thoughtful and clearly documented Lewis’s shortcomings in his view of Scripture. Lewis believed most of it and submitted to its authority yet believed there were errors of fact.

So why would we be so influenced by a man with a deficient view of Scripture? That question was asked of us on the panel, and from about 11:45 to 18 minutes into the video, several men make good points and I mention the issue of Lewis’s theological trajectory, as opposed to that of many today who are departing from sound doctrine and leading others away from it.

Because of my commitments, including speaking at the excellent Bethlehem College, I was unable to attend some of the Friday general sessions, those with N. D. Wilson, who I’ve heard before and who is a great writer and engaging speaker, and Colin Duriez, who is a Lewis and Tolkien scholar and also wrote a fine book on Francis Schaeffer. I did have lunch with Colin and other speakers after the conference, and found him to be delightful and fascinating. One of my favorite presentations was by Joe Rigney, related to his new book Live like a Narnian. Here’s my endorsement of this book, and it applies both to the book and to Joe’s presentation at the conference:

As a long-time lover of C. S. Lewis and the world of Narnia, I have read countless books about both. Joe Rigney’s Live Like a Narnian is one of the best. It overflows with an authentic sense of Narnian brightness, wisdom and wonder. Rigney seems equally at home with Lewis’s fiction and nonfiction. He draws them together beautifully, with truth and imagination. I highly recommend this delightful book!

The best part of the conference was its Christ-centeredness, both in the worship and the teaching. My assistant Kathy said of the conference:

I agree with my husband Ron when he said, “C. S. Lewis saw Jesus as King and that encourages me to do the same and to put myself under Him, enjoying the fact that He loves me even more than I realized. Because He’s King He can have all my trust and is the answer to all my desires.”

Besides the wonderful Christ-exalting worship and teaching, there were 60+ impactful ministries that had booths at the conference. I enjoyed interacting with people who came to our EPM booth and hearing how Randy’s books have impacted their lives.

Thank you, Lord, for your servant C. S. Lewis, a very imperfect man who you have nonetheless used powerfully in my very imperfect life—and that of countless others. For the things he said that were off the mark, well, he’s known better now for fifty years as of November 22, 2013. For the many more things he said that were on the mark, thank you for using those in mentoring me as a young believer, and now as an older one. I’m grateful for your providence in touching many lives through Jack Lewis. I look forward to the day when I too am with you, and my blind spots are finally wiped away along with my sins and tears—and I will experience the miracle of seeing how you graciously used me when I was, by your empowerment, faithful to You and your Word.

Thank you too for the faithful brothers and sisters at Desiring God. Thank you for raising up that unique ministry, and using it so wonderfully in the lives of so many, including my own family and church.

Your eternally grateful son, 

         

Related Resources

Blog: Longing for Joy, in C. S. Lewis
Audio: Heaven, New Earth, and C. S. Lewis
DVDs: Eternity 101

Credit for pictures with quotes: Desiring God Facebook page

Fixing Our Eyes on the Unseen

Do you have a life verse? Mine’s 2 Corinthians 4:18. It’s on our web page and at the end of every email I send:

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. (NIV)

What does Scripture mean when it tells us to fix our eyes on what we can’t even see? How do we begin to do that?

Even though as Christians we affirm the reality of the spiritual realm, sometimes we succumb to naturalistic assumptions that what we see is real and what we don’t see isn’t. Many people conclude that God can’t be real, because we can’t see Him. And Heaven can’t be real, because we can’t see it. But we must recognize our blindness. The blind must take by faith that there are stars in the sky. If they depend on their ability to see, they’ll conclude there are no stars.

Sitting here in what C. S. Lewis called the Shadowlands, we must remind ourselves what Scripture tells us about Heaven. We will one day be delivered from the blindness that obscures the light of God’s world.

For many people—including many believers—Heaven is a mysterious word describing a place that we can’t understand and therefore don’t look forward to. But Scripture tells us differently. What we otherwise could not have known about Heaven, God says He has revealed to us through His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10). God tells us about our eternal home in His Word, not so we can shrug our shoulders and remain ignorant, but because He wants us to anticipate what awaits us and those we love, and because it has the power to transform the way we live today.

Life on earth matters not because it’s the only life we have, but precisely because it isn’t—it’s the beginning of a life that will continue without end. It’s the precursor of life on the New Earth. Eternal life doesn’t begin when we die; it has already begun. With eternity in view, nearly any honest activity—whether building a shed, driving a bus, pruning trees, changing diapers or caring for a patient—can be an investment in God’s kingdom.

God is eternal. His Place is eternal. His Word is eternal. His people are eternal. Center your life around God, His Place, His Word, and His people, and reach out to those eternal souls who desperately long for His person and His place. Then no matter what you do for a living, your days here will make a profound difference for eternity—and you will be fulfilling the biblical admonition to fix your eyes on what is unseen.    

My new book Seeing the Unseen, now available from EPM, includes 60 daily devotionals on a variety of topics related to this theme of living each day purposefully with an eternal perspective. I hope these devotionals will encourage readers to live with eternity in mind and to follow Jesus wholeheartedly.

         

From Eternal Perspective Ministries

Randy's newest book, Seeing the Unseen: A Daily Dose of Eternal Perspective is here! Order your copy today.

From the author of the bestselling book Heaven, here are 60 meditations that will inspire you to live each day with an eternal perspective. Each day's reading is coupled with Scriptures and inspirational quotes that can transform the way you think and live today. (Read an excerpt to sample the daily readings.)

Learn more about the book in this 1-minute video:

Seeing the Unseen is available from EPM in hardcover. At $7.99 (retail $9.99), it's an affordable gift book to share with friends and family, and will introduce them to Randy's writings on a variety of topics. (Would you like the Kindle version? It's available on Amazon.)

Background photo credit: European Southern Observatory

My Friend Greg Coffey, One of the First Faces I’ll Look for in Heaven

In The Goodness of God, I tell the story about my high school friend Greg Coffey, who died in a horrible accident in 1971, shortly after he and I both became Christ-followers. Though Greg was two years ahead of me in school, we were in a Spanish class together and got to know each other. He came to Christ his senior year, seven months after I did as a sophomore. Greg and I were both utterly transformed, and we enjoyed radical “first love” discussions of what it meant to follow Jesus. Our whole lives were before us and we dreamed great dreams of serving our King.

Not long ago, my friend Jim Swanson (now a Hebrew scholar, author of various reference works and editor of the much-heralded KJV401) wrote to say he had just found out that I had known Greg Coffey. Jim gave me a fresh perspective on Greg, who Jim knew before either of them were believers.

What I love most about Jim’s letter is the testimony to what Scripture says, something that we sometimes underestimate: the sheer transforming power of a trust in Jesus Christ as Savior. As Paul put it, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Jim writes, “Greg Coffey was my enemy when he went to Gresham High School—he was a bully, and not a pleasant person to be around. Of course you know that class split off into Barlow, and I never saw him again. That is until I was in the music section of Mount Hood CC [our local community college] and ran into him. I was genuinely stunned at how he had changed. To me he was a total jerk before, but now he was a decent guy. As a non-Christian I had no thought of needing to forgive Greg for time in high school. But when I saw him again, whatever I had against him just melted away.”

Jim continues, “Greg hung out with some pretty tough kids in high school; I bet that senior year was a real trip for all his old friends when they saw the change! When he died, I was no Christian but I went to his funeral and was impressed with the views and testimonials from his Christian buddies.”

I was one of those buddies who shared at Greg’s packed funeral. Our beloved pastor of Powell Valley Covenant Church, Marden Wickman, shared from Hebrews 11, “Though being dead, yet he still speaks…”

Going back to his story, after Greg graduated from Barlow High School in 1970, he and his girlfriend Sherel Trenholm, also sold out to Christ, went to Canada to attend Briercrest College. While he was home on Christmas break we spent a lot of time together in the Word. Greg had kind of a Keith Green persona and intensity. He meant business with Christ, and because I did too I was drawn to him, two young believers feeding each other books and writing letters to each other when he was in Canada. (In the photo, Greg is on the far left with the guitar, performing with “Plus One” from Mt. Hood Community College in 1970.)

Then it was three months later, during spring break, that Greg had his horrible accident. Smart, athletic, on fire for Christ, and with an incredibly promising future, Greg was swinging on a big tree branch, over a fence. The branch broke, and he was impaled upon a metal fence post.

The day of his accident, I spent the night in the hallway outside the downtown Gresham hospital emergency room, sitting on the floor except when I’d go back out to the waiting room and pray with others, including his precious Sherel, who Nanci and I loved deeply. Sometimes the nurses would kindly tell me how he was doing. I begged the Lord to heal Greg and was absolutely certain he would. No doubts.

When a nurse took pity on me and let me into ICU, I saw my friend fighting for his life. I was still convinced it could not be God’s will for him to die. He was growing closer to God every day, studying God’s Word, sharing his faith. Greg had a bright future in God’s service. Greg and Sherel were shining lights. Surely God wanted them to be married and serve Him together wholeheartedly. I knew God would heal him. I couldn’t have been more certain; I’ve never had greater faith.

Greg was transferred to Providence Hospital in Portland. We had a spring break Powell Valley Covenant Church retreat at Grace Haven Lodge at Tolovana, where a year earlier Greg had come to faith in Christ. Nanci and I really needed to be there, and I stayed in touch by phone about Greg’s condition. Then one night at the retreat, I got the call informing me that Greg had died.

Recalling that difficult day, Sherel wrote:

A vivid memory in my mind’s eye is when I was outside the ICU on Tuesday at Providence. The gathered family members were told that Greg was fighting for his life. Greg had whispered to me through dry, cracked lips that he wasn’t going to make it, but that he was going home. Like you, Randy, I insisted that the Lord was going to heal him, that He had work for us to do together. I kissed him, said, “I love you.”  He said, “I love you.” 

My folks had rushed back home and arrived just before the doctor came out and announced to us that Greg was gone.  It was so surreal—my dad enveloped me in his arms, and me and my future melted into the Lord’s mercy and grace. (That weekend was supposed to have been our engagement weekend.)

Then from across the waiting room lobby one family member screamed at the top of her lungs, “I hate you, God!” There it was—the two choices—curse God or run to Him. Since that time, in grace upon grace, in my life conversation with my Lord come the words first recorded by our brother John (in John 6:68-69), when Simon Peter responded to Jesus’s question, “Do you also want to depart from me?”  He answered, “My Adonai, to whom shall we go?  You have words of eternal life and we have believed and come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”

Like so many others, I was devastated when I heard Greg had died, learning my first lesson that God is not captive either to my will or my faith. I had all the faith in the world God would heal Greg, but God had different plans, and I’ve never forgotten that lesson. Now I pray with my faith in God instead of my faith in my faith. I tell God what I want to happen, what seems best to me, and I ask Him for it. But I trust God not to do everything I think is best, but to do everything He knows is best.

That night, the Holy Spirit descended on the retreat center and numbers of teenagers came to faith in Christ. I had the privilege of leading seven kids to the Lord. Which of those is walking with Jesus today, I don’t know. But I do know that one of the first faces I will look for in Heaven is Greg’s. I always think of him as one of those people for whom conversion to Christ was what it’s supposed to be—utterly transforming, a testimony to the grace and power of God.

My old buddy Larry Gadbaugh was also a friend of Greg’s. He wrote this to Sherel and me:

I remember God using Greg’s death awakening so many people to Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, the hope of eternal life through faith in Christ.  Sherel’s radiant faith, countenance, her example of grieving with confident hope through her tears, and continuing to point to Christ, were such strong witnesses throughout that time.

I remember that all of us seemed to be carried along as God was working from so many directions, to draw us further into the knowledge of Christ and His working in, among, through and around us.

I’ll close with a song Greg wrote, titled “Am I Worthy?”, that we sang at his memorial service. (Thanks to Larry, who was also a member of the Plus One singing group, for sharing the handwritten copy).

Am I Worthy by Greg Coffey

Am I worthy of all He’s given to me

Am I worthy His tender mercies to see

Am I worthy of the love that God has shown

Am I worthy to be called His own

Covered with sin I was wasting away

‘Till I tasted the new life that we shall share someday

God knows I’m not worthy of all He’s given to me

So Jesus of my need died to set me free

Am I worthy of His death at Calvary

Am I worthy His righteous beauty to see

Praise God for love

Praise God for Jesus

Praise God for all He’s given

To unworthy me.

Thanks for the great memories, King Jesus. And see you soon, Greg.  

         

Related Resources

Blog: The Hardest Lesson
Video: Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
Book: The Goodness of God

Crisis and Tragedy

A crisis is an immediate problem with very high stakes—and usually low control—that draws our total attention. It may be a terrible accident, the death of a loved one, a son in jail, a church scandal, a daughter who has run away. Some crises end well. The loved one recovers from the accident, the son turns to Christ, the daughter comes home. We may clearly see God’s hand in allowing the whole ordeal to happen.

Other times crises end in apparent tragedy. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery and he became a prisoner in Egypt. But years later Joseph could say to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). The moral? If you spell God with a capital G you will always spell tragedy with a lowercase t. One day, in the presence of Christ, all who know Him will have the benefit of retrospect. We’ll be able to look back and see how all things really did work together for good!

Few people in all of history have experienced the stress of Jeremiah. His book of Lamentations portrays a vivid and haunting picture of the destruction of Jerusalem and the suffering of her people. After sixty-four of the bleakest verses in God’s Word, describing the worst circumstances imaginable, Jeremiah states the obvious: “My soul is downcast within me” (Lamentations 3:20). But he follows with an amazing response that pulls himself and his reader out of the very depths of despair:

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:21–23)

Is this kind of perspective in the midst of tragedy restricted to people in Bible times? No! Many people today have exactly the same experience.

Joni Eareckson Tada’s diving accident at age 16 paralyzed her from the neck down. But if, in the decades since, you’ve read her books, seen her drawings, or heard her albums, then you know the beauty of Joni’s life. (Nanci and I know her personally, and she has had a great impact on us.) Joni has not just made the best of a bad situation; rather, she has flourished in what God knew for her was—we say this because she says it—the best situation.

Our friend Alice told us, “I’m in a wheelchair now, but God has given me a greater ministry than ever. I pray, I write letters of encouragement, I use the phone to share Christ’s love.”

You probably know a dozen other people in whose lives God has used tragedy to produce beauty. None of us seek tragedy or welcome it. But should apparent tragedy strike—or if it has already—we would be wise to let go of our limited perspective and let God prove to us that His promises are true: “…be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5).

Perhaps you’re familiar with the background of the great hymn, “It Is Well with My Soul.” The songwriter had lost his wife and children at sea. The pain was great, but God’s grace rose to the occasion. Despite his heartbreak, the hymn writer could say without pretense, “It is well with my soul.” Only God can perform such a miracle of grace. And only we can stand in the way of His doing so.

         

Related Resources

Blog: “Look-at-ers” and “See-through-ers”: Having Perspective in a Fallen World
Article: Circumstances or Perspective?
Book: Help for Women Under Stress

background photo credit: jsnflo via sxc.hu

Does God purposefully hurt us through trials?

In this video interview with Julia Stager, EPM staff member, we discuss the question, “Does God purposefully hurt us through trials?”

Julia: What would you say to someone who’s experiencing hard things, some sort of trial, and they believe that God put these things purposefully in their life just to hurt them?

Randy: I would say God doesn’t do that. Now what’s interesting is, I’m not saying God doesn’t bring hard things to us. But interpreting those hard things that a sovereign God allows or brings into our lives as proof that God is being cruel to us is inappropriate. I hear this a lot. I heard someone just the other day say exactly those same things you just mentioned.

What I would say is, go to what Jesus said: “Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:9-11).

God is saying, don’t act as if you’re better than God is. God is the Father who loves His children so much that He went to the cross to shed His blood for them.

Julia: It’s so hard sometimes to see or believe that God is going to bring some good out of these hard things we’re going through.

Randy: Exactly. When the hard things come upon us, we tend to use them as a way of saying, “This is so bad, that if God really is in charge and He sent this to me—or even just allowed this to come into my life—He’s being cruel to me.” The logic goes, If I were all-powerful and all-wise, I would not do such a thing to my child. For me to do that would be cruel. And we say that. We reason that for a parent to put a child through misery, unless that misery is intended to save his/her life (which is sometimes the case), then we would say that would be cruel and wrong.

But what we don’t get is that God is at work in us doing good things through the terrible things that we are experiencing. It’s not cruelty. That’s where faith and trust come in. We need to trust that God knows better than we do, and that He will bring ultimate good, even after the most difficult things that we have to deal with.

         

Related Resources

Blog: The Best and the Worst
Video: Why is there suffering in the world today?
Booklet: If God Is Good... Why Do We Hurt?

Sexual Purity: 16 Things You Need to Know

I’ve developed the following material and presented it to many young people and their parents over many years. When my now married daughters were teenagers, I honed it further for sharing and discussion with them and the young men who asked to date them.

What follows is an abridged version of the longer material, “Guidelines for Sexual Purity.”

1. Sex is good. God created it, God called it “good,” and it existed before there was any sin in the world.

Sex was not created by Satan, Playboy, the Internet, or some pervert lurking in the shadows of a porn shop. However, God requires us to address sex within his intentions and requirements, not the world’s (Ephesians 5:3-4). God designed sex for the sacred union of marriage between a man and a woman, and reserves it for that union.

2. Like all good gifts from God, sex can be misused and perverted.

Water is a gift of God, without which we couldn’t survive. But floods and tidal waves are water out of control, and the effects are devastating. Likewise, God designed sex to exist within certain boundaries. When exercised in line with God’s intended purpose, it is beautiful and constructive. When out of control, violating God’s intended purpose, it becomes ugly and destructive.

3. The boundaries of sex are the boundaries of marriage.

Sexual union is intended as an expression of a lifelong commitment, a symbol of the spiritual union that exists only within the unconditional commitment of marriage. Apart from marriage, the lasting commitment is absent and the sex act becomes a false expression, a lie. Sex does not become permissible through subjective feelings, but through the objective lifelong commitment of marriage.

4. Your sexual purity is essential to your walk with God.

Sexual purity is not an option for an obedient Christian; it’s a requirement. God’s will is centered on our character and moral purity much more than on our circumstances, such as job and schooling: “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

5. You are vulnerable to sexual immorality.

Don’t kid yourself that it can never happen to you—it can. “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12). If you think you’ll never fall sexually, you’ll fail to take precautions to keep it from happening.

6. You are targeted for sexual immorality.

The more involved you are in serving Christ, the greater vested interests Satan has in destroying you and God’s work in and through you. The evil one wants to take you down and to use your life as a bad example to other Christians. God requires that we be holy and pure instruments to be used by Him (2 Timothy 2:20-21). But as powerful as the evil one is to tempt us, God is infinitely more powerful to deliver us and has given us in Christ all the resources we need to live godly lives (2 Peter 1:3-4).

7. Your body belongs to God, not you.

“You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (I Corinthians 6:20). When you came to Christ, when you affirmed Him as Lord of your life, you surrendered your entire self, including your body, to God. He paid the ultimate price for it: the shed blood of God Almighty!

8. Sexual purity begins in the mind, not the body.

“Above all else, guard your heart [mind, inner being], for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Be careful what you expose your mind to. If you’re on a diet, don’t go to Baskin & Robin’s. If you do, your resistance will break down. If you want to abstain from lust, you don’t go places and watch movies and programs and read things that stimulate lust. Don’t give your mind junk food. Be sure you’re getting spiritual nutrition.

9. Since God doesn’t want you to have premarital sex, neither does He want you to do that which prepares your body for premarital sex.

There is a continuum of physical contact that begins with things like sitting close and hand-holding on the near side and moves to sexual intercourse on the far side. Scripture does not spell out exactly what “intermediate” behavior is permissible, but one thing is certain—the line must be drawn before either of you becomes sexually stimulated.

10. Once you let your body cross the line, it will neither know nor care about your Christian convictions.

Some Christians pray God will protect their purity, then willfully put themselves into temptation and wonder why God didn’t answer their prayer. No matter how fervently you pray that you will not fall into immorality, you will fall if you continue to make choices that feed your temptation toward immorality. Don’t allow your choices to undermine and invalidate your prayers.

11. If you have sexual intimacy with someone outside marriage, you are stealing from God and the other person.

Since he or she belongs to God, not you, that means you are borrowing this person for the evening. Be careful what you do with what doesn’t belong to you. You’ll be held accountable to his or her Owner.

12. God has your best interests in mind when He tells you not to have premarital sex.

Sex is not just something you do—sex is someone you are. It is linked to the welfare of your whole person. Having sex outside of marriage is self-destructive in every sense. Sexual purity is always for the best—not only for God and others, but for you.

13. God would not tell you to abstain from impurity if it was impossible to obey him.

Sex is something everyone can abstain from—it is a strong desire, yes, but never an emergency, never a necessity. “The grace of God teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:12). You can and should draw upon your resources in Christ, and say “no” to temptations to sin.

14. Satan will lie to you about sex, but Jesus tells you the truth.

Jesus said of Satan, “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Satan is a liar, but Jesus is the truth and the truth-teller (John 14:6). He said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Those who believe Satan’s lies about sex end up in bondage. Those who believe Christ’s truth about sex end up free.

15. You must learn to think long term, not short term.

Good or bad, you will always reap what you sow—you will always harvest the consequences of your choices. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7). The lifelong consequences of sexual impurity are worse than we can imagine. The lifelong rewards of sexual purity are greater than we can imagine.

16. If you’ve violated some of these guidelines, confess, repent and implement a plan to prevent future violations.

When you confess and repent of your sins, God will cleanse you:

"As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Even if you are no longer a virgin you can and should commit yourself to secondary virginity—to remain sexually pure from this day forward, preserving yourself only for your marriage partner, should God choose to give you one. You need more than good intentions to maintain your purity—you need a plan. If you are committed to a relationship with a growing Christian discuss it honestly and formulate a plan to prevent falling back into premarital intimacy.

Live in such a way as to hear your Lord say to you one day, “Well done.” Get on the right side of the universe’s moral system. Honor God by living in sexual purity. If you do, you’ll experience His blessing and rewards not only today, tomorrow, and ten years from now, but throughout eternity.

         

Related Resources

Blog: How Should a Christian Guy Pursue a Relationship with a Christian Girl?
Article: Sexual Temptation: Three Critical Facts Every Christian Needs to Know
Booklet: Sexual Temptation: Establishing Guardrails and Winning the Battle

photo credits: wedding rings - rovaro via sxc.hu | tidal waves - saavem via sxc.hu | donuts - pixaio via sxc.hu | wheat: Odyar via sxc.hu

The Uncomfortable Truth: the Humanity of the Unborn

Pro-choice advocates once commonly stated, “It’s uncertain when human life begins; that’s a religious question that cannot be answered by science.” Most have abandoned this position because it’s contradicted by decades of scientific evidence. However, acknowledging the humanity of the unborn does require them to shift their language and tactics when defending abortion.

In the updated and expanded edition of my book Why ProLife?, I encourage readers to consider carefully these words written by a father (who is a pro-abortion ethicist) concerning his son:

On the desk in my office . . . there are several pictures of my son, Eli. In one, he is gleefully dancing on the sand along the Gulf of Mexico, the cool ocean breeze wreaking havoc with his wispy hair. In the second, he is tentatively seated in the grass in his grandparents’ backyard, still working to master the feat of sitting up on his own. In a third, he is only a few weeks old, clinging firmly to the arms that are holding him and still wearing the tiny hat for preserving body heat that he wore home from the hospital. Through all these remarkable changes that these pictures preserve, he re­mains unmistakably the same little boy.

In the top drawer of my desk, I keep another picture of Eli. This picture was taken on September 7, 1993, 24 weeks before he was born. The sono­gram image is murky, but it reveals clearly enough a small head tilted back­ward slightly, and an arm raised up and bent, with the hand pointing back toward the face and the thumb extended out toward the mouth. There is no doubt in my mind that this picture, too, shows the same little boy at a very early stage in his physical development. And there is no question that the position I defend in this book entails that it would have been morally permissible to end his life at this point. [i]

On this same subject, Albert Mohler shares how pro-choice advocates, while acknowledging that the unborn are human, still defend the right for children to be killed by abortion:

So What if Abortion Ends a Life? Rare Candor from the Culture of Death

By Albert Mohler

Is an unborn baby “a life worth sacrificing?” The question is horrifying, but the argument was all too real. In a recent article, Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon.com conceded what the pro-life movement has contended all along — that from the moment of conception the unborn child is undeniably a human life. And yet, Williams argues that this unborn human life must be terminated if a woman desires an abortion. The child is a life, but, in her grotesque view, “a life worth sacrificing.”

Continue reading

         

Related Resources

Blog: Questions for Our Pro-Abortion Friends, Church Leaders, and Politicians
Article: Is the Unborn Part of the Mother's Body?
Book: Why ProLife?

photo credit: foshydog via photopin cc

[i] David Boonin, A Defense of Abortion (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002)