Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 196

My Thoughts on “The Disappearing Book”

A lot of people have asked me my thoughts about the possible “disappearance” of physical books, due to the fact there are all the different eReaders people are now reading on: the Kindle, the iPad, the Nook, and others.

In the following video and transcript, I share some thoughts:

The first thing I say to people is that the book is not disappearing; it’s taking another form. These ebooks are still books. You still read them. Physically, you don’t have a tangible book in your hand, but what some people discover is that they’re reading more because it is so convenient and lightweight for them to have dozens or even hundreds of books on their eReader. I’ve got a Kindle, and I love it.

Now the majority of the books I read are still physical books. That’s because I do a lot of underlining and a lot of notations in the margins. Yes, you can underline in a Kindle and actually type in little notes, but it’s really not built for that. So I love physical books, but I also love ebooks. I’ve got some friends who find themselves reading books much more now because of the convenience of always having it with them. They just love it. You can adjust the font, and you don’t have to have reading glasses if that’s an issue for you.

Another thing that I love about the Kindle (and the same is true of other eReaders), is that you can download audio onto them. So I go to www.audio.com and get a lot of great novels (as well as non-fiction) on audio. I love listening to them. Sometimes I just listen to them in the background.

I actually think that some people are reading more because of ebooks. And listening to an audiobook is a good and convenient form of reading. So to be honest, I’m really not afraid of the reading of physical books disappearing. I think it’s a huge part of human history and of our culture.

My advice is, take books in whatever form you love. There’s something about the feel, the heft, even the smell sometimes of an old book that I just love. But I also enjoy reading ebooks.

The most important thing is this: READ.

How do you like to read? Printed books? An eReader? A tablet? Audiobooks?

         

Related Resources

Book: Eternal Perspectives
Blog: An Alarming Trend: The Illiteracy of Boys
Resource: Setting a Reading Goal

Sports and the Christian Life

In this video and the following transcript, I share some thoughts on Christians participating in and watching sports.

Here’s the deal with sports. The fact is that God made us the way we are, not Satan. We often think that everything about us is because of the Fall and our sinfulness.

Some people look at sports and say, “They bring out the worst in people.” I coached high school tennis for years, so yes, I’ve seen the worst come out in people. But I’ve also seen the best come out in people.

Even in this fallen world, sports can bring out some very good things, including teamwork and the development of physical skills in our bodies that God has made. Can people abuse sports? Can they make it all about themselves? Can they become prideful and arrogant? Of course. We’ve all seen athletes who are prideful and arrogant, and it’s terrible. But I also know athletes who are humble and truly Christ-centered.

As far as watching sports, do some people turn it into a god? Absolutely. Some people turn art and movies into a god. Others turn food or cars into a god. But it doesn’t make any of these things inherently wrong.

I anticipate that on the New Earth we will engage in sports. God has put playfulness and desire to compete in us. Competition doesn’t have to be a bad thing—it can be a good thing if you have a right perspective.

But what about the fact that sports can bring out the worst in some of us? Well, when we’re resurrected and on the New Earth, there will be no worst in us to bring out. It will all be fun. I will rejoice in someone else beating me if there’s competition. I’ll try my best, and when I win I’ll be happy. When I lose I’ll still be happy, because I’ll rejoice that my friend won. We have that to look forward to, and I think it’s something we shouldn’t minimize.

1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us, “When you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” If you watch or participate in sports, do it for the glory of God.

I have friends who play in the NFL. They’ve told me (and several other professional athletes from other sports have told me the same thing) that you can say what you want about God and it won’t offend anyone. You can say, “I thank God for this victory”—or maybe it was a defeat—“but I thank God anyway.” You can thank God for staying healthy during a game and people will not turn and look at you. Nobody’s going to get mad at you.

But when you start talking about Jesus and thanking Him, all of a sudden it’s “Wait a minute. I’m not so sure.” If you start talking about Jesus, the One who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me”, that’s different than just talking about “God.” All of a sudden there’s a barrier between you and some of your fellow athletes, and you and the coaches, and in particular you and the media and you and the public. As a professional athlete, if you get serious about Jesus and talk about Him (and this would also apply to an actor or actress in Hollywood), that’s where the challenge is.

That’s why I think a big test of those who are celebrities, and are in the limelight and the public eye, is this: how willing are you to speak up about your faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who went to the cross for the sins of all people? That implies some things about people’s sinfulness, and their need to repent and turn to Jesus. Those aren’t popular subjects. I think it’s a test of Christ’s lordship in your life. Are you willing to talk about Him?

True, people are going to talk about it in different ways. Some people are going to be more outspoken than others. But certainly all followers of Christ—no matter what we do—are to speak up for Jesus and share the gospel as God gives us opportunity.

         

Related Resources

Book: Heaven
Blog: Books on Preaching, Managing Time, and Sports Nanci and I Watch: Part 2 of a Q&A
Video: Sports, Art, and Creativity: Part of Being Made in God's Image

Trophy image credit: tome213 via sxc.hu

A Simple Sound Check and the Power of Christ

In We Shall See God, I share a remarkable story that Spurgeon told about an experience early in his ministry:

In 1857, a day or two before preaching at the Crystal Palace, I went to decide where the platform should be fixed; and, in order to test the acoustic properties of the building, cried in a loud voice, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” In one of the galleries, a workman, who knew nothing of what was being done, heard the words, and they came like a message from heaven to his soul. He was smitten with conviction on account of sin, put down his tools, went home, and there, after a season of spiritual struggling, found peace and life by beholding the Lamb of God.

It was on his deathbed that this man told the story of his conversion, the result of God speaking to him through a single verse of Scripture uttered by Spurgeon. When Spurgeon preached in that building a day or two later, it was to a crowd of 23,654 people. But such is the power of Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin not only of the world, not only of a potential 23,654 people, but of one lone man working in a building when a preacher came to test the acoustics. This man will be forever grateful that when Spurgeon stood up front to do a sound check, he did not simply count to ten!

      

Related Resources

Book: We Shall See God
Blog: Charles Spurgeon Meets Shai Linne
Resource: Charles Spurgeon: A Man Faithful To God's Word

Happy Mother’s Day to My Wife Nanci and Our Daughters Karina and Angie

In this video, I share some thoughts about my daughters:

I am deeply grateful to the Lord for my wife Nanci and for our daughters Karina and Angie! Nanci is a great mom, and a fantastic grandma. I love the way she cares for our grown daughters, giving them space, but always being interested in their lives, their husbands (both conveniently named Dan) and their children.

I love it when our daughter Karina, now living a thousand miles away, calls her just to talk. And when our daughter Angela, two blocks away, drops by for reasons large and small. I love to hear the laughter—and Nanci’s laughter is delightfully contagious and therapeutic.

I look at Karina and Angie now as moms who are in their thirties—the mothers of my grandsons—and I am just delighted to see their hearts for Christ and the ways God has gifted them. I marvel at my daughters’ love and discipline and wisdom, their grace and truth, and the patient ways they pour themselves into our grandchildren. I marvel at them. I always have, and always will.

I watch Karina with Matthew, Jack and David, and the thoughtful way she approaches each day, creatively laying out a schedule for home schooling and field trips and errands. She knows just how to talk to each of her boys, to motivate and train and encourage them.

I watch Angela with Jake and Ty, driving them to their charter school, picking them up and taking them to their afternoon sports, listening to them and helping them problem-solve. I watch Karina and Angela and their husbands reading Bible stories to their children at night, just like I did to them, and praying with them as Nanci and I did.

This means more to me than I can express, because I grew up in a non-Christian home. I love my Dad, but as a child I heard him come home drunk in the middle of the night, and listened to my parents fight. I have vivid memories, as I lay in bed, of hoping (I didn’t know anything about prayer) that they wouldn’t get a divorce. They’d both been divorced before, so that wasn’t unthinkable. I loved my parents, and had the joy of later leading each of them to Christ.

But to see our daughters and their husbands passing on to their children what I didn’t have as a child brings tears to my eyes. To watch our grandchildren growing up in Christ-centered churches where their fathers and mothers are leaders means more to me than most, because as a child, until I was teenager, I knew nothing of Christ or the church.

A while ago Nanci received an email from Karina that made both of us laugh at how life comes full circle (or as they say, what goes around comes around):

Mom,

Matt [eight years old] is paying me back for every well-organized campaign of logical attack I ever made against taking piano lessons as a child. He has his heart set on a point system for chores which will earn him certain prizes, and will not let a day go by without making some very difficult-to-refute points…. The degree to which he is able to drain my mental energy is absolutely amazing. I can't believe how nice you were to me, and patient. At the time, of course, I thought you were totally unreasonable. :) And yet now... I can only hope to receive an email like this from Matt in 25–30 years. :)

Karina

I remember the girls’ childhood years so specifically, and when I look at them I can always see them as they were at the same age our grandchildren are now.  Because we’re in close touch with Karina and Angie and their families, it’s like we’re reliving those years again.

I remember going into our girls’ room while they were sleeping and praying over them. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I would get up and come in and quietly pray beside their bedside. When our grandsons spend the night with us, before I go to bed I pray over them as they sleep, just as I did my daughters, often in the same room.

(A couple years ago Angie told me, “You know, Dad, when you would come into my room in the middle of the night and pray over me, I was often awake. I would pretend I was asleep but I was aware of you praying for me. And I want you to know how much that meant to me and how much that means to me now looking back.”)

God gave me a wonderful mother, who went to be with Jesus in 1981, ten years after I had the joy of leading her to Christ. (See my tribute to my mom.) God gave me a terrific wife who is also a great mom. And to top it off, God gave us two amazing daughters who are also fantastic moms. I thank God for each of them, none of whom I deserve. And that is the grace of God, isn’t it? To give us in Christ what we don’t deserve.

“For we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

      

Related Resources

Book: Help for Women Under Stress
Blog: A Tribute to My Mother

A Joy and a Privilege: Translations of My Books

One of the things I really love getting in the mail is a new translation of one of my books. They’ve been translated now into over 50 different languages. It’s a joy to see what God is doing in other cultures with books that I’ve written.

In this video and the following transcript, I share about some of the translations.

My book Heaven for Kids is in Korean. And when I first got it, I thought, “Isn’t that cute? They’ve got all these Korean kids on the cover, and this old man with a cane.” And then I realized that the old man with the funny-looking hat and cane is supposed to be me!

Heaven for Kids in Indonesian has a cover that includes a Disneyland-like castle, a monkey up in a tree, and green children. Puzzled, I sent an email to a friend who is a missionary in Indonesia and a good photographer. I’ve seen his pictures of Indonesian kids before, and none of them were green! So I asked him, “Are kids green in Indonesia? Are these photos you send color corrected or something?”

He said, “Well, not only are they not green, I have no idea why they would portray Indonesian children as green.” But that is just one of the characteristics of another culture.

Another one I really like is the Danish translation of The Treasure Principle, titled Spar Op I Himlen. What it means is, “Saved up in the Sky.” The idea is, when we invest our treasures in Heaven rather than on Earth as Jesus said, they’re saved up in the sky.

I was really excited to receive a copy of my Heaven book that has been translated into the Nepali language. Back when I was in Bible college, they talked about Nepal and how there were only something like 15,000 believers in the entire country. And now, there’s one-half million, maybe closer to a million, known believers and they are actually having Christian literature translated into their language. That thrills me and most importantly, I think it thrills the heart of God.

Our ministry received this note from a believer in Nepal:

Just got book of why Pro-Life - ( English)  personal I studied ,it’s very useful to my life and my work also need of our Christian community also Our Church youth ,  I long time ago I am working   HIV Ministry , it’s very full to me, at the moment I am spoken some of the  Church and youth get-together ,   I feel your Eternal perspective ministries  need our Place in Nepal , also I am praying.

Thank you

I’ve also been told that the translation of Why ProLife? into Nepali is now in progress. Why ProLife? is a book has been translated into (or is currently being translated) into over 30 languages, which is wonderful because of the potential impact it can have in saving the lives of unborn children. Here’s another response we received about Why ProLife?, this one about the Russian version of the book:

I was especially excited to see the translation of Purity Principle and Why Prolife? into Russian. The Soviet system really aimed to demolish the family, with abortion the only "official" birth control, and I deal with women often here in Kazakhstan who have undergone numerous abortions (especially middle-aged and older women), and are now dealing with the pain of them all. Immorality among the young is as rampant as in the West, with very little responsibility. —J. O., Kazak Reader

People of every tribe and nation and language are being reached through the translation of Scripture as well as Christian literature. What a thrill and a privilege to have my books translated into so many different languages. (You can see the full list of translated versions on our site.)

      

Related Resources

Book: Heaven for Kids
Blog: The Word of God Entering a Tribe's Language
Resource: In Many Tongues: Randy's Books on Other Languages

Girl image credit: flaivoloka via sxc.hu

The Most Important Thing About Us

In his great book The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer says, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

In this video and the following transcript, I share some thoughts about the quote and book:

I remember having lunch a couple years ago with Gerry Breshears, theology professor at Western Seminary, and Bruce Ware, who teaches theology at Southern Seminary. We were there with another friend.

Bruce asked me the question, “Randy, of all books besides the Bible itself, what book has had the greatest influence on your life?” And I said, “That’s easy to answer. Without a doubt it’s A. W. Tozer’s book The Knowledge of the Holy.”

Bruce looked at me and said, “You’re kidding. That’s the book that has had the biggest influence on my life.”

And then Gerry Breshears said, “I’m not kidding! That’s the number one book for me.”

The Knowledge of the Holy is a book that I think people need to read, because Tozer writes things like this: the most important thing about any of us is what we think of God. He says that if you know what a person really believes in his or her heart that God is like, you will be able to predict with certainty the spiritual future of that person.

What we think about God determines so much about us. If we get it wrong about God, it doesn’t matter in some ways what else we get right.

Look at Jesus. Who is Jesus? If you don’t believe He is God incarnate in human flesh, if you don’t believe He could take upon Himself the sins of the whole world and be that perfect, sinless, infinitely holy sacrifice on our behalf, then you can say you “believe” in Jesus. You can say you “believe” in God. But in the end, does it really matter? Because is the God you are talking about the real God of the Bible? Is the Jesus you’re talking about the real Jesus?

Now I’ll ask you: besides the Bible, what book has had the most profound influence on your life?

      

Related Resources

Book: We Shall See God 
Blog: My Favorite Nonfiction Books
Resource: A Tenuous Hope Versus a Certain Truth

Peace Child Revisited, 50 Years After First Contact

Many years ago I read Peace Child by Don Richardson. This great missions story had a strong impact on my life, demonstrating the power of the gospel in a primitive culture. I also read and enjoyed Don’s books Lords of the Earth and Eternity in Their Hearts. It was a privilege 25 years ago to have Don come speak at our church.

Here’s the basic story behind Peace Child: In 1962, Don, his wife Carol, and their 7-month-old son went to Dutch New Guinea to minister to the Sawis, a group of cannibalistic headhunters. Don immersed himself in learning the complex language, and began working to teach them about salvation in Jesus. But the cultural barriers made this seemingly impossible, especially because of the value the culture placed on treachery and deception. Ruth A. Tucker writes:

As he learned the language and lived with the people, he became more aware of the gulf that separated his Christian worldview from the worldview of the Sawi: "In their eyes, Judas, not Jesus, was the hero of the Gospels, Jesus was just the dupe to be laughed at." Eventually Richardson discovered what he referred to as a Redemptive Analogy that pointed to the Incarnate Christ far more clearly than any biblical passage alone could have done. What he discovered was the Sawi concept of the Peace Child. [i]

During this time, the village Don and Carol were living in was attacked by an enemy tribe. Weeks of fighting ensued, and the Richardsons were considering leaving. Motivated to stop the fighting, the chief of Don’s tribe paid the price of peace: in a ceremony, the chief took his own infant son and placed him in the arms his adversary. The child would live with the enemy tribe for the rest of his life; as long as he lived, there was peace between the tribes.

Don wrote: "If a man would actually give his own son to his enemies, that man could be trusted!" Through this analogy of Jesus being the ultimate peace child who will never die, Don was able to reach the Sawi with the truth of the gospel. Eventually the New Testament was published in their language, and many villagers placed their trust in Christ.

It was a great delight to me to watch this 15-minute video showing the recent return of Don Richardson, now 77, to the tribe that he and his wife and young son had gone to 50 years ago. One of his sons narrates. If you have read Peace Child this will affect you deeply, and even if you haven’t you will see the power of the gospel of God’s grace. And this will stir your heart toward global missions—either to go out as a missionary, or to pray more and give more to God’s kingdom work:

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Romans 5:10). 

      

Thanks to Stephanie Anderson for helping me with the background on Peace Child.

[i] Tucker, Ruth (1983). From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya A Biographical History of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan

Related Resources

Book: Money, Possessions and Eternity
Blog: World Evangelism Statistics, and Missions Giving
Resource: Scriptural Principles for Giving

“Judge Not” and the Importance of Discernment

In this video and the following transcript, I share some thoughts:

A reader asked me, “You say in a blog post that the most quoted verse these days is ‘Judge not.’ Can you give some insight into this verse? How do we know if we’re judging correctly or not?”

This is a great question. Let’s look at Matthew 7:1-2:

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

So clearly here Jesus is saying, “Don’t judge.” But the context is king when we’re interpreting Scripture—and in verses 3-5 he goes right on to say:

How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

It’s clear that “Judge not” does not mean you can’t see a speck in your brother’s eye or that in seeing it you have no responsibility to help your brother remove it. On the contrary, He’s saying yes, see that speck in your brother’s eye, but take the log out of your eye first so you can help him.

So “judge not” doesn’t mean “Don’t discern.” We are to help each other, which requires a certain amount of discernment. Then, Jesus says in the very next verse (6):

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.

Well, without even getting into the meaning of that verse, we can see that this requires discernment. Clearly it requires we see that a person can be acting like a pig and that there are certain things that we need to be careful of putting in front of them.

Right in the immediate context of “Judge not” you have with great clarity evidence that you are still to be discerning. We are not to go around condemning people. But at the same time, we’re to recognize what God says in His Word. If God says in His Word that adultery is a sin, and He clearly does, I am not being judgmental if I look at a person committing adultery and conclude that they are sinning. I’m simply believing what Scripture says.

If I have a relationship with that person, I need to go to them and say, “You know, what you’re doing is not right. God is not pleased with this and He’s going to judge you for it. You need to repent and turn to Christ.”

You might say, “Now that’s condemning them and judging them.” No—that’s just believing what God has said is true and then trying to help the person because sin is in no one’s best interest. Sometimes we act as if we should look the other way, just let our friends and family members go on with their sins, and never say anything about it. Well, that’s not good for them. Sin is not good for us; righteousness and holiness is. And it’s good for our brothers.

So judge not, yet use discernment.

      

Related Resources

Product: The Grace and Truth Paradox CD Set
Blog: Speak the Truth in Love
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You Say "This Is History’s Darkest Hour"? G. Campbell Morgan Says, "Oh, Be Quiet!"

My first pastor was Marden Wickman, at Powell Valley Covenant Church in Gresham, Oregon. I came to faith in Christ through that church, and Pastor Wickman baptized me. For 35 years now Nanci (who grew up in that church) and I have lived less than a mile from Powell Valley Covenant’s church building. I drive by it several times a week and am flooded with memories.

I loved Marden Wickman, who loved to preach God’s Word. There was one preacher he quoted more than any other—G. Campbell Morgan. Under Pastor Wickman’s influence, I bought Morgan’s Westminster Pulpit, the five volume collection of his sermons, and I also read many of Morgan’s books.

G. Campbell Morgan was a British scholar and the pastor who preceded Martyn Lloyd Jones at Westminster Chapel. One of his many books was The Unfolding Message of the Bible, which he wrote in 1961. That was over fifty years ago.

Recently I was reading a portion in this book where G. Campbell Morgan said something I think evangelical Christians in America really need to hear today—especially those who are obsessed with how bad things are in our culture, and those convinced that as a result of how bad it’s getting, Christ absolutely has to return right away.

I should back up and say I was a new Christian in the seventies when everyone was reading Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth, the bestseller of the decade. We listened to Bible teachers “proving” from Scripture that Christ had to return by 1980. They based this largely on the predominant interpretation of Matthew 24:32-34, calculating that Israel’s return as a nation in 1948 demanded that Christ would come within thirty years of that event, or at least forty. And besides, we said, “Look around, how much darker can things get?” And here we are, forty years later.  (One of my friends didn’t get dental work done—“Why spend the money when Christ is going to return within a year or two?” Believe me, he lived to regret it.)

I do believe in the imminent return of Christ, which means He CAN return any time, as has been true for 2,000 years. But it also means, despite all the books persuading people these are the darkest days of history and that current events in Iran and Iraq are fulfilling Bible prophecies, He does not HAVE TO return anytime.

Listen to Dr. Morgan, writing over fifty years ago:

I have no sympathy with people who tell us today that these are the darkest days the world has ever seen. The days in which we live are appalling, but they do not compare with conditions in the world when Jesus came into it. Historians talk of the Pax Romana and make much of the fact that there was peace everywhere, the Roman peace. Do not forget that the Roman peace was the result of the fact that the world had been bludgeoned brutally into submission to one central power.…

Notwithstanding the prevailing conditions, the dominant note of these Letters, revealing the experience of the Church, is a note of triumph. The dire and dread facts and conditions are never lost sight of—indeed, they are there all the way through. The people are seen going out and facing these facts—and suffering because of these facts—but we never see them depressed and cast down, we never see them suffering from pessimistic fever. They are always triumphant. That is the glory of Christianity. If ever I am tempted to think that religion is almost dead today, it is when I listen to the wailing of some Christian people: “Everything is wrong,” or “Everything is going wrong.” Oh, be quiet! Think again, look again, judge not by the circumstances of the passing hour but by the infinite things of our Gospel and our God. And that is exactly what these people did.

When Morgan said, “Oh, be quiet!” it is a close equivalent to “Just shut up, would you?” Yes, let’s serve Jesus faithfully and seek to preserve Christian liberties, but let’s not whine about things being so dark. Instead, let’s shine the light as faithful children of God. Let’s trust Jesus to return when He is good and ready to do so, whether that is today, or a hundred years from now, or a thousand. Let’s live as people who are indeed going to meet Jesus soon, either by His return or our deaths. And let’s be ready to meet Him, and by His grace, hear those incredible words: “Well done, my good and faithful servant; enter into your Master’s joy.”

“But concerning that day and hour [when Christ will return] no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” Matthew 24:36

“Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.” Philippians 2:15

      

Related Resources

Book: Heaven
Blog: What do you think of linking current events to the end times?

Surviving the Dangers of Prosperity

Dwight L. Moody once said, “We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity. For in prosperity, we forget God.” In the following video and transcript, I share some related thoughts.

Moody’s quote reminds me of something that Josef Tson, a believer who was nearly martyred in Ceauşescu’s Romania, said in a class I was taking from him: “Ninety percent of Christians pass the test of adversity, while ninety percent of Christians fail the test of prosperity.”

This is really in keeping with God’s Word. For instance, Deuteronomy 6:10-12 says,

When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

We need to realize that if not for the work of God in our lives, we would have never experienced these abundant blessings. How many good things come our way that we didn’t work for or earn or achieve, but were just given into our laps through the homes we grew up in and the culture we live in? These blessings come through the things that God has done in the past and is doing in the present for us.

Hosea 13:6 says, “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.” That’s always the danger—to look at all that God has given us and start to think, “This is about us.” We can begin to believe that somehow we deserve all that we have instead of acknowledging the sovereign grace of God that has put these good things into our hands.

So let’s be conscious in prosperity. The only way you can survive prosperity is to see it as a gift from God’s hand, and to use it generously to help other people.

      

Related Resources

Book: The Treasure Principle
Blog: It's No Accident You Live in This Time and Place
Article: Giving and Receiving in a Buying and Selling Culture