Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 207

God's Small Creatures

Incredible photography in this video showing what goes on in the “small” world around us, a world of little creatures God created.  "How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” (Psalm 104:24)

      

 

Signs that Made Me Laugh

Laughter is God’s gift, and all the more when we face hard days. Jesus promised “Blessed [the word involves a divine impartation of what causes genuine happiness] are you who weep now, for you will laugh” (Luke 6:21).

“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs 17:22

“A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.” Proverbs 15:13

These photos of signs give me a glad heart and cheerful face. Hope they do the same for you:

      

 

The Surprising Trend: a Growing Number of Prolife Young People

As I point out in my book Why ProLife?, not long ago, young people seemed so immersed in moral relativism and tolerance-driven postmodern culture that it appeared they would eventually become uniformly pro-choice. People used to think the prolife movement would die of old age. But something happened. Now, surprisingly, more young people than their parents oppose abortion.

A 2003 Gallup survey of teenagers found that 72 per­cent believed abortion was morally wrong. Only 19 percent believed abortion should be legal in all circumstances, com­pared to 26 percent of adults. About 32 percent of teens, compared to 17 percent of adults, thought abortion should never be permitted.

This was confirmed by a subsequent national poll, and evidenced by larger numbers of teenagers participat­ing in the national March for Life. (One of my great delights each year is to look at the pictures of the annual March for Life, and see all the young faces in the crowd.) By 2010, Gallup updated their survey with the headline “The New Normal: Americans More Pro-Life” and in 2011 their polling revealed that by a 24 percent margin (61-37) Americans want most or all of abortions to be illegal.

Youth webzines such as The Advocate and youth-activist organizations have reported a sharp rise in teen/young adult opposition to abortion. They have also been very instrumental in informing the general public about the dangers associated with abortion. Contemporary websites such as Abort73 reach out to young women and men, encouraging them to choose life. Many young people are refusing to accept their culture’s defense of abortion.

Check out this well-done six-minute video from Students for Life about the growing number of college-aged prolife activists and leaders:

What an encouraging thing to see young people rising to the occasion to defend the unborn. Here’s a generation of postmoderns—people who supposedly have less of a regard for truth than previous generations—who have a heart for the underprivileged and the needy. And many of them are coming to see that the unborn qualify as an abused people group who need to be protected and defended.

Lord, may a growing number of young people serve You by looking out for and standing up for the weakest and most helpless children You have created. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

      

Dan Franklin on Failed Experiments in Removing Evil

Before I get to today’s blog, I wanted to thank all of you who have prayed for my daughter Angie Stump and our family over the last month. For those who missed my updates on Facebook and Twitter a couple of weeks ago (we post great quotes and other things daily that aren’t on the blog), the wonderful news is that the pathology report confirmed that she does NOT have cancer. The large mass that the surgeon removed was a nodular tenosynovial giant cell tumor (so rare that her knowledgeable surgeon had to look it up). We are feeling great relief and are thanking God. Of course, He would have been just as faithful and good and sovereign if it had been cancer. But I believe He heard the prayers of His people, and we rejoice in his grace and His kindness to us in Christ (Ephesians 2:7). (Angie would appreciate your continued prayers, as she is experiencing extreme discomfort in her scalp related to some nerves that had to be cut during the surgery. Thanks so much.)

This is a great and insightful article by my son-in-law Dan Franklin, teaching pastor at Life Bible Fellowship in Upland, California. It was posted at his blog, Group Think Rescue.

Failed Experiments in Removing Evil

by Dan Franklin

Almost immediately before he lost his mind, M. Night Shyamalan made a movie called The Village. The story revolved around a cloistered community of people who had experienced such pain as a result of human evil that they had looked to remove themselves from society. The movie was not great, but the theme and the message were great.

Without going into specifics, it became evident that the experiment of seeing if they could remove themselves from evil failed. The reason it failed was that they realized the evil was not somewhere "out there" in the world. The evil was "in here," inside each one of us. In fact, the greatest evil in the movie was manifested through the person who appeared to be the most innocent.

When God flooded the whole world in Genesis, it was not an experiment. God doesn't do experiments because he knows everything. But when we read it, we experience it as if it was an experiment. God sees the intense evil in the world and he chooses to wipe out humanity and preserve only a small, God-fearing family. As we read we might think, "Okay, this is how God is going to remove evil from the world. He will wipe away all the evil people and preserve only the good people." If this is what we think, we are soon disappointed.

After the flood, Noah and his family ushered in a new start for humanity. In the midst of this, God promised never to use a worldwide flood to wipe out humanity again. But look at what he said when he made this promise in Genesis 8:21: "Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done."

God didn't say, "I will never flood the earth again because I have removed evil by removing all those rotten people. Therefore I will never have a need for another flood." He hadn't removed evil and he knew this. And this reality became unmistakably evident in Genesis 9 when Ham selfishly humiliated and violated his own father. Evil remains. The flood couldn't remove evil because evil is not out there, it is in here.

Ten chapters later, we get a strikingly similar story. Lot and his daughters are removed from the evil city of Sodom. God's angels graciously took them away from the corrupt and evil city. Then, as soon as they are clear of Sodom, Lot's two daughters got their father drunk and seduced him so they could continue the family line.

I remember one of my professors saying, "You can take the people out of Sodom, but you can't take Sodom out of the people."

Throughout Genesis, God shows us these "experiments" with how to remove evil. All of them fail. God demonstrates that the only true way to deal with evil is not to deal with our external circumstances, but to deal with our own evil hearts. And, in anticipation of the Messiah, this is exactly what he promises in Ezekiel 36:25-27:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

      

Seeking to Reveal the Unseen

Earlier this year, I did an interview about my job as a writer with Clash, a website for Christian teens. The work I do is more than “just a job” to me. My writing is a ministry, because ministry is service, and every aspect of our lives is to be a service that glorifies our Lord: “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

Name, Age, and State: Randy Alcorn, 58, Oregon

Job-title: Author & Director of Eternal Perspective Ministries

Web/blog site URL: www.epm.org    www.facebook.com/randyalcorn   www.twitter.com/randyalcorn

Give us your job description in 25 words or less. To help people see the unseen, in my writing and speaking. That God would use me as his instrument, with purity and passion, to represent accurately His truth and His greatness.

To elaborate, it's to probe beneath the surface into the deep longings of people, then to open a door into the invisible spiritual realm so people can see ultimate realities (including God, angels, demons, Heaven and Hell) with the eyes of faith and imagination. Once you catch a glimpse of the other world, the real world, you are weaned from the illusion that reality is limited to our five senses. You can't help but live differently once you learn to see differently. My life verse is "We look not at the things that are seen but the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Describe a typical workday. I usually work in my office, eight feet behind our house. The days seem crowded with responding to people in emails and phone calls, so I do most of my writing later, after Nanci and I have spent the evening together, and she goes to bed. She’s often in bed by 9:00 and I’m usually up until 2AM, sometimes 3, when friends and co-workers and readers are asleep. So there are no interruptions.

What led you to realize that you wanted to do this type of work? My writing stems from a lifelong love of reading, beginning when I was a child. I devoured comic books, science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels, and Greek mythology. I loved having my imagination stretched. Instead of confusing me about reality, I think it helped me see reality in deeper ways. God used all that to prepare me to hear the gospel as a teenager, and respond to Christ. Ultimately, loving to read helped me understand writing, what works and what doesn’t, what touches the heart and draws people toward Christ.

When I was in Bible college, one of my favorite professors jotted a note on a theology paper I’d written. He said, “You should consider being a writer.” I never forgot that comment, and it has often made me think about the power of our brief words of encouragement.

Did you have any heroes or mentors in your industry that you admired? C. S. Lewis, A.W. Tozer and Francis Schaeffer were spiritual mentors to me. Tozer didn’t just speak the truth; he spoke it in penetrating ways. He was an editor and a wordsmith. Lewis showed me how the same mind could produce piercing nonfiction and imaginative fiction.

What type of education or training was required to land your job? I received a bachelor of theology and M.A. in Biblical studies from Multnomah University, and also studied at Western Seminary. I’ve taught part-time at both schools.

What do you love most about your job? I love reading, researching, analyzing and using my imagination. I have labored at improving my writing skills. I ask God for ideas and help, and I often sense Him answering those prayers in the middle of the night when I feel like I’m getting nowhere. Then the breakthrough comes. It’s the Lord.

Whether we build or draw or fix things or make a home for our families, God wants us to yield our gifts to Him, and depend on Him for the next step, even the next breath. I don't always succeed, but that's what I seek to do in my writing. And while writing is sometimes very hard work, I love it.

What one part of your job do you wish you could hire someone else to do? Keep my office organized, handle office details, take care of most of my email. I have two assistants who do a great job but since we work out of separate offices I often do extra things related to my home office. Other staff of Eternal Perspective Ministries help me in innumerable ways, including extracting portions I’ve written in books, articles and emails, and placing them on my Facebook page and Twitter.

What advice would you give to teenagers wanting to get into your field of work? Our worldviews permeate our writing, and if all we soak in is popular culture, a few hours a week at church won’t be sufficient to give us depth and durability. We need to read great books by great Christian thinkers. Become an avid reader of the Bible and good books (all kinds of books, fiction and nonfiction). Take writing classes, attend writing conferences, write smaller projects and try to get something published such as a magazine article.

Don’t buy the myth that writing is easy. It’s not. Some people act like it’s not a real job. A physician might say, “When I retire I’m going to become a writer.” Well, if he’s not writing now, when he retires may be too late to become a good writer. I mean, what if I said, “When I retire from writing I’ll become a physician”? It takes decades and decades to become the best doctor you can be and multiple decades of writing to become the best writer you can be.

Books that were easy to write are usually hard to read. Some writers seem so natural, so effortless. Don’t be fooled. It takes a lot of effort to appear effortless. With everything else competing for your readers’ attention, you must work to earn it. Many people say they want to write a book, but what they really want is to have written a book. Big difference!

Never compromise on research. It’s the reservoir from which you draw your book, whether nonfiction or fiction. Make sure the reservoir is full!

Always give readers a compelling reason to keep turning the pages. They have a thousand alternatives—why should they read your book? Give them uncertainty and create anticipation. “What’s next?” keeps them turning the pages, but predictability is fatal. Figure out the parts readers will skip over; then cut them out.

How does your job allow you to use your God-given gifts? It affords me the time and opportunity to research, to close out the world and look at God’s Word and consider the most effective lines of reasoning or storytelling.

Do you have any hobbies or off-hours pursuits that teenagers would find of interest? I enjoy playing tennis, often with players from the guys’ team at our local public high school, where I used to help coach. When we have opportunities to be in warm water I love to snorkel. And we have friends with a ranch in Texas where Nanci and I really enjoy four wheeling.

      

Ed Welch on How Fighting Sin Hurts

I greatly appreciate the ministry of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF), located in Philadelphia. Their mission is to “Restore Christ to Counseling and Counseling to the Church.” Besides offering counseling services in their home office, they provide on-site training and distance education for leaders, pastors, counselors, and people with a heart for discipleship. They also produce the Journal of Biblical Counseling and host a national conference each fall.

I love the fact that they are very biblically sound and Christ-centered in their approach to counseling. If you haven’t explored their website, I’d encourage you to do so. It isn’t just for counselors—it has lots of great resources for anyone desiring to grow in their Christian walk, including this excellent article by Ed Welch, counselor and faculty member at CCEF.

Fighting Sin Hurts

By: Ed Welch

Doesn’t it seem good and right to fight against sin in such a way that it physically hurts? To say “no” when everything inside us wants to say “yes”?

 And the last time that happened was . . .

Sin takes different forms such as pride, unbelief and lust. It is lust in particular— reckless desire, covetousness, I WANT!—that hurts when taken to task.

Desires that exceed God’s boundaries exist in every human heart. There is always an I WANT! that stalks us. Sex, gluttony, addictions are common ones. Look for anger and you’ll find it. Search your imagination—I WANT is there.

Now imagine saying “no” to these desires in such a way that you would feel something close to actual pain. It hurts but it’s also good. But let’s not stop there.

Imagine something even better. You say “no” and it hurts—then temptation fights back—and you say “no” again. This puts you among the spiritual elite though it is what we expect in the normal Christian life. Jesus went into the desert and said “no” to the tempter in order to demonstrate his messianic credentials and to succeed where we failed. His success grants us new power to fight as, by faith, we are joined to him.

There is a beauty in saying “no” and using those dormant muscles of self-control. And, because it is the Spirit’s power in you, you don’t become a dour ascetic, but discover hints of contentment and satisfaction. These are marks of the Spirit. And with the Spirit’s power, you have undeniable evidence that you belong to your Father. No mere mortal can persevere in a painful battle with renegade desires.

As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.” (Acts 24:25)

Righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come. We don’t know what pushed Felix over the edge; it might have been the judgment. We do know that Paul placed self-control among the central features of our human dilemma, and he proclaimed a gospel that offered compelling answers. He argued that self-control was a great gift and was now available to us in Jesus. No doubt he would have emphasized self-control if most of us were sitting next to him too. 

Anybody hurting?

If so, no wonder Scripture calls you a holy one, beloved and mighty—you are a delight to your Father.

If so, you have made the power of God known to rulers and authorities in heavenly realms—you are a menace to the Devil.

If so, you are blessed. The battle is worth it.

If so, pray that the rest of us would have that same power.

And tell your story.

      

Celebrating Five Years of Blogging with a $100 Bookstore Giveaway

by Stephanie Anderson, Eternal Perspective Ministries

In June of 2007, Randy published his very first blog post, “There is a God.” In the five years since, he’s posted blogs of every sort, from funny ones (you don’t need to be a total nerd to enjoy Sci-Fi Nerds and Heaven) to the very serious (Does the Word “Evangelical” Mean Anything Anymore?). Randy’s addressed topics ranging from Heaven to prolife and from stewarding the environment to our deepest human longings, with a few dog blogs thrown in. (Is there any doubt that he and Nanci love dogs?)

Here is a sampling of some of the most popular and/or thought provoking blog posts you might want to check out, if you haven’t already:

God Rejoices over Us with Singing
What Does a Cross Bearer Look Like?
Planned Neglect: Saying No to Good Things So We Can Say Yes to the Best
Evel Knievel, Childhood Memories and Good News
Why doesn’t the church address the issue of modesty?
How Tim Tebow Messed Up My Plans
A Story about Makeup
Women Need Support and Truth, Not Abortion
Francis Chan’s Erasing Hell
Depression, Gratitude, and Charles Haddon Spurgeon
God’s Artistry in a Completely Unexpected Sea Creature
“Heaven Is for Real”, “90 Minutes in Heaven”, and other books about visits to Heaven or Hell

(By the way, we now offer an email subscription to receive Randy’s new blog posts directly in your inbox. To sign up, enter your email address in the form to the left.)

To celebrate the blog’s anniversary, we’re giving away a $100 gift certificate for our online store! Entry will require a little active participation on your part. You’ll notice that in the entry form below, there’s a blank for a “code.” We’ve hidden the code in an image in one of the blog posts listed above.

Once you’ve found the code, come back and fill out the form. Only entries using the correct code will be entered in the giveaway. The giveaway closes Sunday, July 8 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Happy searching!

We’ll announce the winner on Randy’s Facebook page on Monday, July 9 at 12 p.m. PT. The winner will also receive an email from Stephanie Anderson at EPM with details about claiming the certificate.

Please join us in gratefulness to our Father for using Randy’s blogs to encourage and challenge the body of Christ. We look forward to many more years of blogging, Lord willing.

(Note: If you're reading this post via email or RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to see the giveaway entry form.)

The Universe in Scale

I’ve had an interest in astronomy since getting my first telescope in fourth grade. My love for the wonders of the universe helped prepare me to hear the gospel and respond to Christ. In terms of the greatness of God and His universe, may this visual scale of the universe give you some perspective. (Be sure to go both ways on the sliding scale.)

 And when you’re done, contemplate Isaiah 40:10-14:

10 See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. 11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? 13 Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor? 14 Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?

      

An artful Catholic video relevant to Evangelical Protestants, regarding elections, candidates and voting

I am an evangelical Protestant, not a Catholic. I have serious disagreement with some aspects of Catholic theology. I believe in what the Reformers called "Sola Scriptura” (the Bible is the sole authority for Christian beliefs and practices), "Sola Gratia" (people are saved through grace alone, not taking sacraments or any other works of righteousness—salvation is given to the believer by God), and “Sola Fide” (salvation comes by trusting Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior). See Five Central Teachings of the Protestant Reformation.

However, having said all that, I very much agree with the central tenants of this beautifully done Catholic video, which I think should be taken seriously by evangelical Protestants and other people of faith:

      

How can I stay motivated in my relationship with Jesus Christ?

A reader of my blog asked, How does a believer keep his motivation? I understand the motivation of the new believer, but how does one stay motivated in day-to-day living, year after year?

Another way of putting that question, in biblical terms, is, “How do you keep from losing your first love?” (Revelation 2:4). When you come to know Christ and put your faith in Him, Jesus changes your life. You’re excited about Him, and everything in life is a contrast to what it was before. But over the long haul, how do you keep that motivation going? How do you sustain a Christ-centered life?

I think the answer to that is really how you sustain a relationship with any person. When Nanci and I first met and started dating, there was an excitement to our relationship and we had our first love. But you begin to realize that over time certain things will change, and the tendency is to start taking each other for granted.

What do you do about that? You make sure to cultivate your relationship by spending regular time with that person. Even when our girls were small, Nanci and I would have a date night and go out together. The two of us would sometimes go on vacations alone. We called on a lot of babysitters who were people from the church, or our kids would stay at our friends’ homes, or with grandparents. We really believed that the best thing we could do for our children was to have a strong marriage and to enjoy our time together.

So how do you spend time with God? By opening up His Word and spending regular time there. I know that believers used to talk a lot more about daily devotions and time with God, but I think many people started feeling like, “That is just a check-off the box, superficial kind of Christianity. I don’t want to just think, ‘Okay, I had my quiet time. So now I’m okay, and that’s all it takes.’”

Well, of course that’s not all it takes. But I would argue that it is a significant part of sustaining our relationship with the Lord, because I need to spend time in God’s Word every day. During the days when I don’t, I really see a difference in my eternal perspective (and my lack of perspective).

So, I would encourage you to spend daily time in God’s Word. It can be a read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year type of program, or one of many programs that provide daily readings of both Old and New Testament passages. You can go online and look at devotional books that help lead you through Scripture. There are also Bible-read-through groups with a weekly study where the Bible itself is the textbook. The participants have all read through the same portions of Scripture, and anybody can share anything they want from those passages. This helps some with the accountability because you’re asking each other, “How did you do in your daily reading?”

Time in prayer should be integrated into your time in the Word. I confess that when I set aside time in prayer and it is all without reference to God’s Word, I can get sort of lost. So what I will do is pray Scripture, sometimes out loud to myself as I read.

I’d recommend reading in Colossians 1 where Paul prays for the Colossians, and then repeat the things he prays for: the knowledge of God’s will, a greater Christlikeness, conformity to His image, and a greater thankfulness of heart. I pray those things for myself, for my children and grandchildren, and for Nanci.

Praying is talking with God. Even in times when I’ve been dealing with serious depression, one of the things that has kept my spiritual life fresh and my relationship with the Lord intimate (not that it’s never been stale, because there have been times of staleness) is that I’ve kept going back to the Lord and just talking to Him as my Savior, my Lord, my God, my Judge, and also my Friend.

In my novel Safely Home, I talk about a chair that Li Quan and his family have in their home that nobody has ever sat in. Their guest Ben Fielding can never understand why because it’s the best chair in the house. It is only late in the book that someone finally explains to Ben what this chair is and why it sits empty when they eat dinner, or why someone might sit on the floor when the chair goes unused. It’s because the chair, which was made by Li Quan’s grandfather, a master craftsman, represents the presence of Jesus Christ.

There have been times when I’ve prayed, “Lord, I just want to sense your presence.” I have gotten down on my knees with a chair in front of me and said, “Lord, You are just as present as if You were physically sitting in this chair. You used to sit in chairs. As a carpenter, You used to make chairs!” (I’m not creating an idol or saying He really is physically sitting on that chair—He’s not. But I’m saying He’s there and every bit as real as if He were sitting in that chair.) I say, “Help me sense your presence as I pray to You right now.” I visualize Christ sitting in that chair and look to Him and talk to Him. And again, that’s not idolatry because Jesus did really become a man—He’s the God-Man. We don’t know exactly what His body looked like, but He had a body and now has a resurrection body which He’ll have forever.

Another thing I would say is, believe with all your heart that God has orchestrated your day and has divine appointments for you that you don’t yet know about. For example, on a given day I might be going to play tennis with a teenager, but I guarantee you I’ll meet or see somebody else as well. We may go out to dinner because he has questions about the Bible, and I’ll connect with someone else, perhaps our waiter or waitress, and give them a gospel booklet. God has your day planned out and that’s what makes the Christian life exciting—trusting that God knows what is going to happen today and is going to give you opportunities to represent Him.

All of these things help us stay passionate about the Lord so that we don’t live a Christian life of drudgery where we wearily put one foot in front of another, thinking, “I’m going to try my best to be obedient.” Instead, a better cry is Paul’s from Philippians 3: “I want to know Christ.” He’d known him for thirty years, but he wanted to know Him better every day.

Our relationship with Christ needs to be a love relationship, and although we certainly want to be obedient and need to obey Him even when we don’t feel like it, we’re nonetheless daily asking God to be present in our lives. We can trust He’ll answer that prayer because He has promised us, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). As we pursue knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, may we sense the very presence of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives.