Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 21

A. W. Tozer on the Constant, Wonder-Working Jesus

When I'm asked what writers had the most profound influence on me as a young Christian, I always say there were three, and they continue to influence me today: C. S. Lewis, A. W. Tozer, and Francis Schaeffer. Tozer’s The Knowledge of the Holy, a fabulous book on the attributes of God, is my favorite nonfiction book of all time.

Here are some reflections from Tozer about Jesus (from Tozer on the Son of God: A 365-Day Devotional):

Because change is everywhere around us at all times on this earth and among human beings, it is difficult for us to grasp the eternal and unchanging nature and person of Jesus Christ.

Nothing about our Lord Jesus Christ has changed down to this very hour. His love has not changed. His compassionate understanding of us has not changed. His interest in us and His purposes for us have not changed.

He is Jesus Christ, our Lord. He is the very same Jesus. Even though He has been raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, and made Head over all things to the Church, His love for us remains unchanged.

It is hard for us to accept the majestic simplicity of this constant, wonder-working Jesus. We are used to getting things changed so that they are always bigger and better!

He is Jesus, easier to approach than the humblest friend you ever had! He is the sun that shines upon us, He is the star of our night. He is the giver of our life and the rock of our hope. He is our safety and our future. He is our righteousness, our sanctification, our inheritance.

You will find that He is all of this in that instant that you move your heart towards Him in faith!

See Randy's books  It's All About Jesus  and  Face to Face with Jesus .

Photo: Unsplash

How to Avoid Making an Idol of Your Marriage and Spouse

A thoughtful young man asked me:

My wife and I were talking about idols, and wondering to what degree marriage, or your significant other, can become an idol? We talked about the idea that something is an idol if you would be discontent without it. But we know that marriage is such a gift from the Lord, and you are more united to that person than any other person. We thought of you, and wanted to ask your thoughts on this?

When the apostle John wrote to Christ-followers near the end of the first century, most had nothing to do with carved idols. Still, his final words to them were, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). The New Living Translation captures the meaning this way: “Keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.”

In the Christian worldview, created things are a means to help us delight in God. The problems start when we believe we can find more happiness in God’s creation than in God Himself.

Remembering What’s Primary

What helped Nanci and I most avoid idolatry in marriage was that over the years, we came to say—and to really believe—that we were each other's second best friend. Based on John 15 and His sacrificial love toward us, Jesus was our best friend. No one else was close to taking the place we had in each other’s lives, but we would always put God first. We knew that we needed to look to Him to meet our deepest needs because He is the primary, and we are the secondary. 

It is not always easy to think of that person you love so much as being secondary in any sense. But your spouse must be, because as C. S. Lewis pointed out, whenever we make the secondary primary, we ruin the secondary. In The Great Divorce, he illustrated that with a woman who swore she loved her family, but by making them first in her thinking, she imagined they owed her some great debt of gratitude because of all she had done for them, supposedly out of love. But there was no way they could fulfill her expectations and in her selfishness, which she thought of as sacrificial, she was always disappointed in them, and drove them away and made their lives miserable. That's what idolatry will do to something that should be good and pure and healthy. 

Tim Keller wrote:

To live for anything else but God leads to breakdown and decay. When a fish leaves the water, which he was built for, he is not free, but dead. Worshiping other things . . . cannot deliver satisfaction, because they were never meant to be “gods.” They were never meant to replace God.

Idolatry Is a Heavy Burden

For me and for Nanci, reminding ourselves that God was first guarded our relationship from being idolatrous. We did not mistake each other for Jesus or see each other as a substitute for Him. Of course, learning that lesson required trial and error. Early on in our relationship, it was easy to be so enamored with each other and our love for each other that we could put each other before Jesus, without thinking of it that way.

We knew we loved Jesus, but we loved each other so much and that love for the person physically in front of us was fresh and new and visible. So I think at times we did in fact put the human we loved above the God-man we loved. Not only was that unhealthy spiritually, but it was also unhealthy for our relationship, because we simply could not live up to each other's expectations.

Once we learned our lessons the hard way, that took the pressure off both of us. Having a spouse who looks to you to make him or her happy all the time is a heavy burden to live under in a fallen world under the curse, and where we still experience the sin nature that is constantly fighting against our new nature. No one can be successful in fulfilling another person’s deepest needs, and it imposes a constant stream of pressure and disappointment and frustration. The implication is, "Sometimes I am not happy, and since it's your role to make me happy and satisfied, you’re failing me." Someone may not mean to say that, but that's the message the other partner gets when your marriage is an idol. It simply cannot provide what you are expecting or demanding of it. 

Only our omnipotent, all-sufficient Savior is capable of meeting our deepest needs. The best we can do as marriage partners, soulmates, and second-best friends is look to Him to meet our deepest needs and encourage each other to do the same. There is great joy in helping each other look to Jesus! That is when marriage truly reflects the picture of the relationship between Christ and His bride that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 5.

The Priceless Friendship of Jesus

God used my wife to meet deep needs in me, and He used me to meet deep needs in her, but He was our greatest source of happiness and contentment. That's why both of us could live without the other when He chose to take one of us home to Heaven first. And He has truly been my best friend.

The friendship of Jesus He promised in John 15 has been my daily reality. I tell myself that Nanci is literally living in the presence of her best friend, and I am experiencing and sensing His presence with me every day. So at her death, neither of us lost our best friend. He is still with both of us, even though we are not yet reunited.

Nanci is at a higher level of relationship with Him than she has ever been, and I believe in a lesser way, so am I. This is the proof that our marriage was not our idol. We didn't worship it or each other; we worshiped Him, the only One worthy of worship.

When a spouse dies, it’s normal for grief to be intense, because the only way to avoid grief is to avoid love, and the greater the love, the greater the grief. However, when grief remains inconsolable over a period of time, it's a sign that quite possibly you are looking to your partner, even after their death, as your primary need-meeter. In other words, this exposes your idolatry. How much better to reach that conclusion and express that to each other in your lifetime. Nanci and I did, and I am profoundly grateful. (However, it’s never too late to come to the right conclusion, and to ask the Lord to help you make Him first! Every day we walk with Jesus is a second chance.)

Sorrowful, Yet Always Rejoicing

I can't live without Jesus, and while I don't want to live without Nanci, that is the way it is, and for now I must. I am sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:10. I love that we are to be always rejoicing, instead of always sorrowful—the joy eclipses the sorrow.

When I remember Nanci, which I still do daily two years after her homegoing (which was on the other side a homecoming), it’s true I experience a certain amount of loneliness for her. What I tell people is: I am not lonely in general; I am lonely for Nanci in particular. That delivers me from having to search for a new primary need-meeter, since while she was chief of the secondary, she was not the primary.

The memories are so good and so precious that they make me smile and fill my heart. At first after her death, it was nine parts sorrow for every one part joy. A year later, it was five parts of each, and now it is nine parts happiness and one part sorrow. I look forward to seeing her again. I have wept often, but I experience more joy in reflecting upon her than I do sorrow. There is no despair, only gratitude.

I can’t tell you how thankful I am for those last four years of being her primary caregiver, and seeing the power of God in her life. My second best friend led me daily to the feet of my best friend Jesus, and I will be eternally grateful to both Him and her. Had she or our marriage been my idol, my present grief would be a profoundly different experience, and much less healthy than it has been. It's been hard, but still healthy.

Traveling Heavenward Together

I still find immense happiness in reading Nanci's journals she kept during her cancer years, and pondering the quotes she wrote out by hand from Charles Spurgeon, John Piper, Paul David Tripp, Andrew Murray, and many others (I smile when I see a quote that sounds familiar, and then under it she has written “Randy” 😂). There is such delight in remembering the things we did together all over the world with each other and our children, including the wonderful vacations and the ways we served the Lord, gave to God's kingdom, and invested in eternity together. Knowing her death was coming soon, we could honestly say to each other, with all our imperfections and because of His forgiving grace: we had no regrets. 

A couple of weeks before she died, Nanci was sitting up in bed, and I was holding her hand and she said, smiling but in tears, “Randy, thank you for my life." I said in tears, "Nanci, thank YOU for MY life." I thought it was so beautiful that we saw our lives as so intertwined, we really had become one. God had used us in each other’s lives to grow us spiritually, and to make us better lovers and followers of Jesus. 

More Resources for Further Reflection

Here are some resources I hope might be helpful:

I listened to this 11-minute Ask Pastor John that I hadn’t heard for years. It doesn’t get much better than this. The entire portion is worth listening to, and it’s all in the transcript at that link. He asked three good questions, but it was the second that most resonated with me:

2. Does your affection for and delight in your husband detract from or diminish your delight in the word of God, the people of God, and the service of God? Or does your affection for him, your enjoyment of him deepen and intensify your love for Christ, your enjoyment of his word, and your engagement with his people?

“Happy is the husband, and happy is the wife, whose love for each other is secondary to their love for Christ.”

In other words, the first suggestion asks, what are the effects of losing your husband? And the second suggestion asks, what are the effects of the ongoing presence and enjoyment of your husband? Jesus says, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37).

I think he would say, whoever loves husband or wife more than me is not worthy of me. We can measure the superiority of our affection for Jesus both by what would happen if we lost our best earthly beloved and what happens while we enjoy our best earthly beloved.

Here is a 45-second clip on idolatry.

Here is a 7-minute video on idolatry, taken from a message on happiness.

This is an article I wrote on idolatry, and this is an article that has some good points in it about how you can know if your marriage becomes an idol.

Photo: Pexels

Why Would God Create a Child to Live Two Minutes?

Note from Randy: I was touched by this article by Marshall Shelley years ago, and touched again as I reread it. We asked Marshall if we could share it, 30 years after it was first published on May 16, 1994, and he graciously said yes. (Marshall previously served as an editor and vice president at Christianity Today International for thirty-four years, including several years as executive editor of Christian History magazine.)

For many of us, the list of people we’re longing for reunion with in Heaven is lengthy. But those who have lost children, like Marshall and his wife Susan, have even more compelling reasons to long for Heaven. His writing beautifully demonstrates an eternal perspective on every human life. Whether or not you’ve lost a child in a miscarriage or after birth, I think you’ll be moved by what he shares. Thank you, Marshall and Susan.

Two Minutes to Eternity

Why would God allow the “miracle of birth” to be followed so closely by the mystery of death?

By Marshall Shelley

I was with my son his entire life. Two minutes.

He entered the world of light and air at 8:20 p.m. on November 22, 1991. And he departed, the doctor said, at 8:22.

It seemed a very short time. Too short. My wife, Susan, and I never got to see him take his first steps. We barely got to see him take his first breath.

I don’t know if he would have enjoyed softball or software, dinosaurs or dragonflies, machines or math. We never got to wrestle, race, or read—would he have enjoyed those things like his older sisters do? What would have made him laugh? Made him scared? Made him angry?

Those questions swarmed around my soul in the days following my son’s arrival and all-too-hurried departure. So many things I wondered. But one question loomed larger than all the rest, haunting me for months: Why would God create a child to live two minutes?

Many tragic deaths can be blamed on human cruelty or foolishness. A stray bullet punctures a tenement wall and kills an infant. A driver loses control of a car and careens into a group of schoolchildren on the sidewalk. Senseless. Heartbreaking. But at least I know where to direct my anger.

With my son, no direct human responsibility could be charged in his death. It was a “chromosomal abnormality” called Trisomy 13. One of the 23 sets of chromosomes developed a third appendage. Despite genetic tests and the expert opinions of doctors, we discovered no known cause for this condition.

As far as I was concerned, this was a design flaw. And the Designer was directly responsible.

I remember the first time I heard the term “Trisomy 13.” It was the same hour I first saw my son—as ghostly black-white-and-gray movements on the sonogram screen. In silence, Susan and I watched the embryonic motions as Dr. Silver manipulated the ultrasound, measuring the cranium and the femur and viewing the internal organs.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Let me complete the examination, and I’ll give you a full report,” he said. I noted his evasive answer and hoped this was merely his standard procedure.

Moments later, he announced his observations in a matter-of-fact voice: “We have some problems. The fetus has a malformed heart—the aorta is attached incorrectly. There are missing portions of the cerebellum. A club foot. A cleft palate and perhaps a cleft lip. Possibly spina bifida. This is probably a case of Trisomy 13 or Trisomy 18. In either case, it is a condition incompatible with life.”

Neither Susan nor I could say anything. So Dr. Silver continued.

“It's likely the fetus will spontaneously miscarry. If the child is born, it will not survive long outside the womb. You need to decide if you want to try to carry this pregnancy to term.”

We both knew what he was asking. I was speechless. Susan found her voice first. Though shaken by the news, she said softly but clearly, “We believe God is the giver and taker of life. If the only opportunity I have to know this child is in my womb, I don’t want to cut that time short. If the only world he is to know is the womb, I want that world to be as safe as I can make it.”

We left the medical center that July afternoon stunned and saddened.

“Pregnancy is hard enough when you know you're going to leave the hospital with a baby,” Susan said. “I don't know how I can go through the pain of childbirth knowing I won’t have a child to hold.”

Signs of the Pneuma

Summer turned to fall, and we were praying that our son would be healed. And if a long life were not God's intention for him, we prayed that he could at least experience the breath of life. We longed to see that reminder of God's Spirit, the Pneuma, flow through him like a gentle wind.

Even that request seemed in jeopardy as labor began November 22. As the contractions got more severe, signs of fetal distress caused the nurses to ask, “Should we try to deliver the baby alive?”

“Yes, if at all possible, short of surgery,” Susan replied.

They kept repositioning Susan and gave her oxygen, and the fetal distress eased.

And then suddenly the baby was out. The doctor cut the cord and gently placed him on Susan's chest. He was a healthy pink, and we saw his chest rise and fall. The breath of life. Thank you, God.

Then, almost immediately, he began to turn blue. We stroked his face and whispered words of welcome, of love, of farewell. And all too soon the doctor said, “He's gone.”

Within minutes, our pastor, our parents, and our children came into the room. Together we wept, held one another, and took turns holding our son. My chest ached from heaviness. Death is enormous, immense, unstoppable.

The loss was crushing, but mingled with the tears and the terrible pain was something else. I’m not sure I can describe it.

At the births of my three older daughters, I’d felt “the miracle of birth,” that sacred moment when a new life enters the world of light and air. The pneuma, the breath of life, fills the lungs for the first time. Now this moment was doubly intense because the miracle of birth was followed so quickly by the mystery of death. The pneuma was here and now gone.

“It feels like eternity just intersected earth” was all I could say to our pastor. The pain of grief was diminished not at all, but it blended with the weight of overwhelming wonder at the irresistible movement from time to eternity.

“Do you have a name for the baby?” asked one of the nurses.

“Toby,” Susan said. “It’s short for a biblical name, Tobiah, which means ‘God is good.’”

We had long thought about the name for this child. We didn’t particularly feel God’s goodness at that moment. The name was what we believed, not what we felt. It was what we wanted to feel again someday.

The words of C.S. Lewis, describing the lion Aslan, kept coming to mind: “He's not a tame lion. But he's good.” We clung to that image of untamed and fearsome goodness, even as we continued to struggle with the question: Why would God create a child to live two minutes?

Everything Has an Inside

Shortly before we discovered Toby’s condition, I read a book by Christopher de Vinck, The Power of the Powerless, in which he describes what he learned from his severely and profoundly retarded brother, Oliver.

I was interested because our third daughter, Mandy, was also severely retarded, unable to respond to her environment. And just three months after Toby’s birth and death, Mandy also entered eternity. She was two weeks shy of her second birthday. One of the points de Vinck made about Oliver helped me with the God-directed questions I had after Toby’s birth and death.

One of the greatest discoveries that a child or an adult can make, writes de Vinck, is that “everything has an inside. In our house, we split apples to look at the core, we crack walnuts to see the meat inside, we press a toy stethoscope to our chests to listen to the heartbeat.”

The point: you can't always guess what’s on the inside by looking at the outside.

The Bible says that “Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.” That was true then. It’s true now. We’re so outer focused. We’re taught to judge people by the stylishness of their clothing labels. Political campaigns are crafted by scriptwriters, TV directors, and pollsters. Educational policies are based on appearances of political correctness. We’re tempted to believe that image is everything, that outward appearances are most important. We ignore the inside, the heart, the spirit.

Each of my children also has an inside. With my two older girls, I get occasional glimpses of their interior life. Their words and actions give me clues about their inner worlds. With Mandy, the glass was darker. And with Toby, we never had a chance to see inside.

But Mandy and Toby both had insides. Despite the damage to the outer frame, the inside is to be treasured.

Our Unearthly Calling

Not long after we buried Toby and Mandy, our seven-year-old daughter, Stacey, told us she heard God's voice in the middle of the night telling her that “Mandy and Toby are very busy. They are building our house, and they are guarding his throne.”

Not knowing how to respond to a child who had never offered a claim like that before, I found myself reading the Bible with renewed interest in descriptions of heavenly activities. Was this message consistent with Scripture? Our family discussions usually focused on Heaven.

We saw that Heaven is a place of activity, not just leisure or ease. God is preparing a city for the faithful (Heb. 11:16), where all will be made perfect and complete (Heb. 11:40). The Bible contains many descriptions of heavenly worship as active and intense.

And since Jesus said that in his Father's house are “many mansions” and he was going to prepare a place for us (John 14), we could easily envision part of our heavenly activity being to help prepare for those yet to arrive.

I must admit, however, that I was more intrigued by the image of guarding Christ's throne. Was this an honor guard? A ceremonial assemblage of children, whom Christ on earth had invited to be near him? Or perhaps seats of honor for those Christ had in mind when he said, “The last shall be first”? I can’t think of many more “last” than Mandy and Toby.

But what if guarding the throne isn’t ceremonial but actual? Daniel 10 describes the angel Michael in conflict with a spiritual foe. Ephesians 6:12 describes a struggle “against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Could it be that among the spiritual warriors in this conflict is one named Toby?

The Book of Revelation records battles involving heavenly armies (Rev. 19:19). Could it be that along with countless others of us, Toby will serve among the heavenly hosts in that final great war?

All of this, of course, is conjecture. But what is clear is that Heaven will be a place of active duty.

And when the ultimate spiritual battle is over, our responsibilities continue.

The apostle John’s vision of eternity suggests what’s in store for all the saints: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads …. And they will reign forever and ever” (Rev. 22:3-5).

I don’t know exactly what our service in that city will involve, nor can I be specific about how we will assist in reigning. But those tasks sound like they may have a bit more significance than most careers we pursue in our current lifetime.

Could it be that when I finally start the most significant service of my life, I'll find that this is what I was truly created for? I may find that the reason I was created was not for anything I accomplish on earth, but the role I’m to fulfill forever.

I realized that my earlier question had been answered.

Why did God create a child to live two minutes?

He didn't.

He didn’t create Toby to live two minutes or Mandy to live two years. He didn’t create me to live 40 years (or whatever number he may choose to extend my days in this world).

God created Toby for eternity. He created each of us for eternity, where we may be surprised to find our true calling, which always seemed just out of reach here on earth.

Reprinted with permission of the author. (c)1994 Christianity Today.

Photo: Unsplash

Life Is Far from Certain, But Jesus Is

Corrie Ten Boom wrote, “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”

In her journal kept during her cancer years, my wife Nanci reflected about life’s uncertainty:

Lord, I don’t know what’s ahead of me on this earth. Even the plans which are made change—almost daily. Uncertainty has always been difficult for me to handle. I like knowing what’s going on and what will be happening. I want to be aware of what I am getting into. My cancer journey has never been predictable. We think we know what to expect, and then something else happens.

But you, O Lord, are “certain and predictable.” Your character never changes. I can always count on you to act according to my best interests. Always.

Which is better: knowing and controlling exactly what my accommodations are in the train car I am in, but not knowing the destination? Or not knowing or controlling my accommodations, but knowing who does and what my destination will be?!

We don’t know what lies ahead in life, but our sovereign God does. What comfort! May we trust Jesus for what’s ahead each day—and with what’s ahead forever.

See an index of what Randy has written on loss, grief, eternal hope, and Nanci’s life and homecoming.

Photo: Pexels

God Has Continued to Use My Older Books, to My Surprise

I attempted my first novel, back in the 90s. I emphasize the word attempted because it really was an experiment. To be honest, I made more mistakes in writing Deadline than any other fiction book I’ve written, not surprisingly, because the first house built will not be his best house if someone continues to build. And yet, God has really used that novel. I think because the plot was sound and a lot of imagination went into it, people still read it. (But I would always say, “Have you read my later novels, Safely Home and Deception?” because I feel that more writing skill went into those.)

Still, the royalties keep on coming for Deadline and Dominion, and helping fund missions and relief work and Bible translation worldwide. Someone I met not long ago thanked me for books they'd recently discovered, including Deadline, proving these older books are still making a difference.

And someone just sent me this review, written by one of their family members:

Randy’s book is an impressive example of presenting biblical truth in a fictional setting.  An intriguing plot built around the distinctive characters he created.  His purpose, of course, was to contrast God’s purposes for his creation and man’s destructive rejection of it.  Randy makes a clear case for Christian values, helping Christians understand how to do that in their own settings.  It took an amazing depth of research to document his argument.  Though it was published several decades ago it describes the destructive trajectory that has led to the growing hostility toward God we witness today. Randy is a gifted thinker and writer. Thanks for pressing me to move it ahead on my reading list.

Furthermore, a friend wrote me this:

Just last week at my Bible study on Romans, a woman said she became a Christian after reading Deadline. She often gives the book as a graduation gift to high school or college friends. And a very stubborn acquaintance of mine told me the book had done a lot to change her mind. She said she was closer to believing than she had ever thought possible. I don’t know what happened later, but that was quite a statement from someone like her.

It’s always a surprise and an encouragement to hear stories like this!

On my Facebook page, our ministry received several comments from readers about Deadline. I find them overwhelming—in a good sense. I don’t see as many comments about Deadline anymore as in the old days, but it’s a reminder that God used it and the effects have been lasting. That means more than anything. I’m grateful.

This book was used by the Lord for me when my sister had just been healed from cancer, then two months later died unexpectedly. The imagery of Finney being birthed into Heaven was one of my first thoughts when I got THE phone call. That got me through some really hard times. The Lord uses your words in ways you can’t even imagine.

Deadline is the first book of yours that I ever read, back in the 90s. I loved it and liked to daydream about what it would be like to meet you in Heaven someday. Now it’s 30 years later, and I can actually communicate directly with you! Who’d a thunk it?  I still look forward to enjoying eternity with you and with all of our family in Christ!

This is my favorite book of all time!!! I refer to it so often in my ministry conversations. 

This book was the first I ever read by R.A. Absolutely the BEST. Could not put it down!

Probably one of my favorite books. I’ve read it, listened to it and thought often of the concepts as I’ve walked the journey of grief. Thanks so much for writing, Randy. I’ve said it before, but you’ve shaped my life with your words many times.

I echo the words of many others. The first book of yours I read and THE book that impacted and changed me. I have gifted it to many, hopefully praying God will open eyes and bless them as He had me. Thank you, Randy, for touching my heart and becoming my all-time favorite author. You and your family and in my thoughts and prayers regularly

This is a great series. I love the way he helps us to see the potential of what is behind the glass that we see through darkly right now. My first Randy Alcorn book was Edge of Eternity. That book rocked my world. It made me view my walk in a completely different way. I can’t even count the number of times I have read it since then. I am forever indebted to him for changing my life.

This book was pivotal in my life— the one and only time I’ve been reading a book and had to stop and pause and worship Jesus. Then reopen the book…

Amazing book! Drew me closer to Jesus…and helped me to understand true faith.

Love this book—have given dozens to people who’ve had loved ones go to Heaven!

Excellent book! First read it 23 years ago and I need to read it again. I’ve recommended it many times to many different people over the years.

I join all who read this as one whose life is hopefully making a daily investment in eternity. No matter what kind of work you do you can pray the prayer of Moses, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” (Psalm 90:17). The literal meaning is “make permanent the works of our hands.”
Please join me in that prayer for your life and for mine. All glory to King Jesus!

God Is Doing Miraculous Things to Reach the World through illumiNations

I was recently part of a gathering in Arizona hosted by illumiNations, a collaboration between a dozen or so Bible translation agencies, including American Bible Society, Pioneer Bible Translators, Seed Company, SIL International, Wycliffe Bible Translators, United Bible Societies, and Biblica. Together, their mission is to help provide God’s Word in EVERY language for EVERY people group IN OUR LIFETIME. Their website explains, “Today, there are approximately 3,500 language groups with little or no access to Scripture. Over 1,200 people groups do not have even a single verse of Scripture in a language they best understand.”

It was an amazing experience, as it has been every time I’ve attended one of their events. One speaker shared about a church in Madagascar that has sponsored financially, recruited, and helped train translators in four languages, in which there are now complete Bibles and in people’s hands. Plus, this church is committed to eight more!

In 2014 Nanci and I attended the first illumiNations, also at the same location, the Dove Mountain Marriot outside of Tucson. In those days it was estimated that at the current rate of Bible translation, it would be 2150 before every people group would have at least a portion of God’s Word in their language. Nanci and I were among the many who committed to this movement of God, and Eternal Perspective Ministries has given more of the book royalties to this cause than to any other.

Ten years ago at Dove Mountain, $21 million was committed to Bible translation, far more than ever before. But since that gathering, more than $400 million has been given and tens of thousands of people have been mobilized. There has been an unprecedented level of missions cooperation, which is also miraculous. At this year’s gathering, they announced that the new projected date of introducing God’s Word to the last Bibleless people group is now 2033. That’s the biggest miracle—117 years cut off the estimate. All praise and glory to Jesus!

By 2033, illumiNations envisions that:

95% of people will have access to the full Bible.

99.96% will have access to the New Testament.

100% will have access to Scripture.

100% of the world’s most strategic written languages will be available in 2 usable translations.

I encourage you to check out the illumiNations site, where you can sign up for prayer updates and donate towards translation efforts. (The average cost of translating one verse of Scripture is just $35!)

They sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
    and with your blood you purchased for God
    persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
    and they will reign on the earth.”  (Revelation 5:9-10)

Here’s a video I recorded for Seed Company, one of the organizations that’s part of illumiNations, about the importance of God’s Word:

Wait Until Then: A Story of Promise for Children and Their Families

I’m excited that my children’s book Wait Until Then is once again available, reprinted by our ministry. It’s been almost 17 years since it was first published, but the story is timeless—it is just as applicable now as it was then. (One of the main changes we had to make was adding all five of my grandsons’ names to the dedication. When it was first published, only the first three had been born, and even they were very young!)

It’s a very short story, only two thousand words, about a boy who loves baseball, and his grandfather who played one year for the Boston Red Sox with Ted Williams. The two both love Jesus, love baseball, and have something else in common too, but I don’t want to spoil the story. I hope it will warm your heart. (Plus, if you’re not a big reader you can invest ten minutes and say, “Hey, I read a whole book today—did you?”)

Wait Until Then emphasizes, in story fashion, that according to God’s Word, the best is yet to be. We who love Jesus do not pass our peak in this life, nor do we reach it. Our peak, or its beginning, will come in the resurrection, not before (Revelation 21-22). This life may be overshadowed by lost opportunities, but the life to come will restore so many of them and bring countless new and better ones. The New Earth will forever offer us opportunities to serve our Lord, behold God’s beauty in His restored creation, and go places and do things we rarely or never had a chance to do in this present world under the Curse.

So the best we enjoy here—great food and relationships and art and music and most of culture, including sports, I think—is a foretaste of what awaits us on the New Earth, when we’ll be without sin and death, and live with God Himself. We’ll behold the Headwaters of Joy, and the Source of all the lesser streams of pleasure, at His right hand forever, as Psalm 16:11 says. (On the book’s final pages, I present for parents and grandparents the biblical basis for this, so they can explain it to their children.)

The realistic pictures in Wait Until Then, done by Doran Ben-Ami, are stunning. And the final picture of the book—don’t peek when you get the book; remember it’ll only take you ten minutes to get there from page one—will really move you and capture your imagination.

Here’s a response to the original edition of Wait Until Then that we received, written by a mom:

As we were getting ready to go to church this morning, our seven-year-old son informed me, “Last night was the best night of my entire life.”

I immediately desired an explanation, “Why was that?”

“Because,” he replied, “it's the first time I ever cried for joy."

“What happened?” I asked.

“Well, Daddy read me that book by Randy Alcorn,” he answered.

“Wait Until Then?”

“Yeah. And after he got done, I just laid in my bed saying the verses over and over again to myself. And I cried for joy.”

Well, the first time I read that email, I cried for joy too. And it still touches me years later.

As was true of the first edition, all the proceeds from the book will go to Joni and Friends, the wonderful ministry to the disabled founded by Joni Eareckson Tada. JAF is a ministry worthy of support, an investment in eternity. What they do is close to God’s heart. I hope you’ll take the time to see what they’re about.

My prayer is that Wait Until Then helps families to build into their children and grandchildren a sense of that anticipation for the New Earth to come. As we do, we’ll be fulfilling what Scripture says about “looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).  

Might Places We Loved on the Present Earth Be Resurrected on the New Earth?

The world says, “You can never go home again.” It means that while we were gone, home changed and so did we. Our old house may have been destroyed or sold, been renovated, or become run-down.

In contrast, when this life is over—and particularly when we arrive on the New Earth—God’s children will truly be able to come home for the very first time. Because our home in Heaven will never burn, flood, or be blown away, we’ll never have to wonder whether home will still be there when we return. The new heavens and New Earth will never disappear. They’ll give a wonderful permanence to the word home.

“But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:16). Like Abraham, we are “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

Theologian Donald Bloesch suggests, “Our greatest affliction is not anxiety, or even guilt, but rather homesickness—a nostalgia or ineradicable yearning to be at home with God.” That craving for our heavenly home is sweet and deep. Home is our reference point, what we always come back to. Even in this present life, no matter how much we enjoy our adventures away, we anticipate coming home.

C. S. Lewis wrote about Sehnsucht, a German word for “yearning.” Sehnsucht is used to describe a longing for a far-off country that’s, for now at least, unreachable. In Til We Have Faces, Lewis touched on this theme: “It almost hurt me . . . like a bird in a cage when the other birds of its kind are flying home . . . to find the place where all the beauty came from—my country, the place where I ought to have been born. The longing for home.”

Speaking of longing for home, a reader asked me if it’s possible he’ll visit his childhood hometown one day on the New Earth. This made me think about how I have countless pleasurable memories from my own childhood. Even those who endured childhood traumas usually have some good memories too. When I ride my bike through my old neighborhood (only a few miles away from my current home), that fond familiarity comes over me like a wave. The hills, the houses, the fences and fields, the schoolyard where I played football and shot baskets. When I gaze at the house I grew up in, every room in that house, every inch of that property, reverberates with memories of my father, mother, brother, friends, dogs, cats, frogs, and lizards. When I go past my childhood home, I step back into a place inseparable from who I was and am, inseparable from my family and friends.

Might this earth’s places that we loved and enjoyed be resurrected to the New Earth? In becoming new, will the old Earth retain much of what it once was? The New Earth will still be just as much Earth as the new us will still be us. Shouldn’t we expect, then, that some of the same geological features of the old Earth will characterize the new? Shouldn’t we expect the New Earth’s sky to be blue? Might God refashion the rain forests or the Grand Canyon? If the earth becomes the New Earth, might Lake Louise become the New Lake Louise? Might we travel to a familiar place and say, “This is the very spot we stood on,” in the same sense we’ll be able to say, “These are the very hands I used to help the needy”? I think it’s quite possible we will one day visit favorite places that for years have only existed in our memories.

Writing of the earth’s resurrection, C. S. Lewis suggests a continuity between this earth and the New Earth: “I can now communicate to you the fields of my boyhood—they are building-estates today—only imperfectly, by words. Perhaps the day is coming when I can take you for a walk through them.”

So I don’t look back nostalgically at wonderful moments in my life, wistfully thinking the best days (and places) are behind me. I look at them as foretastes of an eternity of better things. The buds of this life’s greatest moments don’t shrivel and die; they blossom into greater moments, each to be treasured, none to be lost.

“Thanks, Lord, that the best is yet to be.” God will one day clear away sin, death, and sorrow, as surely as builders clear away debris so they can begin new construction. What He will resurrect on the New Earth—and the surprises He has in store for us—will be wonderful beyond what we can now imagine!

Browse more resources on the topic of Heaven, and see Randy’s related books, including  Heaven .

Photo: Unsplash

Trials Make Us Crave God’s Mercy and Love

Psalm 107 begins, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say this.” The psalmist details the sufferings of God’s people, wandering in desert wastelands, without homes, hungry, and thirsty. “Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress” (verse 6). For their deliverance he says, “Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things” (verses 8–9).

Often we look at suffering from our perspective and forget that God sees from another vantage point. We cannot see the end He has in mind. “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me” (Hosea 13:6). We forget God to our own detri­ment. Suffering and death remind us of Him in ways that pleasure and prosperity don’t.

My wife Nanci understood that God was using her cancer to help her know and trust Him more. She wrote in her journal:

Prior to entering the Promise Land, God warned Israel that they would be tempted to forget Him once all the battles had been won and the bounty of Canaan had been secured. Life would be easy; life would be good. Their focus would turn toward enjoying everything that God provided and away from God Himself.

I have experienced that, to some degree, in my journey through cancer. When approaching tests or procedures, I abide in God’s presence and crave His mercy and love.

After those trials have been resolved, I tend to slide into a place of contentment without the level of dependance and deep communion with God that I craved while suffering. My love and desire for God never vanishes; but suffering amplifies it and comfort muffles it to varying degrees.

So today, with tears and shaking, I told God (again) that I want to be willing to remain in suffering in order to invoke in me a greater and more lasting level of devotion to Him. I begged for His strength to own that desire. I can’t muster up the courage on my own. I’ve received that strength before, and feel it returning now.

Lord, use my suffering to bring glory to you and to draw me deeper into your love.

Photo: Unsplash

Our Skewed View of Wealth

When Zacchaeus said he would give half his money to the poor and pay back fourfold those he had cheated, Jesus did not merely say, “Good idea.” He said, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:9). This is amazing. Jesus judged the reality of this man’s salvation based on his willingness—no, his cheerful eagerness—to part with his money for the glory of God and the good of others.

Then there’s Zacchaeus’s counterpart—the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-30; Luke 18:18-30). This earnest, decent, hardworking young professional asked Jesus what good thing he could do to get eternal life. When Jesus recited God’s commandments, the man said he had kept them all. Then Jesus, knowing what he truly worshipped, delivered His bottom line: “Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21).

We would certainly handle the situation differently!

First, we would probably commend the rich young ruler for his interest in spiritual things. Then we might tell him, “Just believe, that’s all; ask God into your life—you don’t really have to do anything.”

When he said, “OK, I believe” (which no doubt he would, since it cost nothing), we would consider him a follower of Christ. Soon articles and books about him would appear. He’d be on TV and radio talk shows. He’d be put on mission and church boards, speak at rallies, and receive invitations to share his testimony in churches and conferences across the country, likely making him into a richer young ruler.

Lacking our sophisticated, twenty-first century knowledge of how to close a conversion, Jesus said something that cost Him a valuable convert: “Sell your possessions, give to the poor, and follow me.” We might surmise by the results that this was the wrong thing to say: “When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth” (Matthew 19:22).

After losing this potential follower, a man so sincere that he was grieved to turn away, Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:23). He said it was harder than for a camel to go through a needle’s eye (which, contrary to some modern interpretations, was no easier then than it is now). This statement left the disciples “greatly astonished” (Matthew 19:23-25). They did not understand the barrier that wealth presents to genuine spiritual birth and growth. Apparently, neither do we.

Notice that Jesus didn’t tell the young man to give 10 percent to the poor. (If he was truly an obedient Jew, he already did that.) Neither did Jesus say, “Set up a trust fund, keep the principal intact, and give the interest to the poor.” The young man would have gladly done that. Instead, Jesus stopped him dead in his tracks by telling him to give up everything and follow Him.

Jesus did not and does not call all His disciples to liquidate their possessions, give away all their money. But Jesus knew that money was the rich young man’s god. If Christ is not Lord over our money and possessions, then He is not our Lord. Just as Jesus gauged Zacchaeus’s true spiritual condition by his willingness to part with his money, so He gauged the rich young ruler’s true spiritual condition by his unwillingness to part with his money. Jesus sees our hearts and will call us to take action that breaks our bondage to money and possessions and frees us to live under His exclusive lordship.

The relationship between our true spiritual condition and our attitude and actions concerning money and possessions is timeless.

When people asked John the Baptist what they should do to bear the fruit of repentance, he told them first to share their clothes and food with the poor. Then he told the tax collectors not to collect and pocket extra money. Finally he told the soldiers not to extort money and to be content with their wages (Luke 3:7-14).

No one asked John about money and possessions. They just asked him what they should do to bear the fruit of spiritual transformation. Yet all his answers relate to money and possessions.

If John the Baptist were to visit us today and gauge our spiritual condition by our attitudes and actions regarding money and possessions, what conclusions would he come to?

When you look around our Christian communities today, what do you see in our handling of money and possessions that can only be explained by the supernatural work of God?

A Poor Woman and a Rich Man

Play the role of financial counselor. Today you have two appointments, first with an elderly woman and then a middle-aged man.

The woman’s husband died six years ago. She says, “The cupboards are bare. These two dollars are all I have to live on, yet I sense God wants me to put them in the offering. What do you think?”

What would you tell her? (Don’t read on until you think about it.)

Likely you’d say something like this: “That’s very generous of you, dear, but God knows your heart—that you want to give—and He wants you to take care of yourself. You can’t expect Him to send down food from Heaven if you give up the little money He’s already provided, can you? God wants us to be sensible.”

Your next appointment is with a successful, hardworking, middle-aged farmer whose crop production has been excellent. He tells you, “I’m planning to tear down my old barns to build bigger ones so I can store up more crops and goods and have plenty saved up for the future. Then I can take it easy, retire early, and maybe do some traveling and golfing. What do you think?”

What’s your answer?

Perhaps something like this: “Sounds good to me! It’s your business, crops, and money. If you can save up enough to take care of yourself for the rest of your life, by all means go for it!”

Doesn’t our advice to this poor widow and this rich man seem reasonable? But what does God say?

In Mark 12 we meet a poor widow. Jesus watched intently as she put two tiny copper coins in the temple offering box. This was the only money she had. Jesus called His disciples together to teach them a lesson. Did He question the woman’s wisdom? No. He gave her an unqualified commendation: “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on” (Mark 12:43-44).

In Luke 12 we meet a rich man. We’re not told that he gained his wealth dishonestly. He probably attended synagogue weekly, tithed, and prayed, as most Jews did. He diligently built his business. Now, like any good businessman, he wanted to expand by building bigger barns. His purpose was to accumulate enough wealth to retire early and have a good time. Sounds like the American dream, doesn’t it?

So, what did God say to this man? “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

Jesus added, “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20-21).

Both outside and inside the Church, the widow’s actions seem unwise and the rich man’s seem wise. This shows how radically different our beliefs are from God’s.

If we take these passages seriously, we must ask some probing questions: Who receives the most respect and attention and who is more highly esteemed in Christian circles? Who typically serves on our boards and determines the direction of our ministries? Today we have a scarcity of poor widows and a surplus of rich fools.

The Story Money Tells

These case studies show how money is a litmus test of our true character and our spiritual life.

If this is true of all people in all ages, doesn’t it have a special application to us who live in a time and nation of unparalleled affluence where the “poverty level” exceeds the average standard of living of nearly every other society in human history, past or present?

Take for example someone who works from age twenty-five to sixty-five and makes “only” $25,000 a year. Even without extras like benefits and interest, this person of modest income, by our standards, will earn a million dollars. He or she will manage a fortune.

Because we all will eventually give an account of our lives to God (Romans 14:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10), one day everyone must answer these questions: Where did it all go? What did I spend it on? What has been accomplished for eternity through my use of all this wealth?

God does not apologize for watching—as He did the poor widow—with intense interest what we do with the money He’s entrusted to us. If we use our imaginations, we might even peer into the invisible realm to see Him gathering some of His subjects together this very moment. Perhaps you can hear Him using your handling of finances as an object lesson.

The question is this: What kind of example are you?

To explore this topic further, see Managing God’s Money, The Treasure Principle, and Money, Possessions & Eternity.

Photo: Pexels