Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 211

Don’t Throw the Preborn Baby out with the Bath Water

Diane Meyer is a close friend of mine and my wife, Nanci. In fact, she is like a third daughter to us. She lived with us when our daughters were small, and when she was a young unwed mother. We had the joy of seeing her come to Christ, and we helped her place a baby for adoption. Over the years we have seen Diane honor Christ and serve the needy, with a great heart for women in prison, and those damaged by abortion (She and I and Dan Franklin spoke together about abortion to our church in January 2010; video is available on our site.). Nanci recently accompanied her on a ministry visit to an Oregon women’s correctional facility. When Diane told me about her experience at the Justice Conference, I asked her if she would write this guest blog. This is a sister in Christ who knows what she’s talking about. I encourage you to listen. —Randy Alcorn

Two months ago I went to the second annual Justice Conference held in Portland. This international gathering sponsored by Kiln College and World Relief, is intended to be a place where speakers, pastors, theologians, professors, and activists join in a conference format for a discussion on what it means to live out the topic of justice.

I was intrigued and excited to be going to listen to nationally known speakers on such diverse subjects as sex trafficking, gangs, racial tensions, poverty, gentrification, and immigration. The speakers resonated with my heart and I loved being there and learning from their experiences.  (Plus, I had a feeling that this was a chance to hang with the cool crowd. Win-win.)

With the focus on human rights and the desperate needs of the world’s most vulnerable, I hoped that someone would speak to the issue of abortion. While the local Pregnancy Resource Center had a booth there, alongside dozens of others, I would have loved to hear someone up front speak out for the unborn and their mothers. (To be fair, I don’t know if someone had been invited to speak on the subject. I just know no one did.)

Though I was hoping that someone would talk about unborn children and women scarred by abortion, to be honest, I didn’t really expect it. The sense I’m getting lately from a large number of people is that pro-life concerns are old news. People seem to be distancing themselves from it because, as I was recently told, it is “too wrapped up in politics.”

Some see abortion as the pet project of the Republican Party, and the hobby of flag-waving, NRA- loving, wealthy, right-wing, and capitalist, Christian evangelists. This image leaves a distasteful feeling with many.

Honestly, it seems to me that many of the cool, hip, postmodern, emerging church Christians are into a selective group of causes that do not include preborn children and mothers whose lives have been shipwrecked through their abortions. We rightly address world hunger and sex trafficking, and God knows we should. There are other issues such as the environment which are considered cutting edge, while being a pro-life Christian has become, in the minds of some, a bad cliché.

I agree that all of these vital issues need to be addressed, and need people and ministries to attend to them. I am humbled by the work that is going on all over the world by people who want to see justice done in almost every area imaginable. There are amazing, courageous and determined brothers and sisters pouring their lives out for the well-being of others and it is so encouraging to be made aware of them through the Justice Conference. It spurs each of us on to work harder and to give more.

When I brought up the abortion issue to a couple people at the conference, my question was answered by more questions; what about needless war and all the innocent people being killed? What about socio-economic issues?

But why the deflection? I wasn’t trying to win an argument, just honestly questioning the lack of a pro-life viewpoint being represented. It seems as though being strongly pro-life (in the historic sense of anti-abortion) is increasingly unpopular with the evangelical “in” crowd.

Maybe my problem is that I can’t view abortion as simply a political issue or a popularity contest.

This is how I view it: a doctor violently killing a child with the mother’s consent.

We’ve all heard the sad and tragic stories. She can’t afford a child. She’s afraid she might abuse the child. She doesn’t want to lose her job. There is no father in the picture to help raise her child. She was raped.

But killing her child does not mean she is no longer a mother. It means she is a mother who has killed her child. How do you suppose she lives with that knowledge?

Abortion kills children and destroys women from the inside out. Before you shake your head or roll your eyes in denial, consider that our prisons and homeless shelters are filled with women who have chosen abortion, or had abortion chosen for them.

I know this because I work with them. I have held women as they spill out their deep shame and self-loathing for this choice they made. I have tried to comfort them as they share their hopelessness and despair; sure that God will punish and condemn them. I have listened and cried with them as they share how their decision to end the life of their child led to such despair and guilt that they have turned to drugs, alcohol, suicide attempts and other destructive behaviors, because nothing mattered anymore.

My understanding of these women and their anguish came to me at the cost of two of my own children through abortion. There was no dignity in their deaths and I have mourned their loss for years and will continue until the day I die. There was a time when I wanted the Lord to take my life because of this choice I made that ended the lives of my children. When I visit women in prison and the homeless shelter, sharing Jesus and encouraging those scarred by abortion, I can weep with them because I feel their sorrows as my own. Their tears are my tears and their heartache is my heartache.

How can it be good for our society to be filled with women who are weighted down with this burden?

My brothers and sisters in Christ, I implore you; do not look the other way while children are being killed in your neighborhood and you do nothing and say nothing because you believe there are other, more pressing issues.  Don’t choose between standing up for and helping people who have been born and the youngest and most vulnerable of people, the pre-born. If being anti-abortion will not be as popular or progressive as being anti-sex-trafficking, have the courage and compassion to be both.

Abortion is much more than an opportunity for prolife Christians to throw fundraisers, have meetings and create programs.  Abortion is the betrayal of women and one baby after another being violently killed. It is the death of millions of inconvenient but precious children. Doesn’t this break your heart? It breaks God’s heart because each human life is created in God’s image (Gen. 1:27). Do not dismiss the entire prolife position and only embrace environmental issues, sex trafficking ministries and others that focus on what is trending now. Be supportive of them all. Speak highly of them.  Bring attention to them. Don’t invalidate the prolife stand because you don’t like the politics of some prolifers. Don’t turn away from these children and their mothers. They are just as worthy of justice and protection as any others.

So please. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

I think Mother Teresa said it simply and said it best:

"Many people are concerned with children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is the greatest destroyer of peace today—abortion, which brings people to such blindness."

—Diane Meyer

The Narrow but True Path

Our friend Pat Maxwell recently sent us these amazing photos. When I saw them, many of the verses below came to my mind.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14).

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6).

 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

“You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36).

 “Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it” (Psalm 119:35).

 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).

 “Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil” (Proverbs 4:14).

“For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths” (Proverbs 5:21).

“In the path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death” (Proverbs 12:28).

“The path of life leads upward for the prudent, that he may turn away from Sheol beneath” (Proverbs 15:24).

“One who wanders from the way of good sense will rest in the assembly of the dead” (Proverbs 21:16).

“And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them” (Isaiah 42:16).

      

April 15: a Day of Fasting and Prayer for North Korea

Believers around the world are setting aside this Sunday, April 15, as a day of prayer and fasting for the country of North Korea and the believers who live there. The situation in North Korea is increasingly problematic with the country facing its worst food shortage in a decade. (Millions are at risk and according to UNICEF, 80% of North Korean children are malnourished.)

For believers, the difficulty is compounded since North Korea is still the most hostile place in the world to be a Christian. Open Doors USA shared the following:

On April 15 all of North Korea will celebrate the “Day of the Sun” in honor of Kim Il-Sung’s 100th birthday. To the outside world, the picture will be one of prosperity and wealth; that North Korea is a great place to live under their caring leaders. But outside of the media’s eye the vast majority will continue to quietly suffer extreme poverty and starvation.

For Christians, as the birthday celebration draws near, their fear has increased as their actions are watched closer than before. They know that outwardly they must participate in the nationwide celebrations to avoid arrest …but in their hearts they will be celebrating the true “Son” Jesus Christ.

North Korea is the most hostile country in the world to live and practice the Christian faith. Estimates report that 25 percent of the Christian population is suffering in labor camps for their refusal to worship founder Kim Il-Sung’s cult religion called Juche. Enormous statues of the “Great Leader” are prominently displayed throughout the country. Kim Il-Sung is exalted and revered as a god to be followed with obedience. Citizens are required to bow down to pay their respects, wear a lapel pin with his image on it and prominently display photos of both Kim Il-Sung and his son Kim Jong-Il (both deceased).

As North Korea celebrates the “Day of the Sun” let us unite our efforts by drawing on the power of the Holy Son, Jesus Christ. Show your solidarity on April 15 by praying for believers in North Korea and taking a day off of food – or perhaps one meal – to remember the suffering of the North Korean people.

Prayer isn’t passive, it’s active. It’s really doing something. Prayer isn’t the least we can do, it’s the most. We pray now in faith, believing our prayers are making an eternal difference; we anticipate Heaven, where we’ll learn God’s breath-taking answers to our prayers, including many that seemed unheard and ignored.

To register to receive information on how to pray for North Korea, sign up at the Open Doors website. (On April 15 they will be posting hourly updates from their Facebook and Twitter accounts to keep you engaged in prayer.) 

      

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The Contraception Controversy Is about More than “Just Contraception”

I have a lot of respect for Chuck Colson, who is in the hospital with a serious condition, in need of our prayers. I appreciate his involvement in helping the Christian community develop a godly worldview by keeping us informed about timely issues facing our nation. Before his hospitalization, Chuck sent this to the signers of the Manhattan Declaration, including me:

Any paper you pick up or TV show you turn on will talk about the “contraception controversy.” 

That’s how the media and the “reproductive rights” crowd have framed the Obama Administration’s outrageous demand that religious organizations violate the tenets of their faith by offering insurance to their employees that covers abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization.  

But all you ever hear from newsmen or politicians is that this is all about contraception. And sadly, according to the polls anyway, they’ve been successful in shaping the argument.

Friends, this controversy is NOT about contraception.  It is about the ability of the government to limit the free exercise of our religion.  This is a religious liberty question.

I’ve gone out of my way in conversations with people to straighten them out on this, and it immediately changes their point of view.   What’s really at stake here is whether the executive branch of the government can enforce administrative orders that violate the Constitution and trample upon the Bill of Rights.  

If Christians are to do anything in the public square today, it is to raise the rallying cry of freedom.  Remember freedom is the created condition of humans made in the image of God, who Himself is free.  This is being taken away from us right under our noses.

You are one of the 525,000 people who have signed the Manhattan Declaration.  If you and every single signer would explain this issue in simple terms to your neighbors, we would turn the polls around.  This is a winning issue for us, but only if we do not allow the other side to frame the debate. 

Please, talk to your friends.  Visit the Manhattan Declaration website to read more about the issue.  We’ve even posted a couple of my BreakPoint commentaries that deal with this. 

The case is simple; it is not about contraception.  It is about religious liberty, the first of all our freedoms.   God bless you!

Yours and His service,

Chuck Colson

      

 

The Contraception Controversy Is about More than "Just Contraception"

I have a lot of respect for Chuck Colson, who is in the hospital with a serious condition, in need of our prayers. I appreciate his involvement in helping the Christian community develop a godly worldview by keeping us informed about timely issues facing our nation. Before his hospitalization, Chuck sent this to the signers of the Manhattan Declaration, including me:

Any paper you pick up or TV show you turn on will talk about the “contraception controversy.” 

That’s how the media and the “reproductive rights” crowd have framed the Obama Administration’s outrageous demand that religious organizations violate the tenets of their faith by offering insurance to their employees that covers abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization.  

But all you ever hear from newsmen or politicians is that this is all about contraception. And sadly, according to the polls anyway, they’ve been successful in shaping the argument.

Friends, this controversy is NOT about contraception.  It is about the ability of the government to limit the free exercise of our religion.  This is a religious liberty question.

I’ve gone out of my way in conversations with people to straighten them out on this, and it immediately changes their point of view.   What’s really at stake here is whether the executive branch of the government can enforce administrative orders that violate the Constitution and trample upon the Bill of Rights.  

If Christians are to do anything in the public square today, it is to raise the rallying cry of freedom.  Remember freedom is the created condition of humans made in the image of God, who Himself is free.  This is being taken away from us right under our noses.

You are one of the 525,000 people who have signed the Manhattan Declaration.  If you and every single signer would explain this issue in simple terms to your neighbors, we would turn the polls around.  This is a winning issue for us, but only if we do not allow the other side to frame the debate. 

Please, talk to your friends.  Visit the Manhattan Declaration website to read more about the issue.  We’ve even posted a couple of my BreakPoint commentaries that deal with this. 

The case is simple; it is not about contraception.  It is about religious liberty, the first of all our freedoms.   God bless you!

Yours and His service,

Chuck Colson

      

 

The Hunger Games and a Hunger for the Real Life

I’ve received notes from readers asking about my take on The Hunger Games movie and books. I haven’t personally read the books or watched the movie, but I’m sharing some thoughts from Julia Stager, graduate student in theology and support staff here at Eternal Perspective Ministries. (For a review of the movie’s content, I recommend checking out PluggedIn.com.) I especially appreciate Julia’s admonition to use this cultural craze as one more way to point to the gospel and the hope of Christ:

The Hunger Games is a sensation in America (and abroad) today. At this point it seems there is no avoiding it, so how can we, as servants of the kingdom of God, address this mania in a way that glorifies God?

The premise of The Hunger Games is that a teenage girl, in post-nuclear holocaust America, sacrifices her freedom to go in her sister’s place (her sister had been selected by chance) to enter the annual Hunger Games, where twenty-four teenagers fight to the death. It’s a grim tale. This story has violence and manipulation, but instead of focusing on those (though they should be addressed in the proper place), I propose we also use this opportunity to talk about hope.

The Hunger Games is set in a hopeless world. Its characters fight to survive, but to what end? As Christians we understand life is a precious gift and that we are created in the image of God. Though we face many trials, we have an expectant hope that in the end a just and merciful God will set things right. Through the blood of Jesus Christ we can become children of this God who is life and love. Our hope cannot be taken away.

What if we use the book and movie as a bridge to the gospel? What if we ask our friends and family who are not yet believers if they feel like they are living in a world, like that of The Hunger Games, a world without hope? Even though this movie is not Christian and never mentions God, it gives us an opportunity to share truth and light with those who are living in the dark.

This cultural sensation can serve as a reminder to all: to those of us with hope it reminds us what we’ve been saved from, and it reminds those without hope that there must be something more.

2 Corinthians 5:19-21 says, “…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

      

 

“Monumental” Movie Tells an Important Story

While visiting friends in Texas last week, Nanci and I saw Kirk Cameron’s documentary Monumental. We found it interesting, inspiring, and very well done. It’s very engaging, and tells an important story. I appreciate the fact that Kirk doesn’t look to politics as the main solution to our problems. He believes our first concern shouldn’t be the White House but our own houses.

Check out the movie trailer:

Monumental is the story of America’s beginnings. Presented, produced, and starring Kirk Cameron, the 90-minute true story follows this father of six across Europe and the U.S. as he seeks to discover America’s true “national treasure” – the people, places, and principles that made America the freest, most prosperous and generous nation the world has ever known.

Monumental is heralded as “inspiring,” “beautifully executed,” and “powerful.”

Long regarded as “the land of opportunity,” there’s no question the tiny band of religious outcasts who founded this country hit upon a formula for success that went way beyond what they could have imagined. How else can you explain the fact that they established a nation that has become the best example of civil, economic and religious liberty the world has ever known?

What formula did they discover? What motivated them to come here in the first place? More importantly, how can we apply these same foundational truths today?

Joni Eareckson Tada writes, “I came away from watching Monumental with ‘I never knew that!’ ringing in my head! I learned etched-in-stone truths about America's foundations that, to me, were a marvel. Monumental awakened my understanding of what common citizens need to actually DO to regain this country's greatness. Informative… Enlightening… Amazing… these are the words that aptly describe my response to this remarkable movie. It's a ‘must see’ for every American family who wants to make a lasting difference in our culture!"

Francis Chan says, “Monumental inspires me to live more like the godly men and women who founded this country. It opened my eyes to the beauty of how our country was founded. I was amazed at how much they left out of our history classes. Makes you wonder... After seeing this film, I have never been more proud of our country’s heritage and more concerned about our future.”

The movie is playing in select theaters across the U.S, but the more people who request a showing in their area, the more chance it will be shown in a theater near you. (The DVD can be preordered but won’t be available until this summer.)

      

 

"Monumental" Movie Tells an Important Story

While visiting friends in Texas last week, Nanci and I saw Kirk Cameron’s documentary Monumental. We found it interesting, inspiring, and very well done. It’s very engaging, and tells an important story. I appreciate the fact that Kirk doesn’t look to politics as the main solution to our problems. He believes our first concern shouldn’t be the White House but our own houses.

Check out the movie trailer:

Monumental is the story of America’s beginnings. Presented, produced, and starring Kirk Cameron, the 90-minute true story follows this father of six across Europe and the U.S. as he seeks to discover America’s true “national treasure” – the people, places, and principles that made America the freest, most prosperous and generous nation the world has ever known.

Monumental is heralded as “inspiring,” “beautifully executed,” and “powerful.”

Long regarded as “the land of opportunity,” there’s no question the tiny band of religious outcasts who founded this country hit upon a formula for success that went way beyond what they could have imagined. How else can you explain the fact that they established a nation that has become the best example of civil, economic and religious liberty the world has ever known?

What formula did they discover? What motivated them to come here in the first place? More importantly, how can we apply these same foundational truths today?

Joni Eareckson Tada writes, “I came away from watching Monumental with ‘I never knew that!’ ringing in my head! I learned etched-in-stone truths about America's foundations that, to me, were a marvel. Monumental awakened my understanding of what common citizens need to actually DO to regain this country's greatness. Informative… Enlightening… Amazing… these are the words that aptly describe my response to this remarkable movie. It's a ‘must see’ for every American family who wants to make a lasting difference in our culture!"

Francis Chan says, “Monumental inspires me to live more like the godly men and women who founded this country. It opened my eyes to the beauty of how our country was founded. I was amazed at how much they left out of our history classes. Makes you wonder... After seeing this film, I have never been more proud of our country’s heritage and more concerned about our future.”

The movie is playing in select theaters across the U.S, but the more people who request a showing in their area, the more chance it will be shown in a theater near you. (The DVD can be preordered but won’t be available until this summer.)

      

 

Dan Franklin on the Growing Consistency of the Pro-Choice Position

Recently my son-in-law Dan Franklin, married to my daughter Karina, wrote a very insightful article on his Facebook page. Dan is the teaching pastor at Life Bible Fellowship in Upland, California. Dan takes a fresh slant on new developments in the abortion debate. I concur with his analysis and am grateful he gave us permission to post it here as a guest blog:

For most of my life I have been struck by the inconsistency of the pro-choice position. If a woman is happy about her pregnancy, then she is carrying a baby; otherwise, she is carrying a fetus. An unborn child can be aborted, and yet we are mortified when pregnant women drink or smoke. No one posts ultrasound pictures to Facebook and says, “Look at my fetus!” We celebrate unborn children when we want them, but we distance ourselves from them when we don’t want them.

And this position, while inconsistent, makes sense to me. It is hard to hold a consistent pro-choice position. It requires us to say and do things that are distasteful to us. It would require us to listen to a pregnant woman go on and on about her baby and say to her, “Well, it really isn’t a baby yet.” It would require us to be utterly unsentimental about ultrasound pictures. It would require us to stop telling pregnant women how to take care of their bodies while pregnant. I am not surprised that the pro-choice position is typically inconsistent because there is a level of proper shame that keeps us from that kind of consistency.

But that inconsistency is being challenged now.

Earlier in March a Portland couple was awarded 2.9 million dollars in a lawsuit against a hospital. The hospital’s crime? They failed to properly diagnose that the couples baby, while unborn, would have Down syndrome. The couple, whose Down syndrome daughter is now 4 years old, say that they would have had an abortion if they had known the diagnosis. They never wanted a Down syndrome child, and they never signed up for a Down syndrome child. So now, someone has to pay. (Read the story here.)

Take that in for a moment. This couple is saying of their 4-year old daughter, “We wish we had aborted you.” When I heard the story, it disturbed me deeply. It disturbed me because the couple demonstrated a lack of the normal human shame that keeps us from being consistent with a pro-choice position. The only true shame that they showed was in the fact that they didn’t want to comment on the story or sit down for an interview.

And this is not the only story about someone acting more consistently with the pro-choice position. Recently, a woman challenged Rick Santorum on his stance that pre-natal testing encourages abortion. (Here is a link to the video.) The woman spoke of her own experience with a special needs child: “Nearly two years old, he is already blind, paralyzed, and increasingly nonresponsive. I expect his death to happen this year. . .If I had known Ronan had Tay-Sachs I would have found out what the disease meant for my then-unborn child—and then I would have had an abortion."

I was shocked when I heard her response. I had assumed that she was going to say that she wished she had known more about the disease so that she could provide proper treatment for her son. Instead, she simply validated Santorum’s point. She says, “I would have aborted this son of mine, if only I had known about this disease that he would have.”

For a long time we as a society have legitimized abortion, but have sought to avoid the hard work of looking into the eyes of children and saying, “I wish I would have aborted you.” In both of the cases above, the parents have been willing to take that hard step. They have overcome the normal, instinctual shame that keeps us from being consistent with a pro-choice position.

I am sickened by the hypocrisy and inconsistency of most who hold a pro-choice position. But I am frightened when people go all the way and stay consistent. It seems like there are only two options of how to respond to this growing consistency. One option is that we finally come face to face with the horror of what we are doing and we stop. The second option is that we so harden our consciences that we allow ourselves to go even further with eliminating unwanted children.

I pray that the sad consistency of parents who say to their children, “I wish I had aborted you,” will wake us up to what we are doing and what we are approving.

      

"Eternal Perspectives": a Collection of Quotes about the Life to Come

I have always enjoyed reading books of well-chosen quotations on interesting subjects. I like the breadth, the variety, the joy of discovering a beautifully written or particularly insightful observation. I like writing that causes me to think about and to rethink positions I’ve taken for granted but may not be accurate.

In researching my book Heaven, I collected and read 150 books on the subject, and I’ve read another dozen since writing it—nearly every book about Heaven I have ever been able to locate. I underlined particularly significant portions of many of these, but only a small amount of the most interesting material made it into that book or my other books on the subject, including In Light of Eternity, 50 Days of Heaven, TouchPoints: Heaven, Heaven for Kids, and We Shall See God. I’ve often regretted that great words of insight into Heaven and the New Earth have been left to sit unseen in hundreds of files on my computer!

My new book Eternal Perspectives is the result of those quote compilations. It has over 1,500 quotes from authors, scholars, and theologians such as Augustine, Aquinas, Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, D.L. Moody, C.S. Lewis, A. W. Tozer, Alister McGrath, John Piper, N. T. Wright, Joni Eareckso
n Tada, and many others.

I’m rereading the book myself, and really enjoying it (the quotes from others I mean!). Usually it wouldn’t be appropriate for an author to say, "I love this book," but I do. And since 90% plus is not by me, only compiled by me, I guess I can say it.

I share more about the book, as well as some of the quotes, in this video:

I’m especially grateful to God for the opportunity to assemble this book because my many interactions with grieving, lonely, and hurting believers have prompted me to envision how some people will use it. They will pick it up and perhaps read just one quotation or page or section at a sitting, and they will smile, nod, weep, pray, and worship. They may underline it, read a quotation to a friend, e-mail it, or post a quotation on Facebook. They may copy it and place it somewhere prominent. God may use it to touch their hearts and comfort them, or to help them find joy and prepare for the world to come. I know how deeply God has spoken to me through many of the words in this book, and I am thrilled at the thought that he will do the same for others.

Whether our hearts are heavy or light, whether recent days have brought us joy or sorrow or both, there is something soul stirring about contemplating what God has promised us and what Christ shed his blood and rose to guarantee us—eternal life with him and his people in a land of never-ending wonder.