Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 34

Your Invitation to the Good Life—the Only Life Worth Living

Chances are, you want “the good life.” And even if you’re not quite sure how to define the good life, you know you’d like to experience it. After all, who wants to live “the bad life”?

Google “the good life.” There we’re told, “Make lots of money, spend it on yourself, and you’ll be happy. Then you’ll be living the good life!”

That’s a lie. Yes, we all need food, clothes, and shelter. But once our basic needs are met, money often stops helping us and starts hurting us.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus told us that parting with money to help others actually brings us more joy than holding on to it for ourselves.

In other words, generosity is the good life.

Deep down, we all know we can spend every last cent on ourselves and still end up miserable. What Jesus calls us to do is far more radical and satisfying: love others by giving away our money and time. That sounds like loss, not gain, right? Yet in God’s economy, that’s exactly how we expand and enhance our own lives.

The Bible shows that anything we put in God’s hands is an investment in eternity. That doesn’t just mean that our giving will bring us good someday in Heaven. It will also bring us good here and now—while it does good for others. That’s why the good life is inseparable from generosity.

Living the good life is far better than you could ever imagine. And because of Jesus, it’s absolutely possible for you—regardless of your income—to experience it.

Where Does the Good Life Begin?

To understand what constitutes the good life, we need to grasp where life comes from and where it’s going.

God is the eternal source of life. He gave human beings “the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7), and He designed the first people to experience communion with Himself, the living God. He walked with Adam and Eve as they enjoyed a life-giving and delightful relationship. Then they sinned, disobeying God’s one simple rule (Genesis 3:8). While Adam and Eve’s physical death came gradually, the end of their life-giving spiritual relationship with God was immediate.

Jesus died, then rose from the grave, ensuring the ultimate death of sin and the defeat of death itself. His resurrection gives us life (Romans 4:25). In fact, His resurrection is the basis for God moving us from death to life (1 Corinthians 15:17).

Jesus calls Himself life in these four passages:

the bread of life (John 6:48)

the light of life (John 8:12)

the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)

the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6)

Jesus is not just a signpost or a compass to life; He is life. He’s not merely a map leading to water or an X that marks the spot where treasure is buried. Rather, He is the wellspring. He is the treasure.

The first step to finding life is clear: we need to place our lives in Jesus’ hands. That’s where eternal life—the ultimate good life—begins.

Once We Become Jesus‑Followers, How Do We Experience Abundant Life?

Attempting to experience the abundant life Jesus spoke of while burying ourselves in material abundance isn’t just difficult; it’s impossible. While possessions may be neutral or even fun, it’s too easy to end up trusting our stuff instead of our Savior and suffocating under the accumulation.

If abundant stuff equaled the abundant life, wealthy unbelievers wouldn’t need Jesus. Materialism puts makeup on the corpse, but it’s still dead. Jesus redirects us from death disguised as life to true abundant life. He says He came into the world to give us “a rich and satisfying life” (John 10:10, nlt) or “life to the full, till it overflows” (amp).

“Give, and it will be given to you,” Jesus said. “A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap” (Luke 6:38, niv). The more we give in Christ’s name, the more His life flows into us. And the more life flows into us, the more that life flows out to others.

When will we take hold of that abundant life? Not after we die, but after we give! In fact, after each gift. While the treasures Jesus and Paul spoke of (Matthew 6:19-21, Philippians 3:7-11, Colossians 3:1-2) await us in Heaven, attaining the true life happens here and now.

Our investments that result in treasures in Heaven have an expressly stated purpose: “so that” we can take hold of Jesus’ gift of abundant life. Of course, that’s not the only purpose. We give because we love God and people. But 1 Timothy 6:19 also tells us to grab hold of the good life here and now. We don’t need to wonder how to do this. God directly tells us it’s by generous giving.

By giving generously of our money and possessions, we’re able to open our hands to receive the abundant life God has for us.

How Can Giving Become an Adventure?

While it’s wise to do most of our giving in a thoughtful, planned way, there’s certainly a place for spontaneous giving. But even unanticipated giving is not ultimately random if you believe in a sovereign God.

One afternoon, I left my credit card with the cashier while I ate pizza and told her to use it for whoever came in next. As I saw the stranger smile, this thought came to me: God has me here today, not for a random act of kindness, but to fulfill His ancient plan and purpose. He prepared in advance for me to buy lunch for this man at this place and time.

Okay, you might be thinking, I understand that giving to others can bring happiness and even a wonderful sense of adventure to my life. But is there really any benefit beyond that initial good feeling I get when I help someone?

Your role in God’s Kingdom is not only as a son or daughter of the King but also as an investor, an asset manager, and an eternal beneficiary. Your reward may include the privilege of being a ruler in that Kingdom—a king or queen serving under the King of kings (Daniel 7:18, 27; Luke 19:17).

Who would dare to think such a thing possible—that we creatures of dust can make choices in this life that result in eternal gain? Jesus said it: when we give to eternal causes the treasures we would otherwise lose, the heavenly treasures we gain will remain ours forever!

What Are You Waiting For?

“Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

We simply cannot say yes to God’s promises of overflowing abundant life without simultaneously and consciously saying no to the false claims of the one whom Jesus called “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Giving helps us do exactly that.

Since Satan is a chronic liar and is bent on robbing us of the good life in Jesus, it’s likely that the moment you leave this page, you’ll be tempted to forget how God might have prompted you to respond. Jesus tells us to be generous and eager to share right now, in the present. If you wait until you have no doubts or worries, you’ll probably never take that next step. But if you do take that step by faith, you will find it exhilarating. Ultimately, giving is the healthiest and most joy-saturated addiction you’ll ever experience.

Don’t let the devil whisper rationalizations to keep you from a transformed life. Don’t let him convince you that it’s better to hold tight to what you have. And don’t let him tempt you to think, Sure, someday when I make a lot more money, then I’ll start giving. If you buy into that, it will simply never happen.

While our adversary argues that giving will rob us of the good life, Jesus tells us the truth: giving generates the good life. Now the only question is, whom will we believe?

Jesus makes it clear that the abundant life consists not in material abundance but in the life-giving spiritual abundance found only in Him. Eternal and abundant life begins in this world when we come to Jesus, the ultimate giver, and continues as we become more like Him.

I assure you that once you experience the good life, the abundant life, the generous life, you will never want to settle for less. Life will never be the same—nor will you want it to be!

Adapted from Randy’s booklet Are You Living the Good Life? Also see Giving Is the Good Life .

Photo by Amr Taha™ on Unsplash

Women Are God-Called and God-Gifted, Essential to the Body of Christ

Note from Randy: I love this article on womanhood from Paul David Tripp, answering a very important question: “Is your view of women aligned with your theology?” It’s adapted from his new book Do You Believe?: 12 Historic Doctrines to Change Your Everyday Life.

While due to 1 Timothy 2:12, taken in its surrounding context, I don’t believe women should be the pastors or regular teachers of men in the church, I do believe that in the pushback against that idea of women pastors, often the case gets overstated, and there is an anti-women feel to it, which disturbs me. As I’ve told many evangelical leaders, having raised two daughters I deeply respect, having been married for 47 years to a wife I deeply respect, and working with women whom I deeply respect, I bristle at the dismissive, biased tone toward women I sometimes hear from male evangelical leaders.

We shouldn’t ever violate what Scripture commands in an attempt to be relevant, but we should exercise the freedom to do whatever Scripture allows, to grant women the widest and deepest and most meaningful roles in Christ’s body. For further study, I recommend a panel discussion between Kevin DeYoung, Ligon Duncan, Melissa Kruger, and Nancy Guthrie on How to Understand Biblical Complementarianism, as well as Rebecca McLaughlin’s marvelous book Jesus Through the Eyes of Women. I also share more thoughts in my article Let’s Show Women They Are a Vital Part of Christ’s Body, Not Just Tell Them to “Go Home.”

Is Your View of Women Aligned with Your Theology?

By Paul David Tripp

Women as Image Bearers

You can barely open your computer, watch Netflix, go to a movie, or follow popular music without encountering our culture’s objectification, negation, and sexual exploitation of women. Our society attaches a woman’s worth to her beauty or views them only as objects for sexual pleasure; the degrading of female image bearers is all around us. Why are female pop stars pressured to dress provocatively? Why are fashions designed not to cover the woman’s body but to expose it? Why do countless women find the workplace to be sexually threatening? Why are a woman’s breasts often more esteemed than her brain?

Popular media oppresses women with norms of beauty that literally take surgery to obtain. How far away have we fallen from the dignity of women as image bearers of God himself? When it comes to the value, dignity, significance, and uniqueness of the imprint of the image of God, men and women are equals. Hear these words again: “So God created man in his own image, / in the image of God he created him, / male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). To reduce a woman down to the shape of her body, to dishonor, denigrate, or objectify her, or to negate the value of her gifts and her God-given contribution as one of his image-bearing resident managers, dishonors not only her but God himself.

I wish I could say that the issue of devaluing the image-bearing giftedness of women is an issue only outside the church, but I cannot. Now, I do believe that God has designed different roles for men and women in his church. I think Scripture is quite clear that the role of pastor/ elder is, by God’s design, for men. But I also am convinced that we have undervalued and underutilized the God-given and essential gifts of women. The Bible does not teach that the primary role for women is in the home. The Bible does not teach that a woman’s spirituality comes through her husband. The Bible does not teach that a woman’s life will only be complete if she is married. The Bible does not forbid a woman from being highly educated and having a successful career. The Bible does not prohibit women from leading men in political, education, and business situations.

Valuing Women’s Gifts

Let me give you two examples of how these truths connect to the life and health of the body of Christ. One woman in the church where we are members is a professor of black history at a local college. She is not only a historian, but she is a theologian whom God has used to help our church think through and navigate issues of race. Because her gifts are valued, she has been an essential contributor to the health of our church in tumultuous times. Her combination of historical expertise and gospel literacy is a gift of God to our church, but it is important to note that giftedness had to be recognized by leadership and given a voice in order for our congregation to be helped and blessed by it.

Years ago I was one of the pastor/elders of a church in the Philadelphia suburbs. Once a year we would go away for an elders’ retreat with our wives. We would eat together and do activities together. But when it came time to discuss the church, the men would go into one room for those talks while the women went to another room to share parenting stories and recipes. Luella, my dear wife, found it both strange and uncomfortable. She reminded me that each of these wise and godly ladies had a different experience of the church than the elders did, and it might be helpful to hear from them. She wasn’t asking for women elders but for the gifts and experiences of women to be valued and given expression.

So one Saturday morning after breakfast the women joined the men in a discussion about church. It was one of the most important and eye-opening conversations the elders had ever had. We learned things about ourselves and the life, culture, and ministry of our church that we would have never known any other way. As the women lovingly shared with us, some of our weaknesses and failures were exposed. We began to see these women as not only wives and mothers but also as God’s gifted image bearers, built by him to be essential contributors to the life and health of his church. We scheduled a time for our wives to be part of the conversation at every retreat after that.

A woman who comes to her pastor with a concern about issues in the church, questions about a sermon, or concerns about leadership attitudes or decisions should not be brushed off, wrongly criticized, dismissed, or silenced. A woman who has not gotten married or who has pursued a career should not be judged. Married women should not be viewed as attachments to their husbands but rather as God-called and God-gifted contributing members of the body of Christ who happen to be married. Women do not experience the body of Christ as men do. Women see things that men don’t see. Women communicate truth differently than men. A body of Christ is healthiest when women are esteemed and their gifts highly valued, not just in the home but also in the church. The church needs highly trained women theologians. The church needs to give voices to gifted gospel-communicating women. We need to encourage gospel-wise women to write. To do anything less fails to treat women with the honor that was stamped on them at creation.

One of the ways to build a culture that values the essentiality of the gifts of women in the body of Christ is to highlight the robust role that women had in God’s unfolding plan of redemption in Scripture. As you walk your way through biblical history, it becomes clear that the work of God is not solely a man’s domain; it is the ambassadorial calling of men and women alike. Sarah, Rebekah, Miriam, Rahab, Deborah, Ruth, Hannah, Esther, Anna, Mary, Elizabeth, Mary Magdalene, and Phoebe are just a few of the women God used to move along his plan of redemption. Men and women are called to be Christ’s disciples, his instruments, his representatives, and his messengers. We should teach this history to our boys and girls.

We want boys to grow into men who value the presence and gifts of women in the body of Christ, and we want girls to be clear about their calling and the need to hone the gifts God has given them.

The theology of the image of God in all people should radically influence the way we view and respond to women, co-image bearers by God’s design. This theology calls us away from denigrating and objectifying women and calls us to honor them as those who bear the very likeness of God himself. It calls us to honor their gifts, to give their unique experience a voice, and to train them for work as God’s agents in the world and as essential members of his church. Hear Spurgeon:

We cannot say to the women, “Go home, there is nothing for you to do in the service of the Lord.” Far from it, we entreat Martha and Mary, Lydia and Dorcas and all the elect sisterhood, young and old, rich and poor, to instruct others as God instructs them. Young men and maidens, old men and matrons, yes—and boys and girls who love the Lord—should speak well of Jesus and make known His salvation from day to day.

Taken from Is Your View of Women Aligned with Your Theology? by Paul David Tripp, Copyright © 2023. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.

Photo by Allen Taylor on Unsplash

Pray for Pregnancy Resource Centers as They Face Increased Challenges and Sometimes Even Attacks

I’ll never forget when I was a young pastor, and we invited Portland’s first and then only crisis pregnancy center to do a presentation at Good Shepherd Community Church. At the time, there were Catholic birthright centers, but only a dozen or so of these evangelical clinics in the country, most of them on the East Coast. The clinic director shared her testimony of having an abortion that devastated her. Nanci and I were among the many people in our church who bought into the vision of this great ministry. I gladly said yes to serving on the clinic board, and we took an offering to substantially support that center and help them eventually open a second one on the Portland east side.

Pregnancy resource centers are a ministry that meets the needs of the poor, the vulnerable, and the powerless. They display the heart of God for the child (fatherless) and the widow (abandoned, husbandless). These centers have the tremendous opportunity to both meet practical needs and share the Gospel. It is the kind of ministry I believe God is calling many to get involved in.

Most of these centers have dozens of volunteers, some of them hundreds, donating not only time spent with clients, but also everything from clothing to maintenance to service to office supplies and computer support. I have served on the board of one such center, on the steering committee to get another started, and have visited dozens of them across the country. Though their services cost them a great deal of money—as opposed to making them a lot of money— there are more abortion alternative centers in the United States than there are abortion clinics. When Portland’s pregnancy resource center started over 30 years ago, there were only 12-15 PRCs in the whole country. Now there are over 2,000! It is amazing how far the movement has come.

However, since the leak of the Dobbs opinion last year, and the subsequent overturning of Roe v. Wade, these centers across the U.S. have faced increased hostility. Care Net explains,

…with the overturning of Roe has also come a surge in anti-pregnancy center rhetoric. Failing to see the reality of how pregnancy centers provide vital services to families in need, many pro-choice activists have instead focused on one element of pregnancy center work—the fact that pregnancy centers do not offer or refer for abortion. Because of negative attitudes toward this, as well as the faith-based origin of most pregnancy centers, many activists have taken up attacks against pregnancy centers as a misguided outlet for their fear and anger post-Roe.

Sometimes this hostility has taken the form of fake negative reviews, spammed online appointments, or troll commenters. Other times, physical violence and attacks have occurred. Since May 2022, there have been at least 87 attacks on pregnancy resource centers and pro-life groups, Catholic Vote reports.

One of the pregnancy resource centers damaged by an attack is in my hometown of Gresham, Oregon. Last June, it was set on fire, apparently by an incendiary device thrown through a window. 

A few weeks before that, the SE Portland Pregnancy Resource Center had been vandalized. In the wake of the attack, First Image said:

This moment in our culture is volatile, and the spillover into violence is deeply destructive to the fabric of our communities. We reject and refuse to have any part in the culture of hate. Jesus has modeled a different way. It’s the way of love. That narrow way includes, as a challenge to us all, the love of those who hate us. 

Though the Gresham center was forced to temporarily close for the extensive repairs, First Image sees God at work. Luke Cirillo, their CEO, recently wrote, “There are more new people supporting this work than we’ve ever experienced. More clients are coming into our clinics to receive critical support. Years’ worth of security and facility upgrades happened in less than twelve months. In short, we are encouraged.”

Kathy Roberts, the Executive Director of Life Choices in Colorado, shared the following with Care Net about the attack on their PRC:

I am sending a picture of our soot-covered Bible that someone picked up when we got back into the building. It was opened to Psalms 68: “Let God arise and his enemies be scattered; let those who hate Him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked and guilty perish before (the presence of) God. But let the righteous be glad; let them sing to God, sing praises to His name; Lift up a song for Him who rides through the desert - His name is the Lord - be in good spirits before Him. A father of the fatherless and a judge and protector of the widows…”

I sent this because I felt there was a message in the words on the page that “just happened” to be opened. We cried and grieved the loss, and rejoice in seeing what the Lord is doing in the midst of the battle we faced…God is faithful and true; therefore, I march forward in this crazy battle. He has called all PRC’s to fight...can’t say it’s been a party—but I can say we serve a Mighty God. Serving Him is an awesome privilege.

I encourage you to download (without cost) my short book Pro-Choice or Pro-Life: Examining 15 Pro-Choice Claims—What Do Facts & Common Sense Tell Us? It will equip you in your conversations and also is a great book to share with those who are pro-choice or are on the fence. The book is now also available in Spanish.

Top photo by Bethany Beck on Unsplash

Reflections on Wimbledon, Nanci, Heaven, and the Creator and Redeemer of Sports, Plus a Personal Thanks to Carlos Alcaraz

I wrote the following on Sunday and shared it on Facebook. It’s an expanded revision of an exchange I had that day, responding to a friend about the Wimbledon men’s final between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. (Before I go any further, my last blog article, Meeting the Resurrected You, really lays the biblical foundation for much of what I say in today’s blog. If you haven’t yet read it, I would encourage you to do so.)

My friend shared about his time at Wimbledon the weekend before with Stan Smith, who won Wimbledon in 1972, the year I graduated from high school and the first year I played on a tennis team Five years ago, Nanci and I met Stan when I spoke at a Bible translation conference (IllumiNations). We had a great talk, in which I told him that when I played in college, I wore his white and green shoes!   (Stan Smith tennis shoes are the best-selling Adidas shoes of all time, and are still sold today.)

On Sunday we witnessed some of the most amazing shots and exchanges in tennis history, where Djokovic and Alcaraz kept hitting three or four winners in a row, with each shot appearing to end the point and yet somehow didn’t, so only the last one could count as a winner! It is probably in the top three finals I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of them! For example, Stan Smith over Nastase in 5, 1972, a month after Nanci and I graduated from high school. Six weeks after we were married in 1975, Nanci and I watched Arthur Ashe outwit with angles and finesse the far more powerful Jimmy Connors. We saw Borg take down McEnroe in 1980, Nadal over Federer 2008, watched Sampras and Agassi and so many others.

Nanci and I always got up early to watch Wimbledon together, as it’s a 6 a.m. start here on the Pacific coast. It was her second favorite sporting event after the Super Bowl. I cannot hear the word Wimbledon without immediately thinking of Nanci.

So naturally, I really missed Nanci on Sunday (what else is new?). But I believe that people in Heaven retain their identity and personality and also their interests in their loved ones and in what they and their loved ones care about on Earth. They are there with the Creator who made them in His image and gave them the capacity to play sports and love them. As redeemed people, they see through redeemed eyes all the goodness God built into His Creation, untainted by the Fall and the Curse.

Sports are not beneath the dignity of God or His image bearers living in His presence. Sports were not Satan’s idea; they were God’s, and He wired them and their goodness into our nature with our creative capacities. Despite the fact that they can be twisted, like everything else, they can and will also be redeemed, and even now in this life can be a picture of Him, and in our best moments sports can serve for His glory.

Hence, I don’t think it trivializes Heaven or dishonors God at all to think it’s possible Nanci DID watch Wimbledon. Of course, I fully realize there are innumerable things in the universe FAR more important than sports, just as there were and are countless things more important than sports when Nanci and the rest of Heaven’s inhabitants lived here in this fallen world. But God is the maker of all good things, small ones as well as large, and the large ones that shout God’s greatness and the wonders of His heavens and earth do not negate or obliterate the small ones that whisper the same.

Since God tells us we are to glorify God in whatever we do, in such mundane things as eating and drinking (1 Corinthians 10:31), can we not glorify God as we ride bikes, swim, run, play sports, and watch them? Could people who live in the presence of God on the New Earth enjoy nature, animals, books, music, and sports? I have every reason to believe that we can and will.

Did Novak Djokovic or Carlos Alcaraz know that what they did with their bodies and minds at Wimbledon brought glory to the God of the Bible, who made their bodies and minds, and gave them those phenomenal gifts they have honed? Do they realize they are made in the image of the God who created the universe itself and sent Jesus Christ to redeem all who will put their trust in Him? Do they know that one day He will redeem fallen and weak and deteriorating physical bodies and minds, and that He will renew the universe itself? Sadly, I doubt that they did know that  and did consciously give glory to Him, though I certainly hope someday they will.

And did most of the fans gathered at Wimbledon Center Court realize that the earth itself is a larger Center Court, where the redeemed of God and the angels are a great cloud of witnesses, themselves longing for and cheering for and who will one day witness and participate in the climax of the unfolding drama of redemption right on earth’s center court, where Jesus will return, and make all things right?

Twenty years ago, Nanci and I visited the Wimbledon Stadium and got the tour when I was speaking in London. It was and is a cherished memory, I looked at our photo together there again today, which is at the top of this post.

One afternoon when we were sixteen, Nanci brought out two of her family’s old wooden rackets (one was a Jack Kramer in a wooden press to keep it from warping, just like the one in the photo). We drove to Washington Park in Portland, and there she taught me how to play tennis. I fell in love with the game as I was falling in love with her. (Trust me, my love for her greatly exceeds my love for the game!) I expect Nanci and I will play tennis together in our resurrected bodies on the New Earth. (Maybe we’ll play mixed doubles with Stan Smith and Joni Eareckson Tada.)

The first tennis team I played on was at Sam Barlow High, when the school was brand new. Twenty-some years later I first coached Barlow tennis when our daughters, Karina and Angela, were on the team. Both were excellent players and qualified for the state tournament. Nanci and I watched a lot of tennis in those days, cheering for our daughters and their teammates.

After the girls graduated, I was asked to help coach boys’ tennis, which I did for a number of years. The last few years I’ve had the privilege of coaching my grandsons Jake and Ty Stump, third generation Barlow students, who live less than a mile away. (Both of them have also qualified for the state tournament.) Jake just graduated and after Ty does next spring, I will retire from coaching (for the second time).

Meanwhile, our grandson Matt Franklin, who was the star tennis player at Alta Loma High School in Rancho Cucamonga, California, also graduated. When we enjoyed a week of spring vacation together three months ago one of my great joys was going out several times as a foursome with my three tennis-playing grandsons, who are all very good players. I remember vividly a number of times taking Matt and Jake and Ty out to the Barlow courts when they were preschoolers and first and second graders. So proud of them and just as proud of Matt’s brothers Jack and David Franklin.

I will end full circle by coming back to the 2023 Wimbledon men’s finals, earlier today (as I was writing this on July 16). Over the years of coaching high school boys, I specialized in working with singles players. Some of them always pushed back whenever I would say, “Let’s work on DROPSHOTS and LOBS.” I would hear some of the guys groan and complain because those aren’t the exciting highlight reel shots, and all they wanted to do was hit groundstrokes, volleys and serves. They thought of drop shots and lobs as uncool “old man shots.” (I assured them they were my favorite shots even long ago when I was a young man!)

Now, if you didn’t see Wimbledon, don’t watch tennis and haven’t seen Alcaraz play, this will mean nothing to you, but if you have, you will totally get it (watch some of his highlights below).

I want to say, THANK YOU, CARLOS ALCARAZ, who will no doubt read this post and be moved to tears by it.  (Not.) Thank you, Carlos, because after watching you play no high school tennis player anywhere will EVER again minimize or make fun of the dropshot or the lob and say they are “not cool.”

Check out Alcaraz’s deadly drop shots at a different tournament a few months ago.

Check out his lobs here, it’s 10 minutes, but in two minutes you will get the drift.

Meet the Resurrected You

Resurrection—Christ’s and ours—is a cornerstone of the Christian faith. Yet how many of us ponder what our resurrected selves will be like? You might think Scripture doesn’t say much. In fact, it tells us a lot, and gives us solid reasons to deduce much more.

For instance, Paul wrote, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. . . . It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42–44). The term “spiritual body” doesn’t mean an incorporeal body made of spirit—there is no such thing. Body means corporeal: flesh and bones. A spiritual body will still be a body. But it will be spiritual, under the holy control of a redeemed and righteous spirit.

God made Adam from the earth to live on it, not float on the air. He joined spirit and body to make us completely human. He did not design us to be disembodied spirits as Plato taught, yet sadly, many Christians believe just that. To be with Christ in the present Heaven is better by far than living on earth under the curse. But Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 15 that we will not be eternally complete until our resurrection.

Was Jesus Only a Ghost?

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). Christ’s post-resurrection actions offer us a preview of what resurrected people will do—including preparing and eating meals, conversing, and traveling. If Jesus had been a ghost, we would become ghosts. More importantly, if Jesus had only been a ghost, redemption wouldn’t have been accomplished.

The risen Jesus told His disciples,

“Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence. (Luke 24:39–43, NIV)

Jesus didn’t just say He wasn’t a ghost; He proved it. Likewise, He “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). Whatever else a glorified body is, it is first and foremost a resurrected body.

In Acts 1:11, an angel explained, “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way. . ." The resurrected Jesus who lived among them forty days before ascending is the same Jesus in soul and body who will return to raise His people’s bodies from the grave. Why didn’t Jesus immediately ascend to Heaven? Perhaps partly to show His design for resurrected people to live on a physical earth.

You Will Still Be You

Bible-believing Christians often ask me, “Will we become angels when we die?” Somewhere they have gotten the idea that whatever we may be after death, we won’t really be human. No wonder so few Christians look forward to Heaven. Humans are not drawn to the idea of becoming inhuman.

Jesus clearly taught that resurrection does not happen one at a time when we die (see John 5:28–29). Scripture portrays resurrection as a matter of continuity from our present into our future lives. The Westminster Confession says, “All the dead shall be raised up with the selfsame bodies, and none other . . . united again to their souls forever.” Selfsame and none other unequivocally mean we will still be us.

When I became a Christian in high school, my mother saw many changes, but she still recognized me. She said, “Good morning, Randy,” not “Who are you?” My dog never growled at me—he knew exactly who I was even though I was a new person in Jesus. Likewise, this same Randy will undergo another significant change at death, and yet another at the resurrection. But I will still be who I was and who I am—just a far better version.

In My Flesh, With My Eyes

It’s hard to imagine a clearer claim to our physical and mental continuity in the afterlife than Job’s: 

I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. (Job 19:25–27, NIV)

Peter said, “Heaven must receive him [the risen Christ] until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (Acts 3:21). What could be a stronger statement about continuity than God promising He will “restore everything”? Restoration is about bringing back the original good, which requires getting rid of the bad. 

Adam and Eve were 100% human in body and spirit both before sin, and after. We will be humans after sin’s destruction—far better humans, but never non-humans. The fundamental difference between our present and future selves will be our deliverance from sin, death, disease, and the curse (Romans 8:21, 23). 

What Will Glorification Be Like?

The apostle John described the glorified Jesus as shining with an overwhelming power and brightness (Revelation 1:12–18). But just as Moses and Elijah were glorified in a secondary sense in the transfiguration, so God’s people will experience derivative glorification from Jesus: “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:1–3).

Our glorification will involve a dramatic and marvelous transformation. What prepares us to participate in God’s glory in our resurrection bodies? Our current sufferings (1 Peter 5:1–4; 2 Corinthians 4:17). We are called “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17).

Joni Eareckson Tada says in Heaven: Your Real Home, “Somewhere in my broken, paralyzed body is the seed of what I shall become. . . . if there are mirrors in heaven (and why not?), the image I’ll see will be unmistakably ‘Joni,’ although a much better, brighter Joni.”

Jesus says of the New Earth, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). This means He will restore Creation to its former pre-curse glory, and likely give it greater beauty and wonder than the original. We, and the new world, will become far better and in that sense far different. But we will be the same people, without sin; and it will be the same world, without evil and suffering. All will be made glorious.

Imagining Life After Resurrection

Though our imaginations will naturally fall short of resurrection reality, I believe we should allow them to step through the doors Scripture opens. Since we know what bodies are and we know what the earth is, imagining new bodies and a New Earth without sin, death, and suffering isn’t impossible. That’s why Peter says, “We are looking forward to a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). If you don’t imagine it, you won’t long for it!

“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous” (Psalm 139:14, NLT). How much more will we praise God for the wonders of our resurrection bodies and minds—free from sin and disease and dementia? Our resurrected senses may function at levels we’ve never known. On the New Earth, we’ll still be finite but no longer fallen, suggesting we’ll continually experience discovery. Will our eyes function as telescopes and microscopes and see new colors? Will our ears recognize voices from miles away?

We’re commanded, “Glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20). What will we do for eternity? Glorify God in our bodies. Scripture tells us, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Forever, we will eat, drink, and do all else to the glory of God. We will worship Jesus not only when we gaze upon Him and sing, but as we work, rest, explore, study, learn, and celebrate.

Revelation 22 shows us God’s plan for eternal Heaven is a redeemed earth free from the curse, inhabited by active, embodied people—wonderfully good news to all who imagine Heaven to be dull, boring, and unearthly. On the New Earth, “his servants will serve him” (Revelation 22:3). We will have things to do, places to go, people to see.

All We Were Meant to Be

In Heaven, civilization and dominion will be sanctified and glorified: “The holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever” (Daniel 7:18). I and all God’s people—together with my parents, dear friends, and my beloved wife Nanci, who went to Jesus in March 2022—will cultivate and develop the New Earth, and marvel at its wonders.

We will surely write books, perform music, create art, play, laugh, meet new friends, discover, invent, and travel on the New Earth. How do I know? We do these things now, not because we’re sinners, but because we’re humans, made in God’s image. Sin will cease; image-bearing will not. Above all, we’ll be joined to Christ, in a perfect marriage that present marriages, in their finest moments, prefigure (see Ephesians 5:21–33).

Are You Looking Forward to Resurrection Day?

Our destiny is to rule under the King on the New Earth, to His glory. You and I will become all our Father intends us to be. That process begins here and now and will bear full fruit in his eternal kingdom.

Together, we’ll creatively serve and worship Him with purified hearts, minds, and bodies, forever enjoying His vast and beautiful creation and sharing in His boundless happiness. We will delight endlessly in our triune God, and incredibly, He will delight in us!

Photo: Pexels

Nothing Is More Often Misdiagnosed Than Our Homesickness for Heaven

I believe that nothing is more often misdiagnosed than our homesickness for Heaven. We think that what we want is sex, drugs, alcohol, a new job, a raise, a doctorate, a spouse, a large-screen television, a new car, a cabin in the woods, a condo in Hawaii. What we really want is the person we were made for, Jesus, and the place we were made for, Heaven. Nothing less can satisfy us.

Mark Buchanan puts it well in his book Things Unseen:

Homesickness—this perpetual experience of missing something— usually gets misdiagnosed and so wrongly treated. . . . All our lives we take hold of the wrong thing, go to the wrong place, eat the wrong food. We drink too much, sleep too much, work too long, take too many vacations or too few—all in the faint hope that this will finally satisfy us and so silence the hunger within.

. . . Here is the surprise: God made us this way. He made us to yearn—to always be hungry for something we can’t get, to always be missing something we can’t find, to always be disappointed with what we receive, to always have an insatiable emptiness that no thing can fill and an untamable restlessness that no discovery can still. Yearning itself is healthy—a kind of compass inside us, pointing to True North.

It’s not the wanting that corrupts us. What corrupts us is the wanting that’s misplaced, set on the wrong thing. If we don’t understand that—if we don’t understand that God has set eternity in our hearts to make us heavenly-minded, we skew or subvert the yearning and scatter it in a thousand wrong directions.

But the cure for our yearning and our restlessness is not to keep getting more. . . . The cure is to yearn for the right thing, the Unseen Things.

. . . We are metaphysically handicapped. This is not so much a design flaw as a designed flaw, a glitch wired into the system, a planned obsolescence.

. . . This shaking, unslaked desire in me is a divining rod for streams of Living Water. . . . He put in me, in you, a homing device for heaven. We just won’t settle for anything less.

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

Photo by Rachel Claire

Should Our Joy Depend on Our Circumstances?

Note from Randy: I was reading, and immediately appreciating this article sentences before the author mentioned my book Happiness! I wanted to share it because Pastor Steve Bateman gives an important correction to the modern sentiment that being happy due to positive circumstances, including the welfare of loved ones, is somehow unspiritual. True, circumstances change, and our happiness should be grounded on Christ, who doesn’t change, but that doesn’t make it inappropriate to rejoice in favorable immediate circumstances.

Instead of saying, “My circumstances don’t matter; they’re not the source of my joy,” we’d be better off saying: “God uses my best circumstances to encourage me, and He can use my worst circumstances to enrich me. He will never leave me, and He has promised me eternal life with Him on a New Earth in a resurrected universe. One day He’ll welcome me into His never-ending happiness.”

As Steve reminds us, our immediate circumstances do matter. But in the scope of eternity, they’re not the main source of our joy because of our ultimate circumstances in Christ, which can never be taken away from us.

My Joy Depends on My Circumstances

By Steve Bateman

When I was a young pastor, a church elder detected my discouragement one day and gently said, “It will look better in the morning.” This simple advice has helped me countless times since. Often after I’ve experienced a good night’s sleep and a brisk run, God has felt nearer, my problems smaller, the solutions clearer, and my future brighter.

By changing my circumstances, I increased my joy.

At this point, many evangelicals will rush to correct me: “No. You increased your happiness, not your joy. Happiness depends on circumstances; joy does not. The world experiences happiness, but only Christians experience joy.”

This popular distinction between happiness and joy hasn’t always existed in the church. Randy Alcorn makes a convincing case that the two biblical terms are interchangeable, and he traces the artificial distinction at least back to Oswald Chambers in the mid-20th century. If Alcorn is right (I think he is), then either joy and happiness both depend on circumstances or both don’t. What’s true of one will be true of the other.

2 Kinds of Circumstances

“Circumstance” literally means “to stand around.” Imagine yourself at the center of a circle, and certain objective facts stand around the circumference. Four facts surround you: you got a good night’s sleep, you’ve had a strong cup of coffee, your daughter just made the dean’s list, and your boss just gave you a raise. The normal response to these objective facts is genuine joy. You’ll feel happy—whether you’re a Christian or not.

Now imagine the circumstantial facts are these: your allergies kept you up all night, you spilled your coffee while driving, your daughter is failing a class, and your boss just fired you. The normal response to these objective facts is genuine sorrow. You’ll feel sad—whether you’re a Christian or not.

Believers share these kinds of circumstances with unbelievers. Because of common guilt, children of God aren’t immune from the sorrow produced by the fall; because of common grace, children of wrath aren’t deprived of the joy preserved in the imago Dei. Unbelievers experience genuine joy as they receive the Creator’s good gifts, even if they don’t acknowledge him who satisfies their “hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17).

Beyond the facts of this immediate circle, there’s another circle with different circumstances—ultimate ones. These are the attributes, acts, and promises of God. For the unbeliever, such ultimate circumstances are bad news: God’s omniscience means every secret sin is fully known; his holiness ensures judgment is inevitable; his omnipresence renders judgment inescapable. These objective facts create a terrifying ring of circumstances for the unbeliever.

How does the unbeliever emotionally cope with these traumatic circumstances? By worshiping creation rather than the Creator and pursuing happiness in the gifts, not the Giver. Through spiritual blindness and willful denial, he cannot see beyond his immediate circumstances. Sure, replacing the living God with lifeless idols may bring joy for a season—yet with diminishing returns. His idols eventually fail him.

For the believer, the ultimate circumstances are happy facts. God’s omniscience means he knows our needs; his omnipotence ensures he can meet them; his compassion moves him to care about them; his providence confirms that every unmet need has a loving (even if hidden) purpose. Facts like the immutability of God, the substitutionary atonement and triumphant resurrection of Christ, justification by faith alone, and the promise of eternal life are firmly and forever standing their ground in a circle around me. My joy is completely dependent on these ultimate circumstances.

As Milton Vincent put it, “The gospel is one great permanent circumstance in which I live and move; and every hardship in my life is allowed by God only because it serves his gospel purposes in me.”

God of Hope

To be sure, we can often find joy in the happy facts of our immediate circumstances, since they’re kindly ordered by God. He “richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17): food and drink, family and friends, houses and health, Bibles and bikes, music and sports. The believer is free to have as much fun as legally possible while cheerfully obeying the laws of God and promoting the joy of others. While unbelievers hope for happiness from the world, believers hope for happiness in the world as they enjoy God’s good gifts with grateful hearts.

The missionary David Brainerd acknowledged our “absolute dependence” on God for “every crumb of happiness” we enjoy. Acknowledge this dependence and find guilt-free happiness in deep sleep, vigorous exercise, good food, close friends, public worship, meaningful work, and robust coffee—coram Deo. When we know the Lord has done great things for us, our mouth will be “filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy” (Ps. 126:2).

But when our joy is threatened by painful circumstances—when we’re shocked by sudden loss, paralyzed by gut-wrenching grief, or weakened by chronic disease—we fall back on hope. Hope is the fact-based conviction that no matter how bad things are now, they’ll get better.

Jesus prayed in Gethsemane with no outward evidence of joy. A bitter cup sat in his immediate circumstances. Why pursue this torturous path? For “the joy that was set before him” (Heb. 12:2). No matter how bad his immediate circumstances were, he knew they’d improve. For also standing beside the bleeding Son was the ultimate circumstance of an omnipotently kind Father.

As others have observed, for the unbeliever who doesn’t repent, this world’s fleeting joy is the closest he’ll get to heaven. For the believer, this world’s momentary sorrow is the closest he’ll get to hell. This is why Paul can rejoice in prison, knowing it has actually “served to advance the gospel” (Phil. 1:12). Immediate circumstance: Caesar’s prison. Ultimate circumstance: God’s purposes.

Again, Paul can say to Christians weeping over fresh graves that their grief differs from the grief of those who “have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13). Immediate circumstance: the believer is dead. Ultimate circumstance: the believer will be raised.

Dynamic Partnership

Joy and hope are faithful friends. “Two are better than one,” and when our joy stumbles under the load of immediate circumstances, hope is there to “lift up his fellow” (Eccl. 4:9–10). Hope and joy cooperate for our endurance. Hope sustains us until we can feel joy again.

On the last day, the ultimate circumstances will swallow up our immediate circumstances, and every tear will be wiped away. Until then, by God’s grace, I’ll pursue joy by changing every circumstance biblical wisdom allows me to change. I’ll accept every sad circumstance I’m unable to change as the providence of the all-wise God. And I’ll remember ancient advice: “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Ps. 30:5).

This article originally appeared on The Gospel Coalition, and is used with the author’s permission.

Photo by Alex Radelich on Unsplash

Tell Yourself These Biblical Truths about Suffering

In my book If God Is God, I write about how telling ourselves these truths that God has revealed in His Word about suffering can help us deal with it:

Suffering is limited. It could be far worse.

God sets a limit on evil and suffering in your life. In Job’s life, Satan could do only so much for so long. God determined the limits. And since life continues after death, your suffering can last only the tiniest fraction of your true eternal lifetime. Rest in the knowledge that everything that comes into your life—yes, even evil and suffering—is Father-filtered.

Here and now, God offers you the comfort of His presence. He promises in Hebrews 13:5, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” This unusual Greek sentence contains five negatives. Kenneth Wuest translates it, “I will not, I will not cease to sustain and uphold you. I will not, I will not, I will not let you down.”

Suffering is temporary. It could last far longer.

If you are God’s child, then your suffering cannot outlast your lifetime. Knowing that suffering will one day end gives us strength to endure this day. Though we don’t know exactly when, we do know for sure that either by our deaths or by Christ’s return, our suffering will end. From before the beginning, God drew the line in eternity’s sand to say for His children, “This much and no more, then endless joy.”

In 2 Corinthians 4:17–18 Paul speaks of relative weights. He calls our present evils and sufferings “light and momentary.” When we face a lengthy period of great adversity, though it hardly seems momentary, in fact it is. In eternity, people in God’s presence will fully agree with Paul that their earthly sufferings were unworthy to be compared with eternal glory.

Suffering can produce some desirable good. It can make us better people, and it can reveal God’s character in ways that bring Him glory and bring us good.

As a young Christian I believed that going to Heaven instead of Hell was all that mattered. But as I read the Bible, I saw that to be called according to God’s purpose is to be conformed to the character of Christ. God’s purpose for our suffering is Christlikeness. That is our highest calling. If God answered all our prayers to be delivered from evil and suffering, then He would be delivering us from Christlikeness. But Christlikeness is something to long for, not to be delivered from.

Whether suffering brings us to Christlikeness depends, to some degree, upon our willingness to submit to God and trust Him and draw our strength from Him. Suffering will come whether we allow it to make us Christlike or not—but if we don’t our suffering is wasted.

God can see all the ultimate results of suffering; we can see only some. When we see more, in His presence, we will forever praise Him for it. He calls upon us to trust Him and begin that praise now.

Suffering and weeping are real and profound, but for God’s children, they are temporary. Eternal joy is on its way.

God promises that the eternal ending will break forth in such glorious happiness that all present suffering will pale in comparison. All who know Jesus will have a happy ending.

We just haven’t seen it yet.

This article was adapted from Randy’s book If God Is Good. Also see the devotional 90 Days of God’s Goodness, book The Goodness of God, and booklet If God Is Good, Why Do We Hurt?, which deals with the question and shares the gospel so that both unbelievers and believers can benefit.

Photo by Ioana Ye on Unsplash

The New Fight for Life: An Important New Book from Benjamin Watson

For decades I have spent long and fruitful hours dialoguing with prolife advocates as well as proponents of racial justice. Both causes are close to God’s heart, and I have often regretted that those who see clearly one of these causes are often blind to the other. I don’t know anyone more insightful and articulate on these issues than my friends Ben and Kirsten Watson, who beautifully model a kind and thoughtful commitment to both prolife justice and racial justice. For fifteen years Ben was one of the most highly respected players in the National Football League, and now that he’s retired, he and Kirsten continue to have a ministry to many inside and outside the NFL.

There are things in Ben’s new book, The New Fight for Life: Roe, Race, and a Pro-Life Commitment to Justice, that may offend some political liberals and things that may offend some political conservatives. Readers who want to learn and grow should suspend judgment and prayerfully and non-defensively listen. If you do you may find you agree with more than you expected to, and that you can disagree with parts while being enriched by the whole.

In the introduction, Ben writes,

…let’s jump right in and acknowledge the elephant in the room. What business does a retired football player have speaking into the pro-life discussion?

It’s all right. I get that question a lot, and while I realize many people consider this to be a women’s issue, there are several reasons that I, as a man, have joined the ranks of those speaking into it.

For one thing, there are currently seven children (and holding) in the Watson household, each one of whom has forty-six chromosomes, twenty-three of which they got from my wife, Kirsten, and twenty-three of which they got from me. So from a strictly biological standpoint, men have an equal share in the procreation of every child.

Also—while I am by no means saying this is right— historically speaking, when it comes to politics and the law, men have held the majority of the power. Case in point: there have been 115 Supreme Court justices in US history, and all but seven of them have been white men. Women didn’t even hold a seat on the Supreme Court until Sandra Day O’Connor was confirmed in 1981, and there was not a Black woman represented until 2022, when Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black female justice in the Court’s 232-year history. It was seven men who voted Roe v. Wade into law in 1973, and five men and one woman who voted to overturn it in 2022.

I’m not trying to quell the voice of a woman speaking out on her own behalf. It’s vital that women do advocate for themselves. But given that it’s still predominantly men making the decisions, it seems to me that the most effective way to even the playing field is for men with like-minded ideologies to advocate for equality and justice along with and on behalf of women.

In many ways and for many reasons, men have championed abortion on demand in this country. They—we—have led the campaign to legalize this practice, harming women along the way, framing the unnatural as choice and freedom while ultimately seeking to benefit our own interests and protect our own passivity. It was a man, Dr. Alan Guttmacher, who first introduced abortion to Planned Parenthood.

Too often, men have remained silent on topics that matter most, believing the common assertions that abortion is a women’s issue. I have even encountered men who claim abortion is a necessary good to protect against future suffering or to keep other social ills at bay.

But as a man, I take very seriously the words written in Proverbs 31. Most people are familiar with the description of the Proverbs 31 woman, but earlier in the chapter, the author (King Lemuel) describes what his mother taught him. I suppose you could say this is what it means to be a Proverbs 31 man:

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;
ensure justice for those being crushed.
Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless,
and see that they get justice.
PROVERBS 31:8-9

Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s case” (ESV). Over and over in Scripture, God challenges us to protect widows, foreigners, the young, and the vulnerable. In fact, the truth of the gospel, in its totality, challenges each one of us to humbly ask God to show us places where we can make a difference.

To that end, the issue of abortion is very much intertwined with others of equal importance to me, like poverty, racism, and the trafficking of children. The way I see it, these are all matters of justice.

Over the course of my career, Kirsten and I have been introduced to individuals and organizations on the front lines of some of the worst ongoing human rights violations in the world today. Through those partnerships, I’ve seen firsthand how poverty, inequality, fear, and desperation can push people into unthinkable choices.

I traveled to the Lebanon-Syria border in the spring of 2017 with a pastor-friend of mine to witness the impact of the war in Syria. Hundreds of thousands of refugees had fled the violence, leaving behind their homes and possessions. We met with Lebanese pastors who had opened their church doors to families fleeing violence and visited primary schools where children were trying to continue their education in an unfamiliar land. I remember seeing a student’s drawing taped on the wall, depicting him and his family running from tanks and bombs. Sitting on the floor in the primitive conditions of a tent settlement, I spoke to a father about his harrowing experience. His wife sat by his side as their children peered through the sheet that served as a door.

Recalling the dangerous journey to safety across the border, he said through our interpreter, “As a father, I just want my family to be safe. We go to sleep hoping we will wake up back home. But we don’t know if we will ever return.”

My heart and mind drifted thousands of miles away to my own family and how, like him, I would willingly endure extreme hardship to keep them safe. No matter the cause of suffering—war, sexual abuse, food poverty, or discrimination— human suffering should upset us, and even offend us.

So while a lot of people define pro-life as protecting the preborn, I believe being pro-life means caring about life, period, and recognizing that everyone has the right to flourish and be protected, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic standing.

To echo pro-life activist Cherilyn Holloway, being pro-life means that “we care about the life that is in the womb, but we also care about the man on the street. We also care about these children and where they’re getting their education and health care from and Grandma and Grandpa who are entering end-of-life care and that they’re treated with dignity and respect. . . . These are all whole-life issues for us.”

Simply put, every life bears the image of God, so every life has value. For me, being pro-life means advocating for every life—especially those who cannot advocate for themselves.

This is the kind of book that can lead us beyond shallow political slogans and stereotypes that fit on bumper stickers or Twitter but are out of place in intelligent and respectful dialogue. The Post-Roe era we’re in now is a time to ask God to open our hearts and minds to what matters to Him. I believe He has raised up Ben Watson to be a voice for two interwoven causes that should be simultaneously embraced. I highly recommend The New Fight for Life. (You can read a longer excerpt here.)

In this video, Ben shares more about why he wrote the book:

Photo by William Fortunato

Set Your Heart on What’s Important over What’s Urgent

This powerful video from Dad Tired reminds us to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33):

 
 
 

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A post shared by DAD TIRED | Led by Jerrad Lopes (@dad.tired)

How easy it is to succumb to what Charles Hummel called the “tyranny of the urgent.” It may appear urgent to take a phone call or finish a work project when it’s bedtime for my kids. But while I could talk to that person later or finish work later, my opportunity to read to my child and play with them tonight is a window that will soon close, and once closed, is forever gone. (I may or may not have more nights, but I will never again have this night.) Missed opportunities begin as exceptions, then become a habit, and the next thing we know, our children are gone and we wonder what we could have built into their lives if only we’d realized how important and fleeting our time with them was.

Parent or not, everyone’s day is filled with the urgent—work, appointments, repairs, phone calls, shopping, news feeds. But even if we don’t invest in time with the Lord or read to our children or call our parents or mentor a young person, the minutes and hours still pass. These opportunities are not emergencies. In neglecting them we don’t neglect the urgent. We neglect something vitally, eternally important.

My advice to parents is this: don’t let the time slip by. Don’t leave full of regrets. At the end of their lives, nobody says they wish they’d spent more time at the office or watching TV or looking at their phone. But often they say they wish they’d been there for their kids. There is no substitute for time spent with your children and grandchildren, and no substitute for your undivided attention. And there is no substitute for seeking God’s wisdom to discern the difference between urgent and important matters.

Set your heart not merely on what’s seen, but what matters for eternity. Consider 2 Corinthians 4:18 and the example of Abraham and Moses in Hebrews 11. Invest in what will last, and center your life around God, His Place, His Word, His people, and those eternal souls who desperately long for His person and His place. Do this, and your days here will make a profound difference for eternity.

At the end of our lives, when we look back, most of what seemed urgent will be long forgotten. What we will thank God for—or regret—is how we handled what was truly important.

For more on seeking what's eternal, see Randy's devotional Seeing the Unseen . 

Photo by Josh Willink