Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 36
June 9, 2023
The Ship Memorial Library Named after Nanci
A year ago, I got a phone call from Operation Mobilization, an organization Nanci and I have loved for years. They asked how I felt about their naming the ship library on Logos Hope after Nanci. I was, of course, honored, and knew Nanci would be, because we absolutely loved our visit to the ship six years ago, when it was docked in Jamaica.
By God’s grace, I have been in many countries and witnessed incredible ministries. But Nanci and I were touched as deeply by what we saw on Logos Hope as we have ever been anywhere in our lives. My friend George Verwer, the founder of Operation Mobilization who is now with Jesus, had the vision, along with OM pioneer Dale Rhoton, to launch the first OM ship in 1970. George and many others have talked to me about the ships over the years, but I hadn’t realized the breadth and depth and kingdom-shaping quality of this ministry until we witnessed it firsthand. We were blown away by the work of God’s Spirit.
Each time the ship docks, local people come aboard, visit the bookstore, buy many books very inexpensively, hear the gospel presented, and hang out in the international café. One of the best parts of our visit was going to the huge onboard bookstore, called a “book fair,” and watching the adults look at my books. But nothing compared to seeing Jamaican children flipping through the pages of my graphic novels Eternity and The Apostle!
The library was dedicated last September. OM kindly sent me this tribute to Nanci from Seelan Govender, CEO of their ship ministry:
For many years, I have personally known Randy and Nanci Alcorn. I consider Nanci and Randy as wonderful, long-time friends and supporters of OM, sharing a deep love for the Ship Ministry.
Nanci had a love of the ministry, young people and especially the library on board Logos Hope. She was an integral part of generous and selfless giving to so many that encountered the Word of God and the person of Jesus through books on the ship. She will be remembered as a dear friend to the work of Operation Mobilization. Her words, smiles, teaching, and impact will live on for many generations to come.
We are so grateful for her example of a godly life well-lived. To celebrate and commemorate her legacy with the Ship Ministry and her love of reading and literature, today we honor her influence on our ministry by renaming the library on board Logos Hope, “The Nanci Alcorn Memorial Library.”
It is our desire that future guests and crewmembers will use this space as a place of growth and prayer as they strengthen and sustain their daily walk with our precious Heavenly Father. Both are things that Nanci modeled extraordinarily well for us with her own life.
While we are extremely saddened by her loss, we rejoice with Randy that this is only a temporary goodbye.
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Seelan Govender
CEO & President, OM Ships International For and on behalf of crew and staff
Thank you, God, for Nanci’s life, which continues to bear fruit for eternity.
When we set up Nanci’s memorial fund, one of the three main recipients was the Logos Hope, and we have expanded it now to include the Doulos Hope. Learn more about OM Ships International here . And here’s a video about the launch of the Doulos Hope in May:
June 7, 2023
Do the Will of God You Know; Discern the Will You Don’t
Note from Randy: This is a great article from Scott Hubbard, editor for Desiring God. As he points out, God wants us to know His will. Because He loves us, He gives us His Word, the Road Map, so we don’t have to grope in darkness. The Bible is the revealed will of God. If we want to live in His will, then we should “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). When we do, we can lean on His Holy Spirit to help us discern the myriad of other choices we have to make in this life. I hope you find this article helpful.
Do the Will You Know: The First Step for Further Guidance
By Scott Hubbard
What is the will of God for your life? An air of mystery surrounds the question. God’s will can seem elusive, ambiguous, difficult to discern — a land without maps.
Is this the right job for me? Would God have us get married? Should our family move to the city or the suburbs? Is God leading me to full-time ministry?
Such questions send us searching for clarity — praying, thinking, pro-con listing, often second-guessing. What is your will, O God? And how do I find it? Depending on your charismatic convictions, you may do more: wait for impressions, read signs in your circumstances, lay out a fleece. I once flipped a coin.
We understandably agonize over such decisions. What job we take, whom we marry, where we live — these choices change the course of our lives. Yet because of their very importance, they also can distract us from the primary ways Scripture speaks of God’s will. Like hikers who pay more attention to each new fork in the path than to their compass, we can easily lose our basic sense of direction by fixating on one decision after the next.
Thank God, then, that in all our most difficult decisions, we have a compass:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9–10)
This familiar prayer may not offer the direction we long for — an unmistakable nudge, a whisper from heaven — but it does offer the direction we most need.
‘Your Will Be Done’
“Your will be done” is a prayer with levels and layers of meaning, a multiple-story petition.
On one level, we ask, “Your will be done on earth.” In the broadest sense, the prayer settles for nothing less than a transformed, transfigured earth — an earth where God’s revealed will is no longer ignored, neglected, or despised, but done with the same angelic zeal, the same seraphic joy, as his will is done “in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
On another level, we ask, “Your will be done — not mine.” Here we follow the example of our Lord Jesus, who not only taught us to pray these words, but prayed them himself: “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). We who follow Christ will never come close to the agony of this moment; like Peter, James, and John, we ever remain on Gethsemane’s edge. But in our own anguished hours, “Your will be done” is likewise for us an opening of the hands, a bending of the knees, a bowing of the head to God’s painful yet perfect plans.
And then, on a third level, we ask, “Your will be done in me.” As wide as earth and as high as heaven, the prayer nevertheless turns back to us, bidding us to ask not only that God’s will would be done everywhere out there, but also everywhere in here — right now, today, in every part of my life.
Which returns us to our beginning question: What is God’s will for my life, and how do I walk in it? Beginning from the Sermon on the Mount and broadening from there, we might answer with two simple sentences: Do the will you know. Discern the will you don’t.
Do the will you know.
We’ll see in a moment that Scripture gives direction for discerning God’s will in unclear situations. But as we’ll also see, Scripture gives a fundamental prerequisite for such discernment: attentive obedience to what God has already revealed. Doing the will you know is necessary for discerning the will you don’t.
And not only necessary, but far more important. Consider the words of Jesus in the chapter after the Lord’s Prayer: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Heaven hangs on doing the will of God. And the will of God here is no hidden key, no secret whisper. As Jesus says three verses later, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man . . .” (Matthew 7:24). In the most basic and crucial sense, the will of God is found in the words of God.
Imagine a man who, after hearing Jesus’s sermon, says to his friend, “That’s all well and good, but I still wish I knew God’s will for my life.” His friend would be right to respond, “Weren’t you listening? God just told you his will for your life! Embrace poverty of spirit, meekness, and peace. Let your light shine. Kill anger, lust, lying, and vengeance. Pray and give and fast in secret. Don’t worry; seek the kingdom. Enter the narrow door. Build your house on the rock. That’s God’s will for your life.”
How many of us, like this will-of-God seeker, wonder what job we should have while neglecting godly diligence in our present job? How many seek his will for whom to marry while not pursuing a biblical vision of singleness in the meantime? How many ask God where they should live while overlooking neighbor love and the local obedience Scripture so clearly prescribes?
Far better to know and obey this will, always available and ever clear, than to have the greatest situational insight and neglect this will. Or as the apostle Paul might say, if we discern the right decisions to make, and if we receive all impressions and leadings, and if we gain all guidance, so as to choose the right paths, but do not obey the plain words we already know, we are nothing (Matthew 7:21).
Discern the will you don’t.
At the same time, the very Scriptures that give us God’s clear will also tell us to seek his unclear will. “Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord,” Paul tells the Ephesians (Ephesians 5:10). And then he writes in Romans,
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
And now we see why hearing and doing the will of God we know is the prerequisite to discerning the will of God we don’t. Right discernment depends not merely on a clear mind or an intelligent mind, but on a transformed mind — a mind, John Piper writes, “that is so shaped and so governed by the revealed will of God in the Bible, that we see and assess all relevant factors with the mind of Christ.”
We can see this discernment process at work even in the life of Jesus. In Luke 4, for example, Jesus decides to leave Capernaum to “preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well” (Luke 4:43). The decision was by no means a simple one: the people of Capernaum didn’t want Jesus to leave (Luke 4:42); neither did his disciples (Mark 1:36–37). But Jesus knew his Father willed for him to preach the gospel broadly (Luke 4:43). And so, after spending time in a desolate place (Luke 4:42), he applied the clear will of his Father to an unclear situation through patient, prayerful discernment.
Let the emphasis land on patient and prayerful. Discernment often will not come easily or quickly. Gathering the appropriate words God has spoken, understanding how they relate to our present situation, rightly weighing all relevant factors and friendly counsel, praying for wisdom all along the way, and obeying what you know in the meantime — this is no small task. But it is God’s normal method of guiding us through the hundreds of moments when we stand before two (or more) paths, none of which has a sign that reads, “Go this way.”
In a world without maps, our best compass is an increasingly Christlike will, informed by an increasingly renewed mind.
Led by the Spirit?
Some, at this point, will wish to say more — and understandably so. “What about the leading of the Spirit?” they might ask. “What about dreams and visions and impressions?” Three responses are in order.
First, at times, the Spirit does indeed lead his people in a more manifestly supernatural manner. In the life of Jesus, we might remember when “the Spirit . . . drove him out into the wilderness” after his baptism (Mark 1:12). Even more clearly, we might recall how God led Peter to Cornelius, and then led Paul and his team to Philippi, through visions (Acts 10:9–16; 16:9–10). And so he may sometimes lead us.
Nevertheless, these instances of striking guidance take place within the larger framework of doing and discerning. The Spirit came to Jesus in baptism (Mark 1:9–11), to Peter in prayer (Acts 10:9), to Paul on mission (Acts 16:6–8) — in other words, he met them in the midst of their present, intelligent obedience. Unless we too are willing to follow the Spirit’s more typical paths, we cannot expect him to lead us down unusual paths — nor can we assume we would recognize those paths or rightly walk them.
Second, such manifestations of the Spirit may prove dangerous if we rely on them too much. Those who say, “Lord, Lord,” in Matthew 7 did not lack powerful spiritual experiences; they did lack obedience to God’s clear will (Matthew 7:21–23). Ironically, some who are most eager for a spectacular method of finding God’s will can be most prone to neglecting the ordinary opportunities for pleasing God right in front of them.
And third, the renewed mind’s rigorous application of the Scriptures to unclear situations need not sidestep the Spirit’s ministry — not when done humbly, prayerfully, and God-dependently. In fact, as J.I. Packer writes, “The true way to honor the Holy Spirit as our guide is to honor the holy Scriptures through which he guides us” (Knowing God, 236). The Bible is no dead letter, but the living breath of the living Spirit. Those who listen well to Scripture listen to him.
Decisions from Our Knees
Lest we forget the obvious, “Your will be done” is a prayer, a request that God would do in us what we cannot do in ourselves. Apart from him, we cannot know the will he reveals, we cannot obey the will we know, and we certainly cannot discern the will we don’t know. And so, we bow our heads, lift our hands, and say, “Our Father in heaven, . . . your will be done” (Matthew 6:9–10). The best decision-making happens from a kneeling soul.
In all your decisions, then, don’t neglect to do the will you already know. Then, with that will clear in your mind and alive in your life, do the hard work of discerning, as best you can, what might please God most in your work, your relationships, your home. Weigh the factors; seek counsel; view the matter from several angles. And through it all, ask him again and again for his good, pleasing, and perfect will to be done in you.
This article originally appeared on Desiring God , and is used with the author’s permission.
Photo by Jessica Delp on Unsplash
June 5, 2023
True, Lasting Happiness Is Found in Jesus, Not Sex or Sexual Identity
Sex as God intended—in marriage, between a man and a woman—is a pleasure to be celebrated (see Proverbs 5:15-19). Sex outside of marriage brings serious negative consequences—emotional, physical, and spiritual. Promising long-term pleasure it can’t deliver, addiction to sex and pornography enslave and degrade everyone involved. “[The adulterer] follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter. . . . He does not know that it will cost him his life” (Proverbs 7:22-23).
Research data from 16,000 American adults who were asked confidentially how many sex partners they’d had in the preceding year proved the same point made in the book of Proverbs: “Across men and women alike, the data show that the optimal number of partners is one.” [1] Other research similarly revealed that “people with more sexual partners are less happy.” [2]
Satan would like us to believe that people who have sex outside marriage are happier, but that’s a lie.
Sin Does Not Lead to Lasting Happiness
The unhappiest-looking person I’ve ever seen—face drawn and haggard, eyes vacant—was holding a sign that said, “Gay and happy about it.” I’m not suggesting, of course, that homosexuals can never be happy. God’s common grace offers some happiness to all. But Romans 1:27 speaks of those making these choices as “receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” Romans lists many other sins God hates, yet that one is singled out as particularly self-punishing.
I’ve had long, honest talks with those living the “gay lifestyle” who are decidedly miserable—just like many heterosexuals who have idols of their own.
Teenagers and single adults often face heavy pressure to pretend they’re having a great time sleeping around, when privately they’re filled with self-loathing and disillusionment, because reality never lives up to the promises. Likewise, there’s pressure on gay people to project an image of fulfillment. Some people—both heterosexuals and homosexuals—go out of their way to publicly celebrate their promiscuous behavior, all while trying to ignore the emptiness and pain. With the Satan-scripted obligatory claim, “[Fill in sin] makes me happy,” they offer false advertising for the father of lies, who relishes their self-destruction.
Little Idols vs. Infinite God
There’s a tragic irony in the positive term gay. No matter how happy gay may sound, these are the facts about the suicide rate among homosexuals:
The risk of suicide among gay and lesbian youth is fourteen times higher than for heterosexual youth.
Between 30 and 45 percent of transgendered people report having attempted suicide.
I didn’t get these statistics from religious conservatives, but from a secular website sympathetic to gay and lesbian issues. [3] A study that analyzed twenty-five earlier studies regarding sexual orientation and mental health showed that “homosexuals and bisexuals are about 50% more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to suffer from depression and abuse drugs.” [4]
For many years, it was widely assumed that this much higher level of unhappiness was due to humiliation over others’ disapproval. Though society has become much more accepting of the LGBQT lifestyle, unhappiness persists even among those surrounded by affirmation. Being gay or transgender may be celebrated in our culture, but that doesn’t change its nature or eliminate the harm to those engaging in such a lifestyle.
Jackie Hill Perry, author of Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been, writes:
All of the dead things I loved—the things I said, thought, did, talked about, watched, walked in, listened to, promoted, and went to bed with—had a measure of satisfaction in them, but they were never enough. I was made for an infinite God, so how could some little idol make me whole or happy?
Likewise, countless heterosexuals’ lives have been destroyed by believing the false promise of happiness in an affair. I know many people who’ve had affairs and have spent the rest of their lives regretting it.
Radical Steps Required, Great Joy Promised
The god of lust dominates countless lives in our culture. Jesus said, “I tell you that any one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28, NIV). Then He added, “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you. . . . If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you” (Matthew 5:29-30, NASB).
How decisively do we deal with the idol of lust? To find true happiness, radical steps are required to dethrone it and put God in His proper place. Christopher Yuan puts it simply in his book Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: “Our biggest problem is our sin nature, and victory is found only in Christ Jesus.”
This radical solution starts with salvation in Christ, which transforms our nature and dramatically affects our capacity to embrace greater happiness in God. Our justification by faith in Christ satisfies the demands of God’s holiness by exchanging our sins for Christ’s righteousness (see Romans 3:21-26).
In Future Grace, John Piper writes that we “must fight fire with fire. The fire of lust’s pleasures must be fought with the fire of God’s pleasures. . . . We must fight it with a massive promise of superior happiness. We must swallow up the little flicker of lust’s pleasure in the conflagration of holy satisfaction.”
Once believers are born again, sin is still present in our lives (see Romans 6:11-14; 1 John 1:8–2:2), but we have supernatural power to overcome it since we’ve died to sin (see Romans 6:6-9). God’s Holy Spirit indwells us and helps us obey Him and embrace the deeper happiness (see 2 Timothy 1:14). The result? We’re free to reject sin and its misery, and embrace righteousness, with its true and lasting happiness.
Beckett Cook, who lived for years as a gay man in Hollywood but later had a radical encounter with Jesus Christ, writes:
Surrendering my sexuality hasn’t been easy. I still struggle with vestiges of same-sex attraction, but denying myself, taking up my cross, and following Jesus is an honor. Any struggles I experience pale in comparison to the joy of a personal relationship with the one who created me and gives my life meaning. My identity is no longer in my sexuality; it’s in Jesus.
Sam Allberry has spent a lifetime wrestling with homosexual temptation. He writes: “Whatever we give up Jesus replaces, in godly kind and greater measure. No one who leaves will fail to receive, and the returns are extraordinary—a hundredfold. What we give up for Jesus does not compare to what he gives back. If the costs are great, the rewards are even greater, even in this life.”
One day God’s children will look back on this life with complete clarity. When we do, I believe we’ll see that our only true sacrifices were when we chose sin instead of Jesus. The “sacrifice” of following Jesus produces the greatest, most lasting happiness—both here and now, and forever.
For resources on this subject, see Randy’s book The Purity Principle and booklet Sexual Temptation: Establishing Guardrails and Winning the Battle .
[1] Arthur C. Brooks, “Love People, Not Pleasure,” New York Times, July 18, 2014.
[2] Thomas David Kehoe, Hearts and Minds: How Our Brains Are Hardwired for Relationships (Boulder, CO: University College Press, 2006), 132.
[3] Natasha Tracy, “Homosexuality and Suicide: LGBT Suicide: A Serious Issue,” HealthyPlace.com, April 12, 2013.
[4] Nancy Schimelpfening, “Homosexuality Strongly Linked to Depression and Suicide,” About.com, accessed October 30, 2014.
Photo by George Kondylis
June 2, 2023
Our Longing to Go Home Will Be Ultimately Fulfilled on the New Earth
May 31, the day before yesterday, was Nanci’s and my 48th anniversary. I thank God for His faithfulness and the time we had together. In the years before Nanci died, we experienced what it was to love and trust each other more than we ever had. It is my wholehearted belief that Nanci’s death was not the end of our relationship, only a temporary interruption. The great reunion awaits us, and I anticipate it and delight in imagining it with everything in me.
I read a letter from Tim Keller’s son shortly before his dad died. He quoted his dad saying, “I’m thankful for the time God has given me, but I’m ready to see Jesus. Send me home.”
This reminded me of Nanci’s last days on this earth under the curse. Her final journal entry on February 28, 2022 was, “I told the doctor today that I don’t want to fight the cancer in order to just give me more time. I am going off chemo. I am so relieved and honestly excited! I will see Jesus pretty soon!!!” Exactly one month later, she did.
Ten days before she died, Nanci said, “Randy, thank you for my life!” Through the tears, I said, “Nanci, thank you for my life!” A few days later, weary of the struggle, she squeezed my hand and said, “Randy, please take me Home.” I said, “If I could, I would take you Home right now. And I would never come back to this world the way it is.”
God promises we will in fact come back to this world, but NOT to the way it is now. He will bring us down to a New Earth, a resurrected planet with no more sin, no more death, no more suffering, no more weeping (Revelation 21:1-4; 22:3). It will have all the good things about our present earthly home, multiplied many times, but none of the bad.
Isak Dinesen wrote, “God does not create a longing or a hope without having a fulfilling reality ready for them. But our longing is our pledge, and blessed are the homesick, for they shall come home.”
And Donald Bloesch wrote, “Our greatest affliction is not anxiety, or even guilt, but rather homesickness—a nostalgia or ineradicable yearning to be at home with God.”
On the New Earth, we’ll at last be at home with the God we love and who loves us wholeheartedly.
“In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forever more” (Psalm 16:11).
Find more resources on the topic of Heaven, and see Randy’s related books, including Heaven.
Photo by Valentina Locatelli on Unsplash
May 31, 2023
The Heavens Can Never Stop Declaring God’s Glory
Note from Randy: Astronomy has been an interest for me since my childhood. Years before I came to know Christ, I was outside every clear night looking through a telescope. I was fascinated by what I read about the violent collisions of galaxies, explosions of stars, and implosions into neutron stars and black holes. My love for the wonders of the universe helped prepare me to hear the gospel and respond to Christ.
Decades ago, I connected with Kevin Hartnett, who worked at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for 40 years, retiring as a Science Operations Manager for the Hubble Space Telescope. Kevin is not only an accomplished scientist, but an amateur astronomer and astro-photographer. He is also an outstanding poet, overflowing with excitement about all things astronomy. Above all, he is a God-worshiper.
Kevin produced a beautiful and inspiring book called The Heavens: Intimate Moments with Your Majestic God, which is filled with a sense of awe and wonder that deeply honors God. Though the book is now out of print, you can download it for Kindle and also check out some of the book photos on Google Books.
Kevin told me in a recent email, “The heavens can never stop declaring His genius, power, and unsearchable excellencies.” I hope you enjoy this great article.
The Cosmos Keeps Preaching: My Faith After Forty Years at NASA
By Kevin Hartnett
Have you ever landed great seats at a concert, show, or sporting event — seats right down front, near the center of the action? That’s very much how I think about my position as an employee at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center over the past forty years (now retired), a career spent assisting in the development and testing of satellite control centers and directing the operation of various scientific missions.
As one who had joyfully studied physics and astronomy in college, I landed an enviable front-row seat to watch (and participate in) the technological advances in aerospace engineering and the growth of the scientific disciplines I so love. In fact, my last 25 years were spent helping to manage science operations on the celebrated Hubble Space Telescope program.
Astronomical Growth Spurt
During my tenure at Goddard, satellite-borne telescopes successfully peered above the filtering and blurring effects of earth’s atmosphere for the first time. Book publishers have frankly been busy ever since, rewriting and revising astronomy textbooks for all grade levels, as fresh discoveries now occur virtually every semester.
[image error]
ESA/Hubble
The Hubble mission alone has contributed immensely to our understanding of the cosmos. Who knew, for instance, that the universe was not only expanding, but accelerating? Who foresaw the immense morphological variety and complexity of planetary nebulae (see embedded photos) — faint, disk-like objects named by William Herschel upon finding them in his telescope more than two hundred years ago? Who could fathom that true planets around other stars are so commonplace that many can be detected through the periodic dimming of their stars when these “transiting exoplanets” pass in front of them? Who also knew that supermassive black holes occupy the centers of nearly every sizeable galaxy?
All these insights and many more were brought to textbooks through solid observational evidence collected by Hubble. Follow-on investigations and even more discoveries are now being made by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Written Across the Sky
To those who have ears to hear, these wonders all marvelously confirm the truth given us in Psalm 19:1–2:
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
Indeed, many glorious attributes of God are now loudly and profoundly declared to us nightly from diverse space telescopes and ground observatories all around the world. Among the qualities demonstrably proclaimed are his intellectual genius, his endless creativity, his eternal power, his exquisite, beautiful, and purposeful craftsmanship, and his divine nature (see Romans 1:20).
Equally marvelous, it is undeniably the case that the deeper you look and the more you listen, his genius, creativity, power, and beauty only become clearer. Why is the universe expanding? We don’t know — but he does! Scientists attribute it to something they call “dark” energy — dark because it’s unknown.
Planetary nebulae are now understood to be stars in the death throes of existence — literally throwing off portions of their outer layers in response to collapsing and rebounding material at their cores. How do the size, mass, and spin of these dying stars dictate the location and shape of the layers expelled? We don’t know!
Why do exoplanet systems look so different from our solar system? We don’t know! Many have Jupiter-sized planets very close to their stars or Neptune-sized icy bodies farther away. Why don’t all sizeable galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers? We don’t know! Our large and beautiful celestial neighbor, the Triangulum Galaxy, Messier 33, apparently does not.
Unimaginably Complex
Ah, but these are the simple questions. How our space-time, matter-energy universe actually works at its most basic level gets as infinitely deep and amazing as a graph of the Mandelbrot set. Why, even the lowly proton itself — the building block of every atom — has now been described as “the most complicated thing that you could possibly imagine. . . . In fact, you can’t even imagine how complicated it is.” The proton is apparently a quantum-mechanical object that exists as a haze of probabilities — a sea of transient gluons, quarks, and antiquarks — in some sense indeterminate until an interaction with it, or observing it, causes it to take a concrete form.
In addition to dark energy, there is evidence for the existence of an unknown type of matter that is gravitationally controlling the members of the (proton-based!) periodic table of elements that we at least recognize, if not understand. Like dark energy, it is simply called dark matter since we don’t know what it is either. Between the two — dark energy and dark matter — the standard model of the cosmos accepted by most astronomers today admittedly can’t account for about 95 percent of what it postulates is “out there.”
And just how quantum fields and particles interact at the most minute scale (if one can even define such) does have cosmic implications, like whether the universe will expand forever or ultimately collapse upon itself. This is why cosmologists and astrophysicists study phenomena like colliding neutron stars and black holes. Their velocities and energies reveal truths about the nature of matter and antimatter that are extremely difficult to discern — even using our most powerful particle colliders. Thus, no matter what corner of the universe you examine, the nature and operation of the processes involved are inevitably more exquisite and complex than first realized.
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ESA/Hubble
Heavenly Calling Card
God actually appears to delight in this heavenly complexity. We find a number of places in his word where he uses the heavens to set forth the extent of his knowledge, power, and might.
Psalm 96:5: “All the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens.”
Psalm 147:4–5: “He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.”
Isaiah 40:25–26: “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.”
Isaiah 55:9: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
You might say that, in some sense, our Lord uses the heavens as his calling card.
YHWH
If so accepted, what might the name on his calling card be? Well, he revealed one to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14) — the great Jewish tetragrammaton, the four letters YHWH, variously translated as “I am what I am,” “I am that I am,” or most simply, “I am.” He is the ultimate reality, the one underlying all existence. Because he purposed to do so, he commanded the cosmos into existence from nothing (Psalm 33:6–9; 148:3–5; Hebrews 11:3).
What makes more sense than an infinite being designing a universe that’s both infinitely revealing and confounding? Indeed, the more intently you look at the universe, the more it looks unsearchably complex, mysterious, and exquisite (Psalm 145:3).
NUMBER 1/137
Even secular scientists wax theological when they discover aspects of the underlying mathematics of the universe that defy explanation. The great physicists Richard Feynman, Paul Dirac, and Wolfgang Pauli all felt this way about the strange, dimensionless number 1/137 that nearly perfectly defines something called the “fine-structure” or “electron-photon coupling constant.” Feynman wrote,
It has been a mystery ever since it was discovered . . . and all good theoretical physicists put this number up on their wall and worry about it. Immediately you would like to know where this number for a coupling comes from. . . . Nobody knows. . . . You might say the “hand of God” wrote that number, and “we don’t know how He pushed his pencil.”
PRECISION TUNING
Indeed, for as much as we don’t know about how the universe actually works, astronomers now acknowledge (some reluctantly) that the fundamental values of things like the ratio of the electromagnetic force to gravity and the value of Einstein’s “cosmological constant” (which represents the energy density of space) could not be even minutely different from their measured values or the universe as we know it would not be able to function. The former value must be exact by one part in 1040, and the latter by at least one part in 1090 (Stephen C. Meyer, Return of the God Hypothesis, 142, 152).
For context, the estimated number of subatomic particles in the whole universe is on the order of 1080. Imagine trying to be so exact that you could confidently count all the subatomic particles in the universe plus or minus one — and then somehow be ten billion times more accurate still! This is the level of precision in the physics that underpins reality.
ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE
Commenting on these constants and many similar ones that appear to be exquisitely fine-tuned to produce an orderly universe, the famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking noted, “The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life” (Return of the God Hypothesis, 141).
Indeed, during the last several decades, there has been a demonstrable shift from the belief that life-bearing planets like ours must be commonplace in the cosmos, to the scientific realization that we’re more likely rare, or possibly even unique. This is not only because our atoms are fine-tuned to hold together properly, but because the unlikely circumstances of humanity’s placement in a spiral galaxy, around a relatively quiet star of the right color, at the right distance from it, held stable by a large moon, on a planet with sufficient mass to hold an atmosphere and water, having the right atmosphere, having a protective magnetic field, and so on, all multiply together as improbabilities to yield something nearly impossible.
Contemplating such facts, British physicist and author, Paul Davies, wrote: “The really amazing thing is not that life on Earth is balanced on a knife-edge, but that the entire universe is balanced on a knife-edge. You see, even if you dismiss mankind as just a mere hiccup in the great scheme of things, the fact remains that the entire universe seems unreasonably suited to the existence of life — almost contrived — you might say a ‘put-up job’” (Source).
This postulate actually has a scientific name, the Anthropic Principle, which basically states that the universe exists in a way that it allows observers to come into existence. While nuanced and still debated, one version of the principle, espoused by the man who coined the term “black hole” (John Wheeler), suggests on the basis of quantum mechanics that the universe — as a condition of its existence — must be observed. Coupled with the new understanding that each proton in the universe somehow requires the interaction with another particle or an observer to dictate its ultimate properties, this makes the whole theory both more believable and more unfathomable. To me, these qualities beautifully describe the Lord himself.
Honestly, my faith is also strengthened knowing that God, who built such scientific conundrums into creation and gave us the Scriptures, kindly described his activity thousands of years ago in these understandable words (Isaiah 45:18):
Thus says the Lord,
who created the heavens
(he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
(he established it;
he did not create it empty,
he formed it to be inhabited!):
“I am the Lord, and there is no other.”
[image error]
ESA/Hubble
‘What Is Man?’
Many people tell me that when they learn about the immense objects in the heavens or the almost unimaginable distances to the stars, they feel incredibly insignificant. One can hear the same sentiment from King David in Psalm 8:3–4:
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Compared with the size of the universe — even one star in it — it’s true: we’re of very little account. But stars and galaxies aren’t the most impressive item of God’s creative work. Genesis tells us clearly that the creation of Adam and Eve was the pinnacle of God’s activity in the creation week. After everything else was formed, the triune God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Genesis 1:27 goes on to say, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
As stunning as they are, galaxies were not made in the image of God. It is men and women, boys and girls, who are rational and moral beings made like God himself. If he counts the trillion upon trillions of lifeless stars and has names for them all, do you think the eight billion or so human beings alive today, who exist in his very image, escape his moment-by-moment attention? In Matthew 10:29–30, Jesus says that our Father knows the whereabouts of every sparrow, and that even the hairs on our head are numbered (maybe he has names for them too?!). We should judge our significance to him in the light of these truths.
Hark! The Herald Heavens Speak
Psalm 19:1–2 tells us simply but so profoundly, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” The complexity, size, power, and grandeur of the universe are God’s intentional gifts to us. They are meant to help us understand what he is like — to lovingly help us apprehend our Maker as the unsearchable ultimate reality that he is.
Indeed, the heavens are declaring at this very moment that our God is magnificent beyond comprehension. Listen to them. Hear how their countless hosts strive day after day and night after night to declare the least part, the smallest measure, of his great glory. It is never enough; it never will be; it never can be. He is infinite. Have you heard their voices? Have you joined their chorus?
Dazzling phosphors in the night,
Silent orators, so bright,
How I marvel at your story
And the Hand behind your glory.
This article originally appeared on Desiring God, and is used with permission of the author.
May 29, 2023
107-Year-Old Generous Giver Stanley Tam Goes to Be with Jesus
I found out recently that Stanley Tam went home to be with Jesus on Sunday, April 16. At age 107! I will never forget talking with him at length on the phone when he was a mere 102.
This excellent 10-minute Generous Giving video about Stanley is well worth watching:
Here’s what I shared on my blog about Stanley in 2021:
When I was writing my book Giving Is the Good Life, there were some people of times past I wished I could have interviewed. One of them was Stanley Tam, whom I’d read about years earlier. I couldn’t find Stanley’s date of death online, but considering he was born in 1915, it seemed safe to assume he had already died. I contacted a friend who’d known Stanley to find out more about his life. I was shocked by his response: “Want to talk to Stanley on the phone this Saturday?”
To my delight, I spoke with then-102-year-old Stanley Tam.
Here’s his story, with parts of our conversation woven in.
In 1934, as a young door-to-door salesman, Stanley Tam met a farmer’s wife who told him about Jesus. Six weeks later, while in a church, he placed his faith in Christ.
With twenty-five dollars of his own in his pocket, plus twelve dollars from his father, he launched United States Plastic Corporation, in Lima, Ohio.
Stanley told me, “I started the business in 1936, and I soon went broke. I was so discouraged. Then the Lord spoke to me: ‘Turn it over to me; I’ll make it succeed.’”
He legally made God the company’s majority owner—51 percent of company stock was given to a nonprofit, which in turn gave all the earnings to God’s Kingdom. Stanley believed that God wanted to run the business with Stanley as his employee.
God Was Just Getting Started
It turned out 51 percent wasn’t enough!
Stanley became familiar with an effective international ministry that he heard was closing due to lack of funds. He contacted them and said, “If I could trust God to provide $50,000 more per year to give you, would you open the ministry back up?”
They said yes.
In our conversation over the phone, Stanley’s voice grew animated, and he sounded half of his 102 years. He told me, “That ministry is still going. We’re now in forty-two countries, and we have thousands of people going door-to-door bringing people God’s Word and the plan of salvation.”
I loved that he said “we.” Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be (Matthew 6:21), and when you give to God’s work, you invest in his Kingdom. You are thinking and acting like someone with vested interests. When we spoke in 2017, more than 140,000 people had professed Christ the previous year through the ministry Stanley supported, and many churches had been planted.
Stanley told me about a meeting in South America in 1955 where he spoke and saw God work powerfully in people’s lives. He explained, “God spoke to me and said, ‘Stanley, if a soul is the most precious thing in the world, would you go back to the United States and turn your entire business over to me? And would you use the profits to spread the gospel around the world?’”
“Lord, you already have 51 percent of it,” Stanley replied. “Isn’t that enough?”
Then Stanley sensed God saying to him, “Stanley, on the cross, I paid it all for you. Now you’re my disciple. And I want you to do what I ask.”
A Call to Obedience
You might be thinking that since Stanley is an extraordinary man of faith, this all came easily for him. It didn’t.
Stanley said, “You’ll never know the struggle I went through that night. Finally I said, ‘All right Lord, you can have it.’” He added, “I just wanted to be obedient.”
Stanley’s wife, Juanita, agreed to follow the Lord in this too, and the Tams gave 100 percent of the company to God, meaning all the profits went to gospel ministry. It was only then that Stanley found the joy in giving over to God what he knew belonged to him. Stanley had a new plant built, four times bigger and facing an interstate, with huge letters installed on the side of the building: “Christ Is the Answer.”
Though Stanley’s salary was a mere fraction of that of a typical CEO, he gave substantially out of his income. In fact, he told me, “When my salary was $78,000, our personal giving was about $30,000.”
The company now produces more than 30,000 products and serves more than 85,000 customers. Stanley Tam had a wonderful business career in which he brought the world high-quality plastics. But more important, he brought the world what will last forever.
Serving God in the Twilight Years
What did Stanley do when he retired? He opened a small woodworking shop a mile up the street. His sign outside said, “Are you seeking peace in your heart? The answer is in the Bible.” Underneath was this offer: “Come inside for a free Bible.”
Wes Lytle, Stanley’s successor as president of U.S. Plastic Corp., said, “We’re different than most companies. We’re similar in that we want to make as much money as we possibly can, but the purpose is totally different. . . . What is that purpose? To give away as much money as we possibly can, for the glory of Jesus and the good of others!”1 U.S. Plastic Corp. has cumulatively contributed more than $150 million to God’s Kingdom.
Is Stanley Tam “coasting” now that he’s nearing the end of his life? Not even close. At the time we talked, he was praying a few hours in the morning and again in the evening. He told me, “I’ve talked to more than one hundred people about Jesus in this retirement home. And I’ve led twelve to the Lord.”
If we truly believe that God owns everything and that we owe him everything for giving us all the goodness we’ve ever known or will ever know, then Stanley Tam’s actions make perfect sense. While the details of our circumstances may vary, the heart behind generosity can be the same. Stanley’s life, and the lives of others like him, should stir us to say, “What can I do that would express the same faith in God’s ownership and lordship of all I am and all I own?”
At the end of our conversation, Tam said, “People used to tell me, ‘Stanley, you’re giving it all away! Why aren’t you keeping it?’ I told them, ‘I am putting it in the bank account in Heaven.’”
As I heard Stanley speak, I could imagine another voice—a louder and stronger voice—saying to him, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
If you’re interested in learning more about Stanley’s story, here’s an hour-long documentary of his life. And here’s a 39-minute presentation that Stanley gave ten years ago. His story is also told in the book God Owns My Business.
I’ll say it again: well done, good and faithful servant! So glad for Stanley that he has finally entered fully into his Master’s happiness. No doubt the many greetings in his “rich welcome” (2 Peter 1:11 NIV)/“grand reception” (NLT)/“lavish reception” (BSB) are still going on!
May 26, 2023
What Does It Mean to Be Filled to Overflowing with the Holy Spirit?
Note from Randy: Scripture tells us it is God’s will that we be filled with and controlled by His Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:17-18). What does that mean? My friend Kurt Nelson explains more in this excerpt from his book Awakening to the Holy Spirit: Person, Presence, Power, Purpose in Our Lives. As I mentioned on my blog before, most of us know far less about the Holy Spirit than the Father and the Son, but we need to see Him and His work with new wonder and appreciation. I highly recommend this booklet!
In Ephesians 5:18, the Apostle Paul exhorts the Ephesian believers with a command, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit (NASB)”. The phrase “be filled with the Spirit” is a present, plural, passive imperative, meaning that God commands (not an option!) you, me, and all believers to continuously go on being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is a must! It is essential. It is a constant. And we cannot do it ourselves!
By faith, we must continuously depend upon the divine Person of the Holy Spirit to be filled to the full, fully supplied, or as it were, overflowing, with the indwelling Spirit of God. This filling or overflow of the Spirit is exactly what Jesus had in mind when He proclaimed, “‘Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:38-39).
Since we are commanded to continuously go on being filled with the Holy Spirit, this clearly implies that we may choose to obey (or disobey) this command. Obviously, sinning against, grieving, or quenching the Spirit will significantly, if not completely, hinder the powerful flow of the ministry of the Holy Spirit through our lives. On the positive side, what can we do to increase or enhance the overflow of the Spirit’s work through our lives? The short answer is to simply pray daily and continuously ask God to fill us to overflowing with the Person, presence, power, and ministries of the Holy Spirit!
My friend and longtime associate at East-West, Dr. Joe Wall, recently reminded me that according to Scripture, there are two primary ways in which the Holy Spirit fills us. First, the Holy Spirit supernaturally fills us with wisdom, understanding, and the knowledge of God’s will.
“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives … .” (Colossians 1:9)
The Spirit also fills our lives and our speech with praise, worship, and thanksgiving to God.
“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”(-Ephesians 5:18-20)
These passages both contain the Greek word pleroo, which means that the entirety of our lives should be constantly filled and overflowing with the supernatural character of God.
Second, the Holy Spirit also fills us with supernatural power for ministry, most notably for the proclamation and advancement of the gospel as we see in Acts 2:4 (miraculously speaking in unknown languages), Acts 4:8 (Peter preaching boldly before the Sanhedrin), and Acts 4:31 (believers speaking the Word of God boldly). These verses contain the Greek word pletho, which carries the meaning of our being filled with supernatural power for ministry. Both types of filling are a result of the supernatural indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, and both are the result of our trust in, obedience to, and reliance upon God to fill and use us.
In Luke’s Gospel, one of Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray. In response, Jesus taught them what we refer to as the Lord’s Prayer, followed by a parable that encourages greater boldness (shameless audacity) in prayer with an exhortation to repeatedly “ask,” “seek,” and “knock” (Matthew 7:7). Jesus compares the relative goodness of human fathers to the absolute and perfect goodness of God, our Heavenly Father, when He says, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13)
The clear message here is that the great gift that our Father delights to give to all of His children is the Holy Spirit “to those who ask Him!” Since all born-again believers already have the Holy Spirit permanently indwelling them, the prayer we should pray every day is to ask God to so fill us with His Holy Spirit that we are overflowing with His supernatural presence, power, gifts, and fruits, so that “rivers of living water” will flow through our lives to bless and serve those around us on a daily basis (John 7:38).
“The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people.” —A.W. Tozer
May 24, 2023
Tim Keller Is Now Home with Jesus
Last Friday, May 19, author and retired pastor Tim Keller entered into the presence of His Lord and Savior. I have always appreciated his thoughtful, biblical, and Christ-centered insights, and have often recommended his books, messages, and online videos. I love that brother and prayed for his healing since his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer—knowing that healing is always temporary in this life, and asking that if God didn’t heal him that He would prepare Tim for that better world. And God has answered that prayer, and the prayer of countless others around the world, by bringing Tim into His presence, where he has experienced complete healing and great joy.
The Gospel Coalition shared this in their announcement of Tim’s death:
In 2021, Keller spoke on a podcast with Hansen, Kevin DeYoung, and Justin Taylor about his experience with terminal cancer and how it has focused his spiritual life.
“I think the way I handle imminent death,” Keller said, “is by fighting my sin and getting deeper communion with God. That’s certainly how John Owen did it, as you know. His Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ, the last thing he wrote, was basically how he was dealing with his imminent death. And that’s what I’m trying to do too.”
His experience of seeking deeper communion with God is exactly what I saw in Nanci’s life during her cancer years. Michael Keller, Tim’s son, wrote about his dad’s passing: “Timothy J. Keller, husband, father, grandfather, mentor, friend, pastor, and scholar died this morning at home. Dad waited until he was alone with Mom. She kissed him on the forehead, and he breathed his last breath. We take comfort in some of his last words: ‘There is no downside for me leaving, not in the slightest.’ See you soon, Dad.”
I quoted from Tim in several of my books, but especially in It’s All About Jesus, which is a collection of quotations about our Savior. Hope you enjoy these rich and meaningful insights from Tim. May His legacy of exalting Jesus through his words live on and continue to impact many for the Kingdom.
“In the whole history of the world, there is only one person who not only claimed to be God himself but also got enormous numbers of people to believe it. Only Jesus combines claims of divinity with the most beautiful life of humanity.”
“Jesus lost all his glory so that we could be clothed in it. He was shut out so we could get access. He was bound, nailed, so that we could be free. He was cast out so we could approach.”
“Because he was thrown into that storm for you, you can be sure that there’s love at the heart of this storm for you.”
“When you read the Gospels, you are seeing God’s perfections… in all their breath-taking, real-life forms. You can know the glories of God from the Old Testament, but in Jesus Christ they come near.”
“The mission God gave Jonah meant possible death and suffering… Jonah, however, refused to go, thinking only of himself. The mission God gave Jesus, however, meant certain death and infinite suffering, and yet he went, thinking not of himself but of us.”
“Jesus didn’t come to tell us the answers to the questions of life, he came to be the answer.”
“After creation God said, ‘It is finished’—and he rested. After redemption Jesus said, ‘It is finished’—and we can rest.”
“The fact that Jesus had to die for me humbled me out of my pride. The fact that Jesus was glad to die for me assured me out of my fear.”
“If we again ask the question: ‘Why does God allow evil and suffering to continue?’ and we look at the cross of Jesus, we still do not know what the answer is. However, we know what the answer isn’t. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he is indifferent or detached from our condition. God takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself.”
“The founders of every major religion said, ‘I’ll show you how to find God.’ Jesus said, ‘I am God who has come to find you.’”
“If you think it takes courage to be with Jesus, consider that it took infinitely more courage for him to be with you. Only Christianity says one of the attributes of God is courage. No other religion has a God who needed courage.”
“Everything in the Hebrew worldview militated against the idea that a human being could be God. Jews would not even pronounce the name ‘Yahweh’ nor spell it. And yet Jesus Christ—by his life, by his claims, and by his resurrection—convinced his closest Jewish followers that he was not just a prophet telling them how to find God, but God himself come to find us.”
“If we think we are not all that bad, the idea of grace will never change us. Change comes by seeing a need for a Savior and getting one.”
“Jesus himself is the main argument for why we should believe Christianity.”
“All change comes from deepening your understanding of the salvation of Christ and living out the changes that understanding creates in your heart.”
“The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”
May 22, 2023
Awakening to the Forgotten Person of the Holy Spirit
Most of us know far less about the Holy Spirit than the Father and the Son, but we need to see Him and His work with new wonder and appreciation. I highly recommend this booklet! (And I’m grateful for Kurt’s faithful service as president and CEO of East-West Ministries, which seeks to glorify God by multiplying followers of Jesus in the spiritually darkest areas of the world. They currently operate in more than 70 countries around the world, and I love what they are doing.)
If you were to be quizzed on your knowledge of God as Father, God as Son, and God as Holy Spirit, how would you do on your knowledge of the Person and the work of the Holy Spirit?
Well, I’m embarrassed to say that even as a seminary graduate and having followed Jesus for more than 50 years, I would score miserably on my knowledge of the Person and work of God the Holy Spirit. Well, at least until I began reading through the Scriptures with fresh eyes and a fresh desire to better know God as the Holy Spirit.
My observation of the Holy Spirit’s prevalence in Scripture as I read through the Bible in 90 days provoked me to take a deeper look. Sadly, I’ve allowed myself to be influenced by church culture, theological debate, doctrinal extremes, and abuses. In doing so, I’ve failed to seek to know and understand the Person and work of the Holy Spirit as I should. Frankly, I need to continue growing my knowledge of God as Father, of Jesus the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The great news is that God’s Word says we can make strides in getting to know God better. We can grow in our knowledge of God.
“‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord ... .” -Jeremiah 29:13-14, NASB
God wants you to discover Him, and if you make the effort, He says, “I’m findable. I’m discoverable.”
The Person of the Holy Spirit
Here’s my thesis regarding the Holy Spirit: In order to awaken ourselves to the heart and work of God—to know Him and make Him known—we must first awaken ourselves to the Person, the presence, the power, and the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
How do we do that?
To awaken to the Person of the Holy Spirit, a daily relationship is required.
A few years ago, I was meditating on the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life, and I was convicted of my own wrong and insufficient thinking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, although He’s forceful. The Holy Spirit is not a mystical being, although He’s full of mystery. The Holy Spirit is not an inanimate power, although He’s all-powerful. The Holy Spirit is a Person.
He’s a personal being.
Just like the Father and the Son are persons, the Holy Spirit is a Person like you and me.
He has intellect. He has emotion. He has will. And the Holy Spirit is to be pursued and known and loved and related to as a Person on a daily basis, as are the Father and the Son. Here’s a list of what the Scriptures say about the personal nature of the Holy Spirit.
He walks with us (Galatians 5:25).
He speaks to us (1 Corinthians 2:10, 14; 1 Timothy 4:1).
He lives in us forever (John 14:16-17).
He comforts us (John 14:16, KJV).
He counsels us (John 14:26, AMP).
He teaches us (John 14:26).
He reminds us (John 14:26).
He leads us (Galatians 5:18).
He helps us to pray (Romans 8:26).
He reveals truth to us (1 Corinthians 2:10).
He cleanses us (Titus 3:5, AMP).
He can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30).
He gives us life (2 Corinthians 3:6).
He carries a sword (Ephesians 6:17).
He gives many great gifts (Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4).
He fills us with God’s love (Romans 5:5).
Do you see how personal these are? These wonderful gifts all come to us through the Person of God the Holy Spirit. Seek Him, pursue Him, and get to know Him better every single day. Deepen your understanding of His Person, His workings, and His ways. The Holy Spirit is a Person.
Photo by Josh Eckstein on Unsplash
May 19, 2023
Material Wealth Is Not the Good Life
In 2007, actor Owen Wilson slashed his wrists in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. People magazine’s cover story about the “funny man who had it all” implied that his material abundance gave him every reason to live. Public shock over his actions unveiled the widespread belief that money, fame, cars, sex, a second home on the shores of Maui, and the whole celebrity package really do buy happiness. After all, wasn’t Owen Wilson living the good life?
In a subsequent issue of People, one letter to the editor astutely asked, “If a red-hot career, traveling the globe, a Malibu mansion and million-dollar paychecks didn’t prevent Owen’s ‘demons’ from rearing their ugly heads before the August incident, why would they do the trick now?”
The irony is inescapable: most of Owen Wilson’s fans would have, in a heartbeat, exchanged their mundane, commonplace lives for that of their idol. But the trade would have given them the life Wilson desperately wanted out of.
Most of us don’t have access to the amount of money and possessions celebrities do, but a similar story plays out in countless lives. If money were enough to constitute the good life, why does the prosperity-driven United States have a higher per capita suicide rate than war-torn, tragedy-plagued, poverty-riddled Sudan?
One thing is clear: what’s relentlessly advertised and sold to us as the good life is not the abundant life Jesus said He came to give in John 10:10.
Exchanging Good Things for Great Things
Nanci and I once spent five days aboard a ship that belongs to Operation Mobilization. The Logos Hope goes from port to port, bringing the gospel message all over the world. The volunteer teams use street dramas and music to share the Good News; other crew members distribute Bibles and Christian books to people visiting the ship’s huge bookstore.
While docked in Jamaica, we watched a crew of four hundred young people from sixty different nations welcome and serve thousands of visitors. Some also left the ship for the day to serve the poor in surrounding communities.
As we talked late into the night with crew members, we heard laughter and stories of God’s life-giving grace. These young people, many with little cash in their pockets and without credit cards, could have been making much more money doing something else. We might have felt sorry for them, since accommodations and food service on the Logos Hope are more like a warship than a cruise ship, and they often worked long hours at menial chores. Instead, we envied them, because while it wasn’t a perfect life, for most it was clearly an authentic, rewarding, happy-making life.
Nanci and I met Audrey, a young woman from the Philippines who had been serving for a year in the ship’s laundry. She told us a story about people trusting Christ after she spoke to them. Even though she didn’t know their language and they didn’t know hers, they had somehow understood her words. She’d witnessed a miracle. Her face beaming with joy, she said, “Every time I remember this story, I’m constantly amazed how limitless and how powerful our God is. It is such a privilege to be bringing this hope to all the people!”
So who lives the good life: Owen Wilson or Audrey on the Logos Hope?
What Jesus Said about Wealth
Google “the good life,” and you’ll find advice from both secular and religious sources on how to achieve a life worth living. Some of these attempt to temper the money-centered worldview. An article on MarketWatch.com entitled “The Good Life Is Not Only about Money” says, “Being healthy and wealthy have always been two well-known ingredients of happiness,” but it goes on to point out the importance of “being spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically healthy.”
Still, when I searched for “he’s living the good life,” the first two videos that popped up were people in plush surroundings, the first one flipping through a huge stack of cash and singing about partying, and the second one lounging in a luxury resort. A third was about a famous nightclub. One article was titled “The Keys to Building Wealth and Living the Good Life.”
Neither the videos nor the article clearly defines the good life. Why? Because the creators assume the viewers and the readers agree it’s about accumulating and spending lots of money to purchase happiness.
Yet despite both personal experiences and studies indicating money alone doesn’t bring the good life, countless people think and live and make choices as if it does.
Every truth seeker must grasp how fundamentally flawed this worldview really is. To correct this fatal perspective, Jesus said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15, NIV).
The last portion of this verse is rendered this way in different translations:
Your true life is not made up of the things you own. (GNT)
Life is not measured by how much you own. (NLT)
Even if a man has much more than he needs, it cannot give him life. (WE)
Jesus immediately followed this statement with the parable of the rich fool, turning our idea of the good life upside down:
There was a rich man who had some land, which grew a good crop. He thought to himself, “What will I do? I have no place to keep all my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and other goods. Then I can say to myself, ‘I have enough good things stored to last for many years. Rest, eat, drink, and enjoy life!’” (Luke 12:16-19, NCV)
So far, doesn’t this story sound great? Store up lots of money for yourself, retire early, and live large!
These different translations of verse 19 capture the rich man’s philosophy, which sounds remarkably like the American dream:
Live it up! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. (CEV)
Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. (RSV)
Relax! Eat, drink and have a good time! (PHILLIPS)
You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life! (MSG)
Jesus didn’t accuse the man of dishonesty, theft, or injustice. For all we know, he might have faithfully attended synagogue. He was living the life others dreamed of. What’s wrong with that?
Then comes the big surprise: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! Tonight you will die. Then who will get what you have stored up?’” (Luke 12:20, CEV).
What derailed the rich man’s attempts to live what he believed was the good life? First, death. Second, God’s judgment on his now irreversible life. In the predigital age, a high school photography teacher taught me how to develop photos by immersing photo paper in solutions. As long as the photograph remains in the developing solution, it can change. But once it’s dropped into the stop bath, it’s permanently fixed. Likewise, when we die and enter eternity, our lives on Earth will be permanently fixed, never again to be altered or revised. “People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27, NIV).
The rich man wasn’t merely a fool like the kind described in the book of Proverbs, who still had an opportunity to repent and choose wisdom (see, for example, Proverbs 26). God’s appraisal of us after we die is final. There’s no reset button, no do-overs. If at the end of your life God calls you a fool, you’ll be a fool forever.
This parable serves as a warning to all of us. Jesus applies the rich fool’s experience to that of others: “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21). To lay up treasures for ourselves and not be rich toward God means clinging to our riches instead of honoring God by helping those who are physically and spiritually needy.
Adapted from Randy’s book Giving Is the Good Life .
