Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 37

Joining the Real Party in Heaven

Imagine someone takes you to a party. You see a few friends there, enjoy a couple of good conversations, a little laughter, and some decent appetizers. The party’s all right, but you keep hoping it will get better. Give it another hour, and maybe it will. Suddenly, your friend says, “I need to take you home.”

Now?

You’re disappointed—nobody wants to leave a party early—but you leave, and your friend drops you off at your house. As you approach the door, you’re feeling all alone and sorry for yourself. As you open the door and reach for the light switch, you sense someone’s there. Your heart’s in your throat. You flip on the light.

“Surprise!” Your house is full of smiling people, familiar faces.

It’s a party—for you. You smell your favorites—barbecued ribs and pecan pie right out of the oven. The tables are full. It’s a feast. You recognize the guests, people you haven’t seen for a long time. Then, one by one, the people you most enjoyed at the other party show up at your house, grinning. This turns out to be the real party. You realize that if you’d stayed longer at the other party, as you’d wanted, you wouldn’t be at the real party—you’d be away from it.

Christians faced with terminal illness or imminent death often feel they’re leaving the party before it’s over. They have to go home early. They’re disappointed, thinking of all they’ll miss when they leave. But the truth is, the real party is underway at home—precisely where they’re going. They’re not the ones missing the party; those of us left behind are. (Fortunately, if we know Jesus, we’ll get there eventually.)

One by one, occasionally a few of us at a time, we’ll disappear from this world. Those we leave behind will grieve that their loved ones have left home. In reality, however, their believing loved ones aren’t leaving home, they’re going home. They’ll be home before us. We’ll be arriving at the party a little later. (I should mention that the fact that Heaven will be wonderful shouldn’t tempt us to take shortcuts to get there. As long as God keeps you here on Earth, it’s exactly where He wants you. If you are considering taking your own life, recognize this as the devil’s temptation. In John 8:44, Jesus said that Satan is a liar and a murderer. He tells lies because he wants to destroy you. Don’t listen to the liar. Listen to Jesus, the truth teller. Don’t make a terrible ending to your life’s story—finish your God-given course on Earth. When He’s done—not before—He’ll take you home in His own time and way.)

Remember, Jesus said, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh” (Luke 6:21). He said, “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). Laughter and rejoicing—a party awaits us. Don’t you want to join it? Yet even that party, in the present Heaven, is a preliminary celebration. It’s like the welcome at the airport for a woman who’s come home for her wedding. Sure, she’s home now, and it’s wonderful, but what she’s really looking forward to is the wedding, and the wedding feast, which will be followed by moving into her new home with her beloved bridegroom.

In Heaven: Your Real Home, Joni Eareckson Tada writes:

Without question, the most marvelous thing of all about heaven— heaven’s supreme delight—will be unbroken fellowship with God Himself.

The closer we draw to the Lord Jesus and the more we set our hearts and minds on heavenly glories above, the better prepared we shall be for heaven’s perfection. Fellowship won’t mean sitting at the feet of Jesus and fighting back boredom while everyone else is enraptured. No. Fellowship will be the best of what earthly friendship merely hinted at.

. . . Heaven’s Wedding Supper of the Lamb will be the perfect party. The Father has been sending out invitations and people have been RSVP-ing through the ages. Jesus has gone ahead to hang the streamers, prepare the feast, and make our mansion ready. And like any party, what will make it sweet is the fellowship.

Fellowship with our glorious Savior and with our friends and family.

To be in resurrected bodies on a resurrected Earth in resurrected friendships, enjoying a resurrected culture with the resurrected Jesus—now that will be the ultimate party!  In his book The Promise of Heaven, Douglas Connelly says,

When Jesus talked about the future, he pictured it most often as a party! Jesus was criticized regularly during his earthly ministry for having too much fun. The uptight religious people called Jesus a drunkard and a friend of low-class sinners. Even the followers of John the Baptizer were scandalized that Jesus didn’t require his disciples to put on sad faces and skip meals. Jesus enjoyed banquets and parties on earth because they reminded him so much of heaven—and because they provided wonderful opportunities to teach people how the social rules will change when Jesus is in charge.

In Heaven, everybody will be who God made them to be—and none of us will ever suffer or die again. As a Christian, the day I die will be the best day I’ve ever lived. But it won’t be the best day I ever will live. Resurrection day will be far better. And the first day on the New Earth—that will be one big step for mankind, one giant leap for God’s glory.

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

Photo by Ivan Samkov

Who or What Is Our Primary Source of Happiness?

Happiness can’t be bigger than its source. God is primary; all other forms of happiness—relationships, created things, and material pleasures—are secondary. If we don’t consciously see God as their source, these secondary things intended for enjoyment can master us.

Things such as winning a game, a promotion, or a contest; or taking a new job or a vacation are too small to bring big happiness. God, on the other hand, “satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things” (Psalm 107:9). We’re finite and fallen, and we lack what’s required for happiness. All those who look within themselves for pleasures and delight are doomed to misery. We just aren’t big enough and good enough to supply the happiness we crave!

Christ-followers enjoy what God provides first and foremost because they enjoy the God who provides them. Unlike us, God is infinite and without flaws. Secondary things bring some joy, but God alone is our “exceeding joy” (Psalm 43:4). Scottish theologian Samuel Rutherford (1600–1661) wrote, “It is the infinite Godhead that must allay the sharpness of your hunger after happiness, otherwise there shall still be a want of satisfaction to your desires.”

Secondary things are not incidental or unimportant— they’re God’s gifts to draw us to Him—so we should never disdain the created world. But by putting God first and His creation second, the world and its beauties become instruments of joy and worship. We love them better when we love God more than them.

Why do we watch the World Series or the Olympics? Why do we go to the Grand Canyon, the Alps, or the ocean? Why do we want to get near bigness and beauty and magnificence? Because we find happiness in beholding what’s greater than ourselves. It’s what we’re made for: an infinitely great, happy-making God.

When an atheist enjoys the cool breeze of a sunny autumn day as he writes his treatise on God’s nonexistence, the source of his pleasure is God. For God is the author of the universe itself: the Earth, cool breezes, sunny days, the atheist made in God’s image, the physical sensations that give the capacity to enjoy nature, and even the powers of rational thought the atheist uses to argue against God.

One of the keys to enjoying life is connecting the dots between our happiness and God as its provider, as well as between our happiness and God’s own happiness. When I run with my dog or look at Jupiter dominating the sky over Mount Hood, I experience happiness. Unbelievers are capable of enjoying happiness in exactly the same things, but their happiness can’t be as immense or enduring, because they stop short of recognizing the one whose overflowing reservoir of happiness has spilled over into His creation.

This helps us understand what Asaph says in Psalm 73: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (verse 25). Is Asaph saying he doesn’t desire food, water, clothes, shelter, friendship, and laughter? No. He’s saying, in essence, “Of the many things I desire, at the core of all of them is God Himself. Therefore, all that I desire is summed up in God alone.”

As I write this, I’m looking up from my computer at a photo I took underwater. It reminds me of the sheer delight of my unforgettable ninety-minute encounter with a wonderful monk seal I named Molly.

Whenever I look at Molly’s photo, my heart fills with joyful memories and longing for the New Earth’s joy and the days that await us. That anticipation gives me a harvest of happiness today. Of course, many people who don’t know God love to snorkel and dive. They’re truly moved by the enchanting beauty of the reef.

But an immense part of my happiness as I snorkel is knowing God, the primary, who made all these secondary wonders. I sense His presence with me—both when I’m out in His ocean and as I sit in my home remembering His nearness, both then and now. This is a shared experience between my God and me, and even as I type, the memories of countless hours spent in the water together with Him, enjoying His beautiful underwater kingdom, bring joyful tears to my eyes. The beautiful coral reef and its wondrous creatures don’t draw me away from God—they draw me to Him. But if I were to worship them and not the God who made them, I would not only displease Him, I would diminish and ruin them.

In the movie The Avengers, Thor’s brother, the evil Loki, weary of the Incredible Hulk, says to him in a commanding voice, “Enough! . . . I am a god, you dull creature!” The Hulk, unimpressed, picks up Loki with one hand and gives him a merciless thrashing, pounding him into the ground. As he walks away, the Hulk turns back toward Loki, looking disgusted, and mutters, “Puny god.” Loki, utterly defeated, gives a pathetic little squeak.

All idols are not only false gods but also puny gods. The very gifts of God that can bring us great joy become dismally small when we make them primary. Only the true God is big enough to bear the weight of all our happiness, and the larger we see Him, the bigger our happiness in Him.

In the mid-1600s, Puritan John Gibbon said, “God alone is enough, but without him, nothing [is enough] for thy happiness.” Whether or not we’re conscious of it, since God is the fountainhead of happiness, the search for happiness is always the search for God.

Excerpted from Randy's book 60 Days of Happiness . 

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Will We Retain Our Individuality Living on the New Earth?

While teaching my Eternity 101 class, I answered the question, “Will We Lose Our Personalities in Heaven?” Below is my response, followed by an edited transcript:

Our friends each have certain mannerisms—a unique combination involving their sense of humor, personalities, and certain ways and idiosyncrasies. People ask if we will lose those in Heaven and my response is, “Why would we?”

Of course, if you’re talking about something sinful, we’ll lose that. But their sin nature is not likely what you enjoy about your friends.

Where does this variety come from? Who made our friends? Who made each of us? God did! And since God’s in charge, what possible reason can explain His reasons for making us other than who we are, except to make us the same people only better? We’ll be completely righteous.

Would He take away from us on the New Earth the gifts He’s given to us on this earth? Would He take away from us in Heaven the particular interests and passions He’s given us here?

I think we underestimate just how much of our lives here is from the hand of God in the first place. The life that we now know and the things we enjoy so much—the parts untainted by sin—we would naturally expect to have carried over, including distinctive personalities.

Besides, if we weren’t ourselves in the afterlife, then we couldn’t be held accountable for what we did in this life. The Judgment would be meaningless. If Barbara is no longer Barbara, she can’t be rewarded or held accountable for anything Barbara did. She’d have to say, “But that wasn’t me.” The doctrines of judgment and eternal rewards depend on people’s retaining their distinct identities from this life to the next.

Too often, we import concepts from eastern religions into our view of the afterlife. We’re influenced by ideas like: “We’ll all be absorbed into that great cosmic consciousness. None of us will be individuals. There will be perfect unity. The ‘old’ person who was will no longer be.”

From a biblical perspective, that’s nonsense. God made us individuals, and we will always be individuals. You can have unity with other individuals, which we’ll experience as all being part of the bride of Christ. But the obliteration of individuality is not taught in Scripture.

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

Photo by Melanie Kanzler on Unsplash

Are We at Risk of Losing Christ in Our Christianity?

Note from Randy: I love this article by Greg Morse, staff writer for Desiring God. How easy it is to fall into a Christian life of drudgery where we wearily put one foot in front of another, thinking, “I’m going to try my best to live for Jesus,” all the while neglecting to actually focus on Him. How much better if we echo Paul’s words from Philippians 3: “I want to know Christ.” He’d known him for thirty years, but he wanted to know Him more every day.

Oswald Chambers wrote, “There is a vast difference between devotion to a person and devotion to principles or to a cause. Our Lord never proclaimed a cause—He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself.” May we never forget that Jesus is the purpose and end goal of all we do. As Greg says, let’s not risk losing Jesus in our Christianity.

Losing Christ in Christianity

By Greg Morse

The question sounds strange at first, but I’ve come to ask it of myself: Am I in danger of losing Christ in my Christianity?

Among those of us who truly know Jesus, love him, believe upon him for eternal life — have we lost our first love? Does the greater light now shine as the lesser in our hearts? Has he traveled unnoticed from his place as the great Object of our souls to an adjective modifying other pursuits? Books on Christian living sell today — books on Christ himself usually remain in stock.

Can we still say in truth, “My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning” (Psalm 130:6)? Is the one thing we ask of our Lord to gaze upon his beauty and converse with him (Psalm 27:4)? If he returned today, would it feel like an interruption, or would he only interrupt us asking each other, “Have you seen him whom my soul loves” (Song 3:3)? Do we feel the pain of his absence? Do we miss him?

Of late, I have peered less over the walls of this world, waiting for his coming. Instead, I have busied myself with good and even godly pursuits — those that are from him, to him, and through him, but are not him. To my surprise, I realized I began to lose Christ, of all places, in my Christianity. And losing sight of him here seems subtler, easier.

I shall attempt to describe how we can lose sight of him in a few places most precious to us: the gospel, the Scriptures, the pursuit of holiness, and the church.

Have we lost him in the gospel?

I’ve misplaced Jesus in the gospel when the gospel becomes faceless, when it becomes part of an equation where gospel plus faith equals heaven. Michael Reeves gets at this when he writes that Charles Spurgeon preferred to speak of preaching “Christ” than preaching “the gospel,” “the truth,” or anything else, because of how easily we reduce “the gospel” or “the truth” to an impersonal system. Christ himself is, in person, the way, the truth, and the life; the glory of God; the life and delight of the saints; the Bridegroom that the bride is invited to enjoy. (Spurgeon on the Christian Life, 71)

If I do not keep guard, the gospel and the truth can be reduced to a bloodless, pulseless science. Against this personless scheme, Paul describes God’s gospel as that which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 1:1–4)

Paul did not dedicate his life to a static formula, but God set him apart for the gospel, the gospel “concerning his Son.” This gospel, God’s power for salvation, is the good news of a person — Jesus Christ, the long-prophesied Son of David, crucified for sin, resurrected in power, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, soon to return.

Have we lost him in the Scriptures?

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life,” Jesus told the Pharisees, “and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39–40). Have we learned bad habits of Bible reading that imitate these blind Pharisees?

Ask yourself, What have I seen in the Bible lately? You may answer that you’ve learned about contentment, how to suffer, or how to better love your wife. You may have explored the disciples’ boldness in the book of Acts or gleaned from the minister’s heart in the Pastoral Epistles. You may have bent low in humility while traveling through Philippians or been taught to pray in the Psalms or contemplated your assurance in 1 John. All good lessons.

Next, ask yourself, What have I seen of Christ lately? What about him has emblazoned your heart and satisfied your soul? Which of his words has captivated your attention? Which of his excellencies has harpooned your affections? What about his cross has humbled you, what of his resurrection has sustained you, what of his return fixes your eyes upon the skies, waiting?

I suspect with most of us, the first question will be much easier to answer than the second. We have thought about much — but how much about Christ himself? We speak much of faith — but how much about whom our faith is in? The Pharisees searched out many holy topics but missed seeing the Messiah right in front of them.

Have we lost him pursuing holiness?

When we lose sight of Jesus in our sanctification, Christlikeness comes to mean perfect virtue, and sin a nonpersonal infraction.

Instead of seeing our own love as imitating Christ’s love (John 15:12), we seek to possess a generic love to the full extent, a general patience overflowing, a basic joy and gentleness and self-control to the superlative. Holiness soon becomes ethical math, where we take a positive attribute and calculate how much more of it we need.

And when we think of sin, we come to mean merely breaking a soulless law. Sin happens when the sign said the speed limit was 70 miles per hour, and the speed camera clocked us going 80. We broke the law. The cold eye of justice catches us — a ticket is sent in the mail.

Instead, our holiness looks at Jesus, looks like Jesus. Beholding his glory, we are changed into the same image (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Father predestined us to be conformed to his Son’s likeness (Romans 8:29). We do not attain shining virtues for their own sake; we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14). And we obey not an abstract law, but his law: we bear one another’s burdens “and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Instead of confessing sin as those who broke the speed limit, we confess sin against our triune God.

Have we lost him in the church?

Our increasingly post-Christian society prefers the Golden Rule to the Golden Ruler. Humanitarianism pats the conscience on the back — love of neighbor remains, though many pretend God is dead.

Yet we can be guilty of a more holy version. We are to be known by our love for each other, it is true, but not merely by our love for each other. We cannot major on horizontal love for other Christians and forget vertical love for Christ, thus taking seriously the second great command to love one another as ourselves while ignoring the first to love God with everything.

The temptation is like the short-term-mission-trip temptation — dig the well; forget the living water. We can cook for the small group, lead the prayer meeting, visit the recluse members, set up the chairs for service, practice for worship, set up a meal train, send a card, attend the funeral — and lose focus on Jesus. Christian community, for it to remain such, must be community founded upon the work of Christ, full of the Spirit of Christ, and existing for the glory of Christ.

Our life in the body is life in his body. Jesus “is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent” (Colossians 1:18). We are not the best version of the world’s social clubs, the best humanistic society with sprinkled platitudes about Jesus. We remain his possession, his sheep, his bride. As the King leaves, so goes our lampstands.

Searching the Unsearchable

“The study of Jesus Christ is the most noble subject that ever a soul spent itself upon,” writes John Flavel. “Those that rack and torture their brains upon other studies like children, weary themselves at a low game; the eagle plays at the sun itself. The angels study this doctrine, and stoop down to look into this deep abyss.” The angels never tire from gazing upon the King in his beauty. Have we?

Christian, “though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8–9). To know him is heaven on earth and the very heaven of heavens. The saints’ eternal happiness is to see God in the face of Christ and become like what we see. Heaven orbits him. Will we settle now for a Christianity malnourished of Christ?

Let’s spend our lives beholding his manifold glories. Let’s plunder the riches of Christ until we too verify that they are “unsearchable” (Ephesians 3:8). Let’s make his love — which surpasses knowledge — our all-engrossing subject. Let’s request of our ministers, as the Greeks did Philip, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” (John 12:21).

We all have more of him to see. Flavel again:

It is the studying of Christ, as in the planting of a new discovered country; at first men sit down by the seaside, upon the skirts and borders of the land; and there they dwell, but by degrees they search farther and farther into the heart of the country. Ah, the best of us are yet but upon the borders of this vast continent!

Travel onward, dear Christian, in the knowledge of him — do not settle for his ethic, his marriage counseling, his worldview without him. You will explore this vast continent for coming ages, for all eternity, and ever have more left to discover.

This article originally appeared on Desiring God , and is used with the author’s permission.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

The Tide of God’s Grace Brings Us Wave after Wave of God’s Goodness

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

“Now I will say this to every sinner, though he should think himself to be the worst sinner who ever lived: cry to the Lord and seek him while he may be found. By simple faith, go to your Savior, for he is the throne of grace.” –Charles Spurgeon

There’s little consolation in knowing God is your Creator unless you know what He’s like. A Creator could be miserable, unreasonable, unloving, and downright hateful. Likewise, there is little consolation in knowing God is your Ruler, but great consolation in knowing that God is your sovereign Savior: holy, happy, kind, and full of grace.

To a devout Jew, the notion of unhindered access to God was scandalous. Yet by His grace and for His grace, that access is ours. Because of Christ’s work, God’s door is always open to us. Let’s enter freely and frequently!

Robert Murray M’Cheyne said, “If grace were at any time an obligation of God, it would cease to be grace.” Deliberately and unceasingly, the tide of God’s grace brings us wave after wave of God’s goodness. The next wave crashes onto the beach before the previous wave is diminished. God’s grace is constant, but it isn’t stationary. It keeps moving toward us day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. It’s always there when we need it—and there’s never a moment we don’t.

Conviction of sin brings us momentary grief. Yet, as Sinclair Ferguson says, “The heart-conviction of sin is the way grace prepares the heart for more grace.”

The grace that saves us is also the grace that sanctifies and empowers us. God’s power isn’t needed just by unbelievers to be converted. It’s needed by believers to be obedient and joyful. We can look back at the day we first experienced the sunrise of God’s grace. But grace is a sun that never sets in the believer’s life.

“One thing is past all question: we shall bring our Lord most glory if we get from him much grace.” –Charles Spurgeon

“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7). No matter what you’ve done, there is no sin beyond the reach of God’s grace once you have accepted Christ’s offer of forgiveness.

God knows everything, so no sin surprises Him. He knows all our worst secrets (Psalm 69:5). No skeletons will ever fall out of our closets. Jesus will never say, “Had I known you’d done that, I’d never have let you into Heaven.” He’s seen us at our worst and still loves us. John Calvin said, “Grace does not grant permission to live in the flesh; it supplies power to live in the Spirit.”

And just as words such as love and happiness are often misused and misunderstood, so too is grace. Trevin Wax says, “Whatever you attempt to supplement grace with is what you will eventually supplant grace with.”

Tolerance is the world’s substitute for grace. This fake grace of indifference negates or trivializes incarnation, redemption, and the need for regeneration. True grace recognizes and deals with sin in the most radical and painful way: Christ’s redemption. God in His grace offers salvation to all people because all people need His salvation. Christ came precisely because not one of us is fine without Him.

For some, “human depravity” (total inability to earn our way to God) may be an insulting doctrine, but grasping it is liberating. When I realize the best I can do without God is like “filthy rags” in His sight, it finally sinks in that I have nothing to offer. Salvation therefore hinges on His work, not mine. What a relief!

Jerry Bridges writes, “We could not take one step in the pursuit of holiness if God in his grace had not first delivered us from the dominion of sin and brought us into union with his risen Son. Salvation is by grace and sanctification is by grace.”

God’s grace didn’t get us started then leave us to our works. Grace sustains us in the present and will deliver us in the future. “He drank a cup of wrath without mercy that we might drink a cup of mercy without wrath,” wrote J. Oswald Sanders.

Jesus was and is Grace and Truth fully embodied (John 1:14). Not half-grace and half-truth, but full grace and full truth. “Are you too bad to receive grace? How could you be too bad to receive what is for the bad?” asked David Powlison.

When Jesus saves us, we become new creatures in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17). We start seeing sin for what it really is—bondage, not freedom.

God’s children have been saved from the penalty of sin, we are being saved from the power of sin, and we will be saved from the presence of sin. Salvation, sanctification, and glorification are all grounded solidly in exactly the same thing: God’s grace.

The grace of Jesus isn’t an add-on or makeover that enhances our lives. It causes a radical transformation—from being sin-enslaved to being righteousness-liberated.

Heath Lambert warns, “There is a danger that grace can become a topic we discuss rather than a power we experience.” Religions can alter behavior. Only Jesus has the power to transform the heart. The work of Christ provides the only foundation on which we can build a new life.

Let’s face each day and each person we see with humility, as an act of grace, while reminding ourselves that we too desperately need God’s grace—every bit as much as those we’re offering it to. When we’re acutely aware of our own sins, we’ll proclaim and exemplify God’s “good news of happiness” (Isaiah 52:7, ESV), not with a spirit of superiority but with the contagious excitement of one hungry person sharing food with another.

For more on grace, see Randy’s book  The Grace and Truth Paradox , and his devotional  Beautiful and Scandalous . 

Photo by Lance Asper on Unsplash

Gratitude Multiplies When We Give It to God

Our thankfulness glorifies God and makes Him happy: “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me” (Psalm 50:23). Puritan John Boys echoed the sentiment of the psalmist: “As the Lord loveth a cheerful giver, so likewise a cheerful thanksgiver.” But God isn’t the only one affected when we give thanks.

Psychologists asked undergraduates to complete a survey that included a happiness scale and measures of thankfulness. Over six weeks, the participants wrote down, once a week, five things they were grateful for. This practice had a dramatic effect on their happiness score. The study concluded, “Students who regularly expressed gratitude showed increases in well-being over the course of the study.”

Secular books on happiness document gratitude’s role in making people happier. But cultivating gratitude proves difficult for people whose worldview leaves them with nobody to thank! Yes, they can thank someone for loaning them a car or for being their teacher. But whom can they thank for sunshine, air to breathe, and the capacity to enjoy pleasure? People who don’t believe that a sovereign God is at work through the kindness of others must thank their “lucky stars,” random circumstances, or—at best—other people. Since people are small when compared to God, the object of their gratitude is small, shrinking their capacity for happiness.

God’s common grace offers unbelievers a degree of happiness that’s greatly enhanced through thankfulness. As Christ-followers, however, we find gratitude multiplied when we return it to God, the ultimate and primary source of all goodness. In Choosing Gratitude, Nancy Leigh DeMoss writes, “True gratitude, Christian gratitude, doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it has an Object.”

God gives us hundreds of reasons to be grateful every hour—and if you think I’m exaggerating, ask Him to make you aware of His gracious provisions surrounding you. Developing the habit and discipline of gratitude results in greater praise to God and greater happiness for ourselves. When life’s tough, we can be grateful that God is with us in our suffering, that He’s using it for our good, and that He promises to end it once and for all.

Keep your own happiness journal. Record God’s evident goodness around you every day. You’ll find that in time, you’ll see more and more gifts from Him—not because there are more, but because you’re finally seeing what has been there all along.

A. W. Tozer wrote, “Gratitude is an offering precious in the sight of God, and it is one that the poorest of us can make and be not poorer but richer for having made it.”

God, eternity won’t be long enough to thank you for all you’ve given us and all you will give us in the ages to come. May we not wait until we see you for our every breath to be filled with gratitude for the saving work of Jesus . . . along with every secondary gift you give us. May our hearts overflow with gratitude to you each day!

Adapted from Randy's book Happiness. 

Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash

How Should We Understand Moral Failings in the Church and Prevent Future Ones?

For every well-known Christian television personality or evangelical leader who commits sexual immorality, there are any number of lesser-known local pastors, Bible teachers, and parachurch workers who quietly resign or are fired for the same.

Over thirty years ago, while researching and writing my first book Christians in the Wake of the Sexual Revolution (later revised as Restoring Sexual Sanity), I realized what a prominent and distinctive earmark of the early church its sexual purity really was. Christians were known to be Christians partly because they thought and lived differently when it came to sex.

If we do not reclaim this lost ground, today’s church and its leadership are destined to spiritual impotence. Why? Because an unholy world will never be won to Christ by an unholy church. An unholy leader and teacher will not inspire holiness in the church. An unholy church will not expect or require holiness of its leaders.

How much has our reputation as Christ’s servants suffered? How much credibility have we lost as a result of the highly publicized immoral exploits of those in ministry? After hearing of yet another fallen Christian leader, a committed Christian woman told me in tears, “Every time I listen to a Christian leader now, I can’t shake the thought that he’s likely living in immorality.”

Now, I know many pastors who are walking in sexual purity, and I encourage people not to assume the worst of their pastors or parachurch leaders when they hear the horror stories. My point is that we cannot afford to ignore or deny the reality of moral vulnerability among those who serve Christ. Many in the church have become acutely aware of the widespread moral crisis, the severe consequences of our sexual compromises, and the desperate need to shore up our sagging morality.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to join Nick Stumbo and Trevor Winsor on the Pure Desire Ministries podcast. I highly recommend their excellent ministry, which exists to create a safe place for men, women, and young adults to find hope and healing from the effects of sexual brokenness.

Nick, Trevor, and I discussed the problem of Christian leaders and pastors having moral failings, including what contributes to the fall of high-profile leaders, how churches can recover and heal, and how to prevent moral failures. (Prevention is the focus of my booklet Sexual Temptation: Establishing Guardrails and Winning the Battle, which can be downloaded for free or purchased in print from EPM. And in my small book The Purity Principle, I explore the biblical foundation for sexual purity.)

Here’s a breakdown of the topics we discussed: 

0:00 Intro

0:29 My Background and Work

3:20 Why Pastors Continue Failing Sexually

11:55 Will Pastoral Moral Failings Ever Stop?

20:01 How to Handle “Celebrity Culture” in the Church

38:06 Proactive Steps Churches Can Take

42:44 Steps Pastors Can Take to Get Healthy

55:36 Churches Recovering After a Moral Failing

1:03:10 Restoration of Fallen Leaders?

1:12:00 Conclusion

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk

Comforting Grieving People and Encouraging Them to Hold on to Solid Truth

Nancy Guthrie’s disabled daughter, Hope, died after living through 199 days of seizures and other complications from Zellweger syndrome, a rare and fatal genetic abnormality. Nancy writes in her book Holding on to Hope,

The day after we buried Hope, my husband said to me, “You know, I think we expected our faith to make this hurt less, but it doesn’t. Our faith gave us an incredible amount of strength and encouragement while we had Hope, and we are comforted by the knowledge that she is in heaven. Our faith keeps us from being swallowed by despair. But I don’t think it makes our loss hurt any less.”

Their pain didn’t decrease because they believed; rather, their faith kept their pain from incapacitating them. When I interviewed David and Nancy Guthrie for my book If God Is Good, they said God stood with them in their pain, but God did not remove their pain. Those separated in death from their loved ones don’t want the pain to go away entirely, because if it did, it would minimize the importance of their relationship. Nancy says,

It is only natural that people around me often ask searchingly, “How are you?” And for much of the first year after Hope’s death, my answer was, “I’m deeply and profoundly sad.” I’ve been blessed with many people who have been willing to share my sorrow, to just be sad with me. Others, however, seem to want to rush me through my sadness. They want to fix me. But I lost someone I loved dearly, and I’m sad.

Nancy was in the final stages of writing Holding on to Hope when she found out she was pregnant with another baby, who was also born with Zellweger syndrome. That child, Gabriel, lived for six months.

David, after the deaths of two of his children, said, “We found our suffering has taught us life isn’t easy, and it has toughened us for the next battle. We don’t want our greatest spiritual landmarks to be behind us. Following Christ comes with struggle, not ease.”

David also told me, “I spent my life waiting for the other shoe to drop. The shoe has dropped. I had thought I was invulnerable. Now I know better. I thought, ‘Our child has died. How much worse can it get?’ There’s less to fear. God will be enough for us. Now we say it out of experience.”

Nancy has written many books over the years, including What Grieving People Wish You Knew about What Really Helps (and What Really Hurts), which one of our staff read and recommended to me. I always love Nancy’s writings, but this book is just really good. Here are some quotes from it:

“Sometimes when we’re talking with someone who is grieving, we are so desperate to provide comfort, we’re willing to say things we think she wants to hear that aren’t necessarily true. But as much as we want to provide comfort in the moment, we need to remember that anything we say that is not ultimately true will ultimately disappoint. While we don’t have to say everything we deem to be true, we do want to refrain from compromising, twisting, or abandoning the truth found in the Scriptures regarding life beyond this life in the presence of God. We don’t want to gut the gospel in order to give comfort in the moment.” (p. 131)

“While tears can be awkward for everyone, tears are really such a gift. Tears have a way of washing away or carrying away the toxicity of the pain of the grief. …When someone cries in your presence, don’t be afraid that you made her cry. You don’t have to apologize. You did not make her cry; you simply brought to the surface what was there anyway and needed to be released.” (p. 35)

“Grief is like a lens or veil through which those going through it see and experience everything. It’s like a computer program running in the background at all times. When we speak to a grieving person about the one who died, and they begin to weep, it’s not that we ‘made them cry.’ Rather, we’ve acknowledged what was beneath the surface and given them an opportunity to release some of that sadness that was already there.” (p. 85)

“As we interact with grieving people, we want to encourage them to take hold of what God has seen fit to tell us in the Scriptures about life in his presence after death and to ask him for the grace to let that be enough for now.” (p. 146)

“So much of what other people say and what grieving people are tempted to grab hold of in the face of death is mere sentimentality or strange spirituality. Instead of taking hold of these things, we want to encourage grieving people to rely fully on the Scriptures and let the rock-solid truth revealed there be the ground underneath our unsteady feet and the anchor for our hopes.” (p. 146)

“We don’t want to use the truth of heaven in a way that seems to dismiss sorrow. But we do want to have our attitudes and responses to grieving people shaped by this profound reality. So rather than ‘He’s in a better place,’ you can assure those grieving a loved one, who knew Christ, this way: ‘This one you love is being comforted by the environment of heaven, by the inhabitants of heaven, by the beauty of heaven, and by the king of heaven [Luke 16:25]. He or she is completely comfortable, completely satisfied, completely at rest in a place that is far better. I know it doesn’t feel better to you that he is there, but I’m praying that the Holy Spirit will comfort you with a growing sense of the joy he is experiencing there and the anticipation of one day sharing it with him.’” (p. 136)

Photo by Kampus Production

Giving from the Heart Really Matters

God commanded his people, “Give generously to the poor, not grudgingly, for the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. There will always be some in the land who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share freely with the poor and with other Israelites in need” (Deuteronomy 15:10-11, NLT). This was a command, yet God said they should “share freely.” He cares about the state of our hearts as we give.

Paul made it clear that it’s possible to give sacrificially without being motivated by love: “If I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3, CSB). That means it’s not just generosity that’s the good life; it’s generosity that flows out of love.

Paul also said that “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7, ESV). What keeps us from giving cheerfully? We instinctively imagine that spending on ourselves will make us happiest. But Jesus said our greatest joy comes when we give to others: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving” (Acts 20:35, GNT). You might have heard that verse translated “It is more blessed to give than receive,” but the well-documented fact is that the Greek word makarios here, translated “blessed,” really means “happy” or “happy-making.”

Notice what Jesus did not say: “Naturally, we’re happier when we receive than when we give, but giving is a duty, so grit your teeth, make the sacrifice, and force yourself to give.”

God is not up in Heaven frowning at us and saying, “Stop it! You should find joy only in Me.” This would be as foreign to our heavenly Father’s nature as it would be to mine as an earthly father if I gave my daughters Christmas gifts and then pouted because they enjoyed them too much. No, I am delighted when my children and grandchildren enjoy the presents I’ve given them! Their pleasure in my gifts draws us closer together.

While shopping online for a bike as a present for her dad, ten-year-old Riley and her mom followed a video link about an organization that provides specially engineered bicycles for individuals with disabilities. Seeing the happy faces of people riding the bikes, Riley told her mom, “I’m going to buy a bike for one of those kids.”

Riley’s mom loved her daughter’s heart, but the cost of just one special bike was a few thousand dollars. Two days later, Riley showed her mom a letter she’d written explaining how the bikes could help those in need and requesting donations.

After Riley sent the letter to seventy-five relatives and friends, money started pouring in. Word spread, and as Christmas neared, more donations came. On Christmas, Riley donned a Santa hat and delivered bicycles to three girls: thirteen-year-old Ava, who has spina bifida; fifteen-year-old Jenny, who has cerebral palsy; and four-year-old Rose, who has a rare genetic disorder.

“This is the best Christmas I ever had,” Riley declared.

When our missions pastor returned from Sudan, he told our church about enslaved Christians in that region. Spontaneously, several families decided to forgo giving Christmas presents that year and instead give toward freeing slaves. The fourth-grade class at our school raised thousands of dollars for this purpose through work projects. One sixth-grade girl took the fifty dollars she’d saved up to play on a basketball team and gave it to help Sudanese believers.

One family had saved several hundred dollars to go to Disneyland. Their child asked if they could give the money to help the slaves instead. Before long, people had given sixty thousand dollars to redeem slaves. We never even took an offering, but the giving was contagious. People told each other their giving stories. And when they did, it thrilled and encouraged the body to give more. It was one of the church’s finest hours, and an essential component was people sharing how God had led them to give.

Money won’t make us happy, but giving away money can make us profoundly happy! When we give out of love for Christ and others, we experience dramatic and lasting returns for the investments we’ve made—far more than if we’d kept or spent it. Therefore, it’s not only receivers who come out ahead—it’s givers, too.

See more resources on money and giving, as well as Randy's related books, including  Managing God's Money  and  Giving Is the Good Life .

Photo by Matheus Bertelli

Christ, the Wisdom of God

In 1 Corinthians 1:24, Paul calls Christ “the wisdom of God.” Jesus referred to Himself as “wisdom” when He said, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds” (Matthew 11:19).

I believe Jesus is speaking of Himself here as the well-known personification of wisdom in Proverbs 8. (Note how Jesus teaches that wisdom is justified by “her” deeds—a clear connection to the figure scholars call “Lady Wisdom” in Proverbs 8.)

I share some thoughts in this video, and more below:

In his commentary on Proverbs, Puritan John Gill said chapter 8 is about “Christ, under the name of Wisdom.” Charles Bridges claimed that the wisdom referred to in Proverbs 8 is “the voice of the Son of God.” Scottish clergyman Ralph Wardlaw wrote, “The majority . . . of those regarded as evangelical expositors, interpret what is said…by Wisdom as the words of the Second Person of the ever-blessed Trinity.” Modern Anglican scholar Derek Kidner also took this position, as does Old Testament professor Tremper Longman III: “Jesus claims [in Matthew 11:19] that his behavior represents the behavior of Woman Wisdom herself.”

Chad Bird writes, “…in Proverbs, divine Wisdom speaks, as indeed the Word of God does….This divine Teacher of God’s ways and will portrays what the best, blessed life looks like; how love takes shape in the lives of God’s children; how to walk in the paths of righteousness. We might say it like this: In Proverbs, Wisdom reveals what the thoughts, words, and actions look like for those who bear the image of the Father’s Son.”

Rejoicing, Laughing, Playing

In Proverbs 8, then, we almost certainly see the words of Christ, speaking of the Father: “When he established the heavens, I was there. . . . When he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman” (vv.27,29-30). Jesus says of the Father, “I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind” (vv.30-31, NIV).

Dylan Demarsico says of this passage, “Rejoicing is a conservative translation of the Hebrew word sachaq. More accurate would be laughing or playing. We’re understandably reluctant to ascribe laughing and playing to Almighty God. Still, you can see for yourself in any Hebrew lexicon what the word means—and subsequently what God and wisdom were doing when they created the world: laughing and playing.”

The Common English Bible captures these words of God’s all-wise Son: “I was having fun, smiling before him all the time, frolicking with his inhabited earth and delighting in the human race” (8:30-31, emphasis added). The Good News Translation says, “I was his daily source of joy, always happy in his presence—happy with the world and pleased with the human race.”

Creation is attributed to Christ (see John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16). But here He’s seen as playfully interacting with His Father and His creation. What an amazing portrayal of the preincarnate happiness of Jesus!

Demarsico continues, “If you had witnessed this transcendent Being-in-Three-Persons letting out roaring laughter as he played, thus creating the universe, you probably would have shouted and cried out with joy. . . . The joy of the Lord is not something trifling. It’s a playfulness that created and sustains the universe, a laughter that guides history to its glorious end.”

Since we’re told that the angels shouted for joy when the triune God created Earth (see Job 38:4,7), surely we would have done the same. Perhaps we will, someday on the New Earth—maybe God will open the past and delight us with a front-row seat beholding His original creation!

If, as compelling evidence suggests, Jesus was referring to Himself as incarnate wisdom in Proverbs 8, then Scripture affirms not only the happiness but also the playfulness of God’s Son. It’s not a stretch to believe there was beautiful laughter among the triune God before the creation of the first human beings.

Jesus Exemplified the Joy of Living

If it were true, as Oswald Chambers suggests, that “it is an insult to Jesus Christ to use the word happiness in connection with Him,” then Proverbs 8, along with Psalms 16 and 45, Acts 2, and Hebrews 1 would all be insults to Jesus!

Scripture contains many additional indications of Christ’s happiness. It takes a joyful person to instruct His disciples in the art of rejoicing. Jesus said, “Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). The CEV renders the verse, “Be happy that your names are written in heaven!”

The next verse connects His disciples’ joy to Jesus’ joy: “In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21). The Weymouth New Testament reads, “Jesus was filled by the Holy Spirit with rapturous joy.”

Consider this part of the verse: “At that very time [the Son] rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, ‘I praise You, O Father . . .’” (Luke 10:21, NASB). This verse clearly affirms the Trinity’s gladness—Jesus overflows with joy from the Holy Spirit, and the Father finds pleasure in revealing Himself to His children.

And why would He tell us, “I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10) if that abundance did not include happiness, laughter, and celebration? All through Scripture—even the Old Testament—Jesus invites us into His joy!

To further explore this topic of Jesus, Lady Wisdom, and Joy, see Randy’s book Happiness .

Photo by Ryan Hutton on Unsplash