Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 40

The Jesus Revolution: A Movie Worth Seeing and Sharing

A few years ago, my friend Greg Laurie (senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship), along with Ellen Vaughn, wrote a book called Jesus Revolution: How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today. Rarely have I read a book so entertaining, informative, and spiritually significant. I relived many formative historical events of the 60s and 70s—Jesus transformed my life when I was an unchurched fifteen year old about to start my sophomore year of high school.

Now the book has become the basis for a new movie by the same title. Many people have told me they have seen Jesus Revolution and were very moved by it. Greg shared a preview of the movie with me a while back, and I really appreciated it. I believe there are people whose eyes will be opened to Jesus through Jesus Revolution. (Find out where and when it’s playing on their website.)

Through reading the book and watching the movie, I learned new things about the Jesus Movement, which I believe was a powerful—though of course imperfect—movement of the Holy Spirit. In fact, many of us older people you know likely came to Jesus either in the center of or on the fringes of that Jesus Revolution. It makes me long for and pray for a New Jesus Revolution that would sweep over many people in our culture and in the world, people both young and old.

Here’s the movie trailer:

Over the years Greg Laurie has become a dear friend. He first contacted me after his son Christopher tragically died in 2008. Since then, he has invited me to speak several times at the churches in Riverside and Orange. Once when we were both speaking in Maui, we met up and had a glorious time together with his Cathe and my Nanci.

Greg has a great passion for evangelism and is also a student of the Scriptures whose ministry is Christ-centered. Since Christopher’s death, their suffering as a family has been great, and Nanci and I have seen in them a depth and dependence on Christ. Harvest felt like a second home for us, and we were glad any time we were able to visit.

Greg and I were recently texting about the movie’s effect on people. One of those people is actor Kelsey Grammer, who plays Pastor Chuck Smith. This interview with him is touching:

Also see this article in which Kelsey talks about his faith in Jesus. And on his blog, Greg talks about what was fact and what events of the film were condensed, altered, or rearranged for sake of storytelling.

One of the things that I most loved about the movie is not simply the transformation that happened in Greg Laurie, and the many young people who came to faith in Christ. It was also the transformation of Pastor Chuck Smith, played by Kelsey Grammer. That transformation was not from unbelief to belief, but from lack of love for those in the youth culture to heartfelt love for them. Chuck went from being a man full of truth to a man full of grace and truth. Jesus is full of both, and when we are, that will make all the difference in our churches. Not grace only and not truth only, but full of grace and truth. If young seekers can see in older Christians that the answers are not in how we talk and how we dress and in our politics, but in Jesus, it will make a radical difference in the church, and demonstrate our oneness and love in Jesus.

Some have and will criticize the movie because it does not tell the whole story about Lonnie Frisbee later backsliding and falling away from the faith and pursuing a life of drugs and immorality. However, Greg Laurie has said clearly that the movie showed Frisbee in a year and a half period where that was who he really was. Later his marriage dissolved, and the precursors to that were clear in the movie, and his spiritual life fell apart. Near the end of his life, he did repent and expressed that repentance to Greg and others. But even if he had not repented, the story would be true without having to revise it because things went bad for Lonnie later. See what Greg wrote in “The Long Strange Trip of Lonnie Frisbee.”

I loved the movie, and pray God would do such radical works of grace in our midst. Our culture is characterized by increasing depression and anxiety, particularly among the young. People today seem to be particularly thirsty for happiness. In the midst of such hopelessness, God offers the truly good news of His transforming grace, mercy, love, and eternal happiness: “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge” (Revelation 22:17, NET).

The world Jesus entered desperately needed a Redeemer from sin and unhappiness. That is true today too. He came to Earth to deliver us from eternal sin and misery, and everyone we meet has exactly the same need—to know and follow Jesus Christ. May we daily ask the Lord to give us opportunities to share His “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). Let’s prayerfully share that Good News, and trust God to be at work in powerful ways in our world now.  

Finish Line: Dispelling Fear, Finding Peace, and Preparing for the End of Your Life

Less than six months after holding the hand of my beloved wife, Nanci, as she left this world, I read Robert Wolgemuth’s Finish Line manuscript, which included his account of his last moments with his wife Bobbie. Robert writes with an eternal perspective and a fatherly tenderness and understanding, reaching out his hand to you, the reader. I believe you will be touched and encouraged by this warm and insightful book.

Here's more about it:

Facing your ultimate death can be scary, but in light of God's promises, it doesn't have to be. Finish Line provides practical and biblical help on topics such as finances, blessing others, end-of-life choices, heaven, and caring for those you leave behind so you can approach your own finish line with hope, joy, and peace.

It's normal to have questions about how to face the last season of our lives well, and though we long to end our lives with grace and gratitude, sometimes we feel fear and uncertainty instead.

Robert Wolgemuth knows what it is like to face death, having lost his first wife of almost 45 years to cancer and battling cancer twice himself. Finish Line distills a lifetime of spiritual wisdom as Robert helps you:

Find true peace and reassurance about the end of life
Discover the things you can do to prepare those you love before you die
Understand the truth about heaven and what God has for his followers in the next life
Learn from people in the Bible about what crossing the finish line should--and shouldn't--look like
Take care of specifics such as planning your funeral service, determining end-of-life issues, and preparing a will
Let go of physical, relational, and emotional clutter
Receive what God has for you in your final years

 A rich guide for this season of your life, Finish Line offers unvarnished--even lighthearted--truth to comfort your heart, practical help to ease your mind, and a reminder of God's promises to comfort your spirit so you can look toward your own finish line with both peace and hope.

In this short video, Robert talks about the death of his wife Bobbie:

Does the Church Need More Heart Knowledge or More Head Knowledge?

I’ve heard people say, “We don’t need more head knowledge in the church today; we need heart knowledge.” But the problem is not that we know too much!

By learning with humility and wisdom, the truth in our heads will also be in our hearts. As Lois Tverberg writes in Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus, “The longest 12 inches that your faith has to move is from your head to your heart. And once your faith makes that move, it naturally comes out through your hands and feet.”

The head and the heart should not be pitted against each other. We need both. Bruce Ware says, “If you don’t have it in your head, you can’t have it in your heart.”

You are a whole person, and the path to your heart travels through your mind. Lois Tverberg explains, “In English we speak of the heart to refer to our emotions, sometimes even contrasting our hearts with our heads—our rational thinking. But in Hebrew, the heart…doesn’t just describe your emotions. It also refers to your mind and thoughts as well. It is the center of all your inner life.”

Truth matters. When you speak truth, you come to believe it. To touch us at the heart level—and to keep touching us over days, months, years, and decades—truth must work its way into our minds.

Jen Wilkin writes, “The heart cannot love what the mind does not know.” And “If we want to feel deeply about God, we must learn to think deeply about God.”

I cringe whenever someone says, “We know too much truth/doctrine/theology. We need to live it.” Of course, we need to live it, but the solution is not knowing less. In fact, Christians know less about the Bible and biblical doctrine than any time in memory. We need more of it, not less, and when we learn it properly, it will draw our hearts to God.

The Apostle Paul saw love for God and knowledge of Him as being inextricably connected: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11). The problem with the Pharisees isn’t that they knew too much Bible, but they failed to embrace and live out a central core of the Bible—love, grace, and kindness.

The heart that deeply knows and loves God will bear the fruit of the Spirit, and overflow with joyful service to others.  J.I. Packer put it this way: “There’s a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. When you truly know God, you have energy to serve Him, boldness to share Him, and contentment in Him.”

But there’s a problem. Over nearly five decades in my church (a church that has always taught and emphasized God’s Word), I’ve seen a noticeable—even startling—reduction in the average person’s grasp of biblical truth. It’s possible for someone to hear Bible-based sermons, as we regularly do at my church, while at the same time adopting a worldview that is less and less biblical. This happens because most church people spend little time studying God’s truth during the week.

Our era is in no danger of going down in history as “The Era of Deep Thought.”

In our world, feelings overshadow thinking and sizzle outshines substance. And what ends up in the heart comes first into the head. 

We should hunger for God’s words and delight  in them. But first we must cultivate a taste for them. We live in an age where mental “junk foods” are thrust upon us constantly on television, radio, online, in social media, and even through superficial conversations.

Compare the time we collectively spend reading Scripture and great books that teach biblical truth with the amount of time we spend watching television and reading social media, both of which often exemplify an anti-Christian worldview. What chance does one 40-minute sermon a week have—no matter how biblical—of correcting 40 to 70 hours of input that’s contrary to Scripture? It’s impossible, unless that 40 minutes of Bible teaching motivates us to study and discuss God’s Word and read quality books in our remaining discretionary time.

The current tendency to minimize Bible study and sound theology in the interests of focusing on the heart is badly misguided. The anti-intellect, popular-culture-driven "all that matters is my heart" is wrong, but even if it were right, we still would need to cultivate our minds in order to cultivate our hearts. “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:9-10, ESV).

God help us renew our minds, set our minds on things above, and love God with all our hearts and minds, never supposing we can do one without the other. (See Romans 12:2, Colossians 3:2, Mark 12:30.)

In this shallow culture, how can we keep from turning into trivial Christians?

“Reflect on what I am saying,” Paul wrote, “for the Lord will give you insight into all this” (2 Timothy 2:7). When we invest in understanding and meditating on God’s truths, we become people of depth and substance. If you want depth, you have to behold God’s truth often, allowing it to make the crucial sixteen-inch journey from your head to your heart.

Scripture confronts sin in our lives, prompts us to obedience, and gives us delight in Christ. We need to go to God’s Word, open it, read it, meditate on it, and learn to delight in it. It will make us better, deeper, and happier people.

“For we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you…Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:14,16, CSB).

As I shared in this blog, surveys demonstrate that we are currently not winning the battle of renewing our minds by God’s revealed truth. Most evangelical Christians are losing their grip on a biblical worldview. Reversing this trend will never happen without radical and decisive changes in our personal habits: supplementing our personal study of God’s Word with reading truly good books of spiritual substance, and getting solid training in our churches and Bible studies.

So what’s the answer to the question, Does the Church Need More “Heart Knowledge” or More “Head Knowledge”? The answer is yes, we need more of both and less of neither, and we need to not artificially divide them or promote a false choice between them. The biblically-informed mind of Jesus fed and directed His heart, and His heart moved His mind, in complete concert. So it should be for us.

We simply must encourage enhanced biblical and theological knowledge in our churches, so that instead of conforming to the world, we can become transformed by the renewing of our minds, just as Romans 12:1-2 instructs us. This requires our partnership with the work of God’s Spirit. Let’s follow the example of the Apostle Paul, who prayed fervently that the love of the Philippians would “abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (1:9-10).

Let’s not be content with empty entertainment and diversions. Let’s turn instead to the delicious truths in God’s Word that energize, strengthen, sustain, and comfort us. “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed [how happy!] is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8, ESV). May God help us to renew our minds, set our minds on things above, and love Him with all our hearts and minds. 

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Why Is Affirming Biblical Truth Important for All of Us?

Lots of people believe everyone will go to Heaven or that Hell doesn’t exist. Where do people get these ideas?

Our theology tends to come from sources we trust. Some people, instead of trusting Scripture, believe a hodgepodge of pop psychology and pop religion, with a little New Age philosophy thrown in. And some people think they trust Scripture, but don’t bother to read and know it well enough to recognize truth (or heresy) when they see or hear it.

The fact that a teacher or blogger or even a pastor has some good insights makes their heresy all the more easy to swallow. Hand a sane person undisguised rat poison and they won’t eat it. Cover it in chocolate, and they just might. All effective heresy contains some, even much, that is true—it’s that chocolate coating that deceives us into taking a bite.

Genuine ignorance may be the reason some teach what we know to be heresy. They have no intent to deceive. Yet as James warns, “Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly” (3:1, NLT). God takes our words seriously, and so should we.

And there’s another reason—the most insidious, and probably the most common—for false teaching. “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons [doctrines of demons in some translations]” (1 Timothy 4:1). False doctrine is more than errant human opinion. Often its source is in another world, where evil spirits labor to deceive us. Ironically, demons know true doctrine better than we do—making them all the more effective in obscuring and twisting it: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder” (James 2:19).

Paul makes a remarkable statement in 1 Timothy 6:3-4—“If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing...”

A rather blanket condemnation, but nonetheless scriptural and quite clear. What strikes me is the first description that comes to Paul’s mind, as prompted by the Holy Spirit: teachers of false doctrines are conceited. Why? I think it’s because they choose their preferred doctrines over God’s revealed doctrines. And that is not just error, it is the ultimate conceit. That view says, “I trust my own opinions and perspectives (which are often identical to the current drift of culture) more than I trust God’s.” The false teacher earns the same condemnation as the enemy—who set himself up to be God—by following in his footsteps.

The judgment upon a false prophet is serious indeed (capital punishment in the Old Testament). The burden laid on Bible teachers in the New Testament is also heavy. Jesus said
“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.” Titus 2:1 says, “You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.” Those are great verses to put up where we’ll see them.

Submitting to God’s revealed truth, even when we do not like its implications, and wish that it said something other than it does, takes humility. The doctrine of eternal Hell is a prime example—I do not “like” it, but I accept and submit to it, and recognize any of my instincts and arguments against it are but straw.

Jesus spoke more of Hell than anyone—who am I to suggest some way around a doctrine that Christ embraced and taught? And consider the vested interest that demons have in our not believing in it! (See Hell: Eternal Sovereign Justice Exacted upon Evildoers, which is chapter 29 of my book If God Is Good.)

If I were to join people in believing (or worse yet, teaching) “there is no eternal Hell” or “everyone will go to Heaven” I might fancy myself civilized and compassionate. But in fact, I would simply be a heretic, trusting in my insights and doctrines over my Lord’s—and hence proving that I, and the current drift of popular opinion, not He, is my real “Lord.”

Photo by San Smile on Unsplash

The Adventures Ahead on the New Earth

At 2:30 a.m., on November 19, 2002, I stood on our deck gazing up at the night sky. Above me was the Leonid meteor shower, the finest display of celestial fireworks until the year 2096. For someone who has enjoyed meteor showers since he was a kid, this was the celestial event of a lifetime.

There was only one problem: clouds covered the Oregon sky. Of the hundreds of streaking meteors above me, I couldn’t see a single one. I felt like a blind man being told, “You’re missing the most beautiful sunset of your lifetime. You’ll never be able to see another like it.”

Was I disappointed? Sure. After searching in vain for small cracks in the cloud cover, I went inside and wrote these paragraphs. I’m disappointed, but not disillusioned. Why? Because I did not miss the celestial event of my lifetime.

My lifetime is forever. My residence will be a new universe, with far more spectacular celestial wonders, and I’ll have the ability to look through the clouds or rise above them.

During a spectacular meteor shower a few years earlier, I had stood on our deck watching a clear sky. Part of the fun was hearing oohs and aahs in the distance, from neighbors looking upward. Multiply these oohs and aahs by ten thousand times ten thousand, and it’ll suggest our thunderous response to what our Father will do in the new heavens as we look upward from the New Earth.

Imagine sitting around campfires on the New Earth, wide-eyed at the adventures recounted. Yes, I mean telling real stories around real campfires. Why not? After all, friendship, camaraderie, laughter, stories, and cozy campfires are all good gifts from God.

On the New Earth we may experience adventures that make our current mountain climbs, surfing, skydiving, and upside-down roller coaster rides seem tame. Why do I say this? It’s more than wishful thinking. It’s an argument from design. We take pleasure in exhilarating experiences not because of sin but because God wired us this way. We weren’t made to sit all day in dark rooms, watching actors pretend to live and athletes do what we can’t.

In Heaven, we will be able to do as we wish and go where we wish, never wondering if our wishes are wrong!

Want to see the crossing of the Red Sea? Want to be there when Daniel’s three friends emerge from the fiery furnace? It would be simple for God to open the door to the past. Because God is not limited by time, He may choose to show us past events as if they were presently happening. We may be able to study history from a front-row seat.

Think of friends or family members who loved Jesus and are with Him now. Picture them with you, walking together in this place. All of you have powerful bodies, stronger than those of an Olympic decathlete. You are laughing, playing, talking, and reminiscing. Now you see someone coming toward you. It’s Jesus, with a big smile on his face. You fall to your knees in worship. He pulls you up and embraces you.

At last, you’re with the person you were made for, in the place you were made for. Everywhere you go, there will be new people to meet, including Charles Spurgeon and his friends Charles Stanford and Hugh Stowell Brown. As the author of Hebrews wrote, “All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (11:13-16, NLT).

There will be new places to enjoy, new things to discover. What’s that delicious aroma? A feast? A party’s ahead. And you’re invited.

Here are some further thoughts about our coming adventures on the New Earth:

In the glimpses afforded of [Jesus’] life beyond resurrection we find . . . freedoms even further enhanced. At the physical level he can appear, disappear and then reappear at will (cf. John 20:19, 26; Luke 24:15, 31, 36, 51); at the moral and spiritual level there is a freedom from the awful burden of responsibility for the completion of his mission; at the relational level there is a new freedom to indwell and personally identify with all who belong to him. Such is the promise of the heavenly life—an existence of boundless freedoms.

Bruce Milne, The Message of Heaven and Hell

 

We are partly “Heaven-blind” because the worldview our culture has adopted has made it hard to see supernatural colors.

Daniel Brown, What the Bible Reveals about Heaven

 

Their souls being on fire with holy love, shall not be like a fire pent up, but like a flame uncovered and at liberty. Their spirits, being winged with love, shall have no weight upon them to hinder their flight. There shall be no lack of strength or activity, nor any lack of words with which to praise the Object of their affection. Nothing shall hinder them from communing with God, and praising and serving Him just as their love inclines them to do.

Jonathan Edwards, Heaven: A World of Love

 

If it brings glory to God and increases our knowledge of Him, you will indeed be able to engage in some form of time travel.

Larry Dick, A Taste of Heaven

 

We want to serve God more, but we have to sleep. We want to pray and study the Bible, but we grow weary. In Heaven, bodies will do whatever we want them to do. We will possess boundless energy with which to serve God.

Steven J. Lawson, Heaven Help Us!

 

Actually, we will do many of the same things in Heaven that we did here on the earth—just perfectly.

Steven J. Lawson, Heaven Help Us!

 

This voice of joy [in Heaven] is not like our old complaints, our impatient groans and sighs; nor this melodious praise like the scoffs and revilings, or the oaths and curses which we heard on earth. This body is not like that we had, nor this soul like the soul we had, nor this life like the life we lived. We have changed our place and state, our clothes and thoughts, our looks, language and company.

Before, a saint was weak and despised; so proud and peevish we could often scarce discern his graces; but now, how glorious is a saint! …Happy union! Now the Gospel shall no more be dishonored through our folly.

Richard Baxter, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest

 

I haven’t been cheated out of being a complete person—I’m just going through a forty-year delay, and God is with me even through that. Being “glorified”—I know the meaning of that now. It’s the time, after my death here, when I’ll be on my feet dancing.

Joni Eareckson Tada

 

If Jesus’ resurrected body is a clue, along with accounts of angels appearing to a host of other biblical worthies, I surmise that we will transport ourselves not only across but also through space—and with what by earth standards would seem incredible speed. Anyone who has envied a hawk’s ability to soar or a whale’s to dive can get enthusiastic about heavenly release from present limitations of mobility.

Arthur Roberts, Exploring Heaven

 

These small and perishable bodies we now have were given to us as ponies are given to schoolboys. We must learn to manage: not that we may some day be free of horses altogether but that some day we may ride bare-back, confident and rejoicing, those greater mounts, those winged, shining and world-shaking horses which perhaps even now expect us with impatience, pawing and snorting in the King’s stables. Not that the gallop would be of any value unless it were a gallop with the King; but how else—since He has retained His own charger— should we accompany Him?

C. S. Lewis, Miracles

 

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”

 

Throughout eternity we will live full, truly human lives, exploring and managing God’s creation to his glory. Fascinating vistas will unfold before us as we learn to serve God in a renewed universe.

Edward Donnelly, Biblical Teaching on the Doctrines of Heaven and Hell

 

There will be new planets to develop, new principles to discover, new joys to experience. Every moment of eternity will be an adventure of discovery.

Ray C. Stedman, “The City of Glory”

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

Photo by Tom Gainor on Unsplash

The Four Biggest Assets in My Grief

Grieving a loved one’s death is a long, often lonely, always painful process. Four key players stand out in my continued healing journey through grief.

First is my firm belief in the promises of Jesus about our eternal future. They are blood-bought, meaning our resurrection is guaranteed. Nanci and I spent so much time talking about the world to come, and she would walk me through her afterlife bucket list. We would talk of adventures together on God’s New Earth that are all still ahead of us. So though her death is a heartbreaking interruption, we can both anticipate the everlasting reunion in a world without sin and suffering and grief, where happiness will be the air we breathe.

Secondly, I cherish my friendship with God. I have frequently pondered with astonishment in the last year Jesus’s words in John 15:15: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (NIV).  

Jesus is my closest and dearest friend. He was and is Nanci’s closest friend. Jesus was closer to Nanci than I ever was, and He is closer to me than she ever was. He’s the only being in the universe that is true love. And He is with me on this present earth, and He is with her in Heaven; so that means she is with Him, and I am with Him. That certainty closes what would otherwise seem a huge distance between Nanci and me now. Jesus is the bridge that keeps us connected until we live in that new world, with new bodies and minds, that He is preparing for us. The connection I feel to her through Him is profound.

Jesus promised, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). And in Hebrews we’re promised “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (13:5). Two of the three members of the triune God—Son and Spirit—indwell us! And He invites us to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). These promises mean that no matter how we may feel, we are not abandoned or unloved.

Thirdly—and these are not in order, or my dog wouldn’t come before family and friends—but one of the great blessings since Nanci went to be with Jesus has been our dog Gracie, who we picked out together. When I’m not traveling she is my constant companion. Every day we run together, and her sheer excitement and delight as she dramatically pulls her leash forward makes me laugh hard and run faster than I otherwise would. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” Animals are the second most important part of God’s creation, after people. We should see God’s nature in His creation.

Gracie is, of course, not God; she is secondary, part of His creation, but she points me to the primary, who is God alone. She snuggles with me, sending a message of love and affection. When I let her outside she runs around the yard crazily. When I give her one of a variety of healthy treats, she darts and jumps and is overcome with exuberance from the moment she hears the bag open. She then charges off to her favorite spot in the living room and relishes  her treat for ten seconds before eating it. Her body languages declares, “I am surely the world’s most fortunate creature.” It is nearly impossible for me to be unhappy in her presence.

Fourthly, I’ve found a great deal of comfort in my family, church, small group, and close circle of friends. Paul instructed the Galatians to “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ” (6:2).

Our daughters have been wonderful to me, and have helped me in both physical and spiritual ways. They have called and checked in and made themselves available to help. Karina, who lives 1,000 miles away, has done a lot to organize and simplify our finances—everything from autopay to paperless billing to helping with taxes. Angela has often picked up groceries for me and dropped by meals and helped around the house. I consider our sons in law, “the Dans,” to be good friends, and I am encouraged by their wonderful care for my daughters and grandchildren. My grandsons have helped me mostly by just being who they are and sharing their lives with me when I’m at their homes and games, and by Facetime, videos, and texts. We are soon going to all gather for six days, the middle of which falls on the one-year anniversary of Nanci’s going to be with Jesus. I just can’t wait for all of us to be together!  

Regarding our church, as I said at Nanci‘s memorial service, with all the people who hate the church these days and have terrible stories about church people, I can never resent the church but only appreciate it because of what I witnessed in the last years and months of Nanci’s life. People brought meals, prayed, visited her, massaged her hands and feet, and spent the night at our house to help care for her. I can only love the church because of what it has done for my dear wife. I saw the same kind of care for my mother when she was dying in 1981. I have never forgotten the four nurses from our church who were with her nearly day and night.

Our little group of three couples—Steve and Sue Keels, Paul and Michele Norquist, Nanci and I—ate together at the Keels’ house nearly every Thursday for twenty-some years, enjoying Sue’s wonderful meals. In the last three years we’ve shared many tears, after Jason, Steve and Sue’s son, died the day after Thanksgiving in 2019. Then Michele died January 1, 2022, and Nanci on March 28, 2022. Sue still fixes dinner for Paul, Steve, and me on Thursdays, though the six of us have been reduced to four.  To show how this small circle connects with suffering, loss, and grief, consider that of the four of us still here, two have lost their son, and the other two have lost our wives. 

If you don’t have them, take the initiative to make those kinds of friends. Hold on to them. Live beside them. Walk the valley of the shadow of death with them. We need each other. I thank God for my church, my family, my friends, my small group, for Him, and for His promises which guarantee I’ll never walk that valley alone.

I began this blog by talking about God and want to end it that way. What follows are the words of my wife Nanci which she wrote in her journal after meditating on Psalm 23. I recommend reading the Scripture first, since all she prays is prompted by it:

Please, Shepherd of My Life,

Cause me to want nothing more—not even good health—than to have you as my Shepherd.
Reveal to me that the pastures and waters to which you lead me are green and still—because you are there!
Engage my heart to receive the restoration of my soul by your Holy Spirit.
Renew my conviction that, for your name’s sake, righteousness is the direction of each path you have for me.  
May your Holy Spirit—the Comforter—banish all my fears of evil (being out of control, letting pride inflate me, weakness, pain, loss of plans) as I walk through this valley—because you are with me!
Open my eyes and my ears to the protection and comfort of your rod and staff. Don’t let me miss those things and people which you have provided me for this purpose.
Help me experience the table you have prepared for me in the presence of this cancer.
Don’t let me overlook—or fail to ask for—your every healing drop of oil on my head.
Keep my perspective on my daily overflowing cup of your goodness and mercy.
Direct my longing toward my place in your house, forever!

Photo by Jeff Hopper on Unsplash

God’s Word and the Universal Problem of Suffering

“What is the meaning of it, Watson?” said Holmes solemnly as he laid down the paper. “What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.” (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box”)

Sherlock Holmes so succinctly put the question that every human who’s ever suffered asks. What, after all, is more universal to human experience than suffering? And what is more important than the perspective we bring to it?

I came to know my friend Jim Harrell after he read my book Heaven. We talked on the phone, exchanged e-mails, and quickly connected at a heart level. Jim, a successful businessman, strong and athletic for most of his life, contracted ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, in 2003. Yet he called the last six years of his life the most significant. In his last dictated e-mail, he told me he now had no ability to move from his neck downward. While his body deteri­orated and he’d lost normal functions, one after another, Jim touched more people (and was touched more by God) than at any other time of his life.

While writing my book If God Is Good, Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil, I drew on Jim’s wisdom, as well as that of many other sufferers.

During the two years it took me to research and write the book, many people asked about the project. I expected that my answer, containing the words evil and suffering, would prompt a quick change of subject. Most, however, expressed keen interest and asked penetrating questions. Several launched into their own stories, as if having received permission to uncork the bottle.

How we answer the central question of why, if God is good, do we suffer, will radically affect how we see God and the world around us.

We may want to turn away from world suffering and refuse to reflect on the significance of our own pain; we just want it to go away. But despite the superficiality of our culture, we remain God’s image-bearers—thinking and caring people, wired to ask questions and seek answers.

If God loves us, how can He justify allowing (or sending) the sometimes overwhelming difficulties we face?

While traveling the long road of researching and writing If God Is Good, I found something surprising: the journey was not only rewarding, but fascinating, enlightening, and at times downright enjoyable. I know it sounds counterintuitive—shouldn’t it depress someone to meditate on evil and suffering? In fact, I’d already seen enough evil and suffering to feel deeply troubled. What I needed was perspective. Instead of being disheartened, I was encouraged. In fact, I was astonished at how much insight Scripture offers.

In looking for answers to why we suffer, I beheld a God who says, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering” (Exodus 3:7). I found great comfort in hearing God speak of a time when He could bear His people’s misery no longer (see Judges 10:16). I revel in God’s emphatic promise that He will make a New Earth where He will come down to live with us, and on which “he will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4). Above all, I’ve seen Jesus.

In his book Deserted by God? Sinclair B. Ferguson tells the story of the first physician to die of the AIDS virus in the United Kingdom. A young Christian, he contracted the disease while conducting medical research in Zimbabwe. In the last days of his life, he struggled to express himself to his wife. Near the end, he couldn’t talk, and had only enough strength to write the letter J. She ran through her mental dictionary, saying various words beginning with J. None was right. Finally she said, “Jesus?”

He nodded. Yes, Jesus.

Jesus filled his thoughts. That’s all he wanted to say. That’s all his wife needed to hear.

Seeking answers to the question of evil and suffering should turn us toward Jesus in a fresh way.

In my research and writing, and later in my journey with Nanci through fighting cancer and grieving her eventual death, my thoughts too kept coming back to Jesus. What better place?

Often God has wiped away my own tears as I’ve contemplated—and lived—potentially faith-jarring situations. I’ve been left, not in despair, but with great hope that defies description and a peace that transcends understanding (see Philippians 4:7).

This journey has stretched my trust in God and His purposes, and I have emerged better prepared to face suffering and help others because of it. I feel I have much more to offer believers in Christ who may be questioning their faith, as well as unbelievers who consider the problem of evil and suffering their single greatest obstacle to faith (see 2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

We each bring our own burdens on the journey.

If abuse, rape, desertion, paralysis, debilitating disease, or the loss of a loved one has devastated you, then this issue isn’t theoretical, philosophical, or theological. It’s deeply personal. Logical arguments won’t satisfy you; in fact, they might offend you. You need help with the emotional problem of evil, not merely the logical problem of evil.

And remember: you are a whole person, and the path to your heart travels through your mind. Truth matters. To touch us at the heart level—and to keep touching us over days, months, years, and decades—truth must work its way into our minds.

By all means, speak with a friend and perhaps a pastor or counselor. But in the process don’t seek comfort by ignoring truth. When you try to soothe your feelings without bothering to think deeply about ideas, you are asking to be manipulated. Quick-fix feelings won’t sustain you over the long haul. On the other hand, deeply rooted beliefs—specifically a worldview grounded in Scripture—will allow you to persevere and hold on to a faith built on the solid rock of God’s truth.

In writing His magnificent story of redemption, God has revealed truths about Himself, us, the world, goodness, evil, suffering, and Heaven and Hell. Those truths God reveals to us teem with life. The blood of man and God flows through them. God speaks with passion, not indifference; He utters fascinating words, not dull ones. To come to grips with the problem of evil and suffering, you must do more than hear heart-wrenching stories about suffering people. You must hear God’s truth to help you interpret those stories.

Maybe you’re holding on to years of bitterness and depression. You blame someone for your suffering—and that someone may be God. You will not find relief unless you gain perspective.

Or perhaps you fear that any attempt to “gain perspective” will deny or minimize your suffering, or that of others. The Bible never minimizes suffering or glosses over it.

At times, each of us must snuggle into our Father’s arms, like children, and there receive the comfort we need. In When God Weeps, Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes write,

God, like a father, doesn’t just give advice. He gives himself. He becomes the husband to the grieving widow (Isaiah 54:5). He becomes the comforter to the barren woman (Isaiah 54:1). He becomes the father of the orphaned (Psalm 10:14). He becomes the bridegroom to the single person (Isaiah 62:5). He is the healer to the sick (Exodus 15:26). He is the wonderful counselor to the confused and depressed (Isaiah 9:6).

The faith that can’t be shaken is the faith that has been shaken.

God tells us that trials in which evil and suffering come upon us “have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7).

In her book Treasures for Women Who Hope, Alice Gray writes of sitting at a restaurant, talking with a friend about painful challenges in their lives. They frequently mentioned the Lord.

Alice noticed a young woman at the next table with a radiant, joyful face. The young woman smiled and said she’d overheard their conversation. Speaking softly, she encouraged Alice and Marlene that God understood and cared about their heartaches, and nothing could separate them from God’s love.

Alice continued talking with Marlene but realized something was different. The young woman’s words had refreshed them. When the smiling woman got up to leave, Alice saw that she wore bulky shoes, carried a walking stick, and moved with a severe limp.

The waitress told Alice this woman had been in a near-fatal automobile accident the year before. She’d been in and out of the hospital and rehabilitation. Her husband divorced her, their home had been sold, and she’d just moved into her own apartment. She used public transportation because she couldn’t drive. She’d been unable to find a job.

Alice sat stunned. She said, “This young woman’s conversation had been filled with delights of the Lord. There had been no weariness about her. She had encouraged us with words of praise and promise. Meeting her that day, we never would have suspected that storms were raging in her life. Even as she stepped outside into the cold winter wind, she seemed to carry God’s warm shelter of hope with her.”

In times of crisis we try to make sense of life. We crave perspective for our minds and relief for our hearts. We need our worldview realigned by God’s inspired Word: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). God promises that His Word “will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). God never makes such a promise about my words or your words.

So, regardless of the difficulties you face, God’s Word offers profound, moving, and surprising insights that can feed your mind, warm your heart, and give you the strength to face a world that is not what it once was, while we all await what it one day will be.

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

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Preparing for Eternity, Anticipating Heaven, Happiness in Jesus: My Q&A at First Baptist Leesburg

Earlier this month, I visited First Baptist of Leesburg, Florida and spoke at their weekend services on the subject of my book The Treasure Principle (I’ll share the video of that message in a separate blog soon).

I absolutely loved being there at this church. I spent a lot of time with Pastor Cliff and his wife Suzy—such wonderful people, as are so many others I met. The ministries on that church campus are remarkable. I visited their pregnancy care center and met the women who work there, as well as the people in the men’s and women’s rehab and other ministries.

These pictures are from the pregnancy resource center:

The women's rehab center:

The men's rehab center:

An amazing place. The movie No Vacancy tells the true story of the church taking funds that have been allotted for a new building and using them instead to buy a rundown motel next to the church property, and convert it into housing to get women and children off the streets. I met some of the people there, and it was very touching.

This short video is from Dean Cain, one of the lead actors in the No Vacancy movie. (Years ago he was in the Superman series Lois and Clark.)

Here are some pictures of Samaritan Inn:

I was also able to reunite with my friends Art and Kelly Ayris, who founded the wonderful comic book/graphic novel publisher Kingstone, which publishes both my graphic novels Eternity and The Apostle. Art is also on the staff of First Baptist Leesburg.

During that weekend, I did an evening Q&A with Pastor Cliff, and we covered a range of topics and questions:

Will we still enjoy/dislike the same things in Heaven?
How do you prepare yourself for death? What did I learn through Nanci’s example?
Will we know our loved ones in Heaven?
What did I learn about marriage in eternity while writing Heaven ?
What about the end times? Where should our focus and emphasis be?
From what I learned writing Happiness, can Christians be happy, or should we only be joyful?
What is my approach to the problem of evil and suffering in my book If God Is Good ?
Why did I write hand in Hand , about God’s sovereignty and meaningful personal choice?
How did I get involved with prolife work?

How Accessible Will Jesus Be to Each of Us on the New Earth?

When I taught a theology of Heaven class, I was asked, “How accessible will Jesus be to us on the New Earth?” Here’s the video of my answer, and below is an edited transcript, with some added thoughts:

If indeed Jesus is the eternally incarnate son of God and still has His resurrection body, doesn’t that mean He can only be at one place at one time on Earth? When Jesus was in Caesarea Philippi, He was not also in Jerusalem healing the multitudes. He was in one place at one time. That’s part of His humanness. Will it be that same way on the New Earth? I don’t know.

God the Father: everywhere present. The Holy Spirit: everywhere present. Now, is it possible that God the Son will elect for eternity to restrict His attributes as He did while on Earth: still 100% God but choosing not to use His omnipresence.

On the one hand, Jesus is forever incarnate, and humans are finite and limited to one location. On the other hand, Jesus is God, and God is infinite and omnipresent. In a sense, then, one of these truths has to yield somewhat to the other. Perhaps Christ’s humanity defined the extent of His presence in His first coming and life on Earth (humanity thereby eclipsing deity by limiting omnipresence). But Christ’s deity may well define the extent of His presence in His second coming and life on the New Earth (deity thereby eclipsing the normal human inability to be in two places at once). Jesus has and always will have a single resurrected body, in keeping with His humanity. Yet that body glorified may allow Him a far greater expression of His divine attributes than during His life and ministry here on Earth.

Jesus may choose to limit His omnipresence. Or would His omnipresence be manifested in a physical presence in a multitude of places, unlike when He was restricted on Earth to one place? If God took on human form any number of times, as recorded in Scripture, couldn’t Christ choose to take on a form to manifest Himself to us at a distant place? If He did that, might He not take on a temporary form very similar in appearance to His actual physical form, which may at that moment be sitting on the throne in the New Jerusalem? Might Jesus appear to us and walk with us in a temporary but tangible form that is an expression of His real body? Or might the one body of Jesus be simultaneously present with His people in a million places?

Might we walk with Jesus (not just spiritually, but also physically) while millions of others are also walking with Him? Might we not be able to touch His hand or embrace Him or spend a long afternoon privately conversing with Him—not just with His spirit, but His whole person?

Well, that’s possible, though it seems a little bizarre: So, you’re walking along, having a conversation with Jesus, and you look over and there’s your friend also having a conversation with Jesus!

It may defy our logic, but God is capable of doing far more than we imagine. Being with Christ is the very heart of Heaven, so we should be confident that we will have unhindered access to Him. 

Since we can accurately say that Jesus’ functioning as a man does not prohibit Him from being God, we must also say that Jesus’ functioning as God does not prohibit Him from being a man. So, although we cannot conceive exactly how it could happen, I believe it’s entirely possible that Jesus could in the future remain a man while fully exercising the attributes of God, including, at least in some sense, omnipresence. 

On the New Earth, isn’t it likely we might regularly hear Him speak to us directly as He dwells in and with us, wherever we are? Prayer might be an unhindered two-way conversation, whether we are hundreds of miles away in another part of the New Jerusalem, thousands of miles away on another part of the New Earth, or thousands of light years away in the new universe. We just don’t know—there’s no way to know…yet.

This is what I do know: God will be 100% available to us. We’re told “right now” we can crawl up into His lap, so to speak, and say Abba! Father! Papa! Daddy!

We can come boldly before the throne of grace. He wants us to. He wants us to be with Him. We now have the indwelling Holy Spirit of God and we’re also told, “…Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Well, how can Christ be in me right now while He’s in His resurrected body at the right hand of God? That would be a clear example of Him exercising a sort of omnipresence. Even if He’s not physically here in my heart, He is actually here in my heart, and in your heart and in all the places we go and in all the people in the world who know Him. That suggests omnipresence.  

For more on the subject of Heaven, see Randy’s book  Heaven . You can also browse additional resources on Heaven.

Photo by asap rocky on Unsplash

A Prodigal Son Finally Comes Home

Several years ago I shared on my blog about Christopher Yuan’s story of God’s grace, and his deliverance from homosexual sin. I got to meet him, and his parents Leon and Angelia Yuan, when we were both speaking in 2017 at an apologetics conference, and greatly enjoyed having breakfast with Christopher and hearing his testimony.

Here’s a brief synopsis of his story: Christopher once lived as an openly gay young man. But after being sentenced for drug dealing and finding he had HIV, he had a powerful conversion experience through reading the Bible in prison. He was not transformed into someone with heterosexual desires, but after growing as a Christian and searching God’s Word, he concluded that he could not follow Christ while submitting his thoughts and actions to same-sex desires. A serious and careful student of God’s Word, Christopher has been a professor at Moody Bible Institute.

Christopher and Angela, his mom, have written a fine book together, Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son's Journey to God. A Broken Mother's Search for Hope. He also wrote Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story, which is on the shortlist of most important books I’ve read in the last decade. Both book and author are Jesus-centered and Gospel-centered, full of grace and truth. 

Christopher posted on Twitter on February 15: “Today marks 22 years since I walked out of prison and my parents drove me to the halfway house in Chicago. Praise God for His faithfulness!”

The audio in this video was recorded on the 12th anniversary of his release from prison. This is so touching.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).