Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 5

50 Years Ago, Nanci and I Said “I Do”

Tomorrow, May 31, is Nanci’s and my 50th wedding anniversary. I thank God for His faithfulness and the time we had together.

I’m so grateful for how Nanci put up with me for all those years, and for being not only my wife, but also my best friend and my closest sister in Christ. I keep thanking God for her partnership and companionship in the gospel. I first heard the gospel from Nanci, and we discussed messages I was hearing at church and youth group for eight months before I came to Christ as a sophomore in high school. Later, we went through Bible college together and were in most of each other’s classes. We discussed lectures and did our homework together.

We wanted to grow old together. If you’d told us when we got married at 21 that we would live to be 68, we would have said, we did grow old together! But when you’re 68, it’s like the new 48. Nanci and I were married in 1975, but we were best friends from the day we met as freshmen in high school, December 7, 1968. She was my closest friend for 53 and a half years. That is a privilege and a treasure. I will not regret the years we might have had but be profoundly grateful for the years we did have—and not just the quantity, but the quality. 

In the years before Nanci died, we experienced what it was to love and trust each other more than we ever had. A couple of weeks before her homegoing, Nanci was sitting up in bed, and I was holding her hand and she said, smiling but in tears, “Randy, thank you for my life." I said in tears, "Nanci, thank you for my life." I thought it was so beautiful that we saw our lives as so intertwined, we really had become one. We certainly didn’t do everything right, but by God’s grace, He used us in each other’s lives to grow us spiritually, and to make us better followers of Jesus. 

Nanci and I knew God to be good and kind and absolutely faithful before her four plus years of dealing with cancer, but we saw Him in so many ways during that time that it brings tears of profound gratitude to my eyes.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

    for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

    great is your faithfulness. 

Lamentations 3:22–23

The memories are so good and so precious that they make me smile and fill my heart. At first after her death, it was nine parts sorrow for every one part joy. A year later, it was five parts of each, and now it is nine parts happiness and one part sorrow. I have wept often, but I experience more joy in reflecting upon her than I do sorrow. There is no despair, only gratitude.

I can't live without Jesus, and while I don't want to live without Nanci, that is the way it is, and for now I must. I am sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:10. I love that we are to be always rejoicing, instead of always sorrowful—the joy eclipses the sorrow.

It is my wholehearted belief that Nanci’s death was not the end of our relationship, only a temporary interruption. The great reunion awaits us, and I anticipate it and delight in imagining it with everything in me.

According to what Jesus said in Matthew 22:38 we will not be married to our earthly spouses in Heaven, but if they and we are believers, we should not think for a moment that we will not have a great relationship with them. I’m well aware that many marriages have not worked out on earth. But we will all be married to Jesus, and He will never let us down. So it's not that there is no marriage in Heaven, but that there is one marriage in Heaven, and all of us will experience that as the corporate bride of Christ. (See this article for more.)

I fully anticipate no one besides God will understand me better on the New Earth than Nanci, and there’s nobody whose company I’ll seek and enjoy more than Nanci’s. The joys of marriage in eternity will be far greater because of the character and love of our Bridegroom. I rejoice for Nanci and for me that we’ll both be married to the most wonderful person in the universe.

Also, while thinking about what I would say in this blog, I entered my name and Nanci's into a normal search engine (not AI) and the first thing that popped up was something generated by artificial intelligence that said I was remarried in August 2024. If you didn't know that, welcome to the club, because I didn't know it either. My first thought was “whoever she is, I better get her something for our first anniversary.”

Seriously, I have not remarried, though it would be perfectly fine if I did. But I have no plans for remarriage. Artificial intelligence can be great, but there is a reason it is called “artificial.” 😂

Recommended Reading Grieving with Hope Help for Women Under Stress The Promise of the New Earth

William Wilberforce Encourages Us to Look to Jesus, and Be Happy

One of my great heroes is William Wilberforce. He is credited as the primary human agent to bring about the end of slavery in England. Wilberforce wrote,

The gospel freely admitted makes a man happy. It gives him peace with God, and makes him happy in God. It gives to industry a noble, contented look which selfish drudgery never wore; and from the moment that a man begins to do his work for his Saviour’s sake, he feels that the most ordinary employments are full of sweetness and dignity, and that the most difficult are not impossible.

And if any of you, my friends, is weary with his work, if dissatisfaction with yourself or sorrow of any kind disheartens you, if at any time you feel the dull paralysis of conscious sin, or the depressing influence of vexing thoughts, look to Jesus, and be happy. Be happy, and your joyful work will prosper well.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’”

This is a biblically grounded statement, in keeping with the words of Paul: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23). When we work out of duty alone, we likely won’t experience happiness. When we’re trying to please people, we become unhappy if they’re displeased with us. If we labor to earn God’s favor, we’ll either imagine we’ve earned it and become proud and unhappy, or we’ll realize we can’t and become depressed and unhappy. Working for minimum wage, or for no pay at all, when done honestly and for God’s glory, can bring more joy than any million-dollar salary (see Proverbs 10:9; Proverbs 11:1; 1 Corinthians 4:2; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Hebrews 13:18).

Scripture calls us to actively cultivate the habit of happiness by rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks (see 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Do you continually open your eyes to look past yourself and see God and His hand at work? Do you regularly look for reasons to thank Him?

God Himself models His inspired command to rejoice always. He sympathizes with all His suffering children, but He rejoices in purchasing our redemption and making us more like Jesus. He joyfully prepares a place for us, and He has eternally happy plans. He has the power to accomplish everything, as well as the sure knowledge that it will happen.

As God’s children, we have a history of His faithfulness in the past and an assurance of a secure future, which should define how we view our present. This perspective can infuse us with happiness even in what would otherwise be the unhappiest times of our lives. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18, NIV).

Recommended Reading Does God Want Us to Be Happy? God's Promise of Happiness Happiness (softcover)

What Does It Mean to Give Quietly?

Jesus says, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1). The illustrations that follow include prayer and fasting, but begin with giving. When you give to the needy, He says, don’t announce it, as do the hypocrites, who want to be honored by men. Instead, give quietly, not telling anyone, “so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:4).

I read of a New York fund-raising dinner where people stood up to identify themselves and make pledges to a charitable cause. One man rose, gave his name, his wife’s name, the name of his business, its location, and the kind of merchandise he sold, then loudly announced, “We want to give $5,000 anonymously.”

Showiness in giving is always inappropriate. But sometimes our acts of righteousness will be seen by men and even should be. The world will know we are Christians by our love for each other (John 13:35), but our acts of love must be visible, just as they were when the early Christians sold their property and gave away the proceeds to meet each other’s need. Earlier in the same sermon where He says we’re not to give in order to be seen by men, Christ commands us, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

How can we reconcile these commands? We do so by realizing that Christ’s point is about our motives: Don’t do a righteous act in order to impress people. But when you do a good work, use that opportunity to bring praise to God. What Jesus objects to is not that men would know we give, but that we would give to impress men rather than to please God.

The same principle applies to prayer. Jesus tells us to pray in secret, and God will reward us for that (Matthew 6:6). Yet gathering for group prayer is certainly important (Matthew 18:19-20). God wants us to pray secretly sometimes but not others. He also wants us to give secretly sometimes but not others. It all comes down to the motives of our heart.

Many Christian organizations and churches put contributors’ names on plaques, bricks, pews, and cornerstones. They publish donor lists and name schools and buildings after patrons. This surely encourages the very thing Jesus condemned. It’s hard to understand how we could read this passage and still continue these practices. What are we thinking? By granting the reward of human recognition, we deprive givers of the one reward that would count for eternity: God’s reward.

Studies show that people give more when they get public recognition—but in the Church is that the right thing to do? During a building project years ago, our church elders were considering whether to offer to put givers’ names on individual bricks. One of the elders said, “If we do that, I hope those people really like bricks, because if that’s why they give, it’s the only reward they’re going to get.” Eventually we decided against the idea, because we thought it would tempt people to give for the wrong reasons—and would thereby remove God’s blessing from that building project.

In some circles, “giving” is merely the price of admission for social status. Many people’s businesses have flourished more than the value of their giving through the publicity their giving produces. If this is their motive, then their “giving” is merely a business expense.

I’m always amused at companies that purchase an advertisement for $300,000 to make a big deal out of giving $20,000 to needy kids. Why not just give $320,000 to help the kids and shut up about it? What they’re doing is not about giving—it’s about self-promotion for the purpose of financial gain.

Some use giving to purchase recognition, while others use it to purchase control. They give with strings attached, pulling this string and that, leaving the recipient organization afraid not to comply since it will mean losing future gifts. This is the stockholder mentality. It’s common in local churches where the wealthy can wave their money and lobby for what they want, or strike back by withholding their giving when they don’t get their way. At a church where there was disagreement over who should serve as a new pastor, one board member said, “I’ve poured a lot of money into this church, and I intend to get the pastor I want.” In the truest sense, of course, this man wasn’t giving money to God or the church. He was spending money, under the guise of giving, to purchase control and ego enrichment. God wants quiet and humble givers, not self-serving power brokers.

The best way to avoid exalting givers is to avoid knowing who they are in the first place. There are many reasons for keeping giving anonymous. Most churches have one or two financial secretaries who record donations for tax purposes. These people are the only ones who know who gives what. Other times one or more pastors, elders, or deacons are also aware of giving levels.

There are several reasons why I believe that no one in church leadership should know who’s giving what. If leaders know how much people give, they’ll be tempted to show preference to big givers and neglect those who give less. This is the very trap Scripture warns against, calling it “favoritism” and “evil” (James 2:1-5). Also, it puts leaders in a position of judging others with incomplete knowledge. They may conclude that some people are unspiritual and others are spiritual, without knowing the whole story. (This is different in parachurch ministries, because there is limited direct contact between most ministries and many of their supporters. Consequently, the circumstances do not exist for givers to be compared as readily as they might be in a church, and conclusions are rarely drawn about nongivers.) In some cases, church leaders’ judgments may be accurate, but still unhealthy. Those who have served as financial secretaries carry the burden of knowing when vocal church members whom everyone admires give nothing to the church.

The most important reason for anonymous giving is to remove or at least minimize the temptation to give in order to impress others. If the pastor or the board knows how much I give, I may give in order to impress them. But if I do, Jesus says, I have my reward and will receive none from Him. When I give at my church, I’m grateful there are only one or two people I could be tempted to impress. The fewer the better.

One of the great tests for Christian leaders is whether we can trust God to provide financially without courting or favoring big donors. And perhaps the greatest test for givers is whether we are able to give of ourselves and our resources without getting the credit, concerned only that God gets the glory.

For misrepresenting their giving, God struck Ananias and Sapphira dead (Acts 5:1-10). Keep in mind that they were generous donors. Many Christian ministries today would pay their way to a donors’ conference in a gorgeous hotel in the Caribbean or name a new building after them. If we are tempted to exaggerate our giving or make it appear we’re making more sacrifice than we are, we should take seriously what God did to Ananias and Sapphira!

The Master says, “Well done” to the servant, not for being well known or popular or for getting his name engraved on cornerstones and having buildings named after him. Rather He commends him for being “good” and “faithful.” When we’re true servants, it isn’t about us. We’re like the ox grinding out the corn. We don’t own the corn, and we don’t get credit for growing it. We just do our job and get to eat some of it, and we’re grateful for that. Recognition isn’t what it’s about.

Recommended Reading Giving Is the Good Life Managing God's Money Money, Possessions and Eternity

There’s Pride in Choosing Our Own Preferences over God’s Revealed Doctrines

Our theology tends to come from whatever we trust. The fact that a writer or teacher has some good insights along the way makes the heresy all the more effective. Hand somebody undisguised rat poison and they won’t eat it. Cover it in chocolate, and they likely will. All effective heresy contains much that is true—it’s the chocolate that deceives us into eating rat poison.

First Timothy 4:1 says, “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). 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).

A remarkable statement is made 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, that’s what Scripture says. What strikes me is the first description that comes to Paul’s mind, as prompted by the Holy Spirit: before all else, a teacher of false doctrines is regarded as conceited. Why? I think it’s because he chooses his preferred doctrines over God’s revealed doctrines. And that is not just error, it is the ultimate conceit. It says, “I trust my own opinions and perspectives [which are often identical to the current drift of a person’s culture] more than I trust God’s.” Hence, he is putting himself in God’s place. He makes himself God.

The judgment upon the false prophet is serious indeed (capital punishment in Old Testament). The burden laid on Bible teachers in the New Testament is heavy: Titus 2:1 says, “You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.” That’s a good verse to put on our desks and screens. And hence, James says, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1).

There is humility in submitting to God’s revealed truth even when we do not like its implications, or wish it were otherwise. 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 it than anyone—who am I to suggest some way around a doctrine that Christ embraced and taught?

Consider the vested interests that demons have in our not believing in Hell! If I were to join many people in saying “There is no eternal hell” or “No one will go to hell,” 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 or my culture, not He, is my real “Lord.”

When it comes to books, many imagine that nonfiction is teaching and fiction is not, hence that nonfiction relates to doctrine and truth, but fiction doesn’t. That’s simply not true. I have written several novels, and over the years I’ve discovered that fiction is a different form of teaching, less didactic of course, but sometimes even more effective. Fiction has a Trojan Horse effect, wherein the novelist’s worldview is allowed unguarded entry into the gates of the reader’s minds. Often that worldview subversively (for better or for worse) comes out and does its work under cover of darkness, sometimes overthrowing the mind that opened its gates, having no thought to what was hidden within the story. Perspectives are changed and belief systems are modified—sometimes radically—regardless of the author’s intent. Hence, not just pastors and seminary instructors, but novelists are the teachers of James 3:1 who will be judged more strictly.  

This is why I encourage all Christians to study sound doctrine. It will prove of strategic and eternal importance to ourselves, those we influence, and most importantly, our Lord.

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Reforming Our Vocabulary to Fit the Resurrection

A radio preacher, speaking about a Christian woman whose Christian husband had died, said, “Little did she know that when she hugged her husband that morning, she would never hug him again.”

Though the preacher’s words were well intentioned, they were not true. He could have said, “She’d never again hug her husband in this life,” or better, “She would not be able to hug her husband again until the next world.” Because of the coming resurrection of the dead, we will be able to hug each other again—on the New Earth.

Someone might say, “We all know what the preacher meant.” But I’m not sure we really do—or that he really did. I’m not trying to be picky, but we need to carefully reform our vocabulary to express what’s actually true. If we don’t, we will ultimately fail to think biblically and continue to embrace predominant stereotypes of Heaven.

“That’s the last time I’ll ever see him in his body,” a man said of his son who died. No. Because they were both Christians, they will see each other again in their resurrection bodies.

“I’ll never see my daughter again on this earth.” But if she is a believer, and you are, then the statement is wrong. You will see her again on this earth. You and she will be transformed, and the earth will be transformed, but it will still really be you and your daughter on an Earth that really is the same Earth.

We do not just say what we believe—we end up believing what we say. That’s why I propose that we should consciously correct our vocabulary so it conforms to revealed biblical truth. It’s hard for us to think accurately about the New Earth because we’re so accustomed to speaking of Heaven as the opposite of Earth. It may be difficult to retrain ourselves, but we should do it. We must teach ourselves to embrace the principle of continuity of people and the earth in the coming resurrection that Scripture teaches.

Because ethereal notions of Heaven have largely gone unchallenged, we often think of Heaven as less real and less substantial than life here and now. (Hence, we don’t think of Heaven as a place where people will hug, and certainly not in these bodies.) But in Heaven we won’t be shadow people living in shadowlands—to borrow C. S. Lewis’s imagery. Instead, we’ll be fully alive and fully physical in a fully physical universe.

In one sense, we’ve never seen our friend’s body as truly as we will see it in the eternal Heaven. We’ve never been hugged here as meaningfully as we’ll be hugged there. And we’ve never known this earth to be all that we will then know it to be.

Jesus Christ died to secure for us a resurrected life on a resurrected Earth. Let’s be careful to speak of it in terms that deliver us from our misconceptions and do justice to the greatness of Christ’s redemptive work.

Recommended Reading 50 Days of Heaven (Special Edition) Heaven The Promise of the New Earth

The Kingdom of Kingdoms

God created Adam and Eve to be king and queen over the earth. Their job was to rule the earth to the glory of God.

They failed.

Jesus Christ is the second and last Adam, and the church is His bride, the second Eve. Christ is King, the church is His queen. He will exercise dominion over all nations of the earth: “He will rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. . . . All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him” (Psalm 72:8, 11). As the new head of the human race, Christ will at last accomplish what was entrusted to Adam and Eve—with His beloved people as His bride and co-rulers. God’s saints will fulfill on the New Earth the role that God first assigned to Adam and Eve on the old Earth. “They will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:5).

Human kingdoms will rise and fall until Christ brings to Earth a Kingdom where mankind will rule in righteousness. Daniel prophesied, “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever” (Daniel 2:44).

As Christ will be the King of kings, His realm will be the Kingdom of kingdoms—the greatest kingdom in human history. Yes, human history, for our history will not end at Christ’s return or upon our relocation to the New Earth; it will continue forever, to the glory of God.

“Rejoice greatly. . . . See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. . . . He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (Zechariah 9:9-10). Matthew 21:5 makes it clear that Zechariah’s prophecy concerns the Messiah. Just as the first part of the prophecy was literally fulfilled when Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem, we should expect that the second part will be literally fulfilled when Jesus brings peace to the nations and rules them all. Jesus will return to Earth as “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:11-16). We’re promised that “the Lord will be king over the whole earth” (Zechariah 14:9).

Bible-believing Jews in the first century were not foolish to think that the Messiah would be King of the earth. They were wrong about the Messiah’s identity when they rejected Christ, and they were wrong to overlook His need to come as a suffering servant to redeem the world; but they were right to believe that the Messiah would forever rule the earth. He will!

In His parables, Jesus speaks of our ruling over cities (Luke 19:17). Paul addresses the subject of Christians ruling as if it were Theology 101: “Do you not know that the saints will judge [or rule] the world? . . . Do you not know that we will judge [or rule] angels?” (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). The form of the verb in these questions implies that we won’t simply judge them a single time but will continually rule them.

If Paul speaks of this future reality as if it were something every child should know, why is it so foreign to Christians today? Elsewhere he says, “If we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:12). God’s decree that “[his servants] will reign for ever and ever” on the New Earth (Revelation 22:5) is a direct fulfillment of the commission He gave to Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:28).

David confirmed for all humanity the original great commission that God gave to Adam and Eve: “You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority” (Psalm 8:6, NLT).

Mankind’s reign on the earth is introduced in the first chapters of the Bible, mentioned throughout the Old Testament, discussed by Jesus in the Gospels and by Paul in the Epistles, and repeated by John in Revelation. From start to finish, we are told that our God-given purpose and destiny are to rule the earth.

God’s desire is to prepare you now for what you will do forever. As any athlete, soldier, or farmer will tell you, preparation isn’t always easy. But it’s necessary, and its payoffs are huge. Our role as Kingdom rulers is not automatic—God makes it dependent on our faithful service here and now.

Are you ready to rule the New Earth? No? That’s all right. God’s plan is to shape your life to make you ready .  Are you cooperating with His plan, submitting to His training, and learning to call upon His strength and wisdom?

Thank you, Lord, that as your image bearers, we are still capable of bringing you glory, even in a world that is so bent. Thank you that your purpose and calling for us have not changed. Thank you that you are preparing a world for us to rule—and you are preparing us to rule it, for your eternal glory. Help us, Lord, never to think we do not have a role in your plan for our lives. Help us to fulfill our responsibilities and exercise the spiritual disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, giving, and serving others, so that we might be the sorts of children and servants that you take pleasure in commending and rewarding.

Excerpted from 50 Days of Heaven.

Recommended Reading 50 Days of Heaven 50 Days of Heaven (Special Edition) Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Heaven

How Are Faith and Works Related When It Comes to Salvation?

Note from Randy: Earlier this year, I shared Kevin DeYoung’s article Faith and Works: Does James Contradict Paul? on my blog. A reader wrote us with this question in response:

I read the article you posted on Randy’s blog from Kevin DeYoung. However, the equation he shared of F(aith)=J(ustification)+W(orks) still does not ring true with me.  I have pondered it, repeated it to myself and still do not come up with anything different from Faith+Works=Justification.  I am sure a lot of it has to do with DeYoung being brighter than I am.  Yet this equation still is troublesome. If someone would like to use other words to convince me of the correctness of the equation, I am all ears.

My thanks to Stephanie Anderson, EPM staff, for her excellent response.

I wonder if your questions come up because Scripture (including the book of James) does very much emphasize the importance of our works, and eternal rewards has tended to be a neglected area of doctrine in evangelicalism. You may be familiar with what Randy has written about eternal rewards and how God will reward His children for their works done in this life (see Can We Really Earn Eternal Rewards?).

In that article, Randy explains:

Let’s be sure this is perfectly clear: Salvation and rewards are different.

Salvation is about God’s work for us. It’s a free gift, to which we can contribute absolutely nothing (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5).

Rewards are about our work for God.

Salvation is dependent on God’s faithfulness to his promises, and on his mercy.

Rewards are conditional, dependent on our faithfulness (2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 2:26-28; 3:21).

Belief determines our eternal destination...where we’ll be

Behavior determines our eternal rewards...what we’ll have.

Works do not affect our redemption. Works do affect our reward. Just as there are eternal consequences to our faith, so there are eternal consequences to our works.

Because we speak of rewards so rarely, when we do speak of them it’s easy to confuse God’s work and man’s. We may, for example, mistakenly believe that Heaven is a person’s reward for doing good things. This is absolutely not the case. Eternal life is entirely “the gift of God” (Romans 6:23). In going to heaven we don’t get what we deserve. What we all deserve is hell. Heaven is a gift, not a reward.

In regard to salvation, our work for God is no substitute for God’s work for us. In regard to rewards, God’s work for us is no substitute for our work for God. Of course, this doesn’t mean we work in our own strength to earn rewards. Ultimately even our reward-earning works are empowered by the Holy Spirit (Colossians 1:29).

I love Ephesians 2:8-10 because it lays it out so clearly (see what I’ve bolded)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

There it is: we are not saved by works (as if we could ever contribute to our salvation) but we are absolutely saved to do good works! They aren’t the means by which we are saved, but God definitely intends that they be the result.

I hope this helps. It really is such good news that we can’t contribute to our salvation by our own works. Otherwise, we would be constantly wondering, “Is it enough? Have I done what’s required? Will I really enter God’s presence when I die?” Instead, we can look to Christ and know that we are saved because He paid our debt all completely and perfectly! And then we can rejoice and serve Him with joy in response, doing what Ephesians 2:10 says: walking in the good works God has prepared for us.

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Will We Explore the New Heavens?

The “new heaven” in Revelation 21:1 apparently refers to exactly the same atmospheric and celestial heavens as “heavens” does in Genesis 1:1. Do I seriously believe the new heavens will include new galaxies, planets, moons, white dwarf stars, neutron stars, black holes, and quasars? Yes. The fact that they are part of the first universe and that God called them “very good,” at least in their original forms, means they will be part of the resurrected universe.

When I look at the Horsehead Nebula and ask myself what it’s like there, I think that one day I’ll know. Just as I believe this “self-same body”—as the Westminster Confession put it—will be raised and the “self-same” Earth will be raised, I believe the “self-same” Horsehead Nebula will be raised. Why? Because it is part of the present heavens, and therefore will be raised as part of the new heavens.

So will the new planets and stars be mere ornaments, or does God intend for us to reach them one day? It’s hard for me to believe God made countless cosmic wonders intending that no human eye would ever behold them and that no human should ever set foot on them. The biblical accounts link mankind so closely with the physical universe and link God’s celestial heavens so closely with the manifestation of His glory that I believe He intends for us to explore the new universe.

Even under the Curse, we’ve been able to explore the moon, and we have the technology to land on Mars. What will we be able to accomplish for God’s glory when we have resurrected minds, unlimited resources, complete scientific cooperation, and no more death? Will the far edges of our galaxy be within reach? And what about other galaxies, which are plentiful as blades of grass in a meadow? I imagine we will expand the borders of righteous mankind’s Christ-centered dominion, not as conquerors who seize what belongs to others, but as faithful stewards who will occupy and manage the full extent of God’s physical creation. The universe will be our backyard, a playground and university always beckoning us to come explore the wealth of our Lord—as one song puts it, the God of wonders beyond our galaxy.

I share more thoughts in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhHIi8J6gbg?si=TrryHpAQ4PXCJFFy

Some Encounters with God’s People Are a Preview of the Joys of Eternity

Recently two of our EPM staff and Randy had a delightful visit with a man and his two daughters who flew out from the Midwest to Oregon. Randy had previously shared about Jerry, and how he has given away literally thousands of the Heaven booklets, in this blog. (If you missed that one, be sure to go back and read about Jerry’s incredible ministry sharing the hope of Heaven.)

It was a joy to be with Jerry and Verlena and Valyssa. Honestly, we can’t imagine three more delightful people! It was a pleasure to meet and spend time with them. We thank God for all three of them and their families.

Here’s a video that Valyssa put together about their visit. It’s a preview of the delights of the New Earth, where there will be countless gatherings of God’s people, full of laughter and stories:

 
 
 

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A post shared by Valyssa (melissa with a V) (@sunsetssistersandsweettea)

We wish Randy and our staff were able to spend face-to-face time with every reader who contacts our ministry! But like all of you experience, our time on this present earth is limited. Randy writes, “I look forward to long, leisurely, and uninterrupted conversations on the New Earth! I want to hear a few million new stories from God’s people. One at a time, of course, and spread out over thousands of years. I imagine we’ll relish these great conversations, ask questions, laugh together, and shake our heads in amazement at God’s faithfulness and goodness.”

Grieving the Death of Your Mom, with Hope

My mom grew up in the Dalles, Oregon, and worked at Charles F. Berg clothing store in Portland, and then became a full-time mom for me and my brother Lance. (This picture is from her days as a model for the store; one of my favorite photographs of her.)

I can’t imagine having had a better mom. I’ve been working on a book about animals and the New Earth, and one of the childhood memories that’s come to me involves the chameleons I would win each year as a boy at the county fair and proudly bring home. I also remember the warm smile on my mom’s face as she somehow avoided eye-rolling. (Part of what made her, in my book, the greatest mother ever.)

My mom was one of the closest friends I've ever had. She came to Christ a year after I did. We grew together, reading and discussing Scripture and great books, praying and laughing together. Mom encouraged me in everything, including in my service as a pastor (she was part of our church) and my article-writing (it was years later I wrote my first book, in 1985). Mom died in 1981, only four months after our daughter Angela was born, and when our daughter Karina was two and a half. Every Monday my mom had Karina stay with her for the day and they were extremely close.

When my mom died, I mourned my loss, my wife’s, and above all my children’s. I felt like part of me had been taken away. That’s not an uncommon experience for those who’ve lost a parent. Afterall, grief is the price of love.

And now, Nanci, my soulmate and the mother of our daughters Karina and Angela, is in the presence of Jesus, so they too are missing the mom they love so dearly.

For those who know Christ, our relationship cannot be terminated, only interrupted. (Angela shared some wonderful reflections about her mom two years ago on my blog, about how this is just a brief interruption in their relationship.) What will eventually follow—whether in hours, days, years, or decades—is a great reunion, wonderful beyond imagination. I can't wait to see my mom, and Nanci, again in the presence of Jesus.

I realize there are some who had difficult relationships with their moms, or who are unsure whether their mom trusted in Christ for salvation. Scripture says, “Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD [Yahweh] will receive me” (Psalm 27:10). Whether though abandonment or death, we may experience separation from our parents; but we can never lose the steadfast love and presence of our Heavenly Father. God’s love—the love of a perfect parent—is our greatest comfort in grief.

Last year, I was interviewed by GriefShare (a ministry we recommend) about my mom’s death and the grief process, for a video called “Remembering Mom.” They interviewed a number of people whose moms have died. One person shared about his difficult grief process, but said, “I learned to be OK with the story God wrote for my mom’s life.” Another said, “Our loved one will always be a part of our life.” So true.

Here’s a preview of “Remembering Mom”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xggXzEDNbP4?si=OGz0Or5OaHq-JVxt

You can watch the entire 30-minute video on GriefShare, and it’s well worth your time.

(My booklet Grieving with Hope was born out of what I’ve learned over the years about grief, and especially during the last three years since Nanci relocated to Heaven.)