Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 56

Our Wounds and Christ’s

Note from Randy: There’s nothing I find more meaningful or satisfying to contemplate than Jesus Himself. In his new book Rich Wounds, David Mathis was written a warm, concise and celebratory treatment of the Jesus who is everything we need, and—may God use this book to help us realize—everything we want.

Hope you enjoy this excerpt from the book.

Because of how it helps me admire and marvel at Jesus, one of my favorite hymns has long been “Crown Him with Many Crowns” (Matthew Bridges, 1851). In my own life, it’s one of the few hymns that has been a common thread from one church to another. I have been singing it for forty years, since I was a child, then in college, then as an adult. Now, my kids know I love it and get my attention when the first bars begin in church. “Dad, it’s your favorite!”

Over the years, in singing this hymn with congregation after congregation, I’ve often been moved to tears of joy as I have pondered, even just vaguely, the great coronation ceremony in heaven, where the risen Christ, always fully God and now in full glorified humanity, takes his seat on the throne of the universe. I love how the hymn’s stanzas celebrate Christ, in turn, as Lord of love, Lord of life, Lord of light, Lord of heaven, Lord of years, Lord of lords. Even as phrase after phrase tells of his glory, the one that has arrested me most over the years is “rich wounds.”

Crown him the Lord of love!
Behold his hands and side—
Rich wounds, yet visible above,
In beauty glorified.

Rich wounds captures so well the strangeness and beauty—the peculiar glory—of Jesus Christ and his self-sacrifice at the cross for sinners. “Wounds,” of course, is no foreign word to modern ears. Today we speak with surprising frequency about “wounds:” not so much physical wounds as the emotional ones we’re newly aware of and attend to—the “daddy wound” of fatherlessness, the “wound” of harsh words against us, the “wounds” of some trauma that continues to haunt us. As a society, we’ve become freshly conscious of our wounds. We talk about them. We know them.

But as Christians we celebrate Jesus’s rich wounds. He was wounded for us: pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. “Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus bore our griefs, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities; he brought us peace; he healed us.

His wounds, horrific as they were when inflicted on the innocent Son of God, are indeed rich wounds, because he is God, and made us rich in becoming poor for us (2 Corinthians 8:9). They are wounds rich in meaning and significance: wounds that have not vanished on his resurrected body. They are still visible—gloriously so, as the hymn tells us.

“Rich wounds” flies as a banner over Jesus’s life and death and new life in the resurrection. First came his ability to be wounded, which he embraced by virtue of his becoming man and taking human flesh; then of course came the hand and foot and side wounds he endured in his death; and then, most significantly, came the scars which he now displays on his glorified body, celebrated in the hymn. “Rich wounds” not only brings to mind the cross and his death, not only the life and words and works that led him there, but also his resurrection: his exaltation to God’s right hand, his coronation as King of the universe, and his reign in heaven now. And “rich wounds” speaks to Christ’s ability to transform our wounds today, like his, into marks of beauty—wounds which are not without their pain, nor without subsequent glory.

Rich Wounds is available from Amazon and from WTS books.

Photo by Rey Proenza on Unsplash

Finding Resurrection Hope This Easter, and How Suffering Can Drive Us Deeper into God’s Love

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I always appreciate the thoughtful, biblical and Christ-centered insights of Tim Keller, and have recommended his books, messages, and online videos. 

In June 2020, Tim was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Last Sunday The New York Times published a interview with him, and he explained how the solid hope of the resurrection impacts his and Kathy’s lives (and his cancer). As I read, I thought about how Nanci and I would both agree 100% with what Keller says in answer to every question.

I’ll share a few excerpts, and you can read the whole thing here (and I hope you do).

When asked, “How has cancer and this encounter with your own mortality changed how you see your life and how you see death?” Tim answered:

On an emotional level, we really do deny the fact that we’re mortal and our time is limited. The day after my diagnosis, one of the words I put down in my journal was “focus.” What are the most important things for you to be spending your time doing? I had not been focused.

The second change was you realize that there’s one sense in which if you believe in God, it’s a mental abstraction. You believe with your head. I came to realize that the experiential side of my faith really needed to strengthen or I wasn’t going to be able to handle this.

It’s one thing to believe God loves you, another thing to actually feel his love. It’s one thing to believe he’s present with you. It’s another to actually experience his presence. So the two things I wrote down in my journal: one was focus and the other one was “Know the Lord.” My experience of his presence and his love was going to have to double, triple, quintuple or I wouldn’t make it.

Tim also said, about finding hope,

If the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened, then ultimately, God is going to put everything right. Suffering is going to go away. Evil is going to go away. Death is going to go away. Aging is going to go away. Pancreatic cancer is going to go away. Now if the resurrection of Jesus Christ did not happen, then I guess all bets are off. But if it actually happened, then there’s all the hope in the world.

And reflecting on Jesus’ last week of earthly ministry and Easter, and how it impacts his own suffering, Tim said:

Holy Week gives you both death and resurrection. They don’t make any sense apart. You can’t have the joy of resurrection unless you’ve gone through a death, and death without resurrection is just hopeless. Essentially, the death/resurrection motif or pattern is absolutely at the heart of what it means to live a Christian life. And actually everything in life is like that. With any kind of suffering, if I respond to it by looking to God in faith, suffering drives me like a nail deeper into God’s love, which is what cancer has done for me.

I know Nanci would concur. She wrote in her journal in 2018, “Wow, have I had a fresh experience of God’s grace! Not only in His healing hand and answer to so many prayers; but primarily in His meeting my spiritual needs. God has given me a fresh experience of His grace. I have experienced Him in new and powerful ways. And He is good!”

Last fall she wrote, “Overwhelmed with joy and gratitude this morning for the great privilege of walking with my Savior toward Heaven. My God is here. His presence is all around and in me.”

In my book If God Is Good, I talked about how when we lock our eyes on our cancer, arthritis, fibromyalgia, diabetes, or disability, self-pity and bitterness can creep in. We can easily interpret all life through the darkness of our suffering. How much better when we focus upon Jesus! Tim and Nanci are wonderful examples of Christ-centered focus in suffering that bears much fruit.

This Easter weekend, may we celebrate the magnificent, cosmos-shaking victory of Christ’s physical resurrection, and the glorious and solid blood-bought assurance it has secured for us in our suffering.

Photo by Gin on Unsplash

What about Marriage and Family in Heaven?

One of the most common questions I’m asked is about family relationships in Heaven. Here’s what I wrote in 50 Days of Heaven:

When we receive our glorified bodies and relocate to the New Earth, it will culminate history, not erase it. And nothing will negate or minimize the fact that we were members of families here on Earth. My daughters will always be my daughters, though first and foremost they are God’s daughters. My grandchildren will always be my grandchildren. Heaven won’t be without families; it will be one big happy family, in which all family members are friends and all friends are family members. We’ll have family relationships with people who were our blood relatives on Earth, but we’ll also have family relationships with friends, both old and new.

Paul says to the Thessalonians, “You long to see us, just as we also long to see you. . . . How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again” (3:6, 9-10). Paul finds joy in God’s presence because of other Christians. He anticipates the day “when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones” (3:13). He looks forward to being with Jesus and His people.

When someone told Jesus that His mother and brothers were wanting to see Him, He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice” (Luke 8:19-21). Jesus was saying that devotion to God creates a bond that transcends biological family ties.

Jesus also said that those who follow Him will gain “brothers, sisters, mothers, children” (Mark 10:29-30). I think of this when I experience an immediate depth of relationship with a fellow Christian I’ve just met. If you weren’t able to have children on Earth or if you’ve been separated from your children, God will give you relationships, both now and later, that will meet your needs to guide, help, serve, and invest in others. If you’ve never had a parent you could trust, you’ll find trustworthy parents everywhere in Heaven, reminding you of your heavenly Father.

So will there be family in Heaven? Yes, there will be one great family—and none of us will ever be left out. Every time we see someone, it will be a family member! (Of course, we can be closer to some family members than to others, but there will be no rivalry or envy or grudges.) Many of us, myself included, treasure our families. But many others have endured a lifetime of broken hearts stemming from twisted family relationships. In Heaven, no one will cause anyone else pain. Our relationships will be rich and harmonious.

But what about marriage?

The Sadducees, who didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead, tried to trick Jesus with a question about marriage in Heaven. Attempting to make Him look foolish, they told Him of a woman who had seven husbands who all died. They asked Him, “Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?” (Matthew 22:28).

Christ replied, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30).

There’s a great deal of misunderstanding about this passage. A woman wrote me, “I struggle with the idea that there won’t be marriage in Heaven. I believe I’ll really miss it.”

But the Bible does not teach there will be no marriage in Heaven. In fact, it makes it clear there will be marriage in Heaven. What it says is that there will be one marriage, between Christ and His bride—and we’ll all be part of it. Paul links human marriage to the higher reality it mirrors: “‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32).

The one-flesh marital union is a signpost pointing to our relationship with Christ as our bridegroom. Once we reach the destination, however, the signpost becomes unnecessary. That one marriage—our marriage to Christ—will be so completely satisfying that even the most wonderful earthly marriage couldn’t be as fulfilling. Earthly marriage is a shadow, a copy, an echo, of the true and ultimate marriage. Once that ultimate marriage begins, at the Lamb’s wedding feast, all the human marriages that pointed to it will have served their noble purpose and will be assimilated into the one great marriage they foreshadowed. Drake W. Whitchurch writes, “The purpose of marriage is not to replace Heaven, but to prepare us for it.”

The joy of marriage in Heaven will be far greater because of the character and love of our bridegroom. I rejoice that Nanci and I will both be married to the most wonderful person in the universe. I fully expect that she will remain my closest friend besides Jesus Himself. And I expect other family relationships not to be lost, but to be deepened and enriched.

Thank you, Jesus, that you promise reunion with loved ones who have gone on ahead. Thank you that the best of relationships here will be so much better there, in a world where things will never again take a turn for the worse.

Photo by Austin Lowman on Unsplash

Come, Lord Jesus: The Prayer to End All Prayers

Note from Randy: This article by Marshall Segal, with reflections on the prayer “Come, Lord Jesus” is wonderful.

How grateful we are for God’s promise of resurrected bodies and renewed minds, with which we will be better able to glorify and enjoy Him forever. We aren’t ready yet to appreciate the eternity of wonders He has prepared for us. But some days, we feel like we can’t wait any longer. In His perfect timing, He will take us out of this fallen world, and bring us into His presence. And then, at the time He appointed, He’ll send His Son back to this earth triumphant, to set up His Kingdom. And He’ll give us what we do not deserve: resurrected minds and bodies in perfect communion with Him and our spiritual family. We long for the great banquet and the celebration that never ends. Come, Lord Jesus!

The Prayer to End All Prayers

By Marshall Segal

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20)

The last prayer in the Bible is also one of its shortest — and yet it’s layered with heartache and anticipation, with distress and hope, with agony and joy. Can you imagine the apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 13:23), savoring those three words — “Come, Lord Jesus!” — while he was abandoned among criminals on the island of Patmos? Does the promise that Christ will come again ever feel sweeter than when life on earth feels harsh and unyielding?

It’s almost as if John tries to draw the risen Jesus out of heaven, praying with all his might. The barren, rocky ground beneath his knees was more than a prison; it was a model of the curse, twenty square miles overrun with the consequences of sin. Suffering does this. It opens our eyes wider to all that sin has ruined, just how much pain and havoc it has wrought in the world. And, in a strange way, suffering often awakens us to the promise of his coming.

Weakness and illness make us long all the more for new bodies. Prolonged relational conflict makes us long all the more for peace. Wars and hurricanes and earthquakes make us long all the more for safety. Our remaining sin makes us long all the more for sinlessness. “Come, Lord Jesus!” is the cry of someone who really expects a better world to come — and soon. Suffering only intensifies that longing and anticipation.

Many Prayers in One

The prayer “Come, Lord Jesus!” is really many prayers in one. What will happen when Christ finally returns? The opening verses of Revelation 21 tell us just how many of our prayers will be answered on that day.

Come, Lord Jesus, and dry our tears. Followers of Jesus are not spared sorrow in this life. In fact, following him often means more tears. Jesus himself warned us it would be so: “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). But one day, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4). In that world, we will not have tribulation, or sorrow, or distress, or persecution, or danger. When he returns, we’ll never have another reason to cry.

Come, Lord Jesus, and put an end to our pain. Some long for the end of heartache; others feel the consequences of sin in their bodies. Pain has followed them like a shadow. Revelation 21:4 continues, “. . . neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.” Can you imagine someone who has battled chronic pain for decades waking up one morning and feeling no more pain? It will be like a man who has never seen anything clearly finally putting on his first pair of glasses — except the sufferer will feel that sensation in every muscle and nerve. The absence of pain will free his senses to enjoy the world like never before.

Come, Lord Jesus, and put death to death. Jesus came to dethrone death. Hebrews 2:14–15 says, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” Every one reading this article was once enslaved to the fear of death. But death lost its sting when the Son of God died. And one day, death itself will die. When the Author of life comes, “death shall be no more” (Revelation 21:4).

Come, Lord Jesus, and rid us of sin. This burden may be more subtle in these verses, but it would not have been subtle in John’s imagination. He writes in verse 3, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.” And he knew that God cannot dwell with sin. For God to come and dwell with us, he will have to first eradicate the sin that remains in us — and that’s exactly what he promises to do. The sin that hides in every shadow and behind every corner will be suddenly extinct. He will throw every cause of sin into his fiery furnace (Matthew 13:41). “When he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Come, Lord Jesus, and make it all new. In other words, anything not included in the prayers above will be made right too. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1). Nothing here will go untouched. Whatever aspect of life on earth afflicts you most, it will be different. Whatever fears have plagued you, whatever trials have surprised you, whatever clouds have followed you, they all will be transformed — in the twinkling of an eye — and stripped of their threats. In the world to come, we will have nothing to fear, nothing to mourn, nothing to endure, nothing to confess. Can you imagine?

More than a prayer for relief, or safety, or healing, or even sinlessness, though, “Come, Lord Jesus!” is a prayer for him.

His Presence Is Paradise

The burning heart of John’s three-word plea is not for what Jesus does, but for who he is. This is clear throughout the book of Revelation. The world to come is a world to want because Jesus lives there. John’s prayer, after all — “Come, Lord Jesus!” — is a response to Jesus promising three times in the previous verses, “Behold, I am coming soon. . . . Behold, I am coming soon. . . . Surely I am coming soon” (Revelation 22:7, 12, 20).

While the apostle wasted away in prison, he could see the Bridegroom on the horizon (Revelation 1:12–16). His hair white, like snow. His eyes filled with fire. His feet, like burnished bronze. His face, like the sun shining in full strength. The man he had walked with, talked with, laughed with, and surely cried with, now fully glorified and ready to receive and rescue his bride, the church. The Treasure was no longer hidden in a field, but riding on the clouds.

Even the vision of the new heavens and new earth in Revelation 21 makes God himself the greatest prize of the world to come: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3). Yes, we want a world without grief, without pain, without fear, without death. But better to have a world like ours with God, than to have any other world without him. His presence defines paradise.

Read the rest of the article on Desiring God .

Photo by Luis Quintero from Pexels

Her Dad Gave Away Many Heaven Books, and His Own Well-Loved Copy Was Falling Apart

A reader, Tammy, sent me this touching message about her dad, and the pictures:

When my dad, Olen King, found out he had cancer and had only three months to live, my world was changed. He had started a home for boys 34 years ago and had a burden for helping them. Once he found out, he bought every book he could find on Heaven and read them. Until he read your book. He told hundreds of people that he met or witnessed to that when you are going on a trip you gather all the info, and study, and learn all you can! He was so ready for Heaven! God let him live 16 more years. He took his first breath of Heaven’s air in August.

He purchased close to 200 of your Heaven books and gave them to anyone he knew who has lost a loved one or was fixing to meet Jesus soon. I cannot tell you how many times he read that book along with this Bible. He gave all his kids a copy of the book but me....I got his!! The best gift he could have ever given me. It is falling apart and is marked and highlighted all through it. Thank you for following the Lord and the many hours of prayer and studying you put into it.

Tammy also wrote, “My dad was saved, loved the Lord, his Bible, family, and others. I know he is enjoying Heaven and being with Jesus. My heart is broken, but I KNOW I will be with him one day! …He ALWAYS had his Bible and was ready to share Heaven with anyone he met. …My dad always ended his conversations or when he wrote in the Heaven book to give to someone, ‘I’ll see you in our Father’s house.’”

As Charles Spurgeon put it, “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.”

For the Believer, Death Is a Great Awakening

Death is like a great ocean, and we are on this shore seeing people depart. But every ocean has two shores, and every person we see depart is seen as arriving on that other shore. Death is not the end. Just as birth was our ticket to this world, so death is our ticket to the next. It is less of an end than a beginning.

If I told you today I would move you from the slums to a beautiful country estate, you would not focus on the life you were ending but the life you were beginning. Death, though a curse in itself, was also the only way out from under the Curse—and only because God had prepared a way to defeat death and restore mankind’s relationship with Him.

Hope you enjoy these reflections on what it will mean to leave this world of pain and suffering, and enter into Christ’s presence (drawn from my book Eternal Perspectives, now out of print but still available on Kindle):

“[Christ] must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” —PAUL, 1 CORINTHIANS 15:25-26

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” —PAUL, 1 CORINTHIANS 15:55

“By [Christ’s] death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” —HEBREWS 2:14-15

“There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” —JESUS, REVELATION 21:4

“May I view things in the mirror of eternity,
waiting for the coming of my Lord,
listening for the last trumpet call,
hastening unto the new heaven and earth. . . .
May I speak each word as if my last word,
and walk each step as my final one.
If my life should end today, let this be my best day.”

—The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

“My knowledge of that life is small, The eye of faith is dim, But it’s enough that Christ knows all, And I shall be with him.” —Richard Baxter

“H. S. Laird’s father, a Christ-loving man, lay dying. His son sat at his bedside and asked, ‘Dad, how do you feel?’ His father replied: ‘Son, I feel like a little boy on Christmas Eve.’” —Jack MacArthur, adapted from Exploring in the Next World

“Soon you will read in the newspaper that I am dead. Don’t believe it for a moment. I will be more alive than ever before. . . . Earth recedes. . . . Heaven opens before me!” —D. L. Moody, on his deathbed

“I once scorned ev’ry fearful thought of death,
When it was but the end of pulse and breath,
But now my eyes have seen that past the pain
There is a world that’s waiting to be claimed.
Earthmaker, Holy, let me now depart,
For living’s such a temporary art.
And dying is but getting dressed for God,
Our graves are merely doorways cut in sod.”

—Calvin Miller, The Divine Symphony

“Oh, God, this is the end; for me the beginning of life.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, just before he was hanged by the Nazis

“Here in this world,
He bids us come;
there in the next,
He shall bid us welcome.”

—John Donne

“The gate of death is the gate of exit; the gate of Heaven is the gate of entrance; but these two are so close together that as the one shuts, the other opens. When a ripened saint was getting near the end of life’s journey, his friends said, ‘He is lying at the gate of death.’ He himself said, ‘I am lying at the gate of Heaven.’ Both were correct, for to the dying Christian the two gates are practically one.” —James Campbell, Heaven Opened

“Most people think we are in the land of the living on our way to the land of the dying. But actually, we are in the land of the dying on our way to the land of the living. . . . Death is a conjunction, not a period. . . . Death is a conjunction followed by a destination.” —Tony Evans, Tony Evans Speaks Out on Heaven and Hell

“Death. It is the most misunderstood part of life. It is not a great sleep but a great awakening. It is that moment when we awake, rub our eyes, and see things at last the way God has seen them all along.” —Ken Gire, Instructive Moments with the Savior

“We consider it strange that Christians claim to believe that heaven—being present with God—is so wonderful, and yet act as if going there were the greatest tragedy. We believe that death will someday be destroyed, but it is still a painful experience which all of us must face. We believe that some Christians may have idealistic views of deathbed rapture and be unprepared for this enemy’s grim violence. God has not promised His children an easy death or deathbed visions of glory. He has promised an open door beyond.” —Joseph Bayly, When a Child Dies

“When a Christian dies, it’s not a time to despair, but a time to trust. Just as the seed is buried and the material wrapping decomposes, so our fleshly body will be buried and will decompose. But just as the buried seed sprouts new life, so our body will blossom into a new body. As Jesus said, 'Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains a single grain of wheat; but if it dies, it brings a good harvest' (John 12:24, Phillips).” —Max Lucado, When Christ Comes

“We have not lost our dear ones who have departed from this life, but have merely sent them ahead of us, so we also shall depart and shall come to that life where they will be more than ever dear as they will be better known to us, and where we shall love them without fear of parting.” —Augustine, letter to Lady Italica

 “Birth is such an excellent analogy for death. As surely as a newborn baby ‘dies’ from the womb-world into this world, so will our passing from life on Earth be a birth into another. . . . Babies do not cease to exist when they pass down the birth canal; they just don’t live in the womb any longer. The person in the womb becomes the person who lives in the world. The person in the world becomes the person who lives in Heaven.” —Daniel Brown, What the Bible Reveals about Heaven

“Sleep, like death, is a temporary experience and ends in a great awakening. I think the image of sleep is used for death so often in Scripture because sleep and death are both universal experiences. . . . When I’ve worked hard, I look forward to lying down in a refreshing sleep. I don’t fear sleep or try to avoid it; I embrace it. We close our eyes in anticipation of a new day. For the Christian, death is falling asleep to all we have known in this realm and waking up in Christ’s presence.” —Douglas Connelly, The Promise of Heaven

For more on the New Earth, see Randy’s book  Heaven . You can also browse our resources on Heaven and additional books.

Photo by Ramon Kagie on Unsplash

What Will It Be Like to Step into Heaven and Come Face to Face with Jesus?

Many of you have asked about Nanci’s memorial service. It will be held Sunday, May 15 at 3:30 p.m. at our home church, Good Shepherd Community Church, 28986 SE Haley Rd, Boring, OR 97009. A live stream will be available, and the video will also be available at that web address after the service.

Thanks so much for your continued prayers for our family. We would also appreciate your prayers that the service will be honoring to Nanci and above all honoring to her beloved Jesus.

Contemplating Heaven is where my heart is at right now. In this excerpt from my novel Deception, I picture one of the characters entering Heaven:

One moment Carly Woods was awake in a world of pain. The next moment she felt herself falling to sleep. A rush of sound and light awakened her.

At first she thought she was walking through a glowing passageway. Then she realized she was being carried, effortlessly, in mighty arms.

Behind her was a ruined paradise, a wasteland waiting to be reclaimed. Ahead of her was a world of substance and light, overflowing with color. The place beckoned her to come dive into it, to lose herself and find herself in something greater than she’d ever known. In one moment, Carly Woods had moved from midnight to sunrise.

“Awesome!” she said.

“Yes,” said a deep, resonant voice above her. She turned and looked up at the rock-chiseled face of a great creature, a shining warrior, looking like a man, yet different. She’d never seen anything like him. Yet somehow she thought she’d known him for years. She sensed he was rescuing her, that his job was to carry the wounded to where they’d be made well.

“I am Tor-el, servant of Elyon, God Most High. I have served Him by watching over you each day of your life in the Shadowlands.”

“I never knew.”

“Elyon knew,” he said, the edges of his lips turning barely upward. “That is all that matters.”

She turned to look where she was going. With every step the warrior took, she saw more color, detail, and activity. She could taste and smell life. The place reached out to her, pulling her in, as a magnet pulls iron filings.

“I’m getting stronger,” Carly said, recognizing her voice, but realizing it was much fuller. She’d never liked the sound of her voice. Now she did.

“I thought my life was over. It feels like it’s just begun.”

The voice above her spoke again. “The end is behind you, little one. This is the beginning that has no end.”

People crowded against a beautiful white fence, reaching their arms toward her. She heard their applause and an enchanting laughter. The warrior put her down.

She turned and said, “Thank you, Tor-el. For everything. I... I’d like to talk more.”

“We will. There is much for you to discover in the new world and much to learn about what happened in that world. It will be my honor to guide you. But now is the time for celebration and greeting. Your welcoming committee awaits you.”

She ran toward the joy and leapt carelessly into it. The years of sickness had been but labor pains. Now she was being born into heaven.

Uncle Clarence’s father, smiling broadly, waved to her, beckoning her to come in. Standing next to him was a woman she’d seen only in pictures... Ruby Abernathy, Clarence’s mother.

“Carly!”

It was Uncle Finney, a voice she hadn’t heard in many years. She ran toward him and threw herself into his arms. They laughed. He whispered to her. Then they danced. And as they danced, Carly caught a glimpse of a young man she didn’t know but thought she should and next to him a woman so beautiful and vibrant that she felt unworthy to speak her name.

“Aunt Sharon?”

“We’ve been waiting for you, Carly,” she said. They hugged hard. And then Carly hugged her a second time, even tighter.

“That was from—”

“Ollie,” Sharon said. “I know, sweetheart. Thank you. But there’s someone else waiting to greet you.”

Sharon bowed her knees to the ground, and bright light shone on her face. All who were around her bowed too, eyes fixed behind Carly, who turned to behold the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen.

She saw the brightness of a billion galaxies, contained in one person. She beheld a man who was God, Creator of the Universe. His face was as young as a child’s, yet His eyes had seen all that had ever been and all that ever would be. This was God Himself. He put His hands upon her shoulders. She thrilled at His touch.

“Welcome, Carly, daughter of God!” He smiled broadly, the smile of a Galilean carpenter. “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into your Master’s joy!”

He hugged her and she hugged Him back, realizing she’d felt this embrace before. She’d been sad not to marry a man on earth. But she knew now that this was her Bridegroom, the object of all her longing, the fulfillment of all her dreams. “My Jesus,” she whispered.

“My Carly,” He whispered back.

When the embrace ended, it continued, even as they stepped back to gaze upon each other.

He put out His hand to her face, and she saw on it a terrible scar. She stared at His other hand and at His feet. She fell to her knees, overcome.

He knelt beside her and looked into her eyes. She saw in Him an ancient pain that was the doorway to eternal pleasures.

“It was worth it, Carly,” He said. “For you, I would do it all again.”

Note from Eternal Perspective Ministries: The family asks that in lieu of flowers delivered to the Alcorn home, those who would like to give a gift in honor of Nanci consider giving to the memorial fund instead. To donate online click here (select the "Nanci Alcorn Memorial Fund”). If you wish to send a check, you can make it payable to Eternal Perspective Ministries and send to: 39065 Pioneer Blvd, Suite 100, Sandy, OR 97055. Be sure to write "Nanci" in the notation area.

Please direct questions related to the service to EPM.

Photo by Hassan OUAJBIR on Unsplash

Dying Is But Going Home

As of Monday morning, Nanci is with Jesus. So happy for her. Sad for us. But the happiness for her triumphs over the sadness. Grieving is ahead, and it will be hard, but these last years and especially this last month have given us a head start on the grieving process. I am so proud of my wife for her dependence on Jesus and her absolute trust in the sovereign plan and love of God. 

Nanci is and always will be an inspiration to me. I have spent the last two days with family and friends, thanking God for His grace and the promises of Jesus that we will live with Him forever in a world without the Curse, and He will wipe away all the tears and all the reasons for the tears. All God’s children really will live happily ever after. This is not a fairytale; it is the blood-bought promise of Jesus. 

What a great and kind God He is. As of Monday, Nanci now lives where she sees this firsthand, in the place where Joy truly is the air she breathes: “In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

Thank you so much for all your prayers, some of you for four years of praying consistently for Nanci. My heart is full of gratitude to you. Don’t feel your prayers were not answered—many of them were, and many others were answered in a better way than we could ever ask. 

Today’s blog is excerpted from my book We Shall See God. It’s the first of 50 entries drawn from Charles Spurgeon’s sermons on Heaven, and it’s entitled “Dying Is But Going Home.” It seems fitting to share right now. Spurgeon delivered this sermon on March 21, 1886, just three days after the death of his friend and fellow pastor Charles Stanford. In it, he encourages his congregation to view death as a home-going, as the gateway to full union with Christ:

Breathe the home air. Jesus tells us that the air of his home is love: “You loved me before the foundation of the world.”

Brothers and sisters, can you follow me in a great flight? Can you stretch broader wings than the condor ever knew and fly back into the unbeginning eternity? There was a day before all days when there was no day but the Ancient of Days. There was a time before all time when God only was, the uncreated, the only existent One. The Divine Three—Father, Son, and Spirit—lived in blessed camaraderie with each other, delighting in each other.

Oh, the intensity of the divine love of the Father to the Son! There was no world, no sun, no moon, no stars, no universe, but God alone. And the whole of God’s omnipotence flowed forth in a stream of love to the Son, while the Son’s whole being remained eternally one with the Father by a mysterious essential union.

How did all this which we now see and hear happen? Why this creation? this fall of Adam? this redemption? this church? this Heaven? How did it all come about? It didn’t need to have been. But the Father’s love made him resolve to show forth the glory of his Son. The mysterious story which has been gradually unfolded before us has only this one design—the Father would make known his love to the Son and make the Son’s glories to appear before the eyes of those whom the Father gave him.

This Fall and this redemption, and the story as a whole, so far as the divine purpose is concerned, are the fruit of the Father’s love to the Son and his delight in glorifying the Son.

That [the Son] might be glorified forever, [the Father] permitted that he should take on a human body and should suffer, bleed, and die. Why? So that there might come out of him, as a harvest comes from a dying and buried grain of wheat, all the countless hosts of elect souls, ordained forever to a joy exceeding bounds. These are the bride of the Lamb, the body of Christ, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Their destiny is so high that no language can fully describe it. God only knows the love of God and all that it has prepared for those who are the objects of it.

Beloved, I am lost in the subject now. I breathe that heavenly air. Love surrounds all and conquers grief. I will not cause the temperature to fall by uttering any other words but this—hold your friends lovingly but be ready to yield them to Jesus. Don’t hold them back from the One to whom they belong.

When they are sick, fast and pray. But when they are departed, do much as David did, who washed his face and ate and drank. You will go to them; they cannot return to you. Comfort yourselves with the double thought of their joy in Christ and Christ’s joy in them. Add the triple thought of the Father’s joy in Christ and in them.

Let us watch the Master’s call. Let us not dread the question—who next, and who next? Let none of us start back as though we hoped to linger longer than others. Let us even desire to see our names in the celestial roll call. Let us be willing to be dealt with just as our Lord pleases.

Let no doubt intervene; let no gloom encompass us. Dying is but going home. Indeed, there is no dying for the saints. Charles Stanford is gone! Thus was his death told to me: “He drew up his feet and smiled.” Likewise you and I will depart. He had borne his testimony in the light, even when blind. He had cheered us all, though he was the greatest sufferer of us all. And now the film has gone from the eyes, the anguish is gone from the heart, and he is with Jesus. He smiled. What a sight was that which caused that smile!

I have seen many faces of dear departed ones lit up with splendor. Of many I could feel sure that they had seen a vision of angels. Traces of a reflected glory hung about their countenances.

Oh, brothers and sisters, we shall soon know more of Heaven than all the Christian scholars can tell us! Let us go home now to our own dwellings, but let us pledge ourselves that we will meet again. We will meet with Jesus, where he is, where we shall behold his glory.

Here are my reflections on Spurgeon’s sermon, also included in We Shall See God:

Charles Spurgeon, always God centered rather than man centered, starts this message on Heaven with an emphasis on the triune God, whose eternal fellowship among Father, Son, and Spirit is the basis for all our relational capacities and longings and joy.

Spurgeon, speaking this message at age fifty-one, passionately anticipated Heaven. He speaks with a warm fondness for his colleague Charles Stanford, who lived and preached in south London, not far from Spurgeon. Stanford had been blinded by glaucoma five years before his death, but he continued to write with the aid of a typewriter until his life ended, just before Spurgeon’s message.

Notice Spurgeon’s confidence that Heaven is the place of great union with Christ and reunion with redeemed loved ones. As a caring pastor, Spurgeon desires his people to understand that embracing the gospel should change their view of death. He says, “Let no doubt intervene; let no gloom encompass us. Dying is but going home.” Only six years later, at age fifty-seven, Spurgeon himself would go home to Jesus, joining his friend Charles Stanford.

Jesus came to deliver us from the fear of death, “so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15, niv). In light of the coming resurrection of the dead, the apostle Paul asks, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55, NIV).

We should not romanticize death. But those who know Jesus should realize that death is the gateway to never-ending joy.

Grasping what the Bible teaches about Heaven shifts our center of gravity and radically alters our perspective on life. This is why we should always seek to keep Heaven in our line of sight.

In 1952, Florence Chadwick stepped off Catalina Island, California, into the waters of the Pacific Ocean, determined to swim to the mainland. An experienced swimmer, she had already made history as the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways.

The weather that day was foggy and chilly; Florence could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam steadily for fifteen hours. When she begged to be taken out of the water, her mother, in a boat alongside her, told her that she was close and that she could make it. But Florence, physically and emotionally exhausted, stopped swimming and was pulled into the boat. It wasn’t until she was on board that she discovered the shore was less than half a mile away. At a news conference the next day, she said, “All I could see was the fog. . . . I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”

When you face discouragement, difficulty, or fatigue, or when you feel surrounded by the fog of uncertain circumstances, are you thinking, If only I could see the shore, I could make it?

Set your sights on Jesus Christ, the Rock of salvation. He is the One who has promised to prepare a place for those who put their hope in Him, a place where they will live with him forever. If we can learn to fix our eyes on Jesus, to see through the fog and picture our eternal home in our mind’s eye, it will comfort and energize us, giving us a clear look at the finish line.

When the apostle Paul faced hardship, beatings, and im­prisonment, he said, “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14, NIV). What gave Paul the strength and perspective to “press on toward the goal”? A clear view of Heaven.

Ask your Savior for His grace and empowerment, and keep your eyes on the shore. By His sustaining grace, you’ll make it.

Photo by Marek Rucinski on Unsplash

Is Our Suffering Pointless? (And an Update on Nanci)

Perhaps the greatest test of whether we believe Romans 8:28—“In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”—is to identify the very worst things that have happened to us, then ask if we believe that in the end God will somehow use them for our good.

Fold a paper in half. Then write on the top half the worst things that have happened to you and on the bottom half the best.

Invariably, if you’ve lived long enough, if enough time has passed since some of those “worst things” happened to you, then you’ll almost certainly find an overlap. Experiences labeled as the worst things that ever happened, over time become some of the best. That’s because God uses the painful, difficult experiences of life for our ultimate good.

How is this possible? Because God is both loving and sovereign. Our lists provide persuasive proof that while evil and suffering are not good, God can use them to accomplish immeasurable good. This knowledge should give us great confidence that even when we don’t see any redemptive meaning in our suffering, God can see it—and one day we will too. Therefore, we need not run from suffering or lose hope if God doesn’t remove it. We can trust that God has a purpose for whatever He permits.

In this video, my friend Steve Keels and I answer the question, “Is my suffering pointless?”

I posted this on Nanci's Caring Bridge today:

Nanci may soon be with Jesus

After last Monday’s incredibly powerful day with Nanci and our whole family, I have been playing her praise music and reading to her from her journals, because I know nothing more full of God’s Word and great quotes from God’s people, including her. It is amazing to be encouraging both of us with words she has written out with her own hand. (I’ll include some of her journal writings at the end of this post, in fact the last 2/3 of it is from Nanci’s journal.) 

When Nanci poured herself out for her family last Monday, a week ago today, it was as if she exhausted her remaining energy. She’s gotten weaker nearly every day. Still, Nanci and I were having short but meaningful conversations until just a few days ago. Unfortunately, the last two days she has faded noticeably. 

Though we are keeping her comfortable, she’s no longer capable of communicating with her words. I still talk to her and read Scripture to her and play the praise music for her, but don’t know how much she is absorbing. (Since I don’t know, I talk to her assuming she can understand.) 

The hospice nurse thinks Nanci may have less than a week to live, maybe just a few days, though it’s impossible to be certain. 

I simultaneously don’t want her to go, yet with all my heart I DO want her to go into the arms of Jesus. 

I am grateful that with the meds that it’s not intense suffering as much as ongoing discomfort but still, even hearing her frequent cough that borders on choking sometimes is heart-breaking. We give her a continuous flow of oxygen, Nebulizer treatments, suction machine, mouth moisturizer, and lip balm in addition to morphine, and that’s not all. With the wonderful help of Hospice, we’re reaching for everything in the arsenal to make her a little more comfortable. Meanwhile God is has graciously prepared us to release her to Jesus. 

“To live is Christ and to die is gain…I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (Philippians 1:21, 23). Better by far even than when we’re at our strongest in this world groaning under the Curse, and all the better when we’re at our weakest, and this is the weakest my Nanci has ever been. She has told me in tears that what she’s gone through these past months has been very hard. She has wanted either to get much better or to be with Jesus.

Being with Jesus and God’s family—including both of our moms and dads and many dear friends—in Heaven, awaiting the resurrection and the New Earth, free from pain and suffering and curse. What could be better for her? 

It seems like Nanci’s barely hanging on, and this evening I was kissing her forehead and whispering to her things like this: “Let go and be with the person you love the most and have always dreamed of meeting face to face. One day soon I’ll join you there and so will the people on earth that you love the most.”

Well done, good and faithful daughter of God. What a privilege, my Sweetheart, to have lived this life with you. I so look forward to the wonders and glories we will experience together in the world to come, where Joy will be the air we breathe.

Thanks so much for your ongoing prayers, especially for Nanci and also for me and our daughters, sons-in-law and grandsons, and Nanci’s special friends. (You know who you are, and we love you for loving her.)

Randy

Some excerpts from Nanci's journal:

1. John Newton: “We have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, his arm over us, his ear open to our prayer—his grace sufficient, his promise unchangeable.” 

Nanci: That promise, found in Romans 8:27–30, is:

               *The Holy Spirit prays for me according to the will of God

               *God always works to cause everything to result in my best interest

               *God works “everything” to conform me to the image of his son.

               *God called me; he justified me; and he will glorify me.

God is in control. I am not. God knows my future. I do not. God always has my best interest in mind. I can trust that.

Robert Murray M’Cheyne: “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”

 2. Yesterday I was mourning my summer. I was looking at pictures on my phone of last summer at the beach with Maggie and the boys; of Dodge Park; of doing things. I had tears of “what I had missed.” Now I’m missing the boys’ games, missing walking Maggie, the PAO conference, and doing many more things! Then one of my devotionals from Face to Face with Jesus talked about clinging to our own plans and desires instead of yielding to the path God has for you.

The path God laid out for me over the past 8 months did not provide me with many—if any—options wherein I could choose to follow my own plans and desires. Surgery and pain, radiation and chemo and pain and fatigue, more chemo with greater pain and fatigue. All these were unavoidable.

But the best that came my way in God’s sovereign plan over these months has been my heart yielding to God’s plan. I have sat reading books about God. I have sat reading God’s word. I have sat pouring my heart out to God and praising God, and coming to a new and greater belief in his love for me; a new and greater trust in his plans for me, a new and greater expectation of what my death will bring!

I would not trade a spring and summer filled with fun and projects needing to get done, over what God had planned. He knew what was in my best interest! He knew what would draw me to himself in ways I never anticipated. 

3. My Savior ministered to me greatly this morning with this truth: I will be ready to die when my time comes because my Shepherd will give me his joy, peace, and readiness. It will not be me working up enough faith and trust, my God will fight the battle for me! It will be his perfect ministering Spirit who will carry me peacefully–jubilantly into God’s arms. 

Spurgeon: “What if we should soon be called to the heavenly realm? Certainly, there would be nothing to deplore in such a summons, but everything to rejoice in. Living or dying we are the Lord’s. If we live, Jesus will be with us; if we die, we will be with Jesus.

4. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. I will be found by you says the LORD. Jer. 29:12–14

We know these days that God always listens to us because of his Son’s work on our behalf. When I pray I never worry about having God’s attention. I never need to plead for his ear, or his heart to take heed. 

God always listens to me.

The Holy Spirit gives me words to say.

Jesus advocates my prayers with God the Father

God wants me to pray to Him.

Even though God has already sovereignly determined the plans for my life, somehow my prayer requests play a solid role in it all. I do not need to understand how this fits; I do need to trust that God has declared to use my prayers. God wants to hear my prayers.

My prayers to God keep my spiritual life alive. I recognize God’s sovereignty and power when I pray. I feel his love, grace and faithfulness. Prayer helps me keep things in perspective. Nothing “just happens”. Everything is planned in love. Everything is carried out in wisdom, power and love.

Because I am not God, I should never question why things go the way they go. It is the height of foolishness to determine that my ways are preferable to God’s ways.

I am not omniscient, all–wise or totally just.

I don’t even love myself nearly as much as God loves me!!! 

So why would I ever second guess God? He always always has my best interests in mind and when his way for me is painful, unclear, frightening, seemingly unfair, emotionally difficult, mentally challenging, et all…I need to trust, to believe that God does all things well.

5. And I pray that Christ will be more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. Eph. 3:17

Needing to trust in Christ and then choosing to do so, results in him making a home deeper in my heart. That bond which becomes more established between us comes from my recognition and acceptance of my need for him. It comes from placing my trust in him. It is lessened by my questioning and resentment of his ways. My trust allows my soul to continuously grow in the presence of God’s love for me which is a deep and marvelous love.

6. A prayer of Nanci’s:

Ancient of Days, 

You have shown yourself to me over these months. 

You have stayed by my side, of course, but you have allowed me to feel your presence. Thank you with all my heart.

You, in your wisdom, did not choose to remove all side effects, but you, in your mercy, did eliminate some and lighten others.

I pray that you will continue to teach me about your love, faithfulness and grace through pain, and uncertainty, and waiting—waiting—waiting.

I praise and thank you for your sovereign hand on my life. 

I truly trust you with my life.

I don’t want anything to happen (and it won’t) which is outside your will.

You know what is best. 

You are always working in my best interests.

Now, please, Heavenly Father, give me your strength, your courage, your perspective as I seek to accept with thanksgiving whatever you have for me. 

I still need your help to be able to say “I will accept with joy, praise, and thanksgiving anything and everything ahead.”

More pain. More fear. More uncertainty, more waiting. I need your sweet and powerful Holy Spirit to infuse my heart with your joy and thanksgiving. I’m bringing this request to your throne. Nanci

John Donne: “I shall…be united to the Ancient of Days, to God himself, who had no morning, never began…No man ever saw God and lived; and yet I shall not live till I see God; and when I have seen him I shall never die.” 

Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash

Answering Tough Questions about Heaven, with Sean McDowell

Sean McDowell, who teaches at Biola/Talbot, has a self-described passion for equipping the church, particularly young people, to make the case for the Christian faith. Last year I was on his podcast to talk about Heaven, Hell, and the afterlife.

We covered many great questions, including:

Are There Pets in Heaven?

Is there Marriage and Sex in Heaven?

Will We Play Sports in Heaven?

How Will Age Work in Heaven?

What Language Will Be Used in Heaven?

Are Near Death Experiences Real?

How Quickly Do We Get to Heaven After Death?

What are Your Thoughts on Cremation?

How Should We Use Heaven as an Evangelistic Tool?

How Does One Enjoy Heaven Knowing Loved Ones are In Hell?

Here’s the full conversation:

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