Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 64

Start Your Day with Listening to God

Augustine said, “By hearing Thee I am happy; because of Thy voice I am happy.” There’s no place we can go to hear God speak authoritatively, to hear His voice with complete confidence, other than the Bible itself.

We need to hear from God before we hear from everybody else. That’s a good reason not to start the day by looking at email or text messages, but rather to first look at the messages God has placed in your primary inbox: Scripture.

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. (Psalm 90:14)

I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words. (Psalm 119:147)

Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. (Psalm 143:8).

A. W. Tozer said, “Listen to no man who has not listened to God.” Once we hear from God, only then are we ready to bring His perspective to the onslaught of human opinion and need, the trivial and the overwhelming that comes upon us wave by wave throughout the day. (Listening to Scripture on audio might be a great way to start your day with God’s Word, and you can play it while you make breakfast, take a shower, or pack a lunch.)

Dallas Willard writes in Hearing God, “Our failure to hear His voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not in general want to hear it, that we want it only when we think we need it.”

Only when we understand our need for God’s Word—and are ready to listen to Him—are we prepared to listen to others, and to give back to them not from sludgy murk, but from a reservoir of pure waters. “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). Crying infants aren’t concerned about doing their duty; they simply want to be fed. They crave milk because they need it.

If you’re not craving God’s Word, you’ve forgotten what you’re missing—or perhaps you’ve never known. If that’s the case, dive into it. After you’ve spent enough time there, you’ll find that television and social media and popular culture will ring hollow to you.

Father, you’ve spoken to us through Your Word. Help us turn off the world’s incessant noise so we might hear you. With all the voices that clamor for our attention, Lord, help us turn off and turn away from others’ and listen to yours, when we rise in the morning and all throughout our day.

A. W. Tozer Asks, Do You Believe God Is the Most Winsome of All Beings?

Note from Randy: Though I was happy as a young Christian, there’s a paradigm-shifting doctrine I was never taught in church, Bible college, or seminary: the happiness of God Himself. I’ve read many Christian books on joy that make no mention of God’s joy. It’s something I now believe should be at the heart of a Christian worldview.

This is why I give considerable attention to the biblical teaching that God is happy in my books Happiness and Does God Want Us to Be Happy? Only when we understand this can we believe that God wants us to be happy.

In his classic book The Knowledge of the Holy, which influenced me profoundly as a new believer, A. W. Tozer wrote, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. And in this excerpt from his book The Root of the Righteous, Tozer lays out why we need a right view of God—one that includes His holiness of course, but also His happiness, love, kindness, and delight.

Satan’s first attack upon the human race was his sly effort to destroy Eve’s confidence in the kindness of God. Unfortunately for her and for us, he succeeded too well. From that day, men have had a false conception of God, and it is exactly this that has cut out from under them the ground of righteousness and driven them to reckless and destructive living.

Nothing twists and deforms the soul more than a low or unworthy conception of God. Certain sects, such as Pharisees, while they held that God was stern and austere, managed to maintain a fairly high level of external morality; but their righteousness was only outward. Inwardly they were “white sepulchres,” as our Lord Himself told them. Their wrong conception of God resulted in a wrong idea of worship. To a Pharisee, the service of God was a bondage which he did not love but from which he could not escape without a loss too great to bear. The God of the Pharisee was not an easy God to live with, so his religion became grim and hard and loveless. It had to be so, for our notion of God must always determine the quality of our religion.

Much Christianity since the days of Christ’s flesh has also been grim and severe. And the cause has been the same—an unworthy or an inadequate view of God. Instinctively we try to be like our God, and if He is conceived to be stern and exacting, so will we ourselves be.

From a failure to properly understand God comes a world of unhappiness among good Christians even today. The Christian life is thought to be a glum, unrelieved cross-carrying under the eye of a stern Father who expects much and excuses nothing. He is austere, peevish, highly temperamental, and extremely hard to please. The kind of life which springs out of such libelous notions must of necessity be but a parody on the true life in Christ.

It is most important to our spiritual welfare that we hold in our minds always a right conception of God. If we think of Him as cold and exacting, we shall find it impossible to love Him, and our lives will be ridden with servile fear. If, again, we hold Him to be kind and understanding our whole inner life will mirror that idea.

He Is All Love

The truth is that God is the most winsome of all beings and His service is one of unspeakable pleasure. He is all love, and those who trust Him need never know anything but that love. He is just, indeed, and He will not condone sin; but through the blood of the everlasting covenant He is able to act toward us exactly as if we had never sinned. Toward the trusting sons of men His mercy will always triumph over justice.

Fellowship with God is delightful beyond all telling. He communes with His redeemed ones in an easy, uninhibited fellowship that is restful and healing to the soul. He is not sensitive nor selfish nor temperamental. What He is today we shall find Him tomorrow and the next day and the next year. He is not hard to please, though He may be hard to satisfy. He expects of us only what He has Himself first supplied. He is quick to mark every simple effort to please Him, and just as quick to overlook imperfections when He knows we meant to do His will. He loves us for ourselves and values our love more than galaxies of newly created worlds.

Unfortunately, many Christians cannot get free from their perverted notions of God, and these notions poison their hearts and destroy their inward freedom. These friends serve God grimly, as the elder brother did, doing what is right without enthusiasm and without joy, and seem altogether unable to understand the buoyant, spirited celebration when the prodigal comes home. Their idea of God rules out the possibility of His being happy in His people, and they attribute the singing and shouting to sheer fanaticism. Unhappy souls, these, doomed to go heavily on their melancholy way, grimly determined to do right if the heavens fall and to be in the winning side in the day of judgment.

He Remembers Our Frame

How good it would be if we could learn that God is easy to live with. He remembers our frame and knows that we are dust. He may sometimes chasten us, it is true, but even this He does with a smile, the proud, tender smile of a Father who is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect but promising son who is coming every day to look more and more like the One whose child he is.

Some of us are religiously jumpy and self-conscious because we know that God sees our every thought and is acquainted with all our ways. We need not be. God is the sum of all patience and the essence of kindly good will. We please Him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms with all our imperfections, and believing that He understands everything and loves us still.

Photo by Toan Chu on Unsplash

Fame vs. Impact: Do You Remember Their Names?

Being a hero is something entirely different than being a celebrity. Fame is one thing. Virtue is another. The two aren't even remotely related. In fact, the more famous you become the harder it is to cultivate and retain virtue. Celebrities are just people with good looks, talent, money, and the ability to draw attention to themselves. Heroes are people who stand courageously for what is right, often against the tide of public opinion, and at great cost to themselves.

Fame is deceptive, isn't it? There are lots of school teachers and nurses and people who work with kids, and elderly men and women down on their knees praying. They aren't going to be in the news. It takes a lot more sacrifice to be a hero than to be a celebrity.

The following quiz, which illustrates that point, was adapted by my friend Doug Nichols, founder of Action International Ministries.

Take this quiz:

1. Besides Bill Gates, name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman (football) trophy winners.
3. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer prize.
4. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
5. Name the last five years' World Series winners.

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday even though these people are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.
5. Name half a dozen heroes whose stories have inspired you.

Easier? Yes! The lesson: The people who make a difference in our lives are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards.

So let’s make sure we are ones who care for others, not just that we will be remembered, but that God will be glorified!

Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas from Pexels

Does “Breath of Life” in Scripture Mean an Unborn Child Isn’t Human Until They’re Born and Breathing?

I read someone’s argument on social media that “Human life occurs at the moment God breathes into [naphach] the biological life the breath of life [neshamat chayyim, ‘soul life’]. This happens at birth.”

When several other commenters pointed this person to what Scripture has to say about God forming the unborn, they responded,

Job 31:15 & Psalm 139:13 refer to God’s involvement in the “mediate” creation of biological life, which began after God created Adam & Eve through “immediate” creation. Biological life is created from existing material, whereas soul life is created after a pattern (God’s) at birth.

…The bible clearly teaches soul life is imputed at birth. The pattern of creation is: 1) biological life is completely formed 2) God breathes soul life into the completed biological life 3) Human life is created.

…Scripture is clear about human life beginning at birth. Even Christ elucidated that BIRTH is the beginning of human life, just as being BORN AGAIN is the beginning of our spiritual life. He didn't say we must be “conceived again.”

Likewise, some prochoice religious groups argue that as Adam’s life began when God breathed into him, so each human life begins when the baby is born and takes his first breath. This demonstrates a misunderstanding of the nature of the unborn’s respiration. John Davis writes in his book Abortion and the Christian:

While breathing in the usual sense does not begin until birth, the process of respiration in the more technical biological sense of the transfer of oxygen from the environment of the living organism occurs from the time of conception...it is the mode but not the fact of this oxygen transfer which changes at birth.

The creation of Adam was historically unique, never again to be duplicated, and has no parallel to the birth of a child. As Harold O. J. Brown put it in his book Death Before Birth:

If God took inanimate matter and made a man from it, as Genesis 2:7 seems to be saying, then obviously what he created was not a human being until it was given life. But the fetus is not “inanimate matter.” It is already alive. And it is already human....to apply Genesis 2:7 to human beings who were carried for nine months in a mother’s womb before birth is clearly ridiculous. This argument is seldom used by people who take Scripture seriously.

Since Scripture clearly refers to the unborn as living beings—as it does to Jacob and Esau and David conceived a sinner, and hence a human being, in Psalm 51—before they took their first breath outside their mother’s body, it refutes the contention that Scripture teaches life begins with the first breath. (See Biblical Perspectives on Unborn Children.) What more would you want these passages to say if they were suggesting that life begins long before a child is breathing on his own?

The breath of life is from God, not a technical reference to a person’s ability to breathe. Since science clearly shows us that the unborn takes in oxygen from his mother, why does this not qualify as breathing? If someone has one lung removed due to cancer, are they now half a human being? If a patient is capable of breathing only 40% of the oxygen he needs, is he now only 40% human, and 60% nonhuman? A legalistic association of breathing and humanness is not only unbiblical, it’s ultimately bizarre.

Sadly, everyone I’ve interacted with who’s taken this position has admitted that they are using it to justify abortion. In my study of Scripture, I believe it’s nothing more than a distortion of God’s Word.

By the way, I would personally love to believe that life doesn’t begin until birth. It would take away mourning over miscarriages, grief for millions of children killed annually, great inconvenience and financial costs of helping save lives, and minimize any sense of guilt for apathy about dying children. (It would also make it easy to always immediately pull the ventilator plug from an older person or accident victim—“They’re dead already, so no big deal.”)

But the reality is that the logic of “no human life until birth” simply doesn’t hold up biblically OR scientifically.

Browse more prolife articles and resources, as well as see Randy’s books  Pro-Choice or Pro-Life: Examining 15 Pro-Choice Claims ,  Why ProLife?  and  ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments .

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk from Pexels

Local Churches Are an Essential Part of God’s Plan to Reach the World through Missions

I became a Christian as a teenager, and by the time I’d known the Lord two years I wanted to go to Bible college and study God’s Word. At first, I wanted to be a missionary and felt a strong pull to go overseas, but God had other plans. I was 22 and Stu Weber, my youth pastor at the church where I came to Christ, was 31 when we were asked to participate in a Bible Study of forty people in the spring of 1977. That study soon became something much more, and Stu and I were asked to be the pastors of a brand-new church, Good Shepherd Community Church. 

I loved ministering to people, even if it wasn’t overseas. Eventually, that thirst for missions came back to me, though, and as the church grew and more people came on staff, I was able to serve as our first missions pastor.

In 1988, when our daughters were seven and nine, Nanci and I and the girls took a two-month trip in which we visited our church missionaries in Egypt, Kenya, Greece, Austria, and England (with a few days in Germany and Hungary). It’s been more than thirty years, but we still talk about that eye-opening trip and how it has impacted our family.

I am still part of that same church a small group of us started forty-four years ago! Since the church began, several thousand people have gone out in summer missions. Consequently, our congregation is filled with world Christians who know our missionaries personally, pray for them regularly, and give to missions more generously. The eternal dividends far outweigh the short-term costs.

When I spoke at a John Piper pastors’ conference years ago, I challenged the pastors to make sure they put the poor and missions above buildings (which I do not think are wrong but should be kept in balance). Giving money to evangelism is no substitute for evangelizing, but it’s an excellent supplement to it. There’s no greater way to invest our money in eternity than in the cause of world missions. All of us should be giving regularly to our local churches, and we should encourage our leaders in turn to invest an even larger share of their church budgets in world missions. Beyond that most of us can invest substantially in the cause of world evangelization through many fine mission organizations.

In this 15-minute video recorded for Good Shepherd’s Global Outreach Weekend, I share some reflections about missions that I think will also be pertinent for others as well:

For more on giving and missions, see Randy’s book Money, Possessions, and Eternity .

Photo by Amy Humphries on Unsplash

The Resurrection Means We Will Never Pass Our Physical Peaks

In our society many people look to cosmetic surgeries, implants, and other methods to remodel and renovate our crumbling bodies. We hold to youthfulness with a white-knuckled grip. Ultimately, it’s all in vain. But the gospel promises us eternal youthfulness, health, beauty, and happiness in the presence of our God and our spiritual family. It’s not ours now—but it will be, in the resurrection of the dead.

The following diagram illustrates the biblical view of the future for those who know Christ. The part of the graph below that depicts life on the present Earth is the only one that takes a dip, representing the physical and mental decline of old age that so many experience under the Curse. But at the point of death, it’s followed by a dramatic upward movement in which the believer goes immediately to be with Christ in the present Heaven. However, even though that’s a vast improvement, it’s not the believer’s peak. We’ll be resurrected, eventually living on a resurrected Earth. Our knowledge and life experiences, certainly, and probably our skills and strength, will continue to develop. In other words, we will never pass our peak.

I share more in this video, excerpted from my message “No More Curse”:

On the subject of Heaven, I recently did a podcast with Jordan Raynor to talk about the difference between Heaven and the New Earth, and what it means for our work. Also, how the certain hope of the Gospel is empowering my wife Nanci in her struggles with cancer. Listen to the podcast here.

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

Photo by Paul Green on Unsplash

Prioritize Your Local Church: Don’t Just Be a Highly Online Christian

From Randy: Brett McCracken, senior editor for The Gospel Coalition, wisely writes, “If you have two hours on a Sunday morning to spend somewhere, don’t spend it browsing TGC.org or any website (however helpful it might be). Go to church.” Likewise, here at EPM we have always said that our ministry does not replace church ministries, but complements, strengthens, and facilitates them. Reading articles or watching videos on our website is no substitute for being part of your local church.

EPM will exist only as long as God wants it to. If it becomes evident that His purpose for EPM is finished, we will close our doors. The sun does not rise or set on this ministry. It is simply a tool at God’s disposal (2 Timothy 2:21), for Him to use how and as long as He chooses.  

On the other hand, the local church is a key component of God’s eternal plan. Jesus calls the church His bride. He died for her and says that ultimately the gates of hell won’t prevail against her (Matthew 16:18). Yes, local churches can close their doors, and in some cases, God leads them to. They can fail to honor Jesus. But knowing that full well, Jesus made churches a major part of His plan. But I believe that more than ever, God’s people must prioritize being part of a local church, even though the best one they can find will be imperfect, and once they join it, they will be part of its imperfection.

(No one is more aware than we are that in some cases there are unfortunate but legitimate reasons for needing to “access” church services online. We are in that position because of Nanci’s impaired breathing due to 30% of her lungs being removed and her extreme vulnerability to COVID and other diseases. But we do the best we can to participate with our church even when we are singing and hearing God’s Word and taking communion in our home.)

There’s lots of Christ-centered content to be found on the internet, and it certainly can complement our efforts to grow in our faith. But ultimately, we need more than online messages, worship,  comments, and articles. We need each other—as part of the body of Christ. I think Greek scholar and translator J.B. Phillips captured well Hebrews 10:23-25:

In this confidence let us hold on to the hope that we profess without the slightest hesitation—for he is utterly dependable—and let us think of one another and how we can encourage each other to love and do good deeds. And let us not hold aloof from our church meetings, as some do. Let us do all we can to help one another’s faith, and this the more earnestly as we see the final day drawing ever nearer.

TGC’s Manifesto: Prioritize Your Church!
Or the Dangers of Being a Highly Online Christian (HOC)

By Brett McCracken

Every week we make hundreds of choices about how to spend our time and where to give our attention. We’re overwhelmed with choices when we open our phones or computers: watch this clip, click on this ad, read this article, listen to this podcast, scroll through this story, swipe through this app.

The Gospel Coalition exists in this world—one of many voices inviting you each day to watch, read, or listen. We hope our content is spiritually enriching to you, especially because of the internet’s general lack of enrichment. But honestly, there’s an action we’d invite you to take that’s more vital to your spiritual health than almost anything you could click on (including here). What’s the action I’m talking about?

Be committed to a church.

TGC exists to support the church, never to replace it. If you have two hours on a Sunday morning to spend somewhere, don’t spend it browsing TGC.org or any website (however helpful it might be). Go to church.

We plead: do not neglect the church (Heb. 10:25). Prioritize it. Commit to it. Invest there. Serve there. Grow alongside real, flesh-and-blood people. Embrace its unavoidably uncomfortable aspects.

The deeper all of us step into the internet age, the more we at TGC—an internet-based ministry—are convinced: a Christian is strongest when embedded within a healthy local church and driven by a love of and commitment to that church.

Formation Happens in Church

We are spiritually formed wherever we spend our time, for better or worse. If we’re spending most of our time reading Scripture and investing in the life of a church, we’ll be spiritually formed in one direction. If mostly on TikTok, Twitter, and Netflix, we’ll be formed in another direction.

Excess time online largely forms Christians for the worse. The more time we spend in bias-confirming online bubbles, on curated feeds full of voices that radicalize us in various directions, the more our desires are shaped by what our online tribe loves (more than what God loves). Highly Online Christians (HOCs) naturally start to grow less interested in things—such as Scripture and church—that don’t perfectly fit the narratives they ingest online. But in shunning the very things that can recenter them on solid ground, HOCs become further entrenched in a self-deception spiral of their own digital making.

Sadly, this is happening all over the world, simply because we’re spending more time online and less time in church communities. The natural result? Many churches are losing the battle to form Christians.

This is why the “rediscover church” plea is so urgent. The division and angst in our world—including the Christian world—is rapidly reaching a tipping point. But healing won’t come online. Progress might be made, though, if we all recommitted to the church. The church is God’s unique gift for his people’s flourishing. It’s the place where Christ-followers learn how to follow Christ. It’s where we learn and apply God’s Word, and participate in his mission. It’s the best place for ordering our loves toward God, tuning our hearts to sing his praise.

The church is where it all happens.

No YouTube video or Wikipedia entry can train us in virtue like the church can.
No Twitch stream or subreddit can create sustainable, edifying community like the church can.
No Twitter debate can help us love our enemies like the church can.
No activist hashtag can channel our righteous anger and longing to do justice—and love mercy—like the church can.
No Spotify worship playlist can replicate the glory of embodied, congregational singing.
No celebrity preacher’s blog or podcast can replicate the gift of a pastor you can sit across from, known and loved, even in your darkest moments.
No confessional “vulnerability” on social media—however many likes it receives—is as satisfying as intimate confession with members of your church family.

Are there lots of things online that are good and helpful for the Christian life? Absolutely. But none of it beats the church.

Yes, It’s Hard

But this is idealistic, you might think. My church is not a place where I feel safe or known. It’s not the primary place where I grow.

Fair enough. But even if the above statements don’t match your current church experience, they still describe the church as it can be. Committed membership in a church, while imperfect, is still your best shot to live a faithful Christian life.

Find the healthiest church you can, but never assume it will be perfect. It won’t be. It’ll be uncomfortable. If you go to the hospital for dehydration and the doctor puts an IV drip into your arm, that’s uncomfortable. But it’s also your lifeline. The discomfort gives way to renewal.

So it is with church. We’re dying on the vine in the digital age. Going to church isn’t the most comfortable thing, but it’s what we need to become healthy again:

Amid the disorienting chaos of the digital age, church helps orient us.
Amid the partisan tribalism, church—a diverse and global family—breaks down walls.
Amid the disembodied surrealism or virtual life, embodied church reconnects us to reality.
Amid the ephemeral, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it speed of life online, church connects us to history and situates us in a much bigger story—an eternal story.

Church Outlives Everything

Spend an hour on the internet (or five minutes on Twitter), and it can feel like the world is falling apart. Everything is framed with emotional urgency and “breaking news” gravitas. Ominous headlines describe another COVID-19 surge, another horrific act of violence, another insipid conspiracy theory shared on Facebook.

And if Twitter is your main reference point, you might think the church is falling apart too. But in my experience, spending less time online, and more time with my church, almost always tempers my sense of gloom and doom. Why? Because when I’m at church, I’m part of the one institution in this world that won’t eventually collapse.

I’m looking around at people—of every color and background—who will be my tribe eternally. I’m doing the thing—worshiping God—I’ll be doing forever. Church takes me out of the hazy fog of this fleeting life and brings me into the clear, oxygen-rich air of eternity. As my hands lift in praise and my lips touch the bread and the juice, it’s like the “memories of her future” that Amy Adams’s character experiences in Arrival. In church we have glimpses of heavenly life.

When the world’s foundations are crumbling, run to the church, whose one foundation is Jesus Christ, our Lord. Will the church disappoint you? Yes. You will have wounds and scars. We all do. This side of heaven the bride of Christ will always be blemished. Yet Christ is sanctifying her, and one day she will be spotless and radiant (Eph. 5:27).

Never forget, Christian, that “the church will outlive the universe,” as C. S. Lewis puts it.

There will come a time when every culture, every institution, every nation, the human race, all biological life, is extinct and every one of us [in the church] is still alive. Immortality is promised to us, not to these generalities. It was not for societies or states that Christ died, but for men.

Never forget, Christian, the promise Jesus made to Peter, that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church (Matt. 16:18). Jesus never promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against that one Seattle megachurch, or one international apologetics ministry, or one gospel-centered coalition. Those things will come and go. The church will remain. The church is the only institution Jesus founded and the only one that will end in success. All other institutions, parachurch ministries, charities, and businesses will eventually end. The church will not.

Will TGC be around in 20 years? We hope so! But if not, that’s OK. In as many years as we are able, we want to help Christ’s church thrive in this complicated, challenging stretch of history.

We are not a church replacement. We are a church cheerleader and a church equipper. We want to help churches in the daunting task of digital discipleship. If pastors and church leaders are on the front lines of the battle to form Christians in the digital age, TGC is like a supply line attempting to help those in the battle-weary trenches as they fight for souls and ward off relentless attacks from various directions.

And it is a battle. Whatever platform or device you’re reading this on, it’s a spiritual battleground. Christians are being picked off right and left online.

Don’t let that be you. Shore up your defenses, breathe in replenishing oxygen, feed on the nourishment of God’s Word, and be built up by the body of Christ.

In other words: submit your life to a church.

This article originally appeared on The Gospel Coalition and is used with permission of the author.

Photo by Luis Quintero from Pexels

God’s Sovereignty Brings a Special Joy to Our Giving

One time I was driving with Luis, a thirteen-year-old boy I was mentoring. I took a road I hadn’t been on for a few years and found myself stuck at a long red light in a left-turn lane. A twentysomething woman called to me from the sidewalk, “Got change for a dollar?”

The lane between our car and the woman had no traffic, so I beckoned her over, gave her some money, and then handed her my little book Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Heaven, which includes the gospel message.

She said, “Cool,” thanked me, and returned to the sidewalk.

Afterward I pointed out to Luis, “Had I driven a different street, or had that light turned yellow two seconds later, we wouldn’t have been here. Had that woman come to the crosswalk thirty seconds earlier or later, she wouldn’t have called to me.”

I could have added that had I not felt moved the day before to replenish my supply of books in the car, I wouldn’t have had any copies to give her. And to top it off, had it happened another time, Luis and I wouldn’t have had the fun of together seeing God at work.

But Luis and I didn’t sense only God’s sovereignty in that moment; we also sensed His happiness. What a delight it was to have this unexpected encounter that I could never have orchestrated.

I don’t know who that young woman was—whether she read the book or responded to the gospel, or whether the book ended up in the hands of someone else whose life might have been changed by it. But if it did, one day I’ll see her again or meet the person God touched through it.

In His sovereignty, God orchestrates unique opportunities for us to be generous. He delights in those moments of divine connection, and so should we.

Excerpted from Randy's book Giving Is the Good Life .

Photo by Maxwell Ridgeway on Unsplash

Psalm 23: A Song about Our Good Shepherd

Note from Randy: Jesus of Nazareth is the self-proclaimed “Good Shepherd.” The psalmist said, because of his Shepherd, “I lack nothing.” Even in the darkest valley he would “fear no evil”—his Shepherd was with him (Psalm 23). Jesus says that His sheep may find total security in Him.

But incredibly, Isaiah 53 relates the Messiah not to a shepherd but to a sheep. It’s a magnificent truth that the Creator, Owner, and Shepherd of the flock became a lowly sheep in order to surrender His life for the other sheep. When you are suffering and feel God’s silence, look at Christ, the lamb who is silent before the shearers. He shouts to us without opening His mouth: “Don’t you see the blood and bruises? Never doubt that I care for you.”

Tim Challies, one of my favorite writers, recently wrote some reflections about Psalm 23. He and his family have walked through a dark valley after the sudden death of their 20-year-old son Nick last year. Like many before him, he has found deep comfort in this psalm. (Three years ago, early in her cancer journey, Nanci wrote a prayer based on Psalm 23. After you read Tim’s article, I recommend you read it. Her words spoke to me, and I hope they speak to you too.)

The Song I Sing in the Darkness

By Tim Challies

No work of art is more beautiful, more valuable, more irreplaceable, than the twenty-third psalm. It has stood through the ages as a work of art more exquisite than The Night Watch, more faultless than Mona Lisa, more thought-provoking than Starry Night. The lines of the greatest poets cannot match its imagery, the words of the greatest theologians its profundity. Credentialed academics may wrestle with it, yet young children can understand it. It is read over cradles and cribs, over coffins and crypts, at births and deaths, at weddings and funerals. It is prayed in closets, sung in churches, and chanted in cathedrals.

This psalm dries more crying eyes, raises more drooping hands, and strengthens more weakened knees than any man or angel. It tends to every kind of wound and ministers to every kind of sorrow. To trade it for all the wealth of all the worlds would be the worst of bargains. I’d have rather penned the twenty-third psalm than written Hamlet, than painted Sunflowers, than sculpted The Thinker, for when Shakespeare’s play has been forgotten, when Van Gogh’s painting has faded, when Rodin’s sculpture has been destroyed, David’s song will remain. We impoverish ourselves if we do not read it, do not meditate upon it, and do not treasure it. We weaken ourselves if we do not drink deeply of it in our deepest sorrows.

David’s great psalm employs the simplest of images—that of a shepherd and his sheep—and assures of the greatest of truths—that God is forever present with His people. “The LORD is my shepherd” he says so simply, “I shall not want.” Because the LORD is his shepherd, this sheep can have confidence that he will never lack for any necessity, for the shepherd loves His flock and will faithfully attend to their every need. When they are tired He will make them lie down in green pastures, when they are thirsty He will lead them beside still waters, when they are downtrodden He will restore them, when they are lost or uncertain He will lead them in the right paths. The sheep can rest in peace under the shepherd’s watchful eye, they can be assured of every comfort under His tender care.

But sometimes fields go barren and springs run dry. And in such times the good shepherd knows just what to do, He knows He must lead His sheep to fresh pastures and to cool, still waters. Yet He also knows the way will be difficult, for these pastures and waters lie on the far side of a dark valley. So He calls His sheep to Himself and begins to lead them into the darkness, to lead them along an unfamiliar path.

And here, on the edge of uncertainty, sheep says to shepherd, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” Though the shepherd must lead His sheep into the darkness, lead them through an unknown valley, they will go, for He is with them. Their fears are soothed by His strength, their uncertainty by His presence. When enemies approach He will ward them off with His rod, when sheep stumble He will lift them with His staff. The shepherd who leads them in will lead them through and lead them out. And soon enough sheep and shepherd will emerge into the light on the far side of their darkness. And there again they will settle together for rest and refreshment. There again they will dwell in sweet peace.

What comfort there is in the knowledge that the shepherd who tends His sheep by still waters is the very same shepherd who tends them in the valley of darkness. The sheep do not foolishly blunder into that valley, they are not led there by wily wolves or chased there by hungry bears. They are led there by their loving shepherd, they enter there only according to His good plan and perfect purpose. They enter the valley only because it is for their benefit, only because the shepherd is leading them to something better beyond. They are never for a moment alone, for they are always following Him.

My shepherd has called me to walk a difficult path—a path of sorrow, a path of grief, a path stained by tears. The way is uncharted to me but familiar to Him, for He sees the end from the beginning, He has known from ancient times the things still undone. He speaks to the darkness and declares, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.” I can have in him all the confidence of a sheep in His shepherd. I can follow Him, knowing that “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

And I will follow Him, singing this song in the darkness, meditating upon its truths with every step. I’d rather face my trial with David’s psalm in my heart than with Aaron’s staff in my hand, with Joshua’s army at my side, with Solomon’s gold in my pocket. I’d rather know the words to this one song than of all the great hymns of the Christian faith. I’d rather lose everything with my shepherd beside me than gain the whole world alone. Yes, I can bear the loss of my son as long as I know the presence of my shepherd. I can walk this path, I can pass through this dark valley, if only my shepherd guides me, if only He leads the way.

This article originally appeared on Challies.com and is used with the author’s permission.

Photo by Taylor Brandon on Unsplash

Courageous, 10 Years Later: Encouraging Men to Be Godly Fathers

This Friday, September 24, the Courageous movie will be released in select theaters in honor of the 10th anniversary of its original release. Some of you may know that I wrote a novel by the same title that was based on the screenplay of the movie. Both the movie and the book center on police officers and fatherhood and, not surprisingly, COURAGE for men in their homes and personal lives.

Of course, no movie and no novel are sufficient to change a life for the long haul. That requires a work of God’s Holy Spirit that continues over time. It also requires a change of life priorities and habits. Men (and women) need to turn off the television, look away from screens and read God’s Word, read great books, talk with their children, join Bible studies, and become accountable to others to grow in their walk with God, their marriage, and their parenting.  

So although a movie isn’t enough to change people, it can be one more instrument used by God to get their attention and challenge them to take the next step. The key to long-term growth and turning around hearts and families is churches and families and individuals meeting with God and each other day after day, calling upon Him to transform us, by the grace and truth of Jesus Christ and the power of His Holy Spirit.  

After the book first came I out, I did a 30-minute interview on the subject of being a courageous father. Much of it is still relevant for this current day—and perhaps even more so than 10 years ago:

You might also like to check out the nonfiction book The Resolution for Men, written by Stephen and Alex Kendrick and myself, which explores a set of commitments made by five men in the movie. Here’s an excerpt from my portion of that book:

Second Timothy was Paul’s last letter, written from prison shortly before his execution. In this letter he left final instructions to Timothy, whom he had mentored.

Timothy grew up without a believing father. That encourages men like me. I have a close friend, also raised in a nonchristian home. We often talk about the challenges and privileges of being first generation believers. By God’s grace, we’ve established Christian homes with our wives, and have seen God raise up our children to love Jesus. 

Paul tells Timothy, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice” (2 Timothy 1:5). This passage should encourage every single mom that their task is not hopeless. God is “a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows” (Psalm 68:5).

In the absence of a father, Timothy’s mother and grandmother did what God calls fathers to do. They passed on their faith in a way that made Timothy want to take ownership of it. How? In 3:15 Paul says, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Hearing God’s Word cultivates saving faith (Romans 10:17). God used his Word to bring Timothy to faith, apparently at a very early age.

The word for “childhood” here is often translated “infancy.” Parents are called to read Scripture to their children at very early ages. Some of our daughters’ earliest spoken sentences were verses, and both Karina and Angela came to Christ very young. There is no set age at which children can come to faith, but there does need to be some understanding of right and wrong, and of the fact that Jesus died so that we might be forgiven and live with him in Heaven.

In the following verses Paul addresses the nature of these Scriptures Timothy had learned from infancy: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15-16). “All Scripture” means there is no Scripture that is not inspired. The fact that we may not understand a passage, or may have trouble believing it is not a sign of our deficiency, not Scripture’s.

The best source of wisdom any man can bring to his family is God’s Word. If a book, music, or video brings us back to Scripture, it can be a powerful source of learning in the home.

In an earlier letter Paul warned Timothy, “Watch your life and doctrine closely” (1 Timothy 4:16). A father’s job is to believe what is true and to live out that truth in front of his children. His life demonstrates the validity of his belief in the truth, and this will draw his children toward faith in God.