Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 67

Thirteen Years Later, Alex and Brett Harris on How God Has Used Hard Things in Their Lives

Incredibly, it was thirteen years ago that I first shared about Alex and Brett Harris’s excellent book Do Hard Things. I said then, and I still believe, that it is a vitally needed book in our churches and our culture.

I keep in touch with Brett and Alex, and I followed up with a blog in 2015 talking about how both of them were continuing to do hard things. I love these two young men, and the wonderful wives God has given them. (Here’s a powerful article we shared a few years ago from Ana, Brett’s wife, no stranger to suffering.)

I’ve been in an email loop with Alex and Brett, and it’s wonderful to see God’s grace in their lives. Recently they posted a great follow-up, talking about their lives over a decade after the publication of Do Hard Things:

In my book If God Is Good, I talk about how the suffering and trials we face—the hard things—are steep hills that increase our spiritual lung capacity; resistance builds our endurance.

In our side yard a tree has survived ice storms, heavy snows, and howling winds. Several times in the thirty years we’ve lived here, I thought it would fall. Now I expect it to long outlast me. I’ve taken pictures of my preschool daughters in that tree, and now of their children, my grandsons. It has lost many thick limbs, but others have grown, and harsh circumstances have made it stronger. In contrast, many protected and untested trees have long since fallen.

This tree has another secret. It lies at the lower part of our property, where the water sinks deep into the soil. This tree has all the nourishment it needs. The Bible says of the righteous man, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers” (Psalm 1:3).

Every athletic champion will tell you that excellence comes out of disciplined training—and all training centers on resistance. Without obstacles, we cannot build strength, whether in the physical or spiritual realms. Whatever costs nothing is worthless, but whatever is worthwhile costs a great deal.

The apostle wrote, “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 1:9). He considered three things inseparable: suffering, kingdom, and patient endurance in Christ. No suffering, no kingdom. No suffering, no endurance.

Let’s be honest: virtually everyone who has suffered little in life is shallow, unmotivated, self-absorbed, and lacking in character. You know it and so do I. And yet we do everything we can to avoid challenges, both to our children and to ourselves. If we succeed in our avoidance, we’ll develop in ourselves and our children the sort of character we least admire.

God’s parenting method doesn’t shield us from adversity and the character it builds. We would do well to learn from Him.

Giving Helps Us Take Our Eyes off Ourselves and Join in What God Is Doing in the World

We become arrogant when we forget that God is our primary provider. Sometimes we give too much credit to our hard work and ingenuity. We easily forget the advantages of our upbringing, heritage, and education, and we view ourselves, even if unconsciously, as better than others, particularly the poor.

Some of us talk about people needing to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Yet had we not had stable parents or gone to a good school or had positive role models, we might have grown up without bootstraps—or even boots. As has been said in other contexts, many rich people who were born on third base routinely congratulate themselves for hitting a triple.

Scripture says, “Value others above yourselves” (Philippians 2:3, NIV). Our example is Jesus, who humbly gave up the place in Heaven he fully deserved (Philippians 2:3-11). We must fight our misplaced pride, remembering that the air we breathe, the lungs with which we breathe it, and our ability to make money are from God’s generous hand (Deuteronomy 8:18).

Pride, by its very nature, is self-focused. If we live for the purpose of celebrating our own greatness, we’ll endure small, pitiful lives. But if we focus on God’s greatness and live to serve others, then we will, in the best sense, live large.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve loved stargazing. For many years, night after night, I went outside, needing something bigger than myself to be in awe of. While I gazed at the wonders of the universe, I was not thinking about myself (I could have stayed warm indoors and done that!). Similarly, as an adult, I love snorkeling. Sometimes for hours on end, I’m immersed in ocean waters, lost in the wonder and worship of God, and I’m therefore supremely happy. Giving is one of the ways we can take a step back and recognize there’s something much bigger than ourselves—and then to stand in awe as we realize God is at work and that He invites us to play a part in it!

Excerpted from Giving Is the Good Life: The Unexpected Path to Purpose and Joy.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

What Is the Value of Studying Systematic Theology?

A reader asked me, “What is the value of systematic theology? Isn’t there a risk of misinterpretation because of trying to process all of God’s Word through a system rather than letting it speak for itself?”

I think it’s impossible to teach theology without teaching worldview, and impossible to teach worldview without teaching theology, and in particular, systematic theology. A doctrine is a teaching that summarizes biblical truth. Hence the “view” in worldview amounts to a doctrinal lens, a belief system through which you see the world. It applies to everything from money to sex to abortion.

There is a theology of Heaven and work and nearly everything else. It’s “what God has to say about this subject in His Word.” It requires that we examine the whole counsel of God, the larger picture, lest we leave out something vital that is not recorded in Titus or Hebrews or Joshua or Proverbs (or whatever book may partially address a given issue). Ours shouldn’t be just a view based on a single passage or book of Scripture, but based on the whole counsel of God, which offers us checks and balances that we would not be aware of from a single book or chapter or paragraph of Scripture.

Isn’t it virtually impossible even to “share the gospel” without systematic theology? Even if you don’t choose to use a tract or gospel booklet, you must do what they do—select Bible portions and summarize their points in a way that is educated by, and true to, the whole of Scripture. “We have all sinned.” “God loves us.” “We need the price paid for our sins in order to be acceptable to God.” “Jesus went to the cross to pay for our sins.” “We must place our faith in Christ.”

The closest thing to doing this while restricting yourself to a single book of Scripture may be using Romans 1-11, but even then you will end up skipping from Romans 3:23 to 6:23 to 10:9,10 and summarizing your main points of creation, fall, sin, death, curse, Christ’s death, resurrection, and faith in the grace Christ offers us.

Along the way, to make the message more complete, you will probably import a number of passages from the Old Testament prophets, gospels, and other epistles. In other words, you will do systematic theology, pulling together Scripture to express an overall biblical teaching.

Of course, a systematic theology should never dictate our understanding of Scripture. But there is a chicken and egg aspect to this. The fact is that everyone brings assumptions and an interpretive grid to the text of Scripture. In fact, that’s their worldview. We all come to Scripture with a systematic theology—it’s just that often it’s wrong and full of holes and not biblically based.

We have a thirst for knowledge, and knowledge consists of seeing truths in relationship to each other. We do not just need the individual pearls of truths; we need the string that ties them together. Without the larger picture of God’s unfolding drama of redemption, and without systematic theology, pastors are constantly throwing out pearls to people, but they have no string to put them on and hold them together, and keep them in relation to each other. Because we left out the string, the pearls are jumbled and rolling around, and eventually get mixed up with things of lesser value, and many of them are lost in the confusion of competing worldviews that come from everything to Internet billboards to car commercials.

Consequently, I think it is impossible and unwise to simply study parts of God’s Word as individual entities without laboring to demonstrate their relationship to the larger whole (in other words, to systematize). Now we can over-systematize of course, and strip Scripture of paradox and mystery and wonder, but that is not inherent to systematic theology when it is done well. We should not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

I have heard people argue, “But God didn’t reveal Himself to us in a systematic theology. Therefore, it’s wrong to construct one.” But this is like saying, “God didn’t reveal mathematics or chemistry or physics, so it’s wrong to construct them as a science.” Not only is it not wrong, it is vital for progress and inevitable considering the way God created our minds. If these sciences hadn’t been constructed to organize observations and truths in relation to each other, people would be a lot more ignorant about the subject matters and society would not exist as we know it.

I’ll make a comparison with my favorite science, astronomy. In Scripture, God has revealed to us many truths in a history of redemption that involves many characters and stories. Likewise, the history of stars and planets and our observations of them involve many components. Astronomy is a way of gathering this vast realm of facts together so they can be learned and discussed, and theories can be explored and tested.

Rather than just learning isolated facts about the stars and planets, interesting though they be, these facts are studied and organized into a science called astronomy so that understanding can deepen and be better utilized and applied and discussed.

Isn’t that exactly what can happen with systematic theology? It’s what happened in my life, and I’ve seen it in the lives of many people.

Isolated facts about astronomy leave people initially excited but confused and ultimately disinterested because “it just doesn’t make sense.” The same is true of isolated Bible facts. God has made the human mind to want to organize information in a way that makes sense.

This is what astronomy and physics and psychology and sociology and systematic theology have in common. Of course, all are prone to overgeneralization and error, but the difference is that systematic theology begins with the Bible, which is true. So while the Bible didn’t come to us in systematic form, that doesn’t mean it is wrong to study its truths and try to organize them in relationship to each other, just like we do in every area in which we seek knowledge and understanding. And shouldn’t we labor all the harder to systematize with care and accuracy because of the inspired nature of what’s been entrusted to us?

I highly recommend not only Wayne Grudem’s large Systematic Theology, but also his abridged Bible Doctrine. I have recently been reading his expanded and updated systematic theology and have been thoroughly enjoying it. In the introduction Wayne explains which portions of the book are new, and some that have been revised, as well as how and why. I do believe the revised and updated work is well worth purchasing even for those who have and have read the original version.

Finally, here is a helpful article from Wayne about how and why to study systematic theology.

Photo by Jonas Denil on Unsplash

Discover the Ministry of Asking Others Questions

Note from Randy: Tim Keller writes, “The thing we would remember from meeting a truly gospel-humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.”

It’s hard to imagine more relevant words than these while churches and pastors are still reeling over a year plus of fighting over COVID and politics: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19, NIV). I think this means not only that we should listen when people happen to speak, but also we should ask them the kinds of questions that invite them to speak further and at a deeper and more personal level. 

I love this article by Blake Glosson, a student at Reformed Theological Seminary, about the importance of asking others thoughtful questions as a way of ministering to them and showing interest in their lives.

The Neglected Ministry of Asking Questions

By Blake Glosson

Think about people who make you feel loved. What about them makes you feel this way? Without knowing you (or them), I can almost guarantee that they ask good questions and listen well. As David Augsburger has observed, “Being heard is so close to being loved that most people cannot tell the difference.” Show me a person who asks questions and listens, and I’ll show you a person who makes people feel known and loved.

Sadly, this is an increasingly rare gift. As Stephen Covey observed, “Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” In other words, most people don’t actually listen—they wait. They wait for you to stop talking so they can talk. Some of this is a matter of attention span—trained by short videos on social media, minds quickly wander. But at a deeper level, most people are simply more interested in what they have to say than what the other person has to say.

This makes asking questions and actively listening one of the rarest (and most powerful) ways to communicate love. And when we bless others by asking good questions and listening well, we reflect the character and love of God in a unique and powerful way. Question-asking was one of Jesus’s favorite tools. Even though Jesus knew all things (John 16:30)—including people’s hearts (John 2:24–25)—he still asked over 300 questions in the Gospels alone.

Though we know this from experience, we can often feel ill-equipped to actually do it ourselves (and ashamed to ask how). This is particularly true for younger generations, whose social development is often shaped more by social media than genuine human interaction. To that end, here are three principles for question-based conversation.

1. Be Curious

The beginning of asking good questions is being genuinely curious about the person to whom you’re speaking. A good conversational tool to keep in your toolbelt is the acronym FORKS. Whenever you meet with new people, ask about their:

Family
Occupation
Recreation
Knowledge
Spirituality

“Why” questions are often the best kind to ask. This will help draw out the other person’s motivations, passions, and feelings—which not only makes for better conversation, but also helps you get to know this person beyond a surface level.

Another great way to begin a question is with the phrase “Can you teach me about?” Pick a topic that you know the other person is passionate about or experienced in, and ask or the person to educate you on it. This is one of the most effective (and fun) ways to get to know people and to make them feel valued—and it gives you an opportunity to learn. Everyone wins.

2. Follow Up

Once the other person finishes talking, try to repeat the content, in your own words (e.g., “So, you’re saying?”). Making a habit of asking this follow-up question will help you learn to listen well. It’ll also assure other people that they’ve been heard, and that you value what they have to say.

Another great follow-up question is “Can you tell me more about [choose one part of what they just shared]?” or “What do you mean by [choose one part of what they just shared]?” Not only does this spark deeper conversation, but it signals to the other person, “I’m interested in what you have to say, and I want to make sure I don’t misunderstand you.”

3. Ask Leading Questions

One of the best ways we can love others (and glorify God) is to ask questions that lead to mutually edifying, Christ-exalting discussion. God tells us to think about things that are praiseworthy (Phil. 4:8) and to talk about things that build up the people in the conversation (Eph. 4:29). Think about the kinds of questions that you typically ask. Do they typically stimulate discussions that lead to praise and gratitude? Or do your questions typically stimulate gossip or complaining?

All questions lead somewhere and set the tone and trajectory of a conversation. The next time you’re conversing with someone, ask yourself: Where do my questions lead? Do they tear down or build up? Do they promote anger or love? Do they lead to mutual frustration or mutual edification?

Communicate Love

Everyone has something to say—but few have the opportunity to say it, since question-asking and listening are increasingly rare.

The next time you meet with someone, challenge yourself to ask more questions than you answer. This can go a long way in making the other person feel valued—and it’s one of the most powerful ways to communicate the character and love of God.

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

Photo by Liza Summer from Pexels

His Name Is Jesus

The name Jesus comes from the transliteration of the Greek IESOUS (pronounced ee-ay-soos; there is no J in Greek) from the Hebrew name Yeshua, which means “Yahweh saves.”

No matter how it is spelled or pronounced—whether Yeshua, Yēsū, Jesus, or something else—we are told that His name is above all names, and that one day every knee in the universe will bow to Him (Philippians 2:9-10). Some will bow in humble adoring worship; others will bow with unrepentant hearts, subject to the King they have never recognized and do not want to know.

Christ is not His last name. (His stepfather’s name was not Joseph Christ nor was His mother Mary Christ!) Christ is actually a title that means “anointed one,” or “Messiah.”

Jesus has many other names and titles. Each reveals something important about Him. He is Immanuel, “God with us.” He is our Savior, Redeemer, Creator, King of kings, and Lord of lords. He is the second person of the triune God, the Son of God and Son of Man, our Messiah, Judge, Advocate, High Priest, Mediator, Brother, and—incredibly—He calls himself our Friend! He is the Lamb of God, the Light of the World, our Good Shepherd, our Bridegroom, and our example. He is not a way, a truth and a life; He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, the only means of access to the Father and to Heaven, His dwelling place. He is the Bread of Life, the Living Water, the Rest-Giver, Word of God, and Prince of Peace.

We could spend eternity contemplating the meaning and implications and depths of these names and titles, and indeed we will! Wherever we go and whatever we do as resurrected beings walking on God’s resurrected New Earth, we will never lose sight of Jesus. We will see the very face of God (Revelation 22:4). The conversations we have with brothers and sisters in Christ, the journeys and adventures we undertake, and the missions the Lord Jesus sends us on will all be centered on our desire to know and glorify and serve Him.

But we don’t have to wait until then to focus on knowing Jesus. If we had met Paul 2,000 years ago during his first Roman imprisonment and asked him, “How long have you known Jesus?,” he might have replied, “I met Him on the Damascus Road thirty years ago, but I am still getting to know Him, and I will continue to know Him better until I die, and forever afterward!” In Philippians 3:10, Paul declared his heart’s desire: “I want to know Christ.”

Though Paul knew Jesus thirty years later much better than at his conversion, he had barely scratched the surface of who Jesus is. It was the tip of an infinitely large iceberg. Now that I have known Jesus fifty years, I too “want to know Christ”! I thank God that today I don’t just know and love Jesus as much as I used to; I know and love Him more. That is to His credit, and I’m deeply grateful. He’s what makes life exciting and worthwhile.

Jesus Himself prayed, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Because our eternal life is wrapped up in knowing God through Jesus Christ, we are well-advised to truly know Him!

One of many startling statements about Jesus is this: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18 ESV). So Jesus is God and is at the Father’s side, and He has come to make God known to us. Provided what we learn is true, the more we learn about Jesus, the more we know about the God that no one has seen, but in another sense can be truly seen in Jesus. He is the explanation and illustration of who God really is.

There is much to know about Jesus, but Scripture puts particular stress on grasping His love for us: “[I pray] that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19 ESV).

As the hymn “Be Thou My Vision” puts so beautifully, Jesus is our “best thought, by day or by night.” May your worship be full and deep as you contemplate the following quotes from my book It’s All About Jesus, focused on our Redeemer!

Redeemer

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people.”  Luke 1:68 ESV

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.  Romans 3:23-24 NASB

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.  Ephesians 1:7 ESV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”—in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.  Galatians 3:13-14 NASB

God undertook the most dramatic rescue operation in cosmic history. He determined to save the human race from self-destruction, and He sent His Son Jesus Christ to salvage and redeem them.  Billy Graham

There was nothing that so annoyed people about the Lord Jesus Christ as when he said that he had come to seek and to save them.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Leviticus 27 reminds us that there is always a price to pay when buying back someone or something… Jesus referred to his death as a “ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), and God reminds us throughout the New Testament that Jesus died as a payment for our sin.  The Knowing Jesus Study Bible

Jesus did not die to increase our self-esteem. Rather, Jesus died to bring glory to the Father by redeeming people from the curse of sin.  Edward Welch

Because an eternal, unchangeable sentence of condemnation has passed upon sin—for God cannot and will not regard sin with favor, but his wrath abides upon it eternally and irrevocably—redemption was not possible without a ransom of such precious worth as to atone for sin, to assume the guilt, pay the price of wrath and thus abolish sin. This no creature was able to do. There was no remedy except for God’s only Son to step into our distress and himself become man, to take upon himself the load of awful and eternal wrath and make his own body and blood a sacrifice for sin.  Martin Luther

Sins that you thought were absolved by religion will always come back to haunt you. Only the Redeemer and Savior, Jesus Christ, can forgive and pardon and free from guilt—and the sins He has forgiven will never come back to haunt you as a child of God—never while the world stands!  A.W. Tozer

Luther taught that every time you insist that I am a sinner, just so often do you call me to remember the benefit of Christ my Redeemer, upon whose shoulders, and not upon mine, lie all my sins. So, when you say that I am a sinner, you do not terrify, but comfort me immeasurably.  Thomas Oden

Jesus came because there is something broken inside us that can only be, will only be fixed by his person, presence, and redeeming work.  Paul David Tripp

You couldn’t make up a better story than God’s unfolding drama of redemption. You can’t find a greater hero than Jesus.  Randy Alcorn

Jesus endured great pain, pain I can only imagine. But his pain was for a purpose—the redemption of the world. He did it on my behalf—and yours.  Trillia Newbell

Redemption in Jesus Christ reaches just as far as the fall. The horizon of creation is at the same time the horizon of sin and of salvation. To conceive of either the fall or Christ’s deliverance as encompassing less than the whole of creation is to compromise the biblical teaching of the radical nature of the fall and the cosmic scope of redemption.  Albert Wolters

The total work of Christ is nothing less than to redeem this entire creation from the effects of sin. That purpose will not be accomplished until God has ushered in the new earth, until Paradise Lost has become Paradise Regained.  Anthony Hoekema

Jesus has redeemed not only our souls, but our bodies. When the Lord shall deliver His captive people out of the land of the enemy He will not leave a bone of one of them in the adversary’s power. The dominion of death shall be utterly broken.  Charles Spurgeon

We were made for a better place and for a better person, and all the beauties of this world whisper that to our soul. We crave Christ. He has made this restoration possible and offers Himself to mankind as Savior, Redeemer, and Restorer.  Steve DeWitt

It’s All About Jesus is available in print from retailers, including EPM’s online store. It’s also available on Kindle.

Photo by Patricia McCarty from Pexels

Choose Life: One Woman’s Response to a Texas Valedictorian’s Prochoice Speech

Earlier this month, Paxton Smith, a graduate of the Lake Highlands High School in Dallas, Texas, set aside her approved valedictorian speech and instead spoke about abortion and the threat that Texas’s new heartbeat bill, in her view, poses to young women. Her speech has gone viral and received the praise of mainstream media, as well as caught the attention of abortion advocates like Hilary Clinton, who tweeted, “This took guts.”

Paxton said:

Recently the heartbeat bill was passed in Texas. Starting in September, there will be a ban on abortions that take place after 6 weeks of pregnancy, regardless of whether the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. Six weeks. Most women don’t even realize they’re pregnant by then. And so, before they have the time to decide if they are emotionally, physically, and financially stable enough to carry out a full-term pregnancy, before they have the chance to decide if they can take on the responsibility of bringing another human into the world, the decision has been made for them by a stranger. A decision that will affect the rest of their lives.

She continues,

I have dreams, hopes, and ambitions. Every girl here does. We have spent our whole lives working towards our futures, and without our consent or input, our control over our futures has been stripped away from us. I am terrified that if my contraceptives fail me, that if I’m raped, then my hopes and efforts and dreams for myself will no longer be relevant. I hope you can feel how gut-wrenching it is, how dehumanizing it is, to have the autonomy over your own body taken from you.

Note Paxton’s telling choice of words: “the responsibility of bringing another human into the world.” That’s the focus of this powerful response to Paxton’s speech, from Sarah Elizabeth Lowe, a graduate of the same high school Paxton spoke to:

Choose Life.

My very life exists because of a brave young girl who made a hard decision to carry me, and then to give me life through adoption.

I am forever grateful for her decision, and it is not lost on me the fear and emotion and sacrifice that was a part of that decision...when her plans as a high-schooler were turned upside down with my pregnancy.

...a bravery and sacrifice I will never understand or even try to. Just one I am thankful for.

To see the valedictorian speech from my own high school going viral right now (you can google it if you want)...spoken with such disdain for life in the womb, and describe an unexpected pregnancy as a thwarting of hopes and dreams and aspirations and efforts for a future ... yes, it’s gut wrenching on so many levels.

And really? It’s just not true. It doesn’t have to be. There is another way than what she is fighting for. I’m living proof.

I sat in that very graduation for that very high school 20 years ago this year.

I sat there as an unplanned, adopted child about to pursue my own dreams and live the rest of my own life...because of the choice my birth mom made.

Life over death.

Was I an interruption to her life as a young girl? For sure. I can’t imagine that and I won’t try to understand it.

But I know what is on the other side of the hard choice she made. Because it’s me. And now it’s my kids.

My heart is heavier than it has been in a while seeing this, and I know everyone has different opinions. I am strong in mine too. I’m not here to debate.

I am here to simply say “Hi! Hello! I literally exist because instead of living in fear of how an unexpected pregnancy would mess up her life, my birth mother GAVE me life.”

There is absolutely no argument to this. It’s my story.

To fear the loss of hopes and dreams and aspirations and efforts for a future? Quite opposite...I was given life instead of seen as a forever hindrance. We both got life actually.

She fought a war for her daughter that didn’t involve death.

And one of the most beautiful parts? I now have a relationship with that brave woman who gave me life and it is beautifully redemptive.

We all deserve a chance to live and have a story.

Paxton’s speech is a reminder that despite their emphasis on choice, the pro-choice movement leaves many women believing that they have no choice but abortion. Abortion is constantly portrayed as the preferred choice. After all, a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy wonders, what’s the alternative? Raise a child she seemingly can’t afford, and who will disrupt her life choices like going to school and pursuing a career? Or experience the heartbreak of giving up a child for adoption?

But “abortion or misery” is a binary trap that keeps women from pursuing—and society from providing—positive alternatives. It’s a terrible thing to present pregnant women with inadequate choices, leaving them in an apparent no-win situation. We must reject this trap of presenting the choice between abortion and misery, as if there were no misery in abortion, and as if there were no alternatives.

Kathryn Jean Lopez quotes one wife and mother who responded to Paxton Smith’s speech: “Children—they don’t make women less than. They don’t stand in your way. They aren’t a barrier to your dreams. Abortion isn’t some great equalizer. The act of killing an unborn human does not make the world better for women.”

Tragically, “pro-choice” often ends up meaning “no choice but abortion.” Let’s do all we can to show women the real choices besides abortion—which are far superior, with outcomes involving life, not death.

Special thanks to Sarah Elizabeth Lowe for permission to share her article. You can find her on Instagram and follow her blog.

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 Hollie Santos on Unsplash

Was There Any Value in Purity Culture or Was It All Just a Mistake?

A reader asked me,

I see a lot of people pointing out the harm done by the “purity culture” of the 90s and early 2000s. But it seems like it’s easy to throw out the baby of purity with the bathwater of a manmade culture. God says purity is His will for us, but perhaps some people had the wrong motives and thought there was a guaranteed outcome if they followed a formula and set of rules?

The problem is certainly not purity itself! “It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

However, it’s true that one of the weaknesses of the purity movement was the false belief that following a formula of courtship instead of dating will buy you or guarantee you a great marriage. I’ve heard it called the “sexual prosperity gospel”; I would call it the “marital prosperity gospel.” Like all formulas, it helped some and hurt others.

Unfortunately, some youth and their parents failed to understand there are no formulas, no legalistic guarantees in this life that is under the Curse, except the presence and faithfulness and love of our Lord and the blood-bought promises of redemption in Him.

I vividly remember speaking in the 1990s at a large church youth conference about the biblical calling to save sex for marriage, and also asking God’s forgiveness for past sexual sin, which He graciously grants. After I spoke, they invited young people who wanted to commit themselves to sexual purity to come forward. If they wanted, they could receive a purity ring or necklace.

So many teenagers came forward that the youth pastor and his staff were immediately overwhelmed. So they handed me rings and necklaces and asked me if I would talk and pray with some of the kids who came forward. I gladly did so and saw a clear work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of a number of young people who wanted to honor Jesus. There was nothing superficial, inauthentic, or legalistic about the message or the responses of those I talked with afterward.

Yet in the modern-day backlash to such commitments, it’s like many who chose to wear a purity ring or to wait until marriage to have sex are now saying that messed up their lives! I don’t think so; I witnessed firsthand that many were helped immensely. Our daughters and many of their friends are far better off because of committing to purity. The dangers of impurity were—and are—very real and consequential.

Joe Carter writes, “Where purity culture has failed is in keeping the focus on the body and on sex rather than on Christ.” Though we raised our daughters during the height of the purity culture movement, Nanci and I tried to emphasize that the motivation for purity is following and honoring Christ.

On her thirteenth birthday, I gave my oldest daughter a heart necklace with a keyhole, symbolizing a commitment to saving herself for one man, giving him the key to her body on her wedding night and not before. I did the same for my younger daughter two years later. Of course, I believed then and still believe now that our children must own the conviction themselves, but it is our duty and privilege as parents to encourage them to follow the Lord in sexual purity, which is not only for His glory, but for their good.

Had my daughters not followed our counsel, I would have loved them just as much. Certainly we made many mistakes as parents, but I don’t think helping them set their bars high in terms of personal holiness and purity was one of them.

Years ago, I developed guidelines for sexual purity and presented it to many young people and their parents. When my now married daughters were teenagers, I honed it further for sharing and discussion with them and the young men who asked to date them. We had honest conversations together. These guidelines weren’t legalistic rules; they were principles based on Scripture to help young people understand what God’s Word says about sexual purity. Our Creator and Savior is the One who tells us, “Flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18).

Scripture warns against man-made rules involving a “harsh treatment of the body,” but lacking “value in restraining sensual indulgence” (Colossians 2:20–23). Guidelines are valuable if and only if they are biblical and wise, are Spirit empowered, and point us to Christ. All guidelines can be legalistically and proudly followed, but guidelines are not inherently legalistic. For example, as I share in my book The Purity Principle,  Proverbs calls us to live wisely, exercising God-honoring common sense. In a context encouraging sexual purity we’re told in Proverbs 4:

13 Hold on to instruction, do not let it go;
    guard it well, for it is your life.
14 Do not set foot on the path of the wicked
    or walk in the way of evildoers.
15 Avoid it, do not travel on it;
    turn from it and go on your way…
18 The path of the righteous is like the morning sun,
    shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
19 But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
    they do not know what makes them stumble.

20 My son, pay attention to what I say;
    turn your ear to my words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight,
    keep them within your heart;
22 for they are life to those who find them
    and health to one’s whole body.
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
    for everything you do flows from it.

Alex Ward says, “Where the purity culture went wrong…was when virginity was conflated with chastity or purity. Ironically, there was a greater interest placed on physical virginity (though this is a good thing) than spiritual chastity. To be chaste is not to be free from sex. A married couple is called to chastity as well.”

I agree. Whether we’re married or single, purity begins in the heart, and that’s why God tells us, “Above all else, guard your heart [mind, inner being], for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

Let’s be willing to take an honest look at the shortcomings of the purity movement and seek more Christ-honoring ways to train our children and young people that emphasize His grace and truth and the Holy Spirit’s empowerment. But let’s not forget that it’s God Himself who calls each of His followers to pursue purity—for His glory, and for our good.

Photo by Chang Duong on Unsplash    Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

Why Do You Want to Be Happy?

Based on books I’ve read, sermons I’ve heard, and conversations I’ve had, it’s clear many Christians believe that humanity’s desire for happiness was birthed in the fall and is part of the curse. Hence, the desire to be happy is often assumed to be the desire to sin.

But what if our desire for happiness was a gift designed by God before sin entered the world? If we believed this, how would it affect our lives, our parenting, our ministry, our entertainment, and our relationships? How would it affect our approach to sharing the gospel?

A Longing Written on Our Hearts

Augustine asked rhetorically, “Is not a happy life the thing that all desire, and is there anyone who altogether desires it not?” He added, “But where did they acquire the knowledge of it, that they so desire it? Where have they seen it, that they so love it?” (Confessions).

God has written his law on our hearts (Romans 2:15). There’s compelling evidence he’s also written on our hearts a powerful desire for happiness. In fact, this has been the consensus of theologians throughout church history. Since we inherited our sin nature from Adam, it’s likely we also inherited a sense of his and Eve’s pre-fall happiness. Why else do we long for something better than the only world in which we’ve ever lived?

Before the fall, Adam and Eve undoubtedly anticipated good food, which likely tasted even better than they imagined. But after the fall, the opposite became true. We expect more of food, work, relationships, and everything else than what we experience. We live in a darkened world, but our disappointments demonstrate that we retain expectations and hopes of a brighter one.

Evolution Has No Eden

Were we merely the product of natural selection and survival of the fittest, we’d have no grounds for believing any ancient happiness existed. But even those who’ve never been taught about the fall and the curse instinctively know something is seriously wrong with this world. We’re nostalgic for an Eden of which we’ve only tasted hints. These hints are trickles of water in our parched mouths, causing us to crave and search for rivers of pure, cold water.

Anglican bishop J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) wrote, “Happiness is what all mankind wants to obtain — the desire of it is deeply planted in the human heart” (Practical Religion).

If this desire is “deeply planted” in our hearts, who planted it? If not God, who else? Satan? The devil isn’t happy and has no happiness to give. He’s a liar and murderer, dispensing rat poison in cheerful wrappers. He hates God and us, and his strategy is to convince us to look for happiness everywhere but in its only ultimate Source.

The Good News of God’s Happiness

Did Adam and Eve desire happiness before they sinned? Did they enjoy the food God provided because it tasted sweet? Did they sit in the sun because it felt warm, or jump into the water because it felt refreshing? And was God pleased or displeased when they did? Our answers will dramatically affect the way we see both God and the world. If we believe God is happy, then it makes sense that part of being made in his image is having both the desire and the capacity for happiness.

Sadly, Christ-followers routinely say things like, “God doesn’t want you to be happy; he wants you to be holy.” But holiness and happiness are two sides of the same coin — we dare not pit them against each other.

Not all attempts at holiness honor God, any more than all attempts at happiness honor him. The Pharisees had a passionate desire to be holy on their own terms and for their own glory. Christ’s response? “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (John 8:44). God wants us to seek true, Christ-centered happiness in him, while Satan wants us to seek false holiness with self-congratulatory pride.

Other Christians say, “God wants you blessed, not happy,” or “God is interested in your growth, not your happiness.” Such statements may sound spiritual, but they’re not. Does the false message that God doesn’t want us to be happy really promote what Scripture calls the “good news of happiness” (Isaiah 52:7), or does it actually obscure the gospel?

What good father doesn’t want his children to be happy — to delight in good things? If we tell our churches and children that God doesn’t want them happy, what are we teaching them? That God isn’t a good Father? Should we be surprised when children raised with this message turn away from God, the Bible, and the church to seek from the world the happiness our Creator wired them to want? As Thomas Aquinas wrote, “Man is unable not to wish to be happy” (Summa Theologica).

Happiness in Jesus

By creating distance between the gospel and happiness, we send the unbiblical message that the Christian faith is dull and miserable. We should speak against sin but hold up Christ as the happiness for which everyone longs. If we don’t, then we become partly responsible for the world’s tragic and widespread misperception that Christianity takes away happiness, instead of bringing it.

Separating God from happiness and our longing for happiness undermines the attractiveness of God and the appeal of the Christian worldview. When we send the message, “God doesn’t want you to be happy,” we might as well say, “God doesn’t want you to breathe.” When we say, “Stop wanting to be happy,” it’s like saying, “Stop thirsting.”

People must breathe and drink and seek happiness because that’s how God made us. The real question is whether we will breathe clean air, drink pure water, and seek our happiness in Jesus.

Browse more resources on the topic of happiness, and see Randy’s related books, including Happiness and Does God Want Us to Be Happy?

Photo by Jacqueline Munguía on Unsplash

He Turned His Business over to God: Stanley Tam’s Story

When I was writing my book Giving Is the Good Life, there were some people of times past I wished I could have interviewed. One of them was Stanley Tam, whom I’d read about years earlier. I couldn’t find Stanley’s date of death online, but considering he was born in 1915, it seemed safe to assume he had already died. I contacted a friend who’d known Stanley to find out more about his life. I was shocked by his response: “Want to talk to Stanley on the phone this Saturday?”

So to my delight, I spoke with then-102-year-old Stanley Tam. (And to my further surprise, before posting this blog, we confirmed that Stanley is still living at age 105!)

Here’s his story, with parts of our conversation woven in.

In 1934, as a young door-to-door salesman, Stanley Tam met a farmer’s wife who told him about Jesus. Six weeks later, while in a church, he placed his faith in Christ.

With twenty-five dollars of his own in his pocket, plus twelve dollars from his father, he launched United States Plastic Corporation, in Lima, Ohio.

Stanley told me, “I started the business in 1936, and I soon went broke. I was so discouraged. Then the Lord spoke to me: ‘Turn it over to me; I’ll make it succeed.’”

So Stanley legally made God the company’s majority owner—51 percent of company stock was given to a nonprofit, which in turn gave all the earnings to God’s Kingdom. Stanley believed that God wanted to run the business with Stanley as his employee.

God Was Just Getting Started

It turned out 51 percent wasn’t enough!

Stanley became familiar with an effective international ministry that he heard was closing due to lack of funds. He contacted them and said, “If I could trust God to provide $50,000 more per year to give you, would you open the ministry back up?”

They said yes.

In our conversation over the phone, Stanley’s voice grew animated, and he sounded half of his 102 years. He told me, “That ministry is still going. We’re now in forty-two countries, and we have thousands of people going door-to-door bringing people God’s Word and the plan of salvation.”

I loved that he said “we.” Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be (Matthew 6:21), and when you give to God’s work, you invest in his Kingdom. You are thinking and acting like someone with vested interests. When we spoke in 2017, more than 140,000 people had professed Christ the previous year through the ministry Stanley supported, and many churches had been planted.

Stanley told me about a meeting in South America in 1955 where he spoke and saw God work powerfully in people’s lives. He explained, “God spoke to me and said, ‘Stanley, if a soul is the most precious thing in the world, would you go back to the United States and turn your entire business over to me? And would you use the profits to spread the gospel around the world?’”

“Lord, you already have 51 percent of it,” Stanley replied. “Isn’t that enough?”

Then Stanley sensed God saying to him, “Stanley, on the cross, I paid it all for you. Now you’re my disciple. And I want you to do what I ask.”

A Call to Obedience

You might be thinking that since Stanley is an extraordinary man of faith, this all came easily for him. It didn’t.

Stanley said, “You’ll never know the struggle I went through that night. Finally I said, ‘All right Lord, you can have it.’” He added, “I just wanted to be obedient.”

Stanley’s wife, Juanita, agreed to follow the Lord in this too, and the Tams gave 100 percent of the company to God, meaning all the profits went to gospel ministry. It was only then that Stanley found the joy in giving over to God what he knew belonged to him. Stanley had a new plant built, four times bigger and facing an interstate, with huge letters installed on the side of the building: “Christ Is the Answer.”

Though Stanley’s salary was a mere fraction of that of a typical CEO, he gave substantially out of his income. In fact, he told me, “When my salary was $78,000, our personal giving was about $30,000.”

The company now produces more than 30,000 products and serves more than 85,000 customers. Stanley Tam had a wonderful business career in which he brought the world high-quality plastics. But more important, he brought the world what will last forever.

Serving God in the Twilight Years

So what did Stanley do when he retired? He opened a small woodworking shop a mile up the street. His sign outside said, “Are you seeking peace in your heart? The answer is in the Bible.” Underneath was this offer: “Come inside for a free Bible.”

Wes Lytle, Stanley’s successor as president of U.S. Plastic Corp., said, “We’re different than most companies. We’re similar in that we want to make as much money as we possibly can, but the purpose is totally different. . . . What is that purpose? To give away as much money as we possibly can, for the glory of Jesus and the good of others!”1 U.S. Plastic Corp. has cumulatively contributed more than $150 million to God’s Kingdom.

Is Stanley Tam “coasting” now that he’s nearing the end of his life? Not even close. At the time we talked, he was praying a few hours in the morning and again in the evening. He told me, “I’ve talked to more than one hundred people about Jesus in this retirement home. And I’ve led twelve to the Lord.”

If we truly believe that God owns everything and that we owe him everything for giving us all the goodness we’ve ever known or will ever know, then Stanley Tam’s actions make perfect sense. While the details of our circumstances may vary, the heart behind generosity can be the same. Stanley’s life, and the lives of others like him, should stir us to say, “What can I do that would express the same faith in God’s ownership and lordship of all I am and all I own?”

At the end of our conversation, Tam said, “People used to tell me, ‘Stanley, you’re giving it all away! Why aren’t you keeping it?’ I told them, ‘I am putting it in the bank account in Heaven.’”

As I heard Stanley speak, I could imagine another voice—a louder and stronger voice—saying to him, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

If you’re interested in learning more about Stanley’s story, here’s an hour-long documentary of his life. And here’s a 39-minute presentation that Stanley gave ten years ago. His story is also told in the book God Owns My Business.

For more on giving, see Randy’s books Giving Is the Good Life, The Treasure Principle, and  Money, Possessions, and Eternity .

My Novel Deadline and a Story of God’s Relentless Love

Deadline was my very first novel. I am still amazed by its ongoing impact. And so grateful. 

Because it was my first fiction book, and therefore, I didn’t know what I was doing, I think it is probably the poorest written of any of my novels. Yet certainly God has reached far more people through it than, for instance, one of my later novels, a book the publisher was certain at the time, would affect far more people. Though that other book has certainly been used by God to touch many, it shows that neither I nor they knew what God was going to choose to do through Deadline. I’m so glad that’s true!

Despite the fact that I finished writing it in 1993, twenty-eight years ago, in the last few months, our ministry has received multiple reader responses to Deadline. I have long believed that the Holy Spirit providentially brings certain books to the fore at certain times, touching many hearts even with older books and sometimes not bestsellers. For example, it seems like years go by and no one says anything about Edge of Eternity, but then out of the blue in a single week we get three letters from different parts of the country, or world, about how it changed people’s lives. Same with Money, Possessions, and Eternity; If God Is Good; Safely Home; and others. Each time it makes me smile because it’s not just a weird coincidence. Our God of providence is choosing to work in His own time and way. One of the countless things I love about Him!

Here’s a touching letter a reader sent me last week:

On May 4, 1997 my father finally made his way back to God. You see, he had a very turmoil-filled few years where he lost his faith, made some poor decisions, and just doubted God’s love for him, like many of us do. But that lovely Sunday morning he got up, got around, and took myself and my brother to church for the first time in months. It was wonderful, my grandmother was astounded and cried tears of joy and praises to God for this day. She has a warrior’s heart and the moment my father started to doubt God’s love, she fervently started to pray for him. They had had a falling out, and were not talking as much as they normally did, but through it all she knew that God was faithful and would deliver my dad from this dark hole he spiraled into.

And she was right. A few weeks previous…she had prayed and asked God for a way to speak to my dad. And she was nudged to go to the local Christian bookstore. She looked and just couldn’t find anything worthwhile, so a gentleman came over and asked her how he could help. The associate listened to my grandma and the story of my dad patiently. When she finished, he instantly said, “I know the perfect book.” He led her to a bookshelf and picked up Deadline.

She gave it to my dad and made him promise to read it. He devoured it. The Sunday he finally packed us all up and went back to church he had two chapters left.

The following Monday, May 5, 1997, he called my grandma, and they had a fantastic talk and he thanked her for never giving up on him. He told her he finished the book she got him, and he said she should read it. He said the ending will surprise you.

After that call ended my grandma prayed and thanked God for everything. She said, “God filled my heart with the knowing that your daddy’s heart was back with Him!” She has told me this so surely my whole life, I have no doubt. That night our lives changed forever. My dad went to be with the Lord.

It was a freak reckless driving accident. My dad was killed instantly. His best friend [died] the next night in the hospital. It mirrored your story so much, that it’s been difficult to read your book for years. I finally started it last night.

I say all of this as a thank you! Your book and countless prayers from many are some of the reasons that I know I will see my daddy in Heaven again. That our story is truly just on hold until we are reunited with our Lord and Savior forever. —E.H.

And here are six other notes we’ve received over the last few months—trust me, no one is more surprised than I am we are still getting them!

Your description of the man entering Heaven and meeting Jesus was one of the best things outside of God’s Word that I’ve read. Unbelievably impactful. I wept as I read it years ago and wept as I shared it with my Sunday school class. It still moves me. —J.M.

You will always be in my heart and prayers as the person who wrote Deadline that brought me to my knees and into eternity with Jesus. —P.S.

Deadline gave me my first glimpse into the fullness of Heaven which helped Heaven to become a living reality. It also sent me on a search for understanding more of the more that God has prepared for us. Today, I see Heaven. And I see my husband worshipping our God with all the saints who have gone before him. So while the process of dying still offends my senses I nonetheless look forward to an endless life of sinlessness in the presence of our holy God. Thank you for writing Deadline, Randy! —S.S.

I hate to read. I am sure it’s some undiagnosed learning thing. The Lord had me read this [Deadline] right before we adopted our son who turned out to have a rare birth defect. He was diagnosed around the time I read this book. It brought me the most amazing amount of peace. It helped me so very much during some of the darkest times. Reading about the Down syndrome topics in this book was AMAZINGLY helpful. I also LOVE your imagination of Heaven. When I think of the part that talks about how all the angels wanted to go through the portal to stop the “puny men” from hurting our LORD... I sobbed for hours after reading that. You, dear man, have given us a glimpse of Heaven....thank you from the bottom of my heart. —J.J.H.

I am just finishing your novel, Deadline—wow! When I saw you included scenes of Heaven, I was prepared for something lame, frankly, but they were both biblical and realistic! Thanks for a great read! —D.F.

Not long ago in one of your posts you referenced a book you had written years ago. Since I had read your book on Heaven, I wanted to check out this one you talked about, Deadline. Oh. My. Word. Though published in ‘94 it’s a mirror of deeper understanding to me today. You mentioned matters in this book I had never heard of but KNOW they are happening NOW. I’m almost finished with this book and will be passing it along as one of the most timely books of our day in 2021! —A.R.