Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 70

Christopher Yuan on “Is Being Gay Genetic?”

A few years ago when we were both speaking at an apologetics conference, I had the privilege of meeting Christopher Yuan, who is an author, speaker, and instructor at Moody Bible Institute. I read a lot of books, and Christopher Yuan’s Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story is on the shortlist of most important books I’ve read in the last decade.

Christopher is that rare individual who has personally grappled with issues related to homosexuality in the crucible of life. Instead of reinventing theology or engaging in creative interpretation, he lives consistently with biblical beliefs even when it’s personally difficult or unpopular. In that respect, he is God’s gift to us, and I for one am profoundly grateful. 

The Colson Center produced a video with Christopher answering the question, “Is Being Gay Genetic?” for their What Would You Say? series. This is a terrific answer.

Photo: Pixabay

Martyn Lloyd Jones on Sin

“What is the matter with the world?” Martyn Lloyd-Jones asked. “Why . . . war and all this unhappiness and turmoil and discord amongst men? . . . There is only one answer to these questions—sin. Nothing else; it is just sin.”

Addiction provides a picture of all sin patterns. At first, the happiness it causes seems to outweigh the misery. But eventually the periods of misery increase while the periods of happiness fade. This is called the law of diminishing returns. Life is promised; death is delivered. Every drug, alcohol, and pornography addict is living proof that the next high is less satisfying than the last.

If insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results, sin not only leads to insanity—it is insanity. Regardless of your drug of choice—materialism, cocaine, pornography, power, anger, slander—the nature of any sin is saying, “This time will be different.” Yet it just keeps killing us—in the name of happiness.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones shares these helpful definitions of sin, and why we must avoid it, in his book Life in Christ in 1 John:

What is sin?

When we disobey God’s holy Law, his revealed will.
Sin is whatever is condemned in Scripture—‘Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not commit adultery…’ We have sins of ‘commission’ and sins of ‘omission’—in other words, it’s just as bad to do what you shouldn’t do as to not do what you ought to do.
Sin is violating your conscience—going against your conscience (Romans 14). If we are doubtful about a thing, we ought not do it (1 Thessalonians 5:22).
Sin is being governed by our desires and not by truth.

Why must we not sin?

Sin is condemned and hated by God. It goes contrary to the very nature of God.
Sin is ugly and destructive by its very nature. It’s wrong in and of itself. Just look at what sin produces.
Sin is the terrible and foul thing that caused our Savior to die. The problem of sin is what brought the Son of God to earth to die. Why would we desire that which cause the Savior so much pain and grief???
Sin is dishonorable to the gospel and its claims. We claim to believe the gospel and have victory over sin but then don’t walk in patterns of victory. There’s no point in saying you want to walk with God and deliberately sin. In other words, we say we want to fellowship with God and then break that fellowship with deliberate sin. Sin is inconsistent with our profession to hate sin.
Sin leads to an evil conscience. We suffer guilt and condemnation for sin.
Sin robs you of joy. You should avoid sin at all costs because you know what it does to you.
Sin leads to doubts about your salvation.
Sin hinders prayer. It’s impossible to pray as we ought to when we are holding onto sin.
Sin leads to a sense of utter hopelessness.  

First John 3:21 says, “If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.” Without the convicting work of the Holy Spirit (see John 16:8), there’s no hope for any of us to turn to God—and without repentance and forgiveness, there’s no restoration to relationship with our joyful God.

Though those of us who have accepted Christ are forgiven of our past sins, including some we don’t remember, we are called upon to confess our sins as we become aware of them: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

It may seem confusing that we must continue to confess recent sins in order to experience new and fresh forgiveness. But while we have a settled once-and-for-all forgiveness in Christ, we also have a current ongoing relationship with Him that is hampered by unconfessed sin.

Scripture says, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). Confession means agreeing with God that we have sinned against him.

Charles Spurgeon said, “It does not spoil your happiness . . . to confess your sin. The unhappiness is in not making the confession.”

While true conversion begins with admitting we’re wrong, it doesn’t end there. It involves repentance. Repentance is more than reciting well-calculated words with a view toward minimizing our losses. Repentance, when it is genuine, is in fact not accompanied by calculation at all. It is utterly vulnerable, and demonstrates this by a radical change in behavior, a new humility, and a willingness to accept God’s discipline. 

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9). Sin requires a radical solution—salvation in Christ, which transforms our nature and dramatically affects our capacity to embrace greater happiness in God. Our justification by faith in Christ satisfies the demands of God’s holiness by exchanging our sins for Christ’s righteousness (see Romans 3:21-26).

God grants believers new natures that free us from sin’s bondage. Now we can draw upon God’s power to overcome evil. Because our hearts are changed when we become new people in Christ, we want a better way. “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Romans 8:9).

Once believers are born again, we cannot continue to sin as a lifestyle because of our new natures (see 1 John 3:9). Sin is still present in our lives (see Romans 6:11-14; 1 John 1:8–2:2), but we have supernatural power to overcome it since we’ve died to sin (see Romans 6:6-9). God’s Holy Spirit indwells us and helps us obey Him (see 2 Timothy 1:14).

The result? With the Holy Spirit’s help, we’re free to reject sin and its misery, and embrace righteousness, with its true and lasting happiness.

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 Nathan McBride on Unsplash

Do the Old Testament Promises of Prosperity Apply to God’s People Today?

In some circles, the abundant life Jesus promised His followers has been confused with material wealth. Prosperity theology says that God’s plan is always for us to be wealthy—and to spend our money primarily on ourselves. Jesus, who didn’t even have a place to lay His head and who owned nothing but a robe and sandals (Matthew 8:20), clearly didn’t live a money- and possessions-centered life. Surely that’s not what He wants for us either.

So how can we explain the apparent contradiction between the words and lifestyle of Jesus and the apostles, and the Old Testament prosperity passages? Can God’s people today lay claim to those Old Testament promises of prosperity? The answers to these questions lie in the fundamental differences between the Old and New Covenants. Suffice it to say that the New Testament reflects a fuller picture of the true, eternal wealth that is ours in Christ.

Material Wealth = God’s Blessing?

The portion of truth that makes prosperity theology credible is that some Old Testament passages link material prosperity with God’s blessing. For instance, God gave material wealth to Abraham (Genesis 13:1-7), Isaac (Genesis 26:12-14), Jacob (Genesis 30:43), Joseph (Genesis 39:2-6), Solomon (1 Kings 3:13), and Job (Job 42:10-17) because He approved of them. He promised the Israelites He would reward them materially for faithful financial giving (Deuteronomy 15:10; Proverbs 3:9-10; 11:25; Malachi 3:8-12).

In Deuteronomy 28:1-13, God tells the Israelites that He would reward their obedience by giving them children, crops, livestock, and victory over their enemies, but He also tacks on fifty-four more verses describing the curses that would come upon the nation if they didn’t obey Him—including diseases, heat and drought, military defeat, boils, tumors, madness, and blindness. The teaching is double-edged: prosperity for obedience, adversity for disobedience (Deuteronomy 28:14-68).

The Old Testament also warns against the dangers of wealth—especially the possibility that in our prosperity we may forget the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:7-18). Furthermore, the Bible recognizes frequent exceptions to the prosperity/adversity doctrine, noting that the wicked often prosper more than the righteous. The psalmist said, “I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a green tree in its native soil” (Psalm 37:35), and “I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. . . . This is what the wicked are like—always carefree, they increase in wealth” (Psalm 73:3, 12). Solomon saw “a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness” (Ecclesiastes 7:15). Jeremiah, a righteous man who lived in constant adversity, framed the question this way: “You are always righteous, O Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?” (Jeremiah 12:1).

Are material wealth, achievement, fame, victory, or success reliable indicators of God’s reward or approval? If so, then He is an evil God, for history is full of successful madmen and prosperous despots. Was God on the side of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and other prosperous butchers of history during their rise to power and at the apex of their regimes when they were surrounded by material wealth? Is God also on the side of wealthy cultists, dishonest business executives, and immoral entertainers? If wealth is a dependable sign of God’s approval and lack of wealth shows His disapproval, then Jesus and Paul were on God’s blacklist, and drug dealers and embezzlers are the apple of His eye.

An Eternal Inheritance, Not a Temporal One

In the Old Testament, material blessing was given for obedience (Deuteronomy 28:2), yet in the New Testament many of the saints were poor (Matthew 8:20; 2 Corinthians 11:27; James 2:5). (The same is still true today for the majority of believers not living in the Western world.) Enjoying worldly wealth is emphasized in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 28:11; Joshua 1:15; Proverbs 15:6), yet the New Testament talks of giving away possessions (Mark 10:17-21; 1 Timothy 6:17-18). By their obedience, the Israelites avoided persecution (Deuteronomy 28:7), but by their obedience Christians incur persecution (Matthew 5:11-12; 2 Timothy 3:12; 1 Peter 1:6).

Why this disparity? Because God was determined that New Testament saints would understand that their home is in another world. No book better demonstrates the relationship of Old and New Testaments, and the two worlds on which they center, than the book of Hebrews. The new covenant is said to be “founded on better promises” than the Old (Hebrews 8:6). The Old Testament is copy and type and shadow. Accordingly, the material blessings promised to Old Testament saints are to remind us of our future heavenly blessings—but never are they to replace them. The new covenant brings not the temporal inheritance promised Israel, but an eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15).

We no longer sacrifice animals, because the Lamb of God has come. We no longer worship in a temple, because we ourselves are temples of God’s Holy Spirit. We no longer go to a priest, because Christ is our high priest, and we ourselves are a believing priesthood. We no longer look to material riches, because of the spiritual riches that are ours in Christ.

God demonstrated to the nations surrounding Israel His superiority to their gods by prospering the people of Israel when they obeyed Him. Now He wishes to display Christ’s lordship and presence to the world around us through a better faith and morality, not a higher standard of living.

The Israelites were citizens of the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 8:7-9; 11:8-12). Their destination was on this earth. But New Testament saints haven’t yet arrived at their destination and won’t until our lives here are done. We’re told our citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3:20; 1 Peter 2:11). The Promised Land was a foretaste of the glory that awaits us. We are to stake our claim in the ultimate Promised Land: “You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God” (Hebrews 12:22). The earthly Jerusalem isn’t our destination. It’s only a signpost pointing the way, just as earthly blessings aren’t our ultimate rewards, just foretastes of what’s coming.

Hebrews speaks of promised blessings, a great inheritance of lasting possessions (Hebrews 6:12; 10:34; 11:13-16). These promises must be patiently awaited, because they come not in this world but the next (Hebrews 10:35-39; 11:13, 16). Our destination is as much superior to the Promised Land of Palestine as Christ’s blood was superior to the blood of bulls and goats. The effect of prosperity theology is to promote “Heaven on earth.” But prior to Christ’s return there can be no Heaven on earth. When earth becomes our Heaven—when we see God’s blessings as being primarily immediate and temporal—we lose sight of who we are, why we are here, and what awaits us beyond the horizons of this world.

Our Far Greater Spiritual Riches

Our greatest resources are spiritual, not material. They come from another world, not this one. Even in the worst of circumstances, it’s possible to experience a full, deep life in this world that’s under the Curse, and that’s what sets the Christian life apart. This soul-level abundance means that poor believers who are living in oppressive circumstances can be far more joyful and satisfied than unbelievers who are living in luxury and popularity.

In the New Testament, the Greek word ploutos is used six times for material riches put to evil purposes (Matthew 13:22; Mark 4:19; Luke 8:14; 1 Timothy 6:17; James 5:2; Revelation 18:17). Yet the same word is used eleven times in the positive sense, each time referring to spiritual, not material, riches (Romans 11:33; Ephesians 1:18; Philippians 4:19; Colossians 1:27). Once we experience those riches in Christ, we find them so profoundly satisfying that we can never again elevate earthly and material riches to the place of importance they once held.

We’ll also use the resources that God does entrust to us as means of investing in eternity, and preparing for the life to come. “Your plenty will supply what they need. . . . You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion” (2 Corinthians 8:14; 9:11). Don’t assume that God prospers you beyond what you need just to raise your standard of living. It’s more likely, according to these verses, that He prospers you to raise your standard of giving. He provides in excess not for us to live excessively, but so we can become rich in good works.

As thoughtful Christ-followers, we should never assume that financial abundance is God’s provision for us to live in luxury. We should assume that God entrusts us with His money not to build our kingdom on Earth, but to build His Kingdom in Heaven. A good question to ask God is, “Lord, whose kingdom am I focused on building: yours or mine?”

See more resources on money and giving, as well as Randy's related books, including Giving Is the Good Life, Money, Possessions, and Eternity, and The Treasure Principle.

Photo by Paul Rysz on Unsplash

Moral Standards and Goodness Can’t Exist Without God

Atheists’ argument that goodness and moral standards can exist without God does not hold up. If there’s no God, people don’t live after death and aren’t held accountable for their actions, good or evil. That’s why Dostoevsky said, “Destroy a man’s belief in immortality and... everything would be permitted, even cannibalism” (The Brothers Karamazov).

To say that an atheistic worldview provides no basis for the existence of good and evil does not mean that atheists have no sense of right and wrong. They do. They live in a culture influenced by a historic belief in God and the morality revealed in Scripture. This provides them a residual basis for believing that moral categories are important, while their own worldview doesn’t.

How does an atheistic worldview explain an atheist’s morals? Suppose time, chance, and natural forces accounted for us. If we could move from nonlife to life and from irrational to rational—quantum leaps, to say the least—then what more could we do than invent pragmatic social rules to govern group behavior? Since the powerful make the rules and they would survive longer by making the weak serve them, then why would anyone but the weak want life to change?

If the natural world is all there is, would mankind get its morals from animal instincts? A gazelle runs from the cheetah, but gazelles don’t sit around the campfire and discuss how unfair it is for cheetahs to kill gazelles. Neither do cheetahs wrestle with the morality of whether they should kill gazelles. Do fish have rights that sharks should recognize and respect? Are sharks evil for eating fish? Would a good shark refrain from taking advantage of vulnerable fish? If so, how long would it survive?

In an evolutionary worldview, why object to stronger human beings stealing from or killing weaker ones? Wouldn’t this simply be natural selection and survival of the fittest, not a question of right or wrong?

It doesn’t help to define happiness as pleasure, as opposed to pain. Being eaten by cheetahs doesn’t make gazelles happy, but eating gazelles makes cheetahs happy. Animals can experience “happiness” or lack of it, but that doesn’t provide a moral code. Animal ruthlessness and lack of compassion for the weak is simply how the system works. How could anyone view it as evil?

The naturalist may claim that the survival of the fittest is descriptive, not prescriptive; that it describes the world as it is, not as it should be. But on what does he base any sense of should? Why “should” he operate differently than the way the natural order operates, since he’s part of that natural order himself? Any appeal to natural law seems baseless, unless there is a Creator, a Lawgiver, who has built into us a sense of that natural law.

Atheists who have thought through the implications of their worldview occasionally admit its utter moral emptiness. Unbeliever William Provine put it this way in a debate: “Let me summarize my views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us loud and clear.... There are no gods, no purposes.... There is no life after death.... There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life, and no free will for humans.”

Notice his admission that there is no ultimate foundation for ethics. The naturalistic worldview has no basis for declaring some things good and others evil.

But surely something within Dr. Provine can look at good and rejoice, then look at evil and cry out, “This is wrong!” What is it that cries out? The Bible calls it the conscience, God’s law written on our hearts (see Romans 2:15). We have a moral code, a natural law built into us. That’s what allows us to step outside of what we see around us and call it good or evil.

Excerpted from  If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.

Photo by Lachlan Gowen on Unsplash

Setting God-Honoring Boundaries for Purity: Advice for Women from Wise Christ Followers

A reader commented on one of my blogs about sexual purity and Christian leaders:

I have appreciated your thoughtful response. I do wish you could do an article on how to protect yourself from ungodly leaders claiming to be spiritual... I am dumbfounded when I read about a wife texting a “godly” leader and she hasn’t shared her texts with her husband from the beginning. …she should be communicating with a husband-wife team and possibly have another woman she trusts reading the responses as well. Being asked to send photos of yourself, not to mention nude photos should be a definite alert. How did it even get to that point? Being asked to keep things secret is always an alarm point for me, and I let people know I keep myself free to always share things with my parents since I don’t have a husband. It saves me a lot of trouble if I let people know that upfront.

Let me be absolutely clear upfront. This blog is not about blaming victims of sexual abuse or about excusing the abuses of leaders. (Nor is it about women being the problem.) As I’ve written before:

Sexual involvement with one who has come to seek emotional help or spiritual guidance should not only be considered fornication or adultery—it should be considered sexual abuse. Sexual activity that comes out of a ministry context is comparable to child sexual abuse, where the supposedly mature and stable adult figure takes advantage of his or her authority and credibility to initiate or allow a sexual encounter with the immature and vulnerable. In such cases, the person in ministry is not a victim but a predator. And it is all the worse because we are trusted representatives of Christ.

[When some have] said, “These were adult women who were consenting adults,” they failed to recognize the imbalance of power between an established Christian leader with great verbal skills who is in the obvious power position and who exerts influence on someone. While it isn’t a righteous response, it’s understandable that someone could not only be flattered by the man’s interest but also reason, “I thought doing this was wrong, but he knows the Bible far better than I do, maybe it’s really okay.” Is that rationalizing? Of course. But when Jesus talked about abusive leaders being wolves among the sheep, surely he wasn’t putting equal blame on the sheep as on the wolves.

This is why we need to create a culture in our churches and ministries where when people bring up concerns about a leader’s actions, they are taken seriously and the claims are thoroughly investigated, not automatically dismissed based on the leader’s word alone.

Still, I believe it is wise for Christian women, just like men, to have clear boundaries when it comes to purity and relationships, and to teach boundaries to their children and teens. This isn’t about legalism or about earning our salvation, or about following a list of rules just to appear more godly. It’s simply about being wise, and honoring God in our choices by guarding our hearts (Proverbs 4:23). (And as I’ve written before, because boundaries protect us, they actually bring freedom and joy, not misery and confinement.)

The following advice comes from a Revive Our Hearts conversation between Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth and Mary Kassian, two sisters I greatly appreciate. Though this is geared towards women, the principles are applicable to both men and women:

Nancy: I know when I’ve talked in the past about hedges and boundaries on this program, invariably we’ll get emails from listeners saying, be more specific. “What are some of your hedges? What are some of your boundaries?” I’ve always been hesitant to do that because I don’t want to say that the hedges that I’ve put in place in my life are exactly in every detail what someone else should put into their life. But I have found that women have been helped as I’ve been willing to share some of the practical hedges that I’ve put into my life.

I’m a single woman. Mary, you’re a married woman. [Note: Nancy married Robert Wolgemuth in 2015.] Let’s just for the sake of mentoring and encouraging women who are listening and may not have been mothered, may not have been counseled in some of these practical areas, let’s start with you as a married woman. You love Brent. You’ve been married thirty years now. You want to protect your marriage. You want to guard your own heart. So what are some of the practical ways that you've set out to establish hedges and boundaries to protect that relationship?

Mary: One of the practical ways is what I call a seclusion hedge. And that is to ensure that I interact with men that I am not married to, men who are other than Brent, in a public venue and not in a private venue. I avoid places that are secluded. So if I’m meeting with someone, a colleague, it will be in a room where others can watch or that has glass doors, or glass windows, or we leave the door open. I avoid being in secluded, private, isolated places with men that I’m not married to.

Nancy: I know we practice that within our ministry. I don’t meet in a room alone with a man without the door being ajar or windows in the room. Some people see that kind of thing and think that seems so extreme. That seems obsessive. Yet I’m thinking, if you don’t violate that seclusion principle, you’re unlikely to be in an emotionally or physically adulterous relationship. People probably never have an affair with someone that they've never been alone with in a private setting.

You can call it obsessive. But I so value the marriages of my colleagues and the men that serve in our ministry, the men that I work with. I’m thinking it’s worth it for them and for me, for their marriages, for my life, to put some of those boundaries up. Is this a biblical mandate to keep the doors open? I’m not going to call it that, but I think there’s a lot of wisdom in it.

Mary: I think there is a lot of wisdom in it. Proverbs tells us that the wise person foresees danger and takes precautions.

Nancy: Prudent.

Mary: Is very, very prudent. It’s just a smart thing to do. When Brent does that for me, I appreciate that I know that he’s not going to be having meetings off somewhere with a woman alone. And he knows that I will honor him in the same way. It's just a way of respecting my marriage, and it's a way of respecting the marriages of other people as well.

Nancy: I think another way of putting up appropriate hedges and boundaries is in the whole area of communication. This is something that I’ve watched just take down a lot of women and a lot of marriages. The whole email/Facebook communication; how can we think about that in a wise way rather than a wild way.

Mary: Well, I think that we need to be careful with where we go in our communication. If I communicate with someone other than Brent, another man, I try to avoid really personal topics. I can confide in girlfriends, but I can’t confide in other men. If I’m having a heartache, or if I’m having something very personal going on in my life, or if I’m having a struggle in my marriage, it’s just inappropriate for me to be sharing personal information.

If I do share personal information, I need to be very cautious to share that information in a way that my husband is aware that I’m sharing it or that he is included in it. So if I’m saying something personal, how I really enjoyed church this weekend, I might type something like, “My husband and I really enjoyed being at church this weekend.” Or I would use “we” phrases and always make sure to make it very clear that I am married and I’m committed to my marriage. I am not just an “I;” I am a “we” in terms of being a couple. That just draws that boundary very, very clearly right up front that this is place, this is a line that is not getting crossed.

Nancy: I know some couples who have practically handled that in relation to their Facebook account. They don’t have their own individual Facebook accounts; they have a Facebook account. If they're going to do it all, together. It has both of their names on it. So when you're communicating with the one, you realize the other partner has access to that, is seeing that material. I think that helps keep away from private or secret communication that could become a time bomb waiting to go off.

Mary: It really could become one. I appreciate Brent often will CC me on an email if he’s communicating with a woman and needs to set something up or tell her something. If it’s just purely business, he doesn’t always do that. But if there's anything of a private or personal nature, he'll CC me on it, or he will tell me about it. I will do the same for him. That just really honors, it nails down those hedges and boundaries. It honors our marriage. It keeps us safe.

Nancy: I don’t want to belabor the point too much, but I think as much as we have seen of emotional adultery, sometimes leading to physical adultery, but illicit relationships being fueled through email, through Facebook, through instant messaging, through various social media, these things can be great blessings if they are used in a wise way. But we're seeing just monumental collapse of trust and covenant and breaches of fidelity and faithfulness through these means.

I talked recently with a couple, a man who is in full-time Christian ministry. His wife has become addicted to Facebook, and through means of Facebook she has reconnected with an old sweetheart who she is now carrying on an emotional affair with, and it is devastating her marriage. I assume it’s devastating his as well in his situation.

But this is something that is rampant even among believers. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, "I think I’m going to have an affair." They first breach smaller, individual, single hedges or boundaries and then find that leading to another, leading to another, leading to another larger compromise. And it's like Proverbs says, “The end leads to death” (see verse 27). 

Mary: It does lead to death. You and I have both seen it numerous times where just a little compromise, because it's not sin just to send an email, and it's not sin to share a little bit, and it's not sin to share a little bit more. But there's an erosion that takes place, and a chipping away at those boundaries. Those boundaries get pushed to different levels and different places. And you cross more and more boundaries until every boundary is crossed, emotionally, if not physically. 

So to protect ourselves, to keep ourselves safe, to keep ourselves pure, to honor our marriages and the marriages of those around us, we do need to establish those types of boundaries.

Listen to the full podcast.

Also see Mary’s Personal Hedges Worksheet. She writes, “A hedge is a personal rule that minimizes a woman’s exposure to an unwanted sexual risk. It’s a boundary that helps her protect her own sexual purity as well as the sexual purity of the men around her. It’s a strategy whereby she seeks to honor God and lessen the opportunity for sin. This worksheet is to help you establish what your personal hedges are.” You might also like to check out Mary’s book Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild.

See also my blog Pursuing Sexual Purity in Your Marriage and my book The Purity Principle.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

How to Know You’ve Become a Pharisee

Note from Randy: I love this analogy Eugene Peterson shared in his book The Jesus Way.

Imagine yourself moving into a house with a huge picture window overlooking a grand view across a wide expanse of water enclosed by a range of snow-capped mountains. You have a ringside seat before wild storms and cloud formations, the entire spectrum of sun-illuminated colors in the rocks and trees and wildflowers and water. You are captivated by the view. Several times a day you interrupt your work and stand before this window to take in the majesty and the beauty, thrilled with the botanical and meteorological fireworks.

One afternoon you notice some bird droppings on the window glass, get a bucket of water and a towel, and clean it. A couple of days later a rain storm leaves the window streaked, and the bucket comes out again. Another day visitors come with a tribe of small dirty-fingered children. The moment they leave you see all the smudge marks on the glass. They are hardly out the door before you have the bucket out. You are so proud of that window, and it’s such a large window. But it’s incredible how many different ways foreign objects can attach themselves to that window, obscuring the vision, distracting from the contemplative beauty.

Keeping that window clean develops into an obsessive-compulsive neurosis. You accumulate ladders and buckets and squeegees. You construct a scaffolding inside and out to make it possible to get to the all the difficult corners and heights. You have the cleanest window in North America — but it’s now been years since you looked through it.

You’ve become a Pharisee.

Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way, p. 211.

Photo by Jean van der Meulen from Pexels

God Answers Decades of Prayer: The Closure of Portland’s Lovejoy Abortion Clinic

Interview by Stephanie Anderson, EPM staff
(with special thanks to Ron Norquist for contributing the introduction)

It’s just a small, unassuming medical building nestled in an older residential part of Portland, Oregon. Commuters who stopped for seconds at the blinking light on the corner of NE 25th and Lovejoy Street barely noticed the sparsely landscaped Lovejoy SurgiCenter. But over the years, tens of thousands of women approached the front steps to the clinic, where a pregnant woman could become “un-pregnant.”

In the past, this sleepy corner has been alive with action: people holding signs, little pockets of prayer, sidewalk counselors asking the women to consider other options, often directing them to local pregnancy care centers. One man, Doc Hite, would show up almost daily for many hours even into his late 90s, holding a sign and offering help. When asked why he would do so at his age he simply said, “These are babies.”

In the late 1980s and early 90s a small ministry called Advocates for Life brought groups of volunteers to peacefully block access to the clinic by sitting in front of the doors. Two of those volunteers were Randy Alcorn and myself, Ron Norquist. On those days, the corner of 25th and Lovejoy was a busy one: there were police cars, handcuffed prolifers being dragged into waiting police vans, frustrated clinic workers who wanted to get on with their business, and women waiting for the doors to clear so they could get their abortion procedure. The invisible ones were the pre-born children carried by their mothers into that place of death.

For years prolife advocates prayed that God would do what they couldn’t: close it down. They waited and trusted and advocated for those who had no voice.

Then came word in January 2021 that after fifty years, Lovejoy was shutting its doors, ending its business as the largest abortion clinic in the State of Oregon. Local prolifers rejoiced, but their feelings remain mixed. Demand still exists, and in March, an abortion facility under the name The Lilith Clinic opened in downtown Portland and advertises abortions up to 22 weeks. Still, prolifers thank and praise the Author of Life, Jesus Christ, for hearing His people’s prayers that the building at 25th and Lovejoy would no longer house such evil.

In this interview, Randy Alcorn and Kathy Norquist, Ron’s wife, respond to the closure:

Tell us about your personal history with Lovejoy SurgiCenter.

Randy: In 1988 I visited Lovejoy, perhaps the world’s most ironically named abortion clinic, for the first time. I had never been to an abortion clinic, and I didn’t even know where any were located. In December of that year, I attended an Advocates for Life meeting where I was exposed to the idea of civil disobedience to rescue the unborn. They had a rescue scheduled at Lovejoy in January 1989. With some reluctance, I went to my fellow church elders and explained why I believed God was leading me to do this. I asked their permission, and to their credit, while some of them didn’t really know whether it was the right decision, they all said that since I believed this action was biblically right and both my conscience and the Holy Spirit were leading me to do it, they could only support me. I also told Ron Norquist about it and to my surprise and great encouragement, he wanted to join me in participating. Since I didn’t know any other volunteers well, to have a longtime friend come was a huge help. I no longer felt as profoundly alone.

I rescued nine times in 1989 and was arrested seven times, each time taken to jail and placed in a holding tank, a large room on lockdown also occupied by others arrested for nonviolent crimes. I had many interesting conversations and opportunities to share the gospel. Nanci did sidewalk counseling at Lovejoy for several years, approaching women who came to the clinic for abortions, and giving them one last opportunity to see the truth and rescue their unborn children. That was a much tougher job. It was hard for her, but I admired her for doing what we both believed was right. (See Why We Rescued.)

In early 1990 another abortion clinic, called the Downtown Women’s Clinic, won a court judgment against me and several other rescuers. The court demanded we pay the full amount for their loss of income from the dozen or so abortions we had prevented one day. This amount was less than $3,000, but we were also held liable for their attorney expenses which were nearly $20,000. Later I was summoned to court for refusing to pay this. I told the judge that as a matter of conscience I would pay anybody anything I owed them, but one thing I would never do was hand over money to people who would use it to kill babies.

The judged sentenced me to two days (one night) in jail for refusing to pay the fine. I was handcuffed with what is called a belly chain that went around my waist, to which my hands and ankles were also cuffed, and then led out of the courtroom by two armed police officers who escorted me to the county jail. That’s when photojournalists still used flash photography, so my eyes were blinded. Local television news was lined up to cover this spectacle of a pastor chained to the teeth.

Since I still refused to pay the fines, on the first Saturday of May 1990, I was served papers informing me that the church I pastored was receiving a writ of garnishment demanding they send a fourth of my wages each month to the Downtown Clinic. In God’s providence, Saturday was the only day of the week where no one was present on the church grounds to receive that writ. Since they didn’t serve writs on Sunday, that meant I knew two days before the church did that the writ of garnishment would be delivered to them on Monday. This was a great blessing because it allowed me to call a special meeting of the elders on Sunday, where I resigned as pastor to keep my church from having to either pay an abortion clinic or defy a court order. The church was able to disburse my last paycheck, so they could honestly say the next day I wasn’t their employee, and they owed me no wages that could be garnished.

Later in 1990, shortly after we started EPM, Frank Peretti and his wife Barb spent a weekend at our house when he was researching his next novel after This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness. He wanted the story to center around abortion. After a meeting in our living room with women who had experienced abortions and were now regularly involved in ministry at Lovejoy, I took Frank to see it. I told him stories as we stood across the street from the building. There was a New-Agey “altar” in front of one of the homes nearby, and the owners had placed on it an offering, some kind of fresh meat that we couldn’t identify. The spirit of darkness surrounding this place that was so familiar to me by then was immediately evident to Frank.

As we stood there, the clinic owner, who I had come to know well, drove up in her luxury car and entered the building. I won’t describe what she looked like, but let’s just say it was evil. In his novel Prophet, Frank used Lovejoy as the basis for the abortion clinic that is a significant part of his story. He portrays the web of deception and complicity surrounding legal abortion and its exploitation of both women and the church.

In real life and in Frank’s book, family members, doctors, the media, and political figures all have vested interests in covering up the dangers of abortion. In fact, six weeks after finishing the first edition of my book ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments, I attended the funeral of a woman who died at a nearby hospital after “treatment” at Lovejoy. There was no media coverage indicating the place of her surgery or her cause of death.

In February 1991, nine months after I had to resign from the church, we were set for a major courtroom trial that had been looming over us for a year, Lovejoy SurgiCenter v. Portland, Oregon ProLifers. The time came for the judge, who had been overtly hostile toward us during the trial, to give his last instructions to the jury before sending them away for deliberations. His final words were, “You must find these people guilty and you must punish them sufficiently to insure they’ll never do this again.” For our totally peaceful nonviolent actions, the jury awarded the abortion clinic $8.2 million dollars. (At the time it was the largest court judgment in history against a group of peaceful protestors.)

While we were in this thirty-day trial, several amazing things happened. Three Lovejoy employees quit. One explained to a prolife protester outside, “I don’t know what happened. It’s like I suddenly woke up and realized we’re killing babies here. That’s not what I want to do with my life.”

What others intended for evil, God intended for good (Genesis 50:20). Much of what I wrote about the beginnings of EPM involves Lovejoy.

(Our attorney in the month-long Lovejoy lawsuit asked me to prepare closing arguments. It might speak to your heart as a resource to reflect on as our culture leaves less and less room for the exercise of Christian convictions.)

Kathy: Ron was arrested multiple times for rescuing, mostly at Lovejoy clinic, and spent seven months over a one-year period in jail and lost his job as a result. He then had a jail ministry and to this day is still good friends with one of the guys he met in jail.

Ron was not always prolife and can remember debating with his brother Rick about abortion when he was in high school. But when our firstborn son was stillborn in 1976, that solidified in his heart the humanity of the preborn child. So years later when Ron heard about rescuing through Randy, he immediately wanted to join him. That decision changed our family’s life, but God was faithful beyond what we could have ever asked for.

I (Kathy) spent many times over the years down at Lovejoy alongside other dear friends praying, holding signs, and reaching out to the women and men going into the clinic. There were numerous opportunities to share the love of Christ and His message of salvation. My experience at the clinic forced me out of my comfort zone. I often didn’t look forward to going but always left there strengthened with a sense of privilege to stand for Christ and be a light in the darkness. The heaviest drive I made was to Lovejoy and the lightest drive was away from Lovejoy. The relief in leaving was sometimes accompanied by sadness as there was often no one to take our place.

During the year that Ron was in and out of jail and our family was in the news, I felt like we were living in a fishbowl. It was difficult to have people see your husband as “the abortion guy,” as though that was our whole life. But throughout that stressful and trying time, God was at work. I wouldn’t trade those years for anything because God was with us, and He used it all for His good purposes.

What has changed in the prolife movement in the 30+ years since you were first involved with rescuing and sidewalk counseling? What is the same?

Kathy: Rescuing has become a thing of the past for several reasons, but sidewalk counseling has remained. I think God used rescuing and the publicity that resulted to awaken hearts to stand more boldly for life. There are thousands of pregnancy resource centers as well as many other dynamic prolife ministries so the work is still going strong. But there is an ongoing need to have a presence at the clinics, quietly praying and/or holding a sign or reaching out to those going in.

Randy: Now there are many more prolife clinics and prolife volunteers than in those early days. There are many more churches that support those clinics. The political prolife arms, such as Oregon Right to Life, continue their faithful efforts.

However, precious innocent children are still being killed daily, men are still failing to defend and care for the children they’ve fathered, and women are still being deceived into believing that abortion can solve their problems. The truth is, it is never—absolutely never—in a mom or dad’s best interest to kill their child.

What is missing is the regular presence at abortion clinics in large numbers, which drew attention to the fact that children are being killed every day at every abortion clinic. Sidewalk counseling done by some faithful people continues. That’s wonderful. We rescued until the cost of rescuing became so high that it prevented us from doing much else. Ron Norquist paid that high price more than anyone, and I will always respect Ron and Kathy deeply for that.

In my case, I could both live with my wife and young daughters and do a lot for unborn children by speaking out on their behalf and writing books to equip people to defend them. (My 1992 book ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments was a surprise best-seller, and has been used, now in an updated form, to train prolifers for nearly thirty years. Our ministry also gives substantial funds from my book royalties to support the prolife cause.)

What role do you think prolife advocacy and prayer played in the clinic’s closure?

Kathy: God truly answered the prayers of His people! Some dear people spent several days a week advocating at the clinic. Year after year many of us prayed for something that seemed impossible—the closing of Lovejoy clinic—but “with God all things are possible.” When you are standing right next to it, watching women go in and then come out in wheelchairs, it is heart wrenching. I know He used all of the advocates in ways we will never know this side of eternity.

Randy: Lovejoy, where such darkness prevailed, was like the temples where children were sacrificed to Molech in ancient times. I absolutely believe the prayers and actions of faithful people, many people far more faithful than I, were used of God to pull down a heathen child-killing idol.

Certainly there is great spiritual warfare associated with the issue of abortion. It has now been years since Nanci or I have been to that dark and demonic place. I remember a peaceful prolife gathering there when we and our daughters stood across the street from Lovejoy holding up three large beautiful photographs of live unborn children—not aborted babies—one in each trimester of pregnancy. A limo slowly drove around the corner, and the man in the passenger seat looked at us with obvious scorn and made an obscene gesture. 

That man, believe it or not, was immediately recognizable as the mayor of Portland. As a dad, part of me wanted to go after him for having done that to my wife and little girls. Trying to explain who he was to our daughters put a heaviness on our hearts. How could the most powerful and influential person in the city of Portland be so dedicated to the killing of unborn children and make a vile gesture to born children? Only under the influence of Satan. Jesus said, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

What were your emotions and thoughts when you heard about the closure?

Randy: I cried for joy. I thought, “On this wicked corner where tens of thousands of babies have died, Satan will no longer be murdering children.” The single largest abortion clinic in the state of Oregon, responsible for killing more children than anywhere else in our state’s history, no longer existed. If ever setting off fireworks was warranted, that was the occasion!

Kathy: I felt like crying my eyes out. I was overjoyed and could hardly believe it! Just the building itself represents so much evil. To think that it will no longer be the place where babies are being sucked out of their mother’s wombs, and women are being deceived into thinking they are no longer mothers, makes me so happy. My heart has always been with the many women I know and love who have had abortions and the pain they have lived with. I didn’t want other women to have to go through what they did, so I’m overjoyed that Lovejoy will no longer be an option! I still can’t believe it.

What is your prayer for the city of Portland and for the local prolife movement moving forward?

Randy: My prayer is that prolifers will be patient, realizing that despite laws and the policies of a given administration, no one can prevent us from sharing our prolife values and helping women in need. You can talk to the sixteen-year-old girl next door, and you can give a book like ProChoice or ProLife? to kids in the church youth group. You can offer childcare and financial aid to help moms choose life and raise their children or place them for adoption.

Kathy: I would love to see the Lovejoy building destroyed and a life-giving ministry take its place. That would be incredible!

The news about the new Lilith Clinic is certainly discouraging. Portland Monthly reports, “Its location in a multi-use downtown office building could also help deter protesters; the Lovejoy SurgiCenter was located on a highly visible corner in Northwest Portland.”

My prayer has been that God would raise up younger women to advocate outside of abortion clinics. It is a last-ditch effort to save a baby’s life and help the mom. What kept me going back to the clinic was hearing the story of a pastor counseling a young woman who had previously had an abortion. He asked her what she would have done if someone was outside the clinic standing for life when she drove up. She said, “I told myself on the way to the clinic that if anyone was outside, I’d keep driving and not go through with the abortion.” Sadly, no one was there.

40 Days for Life is a wonderful prolife ministry that organizes a peaceful prayer presence at the clinics. There is a great need for more people, and it makes a huge difference.

What is your advice to prolife advocates today?

Randy: Find your place and learn what your gifting is and where you can best serve Jesus and the cause of women in need and unborn children. Love your fellow prolifers and respect their different callings. Resist the turf-consciousness that inhibits cooperative action and therefore contributes to the very killing we are trying to stop. We must end needless duplication of efforts in the same communities and learn from the experience and expertise of others. We must hold loosely our volunteers and donors and not fear losing them to other groups working for the same cause. We must set aside some of our personal agendas and realize that we can accomplish a great deal more if it doesn’t matter who gets the credit as long as God gets the glory.

There are a variety of legitimate prolife activities. The Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and their special forces all have their role in winning a war, but without strategy and cooperation, they would end up wasting resources. Likewise, there’s an important place for abortion alternative centers, prolife education, literature distribution, sidewalk counseling, picketing, boycotts, political action, Life Chain, and many other activities. But each of these is to serve the whole, not as “the” prolife effort but one working in concert with the others. If one of us wins, we all win; if one loses, we all lose. Without mutual respect and cooperation, prolife organizations will get caught in each other’s crossfire, and we’ll end up fighting the wrong side.

We must work harder and smarter, ever broadening the base of prolife activists, not just burning out a few. All our efforts need to be harnessed as part of a strategic long-term plan to save the most children and women from abortion. At the heart of this must be the mobilization of whole churches, not just individual Christians. Only churches can provide the numbers and resources needed to win the battle for children’s lives. Churches must be helped to form prolife task forces to educate and mobilize their people and make community impact. There are many excellent groups and resources, including books and videos.

Kathy: Never give up! Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” God is doing so many things behind the scenes that we won’t know about until we get to Heaven. James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” The unborn are true orphans when their mothers and fathers want to abandon them.

I have great respect for those in prolife work, and we should do all we can to encourage them with our prayers and financial support. There is such a darkness and deception surrounding abortion, and it isn’t an easy ministry. Satan is a “liar and a murderer” and doesn’t like people standing up for life and truth. Yet the darker it gets, the brighter the light of Jesus can shine, and what joy that light brings!

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.

Does Grace Still Amaze You?

Years ago, I spoke at a large event where the vocalist sang one of my favorite songs, “Amazing Grace.” But I was taken aback when I heard the first line: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a soul like me.” The word soul was substituted for the word wretch. Why? Because the word wretch is considered by some to be demeaning to human beings.

I couldn’t help but think of John Newton, the writer of the song. He was an immoral slave trader and blasphemer—a man who knew he was a wretch and who had wept over the depth of his sins. Only because he understood that fact so profoundly could he then understand why God’s grace to him was so utterly amazing. And hence the immortal song he bequeathed to all of us.

Grace doesn’t minimize or ignore the awful reality of our sin. Grace emphasizes the depths of sin by virtue of the unthinkable price paid to redeem us from it. Paul said if men were good enough, “then Christ died for no purpose” (Galatians 2:21). If we don’t come to grips with the hideous reality of our own sin, God’s grace won’t ever seem amazing.

His Call to Sinners

God’s word tells us that Christ died for utterly unworthy people (Romans 5:7–8). The fact that He died for us is never given in Scripture as a proof of our value as wonderful people. Rather, it is a demonstration of His unfathomable and unearned love. So unfathomable that He would die for rotten people, wretches like you and me, to free us from our sin.

Because grace is so incomprehensible to us, we instinctively smuggle in conditions so we won’t look so bad and God’s offer won’t seem so counterintuitive. By the time we’re done qualifying the gospel, we’re no longer unworthy and powerless. We’re no longer wretches. And grace is no longer grace.

The worst thing we can teach people is that they’re good without Jesus. The truth is, God doesn’t offer grace to good people, any more than doctors offer lifesaving surgery to healthy people. Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31–32).

Our Lord also said, “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment” (Revelation 21:6). Without cost to us, but at unimaginable cost to Himself—a cost that will be visible for eternity as we behold His nail-scarred hands and feet (John 20:24–29). Bonhoeffer was right: grace is free, but it is not cheap.

Life-Changing Grace

You and I weren’t merely sick in our sins; we were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). That means I’m not just unworthy of salvation; I’m utterly incapable of earning it. Corpses can’t raise themselves from the grave. What a relief to realize that my salvation is completely the result of God’s grace. It cannot be earned by good works.

True grace recognizes and deals with sin in the most radical and painful way: Christ’s redemption. There’s only one requirement for enjoying God’s grace: being broken and knowing it. That’s why Jesus said, “Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!” (Matthew 5:3, GNT)

Our justification by faith in Christ satisfies the demands of God’s holiness by exchanging our sins for Christ’s righteousness (Romans 3:21–26). When Jesus saves us, we become new creatures in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17). Now we can draw upon God’s power to overcome evil. We start seeing sin for what it really is: bondage, not freedom.

The old summary is correct: God’s children have been saved from the penalty of sin, we are being saved from the power of sin, and we will be saved from the presence of sin. Justification, sanctification, and glorification are all grounded solidly in exactly the same place: God’s grace.

God’s Grace Hunts Sin

The grace of Jesus isn’t an add-on or makeover that enhances our lives. It causes a radical transformation—from being sin-enslaved to being righteousness-liberated. Paul writes of the life-transforming and sin-overcoming power of grace: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives” (Titus 2:11–12).

Don’t ever tell yourself you may as well go ahead and sin since God will forgive you. This cheapens grace. Grace that trivializes sin is not true grace. Paul makes that clear: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1–2).

John Piper says, “Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace is power, not just pardon.” So while God forgives when we sincerely confess (1 John 1:9), we prove that sincerity by taking necessary steps to avoid temptation. As Jesus said, “You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act” (Matthew 7:16, NLT).

No sin is small that crucified Christ. Sin matters, yet grace has power over sin, offering not only forgiveness but also transformed character (Galatians 5:22–23). Every sin pales in comparison to God’s grace to us in Christ (Romans 5:20–21).

Proclaiming God’s Offer of Grace

There is one sense in which God’s grace is unconditional—we don’t deserve it. Yet in His kindness He offers it to us. But in another sense it is conditional, in that in order to receive it we must repent, ask forgiveness, and place our faith in Him. This is a paradox—an apparent (but not actual) contradiction. If we see God as the one who does the work of convicting us and drawing us to repentance, this helps. We did not merit salvation.

But even if we fail to understand this paradox of conditional and unconditional grace, I think God calls upon us to believe it and live in it. Sinclair Ferguson says, “The spiritual life is lived between two polarities: our sin and God’s grace. The discovery of the former brings us to seek the latter; the work of the latter illuminates the depths of the former and causes us to seek yet more grace.”

When we’re acutely aware of our own sins, we’ll proclaim and exemplify God’s “good news of happiness” (Isaiah 52:7). We’ll do so not with a spirit of superiority but with the contagious excitement of a sinner saved by grace—one person rescued from starvation sharing bountiful food and drink with others. We’ll face each day and each person we see with humility, knowing that we too still desperately need God’s grace—every bit as much as those we’re offering it to.

For more on this topic, see Randy’s book  The Grace and Truth Paradox , and his devotional Beautiful and Scandalous. 

Photo by Ivy Yung on Unsplash

The Beauty of Different Races United by Jesus, as Seen through Heaven’s Eyes

A. W. Tozer said, “Jesus Christ is the center of the human race. With Him there are no favored races. …He is the Son of Man—not a Son of the Jewish race only. He is the Son of all races no matter what the color or tongue.”

Every racial barrier is broken down in Christ. Because of His work on the cross, we’re all part of the same family. We share the same Father, and the same brother Jesus, and that means we’re family. Christ’s work on the cross put racism to death: “He himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14).

On the New Earth, the work of reconciliation will be complete, and we’ll celebrate our unified diversity by singing praise to Jesus that His blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe: “And they sang a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, 

God is the Creator and lover of human diversity. Christ is glorified not simply by the total number who worship Him, but because this number represents every race, nation and language. This excerpt from my novel Dominion depicts the beautiful diversity of Heaven.because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation’” (Revelation 5:9, NIV).

The heavenly temple stood before them, the temple for which that built on earth was a small-scale model, suggestive of the real thing as miniature cars from a cereal box are suggestive of real ones. The courtyard of this temple seemed countless millions of acres, and the numbers of the throngs far exceeded even Dani’s heightened capacity to estimate.

Here were teeming millions gathered to worship the One who has dominion over all.

Everything good on earth was seed to which this was the flower and fruit. The shadow was substance here. Dani realized in a way she never had that those on earth who did not believe in the substance could never appreciate the shadow. To them the shadow was all there was, something to be grasped and captured and fashioned into their own liking, rather than something which testified to that which was greater. Only those touched by the world of substance could truly find joy in the world of shadows.

Voices everywhere merged into a single hum of excitement. A sense of intimacy pervaded this huge group, a closeness Dani had never experienced among large numbers, though she’d caught occasional glimpses of it in church worship services.

She heard all the voices in different languages and enjoyed the distinctive tone of each. She was particularly drawn to Swahili but also loved Norwegian, Aborigine, Hmong, Assyrian, Tagalog, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. People from every nation, tribe, people, and language stood before the throne, in front of the Lamb. She’d read about it, and now she was living it. She chided herself that when she’d read the words in the dark world she’d never even tried to envision them, thinking of them as myth or metaphor.

Elyon’s diverse creation reflected his internal diversity, the paradoxical interplay of his seemingly contradictory but always complementary attributes. He had built the unity of the universe, Dani saw now, not on the unwilling conformity of identical components but on the voluntary yielding to one another of diverse components. On earth this meant not only two different genders, but many different races and cul­tures and languages. She realized that despite what happened at Babel, from the very beginning Elyon’s genetic blueprint had contained all that allowed this diversity to finally blossom.

She looked at Torel. “I once thought that in heaven every race would somehow be the same, every language the same, every outward appearance the same. Now it seems such a ridiculous notion. To strip people of their uniqueness would be like taking all the varied colorful vegetables and cramming them into a grinder, then churning them into a pasty gray puree. The beauty would be gone, the taste gone, the color gone, the vegetables themselves gone. In hell, perhaps such bland same­ness exists. But certainly not in heaven!”

“You see it clearly now,” Torel said. “There are different races, but all with one unifying center of gravity, the glory of God. In the Shadowlands the dark lord tries to commandeer for himself a perverted notion of diversity, just as he tried to ruin the beauty of sex by legitimizing sexual perversion. Of course, the beauty of diversity is in its perfect harmony with God’s created order, not in a cacophony of violations of that order. Heaven’s diversity has placed itself under Elyon’s lordship, creating a unity that transcends the diversity. The Creator gives symmetry, order, and magnificence to the diversity of his creation. This diversity, not the diversity of sin, is what should be celebrated.”

Dani watched as a short and unimposing man with dark face slowly ascended a huge platform beneath the throne on which the Carpenter sat. An angel, tall and straight, reverently handed the man a Bible. The two seemed intimately familiar with one another, as if they had fought side by side in a great war. The Bible’s pages began to turn, apparently by sheer force of the little man’s thoughts, until his eyes fixed on the passage he wanted to read, very near the end of the Book.

“Hear the eternal words of Elyon that tell us what is to come. This is what Elyon showed me on Patmos, that all men might know what awaits them.”

John. The apostle John!

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

A shudder rose from the crowd. When it subsided, John continued. “Elyon is the gracious rewarder of those who seek and obey him. We whose names are written in the book look forward to the day of rewards. Listen now to his promises. Rejoice at what awaits you.”

The pages turned again, and John spoke slowly and emphatically the words of Elyon’s Son: “I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.” Wondrous rumblings of assent filled the air.

John launched into prayer, gazing at the glowing throne and him who sat upon it. Dani and the rest of the crowd followed John’s gaze, turning in unison toward the object of his devotion. Their new eyes were able to tolerate a brightness that would have blinded mortal eyes.

“Elyon, God of Abraham, God of our fathers, we thank you that you are the judge of all men and your judgments are always just. We thank you that you keep careful track of all things, that you ignore no deed, whether righteous or evil. We tremble yet rejoice that nothing escapes your notice.”

Countless praises rose from the crowd. Dani heard many languages but readily understood them all. In the distinctive rhythms and accents of every language she felt the very textures of the different cultures from which these people came.

“We pray for those in the dark world,” John continued, “who live day after day with no sense of what is to come. We intercede for those who try in vain to fill the emptiness of their souls with violence, immorality, greed, self-importance, and every other form of rebellion and self-destruction. Show them, Elyon, that the holes in their hearts can be filled only by you; that they have no hope except in you; that apart from your redemption they cannot and will not stand on the terrible day of judgment. As the dark world races headlong toward that final judgment, may your Spirit enlighten many, teaching them to see with the eyes of eternity.”

The intensity of his voice suddenly increased. “Embolden Michael’s warriors who fight valiantly for the souls of men. Defeat your enemies who followed Morningstar in his rebellion.”

What seemed like an electric current—Dani could hear arcs of energy surging and crackling—moved like lightning between the tallest beings in the crowd. The longing of humans for Elyon’s final victory, great as it was, seemed eclipsed now by the more ancient yearning of Michael’s hosts.

“We grow impatient, all-wise Elyon, for the kingdom of our Christ to be established on earth. We long for all things wrong to be made right. Yet you are patient, enduring every indignity and accusation cast upon you by rebellious men. You wait for one and then another to come to faith in you.”

Expressions of agreement rose from every corner of the great assembly. As John concluded, a loud chorus of voices, perfectly timed, cried “Amen.” Dani’s voice was among them. On the platform a man began singing with a lighter-than-air voice that became steadily stronger and more focused with every verse. The voice was as clear and audible to those in the back of the crowd, hundreds of miles away, as to those only feet from the front.

At first she thought it was a new song, so original and penetrating. Then she realized she knew the song. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” The singer—of course, he was the writer of the song. The old slave-trader, repentant of racism and oppression and injustice, eternally cleansed. “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

He continued to sing, many in the crowd joining him, others just listening to his voice, contemplating the drama of redemption embodied in the man. All heaven joined together as he sang, “When we’ve been here ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we’d first begun.”

Many of Michael’s legions seemed to appear from nowhere—some striding forward, some coming down from above, some appearing to come from beyond the far side of the throne. There were untold thousands of them, ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled Elyon’s throne and sang in a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Suddenly an explosion of sound pierced the air from behind and around Dani. Everyone sang now with an impetus that pushed her forward toward the throne. Surrounded in sound, resonating as if she were a tuning fork, she both absorbed the sound and produced it. She felt like a leaf swept along in a raging river, a river that both came from and led to Elyon Most High.

The worshippers sang many songs. Now a little girl walked across the platform and began to sing. She looked so beautiful, she reminded Dani of...Felicia! She had written her song for Elyon’s Son, and he wished all heaven to hear it. The song was so beautiful, Felicia’s voice so wondrous. Dani swelled with the right kind of pride, realizing this was her girl, yet even on earth she had never owned her. People could own things, but only Elyon could own people. Felicia was and would always be Dani’s treasure, for she had invested so much in her. But the girl was Elyon’s treasure first and last and above all. Dani looked to the throne so far away and yet so very close and met the eyes of the Carpenter. For an instant, they shared an intimate joy over this little girl.

Dani could barely hear the million singing angels up front, for the voice of the multitudes overwhelmed them. The angels had at first seemed the largest choir ever assembled but now proved to be only the small worship ensemble that led the true choir of untold millions, now lost to themselves, lost to all but Elyon, singing at full voice, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and dominion, for ever and ever!”

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

Trust Jesus with What You Don’t Understand Now

Note from Randy Alcorn: Both Scripture and human experience testify to the surprising good God can bring out of evil and suffering. God calls upon us to trust Him, that He will work all evil and suffering in our lives for good. We can learn to trust God in the worst of circumstances, even for what we cannot currently see—indeed, that is the very nature of biblical faith.

Spurgeon said,

Providence is wonderfully intricate. Ah! you want always to see through Providence, do you not? You never will, I assure you. You have not eyes good enough. You want to see what good that affliction was to you; you must believe it. You want to see how it can bring good to the soul; you may be enabled in a little time; but you cannot see it now; you must believe it. Honor God by trusting him. 

God can see all the ultimate results of trials and suffering; we can see only some. When we see more, in His presence, we will forever praise Him for it. He calls upon us to trust Him and begin that praise now.

On the theme of trusting God with what we don’t presently understand, this article from Desiring God’s Jon Bloom is spot on. I love Jon, and I love what he has written here.

You Don’t Need to Understand Now

By Jon Bloom

Jesus spoke many profound and important words to his disciples the night before his crucifixion. But there’s one statement we might easily pass over, because of the context in which he made it. Yet it is loaded with personal meaning for each of us who follows him:

What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. (John 13:7)

In that one sentence, Jesus captures a profound reality that is our frequent, and to some extent continual, experience as Christians: not understanding what God is doing (or not doing) and why. It’s crucial that we grasp the wider implications of what Jesus said here, for if we do, it will help each of us immensely during the times we wonder why our Good Shepherd is leading us down such confusing and painful paths.

We often do not know what God is doing now. And the crucial truth is, we don’t need to know what God is doing now to follow him in faith.

You Do Not Understand Now

During that Last Supper, Jesus did something strange. He removed his outer garments, tied a towel around his waist, grabbed a basin of water, and proceeded to wash each disciple’s feet. I doubt this hits any of us with the force it did the disciples since the cultural mores of that region and time are so distant and foreign to us. But to the disciples, it felt more than strange; it felt disorientingly inappropriate.

It sure did to Peter. All his life, he had understood that washing someone else’s feet was about as demeaning a task as anyone could perform — a task fit only for slaves, or, if lacking those, for children. It would have been disgraceful for men of honor. So, as he watched Jesus, the most honored Person in the world, humbling himself by taking the form of a common slave, washing off with his own holy hands God only knew what uncleanness clung to those feet, he felt indignant. This was completely backward! If anything, Peter should be on his knees washing his Lord’s feet.

When Jesus got to Peter, the earnest disciple pulled his feet back and asked, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus looked at Peter and with patient kindness replied, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand” (John 13:7).

And there it is: a massive principle for every Christian’s life of faith, indeed a summary of a motif woven throughout Scripture from beginning to end, captured in a simple reply to a confused disciple’s question.

Legacy of Little Understanding

Peter, in not understanding why Jesus was doing what he was doing at that moment, was in very good company. Redemptive history recounts story after story of saints finding themselves in this perplexing position, being forced to trust God to make sense of it later. Think of:

Abraham, having waited so long for Isaac, only to be instructed by God to offer the boy as a sacrifice (Genesis 22);
Jacob wrestling with God, and being lamed in the hip, just before he was to meet Esau (Genesis 32);
Joseph wondering what God was doing as his young adulthood wasted away in an Egyptian prison (Genesis 37–41);
Moses not understanding why God would choose him to lead Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 3–4);
Gideon being given far more than he could possibly handle (Judges 7);
Jehoshaphat being instructed to send a choir as his military vanguard against an overwhelming foe (2 Chronicles 20);
Nehemiah having to deal with so many seemingly unnecessary adversities, obstacles, and inefficiencies that slowed down the work in rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls (Nehemiah 4);
Joseph trying to navigate so many unforeseen, confusing detours in the first few years of Jesus’s life (Matthew 1–2);
The man born blind, who didn’t know until midlife what purposes God could possibly have in his suffering (John 9);
And Martha’s and Mary’s grief-laced bewilderment over why Jesus didn’t come to heal Lazarus (John 11).

Of course, that’s just a small sample. Not understanding what God is doing now (and having to wait till later to understand) is the experience, to greater or lesser degrees, of every saint in every age — whether “later” means within a few minutes, as it did for Peter during the Last Supper, or in the age to come, as it did for his fellow disciple James, who wasn’t delivered from execution (Acts 12:1–2). It is a necessary, humbling part of what it means for us to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

You Must Trust Me

Being content to not understand now doesn’t come naturally to us. It surely didn’t for Peter. He found Jesus’s reply perplexing. And patience not being one of his strong suits, he didn’t wish to wait till later to understand. So, he declared, “You shall never wash my feet” (John 13:8).

It seems to me that Peter simply didn’t want to dishonor his Lord. This may have been well-intended, but it was wrongheaded. In responding this way, Peter actually became guilty of what he was trying to avoid: dishonoring Jesus. For the great dishonor wasn’t Peter allowing Jesus to wash his feet; it was Peter’s not trusting what Jesus said. And this is a crucial point for us to note: We are never on more dangerous ground than when we believe we understand better than God.

I think Jesus fully discerned Peter’s well-intended motive. But he also discerned the danger of Peter’s wrongheaded, overly self-confident tendency to trust his own understanding. Which is why Jesus’s response was so serious. It shocked Peter to his core. “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me” (John 13:8). No share with me. Distrust in this meant exclusion. Peter got the point immediately and repented by exclaiming, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (John 13:9).

And what was Jesus’s point? Peter, you must trust me. You must live by the ancient proverb, and trust what I say with all your heart, and not lean on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). The only way you as a branch will abide and be fruitful in this Vine is if you believe my word (John 15:1–5, 7). If you insist that you must understand now before you will trust me, you will be like a branch broken off, and you will spiritually wither and die (John 15:6).

You Don’t Need to Understand Now

Many of the experiences that confound us as we follow Jesus feel far more painful and confusing than foot-washing. Peter would sympathize; most of his confounding experiences were far more painful and confusing than that too. Just think of what desolation was approaching for Peter in the hours following this brief mealtime interchange. Sometimes it’s lessons we learn in less extreme moments that stand in clearest relief and help steady us during more extreme ones.

The plain fact is, we often do not know what God is doing now. And the crucial truth is, we don’t need to know what God is doing now to follow him in faith. God has his reasons for concealing his purposes. Sometimes it has to do with his timing, as it did for Peter. And sometimes, because God’s ways and thoughts are so beyond ours (Isaiah 55:8–9), it’s simply God’s mercy toward us to withhold knowledge too heavy for us to bear.

We don’t need to understand God’s purposes now; what we need to do is trust God’s purposes now. For it is through our trust, not our own understanding, that God will direct us along our confusing paths (Proverbs 3:6). And we can trust him that later, when the time is right in the near or distant future, he will give us all the understanding we need.

This article originally appeared on DesiringGod.org and is used with the author’s permission.

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash