Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 94

This Holiday Season, Don’t Let the Urgent Keep You from Seeking What’s Truly Important: Jesus

I wrote this article years ago, but I’m sharing it again on my blog as it’s still timely, especially as we enter the holiday season. From mid-November to early January, our lives change, bringing many things that are delightful, but which increase our pressure and fatigue! May this article remind you to focus on what’s truly most important in this season, and to take time to sit at Jesus’ feet. —Randy Alcorn

There was work to be done. After all, when Jesus came, the twelve came with Him. The house needed to be swept. Food would have to be prepared and the table set. Twenty-six extra feet would require washing. Bedding, too, must be arranged, as traveling dinner guests always spend the night. If I don’t do it, she may have thought, it won’t get done.

Housework and meal preparation were things no one else seemed to notice—unless they didn’t get done. Perhaps no one could remember a time when Martha didn’t get them done, and she was determined this day would be no exception.

Both Martha and Mary loved and served Jesus. Yet one was a worker, the other a worshiper; one was a servant, the other a seeker. Together, they paint contrasting pictures of the Christian life.

In Scripture’s account of that dinner, Martha is mentioned first (Luke 10:38-42). She was probably the eldest, certainly the one in charge of the home. Some speculate her family was prominent and wealthy. If so, she probably had several servants.

She was a doer, a goal-oriented achiever, a believer in the work ethic who took pride in her accomplishments and thrived on success. Today, Martha would make a good executive, coach, committee chairman, or Christian worker. She is the “super homemaker” type—a compulsive cleaner and five-course meal server who wouldn’t be caught dead with dust on the refrigerator or frozen pizza in the oven.

As is often the case with siblings, Mary was quite different. Calm and relaxed, she seems more thoughtful and less tense than her sister. Mary was a thinker, a listener, a contemplator. Today we might describe her as “laid back” or “mellow,” while Martha tended to be “uptight.”

Martha was a classic example of what some physicians call the “type A” personality, those aggressively involved in an endless struggle to achieve, to accomplish more in less time. They see people as obstacles to their goals and have little tolerance for others’ deficiencies.

Mary, on the other hand, was a “type B” personality. Patient and low-key, she was people-oriented. It’s likely she often got distracted from her work to engage in conversation, much to Martha’s annoyance.

Mary may have depended heavily on an impatient Martha to do her jobs for her. Martha was the type who would hoe weeds; Mary was the type who would smell the flowers.

Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to every pearl that dropped from His mouth. It wasn’t every day that one could hear the Master, and she wasn’t about to miss this opportunity.

Meanwhile, Luke tells us, Martha was “distracted by all the preparations that had to be made” (10:40 NIV). And a great deal did have to be done—all without vacuum, range, microwave, or even running water.

Martha is not criticized for working hard to be a good hostess, rather, for being distracted by her serving. The word  translated “distracted” means “to be drawn about in different directions.” We are not distracted to something, but away from something. She was distracted from Jesus.

Being distracted is not always bad. One can be distracted from television, worry, eating, or even sin in general. Mary was distracted, too—from the housework. But more important, she was compelled to her Lord.

Put yourself in Martha’s position. She had had it. Perhaps the bread had burned, the drinks had spilled, and the kitchen was a mess. No one else was bothered, but perfectionist Martha lived under the self-imposed pressure that made her endure such occasions rather than enjoy them.

She prided herself in serving dinner on time, and it was already late. Meanwhile, every time she breezed past the front room, her eyes focused on her sister Mary, blissfully seated at the feet of Jesus.

It’s not that listening to Jesus was wrong, of course. Martha would do the same if time permitted. But it didn’t, or so she told herself.

To Martha, Mary’s behavior was sheer laziness and the height of insensitivity. Unfortunately, her own insensitivity in not spending time with Jesus never dawned on her.

Having put up with this situation for more than long enough, Martha marched into the front room, to the amazement of her guests. The Greek words used in verse 40 imply suddenness or haste.

Stepping right up to her honored guest, she said, “Lord, don’t You care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

In essence, Martha accused not only her sister but also Christ of insensitivity and injustice. Here is the Messiah, the Savior, God incarnate—not the kind of person to whom one barks out orders. But Martha lost sight of whom she was dealing with. She allowed Jesus’ lordship to be eclipsed by her own grievances.

She was a lot like Peter—energetic, strong-willed, and ready to give advice, even to her Lord. When she should have been quietly listening to Him, she was loudly challenging Him.

Those same attributes that made Martha a capable, effective manager also got her in trouble. She was aggressive, assertive, and strong in conviction. She was also quick to criticize, intolerant of others’ differences, and prone to self-pity.

Maybe Martha was jealous of Mary’s close relationship with Jesus. Yet she could have been just as close had she chosen to spend the time with Him.

She should have calmly taken her concern to Mary. Instead, she disrupted the good fellowship of weary travelers and thoroughly embarrassed her well-meaning sister, not to mention herself.

But in Jesus’ response, we learn as much about Him as we do about Martha. He knew her heart. She did love Him and was sincerely doing her best to serve Him. She just didn’t realize she was serving her own pride. She attempted to minister to him when she desperately needed to be ministered by Him.

John 11:5 states, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” With amazing wisdom and tenderness, Jesus here demonstrates that love by not rebuking Martha’s insolence. Instead, the Lord gently puts the whole scene in perspective for her.

“Martha, Martha,” He begins, as one often did in addressing one he deeply loved and longed to lead in a better way. We can imagine Jesus gently placing His hands on her shoulder, as He continues: “You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41, 42).

The word translated “worry” comes from the Greek words for “pieces” and “mind.” Literally, it means to come to pieces in the mind or to have a divided mind.

Jesus admits there is no end to the number of things we might worry about (Matthew 6:34). We can worry about our jobs, our possessions, our children, our health, or, like Martha, our responsibilities. Worry does not stem from these things, however, but from within.

It’s the product of a mind that lacks perspective. Such a mind needs to fill itself from the reservoir of God’s Word, not the innumerable concerns that constantly vie for our attention. Martha quite likely knew the verse, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Yet she seldom put it into practice.

Mary chose “what is better” or, literally, “the better portion.” The reference is to food, and it sets up an interesting contrast. While Martha devoted herself to preparing physical food, Mary devoted herself to receiving spiritual food. She was a hungry soul, single-mindedly devoted to the spiritual meal served by Jesus and oblivious to all else.

Jesus stresses the issue of Mary’s choice. Yet Martha also had a choice, even though she probably thought her hands were tied. I have to do this work, she rationalized. It’s not a matter of preference, but necessity. How many times do we use this as an excuse to neglect time with God?

Charles Hummel’s The Tyranny of the Urgent reminds us we must learn to discern between the urgent and the truly important. Serving the guests was much more urgent than listening to Jesus. But it was also far less important. Mary made her choice; so did Martha. She was not the victim of circumstances.

Couldn’t Martha have prepared a simpler meal or delayed dinner long enough to enjoy Jesus’ presence? If she had, she could have gone about her duties with renewed perspective and probably with the help of her sister.

Jesus said of Mary, “It will not be taken from her.” Time spent at the feet of Jesus is an investment in eternity, a treasure stored in Heaven.

The Westminster Confession states, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Martha might have thought “enjoy” was a bit too frivolous.

She suffered from job saturation. Today, we, too, are often managed by our responsibilities. Sometimes, when we are unsure of our direction, we attempt to compensate by doubling our speed. The result is a hurried and harried Christian life, full of activity, but devoid of an eternal perspective.

In his marvelous book When I Relax I Feel Guilty, Tim Hansel describes Martha-like believers as “Weary Servants of the Impossible.” For us, there are never enough hours in the day or days in the week.

Often, those most committed to serving others give of themselves until they have nothing left. But they keep on giving, drawing from a dry reservoir. They have forgotten how to receive.

Martha, too, forgot there was one thing even more fundamental than giving to Jesus. That sounds almost heretical, doesn’t it? What could possibly be more important than giving to Jesus? Receiving from Him. The truth is, we need our Lord a great deal more than He needs us.

Jesus wants our fellowship and devotion, not just our skills and efforts. He values our service less than our devotion and worship. Yet it is worship that fosters the most effective service.

In his booklet My Heart Christ’s Home, Robert Munger envisions Jesus saying these words to the Christian who neglects personal time with God:

“The trouble with you is this: You have been thinking of the quiet time, of the Bible study and prayer time, as a factor in your own spiritual progress, but you have forgotten that this hour means something to Me also.…do not neglect this hour if only for My sake. Whatever else may be your desire, remember I want your fellowship!”

Martha is not rebuked for serving any more than Mary is commended for not serving. The message is not “worship precludes service,” but “worship precedes service.” I found when I was a pastor that grasping and maintaining this perspective on worship and service was the most important challenge in my ministry; it was also the most difficult.

It’s too easy to base my sense of worth on what I do or how much I do, rather than who I am. Too often I cut short worship to devote more time to service. Ironically, whenever I put service before worship, I shortchange those I’m attempting to serve, and I shortchange myself. But worst of all, I shortchange my Lord.

Satan’s favorite lie is, “There’s work to do. God understands. He’s always available, and there’ll be plenty of time to spend with Him later.” Hence, the urgent displaces the important. We allow the labor of our hands to overshadow the love of our hearts.

Often, the urgent is what people want us to do. But the important is what God wants us to do. Jesus did not always live up to others’ expectations. But he was in touch with His Father and knew how to separate the grain of God’s will from the chaff of man’s will.

At the end of His life, Jesus said to His Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4). What strikes me is not that Jesus worked, or even that He finished His work, but that the work He finished was what God gave Him to do.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

God’s Unchanging Character Means He Is Always Good, No Matter Our Circumstances

“‘Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!’ You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!” (Psalms 30:10-12).

Here’s my 90-second response to a question from Greg Laurie about whether we can be happy when going through suffering and hard times:

In my understanding of Scripture and my experience, daily happiness in Christ isn’t wishful thinking. It’s based on solid facts: God secured our eternal happiness through the cross and resurrection. He dwells within us, and He intercedes for us. Nothing separates us from His love. And He tells us “Be happy and full of joy, because the Lord has done a wonderful thing” (Joel 2:21, NCV).

Life brings no end of ups and downs. One week or month or year seems great, another is discouraging. Wishful thinking and denial won’t make things like health issues, financial struggles, or relational difficulties go away, and while discouragement is natural, reminding yourself of God’s unchanging character and love and faithfulness is critical to being able to rise above the adversity of circumstances that seem to change like the weather.

I’m not talking about looking in a mirror and trying to make yourself a positive thinker. So-called “positive thinking,” the sort that’s involved in prosperity theology, tries to make us happy by ignoring the negative (such as sin, suffering, and hell).

For two years some people have been telling us that if we just trust God enough Nanci’s cancer will go away. Well, we do trust Him and we pray daily for her healing as we have all along. But we also recognize that He is God, and His Word does not always promise ease and healing. In fact, it is full of His followers who suffer, die, and must grieve over the loss of loved ones. I believe in a fact-based happiness centered in Christ and His love, wisdom, and sovereign plan.

Nanci goes in for two big tests, an MRI and a CT scan, next Wednesday, November 20. If God answers our prayers that the cancer is gone, we will say “God is good.” If we find that the cancer is still there, we will go forward with the scheduled lung surgery the following week, two days before Thanksgiving, and we will say “God is good.” If the cancer has grown, we will say “God is good.” And we will have a different but good Thanksgiving if she’s in the hospital five days after surgery as the doctors believe. (We’ll share updates after the tests on her CaringBridge page.)

We will be right to say “God is good” in any of those cases because God is who He is, unchanging, always good and faithful and loving to His people even when He chooses not to answer our prayers the way we would have liked. God is just as good when you lose as when you win, and just as good when life goes your way and when it doesn’t. 

He is trustworthy, and always knows better than we do, even though He kindly invites us to pray for the desires of our hearts, which is why we’ve prayed for Nanci’s healing ever since she got the cancer, and for successful treatments too.

Scripture does not teach the God-as-genie, name-it-and-claim-it prosperity gospel, which promises happiness through health, wealth, and success. We should be grateful when God grants us health, provisions, and delightful surprises. But it’s one thing to be happy when such things occur, and another to believe God has failed us when they don’t.

Our models shouldn’t be jewelry-laden prosperity preachers, but Jesus-centered servants, such as missionary Amy Carmichael (1867–1951), who brought the gospel to countless children she rescued from temple prostitution in India. She experienced much physical suffering and didn’t have a furlough in fifty-five years. Yet she wrote, “There is nothing dreary and doubtful about this life. It is meant to be continually joyful. . . . We are called to a settled happiness in the Lord whose joy is our strength.”

“Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you” (Psalm 33:20-22).

For more on happiness, see Randy's book Does God Want Us to Be Happy? For more on suffering, see his book The Goodness of God. 

Photo by John Gibbons on Unsplash

Will We Wear Clothes in Heaven?

Today’s blog is excerpted from my book Heaven for Kids. It was a blast writing it—one of the things I loved doing was including a bunch of material from The Chronicles of Narnia, more than was in the big Heaven book. And by the way, if my big Heaven book seems too heavy for you, or if 50 Days of Heaven is too devotional, consider this: there’s a church in Florida in which the men’s ministry read and studied Heaven for Kids!

Clothes are important to us. What do you like to wear? Jeans? Shorts? Anything and everything as long as it’s blue?

Because Adam and Eve were naked without being embarrassed before they disobeyed God, some people say we won’t need to wear clothes in Heaven. Before you freak out, there’s good news. Even prior to the final resurrection, which will happen at the time of Jesus’ return to Earth, people are already described as wearing clothes— white robes that show purity, thanks to Jesus (Revelation 3:4; 6:11). Even the risen Jesus is described as wearing a robe in Heaven. So it appears we’ll wear clothes—not because there will be shame or temptation, but maybe because they will improve our appearance and comfort.

Wearing robes might seem kind of funny to us, unless we’re in a Christmas play. But to first-century people, anything but robes would seem strange, because that’s what they wore most of the time. So that’s probably what they’ll wear in Heaven.

We can imagine ourselves dressed in Heaven the way people in our culture dress on Earth. Does that mean some people will wear jeans and T-shirts, while others will wear dressier clothes? Why not? Just as we wear different clothes for different occasions here, we may do the same on the New Earth.

White is the color most often associated with clothing in Heaven. The white clothes may show our status with God (Revelation 7:9), just as they showed Jesus’ relationship to God during His experience on top of a mountain (Matthew 17). The emphasis on white may also relate to being clean.

Surprisingly, the only person described in Heaven as wearing a robe that isn’t white is Jesus: “He wore a robe dipped in blood” (Revelation 19:13). This likely isn’t actual blood but a red robe that’s a symbol of Jesus’ dying for all the bad things we’ve done.

Seven angels are described as wearing golden sashes (Revelation 15:6). Because many people from different countries wear colorful clothing, we should expect them to do this in Heaven, too. We’ll talk more later about how resurrected people will keep their national heritages.

The book of Revelation tells us we’ll be priests, kings, and queens in Heaven. God designed special clothes for the priests in Old Testament times (Exodus 28:3-43). So it’s likely that as God’s royal children we will wear a variety of beautiful clothes as we rule the earth under the direction of Jesus, the King of kings.

This week, purchase Randy Alcorn’s Tell Me About Heaven from our ministry for $9.99 (50% off $19.99 retail) and Heaven for Kids for $5.99 (57% off $13.99 retail), plus S&H. Both books make wonderful gifts this Christmas season! Sale ends Thursday, November 14 at 12 pm PT (noon).

Photo by Janko Ferlič - @specialdaddy on Unsplash

What Does It Mean to Be Ready to Meet the Lord?

A reader asked me, “I often hear the saying ‘I want to be ready to meet my Lord.’ Can you explain what exactly you mean by this, please?”  

First of all, and most importantly, being ready to meet the Lord means you’ve made sure of your relationship with Jesus Christ, and are trusting only Him to save you—not anyone or anything else, and certainly not any good works you’ve done. R. A. Torrey put it this way: “I am ready to meet God face to face tonight…for all my sins are covered by the atoning blood.”

Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” And in John 5:24 Jesus tells us, “Whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

Once you’ve accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, being ready to meet the Lord means living in a way that pleases Him so that whenever He calls you home—and knowing that could be any time—you can hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”  

Scripture teaches with unmistakable clarity that all believers in Christ will give an account of their lives to their Lord (Romans 14:10-12). Even if Christ does not return for two hundred years, we will meet Him in our deaths, whether in twenty years, twenty months, or twenty minutes. God encourages us not to be surprised about the soon coming of our appointment to stand before Him. If we are ready to meet Christ, we will long for His return. If we are not ready, we will dread it. If we do not feel ready to meet Him, now is the time to get ready.

Readers of my books are probably familiar with my emphasis on how five minutes after we die, we’ll know exactly how we should have lived. But we can’t do life here over again. There’s no retaking the course once we’ve failed it. There’s no improving a D to an A. No rescheduling the final exams. Death is the deadline. There’s no extension.

The good news is we don’t have to wait until we die to know how we should live! God has given us His Word to tell us how to live and His indwelling Spirit to empower us to live as we should. “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3, NIV).  Every day God gives us is an opportunity to live for Christ: “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him” (2 Corinthians 5:9).

If we are His children, God is for us, not against us (Romans 8:31). He has assured us our names are written in the Book of Life, and we won’t face the Great White Throne Judgment. He wants to commend and reward us at the judgment seat of Christ. He doesn’t want the works of our lifetime to go up in smoke. He wants us to have eternal rewards—and He has given us ­every­ resource in Christ to live the godly life that will result in those eternal rewards. “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done” (Revelation 22:12).

Peter says, “If you do these things, [then] you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter1:10-11). What a powerful encouragement this is to saints who sacrifice in this life to prepare for the next! In Heaven a great welcoming committee awaits them and a hearty “Well done!” But this isn’t automatic—the conditional “if, then” makes it clear that if we don’t do what Peter prescribed, then we won’t receive this rich welcome when we enter Heaven.

In my book The Purity Principle, I share how years ago I was approached by a woman who told me that a year earlier her husband had come to her in tears, confessing his attraction to a coworker. He was under constant temptation and felt himself slipping. He committed himself to back off from the relationship and asked his wife to understand and pray for him. She was hurt but realized she needed to help him rather than feel sorry for herself.

The result? Not only did he back off, but through his wife’s support they drew closer together than ever. In tears she told me, “Two months ago my husband died without warning. If he hadn’t been honest with me that night, he would have had an affair with that woman—and likely would have left me. He would have died unready to meet God, and I would have lived the rest of my life grieving over his affair. But that isn’t what happened. His last words to me were, ‘I love you,’ and I know it was true—he’d proven it by his actions. I thank God every day that I think of him with complete respect and admiration for loving God and me enough to be honest about his struggles.”

This man was ready to meet His Savior because he changed course and made different choices that honored both His Lord and his wife, while he still had the time to do so. “Let us throw off ­every­thing that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1). Sin entangles our feet, puts us out of the competition, and results in losing the race and the prize. So as God’s child, what personal, spiritual, moral, and financial changes do you need to make to get ready to give Him a face-to-face account of your job performance, and to hear “well done”?

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21)

See Randy's book The Law of Rewards for more on preparing well for eternity.

Photo by Erol Ahmed on Unsplash

Learning to See in the Country of the Blind

You can also listen to the audio version of this blog.

Throughout the ages, Heaven has played a dominant role in the thoughts and lives of God’s people. Heaven is the North Star by which countless Christians have navigated their lives. But have you noticed? Heaven today has largely fallen off our radar screens. If we are honest, we must admit that we are not daily and consciously looking forward to Heaven, much less to a New Earth. We’ve reduced Heaven to an otherworldly state, and we’ve ignored the clear biblical promise of a redeemed universe over which we will serve as God’s delegated rulers. We’ve become blinded to the truth, and we’ve lost our vocabulary of wonder and our anticipation of the great and glorious plan that God has in store for us. Jesus said of the devil, “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Some of Satan’s favorite lies are about Heaven.

In his short story “The Country of the Blind,” H. G. Wells writes of a tribe in a remote valley deep in a towering mountain range, cut off from the rest of the world by a massive avalanche that has destroyed the mountain passes. As a result of a terrible epidemic, successive generations of this tribe are all born blind. Eventually, as a culture, they lose the very concept of vision and have no awareness of the world they’re unable to see. Because of their handicap, they do not know their true condition. When an outsider, who can see, stumbles into their village, they think he is a newly formed creature, with imperfect senses, and that all his talk of seeing is craziness. They cannot understand this other dimension called sight. Although they have adapted themselves to their circumstances, they cannot imagine what realms might lie beyond their valley.

Spiritually speaking, we live in the Country of the Blind. The disease of sin has blinded us to the truth about God and Heaven, both of which are real, yet unseen. Fortunately, Jesus has come to our valley from Heaven to tell us about his Father and the world beyond. If we will listen to Him—which requires a concerted effort to overcome our presuppositions, our ignorance, and the devil’s lies—we will gain a new understanding of our present circumstances and of the world to come. We will no longer be conformed to the pattern of this world but will be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). Consequently, our lives will be forever changed.

This blog is excepted from Randy’s book 50 Days of Heaven, which is also available on audio. For more on the eternal home that awaits us, browse additional books and resources on Heaven available from EPM.

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An Eternal Perspective on Persecution and Loss, and an Update on Gladys and Esther Staines

Last Sunday, November 3, was the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. But there are still plenty of opportunities this month to highlight the plight of our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world and spend time interceding for them. (Open Doors USA offers some free resources.)

Supporting organizations that work with persecuted believers has always been a focus of EPM. Those who are familiar with my books know that I wrote my novel Safely Home to open readers’ eyes to the persecution that Christians in many places face, and to encourage them to consider how they can help their brothers and sisters worldwide.

Though the book was first published in 2001, the subject of persecution is as timely as ever. I still hear people mention the dedication of Safely Home to the Staines family. Their commitment to Christ and their eternal perspective concerning their loved ones was a great example, and it was a privilege to dedicate my book to this wonderful family:

To Graham Staines, who left his home in Australia to serve lepers in India for thirty-four years.

To Philip Staines (age ten) and Timothy Staines (age six), who at half past midnight on January 23, 1999, as their father held his arms around them, were burned to death by a mob in India; murdered because of Whom they knew and served.

To Gladys Staines, who said to all India, “I am not bitter or angry. I have one great desire: that each citizen of this country should establish a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who gave His life for their sins.”

To Esther Staines, Graham and Gladys’s daughter (then age thirteen), who said, “I praise the Lord that He found my father worthy to die for Him.”

To the hundreds of men, women, and children killed for Christ each day, ignored by the world but watched by the eyes of Heaven—those of whom the world is not worthy.

I met Gladys Staines and her daughter Esther in 2000 at a JESUS Film conference, just sixteen months after Graham, Philip, and Timothy were murdered. Nanci and I and our daughters had dinner with them one night and got to know them through various conversations (in the photo that’s our daughters Karina and Angela, with Esther in the middle). We were so moved by their Christlike response to this tragedy, which appeared on the front page of every newspaper in India.

“I have only one message for the people of India,” Gladys said. Then she stunned the nation by saying, “I’m not bitter. Neither am I angry. But I have one great desire: That each citizen of this country should establish a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who gave his life for their sins.… Let us burn hatred and spread the flame of Christ’s love. My husband and our children have sacrificed their lives for this nation; India is my home. I hope to be here and continue to serve the needy.”

At the funeral, masses of people filled the streets—Hindus, Muslims, and Christians—to show respect for the Staines family and demonstrate solidarity against the killers.

After Gladys and Esther spoke at the conference where we met them, an Indian national leader told us about the impact of their response to the murders. He said the people of India asked, “Why would a man leave his wealthy country and serve lepers in India for thirty-four years? Why would his wife and daughter forgive the killers of their family? Why would they choose to stay and serve the poor? Who is this God they believe in? Could it be that all we’ve been told about Christians have been lies? Could it be that Jesus really is the truth?” He stated that many Hindus had come to faith in Christ through their witness.

The Staines family carried on a long tradition of God’s people:

Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. (Hebrews 11:35–38)

I recently had the joy of hearing from Gladys. Though she now lives in Australia, she wrote, “The work is still continuing in some manner including the Mayurbhanj Leprosy Home. Praise God.”

Gladys also shared that Esther completed her medical studies, married a Christian man who is a medical practitioner, and is now a full-time mom to four children, ranging from under one year to seven years. Gladys lives nearby and sees them often.

In an interview done five years ago, Gladys shared this when asked how things have been for her and Esther:

It has certainly been with God’s help that we continued and have been able to stay close to Him. I never held malice towards anyone; but it was God who helped us and sustained us. The prayers of people… especially the people of India, have been our greatest strength. God has enabled us to go forward and continue to live for Him. My daughter is a great blessing to me. It must have been very traumatic for her 13-year-old mind to have undergone such a catastrophic incident so early in life. She was not angry with God. On the contrary, she remained close to God and maintained a very personal relationship with Him and never wavered in her faith.

… As a family, we gave our lives for His purpose, and this is how He wanted it. The Bible teaches us about forgiveness in small and big situations, and I have looked back onto my life later, after that incident. It was the Lord who enabled me to look into the bigger things in life and to forgive. Not that I always did so perfectly, but I am at peace.

Earlier this year, the movie “The Least of These” was released, telling the Staines’ story and commemorating the 20th anniversary of Graham, Philip, and Timothy’s deaths. It was done in consultation with Gladys, and some of the film’s proceeds will be given to the mission home in Mayurbhanj. Here’s the trailer:

Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. (Philippians 1:12-14).

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10)

Credit for photo of Gladys and Esther

Will There Be Rodents and Insects in Heaven?

Over the years, I’ve been asked by readers about whether God’s future restoration of creation means that “undesirable” and “unpleasant” animals like rodents (such as rats) and insects (such as mosquitoes or spiders) will be present in Heaven. As one reader candidly wrote, “That sure wouldn’t be Heaven for me!”

But asking how rats and spiders and insects could possibly be on the New Earth is like asking how they possibly could have been in Eden. The point is, they were, and it didn’t diminish Eden, but somehow enhanced it. We’ve never seen rodents and insects as they once were, and as they yet will be. (I’ve met some pretty unpleasant people, and I’ve been one myself from time to time, but that doesn’t mean people won’t inhabit the New Earth—just that they’ll need to be changed.)

Scripture tells us:

“The leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6-9)

Mosquitoes on the New Earth? Why not? If lions will no longer be carnivores, which we are told in Isaiah 11 and 65, does this imply that they weren’t originally carnivores? If so, why couldn’t mosquitoes have lived off vegetation rather than living beings, and/or why couldn’t they do so again on the New Earth? We should not mistake all animals’ current behaviors with their original design—think how misleading that would be if we did it with humans.

Some think otherwise, but I believe when Scripture says that death came through Adam, it means that God’s creatures didn’t die before people sinned—animal suffering came on the coattails of humanity’s fall. (Note Paul’s argument in Romans 8.) Prior to that they didn’t hurt and devour and eat one another. There may have been “death” of vegetation, as it could have been part of God’s design for the eco-system, but I think suffering and death of living beings, animals included, wasn’t. (Again, I know some think otherwise.) We tend to be uniformitarian in our assumptions, looking at the world as it is now and then projecting backward and looking forward and failing to see how radically different it once was and one day will be.

We often project our current revulsion to certain creatures (e.g. big hairy spiders give me the major creeps) on our eternal state—but this ignores two critical things: they will be changed and we will be changed. They won’t be worthy of revulsion, and we won’t be gripped by revulsion.

It’s the same way people respond to verses demonstrating there will be culture on the New Earth. When I go to a number of texts, then follow by saying there’s every reason to believe there will be art, crafts, science, research, technology, sports, etc., invariably someone says, “But there can’t be sports, because competition is sinful.” Is it? Really? Would there have been no sports without the Fall? Do we enjoy sports because we’re sinners or because we’re human, and that’s how God has designed us? Did humans invent playfulness, or did God invent it and build it into us and into animals like otters and dogs?

To argue against sports on the New Earth because some people are angry, hostile, arrogant, and insecure when they’re involved in sports now, as they live under sin and curse, is like arguing against art in Heaven because some art is lewd, or against music because some songs have immoral lyrics. The whole point is this: sin will be absent and the curse will be lifted—including the curse on people, animals, the eco-system, and culture.

We have never known a world without sin (and therefore we view even the coming new world with sin-tainted glasses). We have never tasted with untainted taste buds a single bite of untainted fruit. When we do, we’ll be startled at how good it tastes! When we behold for the first time an animal kingdom untainted by the curse, we’ll drop our jaws at what we see. Think flowers are beautiful now? Wait until we see flowers untouched by the curse, with eyesight undiminished by the curse.

If we were to see Adam and Eve as they were in the garden, we’d be stunned at how much humanity has deteriorated under the weight of sin and curse. When we see each other in the resurrection, we’ll be seeing untainted uncursed human beings as God intended them for the first time. No wonder we’re told, “The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43). “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). How dull and lifeless we dying sin-struck people are—how bright and magnificent we untarnished image-bearers will one day be!

We’ve never known anything but the curse, and therefore we’ve only seen glimmers and glimpses of what God first created. We are nostalgic for Eden and we long for the New Earth, but we live now in this brief unnatural state of sin and curse. No wonder we find it difficult to look backward to Eden and forward to the New Earth without imposing our curse-tainted perspective and expectations.

May God free us to see the world as He originally made it, by His design, and help us grasp how He will remake the world as the climax of Christ’s redemptive work, to His eternal glory. We can hardly begin to imagine the ways that people and animals and natural wonders and art and science and planets and galaxies will be transformed...but it’s sure fun (and healthy) to try!

Browse more resources on the topic of Heaven, and see Randy’s related books, including Heaven, Picturing Heaven, and We Shall See God.

Photo by Olha Sumnikova on Unsplash

No Matter How Painful the Situation, Ending a Disabled Child’s Life Through Abortion Is Never Right

Today’s blog is from Stephanie Anderson, who is part of our staff at Eternal Perspective Ministries. —Randy Alcorn

The title of The New York Times article grabbed my attention, as it was meant to do: “I Had a Late-Term Abortion. I Am Not a Monster.” Lyndsay Werking-Yip shares her story of expecting a little girl, who was discovered to have severe brain abnormalities through prenatal testing. She and her husband were told their daughter would face seizures and cognitive impairment along with other unknown issues, so they decided to end her life through a late-term abortion.

She writes,

Many imagine this as an impossible decision to make, one that would take hours of deliberation. I will be honest with you. You may not want to hear this, but the decision was obvious to us. Our child would not be given a life of pain and suffering. Instead, we would take her pain on as our own.

I regret that we had to make the choice. I regret that she was so sick, so broken. But I do not regret the decision we made. Within 15 minutes of the diagnosis, we knew what we had to do: We would become baby killers.

…When people ask, “How could you?” I reply that allowing her to live would have been a fate worse than death. Her diagnosis was not fatal, not incompatible with the bare mechanics of a living body. But it was incompatible with a fulfilling life. And that makes all the difference to me. That’s why I call myself “pro-life.”

Ms. Werking-Yip’s story is emotionally compelling. It’s easy for a reader to think, “I haven’t walked in her shoes. How dare I judge her and say she should have made a different choice and faced a lifetime of caring for a disabled child, or of having to watch her child suffer?”

Yes, leveling the terms “monster” or “baby killer” at a post-abortive woman (or man) has no place in a Christ-like and compassionate response. But the problem is that heartrending situations such as these can cloud our judgment and blur the line between right and wrong. Both truth and grace require us to recognize that ending the life of a disabled unborn child through abortion can never be right or compassionate, no matter how seemingly noble the intentions.

My Own Story

This issue is especially personal for me because it was three years ago last month that my son, Isaiah, was born silently. Two months before that, at our 20-week ultrasound scan, we found out he had multiple serious abnormalities, resulting in the prenatal diagnosis of Trisomy 18. What followed were some of the most difficult weeks of my life. Even now the memory of that time takes my breath away.

Because of this I do have some understanding of the emotions Ms. Werking-Yip faced. Honestly, I now grasp how for some people abortion can be alluring as an “out” from the terror of a prenatal diagnosis. The emotions I felt were suffocating, and I would have welcomed a seeming quick end to them. (Never mind that abortion promises an out, but instead delivers a lifetime of other pain and suffering.)

Although most children with Trisomy 18 die before birth, some do survive birth and live for minutes, hours, days, weeks, and very rarely, even years. In those last weeks of my pregnancy, I contemplated what it would mean to care for a severely disabled child and how that would affect our family. And yes, imagining a lifetime of suffering for your own child is painful. This wasn’t theoretical for me, because my older sister was born with a chromosomal abnormality that left her profoundly disabled. I had seen firsthand how difficult it was for my parents over the years, even though I know her life had God-given value.

But because I believe God has exclusive prerogatives over life and death, abortion was never an option for my husband and me (though it was certainly offered to us). We wanted to show love to this child, and we wanted God to write our family’s story, including this difficult chapter. And He did: just as my husband and I were beginning to work on a birth plan for Isaiah, we found out he had peacefully died in my womb.[1] God had taken our child home, and because He did so in His own time and way, I believe that part of our story has brought Him glory in ways I won’t understand until eternity.

A Meaningful Life?

Much of Ms. Werking-Yip’s explanation for why she chose to abort her daughter centers around what she defines as a quality, fulfilling life. She writes,

If you identify as “pro-life,” what does that phrase mean to you? I know that in advocacy circles, it means, essentially, “anti-abortion.” But what does life mean to you — the life that you are “for”? Does it mean breathing on your own? Does it mean having a heartbeat? What are the markers of a life of quality, of purpose, of meaning? If your brain was not functioning following a traumatic car accident, would you want your body artificially sustained indefinitely? What is the threshold of experience for you to want to continue living?

The problem is that the definition of what makes a life “meaningful” and “purposeful” is subjective, varying from person to person. Saying “My child wouldn’t have a fulfilling life, so I’m ending it” is a slippery slope. A society that makes decisions on this basis alone would be a terrible place to live. (This is why abortion is not just a private decision between a woman and her doctor; it is a decision with society-wide implications.) The value of a person’s life (and an unborn child is a person) must be based on something more than another person’s subjective feelings.

Does this mean caring for a disabled child and seeing her suffering wouldn’t have been extremely difficult? No, of course not. But there is often unexpected joy and hope and beauty in difficult situations that we can’t see coming. Human life is always valuable and meaningful, even when it doesn’t fit our ideal definitions.

Randy Alcorn writes in Why ProLife?:

Some argue, “It’s cruel to let a handicapped child be born to a miserable and meaningless life.” But what do the disabled think about their lives? Spina bifida patients were asked whether their handicaps made life meaningless and if they should have been allowed to die after birth. “Their unanimous response was forceful. Of course they wanted to live! In fact, they thought the question was ridiculous.” [2]

…A person’s nature and worth aren’t changed by a handicap. S. E. Smith, in an article in Disability says, “The able-bodied, who control much of society, need to break themselves of the beliefs that life with a disability is tragic, not worth living.” [3]

Neither Ms. Werking-Yip nor the doctors could say exactly what her daughter’s life would have been like. Doctors can be wrong even when a diagnosis seems certain, and in the very least, wrong about how many cognitive and physical abilities a child will have. But had her daughter been as fully disabled as doctors predicted, she was still fearfully and wonderfully made, and just as valuable as a child who is fully “normal.”

Hope for the Hurting

Grief, sorrow, pain, and fear are all natural reactions to a grim prenatal diagnosis. But we dare not allow feelings to displace objective truth. Moms and dads facing prenatal diagnoses like the one Ms. Werking-Yip and her husband faced need support that can help them see past their overwhelming emotions, understand their child’s value, and find hope for the future.

And for those who have already chosen abortion in such a situation and know it is something they need forgiveness for, there is abundant grace through Jesus Christ (see Finding Forgiveness After an Abortion). Many post-abortive women and men have found hope and healing at the foot of the cross.

Ms. Werking-Yip writes,

My child was lovingly cared for until her last heartbeat. She was gently laid to rest after her footprints were stamped in black ink on a rectangle of paper. Those same footprints hang on my bedroom wall along with a locket containing her ashes.

Is this not the picture of maternal feticide you had in mind? I am not a dark shadowy imaginary figure. I am a grieving mother.

My heart hurts for her. I pray this grieving mother will find true healing through Jesus Christ. And I hope that maybe her story will help other moms and dads facing difficult diagnoses choose a different end to their disabled child’s story.

[1] I recognize there are many ethical issues surrounding medical intervention and when to extend life vs. allowing death to happen naturally. Had Isaiah lived through birth, my husband and I would have needed to decide how much to intervene and what procedures to perform or whether to simply provide comfort care for his basic needs should it be clear he wouldn’t survive for long. We were spared having to make these difficult decisions because our child died in utero, but my heart goes out to other families who do have to work through them.

[2] W. Peacock, “Active Voluntary Euthanasia,” Issues in Law and Medicine (1987). Cited in John Willke, Abortion Questions and Answers (Cincinnati, OH: Hayes Publishing, 1988), 212.

[3] S. E. Smith, “Devaluing the Disabled Body,” This Ain’t Livin’, August 17, 2009.

Photo by Luma Pimentel on Unsplash

Let’s Show Women They Are a Vital Part of Christ’s Body, Not Just Tell Them to “Go Home”

Periodically I write an unusually long blog because the issues are so far-reaching that I think they demand extra attention. I don’t like to break such blogs into multiple parts, so if you have the time to work this through with me, here we go.

Many have reacted, both negatively and positively, to comments that John MacArthur made recently about Beth Moore. This happened at the Truth Matters Conference, held at MacArthur’s Grace Community Church in California. At that event, those on stage were asked to respond briefly in a word-association game.  When the moderator said “Beth Moore,” John MacArthur responded, “Go home.” Phil Johnson said, “Narcissist.”

MacArthur went on to say, “There’s no case that can be made biblically for a woman preaching. Period, paragraph, end of discussion…Just because you have the skill to sell jewelry on the TV sales channel, doesn’t mean you should be preaching. There are people who have certain hawking skills—natural abilities to sell—they have energy and personality and all of that. That doesn’t qualify you to preach.” 

Only God knows our hearts, but to many, including myself, it appeared presumptuous and condescending to seemingly compare the work of Beth Moore, and by implication other female Bible teachers, to those using hawking skills to sell jewelry on TV. But before moving on to what else Pastor MacArthur said, I want to take five paragraphs to clarify a few things so you don’t have to wonder what I’m thinking as I address this situation.

Women in Scripture

First, I need to make clear that I do not deny—rather I affirm—that there is a clear biblical teaching about husbands being humble and loving leaders of their wives (Ephesians 5:22-23). I also believe Scripture teaches men are to serve as elders and lead the church and carry the primary preaching responsibilities (1 Timothy 2:11-15). Many deny the straightforward interpretation of those passages, but I don’t. However, I am equally convinced from Scripture that women have vital roles in the church, including speaking roles, that do not necessitate them being the primary Sunday morning preachers.

Women are told to use their gifts to teach other women (Titus 2:3–5). First Corinthians 11:5, no matter how you interpret it, assumes that women were using prophetic gifts in the church assembly. (The passage does not forbid them from prophesying when the men and women of the church assemble, but lays out conditions for how it should be done.)

There are many passages, Old Testament and New, that show women in prominent roles. We are told the gifted preacher Apollos “began to speak out boldly in the synagogue.” Then Scripture tells us, “But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). The fact that Priscilla is mentioned first in a culture that normally placed the wife’s name after her husband’s suggests that she had every bit as much, and likely more, theological knowledge and teaching skill as her husband. The two together used their gifts to offer biblical correction to Apollos and his teaching.

God incorporated the words of a number of women in the inspired text of Scripture—including Miriam, Deborah, Ruth, Abigail, Esther, Mary, and Elizabeth. Since God’s Word has His authority, these passages throughout history have used the words of women to teach and lead all who read them, pastors included.

There is much more to be said about this; one resource is Southern Baptist president J.D. Greear’s “Should Women Teach in the Church?”, and another is the Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. I would also recommend Gavin Ortlund’s article “Four Dangers for Complementarians.”

Now that I’ve given grounds for many different readers to disagree with me, I’ll return to John MacArthur’s statements. (By the way, some people always respond that it is unbiblical to talk publicly about people if you haven’t talked to them privately. But this is not a Matthew 18 issue, as John MacArthur has not sinned against me. In fact, every writer and public figure automatically invites public responses whenever they write books and blogs and speak at churches and conferences. People publicly disagree with me online often, and they are not violating Scripture. In fact, if they came to me I wouldn’t have time to talk with all of them! So it’s not unfair for me to write this blog about an issue that John made public. And God knows I certainly wish John MacArthur well, and in no way wish him harm. If anyone would affirm the right for people to disagree in the public forum, it’s John MacArthur.)

My Heavyhearted Concerns

At the Truth Matters conference, after his “Go Home” comment about Beth Moore, Dr. MacArthur went on to express concerns about feminism and the church. He also made some comments about the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). You can listen to the audio clip from the conference here.

I listened to the full clip twice, start to finish, and to be honest, it made me very sad—not only because of the unnuanced statements, but also because of the laughter and applause of the audience. There was no attempt to treat Beth Moore with respect and kindness. Therefore, the inevitable impression was chauvinism and even misogyny. There was also no attempt to affirm women and their gifting and true equality in a complementarian framework.

Basically, complementarianism is the belief that men and women have different but complementary and equally important roles and responsibilities in marriage, family life, and the church. In 1 Corinthians 11:3 male leadership is compared to the Father’s role in relation to the Son. They are one, they are utterly equal, yet they have different roles. (For further insights on  complementarianism, see this article.) 

Someone might say, “But MacArthur didn’t have opportunity to give a larger context or to balance his response, because he was required to give a super-short answer.” That raises the question, why are Christian leaders subjecting themselves to word associations from a moderator that require them to give answers without qualifications, when the design is obviously for them to give a controversial response? MacArthur actually said he felt like he was being set up, and indeed he was. Unfortunately, he seemed to willingly dive right into the set-up. (If you listen to it, you’ll see what I mean. It’s clear the moderator knew MacArthur doesn’t like Beth Moore and is expecting him to say so, and MacArthur appeared to gladly comply.)

But the fact is that Pastor MacArthur chose to say a great deal more beyond “Go home,” giving him plenty of time to qualify or back down on his response. Instead, he goes deeper and broader in his criticisms without saying one word to affirm respect for women or the value of female Bible teachers within the church’s ministry, even though he doesn’t think they should be preaching. As a professional communicator and a shepherd of both men and women, why not say something, anything, to clarify that you mean no disrespect for women or their gifts, roles, and callings to serve Jesus both inside and outside the church?

Now, I do not agree with everything that Beth Moore has said or done or written, just as I do not agree with everything John MacArthur and nearly everyone else has said, done, and written. (Obviously there are many good people who frequently disagree with me, and sometimes they are right to.)  From time to time, I retweet both John MacArthur and Beth Moore. Whenever I retweet something from Beth Moore I know what’s coming—some people will tell me I shouldn’t. But I believe Beth is a genuine lover of Jesus who affirms God’s Word. I am troubled by a panel of Christian leaders speaking of her derisively, including calling her names and making demeaning comparisons (e.g. “narcissist” and TV jewelry saleswoman).

I am also troubled that a Bible-believing and Christ-affirming audience found all this so funny and entertaining and worthy of applause. As I said, I listened to this front to back twice to be sure I was hearing accurately and being fair. Both times I felt defensive for my own wife and daughters and the very gifted and capable women I have worked with in ministry. In a blog last year called “Dismissive and Disrespectful Attitudes toward Women Should Have No Place among Evangelicals” I agreed with Beth Moore when she called out the troubling presence of misogyny among some Christian evangelicals, including church leaders. Sadly, this incident will go down as a prominent and memorable example of that.

Both Biblical Truth and Careful Communication Matter

Now, I have read some treatments of this episode from people who appear delighted to take down John MacArthur, because they hate his affirmation of biblical authority and his willingness to publicly point out theological heresy. This blog is very difficult for me to write because I deeply appreciate John MacArthur and his dedication to biblical truth. John has said and written many Christ-honoring and helpful things over the years, and I gladly affirm the majority of his Bible teaching and insights in his many sermons and books and most of the notes in his study Bible. Both of our daughters and one of our sons-in law attended the Master’s College (which MacArthur was then president of and is now the Chancellor Emeritus). Francis Chan is one of many Master’s graduates I know and appreciate. Under John’s leadership, Master’s has held fast to the authority of Scripture when countless “Christian” colleges have abandoned their belief in God’s Word. (I have spoken at a number of these colleges and know firsthand how far they have strayed from recognizing biblical authority.)

I have only had two conversations with John MacArthur, once when Nanci and I visited Master’s because my oldest daughter was considering attending there, and once again years later when I was speaking at a Desiring God event,  where I enjoyed a long lunch with him, John Piper, and Jerry Bridges. Both times I found John to be not only interesting but likeable.  

However, as much as I have loved and appreciated him, and still do, I fear without intending to he sometimes sabotages his own message. People do not hear the good things he says because of the manner in which he says them.

I think this is unfortunately true in this area of the role of women in the church. With grace and empathy and careful communication, he could better represent Scripture and his beliefs about women pastors and preachers, and at the same time, show respect and kindness toward Beth Moore (and other women) as a fellow image-bearer and follower of Christ. Even if you agree 100% with John MacArthur’s interpretation of Scripture, surely there is a better way to treat people and convey that position. Look at what Scripture has to say about how we are to communicate with others:

“But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ” (Ephesians 4:15, CSB).

“Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11).

“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness” (2 Timothy 2:24-25).

 “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2, NIV).

“Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5, CSB).

“Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom” (James 3:13, CSB).

I greatly respect pastor Max Lucado for his steadiness and humility as he follows Jesus. Max is one of MacArthur’s few equals among evangelicals in terms of being prominent and prolific. In a blog entitled “Are We Listening?” Max responded to John’s words by saying “the bride of Christ is sighing.” He said, “Really? Dare we be dismissive? The message of #metoo is a sobering one.”

Max said that when it comes to how Christians speak, “tone matters” and it is important to disagree with love, because “words can wound.”

Indeed words can wound, and in this case they have. But Scripture makes clear that words can also heal, and I pray that John MacArthur, and others who wholeheartedly believe God’s Word just as I do, will heed the Scriptures we love: “Thoughtless words can wound as deeply as any sword, but wisely spoken words can heal” (Proverbs 12:18).

No Place for Chauvinism in the Church

As I said, I believe Scripture teaches that husbands should tenderly lead their wives and male elders and pastors should lead the church. But how elders and pastors treat and speak of women, privately and publicly, will model for our men how they should treat their wives. 

The widespread perception among both unbelievers and believers in our culture is that conservative Bible-believing churches—especially those that are also politically conservative—are the last bastion of cultural chauvinism, dedicated to stereotyping, subjecting, and minimizing the equality, worth, intelligence, and gifting of women. We are thought to foster disrespect and, indirectly, abuse. And every story of an evangelical pastor misusing his power and committing immorality with women in his church furthers that stereotype.

While I don’t see much outright hatred of women in the church, I do see a lot of dismissiveness, mistrust, and prejudice. I also see disrespect and condescension toward women, especially those with leadership and speaking gifts and strong personalities (which seem to be respected in a man, but resented in a woman).

Unless we intentionally demonstrate an authentic (not merely superficial) respect for women as intelligent and gifted students and teachers of God’s Word, many of our girls and young women will drift away from complementarian churches. (I base this not on speculation, but on long heartfelt conversations with such young women.) In some cases they will end up in churches that reinterpret and modernize Scripture to go along with the current drift of culture, including the defense of abortion and homosexual marriages, and affirming universal salvation, along with many other unbiblical beliefs. Some will believe the only way they and their gifts can be valued is to leave Bible-believing churches—how tragic is that?

Others may stay in Bible-teaching churches but never discover and use their gifts, which lay dormant and buried for lack of opportunity and encouragement. Many women will be unfulfilled; some will feel guilty for wanting to use their gifts for Christ’s glory and the good of the church! Furthermore, there’s a large segment of the culture we won’t reach. What woman (or for that matter, what kind of man) wants to come to a church where women are ignored, marginalized, and even demeaned? I don’t.

We shouldn’t ever violate what Scripture commands in an attempt to be relevant, but we should exercise the freedom to do what Scripture allows to grant women the widest and deepest and most meaningful roles in Christ’s body. (See the article “Delighting in Authority: How to Create a Culture of Happy Complementarians” by Whitney Woollard, which I shared on my blog. Also see my response to the question “What Is Your Stance on Women in Leadership?”)

In 1 Peter 3:7 husbands are commanded to “live with your wives in an understanding way…showing them honor as coheirs of the grace of life.” Isn’t it true that the men who lead churches as pastors and elders should “live with women of Christ’s church in an understanding way…showing them honor as coheirs of the grace of life”? Husbands are warned if they fail to understand and honor their wives, their very relationship with God will suffer: “…so that your prayers will not be hindered.” It’s no stretch to say that church leaders who fail to understand and honor women will also have their prayers hindered—apparently God is not prone to listen to men who don’t make a point of understanding and honoring women.

What’s at stake here? Many Bible-believing churches are held in suspicion of disrespecting women (valuing them only as cooks, clean-up crew, nursery workers, and singers). Women comprise over half of the church but appearances suggest men are far more important in the body of Christ, and that God has gifted men to study and teach Scripture, but not women. Compared to society, the church appears chauvinistic. How sad, when by His example, Jesus was truly revolutionary in His demonstration of the value and worth of women.

Christ’s View of Women

In the Gospels, we see that women disciples were more prominent than men at the cross and tomb, and it was the prophetess Anna who announced Jesus as Messiah.

The Knowing Jesus Study Bible says this:

Luke showed a great interest in women and included in his Gospel numerous stories about women, many of them unique to his account of the life and ministry of Jesus (he also included more specific names of women than did the other Gospel writers). He continued this interest throughout Acts, the sequel to Luke (see Acts 1:14). Luke related stories about healing (Luke 4:38-39; 8:1-3, 40-56; 13:11-17; 17:11-17) and faith (Luke 4:26; 7:36-50; 8:48; 18:1-8; 21:1-4) of women and emphasized stories of women involved in discipleship (Luke 8:19-21; 11:27-28), particularly in the detailed account of Jesus’ dialogue with Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) and in the reports of the female disciples who traveled with Jesus (Luke 8:1-3). Women are prominent in the stories of the births of both Jesus and John the Baptist (Mary, Elizabeth and Anna; Luke 1-2) and are described in both the passion and resurrection narratives (Luke 23:49; 23:55-28:12).

I love what Dorothy Sayers writes in her book Are Women Human? Astute and Witty Essays on the Role of Women in Society:

Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man—there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronised; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them either as “The women, God help us!” or “The ladies, God bless them!”; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unself-conscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything “funny” about woman’s nature.

Questions for Church Leaders

So how can we reflect Jesus’ love for and respect for women? I suggest that male church leaders ask, “What can we do to…”:

empower our women to exercise their God-given gifts (in God’s prescribed way) for the benefit of the body?
uncover and maximize—not cover or minimize—their gifts, not just the gift of helps, but teaching and leading and exhortation and prophecy, exercised in the right spheres?
understand and know them better?
listen to the women in our congregation, ask for their input, and benefit from their insights?
treat them with more respect as fellow-heirs, equal partners?
show girls and women that our church offers them more respect, not less, than the world?

Pastors and elders, why not invite in wives, female ministry staff, or laywomen and give them the floor, for whatever’s on their mind, then ask for their input on current agenda and issues?

Please though, whatever we say and do about the role of women in the church, let’s obey God’s Word: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12).

There are many differences both among Christian complementarians and egalitarians, and we should not assume otherwise. I am a complementarian who believes that we should affirm freedom for women to exercise their gifts in every area Scripture does not explicitly forbid, and that is maybe 95% of them. Sam Storms has a similar view and I highly recommend his article “10 Things You Should Know about Complementarianism.”

Final Thoughts

I’m well aware I will receive many criticisms for sharing these disagreements with John MacArthur and for “siding with” Beth Moore. I will also receive criticisms from people who think I’m wrong to affirm the great majority of what John MacArthur has taught. (I am an equal opportunity offender!) Many complementarians will think me too permissive; all egalitarians will think me too restrictive. So be it. The truth is, I am not seeking to please potential critics. I am seeking to please Jesus, who is full of grace and truth. Paul says, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

Every time we function with grace-only, we dishonor Jesus. Every time we function with truth-only, we dishonor Jesus. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). We need Christians who, like Jesus, are full of grace and truth. People with both sound doctrine and warm hearts. Those whose hearts are warm but who lack sound doctrine will trample the truth of Jesus. Those whose doctrine is sound but who lack the grace of Jesus will trample people. Christ’s heart is equally grieved by grace-suppression and truth-suppression, by grace-twisting and truth-twisting. Grace and truth are both necessary. Neither by itself is sufficient.

One final quote from Sam Allberry: “If it’s lacking in charity, it’s not orthodoxy. If it demeans and mocks women, it’s not complementarianism.”

Note: To read one viewpoint on the differences between complementarianism and egalitarianism, see this article. Also, Bruce Ware offers an excellent summary of the two positions, and the objections to each of them.

If you want to explore egalitarianism directly (without complementarian comments), see Christians for Biblical Equality. Also, if you wish to see and hear my informal presentation of key Scriptures on the biblical role of women in the church to a small group of leaders of my home church, see this video.

Added Note: Let me emphasize again that I believe we should exercise biblical discernment about Beth Moore as we should any teacher, certainly including me. Disagreements with Beth Moore are not the problem. John MacArthur could have said, “I have some concerns about Beth Moore’s teaching. She affirms the gospel, but she also spiritualizes texts and at times exercises faulty interpretation. I have other doctrinal concerns as well. And while I agree that women have a vital place in the life of the church, I disagree with her position on women preaching from the pulpit.”

Had he said that, then people could have agreed or disagreed and there could have been a civil discussion. I certainly wouldn’t have blogged about it, and I doubt others would have said much. But that’s not what happened. It was about women wanting power in the church, and Beth Moore being called a narcissist and compared to a TV jewelry saleswoman. If you have doctrinal concerns about Beth Moore or anyone, you can certainly express them, but for the honor of Jesus please do so without attacking, demeaning, ridiculing or stereotyping them in particular, or in this case, women in general. Not only is that right, which is most important, it’s also smart, because otherwise you’ll never persuade anyone.

For more on grace and truth, see Randy’s book  The Grace and Truth Paradox , and his devotionals Grace and  Truth .

Photo: Christianpics.co

Ray Ortlund on Is God For Us, Or Is He Against Us?

The New Testament repeatedly affirms God’s love, through Christ, to His people. With amazement, John writes, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1; see also 4:16). If ever exclamation marks were justified in a translation, surely they are here.

“God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5; see also 8:39; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:17–19; Titus 3:4–7). We are God’s “dearly loved children” (Ephesians 5:1) and “brothers loved by God” (1 Thessalonians 1:4).

Christ’s incarnation and atonement provide the ultimate demonstration of love : “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

Yet Scripture also reminds us that God cares as much that we share in His holiness as in His love: “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.... Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:10, 14).

True, God’s discipline toward His children may not feel loving. Part of our problem is that we think to “love” means to “do no harm,” when it really means “to be willing to do short-term harm for a redemptive purpose.” For those who are in Christ, God’s discipline is an act of love.

I appreciated these thoughts from Ray Ortlund about how Scripture demonstrates that God can be both for us, and against us:

God is for us. Romans 8:31

But I have this against you. Revelation 2:4. See also 2:14, 20; 3:3.

So, which is it? Is God for us, or is God against us? If we are in Christ, the answer is: maybe both. God is certainly for us, and God might also be against us.

God is for us in an absolute sense, in Christ. We have peace with God (Romans 5:1). There is now no condemnation threatening us, none at all (Romans 8:1). God foreknew us, predestined us, called us, justified us and promises to glorify us (Romans 8:29-30). God is for us.

So here is my assurance. I can sin my way out of my marriage, I can sin my way out of the ministry, I can sin my way out of physical health, and a lot more. But I cannot sin my way out of Christ, and neither can you, because the cross of Christ paid the damning penalty for our sins.

God might also be against us at times. Not that he de-justifies us, but he might discipline us (Hebrews 12:5-6). He might oppose us (James 4:6). He might send out wrath against us (2 Chronicles 19:2; 32:25). Not condemning wrath, but purifying wrath, correcting wrath, for a time. Even his disciplines and oppositions are gifts of love. How could it be otherwise? The smile of God is not an all-approving grin. What kind of Father would that be?

Is our understanding of the gospel biblical enough to include a category for the God who is for us also being against us? Is our understanding of the gospel big enough and complex enough so that we feel not only reassured but also solemnized? If the only message we are willing to receive is reassurance that God’s condemning wrath has fallen on Another, why? Why block out this other clearly biblical message, warning us that his disciplining wrath can fall on us? If we are in Christ, why deflect anything the Bible clearly says?

Even when God is against us, still, he is for us. His love is burning away whatever keeps us from pressing more deeply into his mighty heart.

“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent” (Revelation 3:19).

This post originally appeared on Ray’s blog .

Photo by Chris Meads on Unsplash