About forty years ago, my Nigerian friend Samuel Kunhiyop and I were talking in my living room. We discovered we were the same age. After he shared what a privilege it was to be attending seminary in our country, I said, “I love my country, but it really surprises me that you have such a great appreciation for it. So many countries, even those we’ve helped, are anti-American. But a number of Nigerians were bought or stolen and shipped to... Read more
Note from Randy: Nanci read the following to me from her journal a few days ago, and I asked her if we could use it as a blog. As many of you know, she has been battling cancer for over three years now. (You can read the latest update on her CaringBridge page.) We are grateful for everyone’s love and prayers, and are fully trusting God in this. Nanci has never doubted or questioned Him just because so far the prayers for... Read more
The following informative Q&A comes from a source inside Afghanistan who cannot be identified for security reasons: What is the situation of believers in Afghanistan? Precarious. We know from the media but also from local sources that the Taliban are going door to door to weed out unwanted elements. Who are unwanted? Everybody who collaborated with the West (especially teachers), but also homosexuals and non-Muslims. Christians are in grave danger. Anybody who is exposed will be severely punished. What would... Read more
If we asked people to vote on a divine character quality they most appreciate, God’s love would surely receive far more votes than His holiness. Christians tend to reflect our culture, and because our culture values love and devalues holiness, we do the same. We have taken one precious divine attribute, love, defined it as we please, then used our redefinition to neutralize other attributes of God’s that don’t appeal to us. Consider, for example, this comic: The artist explains, Jesus... Read more
Strangely, though Jesus in His resurrected body proclaimed, “I am not a ghost” (Luke 24:39, NLT), countless Christians think they will be ghosts in the eternal Heaven. I know this because I’ve talked with many of them. They think they’ll be disembodied spirits, or wraiths. The magnificent, cosmos-shaking victory of Christ’s resurrection—by definition a physical triumph over physical death in a physical world—escapes them. If Jesus had been a ghost, if we would be ghosts, then redemption wouldn’t have been accomplished. “Beloved, we... Read more
God created us to love people and use things, but materialists love things and use people. Materialism drives not just the “bad apples” of society; it drives “the best and the brightest,” those from the finest homes and schools, those who become government and business leaders, physicians, and attorneys. Here are two of the definitions of materialism from The Merriam-Webster Dictionary: “A doctrine that the only or the highest value or objectives lie in material well-being and in the furtherance of material progress,”... Read more
I shared the following notes with a pastor friend who was preparing a message addressing sexual immorality and gender confusion. It’s a different approach, a verse by verse brief commentary on a passage. (I started with the last part of Ephesians 4 because it’s the foundation for Ephesians 5.) These are tough issues, and they’re not going away. Now more than ever, Christians must consider how we can communicate with those with whom we disagree. The more we speak to... Read more
I love these thoughts from Abigail Dodds, the author of (A)Typical Woman: Free, Whole, and Called in Christ and a regular contributor to Desiring God: There’s a scene in the Chronicles of Narnia where the young Shasta and Aravis are being pursued through valleys and over ridges by wicked men. Their horses (Narnian talking horses) were running as fast as they could to get away—or so they thought—until the Great Lion also begins chasing them from close range. Suddenly they discover a new gear—a speed... Read more
I recorded a video for a local prolife gathering commentating on the closure of Lovejoy Surgicenter, a Portland abortion clinic that played a huge part in my life and in the history of our ministry. I hope this encourages you as you follow God’s leading in your own life. You can watch the video below or read the lightly edited transcript that follows. (See also an interview Kathy Norquist and I did about the clinic’s closure.) I was asked to share some thoughts and... Read more
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