If the Bible were written today and judged by what it says about money and possessions, it would never be published. If it were published, it would be mercilessly panned by its reviewers and not see a second printing. When it comes to money and possessions, the Bible is sometimes redundant, often extreme, and occasionally shocking. It turns many readers away, making it a hard sell in today’s marketplace. It interferes with our lives and commits the unpardonable sin—it makes... Read more
A reader sent me this message related to my book The Purity Principle: Dearest Randy, I am one of the thousands who have extremely benefitted from this book. Ever since I became a Christian (almost 4 decades ago), I have been struggling with sexual lust. And it has been a wearisome battle. Over the years, I have been devouring books just to take hold of a particular principle that can help when I go through those terrible episodes of temptations. From... Read more
My daughter Angela and I were able to attend a Steven Curtis Chapman concert with some friends last month. Steven had asked to meet with me before the show to talk about how the Heaven book and Safely Home ministered to their family after their daughter Maria’s tragic death 16 years ago. We prayed for him, and I encouraged him (and myself) to finish well. I saw strong indications of Steven’s spiritual depth—you often get that depth through turning to God in suffering and... Read more
Some people suppose happiness is uniquely human, unrelated to God’s nature: as He gave us a body and hunger, which He doesn’t have, He gave us a capacity for happiness, which He also doesn’t have. I believe something radically different—that God wants us happy because He’s happy! He treasures His happiness and treasures us, and therefore He treasures our happiness! Old Testament professor Brent Strawn writes, “In the Bible, God is happy, and God’s happiness affects and infects the rest... Read more
Denny Hartford, the founder and director of Vital Signs Ministries, and his wife Claire truly live to the glory of King Jesus. I was touched by this story he shared in a ministry update: Early in March, I was talking to a fellow at the coffee shop, and I mentioned that Claire and I were heading down to Wichita later in the morning to visit my little sister Sherry for a couple of days. My little sister is dealing with an... Read more
It’s bad enough to do evil and abstain from good. But God condemns the moral sleight of hand by which we confuse good and evil: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20). Paul built on this when he wrote, “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9). Passages like Amos 5:14–15; Romans 16:19; 1... Read more
There are many reasons to obey what God commands us in Scripture. Here are five of them I’ve reminded myself of over the years: 1) God said it. 2) God knows better than I do. 3) God is in charge, and I am not. 4) Whenever I have obeyed God, I and my family have ultimately benefited. 5) Whenever I have done it my way instead of God’s, with all my rationalizations and excuses that I’ve considered sound reasoning,... Read more
My book It’s All About Jesus includes this great quote from Glen Scrivener, a British minister and evangelist: “Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Materialists believe in the virgin birth of the cosmos. Choose your miracle.” Glen directs the evangelistic ministry Speak Life. He responded to an interview with atheist Richard Dawkins, and mentioned some similar things to the quote above: Christians believe that Jesus emerged, alive again, from the tomb. But Richard Dawkins believes that *all* life emerged from non-life—and without a... Read more
The Puritans, Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley and a host of others constantly spoke of a God-made happiness. As I have traveled the world, I’ve met more suffering people who are happy in Jesus than I have ever found in America! This is exactly what I talk about in my book Happiness, as I go through over twenty Hebrew words and fifteen Greek words used in Scripture that are part of the same semantic domain. They are happiness synonyms and can be readily translated... Read more
Scripture commands us to set our hearts on Heaven: “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). And to make sure we don’t miss the importance of a Heaven-centered life, the next verse says, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things [alone].” We cannot anticipate, or set our minds on, what we cannot imagine. That’s why, I believe, God has given us glimpses of Heaven in the... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In