Material Wealth Is Not the Good Life

July 10, 2023 By Randy Alcorn

In 2007, actor Owen Wilson slashed his wrists in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. People magazine’s cover story about the “funny man who had it all” implied that his material abundance gave him every reason to live. Public shock over his actions unveiled the widespread belief that money, fame, cars, sex, a second home on the shores of Maui, and the whole celebrity package really do buy happiness. After all, wasn’t Owen Wilson living the good life? In a subsequent issue of People, one letter... Read more

Joining the Real Party in Heaven

July 6, 2023 By Randy Alcorn

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Imagine someone takes you to a party. You see a few friends there, enjoy a couple of good conversations, a little laughter, and some decent appetizers. The party’s all right, but you keep hoping it will get better. Give it another hour, and maybe it will. Suddenly, your friend says, “I need to take you home.” Now? You’re disappointed—nobody wants to leave a party early—but you leave, and your friend drops you off at your house. As you approach the... Read more

Who or What Is Our Primary Source of Happiness?

July 3, 2023 By Randy Alcorn

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Happiness can’t be bigger than its source. God is primary; all other forms of happiness—relationships, created things, and material pleasures—are secondary. If we don’t consciously see God as their source, these secondary things intended for enjoyment can master us. Things such as winning a game, a promotion, or a contest; or taking a new job or a vacation are too small to bring big happiness. God, on the other hand, “satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills... Read more

The Tide of God’s Grace Brings Us Wave after Wave of God’s Goodness

June 26, 2023 By Randy Alcorn

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“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) “Now I will say this to every sinner, though he should think himself to be the worst sinner who ever lived: cry to the Lord and seek him while he may be found. By simple faith, go to your Savior, for he is the throne of grace.” –Charles Spurgeon There’s little... Read more

Gratitude Multiplies When We Give It to God

June 22, 2023 By Randy Alcorn

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Our thankfulness glorifies God and makes Him happy: “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me” (Psalm 50:23). Puritan John Boys echoed the sentiment of the psalmist: “As the Lord loveth a cheerful giver, so likewise a cheerful thanksgiver.” But God isn’t the only one affected when we give thanks. Psychologists asked undergraduates to complete a survey that included a happiness scale and measures of thankfulness. Over six weeks, the participants wrote down, once a week, five things... Read more

How Should We Understand Moral Failings in the Church and Prevent Future Ones?

June 19, 2023 By Randy Alcorn

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For every well-known Christian television personality or evangelical leader who commits sexual immorality, there are any number of lesser-known local pastors, Bible teachers, and parachurch workers who quietly resign or are fired for the same. Over thirty years ago, while researching and writing my first book Christians in the Wake of the Sexual Revolution (later revised as Restoring Sexual Sanity), I realized what a prominent and distinctive earmark of the early church its sexual purity really was. Christians were known to be Christians... Read more

Comforting Grieving People and Encouraging Them to Hold on to Solid Truth

June 15, 2023 By Randy Alcorn

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Nancy Guthrie’s disabled daughter, Hope, died after living through 199 days of seizures and other complications from Zellweger syndrome, a rare and fatal genetic abnormality. Nancy writes in her book Holding on to Hope, The day after we buried Hope, my husband said to me, “You know, I think we expected our faith to make this hurt less, but it doesn’t. Our faith gave us an incredible amount of strength and encouragement while we had Hope, and we are comforted by... Read more

Giving from the Heart Really Matters

June 12, 2023 By Randy Alcorn

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God commanded his people, “Give generously to the poor, not grudgingly, for the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. There will always be some in the land who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share freely with the poor and with other Israelites in need” (Deuteronomy 15:10-11, NLT). This was a command, yet God said they should “share freely.” He cares about the state of our hearts as we give. Paul made... Read more

Christ, the Wisdom of God

June 8, 2023 By Randy Alcorn

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n 1 Corinthians 1:24, Paul calls Christ “the wisdom of God.” Jesus referred to Himself as “wisdom” when He said, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds” (Matthew 11:19). I believe Jesus is speaking of Himself here as the well-known personification of wisdom in Proverbs 8. (Note how Jesus teaches that wisdom is justified... Read more

Should Christians Desire to Be Happy?

June 5, 2023 By Randy Alcorn

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C. S. Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory, If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion . . . is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires,... Read more