There is a God

“There is a God,” Portland Trailblazer head coach Nate McMillan said when Portland won the NBA draft lottery, giving our city the number one pick. It’s an understatement to say that event dominated news coverage here. Had Philadelphia been vaporized by aliens, it might have made page three.

“There is a God” is a common response to good news these days, so I’m not picking on Coach McMillan. But this expression reflects wrong thinking. The reasoning goes like this: when something happens that we like, it means there is a good God watching over us.

Of course, that ...

Longings of the Heart

Most days, by God’s grace, I am happy and content, even joyful.

But not today. And no, it’s not because of the playoffs this weekend. (Not that they helped, but the groaning and crying out of Romans 8 is a lot bigger than the NFL.)

Affliction was Necessary to Me

I want to share the following, written by my friend Denny Hartford, the director of a terrific organization I highly recommend, Vital Signs Ministries (FYI, that's not Denny in the picture, it's Martin Luther). Denny works in the ministry with his wonderful wife Claire.

Jim Harrell, Perspectives in Suffering, part 1

In the past year I've gotten to know Jim Harrell, a friend I've exchanged emails with and talked with once on the phone. I interviewed Jim on the subject of suffering for the book I'm currently writing. Jim has read some of my books, including Heaven, and wrote me telling his story. Turns out we have a mutual friend, Chris Mitchell.

One Saturday morning in 2003, Jim received a call delivering the kind of news no one wants to hear. His doctor told Jim he had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's ...

Jim Harrell, Perspectives in Suffering, Part 2

See my previous blog to learn a little about my friend Jim Harrell, who has ALS, and watch the five minute video that precedes this one.

Or, just go straight to the ten minute one below. I guarantee you, this ten minutes will bring more to your day than almost anything else. It's eternal perspective brought into a life through suffering, in God's gracious providence.

I'll post part three on Friday.

(Click here if you are unable to view the video.)

www.facebook.com/randyalcorn
www.twitter.com/randyalcorn
www.epm.org

Jim Harrell, Perspectives in Suffering, Part 3

C. S. Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

In the final eight minutes of this three part video, Jim Harrell, dying of ALS but living with an eternal perspective, says, “Suffering is the icy cold splash that wakes us up from the complacency of living this life. We truly don’t see God and his purpose and strength without suffering, because we just become too comfortable.”

If you didn't see the first two parts of the video, check ...

Lincoln's logic on slavery extends to all human rights

Happy birthday to my favorite president, Abraham Lincoln. While he still held to some racist stereotypes, he managed to rise above the worldview of his era and affirm the wrongness of slavery and the rights of all people.

What Lincoln wrote below applies not only to slavery and racism, but to other human rights issues such as sexism and abortion:

You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a ...

Joe Bayly Still Speaks to Me

Those who read my post The Christian Book Expo, and "Stunned by J.I. Packer" might be interested in checking out Tangle.com, which has posted the entire video of the panel discussion "A Guided Tour of Heaven and Hell." It's a ninety minute panel, but Dr. Packer's part that stunned me was toward the end of his opening statement. If you break in at about twenty minutes into the session and watch it for a couple of minutes you'll see it, and my reaction.

When I was a young Christian, one of my favorite writers was ...

What to Pray for, beyond Physical Healing

My friend Barry Arnold pastors Cornerstone Church here in Gresham, Oregon. Last year he sent an email to his church regarding prayer. It’s worth quoting:

I think our prayers are unbalanced—in the direction of just physical needs. We can and should pray for people with infirmities—but it might be wise to change the emphasis of our prayers from physical healing alone to God accomplishing His purposes in and through afflictions.

Here’s a partial list of things the New Testament tells us to pray for:

Pray for people who give you a hard time (Matthew 5:43-44 ...

If God is Good...what is this book about?

My new book If God Is Good addresses what is arguably the greatest issue in human history: the problem of evil and suffering.

The question is this: Why would an all-good and all-powerful (and all-knowing/all-wise) God create or permit a world with so much evil and suffering? This is not merely a problem, but the problem. Not only do atheists raise it, a poll of Christians revealed it is the question people would most like to ask God.

God promises to return and finalize his redemption of his once-good creation, to remove once and for all the evil and ...