Randy Alcorn

The way to love people is never to celebrate our sin or theirs, our temptations or theirs, but to come in humility as a fellow sinner and point to the One who paid for all our sins on the cross, and offers forgiveness.

For most of us, the list of people we’re longing for reunion with is lengthy. But those who have lost a child, either before or after birth, have one more compelling reason to long for Heaven. 

Last weekend I spoke at my home church, Good Shepherd Community Church in Boring (yes, Boring) Oregon, on the question of why a good God allows evil and suffering. We'd actually planned the discussion prior to the Charleston church murder of nine people at their Wednesday evening Bible study (we began by talking about this tragedy).

In this three-minute video, I talk about the artificial distinction made by many Bible-believing Christians between happiness and joy. (I address this in my book Happiness, which will release this October.)

I grew up in a non-Christian home, having a father who, most of the time, wasn't there. Yes, there is a hole that was created by his absence. Yes, that affected my attitude about the importance of fatherhood, but in a different way than you might expect. 

We can and should love Muslims, pray for them, defend their civil rights, reach out and help them. But we can still believe their religion is false and that no matter how devoutly they practice it, without Christ they will go to Hell.

Earlier this year, I learned about The Gospel Coalition’s International Outreach “Theological Famine Relief for the Global Church.” I’m really excited about this outreach and can’t think of a more strategic venture in financing what will matter forever.

I love the ministry of CCEF, the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation. Each year CCEF hosts a national conference, and this year’s theme is “Side by Side: How God Helps Us Help Each Other.”

Look around you at all those people walking the streets, working in offices, standing in lines, sitting in restaurants. They search for something, anything, to fill the raging emptiness within. Their instincts tell them “something’s missing, there has to be more.” And they’re absolutely right. Something is missing.