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God refines us in our suffering and graciously explains why: “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this” (Isaiah 48:10). For emphasis, God repeats the reason.

My daughter Angela recently shared a message on Hebrews 12:1-2 at a women's gathering at our home church. She says, “Fixing our eyes does not mean merely glancing at Jesus now and again. Fixing demands all of our attention. So we need to look at Jesus with a laser focus.”

Ruth Wood, reader of our magazine Eternal Perspectives, shared this wonderful follow-up to an article we included in the latest issue about God’s Heart for the Elderly and Infirm. What she wrote is remarkable and powerful, demonstrating a miracle of grace that took place in her dad’s life.

G.K. Chesterton’s character, Father Brown, said, “We are on the wrong side of the tapestry.” How true. We see the knots, the snarls, and the frayed underside. But God is on the right side of the tapestry—the side He is weaving into a beautiful work of art.

We received this thought-provoking letter from a reader named Richard Higby. As you read, consider what it might look like for your family and church to implement his idea of a day celebrating and looking forward to Christ's return and the coming New Earth.

In April, Pastor John MacArthur made some comments about PTSD, OCD, and ADHD that have created a firestorm of discussion among Christians about the subject of mental health. Some believers strongly disagree with him; others agree. I think this is a good opportunity for Christians to think critically about this subject, and have honest conversations about mental health and where our approach needs adjusting.

One of the many problems facing Western society is that we worship youth and make the elderly disposable. God’s perspective on the elderly is vastly different. 

Before my mother would make a cake, she used to lay the ingredients on the kitchen counter. One day I tasted the individual ingredients for a chocolate cake. Judging by the taste of each component, I never would have believed cake could taste so good! In a similar way, the individual ingredients of trials and apparent tragedies taste bitter to us.

I have often wished I could call up recordings of conversing with people I’ve met at churches, conventions, airports, and many more places. I suspect we will be able to recall conversations and “chance” meetings when we see those people again in Heaven.

Tozer wrote, "Nothing about our Lord Jesus Christ has changed down to this very hour. His love has not changed. His compassionate understanding of us has not changed. His interest in us and His purposes for us have not changed."

What helped Nanci and I most avoid idolatry in marriage was that over the years, we came to say—and to really believe—that we were each other's second best friend. Based on John 15 and His sacrificial love toward us, Jesus was our best friend. No one else was close to taking the place we had in each other’s lives, but we would always put God first.

For many of us, the list of people we’re longing for reunion with in Heaven is lengthy. But those who have lost children, like Marshall Shelley and his wife Susan, have even more compelling reasons to long for Heaven. His writing beautifully demonstrates an eternal perspective on every human life. Whether or not you’ve lost a child in a miscarriage or after birth, I think you’ll be moved by what he shares. 

We don’t know what lies ahead in life, but our sovereign God does. What comfort!

I attempted my first novel, back in the 90s. To be honest, I made more mistakes in writing Deadline than any other fiction book I’ve written, not surprisingly, because the first house built will not be his best house if someone continues to build. And yet, God has really used that novel.