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At a celebration for his new book, The Promise of the New Earth, Randy shares some thoughts about grief and the eternal Heaven (the New Earth), and answers some questions related to the book.

Growing up in an unbelieving home, I never heard the word blessed as a child. After I came to Christ, I heard it often. I didn’t know what it meant; I just knew it sounded holy and spiritual.

We long for a return to Paradise—a perfect world, without the corruption of sin, where God walks with us and talks with us in the cool of the day. Because we’re human beings, we desire something tangible and physical, something that will not fade away. And that is exactly what God promises us.

Most readers have likely heard about individuals having a crisis of faith. We’ve learned terms such as “exvangelical” and “deconstruction.” We are sometimes familiar with entire churches, even denominations, who have lost their faith. But while it is not the first to do so, a poll released last week should serve as a dramatic wake up call to evangelical churches and their pastors.

Dead people don’t come back and tell us what they’ve experienced. But we can know some things based on the Bible’s explanations. We don’t just disappear after we die. We live on in another location.

In September Randy spoke over Zoom with Steve Silver of Men’s Golf Fellowship. Having both lost their wives during the last year, they shared grief experiences and spoke about Heaven and the great hope it holds.

In my dialogues with lifelong evangelicals, I’ve found that a surprisingly large number apparently believe they will spend eternity as disembodied spirits. I sometimes ask, “You do believe in the resurrection, right?” 

People are unhappy because they listen to the thousands of unhappy voices clamoring for attention. Joy comes from listening to and believing words of joy from the source of joy. 

Late one rainy night years ago, my wife and I were leaving a movie the­ater when Nanci noticed an older man in the parking lot leaning on a walker, struggling. I helped him get into his car. Since he was so exhausted, I asked if I could drive him home.

Isn’t it likely that a kind, all-powerful, and very compassionate God routinely prevents terrible tragedies in ways that we do not see and therefore do not credit as miracles? Perhaps one day we’ll hear those stories and marvel at how often God intervened when we imagined Him uninvolved in our world.

This week Nanci’s sister Donna initiated a conversation between my daughters Karina and Angela and me about the first weekend of NFL football. She rightly discerned how big last weekend would’ve been in Nanci’s life and how challenging it would be for our family. It was a tough weekend, tougher than I anticipated.

Scripture says Christ must become greater, and we must become less. Does our becoming less make Him greater? Of course not. Can our becoming less show Him to be greater? Yes. Hope you enjoy these profound thoughts on humility from J.I. Packer, one of my favorite writers and people.

There are few people who I admire more than Joni Eareckson Tada. This recent article by her is so beautifully written, and just so Joni.

I enjoyed talking with Scott Linebrink on his podcast, Get in the Game, about sharing the Gospel and being generous with our money and spiritual gifts. Hope you find this interview helpful.