All Resources

Having lost a beloved dog to disease, I can empathize with the pain you are feeling over the impending death of your furry friend. Death is not a normal part of our life, at least not the life God wanted for us. I suppose that’s why it hurts so much.

Nanci and I always got up early to watch Wimbledon together, as it’s a 6 a.m. start here on the Pacific coast. It was her second favorite sporting event after the Super Bowl. I cannot hear the word Wimbledon without immediately thinking of Nanci.

In this second conversation with Steve Silver of Men’s Golf Fellowship, Randy shares about the differences between the present Heaven and the future Heaven, which will be on the New Earth. Because Steve’s wife Sandy and Randy’s wife Nanci are now with Jesus, they share what the hope of Heaven means to them personally.

Resurrection—Christ’s and ours—is a cornerstone of the Christian faith. Yet how many of us ponder what our resurrected selves will be like? You might think Scripture doesn’t say much. In fact, it tells us a lot, and gives us solid reasons to deduce much more.

I believe that nothing is more often misdiagnosed than our homesickness for Heaven. We think that what we want is sex, drugs, alcohol, a new job, a raise, a doctorate, a spouse, a large-screen television, a new car, a cabin in the woods, a condo in Hawaii. What we really want is the person we were made for, Jesus, and the place we were made for, Heaven.

You should lose your faith…if it is in anyone other than Jesus. And you should forsake and reject any worldview, no matter how attractive and seductive and popular and affirming, that is not in concert with the worldview of God’s Word.

One suggestion I have is to share your story with him. What was life like for you growing up, what questions did you want answers to, and how did you fall in love with Jesus? When we’re honest with kids about things we struggled with and give them a chance to share their struggles too, it’s easier for them to trust us when we have harder things to share.

Pastor Steve Bateman gives an important correction to the modern sentiment that being happy due to positive circumstances, including the welfare of loved ones, is somehow unspiritual. True, circumstances change, and our happiness should be grounded on Christ, who doesn’t change, but that doesn’t make it inappropriate to rejoice in favorable immediate circumstances.

In this clip from his message “An Eternal Perspective on Suffering, Loss, and Grief,” Randy reminds listeners of how little we know compared to our all-wise, all-knowing God.

In this clip from Randy’s message “An Eternal Perspective on Suffering, Loss, and Grief,” Randy and Steve Keels discuss how it is OK to ask God our why questions, as long as we are willing to listen to His answers.

Randy spoke with his close friend and pastor Steve Keels at his home church, Good Shepherd Community Church. They talked about Nanci’s passing and what it looks like to have an eternal perspective in the midst of suffering, loss, and grief.

Though we don’t know exactly when, we do know for sure that either by our deaths or by Christ’s return, our suffering will end. From before the beginning, God drew the line in eternity’s sand to say for His children, “This much and no more, then endless joy.”

The New Fight for Life is the kind of book that can lead us beyond shallow political slogans and stereotypes that fit on bumper stickers or Twitter but are out of place in intelligent and respectful dialogue. I believe God has raised up Ben Watson to be a voice for two interwoven causes that should be simultaneously embraced: prolife justice and racial justice.

At the end of our lives, when we look back, most of what seemed urgent will be long forgotten. What we will thank God for—or regret—is how we handled what was truly important.