Mice, Dogs and Books (On the Lighter Side)

Our friend Pat Maxwell forwarded to us the picture above. Don’t you just love it?

Romance, cooperation, friendship, assisting your buddy in taking the initiative... it’s all there.

If you're looking for something heavyweight, you won't find it in this blog of mine. (I need a break.) But I recommend my friend Justin Taylor's blog for a thoughtful commentary on the current debate about whether Muslims worship the true God.

The other night Nanci read me the following from Reader's Digest:

A man and his dog go to a movie. During the funny scenes, the dog laughs. When there's a sad part, the dog cries. This goes on for the entire film: laughing and crying in all the right places.

After the show, a man who was sitting in the row behind them comes up and says, "That was truly amazing!"

"It sure was," the dog owner replies, "He hated the book."

Speaking of dogs and books reminds me of the Groucho Marx quote I mentioned last summer, in reference to Moses, our Dalmatian: “Outside a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
And while we're at it, Nanci emailed me this report, from our friend Diane Meyer this morning (see, send us something good and you may get credit in a blog):

With all the sadness going on in the world, it's worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed last week. Larry LaPrise, the man who wrote "The Hokie Pokey" died peacefully at the age of 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in. And then the trouble started.

Randy Alcorn
http://www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com/
http://www.epm.org/

Announcing the Winners of the Safely Home Contest

Congratulations to this month’s book giveaway winners! All three will be receiving a brand new, signed copy of Randy’s novel Safely Home.

The winners are:

1) undividedheart
2) vertigo
3) Letha Schrader (posted as anonymous)

Winners, please e-mail me as soon as possible at Stephanie@epm.org with your mailing address and who you would like the book signed to.

To all who entered, thank you. Those of us here at EPM have so appreciated and enjoyed reading your kind comments and learning how the Lord has used Safely Home in your lives.

For those who would still like to read the book, starting today and through the month of March, Safely Home will be available at the EPM website for the special sale price of $7.00, discounted from $11.19.

In addition to the randomly drawn winners, we chose to send Safely Home to some other worthy commenters. I’ll let Randy explain:

I read all the comments submitted for the drawing, and really enjoyed them. They were very encouraging. Every once in a while I felt led by the Lord to give away an extra copy of the book to someone. So I’m taking the liberty, in addition to the three winners who were drawn, to give signed books to Kendra, Ashley Weis, Robin, Joann Harrison, and Penny Dorsey. I guess that makes eight winners instead of three. Thanks again for everyone who entered. I look forward to giving away lots more books in the future.

Thanks for those words, Randy. That’s all for now. Check back on Friday, March 7 to enter the next giveaway!

Stephanie Hallman
Promotions Director
Eternal Perspective Ministries

Longing for Happiness, in Blaise Pascal

After coming home from dinner last night, Nanci and I enjoyed watching the total lunar eclipse. Wow. What a show. And it wouldn’t happen if God hadn’t made the moon just the size it is and set it at just the distance it is. The Sun's distance from the Earth is 400 times the Moon's, and the Sun's diameter is 400 times the Moon's. I just read an article on what an “amazing coincidence” this is. Yeah, right.

Most weeks now I’ll post a couple of blogs, a longer one like this (length of a short article), and a shorter one, like the last. The days I post will vary.

Blaise Pascal, who no doubt enjoyed eclipses, was a French mathematician and physicist, and later in his life, a Christian philosopher. Born in 1623, he died in 1662, at age 39, having accomplished several lifetimes of work. (And he had quite the hairdo.)

Pascal was a child prodigy educated by his father. His earliest work was in the construction of mechanical calculators, the study of fluids, and the concepts of pressure and vacuum. (My earliest work was reading Batman comics.)

Pascal was a top-level mathematician, who wrote a major treatise on projective geometry at the age of sixteen. When reading it, Rene Descartes refused to believe it could have been written by a sixteen-year-old. Pascal’s writings also influenced the development of modern economics and social science.

This is Pascal’s triangle, which I would gladly explain if I understood it. (Descartes would have had no difficulty believing anything mathematical I came up with was written by a sixteen-year-old.)

Following a profound encounter with God, at age 31 Pascal abandoned his scientific work and devoted himself to theology and philosophy. He then wrote his two most famous works, the Lettres provinciales and the Pensées. Pascal suffered from bad health throughout his life and died before age forty. (I’ve gleaned this biographical info from an article on Pascal.)

So what happened in that profound encounter with God?

On November 23, 1654, Pascal is said to have been involved in an accident at the Neuilly-sur-Seine bridge where the horses plunged over the parapet and the carriage nearly followed them. Fortunately, the reins broke and the coach hung halfway over the edge. Pascal and his friends emerged unscathed, but the sensitive philosopher, terrified by the nearness of death, fainted away and remained unconscious for some time. Upon recovering fifteen days later, between 10:30 and 12:30 at night, Pascal had an intense religious vision and immediately recorded the experience in a brief note to himself which began: "Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars…" and concluded by quoting Psalm 119:16: "I will not forget thy word. Amen." He seems to have carefully sewn this document into his coat and always transferred it when he changed clothes; a servant discovered it only by chance after his death. This piece is now known as the Memorial.

The most famous quote from Pascal is one that he apparently never said. It has variations, but goes something like this, with the key words being “God-shaped vacuum”: “There is within every man a God-shaped vacuum, an emptiness that only He can fill.”

Several of you confirmed my own experience in looking for this often-quoted statement from Blaise Pascal—it just doesn’t exist. (One of you suggested that perhaps Pascal’s work with the concept of vacuum led to the misquote.) The closest I’ve ever found, and two of you passed on the same, is the following. It’s very good, and all the better because Pascal really said it (Pensees, translated by W. F. Trotter, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1958):

What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there once was in man a true happiness of which now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present. But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.

The infinite abyss in our hearts, which might be called a vacuum, can only be filled by the infinite God Himself. We still have a trace of an ancient happiness that was in the hearts of Adam and Eve, a happiness which preceded sin and was ruined by it. But it was not utterly destroyed. Its mark is still upon us, and one day, when redemption is fully realized, God will fan it into flames again, never to be quenched. But even now, while living in the Shadowlands, we have times of burning joy, the foretaste of the eternal joy to come, the lesser streams of the JOY of which God Himself is the Fountainhead.

One final Pascal quote, which I love:

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves. (Pascal’s Pensées, thought #425, edited by Trotter, 113).

The surprising way this statement ends is profound, and right on the mark. Notice the distinction: we don’t make our choices based on what will bring us happiness, but on what we think will bring us happiness (no matter how wrong we may be).

The question is, what do we believe in our hearts will really bring us happiness? And what are we teaching our children will bring them happiness? If we look at the daily choices we make, in terms of how we spend our time and money, they will reveal the answer.

As long as I think the world and popular culture and diversion will bring me happiness, I will succumb to the quick fixes of a variety of addictions, including the endless entertainment which gives no lasting delight.

But when I believe God that ultimate happiness, transcendent Joy, is to be found in Him, then I will turn off the TV, turn off talk radio and sports radio, back away from the internet and video games, and open the Word of God and ask His Spirit to speak Joy into my life.

May we fix our eyes on the eternal Joy purchased for us on the cross of Jesus. No matter what difficulty today or tomorrow may bring, it is overshadowed by what awaits us in the redeemed heavens and earth.

“The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

Randy Alcorn
www.epm.org
www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com

God’s Grace and Our Sickness, from Doug Nichols and Matthew Henry

I’m breaking from the longing theme, and will come back to Pascal on longing later this week. But I’m going to start doing some shorter and more conventional blogs from time to time. The sort of things I pass on to my friends, but which I’ll put in blog form instead, making them available to more people. I’ll still have the longer blogs, usually once a week.

Meanwhile, I want to thank everyone for the incredible response on the book drawing for Safely Home. Over 150 people have responded already, and I think we’ll be giving away more than three books in light of that. But I’ve really been touched by the kind notes and statements about God using my books in people’s lives. (I read every single note.) Thank you. I didn’t anticipate this, but it is certainly encouraging. I think the monthly book giveaway is a welcome addition to this blog, and I hope you’ll participate in coming months as well.

My friend Doug Nichols, pictured above with his wonderful wife Margaret, is the founder of Action International, one of my favorite ministries in the world. If you’re wondering about a worthy missions work to support, I highly recommend Action. (And Doug has a new blog too, http://dougnichols.blogspot.com, which will provide great missions-related info.)

But here’s something I want to share with you, in a recent letter from Doug Nichols:

Years ago my oncologist said it was worth a million dollars to him to have one of his serious cancer patients respond to his care as I did. He called one night (during my cancer treatment) in a panic, saying tests showed my cancer had returned with a vengeance. However, later tests proved the tests were mistaken! He and my surgeon told me on one occasion that my cancer situation was the worst they had ever treated!

Even though I did not die fourteen years ago as expected, there is always the possibility that cancer (or any other sickness) can reoccur and this be my last year before glory (this could be your last year as well). I was reading of the great commentator and pastor, Matthew Henry, who died in June 1714; on January 1 of that year he wrote:

“I, this morning, renewed the dedication of myself to God, my whole self, body, soul, and spirit. Father, I give Thee my heart; use me for Thy glory this year; employ me in Thy service; fit me for Thy will. If this should be a year of sickness and pain; if a year of family affliction; if a year of public trouble; if of silencing and suffering; bonds and banishment; if it be my dying year, welcome the holy will of God. If this is a year of continued health, peace and liberty, Lord I desire to be busy in Thy service, both in study and preaching, in entire dependence upon Your divine grace, without which I am nothing, and can do nothing.”

That day, Matthew Henry preached a sermon to young people from Proverbs 23:26: “My son, give me thy heart.” He then added in his diary the following affectionate and devout aspiration, “Lord, take my heart and make it such as it should be.”

Many thanks to Doug Nichols and Matthew Henry for enriching me with these thoughts.

J S Bach wrote the initials SDG at the end of his compositions. It stood for Soli Deo Gloria: To God alone be glory. That characterized the objective of Matthew Henry, and it expresses the heart of Doug and Margaret Nichols. May the same be true of us.

SDG.

Randy Alcorn
www.epm.org
www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com

Longing for God and Joy, from Augustine

If you want to enter your name via a comment for the three book giveaway of Safely Home, go here. But then come back to learn about what you’re really looking for.

Aurelius Augustine, 354-430 AD, was a church father and theologian who made a remarkable impact, to the point that nearly all of us today are in his debt for some of the distinctives of our theology. After pursuing a life of selfishness and immorality, through the prayers of his mother and the grace of God, Augustine came to faith in Christ. If you want to know more about him, check here, though you (and all students doing term papers) should remember that Wikipedia is not the ultimate reference! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo

I heartily recommend nearly everything from John Piper, including his The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God’s Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther and Calvin.

Leaving the biography to others, I want to share some things Augustine said. I’ll quote him, then comment.

“Thou hast made us for Thyself O God, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.”

This captures what’s at the core of all of us. Though apparently Pascal did not say, “There is within every man a God-shaped vacuum, an emptiness that only He can fill,” he should have said it. (I’ve searched for it, and given up; if you ever find it, or something close, in an actual document written by Pascal, let me know.) And that’s the essence of Augustine’s point—since God has made us for him, we will never find rest, peace and meaning in anyone or anything else besides him. What can only be found in the Greater can never be found in the lesser.

Of course, we will catch glimmers of peace and meaning here and there, but even these are derivative of God, whether or not we recognize that. An atheist can find beauty and awe in God’s creation, but only because his creation is an extension of himself. The creation is beautiful only because it is an extension of the Creator’s beauty.

The moments of pleasure and happiness experienced by the atheist should be rightfully credited to God, who gave him the capacity for pleasure, and by His common grace exposes him to the sources of happiness. At the moment the atheist feels profoundly grateful, he is without knowing it recognizing a personal Being whose gracious provision has prompted those feelings of gratitude. The fact that when he feels thankful the atheist doesn’t know who to thank may be embarrassing, but it says more about himself than God, who is in no danger of being voted out of existence by those who don’t believe in Him.

In a fallen corrupted world, people keep searching and searching, like frustrated channel changers, never finding what satisfies (and often never turning off the TV to look elsewhere). Ultimate satisfaction can be only found in God, the gracious giver of all good things. We were made for Him and we will never be satisfied with less. Coming to grips with this is one of the great keys to Christian living. As long as we hold onto the illusion that we can find what we’re looking for somewhere else, we’ll never give ourselves fully to God. It’s easier not to. And yet, in the long run, the easy road we choose proves to be much harder than the hard road we turned away from.

While we as Christians should know this above all others, how soon we forget. At the end of the day, if we haven’t found a reason for peace and contentment, is it because we were looking in the wrong places and to the wrong people? Christians can live, practically speaking, as if we were atheists.

How many times in the last 24 hours have you consciously looked to God and said “Please, my Savior, help me find in You today all that my heart longs for?” I did it just now, because I wrote it. And I did it, essentially, earlier today twice, once because I wasn’t feeling joyful, and knew I needed to direct my heart to Him to find a reason for joy. The second time was when I was praying for people I love who are facing challenges. I’m facing a few myself. God can use those challenges to remind us we can’t find peace apart from Him.

Augustine prayed, “Turn not away your face from me, that I may find what I seek. Turn not aside in anger from your servant, lest in seeking you I run toward something else….Be my helper. Leave me not, neither despise me, O God my Savior. Scorn not that a mortal should seek the Eternal.”

This is cited by Thomas Hand, in a great book called Augustine on Prayer. Augustine also said, “The whole life of a good Christian is a holy desire.”

In his classic autobiography, The Confessions of Saint Augustine, he wrote, “How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose! You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure.” (Confessions IX, 1.)

I had those words of Augustine posted on my computer for two years. I think it’s time to print them out again. I vividly remember coming to Christ as a teenager and finding that some of the things I’d most wanted to hold onto no longer had an attraction for me. God was so much better, so much sweeter. Yet as time goes on, other temptations, other distractions come to usurp the place of God who is “the true, the sovereign joy.” May we turn away from those temptations which will never satisfy, and turn to the God who is sweeter than all pleasure.

This is Eraina, granddaughter of Janet Albers, our EPM bookkeeper. When Janet saw the picture of a kid by a faucet, which I posted a couple of weeks ago, she showed me this, which I think is adorable, and also conveys the kind of thirst and anticipation we should have when we come to God. (It also shows the lengths to which people will go to get their grandchild’s picture on a blog; not really, it was my idea.)

Augustine wrote, “All my empty dreams suddenly lost their charm and my heart began to throb with a bewildering passion for the wisdom of eternal truth…My God, how I burned with longing to have wings to carry me back to you, away from all earthly things, although I had no idea what you would do with me!” (Confessions III, 4.)

I love the fact that Augustine didn’t view God as safe. This is one of the great elements of Aslan the Lion in Narnia. He’s good, but He’s not safe. We long for God, but we are not in control. We can’t require Him to do what we want. (Have you noticed that?) So to get what we want, the joy that can only come in knowing God, we have to give up what we don’t want to—control. But since we have such meager control in the first place, and what little we have gets us into so much trouble, isn’t it laughable that we would choose to hold onto what cannot satisfy, so that our hands and hearts have no room for the Sovereign God who alone can satisfy?

“Without exception we all long for happiness…all agree that they want to be happy.…They may all search for it in different ways, but all try their hardest to reach the same goal, that is, joy.” (Confessions, X, 21.)

“Every man, whatsoever his condition, desires to be happy. There is no man who does not desire this, and each one desires it with such earnestness that he prefers it to all other things; whoever, in fact, desires other things, desires them for this end alone.” (Sermon 306).

These last two quotes, which are similar, remind me of a great saying from mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal. I think next week I’ll share some thoughts on longing from Pascal.

Meanwhile, consider that we all desire to be happy. We all have the same goal—Joy. We search for it in different places and in different ways. But in the end, there is only one source of ultimate pleasure:

“In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forever more.” Psalm 16:11

Randy Alcorn
http://www.epm.org/
http://www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com/

[Three] Book Giveaway of the Month: Safely Home

The Safely Home giveaway is now closed! Please check back March 7 for next month's giveaway.

Note from Randy: Stephanie Hallman, who works with our ministry, put together the following and will be in charge of the monthly book giveaway. My only suggestion was to change from a one book giveaway to three, since I love to give away books. (It’s easy for me since I‘m not the one who ships them, I just sign them!). So, here’s Steph:

We’re excited to announce that beginning this month of February, Randy’s blog will feature a book giveaway of the month! Each month three winners will receive a brand new, signed copy of one of Randy’s books.

The deadline to enter is Friday, February 22, and 3 winners will be randomly drawn on Monday, February 25. Entering for your chance to win is as simple as leaving a comment on this post. Only one entry per person, please. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave your e-mail address so we can contact you if your name is drawn. However, if you would prefer to not post your e-mail address, check the comments section on February 25 to find out if you were a winner! This month’s giveaway is the novel Safely Home:

Is this the day I die?

Li Quan's father had taught him from childhood to ask this question every day. He told young Quan, "one day the answer will be yes, and on that day you must be ready."

Quan stiffened at the shout behind him. The voice rang with the authority of the Gong An Ju, the Public Security Bureau.

"You meet in the night like the criminals you are. How dare you defy the law? In three minutes," Scarbrow said matter-of-factly, "we will shoot every man and woman—and child—who does not declare himself loyal to the people rather than the gweilos, foreign devils.”

Quan, Ming and Shen clasped each other's hands. Quan breathed deeply and braced himself.

"Surely this is the day."

American business executive Ben Fielding has no idea what his brilliant old college roommate is facing in China. After 20 years he expects to pick up where they left off. But when they're reunited in China, the men are shocked at what they discover about each other. The paths they've walked have shaped their lives and loyalties in radically different ways.

Thrown together in an hour of encroaching darkness, watched by unseen eyes, both must make choices that will determine not only the destinies of two men, but two families, two nations...and two worlds.

It’s a powerful story that will give you greater awareness of the persecuted church. Many people write to tell us they were profoundly affected by the message of this book. Safely Home is also available for purchase through the EPM website, and 100% of the royalties go to help persecuted Christians and to spread the gospel in their countries.

Check back each month for your chance to win another of Randy’s books! And be sure to check out Randy’s post “Longing for Joy” from earlier this week.

God bless you,

Stephanie Hallman
Promotions Director
Eternal Perspective Ministries

Longing for Joy

I spoke two weeks ago of the annual March for life. Barbara Curtis sent a link to some pictures. Go here and watch the slide show. You’ll see lots of young people standing up for life. Barbara’s blog “Mommy Life” is very popular among mothers, and you may want to check it out.

I wrote first about the longings of our heart, then last week about longing pictured in Scripture as hunger and thirst for God, righteousness and Heaven.

This week I want to talk about our Longing for Joy, something that isn’t selfish in the bad sense, but something God made us for. In fact, some great theologians said in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, written nearly 400 years ago, “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” There is biblical support for that bold declaration.

Psalm 16:11 says, “You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

God offers us joy. But it’s a joy to be found in Him. It’s a joy that comes to us only when we are in his presence. If we know Christ we will be his presence forever. But the wonderful news is we don’t have to wait until Heaven to find joy. We are in his presence right now, since Jesus promised “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” He indwells us, as Scripture says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” He has sent His Holy Spirit to live within us too.

After commanding the Philippians to rejoice twice earlier in his letter, Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4). When he repeats a command that often, I suspect he thinks we may tend to overlook or neglect it.

Notice our rejoicing has an object: rejoice in the Lord. Living here in a sin-stained world we can nevertheless get a real foretaste of Heaven, of living without sin and curse and death. How? By going to Christ, calling upon Him, reflecting on His grace. By recognizing and taking pleasure in our God. By repeatedly coming into his presence, where we are always welcome. By meditating on His Word and praying and seeking His face, as we meet with Him. We can rejoice when we join with His people to say thanks to our amazing God.

If we see God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—as He really is, if we contemplate what the Godhead has done for us, what else can we do but rejoice?

“What shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Paul asks in Romans 8. When we face death itself, what awaits us on the other side? The ultimate cause for rejoicing: God.

Scripture promises, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will grant you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

We all delight in something. What makes us most excited? Family? Friends? Sports? Hobbies? Work? Travel? Books? Movies?

How about God himself? What are you and I doing today to delight ourselves in Him? Of course, if we delight in God, that will transform the desires of our hearts. As we draw near to Him we will become more like him. We will want what he wants. We will want His closeness and the desire of our hearts will be to please Him. We will want to hear Him say to us “Well done.” And when that day comes He will flood us with more joy that we can imagine. He will say, “Come and share your master’s happiness” (Matthew 25:21, 23).

Notice that God is said to be happy. He has a happiness within Himself, enjoyed within His triune being from an eternity before the creation of the universe. He doesn’t create happiness out of nothing and export it to us. Rather, He invites us to enter into a happiness He already enjoys.

John Piper speaks of God’s eternal happiness within His three-person-self in his book The Pleasures of God. Theologian John Owen spoke of it centuries ago, and you can enjoy his writings in a recently assembled book called Communion with the Triune God, edited by Justin Taylor and Kelly M. Kapic.

There are many things we think we want that won’t be good for us. God wants us to experience true joy—not only for our good but for His glory. We tend to look in the wrong places for that joy, but God tells us to find it in Him.

Jesus spoke to his disciples of God’s love, then said, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). So Jesus tells us about God’s grace toward us so that Christ’s own joy may be in us, and that our joy may be complete, that is, full and penetrating and abiding.

If you imagine God doesn’t really care whether we find such joy, consider these words of Jesus:

“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy will be complete” (John 16:24).

It might seem selfish to ask God for greater joy. But Jesus commands us to seek Him and ask of Him, for the purpose of finding a completeness of joy in Him. Why would we settle for anything less?

On June 8, 1941, C.S. Lewis preached a great sermon from the high-perched pulpit of the University Church of Saint Mary in Oxford, England. When Nanci and I spent four days in Oxford two years ago, I took this picture of that pulpit where he preached it.

The sermon was called “The Weight of Glory,” and it’s in a book of essays and messages by the same name, which I highly recommend. In it Lewis said, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Today, regardless of our circumstances, let’s not be content with anything less than what Jesus offers us: Joy. And let’s not try to find it except in Him. May we learn to see the smallest pleasures of life as gifts from His nail-scarred hands. And may we see that the greatest difficulties of life are temporary obstacles that are small to Him, and He intends to use them to draw us closer to Himself, the Source of all Joy.

Randy Alcorn
www.epm.org

www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com