Are you Willing to be Hated for Speaking the Gospel Truth?

When Gianna Jessen spoke at our church a few weeks ago, she said many memorable things. The one that I've been thinking about is that to be a follower of Christ you need to be willing to be hated.

I agree, and that's what I want to talk about. Of course, this does NOT mean being hateful. Nor does it mean seeking to be hated. Or having a persecution complex, so you think people don’t like you because you’re following Christ, when they actually don’t like you because you’re an idiot.

I am all for graciousness, kindness and servant-hearted love as we speak the truth. I seek to practice this with the nonchristians I’m around. But at some point the greatest kindness we can offer them, coming out of a life of humility and faithfulness to Christ, is the good news about Jesus. (That good news actually involves some very bad news about human sinfulness, which is what makes the cross an offense, meaning that it ticks people off).

The danger comes when we live in such fear of being mislabeled that we don’t step forward as unapologetic and unashamed all-out followers of Jesus. They can call us Jesus freaks or ignorant or uncool or intolerant or anything they want, that’s fine. We should do what we believe pleases our Lord, regardless of how it pans out in opinion polls. That includes loving others and giving radically and ministering to the down and out and addressing addictions and saying we think it’s wrong to kill children of all ages and helping people find alternatives. We do such things not seeking the approval of our culture, but of our King.

If we seek our culture’s approval, we’ll either never get it or get it only at the expense of failing to represent Christ. We are promised, that if we “live godly lives in Christ Jesus” we “will suffer persecution.” If we’re not suffering persecution, at some level, then what does that suggest?

We should certainly be nice, and it’s sad when Christians aren’t. But it’s also sad when we imagine “niceness” has greater impact than it really does. Niceness is not the gospel. Some modern concepts of evangelism are little more than being nice to your neighbor and loaning him your hedge clipper and hoping that somehow he will come to Christ without you actually having to say the WORDS of the gospel which would run the risk of him thinking you’re weird. Our good example is important, but it’s not sufficient. There are actual truths that must be grappled with in surrendering to Jesus (1 Cor 15:1-6). And these truths are expressed in words.

I’m all for audience analysis and understanding the perceptions of this generation and speaking in a way they can understand. But instead of letting the world set our agenda and the ground rules of what we can and can’t say, let’s ask the Lord how best to take the timeless message of the gospel to these people.

But, and I say this coming out of some of the conversations I’ve had with cool Christians, the answer is not altering the contents of the gospel to make it something everyone can easily agree with. If the gospel becomes nothing more than the reflection of a worldview they already have, it has nothing to offer them. It’s God’s gospel. Given the price He paid on the cross to offer it, He has the right to say difficult things such as Jesus is the only way to the Father and we are hell-bound without him. That message is not popular and never will be. Our job isn’t to edit the message, but to deliver it.

Among some believers the new definition of a good Christian is holding your beliefs privately, not challenging those who publicly share beliefs that dishonor Christ, and avoiding controversy at all costs lest we be perceived as “those kind of Christians” who hate gays, oppose abortion, favor inquisitions and live to burn witches. We so much want the world to like us that we end up distancing ourselves from the historic Christian faith, from biblical doctrine (including hell), and from churches (because they’re all hypocrites except us). We end up making ourselves indistinguishable from the world, and therefore have nothing to offer the world.

Sometimes we assume the moral high ground by rolling our eyes at those street preachers, congratulating ourselves that we aren’t like that. Street preaching’s not my thing, but I can give you names of people who have come to Christ through street preaching. It’s more of a stretch to name those who’ve come to Christ through Christians who think it’s not cool to tell people the biblical truth that they need to repent of their sins (a synonym for evils; basically a big insult), and turn to Christ to be saved from hell.

It’s not our job to be popular. We are not contestants on American Idol. And we are not Christ’s speechwriters or PR team, airbrushing Jesus so He has greater appeal to people who don’t want to hear what He said about sin and hell. He’s the King, He calls the shots, we’re just His ambassadors. So let’s represent the real Jesus, the whole Jesus, not just the culturally acceptable one.

There is nothing new or postmodern about the gospel turning some people off. That’s always been true, just as it’s always been true that some people are longing to hear it and will deeply appreciate it that you had enough courage to tell them about Jesus.

As D. L. Moody said when someone criticized his approach to evangelism, “I like the way I do it better than the way you don’t do it.”

It is not gracious and kind to withhold the gospel from those who, according to Jesus, are going to hell without Him. Sometimes what we imagine to be our graciousness and kindness is actually indifference or cowardice.

“All men will hate you because of me.” Mark 13:13

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” John 15:18


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

An atheist explains Africa's need for God

Before getting to the main theme of this blog, let me mention a few things.

Eternal Perspective Ministries has been offering quantities (50 books/case) of my book Why Prolife? to churches for $1.60 per copy (an 80% discount from the $7.99 retail price). Even though Sanctity of Human Life Sunday was January 18, we are continuing to offer that discounted price for those churches and organizations who would still like to share the truth about the unborn (Of course, you can do this any week of the year you choose to.) Visit the EPM website to learn more and to read the PDF version of the book, available for free online.

Last Thursday, January 22, was the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and I was on KPDQ's The Georgene Rice Show to talk about prolife issues. Click here to listen to the MP3 of the interview.

I want to post this remarkable article you may appreciate. (Or maybe not.) Following the article, I'll share some of the ministries in Africa supported by the royalties from my books.

As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God
By Matthew Parris, from The Times Online

Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.

It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.

Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

I used to avoid this truth by applauding—as you can—the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It's a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.

But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.

First, then, the observation. We had friends who were missionaries, and as a child I stayed often with them; I also stayed, alone with my little brother, in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world—a directness in their dealings with others—that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.

At 24, travelling by land across the continent reinforced this impression. From Algiers to Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, then right through the Congo to Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, four student friends and I drove our old Land Rover to Nairobi.
We slept under the stars, so it was important as we reached the more populated and lawless parts of the sub-Sahara that every day we find somewhere safe by nightfall. Often near a mission.

Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers—in some ways less so—but more open.

This time in Malawi it was the same. I met no missionaries. You do not encounter missionaries in the lobbies of expensive hotels discussing development strategy documents, as you do with the big NGOs. But instead I noticed that a handful of the most impressive African members of the Pump Aid team (largely from Zimbabwe) were, privately, strong Christians. “Privately” because the charity is entirely secular and I never heard any of its team so much as mention religion while working in the villages. But I picked up the Christian references in our conversations. One, I saw, was studying a devotional textbook in the car. One, on Sunday, went off to church at dawn for a two-hour service.

It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work was unconnected with personal faith. Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were. What they were was, in turn, influenced by a conception of man's place in the Universe that Christianity had taught.

There's long been a fashion among Western academic sociologists for placing tribal value systems within a ring fence, beyond critiques founded in our own culture: “theirs” and therefore best for “them”; authentic and of intrinsically equal worth to ours.

I don't follow this. I observe that tribal belief is no more peaceable than ours; and that it suppresses individuality. People think collectively; first in terms of the community, extended family and tribe. This rural-traditional mindset feeds into the “big man” and gangster politics of the African city: the exaggerated respect for a swaggering leader, and the (literal) inability to understand the whole idea of loyal opposition.

Anxiety—fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things—strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.

How can I, as someone with a foot in both camps, explain? When the philosophical tourist moves from one world view to another he finds—at the very moment of passing into the new—that he loses the language to describe the landscape to the old. But let me try an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain? “Because it's there,” he said.

To the rural African mind, this is an explanation of why one would not climb the mountain. It's... well, there. Just there. Why interfere? Nothing to be done about it, or with it. Hillary's further explanation—that nobody else had climbed it—would stand as a second reason for passivity.

Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.

Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.

And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.

This article is from The Times Online.

Here are just a few selected ministries that EPM supports, who are working in Christ's name in Africa:

ACTION International

The vision of ACTION Uganda is to reach Africans through ministry to street children, prisoners, orphans, and those afflicted with AIDS. ACTION missionaries in Uganda are preaching the gospel, caring for physical needs, training national church leaders, planting churches and developing care facilities for the poor. Jerry Bingham, the Team Leader of Uganda and also the Grassroots Leadership Training Director, and his wife, Candis live in Gulu, Northern Uganda, called the 'war zone'. Here they work with war-torn, traumatized people, especially children, as well as minister to pastors in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan with Grassroots Leadership Training. They also do training to meet the plight of AIDS/HIV victims. ACTION also works in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. www.actionintl.org

Make Way Partners

Through the hope of the Gospel, Make Way Partners goes to the most vulnerable and least protected to end human trafficking and sexual slavery. Their ministry seeks to offer healing and hope to the trafficked victims of Sudan, as well as to their traffickers. Partnering with an indigenous ministry, they are responding to the growing need for orphan care in this area. Make Way Partners currently has more than 400 children in their orphanage, school and food program. www.makewaypartners.org

World Relief

In community with the local Church, World Relief works in several African countries, including Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sudan and Zambia. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Civil war has left horrific scars on the communities. Its people are divided by tribal differences–and distrust runs rampant. The atmosphere is so tense, the situation such a powder keg, that even churches are divided along tribal lines. In a groundbreaking move, World Relief brought together 100 pastors from different tribal groups for three days of intensive, Bible-based training on reconciliation and peace-building. Some pastors wept as they confessed they had taken part in the fighting. They begged each other for forgiveness and embraced each other as brothers. Today, these churches – representing 42 tribal groups and 7 denominations – work together to help widows and orphans, regardless of tribe, church affiliation or ethnicity. www.worldrelief.org

Want to lay up treasures in heaven by investing in God's work in Africa? There are many ways, but in my mind these are three of the best.


www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com
www.epm.org

Princeton Bioethics Professor Peter Singer: Devaluing Human Life

Related to my previous blog, way to go Kurt Warner! After winning the NFC championship game Sunday and earning a trip to the Superbowl, Kurt Warner, who has been criticized for his vocal faith in Christ, was interviewed by Terry Bradshaw over the stadium PA. Warner looked up at the stands and said to everyone, including millions of television viewers:

"Everybody's going to be tired of hearing this, but I never get tired of saying it; there's one reason I'm standing up here on this stage today, and that's because of my Lord up above. I got to say thanks to Jesus."

Here's the 40 second video, worth it even if you're not a football fan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdTLqmY5x3M

What if all of us, for all of our successes, in business and parenting, in sports and school and all of life, insisted on saying public thanks to Jesus? As Jason Hanson made me a Lions fan, and Timmy Tebow and his family made me a Gator fan, Kurt Warner has made me a Cardinals fan. Go, Cards! Win the Superbowl! (Sorry Steelers fans, but you beat our Seahawks in your last Superbowl, and it's time to spread it around.)

Alright, as alert readers may have noticed, the man in the picture above is not Kurt Warner. It's Peter Singer. He came to mind as I was thinking about the January 22 anniversary of legalized abortion in America. Singer is one of those rare people who is consistent with his worldview. Commendable if you have the right worldview, sometimes horrifying if you don't.

I have long been interested in the career of Princeton bioethics professor Peter Singer. I've written about him in my books ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments and Why Prolife?

The New York Times, explaining how the values of Peter Singer trickle down through media and academia to the general populace, noted that "no other living philosopher has had this kind of influence."

The New England Journal of Medicine said he has had "more success in effecting changes in acceptable behavior" than any philosopher since Bertrand Russell. The New Yorker called him the "most influential" philosopher alive.

Well, on that note, let me introduce you to the beliefs of this extraordinarily influential professor. Peter Singer wrote,

"The life of a fetus is of no greater value than the life of a nonhuman animal at a similar level of rationality, self-consciousness, awareness, capacity to feel, etc.”Singer says, “If we compare a severely defective human infant with a nonhuman animal, a dog or a pig, for example, we will often find the nonhuman to have superior capacities, both actual and potential, for rationality, self-consciousness, communication and anything else that can plausibly be considered morally significant.”

When Singer came to teach at Princeton, he was protested by Not Dead Yet, a disabilities rights group. They took offense at Singer's books, which say it should be legal to kill disabled infants, as well as children and adults with severe cognitive disabilities.

Singer suggests that individual human worth is based on its usefulness to others:

"When the death of a disabled infant will lead to the birth of another infant with better prospects of a happy life, the total amount of happiness will be greater if the disabled infant is killed. The loss of happy life for the first infant is outweighed by the gain of a happier life for the second. Therefore, if killing the hemophiliac infant has no adverse effect on others, it would, according to the total view, be right to kill him.”

Peter Singer says, “There [is a] lack of any clear boundary between the newborn infant, who is clearly not a person in the ethically relevant sense, and the young child who is. In our book, Should the Baby Live?, my colleague Helga Kuhse and I suggested that a period of twenty-eight days after birth might be allowed before an infant is accepted as having the same right to life as others.”

Dr. Charles Hartshorne of the University of Texas echoes Singer’s ethic: “Of course, an infant is not fully human.… I have little sympathy with the idea that infanticide is just another form of murder. Persons who are already functionally persons in the full sense have more important rights even than infants.”

During an interview, Singer was asked, "Is there anything wrong with a society in which children are bred for spare parts on a massive scale?"

His answer: "No."

He also reaffirmed that it would be ethically OK to kill 1-year-olds with physical or mental disabilities, although ideally the question of infanticide would be "raised as soon as possible after birth."

Given a choice between keeping alive an adult chimpanzee and a human infant, the chimp should beat out the child.

In another interview, a woman asked him, "Would you kill a disabled baby?"

"Yes, if that was in the best interests of the baby and of the family as a whole. Many people find this shocking, yet they support a woman's right to have an abortion. One point on which I agree with opponents of abortion is that, from the point of view of ethics rather than the law, there is no sharp distinction between the foetus and the newborn baby."

“Human babies are not born self-aware or capable of grasping their lives over time. They are not persons. Hence their lives would seem to be no more worthy of protection than the life of a fetus.”

And writing specifically about Down syndrome babies, he advocates trading a disabled or defective child (one who is apparently doomed to too much suffering) for one who has better prospects for happiness:


“We may not want a child to start on life's uncertain voyage if the prospects are clouded. When this can be known at a very early stage in the voyage, we may still have a chance to make a fresh start. This means detaching ourselves from the infant who has been born, cutting ourselves free before the ties that have already begun to bind us to our child have become irresistible. Instead of going forward and putting all our effort into making the best of the situation, we can still say no, and start again from the beginning.”

And in an article titled, "Making Our Own Competency Should Be Paramount Decisions about Death," Singer wrote these fascinating words:

Any discussion of the ethics of voluntary euthanasia must begin by considering whether it can ever be right to kill an innocent human being. The view that this can never be right gains its strongest support from religious doctrines that claim that only humans are made in the image of God, or that only humans have an immortal soul, or that God gave us dominion over the animals—meaning that we can kill them if we wish—but reserved to himself dominion over human beings.

Reject these ideas, and it is difficult to think of any morally relevant properties that separate human beings with severe brain damage or other major intellectual disabilities from nonhuman animals at a similar mental level.

For why should the fact that a being is a member of our species make it worse to kill that being than it is to kill a member of another species, if the two individuals have similar intellectual abilities or if the nonhuman has superior intellectual abilities?

Well, that's Peter Singer for you. As Francis Schaeffer used to say, it won't stop with killing the unborn.

One final thought, especially for parents paying their children's tuition at Princeton, where their children may attend Singer's popular classes:

Singer also teaches that there can be moral justification for killing the elderly.

By the way, those in the Pacific Northwest are invited to a free screening of an excellent prolife movie called "Come What May" at Rolling Hills Community Church in Tualatin, Oregon on January 22, the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Visit www.comewhatmaypdx.com for more details and to get free tickets. (Don’t stay home at the last minute, however, even if you don’t have a ticket. You can very likely still get in.) For those in other parts of the country, go to www.adventfilmgroup.com for information about purchasing the DVD or hosting a screening of the film. Click here to view the movie trailer.


www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com
www.epm.org

Tim Tebow, Jason Hanson, and Kurt Warner: Faith and Football

Nanci is more football-crazy than I am, but we both really enjoy football season, and sort of hate to see it winding down as the Superbowl approaches.

The national college championship game was played a week ago. Congratulations to the Florida Gators and quarterback Tim Tebow, named Most Valuable Player.

If you would have told us three years ago that Nanci and I would become Gators fans we'd have said "no way." Nothing against the Gators, but Florida and Oregon, land of Beavers and Ducks, are geographical opposites, and in the past we haven't followed closely what happens in Florida at the college level.

But Tim Tebow and his family changed all that. Tim's parents, Bob and Pam Tebow, invited us to spend a weekend with them and attend a Gator game in November. They lived in Oregon 35 years ago while Bob attended Western Seminary, where I went after Multnomah Bible College (now Multnomah University).

Bob graduated from Western with our old friend and pastor Stu Weber, who I served with in the first thirteen years of Good Shepherd Community Church, which Nanci and I are still part of. We went to the Tebow home for a fun weekend, with much talk of the past, the present and God's faithfulness. The Tebows have a great family, and a great ministry in the Philippines.

Tim Tebow, in his three years of college, has won the national championship twice, as well as last

year's Heisman trophy for the best football player in the country, and then was one of the three Heisman finalists this year. But what's really remarkable is his outspoken devotion to the Lord, who he always publicly thanks as "my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (which is much more specific and controversial than thanking "God").

Timmy, as his family calls him, and as he signs his autographs (including on several jerseys for our grandsons), is utterly serious in his commitment to Christ. I have only been around one public figure who receives the amount of attention Timmy does, which is way more than most of us are built for. We were sitting with Timmy for an hour in a private post-game tailgate event, where we were able to talk and pray with him and watch him interact with others. Then he jumped in his parents car with us to go hang out at his apartment with some of his friends. (That's where the picture with Webers and Tebows was taken; then Nanci and I posed with Timmy's Heisman trophy, and a Heisman ball signed by winners of the trophy, at the Tebow home; to clarify, I was not actually a Heisman finalist myself.)

Naturally, because Timmy has been so explicit in his faith in Christ, and commitment to purity, he has a target on his chest. Pray for this young man. Fortunately he has a truly wonderful Christ-centered, kingdom-minded family. His parents, brothers and sisters are the real deal. So is Tim Tebow.

Tim Tebow isn't the only great football player with faith in God. Speaking in NFL chapels over the years, we've had the opportunity to get to know a number of them. One who had a great year is our friend Jason Hanson, who ranks number eight in total points scored in NFL history, and is still going strong.

Jason kicked for Washington State, setting NCAA records that stand to this day. He was teammates with retired quarterback Drew Bledsoe. He holds the all-time college record for most field goals from 50 yards and more (20), and 40 yards and more (39).

As of this season Jason also holds the all-time NFL record for field goals 50 yards and greater—41 of them. Jason kicked eight field goals over fifty yards this year, tying the NFL record set by Morton Anderson, and surpassing Anderson's lifetime record.

It was a rough year for the Detroit Lions, but an incredible year for Jason, who missed only one field goal from any distance (it was blocked). He's a pro-bowl alternate. And at age 38, having played with the Lions sixteen years, he's been with the same team longer than any other active NFL player.

Most importantly, Jason is not only a great competitor, but a humble follower of Christ, who uses his gifts for God's glory. He loves his wonderful wife and children and is a real role model, a man to be admired off the field even more than on. Read Jason's thoughtful words.

The way he's kicking, Jason could have another five years or more as a pro. When he finally does retire, in my opinion (which counts for nothing, since I don't get a vote) Jason will have had a hall of fame career. And speaking of the Hall of Fame, Jason is already there, as of last month, because the uniform he wore and the football he kicked to break that NFL career record for 50-yard-plus field goals were officially handed over to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Congratulations, brother.

Isn't it fun to know that God has his people everywhere, in grocery stores and tire shops, in offices, at colleges and in professional sports?

And what about Kurt Warner? Nine years after he won the Superbowl with the Rams, and about five years after everyone thought his career was over, this year he led the underdog Arizona Cardinals to their second straight playoff win, so that in a few days they play for the NFC championship. And for Warner, it's all about Christ.

My friend C.J. Mahaney preached a great message on sports recently called "Don't Waste Your Sports" which you can listen to online at Sovereign Grace's website. C.J. also blogged about a book that helps readers form a biblical worldview of sports. It's called Game Day for the Glory of God: A Guide for Athletes, Fans, & Wannabes and it was written by Stephen Altrogge.

Athletes in Action and Fellowship of Christian Athletes are two great ministries for young Christian athletes.

Well, consider that the official end of the blog, unless you want to read some of what I said in my big Heaven book about sports on the New Earth:

Just as we can look forward to cultural activities such as art, drama, and music on the New Earth, I also think we can assume that we’ll also enjoy sports there.

According to the principle of continuity, we should expect the New Earth to be characterized by familiar, earthly (though uncorrupted) things. Scripture compares the Christian life to athletic competitions (1 Corinthians 9:24, 27; 2 Timothy 2:5).

Because sports aren’t inherently sinful, we have every reason to believe that the same activities, games, skills, and interests we enjoy here will be available on the New Earth, with many new ones we haven’t thought of. (Your favorite sport in Heaven may be one you’ve never heard of or one that hasn’t yet been invented.) Sports and our enjoyment of them aren’t a result of the Fall. I have no doubt that sinless people would have invented athletics, with probably more variations than we have today. Sports suit our minds and our bodies. They’re an expression of our God-designed humanity.

What kinds of new sports and activities might we engage in on the New Earth? The possibilities are limitless. Perhaps we’ll participate in sports that were once too risky. And just as we might have stimulating conversations with theologians and writers in Heaven, we might also have the opportunity to play our favorite sports with some of our favorite sports heroes. How would you like to, in your resurrection body, play golf with Payne Stewart or play basketball with David Robinson? How would you like to play catch with Andy Pettitte or go for a run with Jesse Owens or Eric Liddell?

Eric Liddell understood that glorifying God extends to every part of our lives. Explaining that God had called him not only to missions work in China but also to compete in the Olympics, Liddell said to his sister, “He made me fast, and when I run I feel God’s pleasure. . . . To give up running would be to hold him in contempt.”

In a tennis tournament, I once played a five-hour singles match in which each of the three sets went to a tiebreaker. I came away exhausted, lost two toenails, and limped for two weeks. But did I regret a single minute of that five-hour match? Not one. There’s joy in testing the limits of our bodies. Furthermore, those exhilarating five hours created a permanent bond with my opponent, who became my friend.

As we expend energy in our new bodies, it’s possible we’ll tire and need refreshment. After playing for hours, we may eat and drink to replenish our bodies, laughing about what happened on the field, enjoying each other’s company, and praising God for the sheer pleasure of it all.

People have told me, “But there can’t be athletics in Heaven because competition brings out the worst in people.” It’s true that some people’s sin spills over during athletic competition. But in Heaven, there will be no worst in us to bring out. People further object: “But in sports, someone has to lose. And in Heaven no one could lose.” Who says so? I’ve thoroughly enjoyed many tennis matches and ten-kilometer races that I’ve lost. Losing a game isn’t evil. It’s not part of the Curse. To say that “everyone would have to win in Heaven” underestimates the nature of resurrected humanity.

Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do—including playing sports and watching them—may we do it all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com
www.epm.org

Book Giveaway of the Month: Heaven book with small group DVD of Randy speaking on Heaven

The Heaven giveaway is now closed. Please check out the winners post to see if your name was drawn.

This month we’re giving away three signed copies of Randy’s book Heaven, which now includes a bonus small group study DVD in the back of the book.

The DVD is a great addition to Heaven. (It’s not available separately from the book.) It includes seven small group sessions (average length of 9-12 minutes) along with some study questions.

If you missed Randy’s recent blog on the DVD, be sure to check it out to watch a video clip from one of the sessions.

Here’s Randy, sharing about why he wrote the Heaven book:


To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post by Friday, January 30. (If you're reading this post on Amazon or elsewhere, visit http://randyalcorn.blogspot.com/2009/01/book-giveaway-of-month-heaven-book-with.html to leave your comment.) The winners will be announced in a blog post on Monday, February 2, so be sure to check back and see if you won.

If you're a previous book giveaway winner, we'd encourage you to share this giveaway with friends who are not familiar with Randy's books and Eternal Perspective Ministries.

Please include your contact information (a blog, or an e-mail address), otherwise we cannot contact you if your name is drawn. Need help posting a comment? Click here for step-by-step instructions. For further assistance, contact me at stephanie@epm.org

Stephanie Anderson
Promotions Director
Eternal Perspective Ministries
http://www.epm.org/

Heaven Small Group DVD

A year ago July, I blogged about the days of filming I did for a new DVD about Heaven.

That small group DVD, which is a seven-week discussion guide designed for the book Heaven, is now available as a bonus product in the back of the book. (However, the DVD is not available separately from the book.)

It's fun to see the project come together, and fun too to see the little clips with our daughters, grandsons and even our dog Moses. In various sessions, we're in my office, at our house, in our yard and even our neighbor's yard. I like the footage filmed in front of waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge. Every beautiful place we went they asked me questions about Heaven and the New Earth, and my responses have been edited into this DVD.

People have asked when the Heaven book will be available in paperback. The answer is, from a publishing perspective (that's their decision, not mine), when the sales slow down in the hardcover version. And by God's grace the Heaven book has sold over half a million copies and is still on the bestseller's list, as it has been since it came out four years ago. So, that's delayed the release of the paperback.

The good news is not only that the book is bringing perspective and encouragement to countless people (I'm amazed at the letters we get), and many small groups are studying it, but that because we give away all the royalties, we've been able to support great causes all over the world. And now, in the back of every copy of the new edition of the hardcover book, Tyndale House publishers is providing the group study DVD at no extra charge.

Heaven is available from your local bookstore. (But do look in the back to confirm it's the edition with the DVD.) It can also be purchased from the EPM website.


www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com
www.epm.org

Abortion Survivor Gianna Jessen Speaking in Oregon January 10-11

Abortion-survivor Gianna Jessen will be coming to my home church, Good Shepherd Community Church, and speaking this coming weekend, January 10-11, for an early Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. Nanci and I plan to be at the Saturday night service at 5:30 PM. The Sunday services are 9:00 AM and 10:45 AM.

This is a great opportunity to hear firsthand Gianna's incredible survival story. I hope you'll consider bringing a friend, pro-choice or pro-life, to hear her story and the truth about abortion.

If you aren't familiar with Gianna, you can read my previous blogs about her and visit her website to read her biography.


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