Announcing the Winners of the Wait Until Then Giveaway

Here are the winners from November’s Wait Until Then giveaway. Each of the three winners will receive a copy of the children’s book Wait Until Then by Randy Alcorn.

The randomly drawn winners are:

1) Rachael Stanley
2) Paul Wilson
3) Rachel O

It’s our privilege to also choose another winner:

Cheryl (dizzybloom)

All winners, please e-mail me at Stephanie (at) epm.org with your mailing address.

Stephanie Anderson
Promotions Director
Eternal Perspective Ministries
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Pregnancy Resource Centers: Serving Unborn Babies and Their Mothers

Recently the Pregnancy Resource Centers of Greater Portland celebrated their 25th anniversary, and they asked me to record a short message for their celebration, which I was happy to do. What a great ministry they have. Since 1984, Portland's PRCs have helped more than 160,000 women and teens who were unprepared for pregnancy, or who faced the possibility of a pregnancy.



(Click here if you're unable to view the video.)

I thank God that today in virtually every part of the United States, there are abortion alternative centers that provide free pregnancy tests, free counseling, and free material and human resources to pregnant women. Most of these centers have dozens of volunteers, some of them hundreds, donating not only time spent with clients, but also everything from clothing to maintenance to service to office supplies and computer support. I have served on the board of one such center, on the steering committee to get another started, and have visited dozens of them across the country. Though their services cost them a great deal of money—as opposed to making them a great deal of money— there are more abortion alternative centers in the United States than there are abortion clinics.

I’ve seen a wide variety of pro-life ministries close-up. In nearly every case I’ve walked away impressed with the difference they’re making. If you're looking for a place to do some year-end giving, I encourage you to find a pro-life ministry in your area (to find a pregnancy resource center near you, visit www.care-net.org), or choose one of the national or international pro-life ministries (see the Prolife section on our links page) and give generously to them. (You can also give through Eternal Perspective Ministries, and 100% of designated contributions will be passed on to prolife ministries.)

We have a brief opportunity—a lifetime on earth—to use our resources to make a difference for eternity. Picture the moment in heaven, and think how you’ll feel when someone approaches you, smiling broadly, and says, “Thank you! Your gifts helped save my life... and my child’s.”


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Resting and Wrestling

I was listening to a John Piper message on Hebrews 12, titled "The Painful Discipline of Our Heavenly Father," and appreciated this introduction, so I’m sharing it with you. I really enjoy John’s messages, and highly recommend that you download them, and put on an iPod or listen to in the car and on planes, or as you do housework or tinker in the garage. John’s life and ministry, and his insights and passion for God, have been a gift to me and many others. Download any of John’s hundreds of messages from www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTitle/

You can read or listen to John's entire sermon on the Desiring God website.

There is a restful side to the Christian life and a wrestling side to the Christian life. "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest," Jesus said in Matthew 11:28. "Be anxious for nothing . . . let your requests be made known to God . . . and the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). There is rest and peace in the Christian soul.

But there is also wrestling and struggle. Jesus said in Luke 13:24, "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." And the word "strive" is agonizo—to wrestle and struggle. At the end of his life, Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith." Keeping the faith is a fight to be fought and a race to be run.

These two sides are not related in such a way that you rest one day and wrestle the
next. They are interwoven in two ways. 1) First, the main aim of our wrestling is to rest - in God and not in money or position or looks or achievement; the aim of our wrestling is to rest in the promises of God and not the promises of sin. 2) Second, all our wrestling and fighting and running are done with a deep restfulness of spirit that Christ himself has already won the decisive victory for us and is sovereignly working in us and will bring us to glory.

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The Manhattan Declaration

Today marks the public release of the Manhattan Declaration, which Chuck Colson invited me to sign several weeks ago. After reading it, I gladly agreed to do so.

I am posting only the Preamble below, as well as a part of the Declaration about life, in the hopes that it will interest you in reading the full statement, posted at www.manhattandeclaration.org. If you read and agree with it, you may sign on with us if you so choose.

I do not participate in many things like this, but both the content and the tone of this statement is something I wish to affirm. It expresses truth, but I believe it does so with grace. May God use this statement to help galvanize the Church to walk in a spirit of bold humility, full of grace and truth, as we face the critical issues of our culture.

Preamble

Christians are heirs of a 2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God’s word, seeking justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering.

While acknowledging the imperfections and shortcomings of Christian institutions and communities in all ages, we claim the heritage of those Christians who defended innocent life by rescuing discarded babies from trash heaps in Roman cities and publicly denouncing the Empire’s sanctioning of infanticide. We remember with reverence those believers who sacrificed their lives by remaining in Roman cities to tend the sick and dying during the plagues, and who died bravely in the coliseums rather than deny their Lord.

After the barbarian tribes overran Europe, Christian monasteries preserved not only the Bible but also the literature and art of Western culture. It was Christians who combated the evil of slavery: Papal edicts in the 16th and 17th centuries decried the practice of slavery and first excommunicated anyone involved in the slave trade; evangelical Christians in England, led by John Wesley and William Wilberforce, put an end to the slave trade in that country. Christians under Wilberforce’s leadership also formed hundreds of societies for helping the poor, the imprisoned, and child laborers chained to machines.

In Europe, Christians challenged the divine claims of kings and successfully fought to establish the rule of law and balance of governmental powers, which made modern democracy possible. And in America, Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement. The great civil rights crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians claiming the Scriptures and asserting the glory of the image of God in every human being regardless of race, religion, age or class.

This same devotion to human dignity has led Christians in recent decades to work to end the dehumanizing of human trafficking and sexual slavery, bring compassionate care to AIDS sufferers in Africa, and assist in a myriad of other human rights causes – from providing clean water in developing nations to providing homes for tens of thousands of children orphaned by war, disease and gender discrimination.

Like those who have gone before us in the faith, Christians today are called to proclaim the Gospel of costly grace, to protect the intrinsic dignity of the human person and to stand for the common good. In being true to its own calling, the call to discipleship, the church through service to others can make a profound contribution to the public good.

Life

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

Although public sentiment has moved in a pro-life direction, we note with sadness that pro-abortion ideology prevails today in our government. Many in the present administration want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and want to provide abortions at taxpayer expense. Majorities in both houses of Congress hold pro-abortion views. The Supreme Court, whose infamous 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade stripped the unborn of legal protection, continues to treat elective abortion as a fundamental constitutional right, though it has upheld as constitutionally permissible some limited restrictions on abortion. The President says that he wants to reduce the “need” for abortion—a commendable goal. But he has also pledged to make abortion more easily and widely available by eliminating laws prohibiting government funding, requiring waiting periods for women seeking abortions, and parental notification for abortions performed on minors. The elimination of these important and effective pro-life laws cannot reasonably be expected to do other than significantly increase the number of elective abortions by which the lives of countless children are snuffed out prior to birth. Our commitment to the sanctity of life is not a matter of partisan loyalty, for we recognize that in the thirty-six years since Roe v. Wade, elected officials and appointees of both major political parties have been complicit in giving legal sanction to what Pope John Paul II described as “the culture of death.” We call on all officials in our country, elected and appointed, to protect and serve every member of our society, including the most marginalized, voiceless, and vulnerable among us.

You can read the rest of the statement at www.manhattandeclaration.org


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A Simple Gesture

When someone passed on to me this supposedly true story (I make no guarantees it really happened, but similar things certainly do happen) it reminded me of two things. One, the impact we have on people by doing good works. And two, the sense of satisfaction when we finally hear the story.

Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden. As they walked Mark discovered the boy's name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history, and that he was having lots of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend.

They arrived at Bill's home first and Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some television. The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some shared small talk, then Mark went home. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, then both graduated from junior high school. They ended up in the same high school where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally the long awaited senior year came and three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk.

Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. "Did you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?" asked Bill. "You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn't want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother's sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up those books that day, you did a lot more, you saved my life."

Can you imagine how Mark felt when he heard that? I've felt that way when people have sent me a baby photo or handed me a baby and said "Thought you'd want to know that this child is alive because of what you told us about abortion; we'd scheduled an abortion but cancelled it."

But the other thing that strikes me is Mark didn't know and if Bill hadn't told him he still wouldn't know. There are so many things like this that we won't know until eternity. We will hear the stories. Stories of entertaining angels unaware.

I feel this every time I write a book. I get to the late stages of the book, where it's all-consuming and I'm so tired, and keep asking myself, "Is it worth it?" After the book comes out I start getting the letters from people saying how their lives have been changed, how they've come to faith in Christ or have drawn closer to God. One man met me in another city and told me, "My wife was so depressed she'd decided to take her life; she read one of your books and God spoke to her; she's still here and she's doing so much better."

The story of Mark and Bill also reminds me how important it is that we tell the other person when God has used him or her in our lives. That itself is a short-term reward, but it also encourages us to keep on and anticipate the long-term rewards as well. I'm grateful for every kind letter I've received. Like most people, I keep many of them on file. I hope it's not that I love the praise of men more than the praise of God. I hope it's because in hearing the expressions of men I can sense God's affirmation and encouragement to keep working, keep investing the time and effort, because it matters, it's making a difference for eternity.

Has anyone ever changed your life through something they've done for you? Have you told them how much it meant to you?


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Visiting America's Wounded Warriors

Todd DuBord, my friend and Chuck Norris’s chaplain, linked me to Chuck’s column to let me know he’d referred to If God is Good. I want to convey part of Chuck’s touching story below, then if you wish you can read the whole column here.

… a couple days later we went out to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston to visit with America's wounded warriors. How can one put into words the pride one feels around these brave men and women? Despite the loss of limbs or suffering from some other sacrifice in battle, their resolve and class was off the charts. While they were enthusiastic and grateful about our visit, it was my wife and I who were truly blessed and inspired by them.

Then came a moment that would have been completely surreal if it were not a staggering reality. As we were visiting the burn unit, we discovered that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the shooter at Fort Hood who murdered 13 and wounded another 40, was being treated in the same facility. To be honest, it made me sick to my stomach and sent shivers of disgust down my spine.

If ever I have experienced a polar opposite, it was in that moment as I was thinking about how Hasan was the sheer antithesis to the character, commitment and service of all the other men and women we met at West Point and Fort Sam Houston. I was equally moved by the civil servants and military medical staff, many of whom knew victims of this assassin, yet turned immediately around and became his caregivers. They are exemplary models of the patriot and Founding Father Thomas Paine, who said, "He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will [eventually] reach himself."

Two years earlier, we visited Brooke Army Medical Center and recalled meeting a young soldier by the name of David who had been just flown in from Iraq and was in ICU suffering from burns that covered more than 90 percent of his body. Now, two years later, David came walking down the hospital corridor to greet us. We were overjoyed to see him again, and we could tell that he felt the same of us, though his gravely burned head and face was not able to muster even a smile. We again shared some choice, heartfelt moments with David. I couldn't help but say to him, "David, you are absolutely one of the toughest soldiers I have ever met." Even then, he tried to smile as he quipped, "Tougher than Chuck Norris?" "Yes," I replied. "You're much, much tougher than me!"

It's in times like these that I'm also grateful for military chaplains and the work of men like retired Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell, who was burned over 60 percent of his body when hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 collided into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. After more than 30 surgeries, Lt. Col. Birdwell now uses his life to bring hope to others. His story is also told on pages 42 through 43 in my friend Randy Alcorn's latest best-seller and help for those struggling through pain and difficulty, If God is Good, a copy of which I will be sending to David along with Lt. Col. Birdwell's book Refined by the Fire.


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Thanksgiving in the Midst of Tragedy

Since November 11 is Veteran’s Day, I want to start this blog by acknowledging the men and women who have served to protect and defend our country. My heart especially goes out to those who lost loved ones in the Fort Hood shooting on November 5.

In a TV interview last week about the tragedy, one chaplain asked, “Where is God in all of this?” While it’s not always easy to trust God in suffering, it’s always possible.

On September 11, 2001, Lisa Beamer’s husband, Todd, died on United Airlines Flight 93. Lisa says, “I can’t see all the reasons [God] might have allowed this when I know he could have stopped it.... I don’t like how his plan looks from my perspective right now, but knowing that he loves me and can see the world from start to finish helps me say, ‘ It’s OK.’”

John Greenleaf Whittier, in his poem “The Eternal Goodness,” wrote of life’s great sufferings. He said,

Yet, in the maddening maze of things,
And tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!

During the Civil War, in a time of great national suffering, Abraham Lincoln called upon the nation to come to God in thanksgiving. He wrote,

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity... peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict.

Lincoln pointed out that farming, textiles, shipping, lumber, and other aspects of the economy were flourishing, and iron, coal, and precious metals “have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.” He encouraged people to thank God that, despite the casualties, the population increased due to childbirth. He said to rejoice in the nation’s strength and the promise of increased freedom. “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”

Hence, Lincoln continued, “It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.” So he called upon the nation “to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

How remarkable that the annual celebration of Thanksgiving began in the middle of what was arguably the most terrible period in all of the nation’s history! Even in those darkest days, Lincoln could point to many reasons to thank God for his goodness and grace.


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November Giveaway of the Month: Wait Until Then

This month, three randomly drawn winners will receive the children’s book Wait Until Then, written by Randy Alcorn and beautifully illustrated by Doron Ben-Ami. (If you're reading this post on Facebook or Amazon or elsewhere, visit http://randyalcorn.blogspot.com/2009/11/november-giveaway-of-month-wait-until.html to leave your comment and enter.)

Nathan loved baseball. He watched it on TV...went to games...read books about it...collected baseball cards. And he talked and dreamed with his grandfather about running the bases. Gramps always told him, "I'm pretty sure our best baseball is still ahead of us." Nathan loved that idea.

Let Randy Alcorn help your child understand what the Bible says about Heaven and the New Earth yet to come—and why they're worth the wait.

(By the way, 100% of the royalties from Wait Until Then are donated to Joni and Friends.)

Here’s Randy sharing more about the book:



(Click here if you're unable to view the video.)

How to enter the giveaway:

Leave a comment on this post by Sunday, November 29. (If you're reading this post on Amazon or elsewhere, visit http://randyalcorn.blogspot.com/2009/11/november-giveaway-of-month-wait-until.html to leave your comment.)

In order to qualify for the giveaway, you must include your contact information (a blog, e-mail address, or website), otherwise we cannot contact you if your name is drawn. (If you do leave an e-mail address, to avoid having it picked up by spammers, I recommend encoding it, such as: youraddress AT yahoo DOT com)

Need help posting a comment? Click here for step-by-step instructions.

For further assistance, contact me at stephanie@epm.org

The three randomly drawn winners will be announced in a blog post on Monday, November 30, so be sure to check back and see if you won.

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

You can learn more about Wait Until Then and view more illustrations from the book at the EPM website. You might also like to check out Randy’s other children’s books, Tell Me About Heaven and Heaven for Kids.

Stephanie Anderson
Promotions Director
Eternal Perspective Ministries
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Did You Know: the Changing World of Technology

The video in this blog is an incredible look at how far technology has advanced and is changing, even just within the past year. As you watch it, remember that technology is a part of society or culture, which is the creative accomplishment of God’s image-bearers. Human creations are an extension of God’s own creative works because he created us to reflect him by being creators.

Mankind glorifies God by taking what God made from nothing and shaping it into what is for mankind’s good and God’s glory. The entire universe—including angels and living creatures in Heaven—should look at our creative ingenuity, our artistic accomplishments, and see God in us, his image-bearers.

It’s true that with engines have come pollution and fatalities. With printing and publishing have come godless books and magazines. With television has come the glorification of immorality and materialism. Computers have led to Internet pornography. With the splitting of the atom came a destructive bomb and loss of human life. With medical advances have come abortion and euthanasia. Yet none of these negative byproducts is intrinsic to the cultural advances themselves. Imagine those advances used purely for righteous purposes, without sin to taint them.

What you are imagining is the New Earth.



(Click here if you're unable to view the video.)


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Question and Answer of the Week: Do you believe in guardian angels?

Scripture suggests there are guardian angels for children. Jesus says of children, "their angels behold the face of my Father," Matt. 18:10. Also, it appears there was one specific angel assigned to the apostle Peter ("his angel," Acts 12:15).

Luke 16:22 has "angels" carrying Lazarus to Paradise, but we don't know if one angel was his guardian on earth, or more than one, or if the angels are those who greet him on the other side of death.

Wayne Grudem, in his excellent Systematic Theology, suggests that angels may, so to speak, play "zone defense" rather than "man on man." That's possible, but I think the burden of proof falls on the "no such thing as guardian angels assigned to individuals" position. There's no reason to believe there aren't enough angels to go around and logic suggests the best guardian is the One who knows his subject best, not one who moves around from person to person. Unless there's a compelling reason to the contrary (and I'm not sure I can think of one), why WOULDN'T an assigned angel stick with one person?

I spent some time with a well known person who has a full-time bodyguard. This man has been with him for a long time, maybe twenty years. He knows his routines, his habits, his preferences, etc. So he can do his job far better than a new guy could. Can you imagine a bodyguard agency that assigns new bodyguards to people every day or month or year, switching them around?

True, there is more than one Secret Service guy protecting the president, and we could have more than one angel assigned to us, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that one is "the main guardian" who calls the shots, and he doesn't get reassigned to go guard other people. I portray a sort of tag-team temptation by groups of demons in a couple of my novels, and the same could apply to guardians, but again the idea of one main guardian seems most sensible.

Because references to "guardian angels" are now part of the modern angel preoccupation, it's possible to throw out the baby with the bathwater. The trendy New Age slant on angels is evident in books such as Ask Your Angel, and others that speak of discovering your angel's name, praying to your angel, etc. These are way off base. The "Metaphysics" section of our local Borders bookstore is absolutely huge—OK, I live in Oregon, I know—and contains dozens and dozens of books on angels, most of them with little or no biblical basis. It's interesting that people can be intrigued by "spirituality," and angels strike them as "safer" than God. Yet in Scripture angels begin by saying, "Do not be afraid." Why? Because of their awesomeness and holiness, the natural response is fear.

While I personally favor man (i.e. angel) on man defense, there are all sorts of times in sports that call for switches and double teams. So a man on man and a zone are not mutually exclusive, but the one that's used may depend on the circumstances and the available resources.

In a few of my novels I imagine interactions between people and angels in Heaven. In Deadline, a Christian, in Heaven after death, thanks his Angel Guardian for all his years of tireless and thankless (by humans) service. Read the excerpt.

Later, this man and his guardian from earth, who's now his guide in heaven, discuss Christ's incarnation and redemption. This is an example of how an angel's perspective might differ from ours, and how we might be able to learn from each other in heaven. Read the excerpt.

The following is an outline of the subject of angels and demons: www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=388. It's a pretty good summary, I think.


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Children in Crisis Worldwide

Earlier this year, my friend Doug Nichols, founder and director of ACTION International Ministries, a great missions organization, sent these humbling statistics about needy children worldwide. As you and I pray and consider what to do with our lives and resources, I hope God will use these facts to touch our hearts. (By the way, this Sunday, November 8, is Orphan Sunday, an opportunity to rouse your church, community and friends to God’s call to care for the orphan. Learn more at www.orphansunday.org)

HIV/AIDS and Disease

Over 38 million people live with HIV/AIDS worldwide, with over 2.3 million children under 15 living with the disease. Every day, more than 1,000 children are newly infected.

At least 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS, most in sub-Saharan, Africa. It is estimated that a child loses a parent to AIDS-related causes every 14 seconds. By 2010, the number of children orphaned by AIDS globally is expected to exceed 25 million.

War and Effects of War

It is estimated that at least 250,000 young people under 18 are exploited as child soldiers around the world.

Child Labor

Over 218 million children, aged 5-17, are engaged in child labor throughout the world.

At least 126 million find themselves in the worst forms of child labor: slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, and other forced labor. Girls from northern India have been sold to families from the Middle East as home slaves. Many children are unseen, laboring behind the walls of workshops, hidden from view in plantations. Many are involved in trafficking of these young children to work as bonded slaves.

Sexual Exploitation

Over 1.8 million children are trapped in sex trades: prostitution, pornography, and other illicit activities.

The sexual exploitation of women and children is the third largest illicit industry on the planet (just behind the sale of illegal arms and drugs). Even though it is lucrative for many, it is life-shattering for others!

Poverty

More than one billion people in the world live on less than one dollar a day. In total, 2.7 billion struggle to survive on less than two dollars a day. In these poverty-challenged areas, the population of children is often close to 50%.

Street Children

Some estimate that 100 million kids live on the street, but they’re nearly impossible to count. ACTION and others estimate that there may be up to 160 million who try to exist on the streets with no parents, no love, no care, no food, and no compassion.

That bread which you keep belongs to the hungry; that coat which you preserve in your wardrobe, to the naked; those shoes which are rotting in your possession, to the shoeless; that gold which you have hidden in the ground, to the needy. Wherefore, as often as you are able to help others, and refuse, so often did you do them wrong. — Augustine

Obedience to the Great Commission has more consistently been poisoned by affluence than by anything else. — Ralph Winter

Caring for the poor and needy is a sobering responsibility for which we will all be held accountable: "If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered" (Prov. 21:13). Helping them is not a peripheral issue. May God one day say of us what he said of King Josiah: "He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" (Jer. 22:16).


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