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I’m so sorry to hear of your loss. My mom went to be with Jesus a few years ago, so my heart goes out to you. I don’t think anyone can prepare you for how hard it is to have your mom not here on Earth.

Randy Alcorn was on the Do Hard Things podcast with The Rebelution to talk about the hope we have in Heaven (and what Heaven is really going to be like). He shared how this hope has sustained him through his own season of loss and suffering.

In late 2022 Randy Alcorn spoke with Pastor Jeff Schreve on Real Truth for Today about his book The Promise of the New Earth.  Many Christians think about the present Heaven, where Christians go now when they die, but have never considered the future Heaven, after the resurrection, which will be a physical place occupied by physical people who will live forever with Jesus and all those who love Him.

Christians faced with terminal illness or imminent death often feel they’re leaving the party before it’s over. They have to go home early. They’re disappointed, thinking of all they’ll miss when they leave. But the truth is, the real party is underway at home.

I was not speaking literally. As you point out, angels are not biological humans. “Twins” simply means an equal opposite in this case.

Like anything, our imaginations can be used for good or for bad. Randy also writes, “The acid test of using our imaginations is whether doing so brings us back to the present world content and committed to deal positively with our circumstances. It should leave us refreshed and ready to better face the rest of our day.”

By putting God first and His creation second, the world and its beauties become instruments of joy and worship. We love them better when we love God more than them.

I think we underestimate just how much of our lives here is from the hand of God in the first place. The life that we now know and the things we enjoy so much—the parts untainted by sin—we would naturally expect to have carried over, including distinctive personalities.

I love this article by Greg Morse, staff writer for Desiring God. How easy it is to fall into a Christian life of drudgery where we wearily put one foot in front of another, thinking, “I’m going to try my best to live for Jesus,” all the while neglecting to actually focus on Him.

Deliberately and unceasingly, the tide of God’s grace brings us wave after wave of God’s goodness. The next wave crashes onto the beach before the previous wave is diminished. God’s grace is constant, but it isn’t stationary. It keeps moving toward us day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. It’s always there when we need it—and there’s never a moment we don’t. 

Our thankfulness glorifies God and makes Him happy: “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me” (Psalm 50:23). Puritan John Boys echoed the sentiment of the psalmist: “As the Lord loveth a cheerful giver, so likewise a cheerful thanksgiver.” But God isn’t the only one affected when we give thanks.

Over thirty years ago, while researching and writing my first book Christians in the Wake of the Sexual Revolution (later revised as Restoring Sexual Sanity), I realized what a prominent and distinctive earmark of the early church its sexual purity really was. Christians were known to be Christians partly because they thought and lived differently when it came to sex.

Nancy Guthrie has written many books over the years, including What Grieving People Wish You Knew about What Really Helps (and What Really Hurts), which one of our staff read and recommended to me. I always love Nancy’s writings, but this book is just really good. Here are some quotes from it.

Paul made it clear that it’s possible to give sacrificially without being motivated by love: “If I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3, CSB). That means it’s not just generosity that’s the good life; it’s generosity that flows out of love.