There's been a false and negative distinction that's been made between joy and happiness. Unfortunately, the message we send to those both inside and outside the church is, "Seeking happiness is superficial and shallow. Go out and get it in the world, but you won't find happiness in God." But all people seek happiness, and because they do, we're basically telling them, "Stop seeking what God Himself wired you to seek." What we should be saying is, "Seek your happiness in the right place - in God Himself."

Randy Alcorn

Categorized in : People Joy Church

There's a timeless truth behind the concept of giving God our firstfruits. Whether or not the tithe is still the minimal measure of those firstfruits, I ask myself, "Does God expect His New Covenant children to give less or more?" Jesus raised the spiritual bar; He never lowered it.

Randy Alcorn

spiritual children jesus

Compassion for the mother is extremely important, but is never served through destroying the innocent.

Randy Alcorn

abortion compassion mother

For Christians this present life is the closest they will come to Hell. For unbelievers, it is the closest they will come to Heaven.

Randy Alcorn

christian life-is heaven

Jesus Himself was criticized. He wasn't a glutton and drunkard, but He was accused of being those things. Why? Because He went to parties where people ate and drank, and some people probably were at those parties who were drunkards and gluttons. But you don't have to be sinning just because you're in in an environment of happiness.

Randy Alcorn

party people jesus

When Jesus warns us not to store up treasures on earth, it's not just because wealth might be lost; it's because wealth will always be lost. Either it leaves us while we live, or we leave it when we die. No exceptions....Realizing its value is temporary should radically affect our investment strategy.... According to Jesus, storing up earthly treasures isn't simply wrong. It's just plain stupid.

Randy Alcorn

treasure stupid jesus

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

Randy Alcorn

jobs sex jesus

Any concept of grace that makes us feel more comfortable sinning is not biblical grace. God's grace never encourages us to live in sin, on the contrary, it empowers us to say no to sin and yes to truth.

Randy Alcorn

empowering biblical grace

To procrastinate obedience is to disobey God.

Randy Alcorn

procrastinating obedience

What is good about Good Friday? Why isn't it called Bad Friday? Because out of the appallingly bad came what was inexpressibly good. And the good trumps the bad, because though the bad was temporary, the good is eternal.

Randy Alcorn

trump eternal friday

For the Christian, death is not the end of adventure but a doorway from a wold where dreams and adventures shrink, to a world where dreams and adventures forever expand.

Randy Alcorn

christian dream adventure

Seek the Lord and give God the opportunity to provide through other means before you take out debt.

Randy Alcorn

opportunity giving mean

Grace never ignores the awful truth of our depravity; in fact it emphasizes it. The worse we realize we are the greater we realize God's grace.

Randy Alcorn

awful grace facts

The tithe is God's historical method to get us on the path of giving. In that sense, it can serve as a gateway to the joy of grace giving. It's unhealthy to view tithing as a place to stop, but it can still be a good place to start.

Randy Alcorn

grace joy giving

Statistics show that a soldier's chances of survival in the front lines of combat are greater than the chances of an unborn child avoiding abortion. What should be the safest place to live in America - a mother's womb - is now the most dangerous place.

Randy Alcorn

mother pregnancy children

If you're considering going into student debt, I encourage you to seek the Lord's will through the reading and study of His Word, prayer, and the wise counsel of others before you make the decision to take out a loan.

Randy Alcorn

reading prayer wise

Because satan hates us, he's determined to rob us of the joy we'd have if we believed what God tells us about the magnificent world to come.

Randy Alcorn

hate joy world

As you go through life, don’t let your feelings-real as they are-invalidate your need to let the truth of God’s words guide your thinking. Remember that the path to your heart travels through your mind. Truth matters.

Randy Alcorn

real heart thinking

Not only will we see His face and live, but we will likely wonder if we ever lived before we saw His face!

Randy Alcorn

saws faces wonder

Hudson Taylor and Charles Spurgeon believed that Romans prohibits debt altogether. However, if going into debt is always sin, it's difficult to understand why Scripture gives guidelines about lending and even encourages lending under certain circumstances. Proverbs says "the borrower is servant to the lender." It doesn't absolutely forbid debt, but it's certainly a strong warning.

Randy Alcorn

scripture strong giving

Give more as you make more. Remember: God prospers us not to raise our standard of living, but to raise our standard of giving.

Randy Alcorn

remember giving