Randy Alcorn

The false idea that prosperity brings contentment is nothing new. Paul warned Timothy and the church at Ephesus about false teachers—first-century equivalents to modern prosperity theology proponents—who were “depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain” (1 Timothy 6:5).

Choosing to rejoice, by rehearsing reasons to be happy and grateful while suffering, affirms trust in God.

The Puritans have been stereotyped as legalistic and impersonal and believing in an impersonal God, but in many hours of reading them I believe nothing could be further from the truth!

Christianity is unique in its perspective of our desires, teaching that they will be sanctified and fulfilled on the New Earth.

Every definition and synonym cited for blessed relates to holiness. Virtually nothing relates to happiness, though a few dictionaries acknowledge that it once meant “happy.”

The “redemption of our bodies” refers to the resurrection of the dead. Paul says that not only we, but “the whole creation” longs for and cries out for the earth-wide deliverance that will come with our bodily resurrection.

Of his own ministry, in relation to that of the Lord Jesus, John the Baptist declared: “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30).

I believe that God expects us to use our imagination, even as we recognize its limitations and flaws. If God didn’t want us to imagine what Heaven will be like, he wouldn’t have told us as much about it as he has.