Time for honesty.
I completely forgot about this challenge.
Well, I didn’t completely forget, but, well, let’s just say it had been put on the back burner of my mind. I had been feeling this strange sense of literary freedom. Like, once I had read the two chapters of A Place of Quiet Rest by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, which were required by my weekly Bible study, I could read whatever I wanted!
Well, as it turns out, I felt that false sense of freedom because I had forgotten about this month’s reading challenge.
May’s reading challenge has me (us?) reading a book recommended by my (your?) mom. Thankfully, my mom likes to read and has good taste, so I knew this wouldn’t be too difficult.
It was a decision made by committee, but we landed on The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. Actually, she chose Heaven by Randy Alcorn for its life-changing qualities, but since I’ve already read it, we settled on The Treasure Principle with a smattering of Heaven tossed in for good measure.
Unfortunately, since I forgot about the challenge, we’d packed up all of my books into moving boxes (more on that in a future post!). I had to cut through the packing tape of eight boxes to find this tiny book. Le sigh.
First, a little bit about Randy Alcorn himself. (If you want to read the story in his own words, click here. He tells it much better than my little, condensed version will.)
Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. He’s written plenty of novels and books on the subject of heaven and heavenly rewards. EPM is a non-profit ministry that functions on contributions and royalties from Alcorn’s books.
Back in the early ’90s, Alcorn participated in “peaceful, nonviolent rescues” at abortion clinics. He, as pastor for 12 years, was arrested, put in jail, and, in the end, had to surrender his pastor’s wages to the abortion clinic. Well, instead of allowing the “assets God entrusted to us” to pay for abortions, Alcorn quit his job and has continued to make minimum wage to avoid garnering his wages.
Alcorn’s wife, Nanci, used to draw a salary and Alcorn received minimum wage from EPM, but the couple gives away 100% of the books’ royalties for ministry purposes. In 2001, the 10-year statue of limitations concerning the abortion clinic ended, but the Alcorns decided to leave all royalties in God’s hands, not taking a cent for personal use. And, apparently, since the abortion clinic never received an extra penny from Alcorn, (though the judge had awarded the abortion clinic $8.2 million 10 years prior) they convinced the judge to extend the sentence an extra 10 years. Thank goodness they hadn’t touched the money!
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result…” – Genesis 50:20
Is that not so bizarre? What an amazing testimony! In using the Alcorns, God funnels money into ministries that bring glory to His name instead of murdering the unborn. Pretty nifty, eh?
Ah! I love serving such a great God.
And so, Alcorn has some strong, biblically based opinions on giving and ownership. If you haven’t read Heaven, I absolutely recommend you start there. It’s longer than The Treasure Principle, but it revolutionized my thoughts on heaven. And shouldn’t Christians be excited about heaven? Hello. Even if you’re not a Christian, the second half of Heaven is basically a Q&A about heaven, so you can see what Christianity is trying to pitch you in terms of the afterlife. Do all dogs go to heaven? Alcorn has an answer for ya. *winky face*
Happy reading!