Randy Alcorn - Ninety Days of Gods Goodness: Daily Reflections That Shine Light on Personal Darkness

N INETY D AYS OF G OD S G OODNESS
P UBLISHED BY M ULTNOMAH B OOKS
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Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. Scripture quotations marked ( ESV ) are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ( MSG ) are taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scripture quotations marked ( NASB ) are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org). All rights reserved. Scripture quotation marked ( NKJV ) is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ( NLT ) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (Phillips) are taken from The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition 1972 by J. B. Phillips. Copyright renewed 1986, 1988 by Vera M. Phillips.

Italics in Scripture quotations reflect the authors added emphasis.

Details in some anecdotes and stories have been changed to protect the identities of the persons involved.

Copyright 2011 by Eternal Perspective Ministries

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Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Alcorn, Randy C.
Ninety days of Gods goodness : daily reflections that shine light on personal darkness / Randy Alcorn. 1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-60142-354-2
1. SufferingReligious aspectsChristianityMeditations. 2. God (Christianity)GoodnessMeditations. 3. BibleMeditations. 4. Meditations. I. Title.
BV4909.A277 2011
242.4dc22
2010033427

v3.1_r1

Nanci and I are honored to dedicate this book to our beloved sister
Sono Harris

(resided here 19542010; now living with Jesus)

World-class daughter to Lily
Gold medal wife to Gregg
Hall of Fame mother to Josh, Joel, Alex, Brett, Sarah, Isaac, and James Sono, you are precious beyond words.
Yours was one of the best-lived and most unforgettable lives Nanci and I have ever witnessed. God graciously endowed you with wisdom, insight, heart, class, purpose, and joy. The heritage you left your family, and the rest of us, is stunning in its breadth and depth. Your destiny is to shine in Gods presence like the brightness of the heavens like the stars for ever and ever (Daniel 12:3). No small providence! Thank you, Jesus, for your overflowing work of grace in our sisters life. And thank you, Sono, for your example to us and our daughters, all the way back to those ballet lessons twenty-five years ago. Even your e-mails, expressing thoughts and prayers as I wrote my books and blogged, were worth framing.

Sono, we have been touched deeply by your faithfulness to our Lord and your service to your family and Christs church. We cant wait to see you again in a far better world. On the New Earth we would be honored to serve our glorious King under your leadership.

Special thanks to Doreen Button for her assistance in selecting additional Scripture passages and helping arrange what I wrote; and to Doreen, Steve Tucker, Thomas Womack, and Pam Shoup for their editorial advice at various stages of the process. Thanks also to Ken Petersen, who encouraged me to pursue this project.

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?

L UKE 24:1316, 2832

I magine eavesdropping on the conversation between Jesus and these two disciples. Consider the questions they may have asked and the answers he gave. One day in Heaven, I want to see the video!

Ill bet at least one of their questions related to that which looms large for most who read this book: If God is good why all this evil and suffering? If God loves us, how can he justify allowing (or sending) the sometimes overwhelming difficulties we face?

I invite you to join me on a journey to discover what God has to say about this subject. I cant think of a better way to do this than by daily meditating on his Word. Ive ended each meditation with a brief prayer, written from my heart. Perhaps my prayer will echo yours, or perhaps it will prompt for you a renewed conversation with God.

While exploring Gods goodness in the midst of a suffering world, Ive taken the most pleasure in focusing on him, exploring his attributes of goodness, love, holiness, justice, patience, grace, and mercy. Although I havent unearthed easy answers, Im astonished at how much insight the Bible offers.

Ive beheld a God who says, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering (Exodus 3:7). Ive found great comfort in hearing God speak of a time when he could bear his peoples misery no longer (see Judges 10:16). I revel in Gods emphatic promise that he will make a New Earth, where he will come down to live with us and on which he will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4).

Above all, in the process of meditating on this subject and writing this book, Ive seen Jesus.