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Your Ten Point COVID-19 Survival Plan

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How the world has changed! A month ago we were wondering how Harry and Meghan were going to pay their bodyguards; now we are facing the greatest crisis of our lifetimes. A few weeks ago no one had heard of COVID-19; now all of us have had our lives disrupted by it.

In February, I wrote an article on how the current outbreak is like the SARS outbreak of 2003. I was wrong. This pandemic is more pervasive. In that article I outlined reasons why churches might want to keep their doors open during this time of crisis. Now many are being closed by mandatory lockdowns.

Here in New Zealand we are in the middle of a four-week lockdown. It could be longer. If you are not already in a lockdown or self-quarantine you may be soon. You should prepare. Collect the essentials. Get ready for having your kids home with you 24/7. Make a plan.

“I’m going to watch Netflix for a month.”

Make a better plan.

Every crisis brings an opportunity and a lockdown could be an opportune time for you to try all sorts of new things:

1. Master the art of resting. (If you figure it out, let me know.)

2. Make something with your hands. Plant a herb garden. Paint the spare room. Declutter the garage.

3. Read a new grace book. Read an old grace book. Write a book. Publish it on Amazon.

4. Get to grips with that hot potato subject you’ve been hearing about. Are these the last days? Am I eternally secure? What are heavenly rewards under grace? Study a book in the Bible from cover to cover. Study a Bible character. Unpack a tough scripture and find the hidden treasure. (Hint: it probably has something to do with Jesus.)

5. Be salt and light. Send your pastor an encouraging message. Be an active participant in church livestreams. Let the world know you are there. Write to friends you haven’t seen in years. Remind everyone there’s light at the end of the tunnel and that this too shall pass.

For parents

6. Start a rock band with your kids. Play games. (We just invented a relay game involving Nerf guns.) Give them a LEGO Masters-type challenge. Make a silly video.

7. Get a Bible reading plan for your teenaged kids. Read a simpler Bible for your younger kids. (I highly recommend The Jesus Storybook Bible.) Take communion. Teach your kids how to cast their anxieties on the Lord.

8. Go star gazing in your back yard. Introduce your kids to the constellations and the Creator who made them. Find out when the International Space Station is flying over and watch it. Check out the Starlink satellites. You don’t need a telescope to see these.

9. Rediscover the joy of reading a book to your kids, one chapter at a time. I highly recommend the Narnia Chronicles. For tweens, give them a copy of my book, The Big House. This week you can get it for free!

10. Sponsor a Compassion kid or a World Vision kid. Pick one who shares a birthday with your own child. Give your kid a letter-writing plan. Remind them that even in a lockdown others are worse off.

Finally, a bonus tip:

11. Make a plan with your family and friends to celebrate when the lockdown ends. Because it will.

Those are my suggestions and frankly they’re pretty average. I’m no lockdown expert. None of us is. So I’d love to here your suggestions, especially if you’re a parent of 4 kids? What’s working for you? Let me know in the comments below.

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Newsflash: If you haven’t heard, you can now get a Study Guide to complement The Gospel in Ten Words. It’s completely free!

A free study guide and a sweet treat!

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Hi friends,

I have TWO exciting book announcements to share with you.

1. The Chocolate Gospel ebook is now on sale

My latest book, The Chocolate Gospel, has just gone live on Kindle. You can also get it for your Android device and in PDF form here.

If you missed out on the Kickstarter project, you will not be able to get The Chocolate Gospel in paperback. But you can read my sweetest book on your device today. It’s comfort food that’s good for you. Check it out.

2. Free GITW Study Guide now available

Technically, my latest book is the one I wrote this past weekend. Here’s what happened;

On Saturday, I woke up with an idea. “Write a study guide for The Gospel in Ten Words.” This must’ve been from the Lord because I dislike study guides. Whenever readers ask for them, I say no. But Saturday brought a change of heart. I got to thinking about all the people who can no longer go to church. Maybe they are looking for some guidance in their private or online Bible study. I could help.

But first, I needed to find out if anyone actually wanted a study guide. I put a call out on social media. “Who would like a study guide for The Gospel in Ten Words?” Within 24 hours, 300 people had said yes. I was stunned.

On Sunday, I knocked out a study guide. You can get it here for free. Forgive me if it’s a bit rough. I’ve never done one before. The guide is a set of discussion questions for each chapter along with key points and scriptures to reflect on. If you have any suggestions on how to improve it, let me know. I may do a revised version later, but for now I felt a sense of urgency. It’s no virus vaccine, but might be your antidote to fear and anxiety.

Of course, the new study guide won’t make much sense unless you have The Gospel in Ten Words. The two books go together. If you don’t have The Gospel in Ten Words, you can get it in ebook form for a special pandemic pay-whatever-you-want price. If you’ve lost your job, please pay nothing.

We live in interesting times. Churches are closing and meetings have gone online. If you desire to grow in grace, The Gospel in Ten Words will help. This book reveals your true identity in Christ. It will strengthen your faith and give you a holy confidence that Jesus is greater than any storm we face.

Grace and peace,
Paul

How the Church can shine during COVID-19

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Last Sunday in New Zealand, we set a record for the lowest church attendance in living memory. Next Sunday will smash that record because we have just begun a four week lockdown. No one is going anywhere. In an attempt to curtail the spread of COVID-19, many governments are banning public gatherings. Churches, along with schools, restaurants, shops, and cinemas, are closing and no one knows when they will reopen. What should we do? How should we adjust? My strong conviction is that we are on the threshold of an unprecedented opportunity. As the world slips into the Valley of Shadow, the church has a chance to shine brighter than ever. People are hungry for hope. Their distractions have been taken away, and they want to hear good news. This is the church’s time to step up and display the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10). Here are three needs and three corresponding opportunities that weren’t so keenly felt a month ago: 1. People are scared We need peace. Fear and anxiety are assailing us from all quarters. Every day, the news is bleak and the numbers are bad. The stress we are facing is greater than our ability to [...]

How to talk like a king

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You are a king which means you need to talk like one. If you would reign in life, you will need to exercise authority from time to time. You will need to “king down” upon your problems. How do you do that? Grace comes through faith and faith must be acted upon if it is to be of any benefit. The easiest way to express faith is to speak it. Words are powerful. Words can be used to build up or tear down, guide or misdirect, clarify or confuse. The right word at the right time can change the world. Kings exercise dominion by speaking. To paraphrase Ecclesiastes 8:4, “the word of the king has power.” When God’s kings speak God’s words, God backs it up with power. This is not to glorify the word spoken in faith but to draw attention to the Living Word who lives within you. When you reveal Jesus, your words are supernaturally empowered to bring salvation to the lost and freedom to the captives. You can drive out demons and heal the sick just as he did. In fact, Jesus promised that those who believe in him would do exactly these sorts of things [...]

Who will Jesus spit out?

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“I will spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16b). This spitting out passage, which comes from Christ’s letter to the Laodiceans, is sometimes used to terrorize the bride of Christ. “Fail to perform and the Lord will reject you. If you’re not on fire, you’ll be in the fire!” Such an evil line is a million miles from the gracious heart of the One who is faithful and true. Who will Jesus spew out? Not members of his own body. Some Bibles translate Jesus’ words as, “You make me want to vomit.” Have you ever vomited up a kidney or a toe? It’s a ridiculous notion, yet this is what some fear will happen. “Jesus vomits body parts.” Thankfully, this horrendous picture is refuted by scripture: The one who comes to me I will most certainly not cast out [I will never, no never, reject one of them who comes to me]. (John 6:37, AMP) Since Jesus will never reject those who come to him, who is in danger of being spit out? Those who are too proud to come. Who will be rejected by Christ’s mouth? It is those who deny their need for Jesus. “Those who deny [...]

Who invented the word hypergrace?

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Who was the first person to coin the word hypergrace? It wasn’t the Apostle Paul. Sure, he described God’s grace as hyper-super-abounding, but he was writing in Greek. Who was the first to say it in English?

Hypergrace. Who said it first?

It wasn’t me. Not even close. So who was it? Seriously, I would like to know.

As I mentioned in a recent article, I’m pushing to get hypergrace into the dictionary. Why? Because hypergrace is a unique word that describes “the extreme favor of God that extends over, beyond, and above what you can conceive or imagine.”

It’s a beautiful word and there’s no other word like it.

To get a word into a dictionary you have to think about the origins of the word. So lately I have been asking, where did hypergrace come from?

I’ve done some research and as far as I can tell, the word first appeared as a Twitter hashtag in mid-2009. Which makes hypergrace about the same age as Escape to Reality.

Coincidence?

Before hypergrace, people used to talk about radical grace. That is a common phrase, but it’s not extreme enough for some people. hence the emergence of super-grace, ultra-grace, and finally hypergrace.

Interestingly, the first people to use this word did so in a pejorative way. Hypergrace, they said, was bad grace. Greasy grace. It was something to mock and belittle.

But a small number of people, myself included, recognized that hypergrace is an absolutely spot on translation of what Paul speaks about in Romans 5 when he talks about the huper grace of God. The Greek word huper literally means hyper. And Paul was just one of several New Testament writers who used extreme language when describing God’s great grace.

Hypergrace milestones

As part of my dictionary research, I tracked down the first mentions of the word hypergrace in different media. This is what I have found so far:

  • first hypergrace blog post (Nov 12, 2009)
  • first hypergrace podcast (May 15, 2012)
  • first hypergrace magazine article (Feb 28, 2013)
  • first hypergrace video (Sep 17, 2013)
  • first hypergrace book (Jan 7, 2014)
  • first song (no idea)
  • first major motion picture starring Denzel Washington (still in pre-pre-production)

These are not certified Guinness Records, just placeholders. If you know of blog posts or podcasts that predate those in my list above, let me know and I will revise my list. And if you can prove that someone used the word hypergrace prior to 2009 in any form, let me know that too. It would be good to give credit where credit’s due.

Did you invent the word hypergrace? Got proof you said it before 2009? Let me know.

The hostile history of hypergrace

The word seems to have first appeared in 2009, but the hypergrace wagon did not really get rolling until 2013. That was the year CharismaNews decided to publish a series of articles attacking hypergrace. That was also the year I wrote my first article defending hypergrace.

The following year no less than five hypergrace books were published. The first was Michael Brown’s book Hypergrace: Exposing the Dangers of the Modern Grace Message; the second was D.R. Silva’s book Hypergrace: The Dangerous Doctrine of a Happy God, and the third was my book The Hyper-Grace Gospel.

In his book, Michael Brown named and shamed a number of hypergrace preachers, including me. In my response, I pointed out that most of the criticisms made by Brown et al. were based on a dozen or so oft-repeated myths.

Sidebar: People sometimes ask me why I don’t engage in more debates with hypergrace critics. When invited to “discuss” hypergrace on radio shows and podcasts, I usually say no. I have learned the hard way that when certain people say they are reaching out, they’re doing it to make themselves look good. They’re not actually interested in dialogue. When you point out that you never said all the awful things they say you said, they don’t apologize or change their tune. In this age of fake news, the facts don’t matter. The main thing is to keep feeding the monster of social media. Slandering grace preachers may be a great way to generate social media buzz, but it’s appalling behavior, embarrassing to Jesus, and I don’t want to feed the trolls.

I try to avoid hypergrace debates, but I LOVE talking about the hypergrace of King Jesus. If we can get the word into the dictionary I will celebrate!

Hypergrace: Let us continue to write about it, talk about it, and sing about it. Let us paint it, rap it, draw it, and celebrate it any way we can. Let us use whatever means we can to let people know about the extreme love and favor of our heavenly Father.

In the meantime, let’s dig a little and see if we can’t find the person who said it first. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

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Paul’s newest book The Chocolate Gospel is available for just two more days on Kickstarter. Get your’s before they’re gone.

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How to share the good news if you’re an introvert

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I have a problem. I want to tell people the good news, but I have trouble talking to strangers. Heck, I have trouble talking to friends. (Just ask my friends how often I call them.) Like 50% of the human race, I am an introvert. I don’t have the gift of the gab. I will never hold your attention with my brilliant stories. My best party trick is leaving early without anyone noticing. So how does someone like me tell others the happy news that God loves us just as we are? Outdoor plays, street evangelism, tracts, concerts, special services. I’ve done them all, and I’ve done them badly. Because I’m not naturally gifted at these things, I’ve been spectacularly unsuccessful. But I can’t stay silent. People are starving for the love of our Father. I’ve got to share the good news. I want to bring joy and hope into the world. But how? How do introverts like me shine in dark places? Like the Apostle Paul, I like to experiment. Paul said he became all things to all people so that by all possible means he might save some. All possible means. That’s a pretty open-ended statement. That’s an [...]

The Chocolate Gospel is on Kickstarter!

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The Chocolate Gospel is here! For the next two weeks, you can order my latest book on Kickstarter. And then it’s gone forever.

You cannot get The Chocolate Gospel on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the Book Depository, or anywhere. It is ONLY available on Kickstarter and ONLY until the end of the month. If you wait until March 1 to order a book, you will miss out. You snooze, you lose.

This is a real book too. It’s a book you can share with friends. It’s the good news without any bad news. It’s the gospel without fish hooks; grace without pricetags.

Warning: Because I live in New Zealand, the prices shown on Kickstarter are NZD. But if you look closer you should see prices also listed in your local currency. The books are basically USD10 each, but the more you buy, the cheaper they get.

Don’t miss out! Grab your copy today, and while you’re at it, get some for your friends. Like chocolate, the good news is meant to be shared.

Check it out.

Paul

Should we close the church for the coronavirus?

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“Please don’t come to Mongolia.” I have been asked to visit many countries, but Mongolia’s the only place I’ve been asked to avoid. In 2003 I was heading to Ulaanbaatar for a church conference. I was packed, I had my visa, but at the last minute the organizers asked me to stay home. Why? Because I was from Hong Kong, ground zero for the deadly SARS outbreak. The SARS virus actually originated in China. But an infected doctor came across the border, passed the virus to tourists staying at the Metropole Hotel, and those travelers carried the virus to 26 nations. By the time the virus burned out, nearly 800 people had died. It was a scary time for Hong Kong. Everyone wore masks. A colleague working three floors beneath my office caught the bug. Companies and schools closed down. As a pastor, I had to ask an important question: Should we close the church for the duration of the outbreak? Many pastors are facing the same decision today in regards to the coronavirus. They are getting calls and texts from concerned Christians suggesting they close doors and cancel services. What should they do? At the time of the SARS [...]

E2R turns ten, and a free book for you!

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Ten years ago today I wrote an article called “Whose medicine are you taking? The dangers of taking scripture out of context.” I used this article to launch a brand new blog called Escape to Reality (E2R). Five hundred articles, 30,000 comments, and nearly 10 million page views later…

I’m kinda blown away by how this thing unfolded. Surely people are hungry for good news.

E2R is ten years old today. To celebrate our anniversary, I want to give you a free book!

• If you are an email subscriber, grab yourself a free copy of Letters from Jesus. (Link visible in email only.)

• If you are not a subscriber, sign up today and you’ll instantly get FOUR free ebooks

• If you are a pastor or church leader, join us in the Pastors’ Lounge and get a free copy of The Hypergrace Gospel

Enjoy your new book(s)!

The last ten years have been an adventure, but we’re only just getting started. We have not begun to scratch the surface of all that God has in store for us.

What’s coming next? God has given me a great big dream – a moonshot, if you will. If you want to know what’s in store, check out my audacious plan for the coming decade.

Let me take this opportunity to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to all of you who have shared the journey, particularly if you have taken the time to comment on or share my articles.

And special thanks to E2R’s awesome patrons and supporters. Your continued generosity makes giveaways like these possible.

Grace and peace,
Paul

Ten birthday candles: E2R’s most inflammatory articles

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Escape to Reality is turning ten next week! To mark the occasion I could list the ten most popular articles, but that would be boring. I’d rather list the ten most inflammatory articles, the ones that lit a fire and got people talking. Think of these as ten candles atop the cake of nostalgia. 10. The Christchurch Earthquake: Four questions Christians can answer After my hometown was flattened by an earthquake in 2011, some said God was judging the city for its sins. Apparently Jesus’ sacrifice was insufficient. God deals with our sins by dispensing death and destruction. Of course this was nonsense, and I wanted to offer an alternative narrative. Sadly, I don’t think I made much of an impact which is why I found myself apologizing five years later. 9. Why did Jerusalem fall? Back in 2014 I wrote a short article explaining that God did not destroy the city that Jesus loved. I was immediately contacted by a well-known preterist. He wanted to know if I was attacking his ministry. Er, no. I replied. Who are you again? And what’s a preterist? At the time I didn’t even know what the word preterist meant. But that reaction [...]

The whole meaning of holiness

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One of the reasons why we don’t walk in the freedom that the gospel brings, is that we have changed the meaning of words. We have made beautiful words ugly and turned truth into lies. We tell ourselves that we are doing what the Bible says, but since we have redefined words in the Bible, we are fooling ourselves. For instance, well tell ourselves that repentance means turning from sin. (It doesn’t.) Or that confession means reviewing my mistakes. (Wrong again.) So we review our mistakes and turn from sin until we’re blue in the face and then wonder why nothing’s changed. Holiness is another word that comes to us mangled by the machinery of religion. We’ve heard that holiness means avoiding sin or being set apart, but that’s not what holiness is. It’s not that those definitions are entirely wrong; they are just not quite right. Like defining light as the absence of darkness or wealth as the absence of poverty, we have missed the essence of the thing. Holiness means wholeness. To say “God is holy” is to refer to the wholeness, fullness, beauty, and abundant life that overflows within the Godhead. God lacks nothing. He is unbroken, [...]

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