Finding Contentment in the Restoration of Some Things

My friend Jeff texted me the other day to say he’s working on the restoration of some things, not the restoration of all things. The accompanying picture showed his vehicle stuffed full of lumber. From the trunk of the van to the passenger armrest sat pressure-treated 2x6s ready to restore a deck.

His play on words—the restoration of some, not all, things—was a way to tease me about my book title and, I think, to let me know how busy his life felt with meaningful projects.

I loved his text and his gentle teasing. It made me realize that his humble perspective—faithful, God-ward attention to the restoration of some things—is exactly what God wants from his children. Knowing and believing that we were made finite and that the scope of our callings is thus also finite is a better way to live than scrambling, scrambling, scrambling, constantly frustrated, frustrated, frustrated, because we can’t fix it all before we die.

I feel this frustration even today. It’s supposed to be my day off from work at church, and yet I just made a list of ten tasks for the day, spanning writing tasks, ministry check-ins, and house chores. I’ll work on everything from writing a blog post and mailing books to mowing the lawn, installing an air conditioner, and cleaning my barbecue grill, which is super dirty. And none of these tasks approaches the glory of stopping the war in Israel or Ukraine, ending abortion, sending the gospel to an unreached people group, or fully training up my children in the way they should go so that when they are old they will not depart from it. I simply need to swing by Walgreens to pick up a prescription because sometimes my tummy hurts.

“Do not be anxious about tomorrow,” Jesus said, “for tomorrow will be anxious for itself” (Matt. 6:34). But you probably sometimes wonder, What if I’m anxious for today?

Remind yourself that we’ll never fix and restore it all. There’s too much broken in the world—and too much broken in us—to fix it all. The restoration of all things is a job for someone who can uphold the universe by the word of his power (Heb. 1:1–4). The restoration of all things is a job for the one who can destroy all evil at the end of time with the breath of his mouth (2 Thess. 2:8). The restoration of all things is a job for someone who created all things from nothing (Gen. 1:1; John 1:3; Col. 1:16).

One day, when God recreates the new heavens and the new earth, and the former things of death and daylight-savings time have passed away, we’ll have all the time we ever wanted to worship God, to fellowship with his people, and to work on meaningful projects without thorns and thistles getting stuck in our hands.

In the future, the artistic types among God’s people will have time to develop the skills to paint murals better than Michelangelo’s, and they will do so on buildings designed by architectural types who build them even better than the Sistine Chapel—and dare I say, even better than Bezalel’s tabernacle or Solomon’s temple. Perhaps the more adventurous among us will have time to explore the far reaches of our solar system. And we’ll all finally have substantive time for the crafts and hobbies we now squeeze into small pockets of our weeks. Gardens will grow without weeds, and our piano skills will improve without insecurity or envy. All while having time to fellowship with the redeemed of the Lord from across time and, of course, with the Lord himself.

The restoration of some things has begun. And for those who have tasted and seen the beauty of Christ, they will one day enjoy the restoration of all things. So, do not let the enormity of the remaining incompleteness of redemption either slow you down from loving people now or let it cause you to despair when you see all the work left undone.

Build your decks during the day; love your families and serve your neighbors; mow your yard in the summer sun. And lock your doors each night. But know that someday, when evil is no more, you’ll never need to lock them again.

Come, Lord Jesus.

* Photo by Andrew Pons on Unsplash

Jesus Didn’t Return Last Night, and That’s a Bummer

A few days ago, someone told me he looked forward to reading my book about the return of Christ. “But wouldn’t it be awesome,” he added, “if Jesus returned before its release?”

Indeed, it would have been awesome if Jesus had returned last night.

But I woke up this morning to the sound of my iPhone vibrating on the nightstand, not to the thunder of the rider on the white horse splitting the sky.

And that was a bummer.

Perhaps you’ve heard people say they want something to happen before Jesus comes back. Maybe you’ve even said it yourself. “Lord, please come back . . . but could you let me get married first?” “Please come back, Lord, but could you let me have a year of retirement after all these decades of work?” I’m sure some authors might even want their book to come out before Jesus returns, even if they wrote about the glorious return of Christ.

There are better and worse reasons to want Christ to delay. All of us have friends and family members who seem far from the Lord, and it would be right for us to want the Lord to give them more time so that the people we love could find repentance and faith. This is a good reason to want the Lord’s return to delay.

The apostle Peter describes the Lord’s patience in his return for this very reason: “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:8–9).

Still, Peter adds to this reason for delay that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Peter 3:10). That will be a better fireworks show than anything that will happen in Washington, D.C., on America’s two hundred and fiftieth birthday.

I’m so thankful for the partnership with Baker Books on The Restoration of All Things: How the Promise of Christ’s Return Brings Us Comfort Today. From the beginning to the end, they saw what I hoped to do and made it better. After nearly seven years of work, I’m thankful it’s finally available for purchase.

Recently, I did an interview with Baker about the book, talking some about why I wrote it. “For many years,” I said, “Christian teaching about the return of Christ has tended to focus on the controversial matters of the end times. The average Christian now mainly associates the return of Christ with debates, as though the Bible’s clear and repeated teaching on the return of Christ were actually a fuzzy, peripheral doctrine. The writers of the New Testament couldn’t have seen it more differently. They confidently saw Christ’s return as bringing Christians the ultimate happily-ever-after: all of God’s people finally and fully glorifying him and enjoying him forever in a recreated and perfected paradise.” Then I mentioned that when we “relegate the return of Christ to controversy, we lose Christian hope and comfort.”

And it’s this comfort that I want you to have. I believe it’s the comfort God wants you to have, especially if you are suffering. When we suffer, it tends to pull our gaze downward and inward. But God wants us to look up. And when we look up in faith to his return, a resilient hope comes from knowing that if the worst happens in this life—if the shaking building really does fall and collapse on you while you’re inside—there is a life coming with no more sorrow, no more pain.

That will be a wonderful day. Come, Lord Jesus.

* You can read the full interview about the book on Baker’s new practicing theology website, and you can buy the book at most online retailers, including, of course, Amazon. I’d love for you to check it out.

** Photo by Clint Patterson on Unsplash

Join the Launch Team for “The Restoration of All Things”

The other day I saw an Instagram clip of Ann Patchett being interviewed about writing and book marketing. Patchett is an accomplished author and the owner of a large, independent bookstore in Nashville. The interviewer mentioned conventional forms of promoting a book, such as book tours, podcasts, and radio interviews. Then he asked Patchett, “What actually sells a book?”

“I can give you the definitive answer to that question,” she said. “It is not a book tour, an ad, a radio show, a television show, a celebrity book club pick. The only thing that actually sells books is a person reading a book and turning around to their friend and saying, ‘Oh my,* you have to read this book.’ Books are a word-of-mouth product like nothing else.” Then she added the insightful observation that she believes “the experience of loving a book is not complete until you have turned around and said to someone, ‘You have got to read this.’”

It’s interesting how similar her last line is to a famous C. S. Lewis quote. “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment . . . . It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are.” Then he added, “The delight is incomplete till it is expressed” (Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms). Lewis gives several examples of completing joy by expressing joy, and the first example is about a book: “It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is.”

Fascinating, right? In all our ways of marketing our books and gaming the algorithms, the most important step in actually selling books is word-of-mouth: when one human likes something so much that they complete their joy by expressing it to other humans.

I think about this a lot in the context of promoting church events. Ministry leaders want their pastors to announce their events from the stage. And I understand why. It does help. But the main way it helps, I think, is by making the event legitimate in people’s minds. Knowing an event exists, however, is not the main reason people go to an event. I can tell you that the definitive reason that people go to a Bible study, a men’s breakfast, an evangelism seminar, or a women’s retreat is not an announcement from the stage or a blurb in the bulletin, but when one person turns to another person and says, “Will you go with me?”

And I guess, according to Patchett, this is what also gets people to buy books.

So, here’s my question: Would you be willing to help me get others to buy my book, The Restoration of All Things, by joining the launch team? I wrote the book to help offer more hope to people’s lives. And I don’t know anyone who couldn’t benefit from more hope.

I’m setting up a launch team to spread the word. You can sign up here.

When you join some book launch groups, the authors or publishers often give away copies of the book. I’m sorry, but I’m not in a place to buy books for fifty people. I want to do that! I just can’t.

Instead, I thought of two different “giveaway” options that I think most people might enjoy better. Everyone who joins the launch team will get either 1) a phone call to chat with me or 2) a personally recorded section of the audiobook.

If you choose the phone call, there will be no official agenda for the call. If you want to tell me something you liked about the book or didn’t like—or ask something about the book—then that’s great. I’ll be up for that. And if you just want us to get to know each other or catch up and talk about life and ministry and writing or whatever, that’s great too.

I know some of you who read my blog are friends and family, so a phone call might not be that special. Indeed, I know I’m not that special to anyone! That’s why I also have the option of a personally recorded section of the audiobook. Just pick your favorite section, and I’ll send you a recording of it with a personal note about that section. You can build a fire and sit and listen, if you like. Doesn’t that sound pleasant? (By the way, the publisher Baker Books hired a professional voice actor, as they are called, to read the book, which is why a reading of the whole book by me doesn’t exist. So you’ll have something no one else has.)

In summary, here are the requirements to join the launch team: A willingness to…

1. Buy and read the book

2. Share about the book on social media (and tag me if you want to)

3. Write a super short Amazon review

4. Most importantly, tell a real human about the book in a real, in-person conversation

Once you do that, we’ll just set up a 15-20 minute phone call to talk or I’ll ask you for your favorite section of the book so I can send you an audio file of me reading it.

Are you up for joining the team to spread the word? It would mean a lot to me if you did.

* If you watch the Patchett clip, know that she says OMG, which I omitted when I typed her answer.

** Photo by Dominic Kurniawan Suryaputra on Unsplash

Soon and Very Soon: The Restoration of All Things

A gospel song from the 1970s belts out the lines, “Soon and very soon we are goin’ to see the King.” I’ve been singing it over and over for the last few months. It’s super catchy and happy and reminds me of the goodness of the return of Christ.

If you also want it stuck in your head, you can listen to the original singer and songwriter, Andraé Crouch, perform it live here, or you can watch another more modern version here, still featuring Crouch, but also with CeCe Winans. “No more dyin’ there, we are goin’ to see the King, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, we are goin’ to see the King!

Try to sing that and not smile. You can’t do it.

This is a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot—not just for the last few months, but for the last few years. Soon and very soon, the book I wrote on this topic, The Restoration of All Things, will finally be released by Baker Books. Launch day is less than a month away. But I actually wrote the first chapters of this book over six years ago! It took a while to get it published, but that’s another story.

Today, I’d love to invite you to pre-order the book. I know that’s a few dollars, and I feel weird asking. But I really believe in the book’s theme, specifically that remembering the return of Christ pours hope into a Christian’s life. And who couldn’t use more hope in their life?

You can pre-order the book at a number of places, Amazon or Baker Books, for example. The book releases on June 23, but pre-orders likely ship early, maybe even a week. And this might not be apparent to the average reader, but I’m told that the Amazon algorithm gets a lot of “juice” from pre-orders, so if you’re going to get it anyway, buy early and often, as they say.

On the Baker Books website, you can click the “look inside” button to read the entire first chapter. I have also listed the table of contents below. Most books tend to get less engaging as the pages and chapters progress. I think this book gets better and better toward the end.

And if you’d like to learn more about a seminar we’re hosting at church on this topic, we built an information page with all the details (here). It’s on Saturday, June 27. We’ll sing together some of the old hymns about the return of Christ, along with some of the best new ones. I’ll also teach two sessions about it. There’s an optional lunch and Q&A for those who have time. If you live in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania or want to take a road trip, registering for the seminar is a great way to get a free copy of the book (register here). If you’ve already pre-ordered, then you’ll have two copies: one to keep and one to give away!

Thank you,
Benjamin

Table of Contents

Introduction: This Train Is Bound for Glory    9

    1. Feasting for the Famished    35
     2. Rest for the Weary    51
     3. Bodies for the Broken    71
     4. Family for the Forsaken    93
     5. Justice for the Wronged    111
     6. Glorification for Strugglers    131

Conclusion: Loving His Appearing    151

Discussion Questions    161

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* Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash (with Baker Books cloud image added)

The Restoration of All Things: Cover, Title, and Table of Contents

About six years ago—almost to this exact week in October—something unexpected happened. I wrote an article for a website, and a publisher asked if I had any books I wanted to write. I for sure wanted to write books, but I couldn’t say one book idea burned in me beyond all others.

So I thought. I prayed. I consulted friends. And out came an idea for a book about the hope of the return of Christ, especially for those who are suffering. I won’t go into the details here about why that topic burned in a way others didn’t, but it did—and still does.

Well, that publisher initially showed enthusiasm but in the end didn’t want to sign the book. And that’s okay. It’s part of the process. By the way, I submitted the proposal the week Covid hit America, so it probably wasn’t the best timing for a new author, although I had no idea about the global disruption headed for us all. No one did but the Lord.

Every six months or so I would pull out the material for that book, see if I could make it better, and try again with another publisher. I got close a few times, but still no takers. Then, just last year, not one but two publishers wanted the book. Had I changed as an author? Had the publishing landscape changed? Had something else changed? Again, only the Lord knows. I’m thankful Baker Books picked up the book, has done a fantastic job, developing the content, and will release it on June 23, 2026.

Many of you have supported me over the years. You’ve read articles and other books, which has been wonderful. This next book, however, is being published by a traditional publisher, which is a first for me. I understand that doesn’t mean a lot to everyone, and for some, traditional publishing carries too much weight. But this is something I’m really excited about. If I were to use a sports analogy, it would be like playing college football at a small school and then getting drafted by a professional team.

Today I’d love to share the official title, cover, and table of contents with you.

This post isn’t about pre-orders or sales. That comes later. And I don’t actually feel greasy about marketing. Again, with so many of you encouraging me and wanting to help, it will be easy to post instructions on how to buy the book when the time comes.

For now, maybe you could just smile with me.

Title

The Restoration of All Things: How the Promise of Christ’s Return Brings Us Comfort for Today

Cover

Table of Contents

Introduction: This Train Is Bound for Glory
   1     Feasting for the Famished
   2     Rest for the Weary
   3     Bodies for the Broken
   4     Family for the Forsaken
   5     Justice for the Wronged
   6     Glorification for Strugglers
Conclusion: Loving His Appearing

Small Group Discussion Questions

* Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash