CHAPTER 6: FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS. In this closing chapter, Randy Alcorn brings the book to a close with some helpful summary and an eternal perspective on our giving. I want to highlight just one story he tells:

Alfred Nobel dropped the newspaper and put his head in his hands.

It was 1888. Nobel was a Swedish chemist who made his fortune inventing and producing dynamite. His brother Ludvig had died in France.

But now Alfred’s grief was compounded by dismay. He’d just read an obituary in a French newspaper—not his brother’s obituary, but his! An editor had confused the brothers. The headline read, “The Merchant of Death Is Dead.” Alfred Nobel’s obituary described a man who had gotten rich by helping people kill each other.

Shaken by this appraisal of his life, Nobel resolved to use his wealth to change his legacy. When he died eight years later, he left more than $9 million to fund awards for people whose work benefited humanity. The awards became known as the Nobel Prizes.

Alfred Nobel had a rare opportunity—to look at the assessment of his life at its end and still have the chance to change it. Before his life was over, Nobel made sure he had invested his wealth in something of lasting value.

Five minutes after we die, we’ll know exactly how we should have lived. But God has given us His Word so we don’t have to wait to die to find out.

Alcorn ends the book by pointing out that “there is one statement of Jesus recorded in Acts that doesn’t appear in the Gospels. Perhaps God added it later so it would stand out:”

“The Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)”

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