Desiring God Blog

Hedonism to the Extreme: Lamborghini and Our Souls

Jonathan Parnell — Mon, 20 May 2013 00:04:00 -0500

“What does a tractor manufacturer know about sports cars?” said Enzo Ferrari to an Italian mechanic from humble roots.¹

This mechanic, Ferruccio Lamborghini, did manufacture tractors, and he did well. But he also liked fast automobiles and building things, and in the decade following WWII he decided to try his hand at supercars. Frustrated with the Ferrari’s handling on the road, and Ferrari’s dismissal at some suggested improvements, Ferruccio blazed his own trail by creating Automobili Lamborghini. By the fall of 1963, at the Turin Motor Show, he released the Lamborghini 350 GTV and launched the beginning of an iconic supercar brand — a brand at which most men have only marveled from afar.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of that original design.

To commemorate the anniversary, Lamborghini has unveiled a new car that many say is aptly named “Egoista” — that is, “selfish.” Yes, that’s right. The car is named “Selfish.” It is a single-seat concept engineered for those who want to treat “me, myself, and I.” One commentator writes that the Egoista, along with its 5.2-litre V10, 600 horsepower engine, has aesthetically more in common with a fighter jet than with a vehicle meant for the ground. And there’s no secret about the marketing. Walter DeSilva, the head of design, explains, “[This car] is designed purely for hyper-sophisticated people who want only the most extreme and special things in the world. It represents hedonism taken to the extreme” (David Undercoffler, LA Times).

“Hedonism taken to the extreme.” So there you have it. This car is about pleasure. That deep craving in our souls for happiness — the craving we all have — that’s what is behind this automobile. That is the bait held out for the few who can afford it. You are not really seeking pleasure until you sit behind this wheel.

But we know that’s an empty promise, on at least two levels.

What Only God Can Do

First, and most fundamental, no car can satisfy a God-shaped void. The quest for pleasure is really a quest for God. He created us to be happy in him. Now, reckon the Lamborghini Egoista this: it would be a fun drive. It’s a beautiful machine. But while it’s a fruit of human ingenuity to be enjoyed, it’s not the place to search for the joy we need. While it offers a good experience, even if just to a thin slice of the human population, it’s not the destination of anyone’s deepest longings. That craving is satisfied in God alone. The real pursuit of pleasure must connect the most profound appetites of our being to the One by whom, in whom, and for whom we exist. God is our joy. God. Every other search is a dead-end road, no matter how fast we can drive it.

And we can attest to some experience of this dead-end road. Sinners can’t help but make black holes of the heart. We grab this one thing and give it its own space within the deep places of our souls. A gravitational pull begins. Eventually our whole lives orbit around its force and our resources get vacuumed into it with galactic abandon. What should be a gift — a glorious gift from God — ends up combusting into its own world.

We spin our wheels trying to recreate that superficial glee we felt the time before. We toil and toil for a diminishing return. Sure, entertainment may tarry for the night, but the wakeup call of emptiness comes in the morning. This is what it means to fall short of God’s glory: we exchange the hope of eternal joy for that which does not profit, we spend our money on moldy bread that cannot satisfy, we rebel to dumb ourselves down from the wonder for which we were made (Jeremiah 2:11–13; Isaiah 55:2; Romans 1:22–25).

There just aren’t substitutes for the “pleasures forevermore” of God’s fellowship (Psalm 16:11). The parched land of our lives needs more than a desperate splash from good things here and there. We need to be infused with the rivers that lead us to the One who is good. We need our land eroded by the ocean of God’s glory. And that gets into another level.

Deeper Than a Splurge

The Egoista ends empty not just because God alone can satisfy our souls, but also because this car’s offering isn’t how real pleasure works. This piece of Lamborghini commemoration tries to sell joy as a splurge. Happiness, they’d tell us, is a metric to meet, a high to hit, a rush to realize.

But this is way too shallow to resonate with any soul that is the slightest bit aware of reality. The pleasure we crave can’t be contained in the excitement of 0 to 60 in less than four seconds, or the elitism of being a Lamborghini owner. The Egoista tells us to buy the car and burn the fuse while we have eternity in our hearts — eternity. We can’t manufacture anything to fill that gap.

The quest for real joy isn’t a moment. It isn’t a one-time event to experience, neither with a Lamborghini nor with God. The quest for real joy is a movement — the movement of God entirely centered on himself as the author and perfecter of pleasure. God, because he is eternally glad in the Trinitarian fellowship of Father, Son, and Spirit, launched a movement to show that gladness. He created everything that there is in order to show that gladness, including us. Out of his gladness he made us such that our gladness would be found in his own — not once or twice, but forever.

To The Extreme

So “hedonism taken to the extreme” isn’t found in a good supercar. And it’s not even in a good quiet time every now and then. Hedonism taken to the extreme is the day-in, day-out life of redeemed sinners who know they were created for another world.

Hedonism taken to the extreme is everyday forsaking the jewels of Egypt because our eyes are set on a better treasure.

Hedonism taken to the extreme is the steady road of enjoying gifts as gifts from God in Christ, tributaries of joy that lead us to his fullness.

Hedonism taken to the extreme is what says, even when darkness veils his lovely face, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:26). God. Forever.

¹ Fifty Cars That Changed the World, (Kindle Locations 702–703).

Spiritually and Emotionally, How Far Is Too Far Before Marriage? (Ask Pastor John)

Tony Reinke — Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

ESPN analyst Chris Broussard on homosexuality. C.S. Lewis on joy. Choosing a seminary. Processing a tragedy. And how far is too far in dating. It’s all in a fortnight of Ask Pastor John episodes.

What follows are excerpts from each episode (click on hyperlinked titles to listen).

How Far Is Too Far Before Marriage, Spiritually and Emotionally? (Episode 84):

A man especially needs to stay awake to what is happening emotionally and spiritually and personally in the relationship. Don’t take yourself into a depth of spiritual and emotional bonding that will not consummate in marriage and sexual union. Be alert that every step deeper into emotional and spiritual union with a woman’s soul is a step toward physical union, that is, towards marriage. Don’t take her there if this is not moving toward a marriage relationship. It will deeply wound her and you if you awaken depths of oneness in each other emotionally and then try to just walk away from it. Those depths are meant to lead somewhere, namely sexual intercourse in marriage.

How Do You Process Public Tragedy? (Episode 85):

The first assumption here is this: when I see tragedy, and believe that God is totally in control, or say to myself instinctively, “God controlled that, God ruled that, God either planned or permitted or ordained that,” this is in conflict with my compassion. Feeling compassion and feeling the sovereignty of God in its fullest sense are at odds. That seems to be an assumption. And here is the second assumption: that God, being the ultimate cause, would somehow exclude our feeling hurt or our weeping or our helping or our outrage at the sin involved. God’s sovereignty implicitly in their minds is excluding that or pushing that aside. Now I don’t share either of those assumptions. Let me explain why ...

How Did Lewis Prepare You for Edwards? (Episode 86):

C.S. Lewis and Clyde Kilby, my lit professor at Wheaton (1964–68), put the intellectual and aesthetic kindling in place. And it was a very big pile of dry and unbelievably flammable sticks: the sticks of logic, the sticks of aesthetic awareness, the sticks of longing and aching and yearning, the sticks of awareness of beauty and the desire to see it and know it. All of those sticks were put in place so that when the fire of reformed theology — namely Dan Fuller, Jonathan Edwards, and the Puritans — fell in the years 1968–71, they had sticks ready to burn.

Appreciating Creation While Anticipating New Creation (Episode 87):

C.S. Lewis is a good guide for us in cherishing the eternal, cherishing the unseen, cherishing God as the source and goal of all things, as well as being able to see the this-ness and the beauty of this world. God had brought him to faith through an appreciation of the this-ness of things, and then showed him that they were all thick with God, they were all pointing toward God, they were all created by God. They were ways of knowing God. And unless you saw deep enough into them to get to the bottom of them, and saw high enough over them to get to what they are pointing to, they will always disappoint you.

Was C.S. Lewis a Christian Hedonist? (Episode 88):

I remember standing at a book table in the fall of 1968 on Colorado Avenue in Pasadena, California, looking down at a little blue paperback called The Weight of Glory. Author: C.S. Lewis. I never picked it up in my life. I picked it up, opened, and read the first page. And the impact of that page on my Christian Hedonism is huge, because that is the page where he basically says everybody is questing and pursuing joy. The problem, he said, is not that we are pursuing happiness, but that we are far too easily pleased. And I thought, yes, yes! That is right. The problem is not that I want to be happy. The problem is that I am settling on happinesses that are — to use his language — like a little child making mud pies in the slum because he can’t imagine what a holiday at the sea is like.

Choosing a Seminary (Episode 89):

Don’t look for a building. Don’t look for a campus. Don’t look for a library. Don’t look for a location. Look for a faculty.

A Mother’s Role in Raising Boys (Episode 90):

In the home I grew up in, my dad was away two thirds of the year. My mother did everything. She was omnicompetent. She taught me just about everything I know when he was away, and she never once gave me the impression she couldn’t do anything. She could paint the house. She could push a wheelbarrow. I watched the sweat drip off the end of her long nose as she weeded the Bermuda grass out, and showed me how to take care of the yard. She taught me how to make French fries in deep grease and wait until it is hot, otherwise they are going to get soggy. She taught me how to flip pancakes and wait until the bubbles appear around the edge. And when my dad came home, my mother beamed with joy that he could now lead in prayer at the table. He could now say, ‘Let’s go to church.’ He could now say, ‘Let’s go out to eat.’ He could pull the chair out for her when he sat her down. He would open the door for her when she went through. And I watched that dance, that choreography, and I marveled at my mother. In his absence, she could be everything, and in his presence, she loved it when he took the initiative.

Facing Death Faithfully (Episode 91):

This is a calamity for this man. Nobody is going to minimize it. It is huge. It is painful. You cry about it. You ought to cry about it. Your wife is going to cry about it if you are married. Your kids will cry about it. All that crying is appropriate because it hurts. But if Christ is supremely valuable, then our affections are transformed and we love his glory, his grace, and his presence more than we love this life.

Was Chris Broussard Right? (Episode 92):

I listened to the excerpt. I didn’t hear the whole program. And my answer is yes, he is right. And I think he would agree with a few clarifying comments. So let me expand the simple yes answer, just so that people can hear my heart and I think his heart behind that and, I think, a richer, fuller, biblical understanding. ...

What Does Opposition to Chris Broussard Tell Us? (Episode 93):

The upshot of this for the Church is that we not become embittered or cranky, but that we return good for evil, that we love our enemies, that we boldly proclaim the gospel and make the main thing the main thing, and that we expose the darkness. Ephesians 5:11 says, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” And I think the exposure happens not mainly by having a website that is totally negative and points out problem, problem, problem. Mainly darkness is exposed by light, by contrast.

Tuning In

The Ask Pastor John daily podcast is a series of 3–8 minute conversations released on weekdays at 10:30am (EST) via the DG Facebook and Twitter feeds. You can tune in to the new episodes through the new Ask Pastor John iPhone app, which can be downloaded for free here. We’re currently hosting all the recordings on SoundCloud, a website that makes it easy to listen to several of the podcasts in one sitting. They’re also archived on the DG website and syndicated in iTunes.

We want to hear from you. To submit a question to Pastor John please include your first name, hometown, and question in an email to AskPastorJohn AT desiringGod DOT org.

Thanks for listening to the podcasts. We appreciate your engagement and interest.

A Pentecost to Celebrate

Ryan Griffith — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

If it weren’t for Pentecost, we wouldn’t know about Easter.

For most of us, tomorrow isn’t flagged on our calendars as Pentecost Sunday. But it is a big deal for Christians, and there are at least three reasons why it’s a day worth celebrating.

Catching Up on the Context

First, the back-story. Recall that Jesus spent forty days after his resurrection with his disciples (Acts 1:3). Imagine those moments — the risen Savior in a glorified body talking and praying with his close friends (Luke 24:39–43). But it cannot last. Jesus must ascend to the Father and establish his everlasting reign by receiving, as the God-man, all dominion, power, and authority (Luke 24:44–51; cf. Daniel 7:13–14).

Watching Jesus ascend to heaven (Acts 1:11), the disciples must have felt an immediate sense of loss. But Jesus steadied them with an important promise: “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).

Remembering Israel’s Deliverance

So, on the seventh day after the ascension, we find the disciples gathered in Jerusalem, praying, waiting, and celebrating the Feast of Weeks. This important annual festival was observed on the seventh Sabbath after Passover.

At the conclusion of Passover, the first sheaf of the barley harvest would be offered before God in the temple, anticipating the greater harvest that was to follow in the summer. On the fiftieth day after Passover (Pentecost comes from the Greek word for fifty), all Israel would come to the temple in Jerusalem to celebrate in God’s presence. Parents, children, male and female servants, sojourners, the fatherless, and widows would all give thanks and feast in memory of Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage (Deuteronomy 16:9–12).

Luke tells us that when the disciples were gathered on the day of Pentecost,

suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:2–4)

According to Luke, Jews from every tribe under heaven were gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost. Learning what had happened, an international multitude gathered to find the disciples declaring the gospel in languages that each person could understand. As they marveled, Peter explained the miracle as the fulfillment of God’s word:

This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2:16–18)

Peter goes on to proclaim that what has happened in their hearing is the validation of the lordship of Jesus the Messiah and the realization of the promises of God (Acts 2:29–36). Those gathered are “cut to the heart,” and three thousand of them receive the good news of Jesus as Messiah and are baptized (Acts 2:41). The rest of the Book of Acts develops the world-transforming changes that have begun in these moments at Pentecost.

Three Reasons to Celebrate

How, then, is Pentecost important for us?

1. Pentecost fulfills Jesus’s promise to never forsake his own.

As painful as the parting at the ascension might have been, Jesus assured the disciples that it was to their advantage that he would go away,

“for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. . . . When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:7, 13–14)

The fulfillment of the promise of Jesus was the outpouring of the gift of the Holy Spirit on the disciples and, as Peter proclaimed, on all of God’s people in this new era (Acts 2:38).

The promises of the new covenant are ours through the indwelling Spirit (Jeremiah 31:33ff; Ezekiel 36:26ff). Jesus did not end his work on earth with the ascension — he continues it now through his Spirit-indwelt church. We, therefore, can take fresh courage in Jesus’s words, “Behold, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

2. Pentecost launches the global proclamation of the gospel.

Jesus’s death at Passover and his mighty resurrection three days later signaled the “firstfruit” of God’s victory over sin and death (1 Corinthians 15:20–24). Jesus had accomplished everything necessary for the gospel to run and triumph (Hebrews 2:14–15; cf. Revelation 20:1–3) and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost signals that the greater harvest has begun.

The three thousand souls added to the church on Pentecost hailed from all corners of the Roman world. They, in turn, would carry the gospel to their families and communities. The narrative arc of Acts follows the Spirit-indwelt disciples as they carry the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). You heard about Easter because of Pentecost. The fields are white with harvest and, as part of the church of the risen Christ, we too can “go, therefore, and make disciples” (Matthew 28:18).

3. Pentecost signals the coming of fuller restoration and a greater celebration.

At Pentecost, Peter proclaims that the prophecy of Joel 2:28–31 has come to pass. Intriguingly, this prophecy of the eschatological gift of the Spirit comes immediately after another striking promise from God in Joel 2:25–27:

I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lᴏʀᴅ your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lᴏʀᴅ your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

While Jesus’s reign is secure and eternal, it has yet to come to its fullest expression on the earth. While death has been decisively defeated, it has yet to be put to a final end (1 Corinthians 15:24–26). Paul reminds us that creation longs for its final restoration and that even we ourselves, who “have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).

Pentecost is a pointer that history is inexorably moving towards the restoration of all things. The bridegroom has come; his bride is making herself ready. We await the greatest celebration of all.

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:9)

Recap of Recent Piper Messages

Marshall Segal — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:30:00 -0500

We have never known days like these at Desiring God.

John Piper is now on staff full-time at DG and has begun a more unfettered ministry to the wider world through writing and speaking.

Along the way, we want to make it easy for you to see what he’s up to and hear what he’s been saying lately. Here’s a rich baker’s dozen of new messages from Pastor John so far in 2013.

1. “Joy As the Power to Suffer in the Path of Love for the Sake of Liberation”
Passion Conference | Atlanta, GA

The year began with a bang, as John addressed more than 60,000 college students in the Georgia Dome on how our joy in God frees us to suffer the sake of others’ freedom.

2. “Sailing to the Nations to Finish the Task, Part 1”
Resolute Conference | Southern Baptist Theological Seminary | Louisville, KY

In these two messages on missions, John aimed to set the boats of these students’ lives toward the nations, raise the sail of their faith in Jesus, and fill their boats with the ballast of God’s glory.

3. “Sailing to the Nations to Finish the Task, Part 2”
Resolute Conference | Southern Baptist Theological Seminary | Louisville, KY

Here’s the second part of John’s two messages at the Resolute Conference at Southern Seminary. Also, while there, he spoke in chapel on Thursday, February 14, from 2 Timothy 4, under the title “The Sadness and Beauty of Paul’s Final Words.”

4. “All Scripture Is Breathed Out by God: Continue in It”
Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville | Louisville, KY

While in Louisville, we joined our friend C.J. Mahaney and his church plant for corporate worship. In his message, John wanted to help us know how to relate to God’s book. He gives six reasons to believe and remain in the Bible.

5. “Cities of Ruthless Nations Will Fear the Lord”
The Summit Church | Durham, NC

The Summit has a goal to plant 1,000 churches among unreached peoples worldwide by 2050. In the face of persecution and hostility to Christianity around the globe, John breathed fresh hope into this bold vision from the radical promises of Isaiah 25.

6. “A Hunger for God: The Foundation for Faithful and Effective Ministry”
Advance13 | Raleigh, NC

John prepared a God-filled banquet for Christian leaders coming together under the banner of Advance to think about the relationship between faithfulness and fruitfulness in ministry. If your people will be glad in God, he said, you must first be glad in God.

7. “The Essential and Prominent Place of Preaching in Worship”
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary | Wake Forest, NC

Why does the somewhat peculiar practice of preaching still exist in the church today? Pastor John gives four reasons why the preaching of the word of God is absolutely vital to the life and corporate worship of the church.

8. “The Heart of God in the Call to Proclaim: A Joyfully Serious Courage in the Cause of World Missions”
TGC Pre-conference on Missions | Orlando, FL

John’s first trip in “retirement,” was to Florida, but it was not to collect seashells. In addition to their national conference, The Gospel Coalition held a pre-conference on missions. The meat of John’s message was four ways 2 Corinthians 5 awakens and sustains a joyfully serious courage in the cause of missions (realism, resurrection, reunion, and reward).

9. “Jesus the Son of God, the Son of Mary”
TGC National Conference | Orlando, FL

The conference focused on the Gospel of Luke, unfolding large portions of the book from beginning to end in ten messages. John kicked it off with Luke 1–2 and underlines several massive, unshakable realities about which we should have certainty.

10. “The Life and Ministry of Charles Spurgeon”
Reformed Theological Seminary | Orlando, FL

The Nicole Institute of Baptist Studies at RTS-Orlando will hold a biannual Spurgeon lecture. They kindly asked John to give the inaugural address. He focused first on Spurgeon’s love for God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated truth and preaching. Then he turned to Spurgeon’s love for people and his commitment to win and build them.

11. “What Happens in the New Birth?”
ReachLife Conference | Los Angeles, CA

Reach Records is making an effort with the ReachLife Institute to train and disciple young believers excited about Christian hip-hop in the Bible and doctrine. Pastor John stood before an incredibly diverse group to explain what God does in our new birth.

12. “Jesus Is Most Magnified in Us When We Are Most Satisfied in Him”
Community of Faith Bible Church | Los Angeles, CA

He may not have been speaking to thousands of people, but this fresh summary of Christian Hedonism in a local church context might have been my personal favorite message from this list.

13. “God Works for Those Who Wait for Him”
Christ Redeemer Church | Woodbury, MN

Christ Redeemer is one of a growing number of churches planted from Bethlehem Baptist in the Twin Cities metro. Pastor John turns to Isaiah 64, which God uniquely used early in his life. We learn that God does not need our help, but glorifies himself by providing constant, strong help to us, his children.

We will continue to draw attention to fresh new messages from Pastor John as he speaks across the country and around the world over the next months. Pray with us that God will continue to use John to help people everywhere understand and embrace the truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

Grace Forfeited: A New Start for an Old Tradition

David Mathis — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:27:00 -0500

It’s a new start for an old tradition in American Journalism, says Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief of World Magazine. The news poem. Says Olasky,

Hardly a vile murder or a military victory went by without colonial poets bemoaning or celebrating the occasion in verse, with the work then published on a single page “broadside” and sold for a penny. Happily, my favorite pastor/theologian, John Piper, is also a poet, and below are his thoughts on justice in regard to Connecticut’s school shooting and Boston’s Marathon bombing.

Worldmag.com has posted Piper’s news poem “Grace Forfeited: Adam, Tamerlan, and the Lady” with the short introduction by Olasky.

Also, here at Desiring God, you can read and listen to a two-minute recording of Piper reading the poem, and hear Piper explain the background of the poem and the biblical categories he explores in it in a special 5-minute episode of Ask Pastor John.

Recent poems by John Piper:

The Children (for 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade)
Too Late
Pilgrim’s Conflict with Sloth
Chief of Sinners

God’s Mercy in Making Us Face the Impossible

Jon Bloom — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

God is not content for us just to understand the idea that nothing is too hard for the Lᴏʀᴅ (Jeremiah 32:17). He wants us to have the overwhelming joy of experiencing it. But the sometimes agonizing period between his promise and his provision can push us to the brink of what we think we can believe, as it did for Abraham and Sarah.

[This imaginative conversation takes place shortly after Genesis 17:22.]

Abram entered the tent, his eyes on the ground, his mind a world away. He was breathing hard. Sarai was repairing a cloak. She watched him as he walked to the back corner and collapsed on the cushions with a sigh. She recognized the bodily weariness of a divine encounter.

“The Lᴏʀᴅ has spoken to you again, hasn’t he?”
There was a pause.
“Yes.”

It usually took Abram a while before he could talk about these encounters, so Sarai pulled her threadwork up close again where she could see. Another reminder of her aging body. But now her hands were trembling. She dropped them back into her lap. What had the Lᴏʀᴅ said?

“Ishmael!” The name pierced through Sarai like an arrow. She looked through the open flap and saw Hagar hand her son supplies to carry to the cooking fire. The boy was thirteen and beginning to look like a man. He was his father’s delight, the flesh of his flesh. But not of hers. The Lᴏʀᴅ had promised Abram offspring. But it was a deep, bewildering grief that he had granted it through Hagar, her own maidservant. And it had been her own idea.

“Sarah.”
She looked over at Abram. What had he just called her?
“Yes, I called you Sarah. The Lᴏʀᴅ has changed your name.”

The Lᴏʀᴅ spoke of her? Her heart sped with a rush of hope-fueled adrenaline.

“He changed my name? What do you mean?”
“You are not merely a princess. You will be the mother of kings.”

Sarah just stared. His words didn’t register. A childless mother of kings?

“The Lᴏʀᴅ said, ‘I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her’ (Genesis 17:16). Sarah, God is going to give you a son, and through him, nations.”

Sarah’s whole being staggered. She steadied herself with her left hand and cupped her mouth with her right. Tears streamed. Grief, hope, and confusion churned inside her. A child? She had tried to bury this desire and she felt fear at resurrecting it. And she was ninety. She hadn’t had a feminine cycle for years. How could this possibly…

“I know what you’re thinking. I thought the same thing. When God spoke it, it was too much to take in and I said, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before you!’”

The familiar pain shot through Sarah.

“But God said, ‘No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.’”

Isaac. Her desire now had a name. Sarah mouthed it but still had no voice.

“Yes. Because the whole idea seemed so ludicrous that I laughed to myself.”
“But… I can’t… Husband… I’m ninety years old.” Sarah began sobbing. “My body is no longer able to bear children. My time has passed.”

Abram walked over and enveloped his wife in his arms. “I know, Sarah. We are powerless to have children. Now more than ever. But if we’ve learned anything these twenty-five years it’s that our hope doesn’t rest on our power to do anything. Our hope rests on the Lᴏʀᴅ’s power. Our entire lives are built on what he’s promised. And the lives of our descendants must be built on his promises for generations before they ever occupy this land. Their survival will depend on them trusting the Lᴏʀᴅ’s promises and not their own power. Should it really surprise us that the first descendant the Lᴏʀᴅ gives us is a reminder of this?”

Sarah leaned into her husband.

“And, my precious wife, our Isaac will always remind us, and many after us, that the Lᴏʀᴅ makes us laugh at the impossible.”
“Your faith strengthens mine, Abram.”
“Abraham.”

Sarah looked up at him puzzled again.

“Yes, the Lᴏʀᴅ changed my name too.” Abraham smiled. “A mother of nations needs a father of nations, doesn’t she?”

There are times when God orders our circumstances in such a way that from a human standpoint his promises are impossible to fulfill. And if at that point we find these promises almost unbelievable, as did Abraham (Genesis 17:17–18) and Sarah (Genesis 18:11–14), what God has exposed are the boundaries of our faith — boundaries he means to expand.

Resting in the promises of God is learned in the crucible of wrestling with unbelief — seasons, sometimes long seasons, when everything hangs on believing that God “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Romans 4:17) and there is no safety net.

If you’re in such a season, as difficult as it feels, God is being incredibly kind to you. Because such seasons are when we really learn that nothing is too hard for the Lᴏʀᴅ (Genesis 18:14). And the joy in God that results makes any agony endured not even worth comparing.

Abraham and Sarah “grew strong in [their] faith” (Romans 4:20) because God pushed them to believe more than they thought was possible. For the sake of our joy he does the same for you and me.

Love Letter to a Lesbian

Jackie Hill — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:51:00 -0500

Dear ______,

I just want you to know that I understand.

I understand how it feels to be in love with a woman. To want nothing more than to be with her forever. Feeling as if the universe has played a cruel joke on your heart by allowing it to fall into the hands of a creature that looks just like you.

I too was a lesbian. I had same-sex attractions as early as five-years old. As I grew up, those feelings never subsided. They only grew. I would find myself having crushes on my female best friends, but I was far too ashamed to admit it to them — let alone to myself.

At the age of 17, I finally made the decision to pursue these desires. I entered into a relationship with a young lady who became my “first.” The first time we kissed, it felt extremely natural, as if this feeling is what I had been missing all along. After her came another woman and then another woman. Both relationships were very serious, each lasting over a year. I enjoyed these relationships and loved these women a lot. And it came to the point that I was willing to forsake all, including my soul, to enjoy their love on earth.

In October 2008, at the age of 19, my superficial reality was shaken up by a deeper love — one from the outside, one that I’d heard of before but never experienced. For the first time, I was convicted of my sin in a way that made me consider everything I loved (idolized), and its consequences. I looked at my life, and saw that I had been in love with everything except God, and these decisions would ultimately be the death of me, eternally. My eyes were opened, and I began to believe everything God says in his word. I began to believe that what he says about sin, death, and hell were completely true.

And amazingly, at the same time that the penalty of my sin became true to me, so did the preciousness of the cross. A vision of God’s Son crucified, bearing the wrath I deserved, and an empty tomb displaying his power over death — all things I had heard before without any interest had become the most glorious revelation of love imaginable.

After realizing all of what I would have to give up, I said to God, “I cannot let these things or people go on my own. I love them too much. But I know you are good and strong enough to help me.”

Now, at the age of 23, I can say with all honesty that God has done just that. He has helped me love him more than anything.

Now why did I just tell you about this? I gave you a glimpse of my story because I want you to understand that I understand. But I also want you to know that I also understand how it feels to be in love with the Creator of the universe. To want nothing more than to be with him forever. To feel his grace, the best news ever announced to mankind. To see his forgiveness, that he would take such a wicked heart into his hands of mercy.

But with that in mind, we’re in a culture where stories like mine either seem impossible or hilarious, depending on the audience. Homosexuality is everywhere — from music, to TV, even sports. If you’d believe all that society had to say about homosexuality, you’d come to the conclusion that it is completely normal, even somewhat admirable. But that is far from the truth. God tells us that homosexuality is sinful, abominable, and unnatural (Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:18–32; 1 Corinthians 6:9–11; 1 Timothy 1:8–10). But if I were to be honest, sometimes homosexual attractions can seem natural to me.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this may be your dilemma as well. You see what God has to say about homosexuality, but your heart doesn’t utter the same sentiments. God’s word says it’s sinful; your heart says it feels right. God’s word says it’s abominable; your heart says it’s delightful. God’s word says it’s unnatural; your heart says it’s totally normal. Do you see that there is a clear divide between what God’s word says and how your heart feels?

So which voice should you believe?

There was a time in my walk with Christ where I experienced a lot of temptation about falling back into lesbianism. These temptations caused me to doubt God’s word. My temptations and desires began to become more real to me than the truth of the Bible. As I was praying and meditating on these things, God put this impression on my heart: “Jackie, you have to believe that my word is true even if it contradicts how you feel.” Wow! This is right. Either I trust in his word or I trust my own feelings. Either I look to him for the pleasure my soul craves or I search for it in lesser things. Either I walk in obedience to what he says or I reject his truth as if it were a lie.

The struggle with homosexuality is a battle of faith. Is God my joy? Is he good enough? Or am I still looking to broken cisterns to quench a thirst only he can satisfy? That is the battle. It is for me, and it is for you.

The choice is yours, my friend. I pray you put your faith in Christ and flee from the lies of our society that coincide with the voices of your heart — a heart that Scripture says is wicked and deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9). Run to Jesus instead.

You were made for him (Romans 11:36). He is ultimately all that you need! He is good and wise (Psalm 145:9). He is the source of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3). He is kind and patient (2 Peter 3:9). He is righteous and faithful (Psalm 33:4). He is holy and just (1 John 1:9). He is our true King (Psalm 47:7). He is our Savior (Jude 1:25). And he is inviting you to be not just his servant, but also his friend. If lasting love is what you’re looking for anywhere else, you are chasing the wind, seeking what you will never find, slowly being destroyed by your pursuit.

But in Jesus, there is fullness of joy. In Jesus, there is a relationship worth everything, because he is everything. Run to him.

Beyond the Rhetoric: Gosnell and the Late-Term Reality

John Knight — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

“It is a highly needed and valuable procedure.”

That statement above is referring to late-term abortion. In other words, says LateTermAbortion.net, it is highly needed and valuable that deadly poison be injected into the heart of an unborn child if the mother so chooses.

This reveals a cruel irony of late term abortionist Kermit Gosnell, the man convicted of murdering viable children after they were born alive during his abortion procedures. He claimed the babies were dead before leaving their mother’s wombs because his intra-cardiac injection had stopped their hearts, and therefore, he wasn’t guilty of murder. A matter of inches in one direction makes it “a guiltless procedure,” but in the other direction it’s murder, resulting in the 72-year-old Gosnell sentenced to life in prison.

Those who advocate for the legality of late-term abortion repeatedly refer to disability and genetic abnormality because they think the stories of disabled children blunt the extraordinary brutality of murdering unborn infants.

Pro-Choice Colorado explains that their state is one of the few where a late abortion can be obtained. “Outpatient abortion is available up to 26 weeks. In addition, medically indicated termination of pregnancy up to 34 weeks is also an option for conditions such as fetal anomalies, genetic disorder, fetal demise and/or severe medical problems” (NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, italics added). The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice says that “on the rare occasion when a woman has a late abortion it is because the fetus has severe or fatal anomalies or because the pregnancy endangers her life or health” (italics added).

Misguided and Dishonest

It is a sad and horrible thing for a child to go from wanted to unwanted based on the measure of their health. And yet, despite what is said, most late term abortions are not done for reasons of disability.

This was true in the abortion clinic run by Gosnell. In most cases, it had nothing to do with fetal anomaly, genetic disorder, rape, incest or the mother’s health. And abortion providers know it. LateTermAbortion.net cites reasons such as a breakup with the baby’s father or loss of financial stability, or “numerous other situations that occur on a daily basis that may cause a woman to want to terminate the pregnancy.”

Ron Fitzsimmons, then executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, already has said this about late term abortion during an interview with American Medical News more than 16 years ago:

What abortion rights supporters failed to acknowledge, Fitzsimmons said, is that the vast majority of these abortions are performed in the 20-plus week range on healthy fetuses and healthy mothers. “The abortion rights folks know it, the anti-abortion folks know it, and so, probably, does everyone else,” he said. (Diane Gianelli, Medicine adds to debate on late-term abortion. American Medical News, March 3, 1997, 54)

Most Americans are really uncomfortable with late-term abortion; a sizable majority think even second-trimester abortion should be illegal. The way those who advocate for late-term abortion push through those objections, it seems, is to raise the specter of disability. They fall back to talking about the “quality of life” and how to minimize suffering. As misguided as this thinking is in itself, referring to disability for late-term abortion is more rhetoric than reality.

Trusting God Together

Here is where the Church has a huge advantage and opportunity because Jesus taught us how to approach issues like unintended pregnancy, disability, and genetic anomalies: we should trust God and his promises.

Disability, disease, and suffering of all kinds are found throughout the Bible. It is no surprise to God. And he calls us to move toward each other in love and to serve each other as each has been given gifts. This includes finding, developing, and benefiting from the gifts of those who live with disability.

But because disability is so hard in this culture, and because there is real suffering associated with it, and because our own sin creates doubts that God is purposefully working, we are pressed to truly believe the promise from God that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).”

This is true even for the babies who will only live a short time or who will live their entire lives with suffering, for they also live in the reality that “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. . .” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Here especially is an opportunity for those who cling to Jesus to love hurting families in ways that make God look strong, good, and worthy of our hope and trust.

Late-term abortion is legal in several states, but we don’t need to wait for changes in law or court decisions. Trust God, move toward the moms (and the dads) in love, welcome the children, and watch God make the idea of abortion unthinkable in people you never, ever believed could change.

Behind the Blog: Good People

Jonathan Parnell — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:55:00 -0500

A month ago today the bombs went off in Boston. Through the surge of media, many of us were left on the edge of our seats for a week. There was shock and confusion and deep questions. In this latest episode of Behind the Blog we talk about how we responded to this tragedy on the blog, including our personal wrestling with how to process events like this.

Other topics in this episode include an update on John Piper’s upcoming speaking schedule and wider ministry. We talk about our latest publications now available and our newest ebook, Doctrine Matters. We also introduce our National Conference this fall, “The Romantic Rationalist: God, Work, & Imagination in the Work of C.S. Lewis.”

Stream or download this 25-minute episode, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Mentioned in this podcast:

When the Bombs Exploded in Boston (Tony Reinke)
Looking Evil in the Eye (Jonathan Parnell)
Why Gosnell, God? Why Boston? (Marshall Segal)
Not By Sight, by Jon Bloom
A Hunger for God, by John Piper
Doctrine Matters: Ten Theological Trademarks from a Lifetime of Preaching, from John Piper
Our 2013 National Conference: “The Romantic Rationalist: God, Work, & Imagination in the Work of C.S. Lewis.”

National Conference 2013: Celebrating the Work of C.S. Lewis

David Mathis — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Fifty years ago this fall, C.S. Lewis quietly crossed from this life into the next.

While the assassination of John F. Kennedy captured the world’s attention on November 22, 1963, one Clive Staples Lewis — his friends called him Jack — breathed his last and took one big step toward becoming the kind of glorious creature in the coming new creation he speaks about in his famous sermon “The Weight of Glory.”

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously.

Honoring the Romantic Rationalist

With great gratitude to God for his gift to us in one ordinary Jack, with some extraordinary talents and one remarkable corpus of work, we’re excited to announce the focus of our Desiring God 2013 National Conference: “The Romantic Rationalist: God, Life, and Imagination in the Work of C.S. Lewis.”

We’d love to have you save the date and join us in downtown Minneapolis, September 27–29. In addition to two plenary messages from John Piper, we’ve gathered a handful of verifiable Lewis-lovers for the main sessions: Randy Alcorn, Phil Ryken, Douglas Wilson, and Kevin Vanhoozer. Also included are breakout sessions from Lyle Dorsett, Colin Duriez, Joe Rigney, and N.D. Wilson, and a litany of 10-minute short monologues in the exhibit hall on a variety of themes related to Lewis. Our hope is this will be the next best thing to visiting Narnia yourself.

Super Early-Bird Rate

For the speaker’s titles, the conference schedule, and other information, see the event page, and consider taking advantage of the super early-bird rate of $125 when you register by June 1.

More info to come in the days ahead. For now, we’d love to have you mark your cal, consider registering early, and check out this brief word from John Piper on why we’re so excited to rally around the work of C.S. Lewis for this conference.

Tullian Talks Regeneration

David Mathis — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:37:00 -0500

Do you know the exact moment you were saved? Saul of Tarsus did. As did the great Augustine. Many in church history have testified to dramatic, unmistakable experiences of the new birth, when God touched their dead hearts and gave them new spiritual life by his Holy Spirit.

But this is not the experience of most. Count Tullian Tchividjian among us.

Tullian is the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He grew up in a Christian home — his grandfather is Billy Graham — yet he rebelled defiantly for a season, and was born again in God’s good timing, with dramatic change in his life trajectory. But even the effects of his regeneration being as radical as they are, Tullian is not able to point to the one specific moment in time when God gave him new spiritual life. And he doesn’t need to.

Whether you had an unmistakable experience of the new birth, or whether it was more gradual and you can only point to a season or span of time in which God was working to bring you to life — either way, you’re in good company.

Tullian does make it clear, however, that there must have been a specific moment when God decisively gave him new life. That’s how God works by his Spirit in the new birth. But he doesn’t always, or perhaps even typically, give us the conscious experience of that precise moment, even as he does bring us from death to life at a particular point. God is more interested in our ongoing trust in Jesus than our ability to remember exactly when we first trusted him.

In this new episode of Theology Refresh, Tullian discusses the doctrine of regeneration, or the new birth, which is, first and foremost, something God does, whatever our experience of it. And over time, the new birth has unmistakable effects on a life. Says Tullian, “You begin to love the things God loves and hate the things God hates. You begin to run away from the things you ran toward and run toward the things you once ran from.”

To get this 14-minute episode, subscribe to Theology Refresh in iTunes, listen at the resource page, or download the audio.

Some previous episodes of Theology Refresh:

[To subscribe or see the full list of over 30 episodes, visit Theology Refresh in the iTunes store]

The Fight for Life: Why We Keep Standing

John Piper — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

At Desiring God, we are happy and unapologetic advocates of the sanctity of human life, beginning at conception. We love waving the banner for life, not just around the Roe anniversary in January, but throughout the year. Earlier this year, John Piper answered questions for a student in Asia related to abortion and the cause of life during his 33-year pastorate at Bethlehem Baptist. In an effort to keep the sanctity of human life regularly before our readers, here are the questions and John’s answers. –Editor

1. How does Bethlehem Baptist Church offer a solution to help prevent abortions or deal with women who have had abortions?

We preach at least once a year on the nature and evil of abortion.
We have a focused effort every January around the Roe v. Wade decision with seminars and roundtables.
We take people on buses from the church to the Minnesota State Capitol for a pro-life rally sponsored by Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life.
We take up a special offering over several weeks, usually amounting to about $20,000, and donate it to the two local crisis-pregnancy centers.
We make educational information available and point people to links where they can get more information.
We encourage people to do sidewalk counseling outside the Planned Parenthood center in nearby St. Paul.
We participate in various vigils outside abortion clinics.
We take our message to the Web and produce resources to spread the influence.
We preach a message of grace and forgiveness for the men and women who attend or visit our church and have been involved in an abortion.
We teach the men of the church to take responsibility and not think that they can have sexual relations in which only the woman bears the consequences.

2. Should Christians also be against birth control pills?

This is an ethical issue at several levels. The clearest is this: If the pill is an abortifacient, it is wrong to use it. Another level is the motive for wanting to not have children. The Bible is very big on the blessing of children. One should have a very gospel-driven, loving, sacrificial (not selfish) reason for not wanting children.

3. A major solution to saving the lives of unwanted babies is adoption. On what grounds do we deny a homosexual couple the opportunity of adopting an unwanted baby?

Living in a sexual relationship with a person of the same sex is forbidden in Scripture with terrifying clarity. “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9–10).

This means putting a child in the personal care of a same-sex couple would put the child’s soul at jeopardy along with the couple’s souls. The couple would be endorsed by the adoption, and thus their hell-bound pattern of life would be endorsed, implying that we don’t care if they go to hell, which would be unloving. And the child would be taught that a damning behavior is normal and acceptable.

That is the main reason. But there is also the common sense and biblical wisdom (as well as contemporary studies) that show a child needs a mother and a father for their fullest flourishing.

4. If, during the pregnancy, the life of the mother is at high risk, do you view one life as more valuable than the other?

Several factors come into play. One is the degree of risk for each, the mother and child. One may be perfectly healthy, and the other very ill and close to death. That will make a difference whom we put at greater risk while attempting to save one or both.

The main principle here is not that the mother or child are less valuable intrinsically as persons, but rather the added value developed during years of relationship between the mother and many other people. That value counts in any tragic choice one may have to make.

5. Have you ever received opposition to your pro-life messages? If so, please explain.

I established my pro-life position as a pastor so early in my ministry that people who disagreed simply didn’t come to the church. So inside the church, we have had peace and agreement, even though we have grown from 500 to 5,000.

When you are a public figure who speaks and writes on the Internet, your view is known and loved and hated by thousands. Those who hate it, blog against you. That is to be expected. It will never be any other way.

In addition, when we did demonstrations years ago, blocking the doors of abortion clinics, there were usually pro-choice people shouting ugly things. The challenge was to be quietly meek.

6. Do you think abortion will be legally banned in your lifetime? If not, do you have an argument for why we should continue to fight against it?

No. I am 67, and I don’t expect to see it in my lifetime.

The reason we stand against the killing of babies is not because victory in a fallen world is likely. We fight because the nature of the sin is so public, and so egregious, and so contradictory to what enables a society to flourish, and so offensive to God, and so contrary to the spirit and precepts of the Bible, and so driven by motives that reveal unbelief in the word of God, that it would be a sin not to stand up and resist, in whatever way the Lord leads.

More from Desiring God in the cause of life:

We Know They Are Killing Children — All of Us Know (by John Piper)
The Truth (About Abortion) Will Set You Free (by John Piper)
MLK’s Dream and the Nightmare of Black Genocide (by David Mathis)
Raise Your Hand If You Agree (by Jonathan Parnell)
The Real Life of the Pro-Life Home (by Rachel Jankovic)

Grace Greater Than All Our Worries

Christina Fox — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:20:00 -0500

“Mommy, what’s the matter?”

My son can sense it. The tension and worry that saturates my heart oozes from my presence. “I just have so much on my mind. I forgot to do something, that’s all,” I replied.

But that’s not all. I say it like it’s not a big deal. But from the mouth of a child, his question reminds me that I shouldn’t feel this way. This burden I’m carrying on my shoulders seems to get heavier with each new day. Lately, my to-do lists have to-do lists.

With a hectic, busy life, full of responsibilities, I’m afraid I’ll forget something crucial and important. I worry that if I don’t do it (and there’s always an it), then no one else will. So I try to keep everything under my control. I’m constantly reminding myself of what I have to do. “I can’t forget this... ” “I better do that first thing tomorrow.” “It would be bad if I didn’t do this...” I focus on all the “what if’s,” and the worry consumes me. My child can see it because it’s etched across my face.

Yet I am fooling myself. I’m not really in control of anything. I could write a thousand to-do lists, and it wouldn’t matter. God is in control, not me. I’ve been bitten by a serpent-shaped lie that says I can orchestrate all the details of my life. That I can plan them and execute all on my own. The lie then produces fear when the reality crashes in that I actually can’t do it at all.

Because rather than being in control of all that I fear, fear has gotten control of me.

Trust vs. Worry

This desire to control our lives is common among us as mothers. We voice our worries to each other, talk about our stresses, and strategize how to make our lives smooth and problem-free. It’s an acceptable sin that joins many conversations, play dates, and texts. Sometimes we even encourage it among one another, attempting to out-do each other to see whose life is most worrisome and hectic. It seems so normal and commonplace, after all. I mean, what mother doesn’t worry? And if we didn’t, wouldn’t there be something wrong with us?

Jesus calls us to a different kind of life, one that’s contrary to the world. He calls us to a life of trust (Matthew 6:25–34). Trust is the opposite of worry. It requires that we believe all that God has told us about himself. It requires that we believe he is better than everything else, that we trust in his character, his goodness, and his grace (Psalm 9:10). It requires that we look back to all the ways he has provided for and strengthened us in the past. We know what he has said, and therefore we have the confidence in what he will do in the future. Trusting God requires that we believe he cares for us, that we keep our eyes on him, not our circumstances (1 Peter 5:7).

Remembering His Grace

The Israelites were told over and over in Scripture to look back at how God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. They were to remember his wonders at the Red Sea, his provisions in the desert, and how he brought them into the Promised Land. During yearly feasts, they celebrated what God had done for them and instructed their children in God’s faithfulness. But too often, they failed to remember. Instead they turned away from trust in God and relied instead on themselves and the culture around them.

We are also called to remember God’s grace in our lives. When worries creep in, when the cares of this life weigh us down, when everything seems out of control, we must remember all that God has done, and in continuing to do. We must recall our own story of deliverance from sin. We need to remember the lengths God went to — and continues to go to — in rescuing us from slavery through the shed blood of his Son at the cross. We need to remember where God decisively demonstrated his love (Romans 5:8). Because if he would sacrifice his own Son to save us, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things (Romans 8:32)?

If he saved us from our greatest fear — eternal separation from him — how can he not carry us through all our fears of today? If Christ conquered death when he rose triumphantly from the grave, how can he not also resurrect our joy from the pit of worry and despair?

Grace for Today and Every Tomorrow

Like the Israelites, we also forget and we stumble, but the cross is there to remind us of the gospel of grace. Just as the Israelites had to look to the bronze serpent for healing in the wilderness, we need to look to Christ. Looking to the cross and remembering the gospel frees us from the burdens that weigh us down. It pulls us from inward focus on ourselves and our efforts to make life work, and it focuses us back to the one who already accomplished it all.

When Jesus spoke the words, “It is finished,” he shut the door on our efforts to control our life. He put an end to all our strivings to get everything right in our own strength. And he opened the door to a forever rest, to freedom from sin, and to a peace that passes all understanding.

In this life, there will be plenty of reasons to worry. But we have more reasons to trust. God has been more than faithful in the past. Because he sent Jesus to rescue us from our sin, we can trust him with all our worries and fears, today and every tomorrow. When life’s unexpected challenges and overwhelming tasks tempt us to worry, when our to-do list gets long and sleep evades us, let us look to the cross and believe, trusting in what God has already done, and what he said he would do.

Preparing for the Future in the Age of Facebook

Alex Chediak — Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The regular use of our minds — thinking, reading, studying, analyzing — is a necessary means to loving God in this world. God gave us a Book, and he ordained that insight into its message be given by means of focused mental effort (2 Timothy 2:7; Ephesians 3:4; Acts 17:11–12) combined with supernatural illumination (2 Corinthians 4:4–6; 1 Peter 1:23). We should become attentive readers even if only to see the glory of God in the pages of Scripture and to be equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

But the use of our minds is a critical means to loving God in a wide variety of secular occupations, too. Intellectual effort can take many forms. Some read books, others “read” equations, still others “read” historical, financial, or scientific data. But the goal for Christians is the same: Using the mind to fan the flame of worship toward God and service towards neighbor (Luke 10:27).

Start Early

Youth is a particularly strategic time to develop healthy study habits. The early years are a season of developing our God-given talents into competencies by which we can meaningfully serve others and live with impact in a broken world. This requires learning to receive, understand, and evaluate arguments conveyed via words, equations, or other means. It requires attentive reading, alert listening, and active engagement.

But an endless assortment of instantly-available media and non-stop social interactions are making uninterrupted study less common for young adults in our day (and for all of us). Such distractions radically short-circuit the learning process, preventing students from reaching their God-given potential for usefulness in the kingdom and workplace. If a well-trained mind is a means to loving God and serving others, how can we help students (and ourselves) reverse this harmful trend?

The Allure of Distraction

Ashley doesn’t just do her homework after dinner; she writes a paper while instant messaging (IMing) with three friends with Facebook open while listening to iTunes. With intermittent stimuli coming from several sources, there’s never a dull moment. Each incoming message or status update is a pleasant escape and a means of social connection and validation. There’s even a dimension of suspense: How will Emily respond to my text? What will people think of my comment? Did anyone “like” my picture yet? It’s like the addictive thrill of a slot machine.

But there’s a price to pay for this unwillingness to be alone with our thoughts.

Media Multitasking Diminishes Learning

Multi-tasking is a misnomer: The brain focuses on concepts sequentially, not on two things at once. In fact, the brain must disengage from one activity in order to engage in another. Ashley is actually “task switching” — she’s going from an IM to her paper, back to an IM. Her paper will take longer to write that way, and it won’t be as good as it could have been, especially if the words of her music are competing with her attempt to write words of her own.

Recent research has shown that media multi-taskers are worse at paying attention, controlling their memory, and switching from one job to another. The reason: “They’re suckers for irrelevancy,” said Stanford professor Clifford Nass, “Everything distracts them.”¹ Poor impulse control and a reduced attention span make it more difficult to master challenging concepts.

And it causes them to give up more easily. We have to get into a zone of focused engagement to understand a difficult book, or write a history paper, or understand what might be happening in a chemical reaction. Our best work simply can’t be done in five minute increments between text messages. Math education researcher Alan Schoenfeld, a professor at U.C. Berkeley, has found that it takes almost twenty minutes to really understand how to approach an unfamiliar kind of math problem. But the average high school student today, Schoenfeld has learned, gives up in as little as two minutes.²

Two Points of Application

So what can students do about it? Two thoughts:

1. Turn it off.

Try turning off all media (with the possible exception of instrumental music) when reading or doing any kind of class assignment. Focus your brain entirely on one mental task. This will be uncomfortable at first. Remember, the distractions you’re used to may have given you a measure of escape during an unpleasant task, but they didn’t make you more successful. Instead, lose yourself in the mental exercise: Understanding a book, solving a tough math problem, writing an essay, etc. And don’t give up too quickly. “No pain, no gain” is as true in the scholastic realm as in athletics. Moreover, there’s a joy waiting for you on the far side of self-forgetfulness in the pursuit of learning. The delights of intellectual discovery are reserved not for some gifted, lucky few, but for everyone willing to pay its price: curiosity, focus, and determination.

2. Read this summer.

To the extent that the summer months provide increased free time, consider an aggressive reading program. Ask your parents, pastors, and mentors to recommend titles. Or get ahead on reading you know you’ll need to do next year. Uninterrupted reading makes us better thinkers, listeners, and writers, because it forces us to slow down and concentrate on one thing: following what someone else is saying, even if means re-reading some sentences or paragraphs to understand the author’s train of thought. Your brain is a muscle; stretching it will make it stronger.

Whatever God calls you to do in your life, it will involve using your mind. Decide today, with God’s help, to form the kinds of habits that will prepare you for the challenges of tomorrow, so that you can walk in the good works which God has prepared for you (Ephesians 2:10).

¹ Adam Gorlick, “Media multitaskers pay mental price, Stanford study shows,” Stanford Report, August 24, 2009. For comparable studies performed on high school students, with similar results, see for example Brittney Moore, “The myth behind multitasking,” The Michigan Journal, February 16, 2010.

² As recounted in Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers, (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008).

Her Children Arise and Call Her Blessed

David Mathis — Sun, 12 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Mother’s Day is a sweet opportunity for Christians to celebrate one of God’s most significant means of his common and redeeming grace.

For most, there’s some bitter flavor somewhere. We live in a fallen world. All mothers are sinful — even Jesus’s own mother knew well her need for a Savior (Luke 1:47) and for God’s mercy (Luke 1:50). Whether your own mother monumentally failed you, or you’re a mother who’s all too aware of how you’ve failed your children, there is goodness and grace to acknowledge and appreciate in almost every situation, even when deeply tarnished by sin.

But for many of us, our hearts soar in thanksgiving when God brings to mind our mothers and grandmothers, or our wife and mother of our children. Among those of us raised in believing homes — in which our parents were faithful in teaching and modeling the faith — we may enjoy, all the more, the priceless privilege of fulfilling Proverbs 31:28 on Mother’s Day: “Her children rise up and call her blessed.”

Such Influence over the Heart

The great English Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) had such a privilege. When he writes about his “Early Religious Impressions”, he not only says, “Fathers and mothers are the most natural agents for God to use in the salvation of their children,” but in particular he celebrates his mother.

I am sure that, in my early youth, no teaching ever made such an impression upon my mind as the instruction of my mother; neither can I conceive that, to any child, there can be one who will have such influence over the heart as the mother who has so tenderly cared for her offspring. . . .

Never could it be possible for any man to estimate what he owes to a godly mother. Certainly I have not the powers of speech with which to set forth my valuation of the choice blessing which the Lord bestowed on me in making me the son of one who prayed for me, and prayed with me.

If anyone would have had the powers of speech to set forth the blessing of a godly mother, it would have been Spurgeon. And yet he knew how invaluable and ultimately indescribable is the good a godly mother for her children. It was his mother, more than any other mere human, who was God’s means in making Spurgeon great.

A Mother’s Unforgettable Sway

He continues,

How can I ever forget her tearful eye when she warned me to escape from the wrath to come? I thought her lips right eloquent; others might not think so, but they certainly were eloquent to me.

How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee, and with her arms about my neck, prayed, “Oh, that my son might live before Thee!” Nor can her frown be effaced from my memory — that solemn, loving frown, when she rebuked my budding iniquities; and her smiles have never faded from my recollection — the beaming of her countenance when she rejoiced to see some good thing in me towards the Lord God of Israel.

And it was not just her example and beaming countenance, but her words, communicated with manifest grace and gravity.

I cannot tell how much I owe to the solemn words of my good mother. It was the custom, on Sunday evenings, while we were yet little children, for her to stay at home with us, and then we sat round the table, and read verse by verse, and she explained the Scripture to us. After that was done, then came the time of pleading; there was a little piece of Alleine’s Alarm, or of Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted, and this was read with pointed observations made to each of us as we sat round the table; and the question was asked, how long it would be before we would think about our state, how long before we would seek the Lord.

Then came a mother’s prayer, and some of the words of that prayer we shall never forget, even when our hair is grey. I remember, on one occasion, her praying thus: “Now, Lord, if my children go on in their sins, it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear a swift witness against them at the day of judgment if they lay not hold of Christ.” That thought of a mother’s bearing swift witness against me, pierced my conscience, and stirred my heart.

Mothers Who Gave Us God’s Word

Countless characteristics of a godly mother could be celebrated this weekend, but for the Christian it may be captured best in 2 Timothy 3:14–15, where Paul writes to Timothy his protégé, and notes the eternal influence of Timothy’s mother.

Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

What Paul has in mind with Timothy being acquainted with the Scriptures from childhood is made plain earlier in the letter: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (2 Timothy 1:5).

According to Acts 16:1, Timothy’s father was Greek, but his mother was “a Jewish woman who was a believer.” It was Timothy’s mother Eunice and grandmother Lois who gave to him God’s priceless self-revelation in the Scriptures and, under God, made him “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” John Piper comments,

The apostle of Jesus Christ in this text bestows on motherhood and grandmotherhood a great honor. You have a calling that can become the long-remembered ground of faith, not just for your children — mark this — but for the untold numbers who will be affected by your children. And that’s in addition to all the other thousands of ripple effects of faith in your life. (“Honoring the Biblical Call of Motherhood”)

Whether Mother’s Day for you is bittersweet, or just plain sweet, here is perhaps the single most significant thing to celebrate in a Christian mother, and aspire to be with what life we have left to live: bringing the Scriptures near to our children.

In this way, the charge of Hebrews 13:7 to recall our leaders may have this special application to us in those we celebrate today: Remember your mothers, especially those who spoke to you the word of God.

For a memorable sermon from Sinclair Ferguson on 2 Timothy 3:14–15, especially relevant for Mother’s Day, see Don’t Hide God’s Word from the Little Ones. See also John Piper’s special Mother’s Day sermon giving tribute to his mother, Honoring the Biblical Call of Motherhood.

When Harsh Words Are Kind

Jon Bloom — Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Missionary to India, William Carey, once exhorted a Baptist gathering in England by saying, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” I love that quote.

But we must heed the Bible’s warning through Simon the Magician: if we attempt great things so that others will see us as great, we are in grave spiritual peril.

The Situation with Simon

After Stephen had been brutally stoned to death, intense persecution broke out against the Christians in Jerusalem. Many were driven off to the towns and villages of Judea and Samaria.

Philip, Stephen’s co-servant to the Hellenistic widows, landed in a Samaritan town and preached and performed signs and wonders there. Large numbers of Samaritans professed faith and were baptized. And Simon was one of them.

Simon was a local celebrity, a magician of sorts. He had mesmerized the locals with his arts. And they had given him the title The Great Power of God. And he loved it. He basked in his reputation and fed off the admiration and respect he received.

But when Philip arrived, the game changed. Simon watched with covetous awe as the real, great power of God flowed through Philip; a power that far out-classed him.

Then Peter and John showed up from Jerusalem. And when they prayed, people were filled with the Holy Spirit. This drew even more crowds. Everyone was talking about them. Everyone was mesmerized by them (or so it seemed to Simon).

No one was mesmerized by Simon anymore. He was a diminishing star. And like many who have once experienced the euphoric drug of other people’s adoration, he wanted that rush again.

If he could somehow get this Jesus power, then once again he could be great. Once again people would hold him in awe. He was willing to pay a high price for that drug.

So at a discreet moment, he approached Peter and John with a proposition. If they would let him in on the secret they possessed, if they would share their power with him, a small fortune in silver would be theirs and no one would ever know.

In a split second Simon knew he had miscalculated. Peter’s eyes seemed to burn right into his heart. And then Peter’s words seemed to slice him open:

May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. (Acts 8:20-23)

Simon cringed and said meekly, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said will come upon me.”

The Simon in Us

Peter’s words to Simon might have sounded harsh. But they were full of mercy. The love of self-glory is an extremely dangerous cancer of the soul and is spiritually fatal if not addressed. This cancer requires a straightforward, serious diagnosis. Both Peter and John had benefited from the Great Physician’s graciously severe rebukes. Maybe Simon would repent and be delivered.

The Bible does not tell us if he did. Early church literature suggests that Simon later became a heretic, which, if true, means he tragically ignored Peter’s warning.

But God does not want us to ignore the warning. This account is in the Bible so that we will remember that God’s power is not a commodity to be traded. It’s not a means for us to pursue our own greatness or wealth.

We can all relate to Simon. We are all tempted to pursue our own glory, even in the work of the kingdom. When we recognize that familiar craving we need to deal severely with it. We must confess it (often to others, not just God), repent, and resist. Because, if left alone, it can develop into a spiritual cancer that can blind us to real glory, and may ultimately kill us.

So, let us expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. But let us take Peter’s advice and do so “by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11).

How Introverted Pastors Love

Tony Reinke — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:05:00 -0500

MINNEAPOLIS — It’s no secret John Piper is an introvert.

This week 75 pastors and ministry leaders gathered together as a local chapter of TGC Twin Cities to hear Pastor John share about his 33 years of ministry. The discussion was led by R.W. Glenn of Redeemer Bible Church.

One of the first questions was how an introverted pastor, like Piper, has learned to love others through his personal gifts and limitations.

The Pastor As Introvert

“It’s amazing how many introverts go into ministry,” Pastor John said of himself and others. But it’s true. For many pastors, hanging out with people is physically draining. “A lot of people would say that’s a bad thing; you should repent of that and turn around and either do something else, or start loving to hang out with people.”

Or, he said, introverted pastors can use their strengths to intentionally love people. Extroverted pastors and introverted pastors, if they’re born again, both love people, but there remains a tension for the introverted pastor who defines love exclusively in terms of activities in the presence of people.

He went on to explain.

Plead with God to make your in-disposition to be with people a blessing to people. In other words, I would say after 33 years, my default after preaching is to go home and pray and read, not to hang out for three hours over a meal. That’s my disposition. I do hang out for an hour and pray with people, and I’m glad I do, and it is rewarding to do it.... If you're wired that way, instead of constantly praying God would make you another kind of person, pray that he would make you really useful for people. I think he’s done that for me....

I believe what people have benefited from me most is what I have seen in the Bible. I don’t think I have blessed Bethlehem much by being a good organizer or a good model of personal evangelism. I can list a lot of ways they have not benefited from me. But, if I don’t despair, if I say there’s been some good done, I know where it came from — it came from me taking notes over my Bible and wrestling to see how Hebrews 10:10 and 10:14 come together, that was this morning; seeing something I’ve never seen before in the text, and walking into a staff meeting and telling them; walking into a hospital room and telling her; walking into the pulpit and telling them what I saw. And then going home to see some more.

Take what you see, and then if you’re a writer, you write it. If you’re a preacher, you preach it. If you’re a hanger-outer, tell the hanger-outters-with what you saw this morning.

The Pastor’s Devotional Life (And Dynamic Theology)

A little later the discussion turned to the difference between time invested in personal devotions and in sermon preparation. Pastor John explained the importance of reading the Bible through every year.

“My theological framework is constantly being refined in my personal devotions,” he said. “I’m a Christian Hedonist and a 7-point Calvinist [laughter]. But that is not a static reality. There’s core that never changes, but the pieces of it move around, and the emphases move around, and the edges expand, and applications grow. All that theological formation is happening as I'm wrestling with text after text after text by reading through the whole Bible every year.”

Other topics covered in the 50-minute gathering:

The top three priorities for pastors.
Piper’s perceived failures and regrets from 33 years of pastoral ministry.
Why pastors should focus on preaching to people in the room, and not to an unseen online audience. (“If you try to be a world-pastor and your church is your studio, that's going to go south real fast.”)
Why God loves to bless church-planting churches.
Perceiving symptoms of spiritual sickness in the congregation.
And the place of passion in preaching. (“I cannot preach to people something I’m bored with. That’s the way you die in ministry.”)

Listen to the entire discussion here: Reflecting on 33 Years in the Pastorate.

Removing Barriers for Arabic Expansion

Seth Magnuson — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:30:00 -0500

It’s road construction season in Minneapolis. That means orange signs with massive blinking arrows — the ones that signal that your commute is about to take twice as long. And then the dreaded concrete barriers that make half of the lanes on the busiest freeway in the city totally inaccessible.

Now picture the road construction completed: extra lanes added, new interchanges built, and all the workers and equipment gone. But imagine the barriers are left in place. A week. . . a month. . . a year goes by and still those barriers continue to make the new road and interchanges inaccessible.

Here at Desiring God we want to help people everywhere understand and embrace the truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. We’ve built an online library full of resources to facilitate this, but concrete language barriers remain in place, preventing millions of “people everywhere” from being able to understand and embrace this truth.

Arabic on the Web

Offline, Arabic is the fifth largest language in the world with over 280 million native speakers. Online, it has the seventh largest user population; however, only about 3% of web content is actually available in Arabic. Recognizing this, last November Google launched it’s first annual initiative called “Arabic Web Days” aimed at boosting Arabic web content. Among social media it’s estimated that there are currently over 43 million Arabic Facebook users, and Twitter has also seen significant Arabic growth.

In 2012, we saw a 175% increase in Arabic traffic to the Desiring God website. We currently have more than 56 resources translated into Arabic along with an Arabic interface so that Arabic readers can navigate our site without knowing any English. We are delighted that more Arabic readers have benefited from these resources but we also long to see this growth continue (56 resources is less than 1% of the content on the Desiring God website).

A New Barrier Removal Team

Like the concrete barriers on the freeway, we want to see language barriers removed on the Internet so that more people can access God-centered content. But removing these barriers will require heavy lifting in the form of translation, and we can’t do this on our own. Making our content accessible in Arabic will require a barrier removal team. As we have recently done in Spanish, Portuguese and Korean, we are inviting our bilingual Arabic readers to join with us in this work.

If you are a bilingual Arabic reader and would be overjoyed to see more resources available to millions of Arabic speakers, would you consider joining our Arabic translation community?

Let’s join together to remove more barriers. . . for the joy of all peoples!

The Outrageous Claim of the Ascension

David Mathis — Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Today is Ascension Day, the fortieth day after Easter Sunday. For centuries the Christian church has marked this day (also called Ascension Thursday) in remembrance of Jesus’s bodily ascent to heaven.

The number forty is based on Acts 1:3: “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” Ten days later we celebrate Pentecost (Acts 2:1), fifty days (seven full weeks) after Easter, when Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1–33) on his fledgling church.

Don’t be too surprised if you haven’t heard of Ascension Day, or even if it’s been a while since you’ve heard any reference to Jesus’s ascension at all. It’s sad, but not surprising. The doctrine of the ascension is not a truth that the recent history of theology has been apt to emphasize, and as Tim Chester and Jonny Woodrow highlight in their recent 95-page book The Ascension: Humanity in the Presence of God, it is not only important but essential to the gospel. Wisely did the ancient church confess not only that

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, on the third day he rose again

but that

he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

The ascension reminds us that Christianity is not only an historical faith, but a faith of the present and future. Jesus is, right now, in glorified humanity on the throne of the universe, wielding as the God-man “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). He is not just our suffering servant who came and died and rose triumphant, but our actively ruling, actively conquering king.

The True King of the World

Despite the ignorance and negligence and animosity there is toward him in the world today, he already sits enthroned and is, in his perfect timing and sovereign sway, bringing all his enemies under his feet. In light of what his foes would contend, Chester and Woodrow are right to call the ascension an outrageous claim.

When you went to bed last night Jesus was at work subduing his enemies. While you slept he was continuing to rule over the world. He was still at it when you woke up this morning and even now as you read this. That is the outrageous claim of the ascension. It is outrageous because his rule is not recognized in his world. Open a newspaper and it is not full of how Jesus is reigning. Instead it is full of conflict and crime.

Yet the story of the ascension is the story of the enthronement of Jesus as the king of the world. (29)

The Ultimate Affirmation of Bodily Existence

It’s Jesus’s ascension into the presence of God that gets all that he accomplished “down here” to count for us “up there” with God. Without Jesus’s ascension, there would be no true access to God, no full measure of the Spirit, and no great salvation. The ascension is a link in the chain of salvation as essential as Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. And the ascension has something powerful to say about humanity and the human body:

The ascension is the story of a body moving to heaven. It is not escape from the bodily realm, but the entry of humanity — in all our physical-ness — into heaven, the sphere of God. Far from diminishing the importance of the body, the ascension is the ultimate affirmation of bodily existence. The Son of God himself has a body — not as an historical convenience, but as a permanent presence in heaven. (60)

Why the Ascension of Jesus Matters

Tony Reinke — Wed, 08 May 2013 10:30:00 -0500

Tomorrow we celebrate the ascension of Jesus, a date marked out 40 days after his resurrection, when he departed from earth and returned bodily to heaven (Luke 24:50–53, Acts 1:9–11).

On first glance, Jesus rising up in the clouds may seem like something out of a Monty Python skit. It’s perhaps a little difficult to understand, maybe even a little bizarre to grasp, and even more difficult to apply. And yet the ascension of Jesus carries with it a full range of implications for our lives, something we discover in today’s episode of the Authors on the Line podcast.

I put two pastor-theologians on the line to explain. First up, Gerrit Scott Dawson, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and author of Jesus Ascended: The Meaning of Christ’s Continuing Incarnation (P&R, 2004), a standard theological work on the topic.

And secondly, we hear from Jonny Woodrow, pastor, theologian, and director of the Porterbrook Network headquartered in the United Kingdom. He is the author of a fantastic little book just released under the title Ascension: Humanity in the Presence of God (Christian Focus, 2013), a book he co-authored with Tim Chester.

To listen to our 27-minute conversation, subscribe to the Authors on the Line podcast in iTunes here. Download the mp3 here (18.5 MB). Or listen from the resource page through the following link:

Why the Ascension of Jesus Matters: An Interview with Gerrit Scott Dawson and Jonny Woodrow (27 Minutes)

Previous Authors on the Line podcasts —

Ian and Larissa: One Year Later

Tony Reinke — Wed, 08 May 2013 00:30:00 -0500

Note: Click the CC button to watch this video with captions in 17 different languages.

It’s been one year since we released this video, very simply titled: “The Story of Ian and Larissa.” The response was (and continues to be) stunning — over 1.5 million plays online from viewers around the world. But such impressive numbers only faintly echo the measure of grace in the lives of Ian and Larissa Murphy. And to mark the one-year anniversary of the video release, we wanted to reconnect with them for a quick update through this written interview.

Ian and Larissa, thank you for your time. The video has generated a lot of responses — and diverse ones at that. Any thoughts on the response? Any surprises?

Ian says the response has been standard awesomeness from our friends and family. :)

In general, we have received overwhelmingly supportive response to our video. I’m not sure that any of us anticipated the number of views that it would receive nor the geographic reach it would have. We still receive emails on a weekly basis from people who have seen our video for the first time — often because their pastor showed it at church or someone shared it in a small group — and we get to hear how God is still using it to show himself to his people.

I (Larissa), have been surprised by how the video has affected people. I thought that more people would be affected by our relationship. But the majority of responses we have are from people who have suffered from or care for someone who suffers from a disability. God has used Ian so much to provide hope for people who are struggling, which is a beautiful thing.

We were also surprised to find that there are still people who don’t understand disabilities or place value on someone who is disabled. That has weighed heavily on our hearts but also helps us to keep going in making our story public so that we can continue to try to deliver the message that God values life — life of the unborn, disabled, healthy, etc.

I hear you are sharing more details of your life together in a forthcoming book project. What can you tell us about it?

Yes, we are neck-deep in writing our manuscript for our book, scheduled to be released next spring through B&H Publishing. Several publishers caught wind of our story after the video was released and we’re now blessed to be doing something that we’ve always wanted to do — write our book. Once we began writing, we moved back into Ian’s mom’s house to have extra help and extra time to write, which has been super fun (he still has two siblings at home). We’ve also started booking a few speaking engagements and have been able to meet incredible men and women.

I look forward to reading more details about your story next spring. Speaking of updates, can you give us a health update on Ian?

This has been a great year for Ian. He started seeing a new physical therapist who has pushed him so hard to start walking. He walks every day with his walker now and left the house without his wheelchair for the first time in seven years! It's not easy for him — he still has to fight really hard to get his body to do what it should. But God hasn’t stopped healing him, even seven years after his injury. He’s also started painting and has opened a shop online to sell paintings to pay for his therapy. Anyone who loves someone with a brain injury knows what a huge miracle it is that Ian can create something from his mind — it’s truly incredible to watch him and see him have an outlet again for his creativity.

This is great news! ... On a more sober note, on top of writing and speaking, you have also found time to get involved behind the scenes with a documentary exposing the grizzly crimes of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who is now on trial for murder. The documentary — 3801 Lancaster — has been featured on CNN, Fox News, and other media outlets. Tell us about your role in this film.

Three of our dear friends began filming a documentary about this case two years ago and through conversations with them we were convicted of our need to be involved with this story so that we can do our part to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

I (Larissa) am on the Board of Directors of SeaChange, a non-profit which helps to fund and provide support for their film, 3801 Lancaster, which so far has been an incredible experience through the work of our friends and the ministry that God seems to be building for us.

Ian and Larissa, thank you for your time, thank you for sharing your story, and thank you for investing your energies in helping other stories get told.

Readers can follow Ian and Larissa online through their blog, Pray for Ian, and on Twitter.

DG blog posts related to Ian and Larissa —

Intro: Letter from John Piper (May 8, 2012)
Part 1: Why We Got Married (May 9, 2012)
Part 2: Learning Contentment in Suffering (May 10, 2012)
Part 3: A Daily Disabled Life (May 11, 2012)
Part 4: Heaven (June 30, 2012)

Destroying the Sacred-Secular Divide

David Mathis — Tue, 07 May 2013 10:25:00 -0500

Dancing. Sports. Caffeine. Rock and roll. Food and drink. The college campus is a kind of microcosm of the flashpoints we face “in the real world,” just with the volume turned way up. And lots of video games.

For over a decade, this has been the everyday life and ministry context for Matt Reagan, Campus Outreach director at the University of Minnesota and elder at Bethlehem Baptist Church. Into such potentially contrasting environments, he has sought to bring an old, old story with all its biblical textures and hues and the mind-defying life-change it boasts. It’s emphatically not an easy day-to-day parish for gospel ministry, but some love it. Matt does.

Over the years of laboring to press the gospel deeply into students of increasingly postmodern orientation and sensibilities, Matt has discovered that one of the most important topics to tackle with freshman collegiates and new believers is the so-called “sacred-secular divide.” We all participate in this to certain degrees, and the lessons are relevant far beyond the college campus and this perhaps strangest of life’s seasons. It quickly gets us into realities as central as our hearts and as important as the realization that God is not boring.

With such application far beyond the college campus in view, we sat down with Matt to have him explain what is this sacred-secular divide, and how Christian theology and the biblical gospel takes it head on.

In this new episode of Theology Refresh, Matt helps us navigate away from what the apostle Paul calls “deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth” (1 Timothy 4:1–3). Matt cautions us against assigning badness to God’s good gifts and reminds us, like Paul, “Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4–5). Elsewhere is this massive ethical injunction: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

To get this 15-minute episode, subscribe to Theology Refresh in iTunes, listen at the resource page, or download the audio.

Some previous episodes of Theology Refresh:

[To subscribe or see the full list of over 30 episodes, visit Theology Refresh in the iTunes store]

Andrew Fuller Defended the Biblical Gospel

Nathan A. Finn — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Today marks the 198th anniversary of Andrew Fuller’s death. Though largely unknown to contemporary evangelicals, Fuller was a Particular Baptist pastor and one of the leading theologians during the final decades of the so-called Long Eighteenth Century (1689–1815). He was a tireless promoter of missions at home and abroad, and widely published polemical theologian, defending the biblical gospel against two key errors in his day: High Calvinism and Sandemanianism.

High Calvinism, Edwardsian Theology, and Missions

Many parishes in the Church of England had experienced significant spiritual renewal from 1730 to 1760, but most English Nonconformists, including Particular Baptists, remained largely untouched by the Evangelical Awakening. Many Particular Baptists were suspicious of the revivals on account of Wesleyan Arminianism. However, others, especially in London, also advocated a form of High Calvinism (or hyper-Calvinism) that was suspicious of “promiscuous” evangelistic preaching and frequently advocated an antinomian understanding of God’s moral law. Fuller was raised in this context, though in the early years of his pastoral ministry he rejected High Calvinism for evangelical Calvinism.

Fuller found many guides along his path to evangelicalism. He learned that the seventeenth-century Puritans and their Particular Baptist cousins affirmed God’s sovereignty in salvation and were dedicated to intentional evangelism. But by far Fuller’s most influential guide was the New England pastor-theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758). By the 1770s, several pastors in the Northamptonshire Association were reading the writings of Edwards, especially The Freedom of the Will (1755). In that work, Edwards argues that men are naturally able to believe the gospel, but are morally unable to do so. While any man can believe, no man will believe without receiving the Holy Spirit’s effectual calling that frees his will from its moral captivity, thus enabling saving faith.

Fuller advocated this Edwardsian insight in his short book, The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation (1785). Fuller argued, contra High Calvinism, for the free offer of the gospel to all people. Because men are naturally able to believe, pastors should urge all men to repent and trust Christ as Lord and Savior. Because men are morally unable to believe, pastors should trust the Holy Spirit to work through gospel proclamation to call the elect to faith in Christ. Many observers argued that Gospel Worthy was the single most important work written against High Calvinism. By the time of Fuller’s death in 1815, most Particular Baptists had become “Fullerites,” the Baptist version of Edwardsian Calvinists.

The Edwardsian Calvinism of Gospel Worthy was also advocated by Fuller’s closest friends, most famously William Carey. The latter built upon Fuller’s insights in his own missions manifesto, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (1792). Fuller and Carey were instrumental in forming the Particular Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) in 1792. Carey was one of the Society’s first two missionaries, while Fuller served as the Society’s secretary from 1792 to 1815. Fuller preached in churches all over England and Scotland, raising money for the BMS. He also promoted home missions by sending younger preachers to serve as church planters in English villages with no evangelical witness.

Sandemanianism: “Bare Belief in the Bare Truth”

During the mid-eighteenth century, John Glas and his son-in-law Robert Sandeman became the leaders of a new sect called the Glasites or, more commonly, the Sandemanians. Originally Presbyterians, the Sandemanians dissented from the Westminster Confession by arguing for a rationalist understanding of saving faith. Sandemanians claimed that repentance is not an aspect of saving faith, but rather sinners are justified through mental assent to the facts of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. They believed that faith and repentance are separate acts, and to require the latter for salvation is to advocate a form of works-righteousness. The Sandemanian view of faith was sometimes summarized as “bare belief in the bare truth.”

By the end of the century, some Baptists in Scotland had embraced Sandemanianism. Fuller challenged Alexander McLean and the “Scotch Baptists” in print, first in an appendix to the second edition of Gospel Worthy (1801) and eventually in a work titled Strictures on Sandemanianism in Twelve Letters to a Friend (1810). Building upon the insights of Jonathan Edwards in A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746), Fuller argued that there is no saving faith apart from spiritual affections toward God. True religious affections arise from authentic saving faith, the latter of which includes both assent to the gospel and repenting of sin. To sever repentance from faith is to advocate the sort of demonic faith rejected by Scripture in James 2:19.

Fuller genuinely appreciated that Sandemanians were opponents of works-righteousness. He commended their commitment to justification by faith alone. But he maintained that they overreacted by embracing a deficient view of faith that opened the door for false assurance and antinomianism. In trying to protect the gospel, they advanced a deficient view of the gospel. Though other authors criticized Sandemanianism, the consensus among historians is that Fuller published the definitive polemic against the system.

Fuller for Today

Fuller reminds us to be diligent in guarding the gospel from unhelpful articulations of the saving work of Christ. Though no longer widespread, High Calvinism continues to eek out an existence, always leeching off of evangelical Calvinism wherever the latter is popular. Sandemanian-like views are embraced by the Campbellite traditions and are popular among many revivalistic evangelicals and in the so-called Free Grace movement among some Dispensationalists. As in the past, current versions of these heterodoxies often give rise to antinomianism, whether of the Calvinistic or revivalistic variety. Contemporary gospel-driven pastor-theologians can find a helpful role model in Andrew Fuller.

If you want to read Fuller’s writings, including the works referenced here, see The Works of Andrew Fuller (Banner of Truth, 2007). If you want to learn more about Fuller’s defense of the biblical gospel, his advocacy of global missions, and his polemical writings against heresies such as Deism, Universalism, and Unitarianism, I would recommend the following books:

John Piper, I Will Go Down if You Will Hold the Rope (Desiring God, 2012)
Paul Brewster, Andrew Fuller: Model Pastor-Theologian (B&H Academic, 2010)
Michael A. G. Haykin, ed., At the Pure Fountain of Thy Word: Andrew Fuller as an Apologist (Paternoster, 2004; reprint, Wipf and Stock, 2007)

Those interested in Fuller and his thought should also know about the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies at Southern Seminary. The Fuller Center publishes a multi-author blog, hosts annual conferences, publishes a refereed scholarly journal, and is sponsoring a forthcoming multi-volume critical edition of The Works of Andrew Fuller, which will be published by Walter de Gruyter beginning in 2014.

The Snowstorm and the Suffering Servant

Owen Strachan — Mon, 06 May 2013 11:28:00 -0500

In a raging storm in a rural town on the coast of Japan, a man and his daughter huddled against a warehouse. They held one another, they felt the fury of the wind and the snow, and they fought for life.

In early March of this year, a major snowstorm hit northern Japan. In the rural town of Yubetsu (in Hokkaido), it stranded a father, Mikio Okada, and his daughter, Natsune, in a snow bank.

Mikio had driven until his truck could go no further. The snow now piled up all around him. Recognizing that the vehicle would be overtaken by snow, he did what he thought best: he and Natsune got out of the truck, seeking shelter in nearby buildings.

Mikio and Natsune made it to a warehouse nearly 1,000 feet from their truck. They walked with extreme difficulty; no doubt they were aware that they had crossed into the zone where life, always fragile, becomes a 50-50 proposition. A wall of snow raised itself around them, enveloping them. The world went white.

That Kind of Moment

In these circumstances, we can imagine without embellishment that a nine-year-old girl would be scared, and would cry. And we can imagine without embellishment that her father, scared himself, would comfort her. That is what Mikio did. He went to the far reach of comfort, actually. He protected his little girl, wrapping her in his arms.

Sometimes in life, there is a moment that crystallizes the deepest realities of this world, that brings, as the novelist Wendell Berry has said, a revelation. Sometimes ordinary people have an unwitting chance, a flash in time, to play a role in such a revelation.

This was true of Mikio Okada.

Mikio was unknown to the larger world before the storm. He was an ordinary man in a small town, living the life many of us know well. He went to work. He puttered away at his truck. He drank coffee. On beautiful summer days, he visited Yubetsu’s glorious tulip park. On that winter day in March, when Mikio put his arms around his daughter, his life became something greater: visceral and unreal, awful and beautiful, all at once.

Mikio gripped Natsune with all the strength in his body, hunching over her. He had given Natsune his jacket, and he pressed it against her, willing it to contain and preserve her life. There was nowhere else to run. There was no one to call. All his instincts slipped away — hunger, sadness, angst. Only the will to protect remained.

So Mikio shielded his daughter from the elements that sought her death. He did so until the next day, when authorities found him, still hunched over his little girl, still shielding her. They attempted to save him, but Mikio died in the hospital. His daughter survived.

The Call Beyond the Crisis

Every person dies. This is just one story of death in a world full of them. Yet some narratives, however brief, speak a deeper truth. This is the legacy of Mikio Okada. We see in his example a picture of the human will to survive, I think; we see a warning about our response to catastrophic weather, maybe; but most of all, we see a crystallized image of what a father is. This is a revelation. It says what a man must be, and must do.

Many men in our modern world have been trained in the opposite direction. Stories of men dropping out and slipping away have proliferated in our day. Whole sections of our culture have witnessed the disappearance of men, and therefore of fathers. Some years ago, David Blankenhorn called attention to a national epidemic of fatherlessness, and many affirmed his insight. Public ardor over the issue has waned in our day; our president has spoken in a few places to the need for reengaged fathers, but the cause seems at present to rally little zeal in the American conscience.

As in America, so in the West. European countries like Ireland and Greece trace their economic decline in part to a manhood crisis. In a disconcerting number of cases, men, to put it simply, aren’t maturing. They aren’t marrying, they aren’t working hard, and they aren’t creating families. Thus they are not filling one of their most important roles: they are not protecting women and children, but are in fact preying on them, as the hugely popular phenomena of sex-trafficking and pornography show.

In his common grace, God has not left us without witnesses. When the snow and the storm closed in on Mikio Okada, he heard an ancient call. Something in him roused. Mikio felt his life ebbing, his body slowing, but that did not silence the call. It rose in his ears, the wind whistling a death tune around him, and he answered it. He put his arms around little Natsune, and he held her.

That was his call. It is also ours.

Our Good Shepherd

As Christians, this tragedy speaks powerfully to us. It reminds us of a higher call than that which natural revelation gives. Special revelation opens our eyes to behold a Father who loves and cares for his children. The old King James translation of Isaiah 40:11 is stirring in its depiction of God: “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” It is noteworthy for our purposes that his “arm” gathers in his covenant people. This portrait of a lordly shepherd is followed, of course, by a portrait of the suffering servant.

In the New Testament, Jesus picks up this theme in his teaching, likening himself to a shepherd: “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11). We see, then, that Christ loves his people, and cares for them. But there is a heightening of this theme: the shepherd and the servant are one. In fact, the servant will lay down his life in order to be the shepherd of his sheep: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” He will protect his sheep, and secure them, but he will not do so by an unbroken, unchallenged peace, but through death, even death on a cross (John 19:16–37).

All this took place so that Christ could present his people to the Father. And in Christ we are truly the Father’s possession, holy, spotless, and protected. In Christ, the breach made in the garden between men and women, husband and wife, is healed, and men find cosmic resources by which to treat their wives as their own bodies (Ephesians 5:25–28). It is not hard to see that this pattern provides guidance beyond the marital covenant. Men, working from this image, protect women.

Period.

Every earthly father fails; every Christian father will prove unworthy in light of our heavenly Father’s goodness. Yet it is the Scriptural call of godly men to protect women, including their daughters. Redeemed fathers love and protect their little girls in a thousand ways. We shoot a warning glance at a leering boy; we go on “daddy-daughter” dates and gladly tuck away our smartphone to concentrate on discussions about unicorns and lollipops; we pull our daughters close at night and hug them, letting them know that our strength is not for us, but them. We may not all be the second coming of Roman gladiators, but we communicate in a multitude of ways, many of them ordinary, that we will lay down our lives in an instant for our children.

Occasionally, the natural order pings in with a reminder of this call. Once in a while, it gives us a revelation, it gives us Mikio Okada. In such stories, we are reminded of greater realities, and still more salvific sacrifices.

In them, we discover afresh who we men are, and what we are to do.

Foreword to the New Edition of ‘A Hunger for God’

David Platt and Francis Chan — Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

As we look out at the church today, there is so much that encourages us and fills us with gratitude. There is renewed zeal among God’s people for the spread of God’s glory across the earth. Like never before we hear brothers and sisters in different circles and different streams of contemporary Christianity talking about the gospel and mission, about transforming cities and reaching unreached people groups. These conversations are essential, and we hope they will continue with even greater intensity and intentionality in the days ahead.

But sometimes what we are not hearing can be as illuminating as what we do hear. It reminds us of an exchange in an old Sherlock Holmes mystery, where Holmes refers to “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” during a robbery. A fellow detective, confused at Holmes’s comment, responds that “the dog did nothing in the nighttime” — to which Holmes responds: “That was the curious incident.” Despite the proliferation of Christian publishing and Christian conferences, J. I. Packer’s observation of our own curious incident still rings true:

When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology — but rarely of their daily experience of God.

Modern Christian books and magazines contain much about Christian doctrine, Christian standards, problems of Christian conduct, techniques of Christian service — but little about the inner realities of fellowship with God.

Our sermons contain much sound doctrine — but little relating to the converse between the soul and the Saviour.

We do not spend much time, alone or together, in dwelling on the wonder of the fact that God and sinners have communion at all; no, we just take that for granted, and give our minds to other matters.

Thus we make it plain that communion with God is a small thing to us.

Think about it. Where are the passionate conversations today about communing with God through fasting and prayer? We seem to find it easier to talk much of plans and principles for proclaiming the gospel and planting churches, and to talk little of the power of God that is necessary for this gospel to be proclaimed and the church to be planted.

If we really want to be a part of seeing disciples made and churches multiplied throughout North America and to the ends of the earth, we would be wise to begin on our knees.

It is for this reason that we gladly commend the new edition of John Piper’s Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer. If you have read or heard anything from Piper, you know that he is rightly and biblically passionate about the spread of God’s glory. But at the same time, he is acutely and biblically aware of our need for God’s grace. He knows that apart from dependence on and desperation for God, we will not only miss the ultimate point of our mission, but we will also neglect the ultimate need of our souls.

We were made to feast on God. In the words of the psalmist, we were created to cry:

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. (Psalm 63:1–5)

We have read the sad statistics about the number of young people who turn away from the church once they are out of their parents’ home. We have heard people explain that they have “tried God” when they were young but that it didn’t work for them. But we have to wonder: did they “earnestly” seek him with their whole hearts? Did they cry out to him in fasting and prayer? Sometimes we “earnestly seek” after things from God rather than God himself. It is hard for us to imagine anyone leaving the presence of the living God — the maker and sustainer of heaven and earth — and looking for something better!

There is spiritual delight to be found in God that far supersedes the physical diet of this world, and fasting is the means by which we say to God, “More than our stomachs want food, our souls want you.” Once we “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8), the things of the world no longer appeal to us in the same way.

As Piper says in the opening pages of this book, “Beware of books on fasting.” This is not a book of legalism. It’s not a book of technique. It does not contain a twelve-step plan. At the end of the day, it’s a book more about our hearts than about our stomachs. Abstaining from food (or other things) for a period of time is not an end in itself but a means to cause us to learn about and increase our love for Christ. As Piper explains in this book, the Bible gives us many reasons to fast:

We fast because we’re hungry for God’s Word and God’s Spirit in our lives.
We fast because we long for God’s glory to resound in the church and God’s praise to resound among the nations.
We fast because we yearn for God’s Son to return and God’s kingdom to come.
Ultimately we fast simply because we want God more than we want anything this world has to offer us.

Few things are as frustrating as trying to convince our loved ones of the greatness and grandeur of God. We are jealous for our neighbors and our faith family and the nations to find satisfaction in God alone. As we recently reread the book you hold in your hands, we have tried to imagine what it would be like if our churches were filled with believers fasting regularly and biblically. What might God be pleased to do if his church rises up to say, “This much, O God, we want you!”? We encourage you to read this book, asking great things from God, “who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think!” (Ephesians 3:20).

For a free pdf of the book, as well as options to purchase paperback or Kindle versions, see Desiring God’s updated resource page for a Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer.

C. S. Lewis, Panhandlers, and Laziness (Ask Pastor John)

Tony Reinke — Sun, 05 May 2013 06:54:00 -0500

C.S. Lewis, panhandlers, and laziness: these are all themes from this week's lineup of Ask Pastor John podcast episodes. Three episodes focus on C. S. Lewis and the fall DG national conference: "The Romantic Rationalist: God, Life, and Imagination in the Work of C.S. Lewis" (September 27–29 in Minneapolis). Details for the conference are forthcoming.

Excerpts follow from each episode (click on the hyperlinked titles to listen).

Why Host a Conference on C. S. Lewis? (Episode 81):

November 22nd, 2013 marks 50 years since C. S. Lewis died in 1963, the same day John Kennedy died, the same day Aldous Huxley died. But behind the occasion is the man and his extraordinary influence in so many different ways. This fall, on November 22, he will be honored by having a memorial put in the poet’s corner of Westminster Abbey along with the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Robert Browning, William Shakespeare, Herbert Spencer — an extraordinary thing for a 20th century Christian apologist, writer of fiction, scholar of medieval literature, to receive. …

I would put Lewis in the top five people on the planet who have influenced me. And of the folks coming to the conference, Doug Wilson talks even more lavishly. I heard him say that C. S. Lewis has had a greater impact on him than the sum of all the other writers he has ever read. That is stunning when you think what Wilson has read. And I know the fiction of Randy Alcorn is profoundly influenced. And Kevin Vanhoozer, we are going to hear some surprising things from him with regard to the theological way the imagination works. And Phil Ryken, the president of Wheaton, loves C. S. Lewis. So we are doing this conference, because we have a love affair with this man and we have a debt to pay.

When Did You First Meet C. S. Lewis? (Episode 82):

I fell in love with reasoning in the 10th grade in a geometry class and the next year in the 11th grade I fell in love with literature, reading, poetry. Two years later I met C. S. Lewis and he put those two together as I never thought they could be put together: somebody who was as razor sharp in his thinking and reasoning as anybody I ever heard, and somebody who was as explosively, vividly, powerfully imaginative as anybody I have ever heard. And those two things have marked my ministry probably as much as much as anything — the juxtaposition of logic and imagination or romance or feeling or poetry. And Lewis is the one who wakened that connection.

How Has C. S. Lewis Influenced You? (Episode 83):

Lewis finds reality in all of its blazing, glorious dazzling there-ness, and he wants to make it plain. He really believes there is a God, really believes there is a world, really believes there is logic. He is not dabbling in sophomoric fascination with thoughts. He was serious about finding what is really there. He loved answers more than he loved questions. He loved helping people know God, not just provoking them with uncertainties. Intellectual people tend to play a lot of games, and think they are being profound when they create questions in your head they cannot answer. Lewis wasn’t like that. He loved the Church. He loved people. He wanted to help people with his mind, and he used his amazing logic for it.

How to Handle Panhandlers (Episode 80):

Selfishness is so dominant in my heart, I am reflexively hard toward this person. He makes me mad. I want to say, “Get a job.” I have not even entered into his story. I am not interested in his condition. My reflex is anger. My reflex is, “Get a life.” And that’s a sinful reflex. I do not think that is godly for me to respond that way. I think this is the old nature creeping up in me.

How to Fight Laziness (Episode 79):

Work is not a curse. Frustrating work is a curse. The Lord God put the man in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep and that is before the fall. So get a robust, good, positive theology of work. Realize that God put us on the planet to be co-makers, co-creators, co-workers with him. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand (Ephesians 2:10). Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Do it as to the Lord and not to man (Ephesians 6:7). So all those verses are meant to just feed into a robust theology of looking upon doing during the day, getting up, being productive, making something happen: creating something, cleaning a room, washing the car, fixing the brakes, writing a computer program, tending a sick person, making a good meal. All of these things are blessed by God as something he wants his co-makers and co-workers to do.

Tuning In

We want to hear from you. To submit a question to Pastor John please include your first name, hometown, and question in an email to AskPastorJohn AT desiringGod DOT org.

Thanks for listening to the podcasts. We appreciate your engagement and interest.

Where Is Jesus?

Jonathan Parnell — Sat, 04 May 2013 09:29:00 -0500

“But I believe in Jesus too,” my five-year-old said, unconvinced by my explanation why she couldn’t have some of the bread and juice.

We had slipped out of the service after I received the elements because she became rowdy with questions. I led her a little ways from the crowd and knelt down to meet her eye to eye. My hands were on her shoulders, posturing to seize the moment, until my unsatisfactory answer quickly led to a bigger talk as she continued her case.

Now staring off in her own thoughts, she replied, “Dad, I believe in Jesus, but I mean, I’ve never seen him before. I’ve never heard how he talks.”

This wasn’t a crisis. She was just stating a fact. It actually came off a little bashfully, as if her faith might not be as credible as mine because she’s never seen Jesus or heard his voice. She was thinking out in the open, not realizing that her uninhibited inquiry actually gets at heart of what we are doing here, of what it means to be Christian in this world. What was fresh to a five-year-old mind is something, I think, too few of us stop to consider. It’s the fact that we love and talk about a person with a blaring dissimilarity to everyone else we love and talk about, and that is, he’s not here. We’ve never seen Jesus.

Jesus Is Not Here

This is not a problem and it’s nothing new. Believing in the Jesus we have not seen is an early-established staple of the Christian life (1 Peter 1:8). But what occurred to me in that conversation with my daughter was how this truth is much more obvious to a little girl than to me, to many of us, I would guess. The reality strikes her that our lives revolve around a real person who is alive but unreachable. She doesn’t dismiss the fact he’s not here. Right now, Jesus really is away (John 14:28) — and that’s important.

Jesus is also with us, as he said, in the sense of his Spirit (Matthew 28:20). He has not left us or forsaken us (Hebrews 13:5). But the ministry of the Spirit isn’t the physical presence of Jesus. And this has the tendency to grip a child more than us adults. Why? I think it is probably because she hasn’t encountered the truth of God’s triune-ness like we have, and therefore, she is free from some of the glitches that can slip into our functional understanding of how the Trinity works.

I wonder if we (myself at least), because of the Spirit, assume Jesus is around in the wrong ways. That’s why we’re okay with illustrations of Jesus sitting in the pews of our churches. Or with paintings of Jesus hugging a strung-out 20-something with holes in his jeans. But these images are wrong. At best, it’s wrong because we have a glitch that blends the person of Jesus with the person of the Spirit. At worse, it’s wrong because we have turned Jesus into some disembodied human who is more like a bearded phantom than the enthroned God-Man. The truth for us to remember is the doctrinal byword that Jesus is God and the Spirit is God, but Jesus is not the Spirit and the Spirit is not Jesus. And that means, at least for the past 2,000 years, Jesus doesn’t make footprints in the sand.

Seated in the Heavenly Places

So if not here, where? Where is Jesus? The Bible tells us that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:20; Luke 22:69; Acts 2:33; 5:31; Romans 8:34; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3). And his being there is good news.

In fact, the ascension of Jesus to the Father’s right hand is an indispensable aspect of the gospel. Which means, we aren’t saved unless Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand. Which means, we aren’t saved unless Jesus is not here. Why?

In their new book, The Ascension: Humanity in the Presence of God, Tim Chester and Jonny Woodrow give three crucial truths about Jesus’s ascension. He is the ascended priest, completing a perfect sacrifice. He is our ascended king, reigning over all. And he is the ascended man, fulfilling the glory of humanity for which we were created. The ascension matters for our salvation because if Jesus’s sacrifice is to be effective and his kingship is to be real and his humanity is to be glorified, he must be ascended.

Each of these aspects of Jesus’s ascension is glorious. But I want to focus here mainly on the kingship aspect. That’s the theme of Paul’s amazing description in Ephesians 1:20–23. And I think that’s the simplest to explain to my five-year-old, who, remember, got us into this.

Paul tells us that the Father powerfully raised Jesus and seated him at his right hand. The raising and seating are fundamentally one work. When Paul tells us in Romans that the Father declared Jesus to be the Son of God by his resurrection (Romans 1:4), he doesn’t mean this vindication comes by merely being brought back to life. The resurrection is one part of this great vindicating act — an act that also involved being highly exalted and bestowed a name that is above every name, which is the route Paul takes in Philippians 2:10 and mentions in Ephesians 1:21.

Jesus is seated above all rule and authority and power and dominion because that’s what it means to be the king of everything. That’s what it means to be the true Son of Man that Daniel speaks of in Daniel 7:13–14. And that’s the only reason someone can say: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). Jesus is raised and seated to have all things put under his feet, which is the vision of the Messianic king in Psalm 110:1. Jesus is ascended! Ascended!

And here’s the part that’s literally out of this world: we are ascended with him. Just a few verses later, in Ephesians 2:6, Paul tells us that when God saved us in Christ he actually raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places. Right now, united to Jesus by faith, we are spiritually seated with him at the Father’s right hand. That’s why we seek the things that are above (Colossians 3:1). Spiritually, it’s our home. This new creation dimension of reality where Jesus is, this is where we’re from (Philippians 3:20).

So when my little girl admits she hasn’t ever seen Jesus, and that she hasn’t heard his voice, I say, “Me neither.”

I haven’t seen Jesus because part of his saving us — part of his coming and living and dying and being raised — is his being ascended and seated at the Father’s right hand where he rules over everything. I haven’t seen Jesus because he is our king from another world, a better one. And actually, it’s the world I’m from. It’s the world of God’s endless, uninhibited presence for which all of creation longs. It’s the world that Jesus himself will bring into this present one, the world that will come down from heaven and make all things new (Revelation 21:1–5). We haven’t seen Jesus, but we will see him then.

The Real Life of the Pro-Life Home

Rachel Jankovic — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:31:00 -0500

I know myself, and I know that I couldn’t be any more angered by abortion. So when I first started seeing things about the Gosnell trial, I skipped right over it. I am sure that many of you feel the same way now. What can we possibly do about it, and how can reading about the horror of what happened in that “clinic” help us be any more faithful in our own lives?

But when I finally did read a bit about it, I found myself surprisingly challenged and encouraged, and here is why. The Gosnell situation shines light on the darkness of abortion in a way that nothing else has in a long time. Stories like this one (and the recent video sting of that clinic in the Bronx) make me realize that I am just far enough away from the reality of abortion to forget to fight it, and that I needed this kind of reminder. Let me try to explain myself.

Feeding the Volcano of Self

Abortion in our country is not a standalone moment, brought about by women who somehow haven't heard of adoption. Abortion is that dark crisis choice served up to millions of women every year, courtesy of our cultural religion of self-fulfillment. It is the bloody path taken by many women who feel that they really “had no choice” (at least if they were going to finish law school, if they were going to have a career, if they were going to be slim in their bikinis in time for Spring Break). Everyone acts like abortion is a sad thing, but a necessity. But the truth is that abortion is the sacrifice that our religion of selfishness requires.

In some ancient pagan religion, the volcano would periodically require that its worshippers throw in a virgin. She would have no choice, and sometimes even she could understand that. The god had to be fed. Abortion fills that place for us. Our god is a stupid volcano of selfish desire, sexual “liberty,” freedom from God’s law, and a refusal to accept responsibility or live our lives for another. This god requires a sacrifice, and so we offer it the unborn and their tragic mothers.

The Gosnell case has forced people to see what it is like to die in the volcano — how long it takes on the way down before you die, what the body looks like afterwards, what it smelled like, and how it felt to stand on the edge in fear.

The True Sacrifice

So while the pro-life movement absolutely needs to be working hard to save the virgins from the brink of the volcano, we have to understand that it is not the brink that brought about the crisis. The crisis is made by the worship further down the mountain side. The people who are busy promising us that there will be no break in easy access to abortion don’t care about the victims. They are promising that to each other — to men who want sexual pleasure but can’t be bothered with fatherhood, to women who want to be desired and consumed like playthings without ever seeming used. Our god will continue to be appeased. We will ensure that it stays satisfied. We will ensure that we have a steady supply of the unborn to feed it — because if we ran out of infants, we would have to go in ourselves. We would actually have to sacrifice ourselves for others.

So here is our culture — deeply involved in the worship of self, of “life,” of freedom, and this worship requires a death sacrifice. It requires blood. It is a sacrifice of death, from the dying, in the name of life. But we are Christians! We are not on that altar! Our lives are lived on the altar to the Living God. We are not required to sacrifice with death, but with life. Jesus Christ was our blood sacrifice — our blood sacrifice that rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and now sits with God the Father.

Choosing Life in the Big and Small

Romans 12:1 says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

God does not want us putting death on his altar, but rather life. We are called as his children, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Choosing life is not only about not aborting when you get a positive pregnancy test. God wants us to continue to present our bodies as a sacrifice of life, for all of our days.

Far from having done our part when we carry a baby to term, we can continue to choose life every day. Every day we choose the life of another over our own life. Every day we can lay down our desires, our selfish ambition, our self-importance, and choose life. And of course this is not unique to mothers — every Christian has the means of fighting for life by laying theirs down for those around them.

Everyday Lives of Sacrifice

Right now, in our culture, in our time, there is something uniquely potent about mothers sacrificing for their children. As we lay down our lives for them, presenting ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, that sacrifice makes an aroma. That sacrifice directly contradicts and blasphemes everything the world is fighting for. As you care for your children, on the long days and tired moments, disciplining yourself, sacrificing yourself for them, you are reaching out to the world. When you present yourself as a living sacrifice, the aroma of that sacrifice cannot be contained. We do not turn inwards towards our children and towards our homes because we do not care about the world. We turn inwards because the world needs to smell this sacrifice. It can be easy for mothers to feel like no one can see us in our daily labor, like it doesn’t really matter. We can feel like picketing outside of an abortion clinic is the only way to stop such horror, and we are unfortunately burdened with little children so we can’t do it.

This is why I write for mothers about the small opportunities in the normal days, in the normal kind of lives that so many of us live. Not because I think more peaceful afternoons would be nice, and I can help you find them (I can’t). Not just because I think women need encouragement to love their children more. Not just because I think we need to value our own work and calling. I write about these things because when I became a mother I saw things differently. I realized that the opportunities to choose life are with us all the time. It is a continuous choice. A choice that never naps and never stops growing; it is a choice that can only be made in faith, by the grace of a Savior who showed us how to live on an altar.

This Will Change the World

Motherhood is the big-leagues of self-sacrifice. Millions of women kill to avoid it. In our culture of self-gratification, to embrace selfless motherhood is a revolutionary act. To see the sacrifice and rejoice in it. To recognize that the cost is your own life, and to willingly lay yourself down. The world hates the smell of that sacrifice, because it is the smell of grace. They hate it because it is the smell of something living and burning at the same time — something that is impossible without a risen Savior.

There are times to stand on sidewalks and hold signs, but holding a sign isn’t what makes a mother pro-life. Being pro-life means putting the life of another ahead of your own. It means being daily grace to the small souls nearest to you. It is not just an opinion or a position or a lobbyist group. It is the glory of maternal self-sacrifice that begins at conception and runs through labor and midnight feedings and diapers and sandwiches and crayons and homework and flu seasons and graduations and on into grandkids. It is an avalanche of small and large sacrifices. It burns bright in kitchens and bedrooms and backyards. It is the real life of the pro-life movement, and it will change the world.

More on motherhood from Rachel at Desiring God:

Jesus Came to Reverse the Curse

Jon Bloom — Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26)

A few days ago we laid the body of my wife’s grandfather in the ground outside the little brick church in the cornfields where he attended all 97 years of his life. I was given the profound honor of preaching at his funeral. And the words of John 11:25–26 were my text.

I chose them because Jesus said them to Martha when Lazarus lay dead in his tomb. And I was to stand behind the old pulpit in front of a full casket.

A corpse is a fierce reality. It demands that we explain these claims of Jesus — perhaps the most incredible ever spoken by a credible human being in all of history.

What does Jesus mean that he is “the resurrection and the life”? Why is it only for those who believe? And how can one die and never die?

“I am the resurrection and the life.”

To understand why Jesus gave himself this strange name, we must go back to the horror that occurred in Eden.

God had warned Adam and Eve that if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would die (Genesis 2:17). But the devil-serpent told Eve that God was a liar. They would not die. They would become like God (Genesis 3:4–5)! And they believed him and ate (Genesis 3:6–7).

Do you see what happened? As long as Adam and Eve believed God, they would have life — abundant life, full of the joy of sweet fellowship with their Father. Trusting God with all their heart would have protected them.

But when they listened to a deceiver and trusted in their own understanding (Proverbs 3:5), it opened to them a world of horror. Their eyes, and the eyes of all of us descendants, were opened to evil and blinding complexities that none of us have the capacity to grasp. Fear and self-worship turned us pathologically selfish. We became susceptible to all sorts of deception.

And God pronounced a curse on them that we who sin like them have inherited (Genesis 3:17–19). Death entered the human experience and with it all sorts of affliction and trouble.

When Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life,” what he meant was that he had come to reverse this curse. “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Jesus came to bear “our sins in his body on the tree that we might live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

But Jesus only reverses the curse for all who will believe in him. That’s why he says…

“Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live.”

Why is believing so crucial to Jesus? Because the fall of Adam and Eve was the failure to believe in God. “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever” (Romans 1:25). This is a dishonoring, a treason of such magnitude that a holy God cannot tolerate and be righteous. Such guilt must receive its just penalty.

But “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus pays the penalty for this treason by bearing the curse (Galatians 3:13) for everyone who will trust his word over Satan’s or their own understanding. And everyone who believes in him will be raised from the dead just as Jesus was resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:52–53). And more than that…

“Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”

Now wait. Isn’t this just double-talk? How can you die and never die?

Here’s what I believe Jesus means. Everything that has been subject to the curse of the fall will die. The old must pass away (2 Corinthians 5:17). “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6). Our bodies and the sinful nature woven into them will die (except for those who are alive at Jesus’s return [1 Corinthians 15:51]) because Jesus is delivering us from sin as well as death (Romans 8:2). “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” Jesus (Romans 7:24–25)!

But “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” When a person believes in Jesus they are “born again” (John 3:3). To this believer he says I am in you and you are in me (John 14:20). And nothing that is united to the Resurrection and the Life can die. The newborn spirit, what Paul calls the “inner self” (2 Corinthians 4:16) does not die when the outer self dies. This is why Paul says that to “be away from the body” is to be “at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

That which is born of the Spirit does not die when that which is born of the flesh dies.

“Do you believe this?”

This was the question Jesus asked Martha in the face of Lazarus’s death. It rang in our ears as we buried Grandpa Wally.

It is the most important question you will ever answer. For John the Baptist said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).

Jesus has come to reverse the curse of death. And this free gift is yours if you will believe in him. You will live though you die, you will be raised, and you will never die.

The Sanctifying Work of Parenthood

Christina Fox — Thu, 02 May 2013 10:30:00 -0500

A friend recently asked me if I could give her some parenting advice. I smiled and said that I couldn’t because I’m not an expert and don’t know really what I am doing. She laughed and remarked on the ways parenting humbles us. My friend did not realize just how true her statement was. For many years, I taught, counseled, advised, and trained parents in the raising of their children. It’s a remarkable testimony to God’s grace toward me that I’ve come to a point in my own parenting where I am not at the ready to give advice.

Many people describe marriage as the laboratory where our spiritual growth is fostered and developed. I find it to be equally true of parenting as well. God has used parenting in my life to refine and change me in ways I had not anticipated. He’s given me a child who requires more than I was trained to handle so that I would depend on him and not my own strength. I’ve also learned things about myself I never knew and have seen things in my heart I never wanted to see. I’ve come face to face with sins I didn’t know were buried deep inside, sins like impatience, selfishness, irritability, and discontent. While uncomfortable and sometimes downright painful, the sanctifying work of parenthood has been necessary and good.

Away with the Independence

Parenthood is an ideal place for sanctification in our lives. It’s an area of our life which we so desperately try to control. In a culture which relies on instant access to knowledge and facts, many of us turn to blogs, articles, tweets, and pins to find the solutions to the everyday challenges of raising children. We rely on our books, systems, and programs and when they fail, we despair or begin the search all over again. At least that’s what I’ve done.

And then God opened my eyes to see that something else was going on beneath the surface of my parenting challenges. I learned the reason why parenthood is often so hard — God uses parenthood to strip away our independence and the sin that keeps us from abiding in him. My true need wasn’t to find the perfect ‘get your child to sleep’ system or the best potty training program or even the top ten ways to get my kids to clean up after themselves, rather it was to see my desperate need to rely on the grace of God. Many times I sought joy and contentment in how perfectly behaved my children are or how smoothly my day went. Yet God knew that what I needed most is only found in him.

While I searched for ways to make parenting easier, God sent me deeper into the refiner’s fire, bringing mothering challenges in my life to point me to him, my only true source of joy and satisfaction.

Some days, the refining process is painful and I want to say, “God, aren’t you finished with me yet?” On those days where I play referee more than I care, when young minds cannot seem to stay on task in school, and when the dryer breaks, yet again, I wonder why motherhood has to be so hard. But then I remember the gospel and God’s great love for me. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him” (Hebrews 12:5). He doesn’t want to leave me where I am — he has something better in store. None of the challenges I face as a mother is wasted. None. He uses each and every one in the story of his gospel’s triumph in my life.

His goal isn’t to make my life comfortable, safe, and predictable, but to make me holy. “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29–30)

Abandoned to His Work

Maybe you’ve found yourself there too. Life doesn’t seem to work the way you thought it would. Your children aren’t perfect, you are short on patience, and you don’t remember the last time you’ve had a decent night’s sleep. Know that God is at work in the midst of each and every rough day and parenting challenge.

Be vulnerable and abandon yourself to the work of his hand. See the sin he reveals in you and bring it straight to the cross. Remember that Jesus died for each and every parenting blunder you have done and will do in the future. Seek your joy in him and rely on his strength and wisdom alone. Find your hope in this truth, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

We Are Family: What African Americans Bring to Reformed Theology

Jemar Tisby — Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Reformed theology is theology in process. Semper reformanda, we say — always reforming.

As a body of thought, Reformed theology is not complete. The challenge and opportunity for Christians is not to revise the biblical principles but to make our doctrinal formulations more biblical — and faithfully apply them in different cultures and contexts.

Developing Theology in Community

One of the goals for the Reformed African American Network (RAAN) is to “develop theology in community.” As the network took shape, we knew we had to avoid any kind of theological imperialism. While it’s true that the African American community can benefit from Reformed theology as it stands, Blacks have much to offer from their own theological and cultural heritage as well.

Our hope with RAAN is that as more voices contribute to the conversation, a more robust theology emerges — one that is both increasingly committed to the Scriptures and is primed to be applied in different cultures, contexts, and situations.

Questions About Contributions

When we talk about “developing theology in community,” some people ask whether we’re talking about changing doctrine. The answer to that question is easy. No. We’re not talking about changing doctrine. To the degree we have understood Scripture properly, those teachings must remain unchanged. They are biblical, eternal, and true. There may be opportunities to articulate biblical truths with more clarity and care, but mainly what we have in mind is freshly and faithfully applying Reformed teachings to new issues and in new contexts.

Another question people often ask is, “Okay, so how does Reformed theology look different when it’s informed by more African Americans?” Or, “What do African Americans uniquely contribute to Reformed theology?”

I have wrestled with the answer to that question. For a long time, I assumed I just hadn’t thought about it enough. But the more I roll it over in my mind, the less pressing the question seems to me.

An Inclination Towards Cross-Cultural Thinking

First, I think African Americans, as with any other people group, do have unique insights and experiences that can enrich Reformed theology. Christian theology should be increasingly true to the Scriptures and increasingly careful in its formulations as more and more ethnic groups contribute their perspectives and check each other’s blind spots in the light of biblical revelation.

One distinct perspective African Americans have is an inclination toward cross-cultural thinking. As a racial minority group in the United States, African Americans have an inclination to view the world cross-culturally. This worldview has been developed not by nature but by necessity. A person in the sub-dominant or minority group of any culture must learn to navigate life according to the standards of the majority. These include standards of dress, speech, education, and more.

So Blacks may be able to more intuitively ask questions about perception and adaptation that Whites who are in the majority may not ask as naturally.

A Theology of Suffering

Also, the Black church tradition has developed a distinct theology of suffering. The history of race-based chattel slavery and Jim Crow segregation has given African Americans a common and pervasive historical experience. Although Blacks as a cultural group are increasingly diverse, we share a painful past in this country. The shared situation of slavery and segregation gave African Americans insight into the communal aspects of salvation.

Carl Ellis puts it this way in his article “Suffering and African American Theology”:

The southern theology of suffering addressed the need for salvation by grace through faith. The church was seen as the “ark of safety” — a place for slaves to get away from the suffering that so dominated their lives. That is why, in the historic African American church, personal salvation also had community implications. This view is very similar to the way the Israelites looked at salvation in the Old Testament (Exodus 14:13).

A Better Way to Think about the Question

But I think there may be a better way to think about this question, “What do African Americans uniquely contribute to Reformed theology?” Or at least there may be an important consideration to make before giving too much energy to constructing an exhaustive list of potential African American contributions to Reformed theology.

The Bible calls Christians the “household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). We’re a family all living under the shared roof of our Father’s house. And I think we’d all struggle to say exhaustively how members of our earthly family uniquely contribute to our overall group. How can you quantify the impact of a mother’s hug, the rough and tumble between siblings, and the laughs shared around the dinner table? Members of your family are people, not pegs. There’s much more to them than simply what they “bring to the table.”

And in a healthy family, no one has to prove their worth. You accept your mother and father, sister, and brother simply because of a shared lineage and a common family name. Gifts and strengths from each member quickly come to mind, but producing an exhaustive list of each member’s contributions, or quantifying the worth of any given member, is both unnecessary and crude.

And as Christians, we share a bond much stronger than blood. We are united by a spiritual bond to God and to each other. If members of an earthly family should be valued simply because they are part of the family, then how much more should people from every tribe and nation be valued simply because they are part of God’s family? “For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:18).

At the end of the day, whenever a family member moves away or passes away, we miss everything their presence once brought. In the same way, whenever any of God’s children from different races or ethnicities are under-represented in the household of faith, the family misses out on both their quantifiable contributions and the nameless ways in which they are part of the very spirit of the group and provide a unique opportunity for a loving relationship.

Let us, then, as Christians in the Reformed tradition make room at the table of fellowship and theological thought for all kinds of people. Not just because our theology stands to benefit from their distinct perspectives and insights, but because we stand to benefit eternally from all the priceless intangibles of enjoying true brotherhood in the Blood.

A Child Is Not Chattel

John Knight — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:54:00 -0500

One of the common hopes and repeated phrases around the pro-life movement is that “abortion will become as unthinkable as slavery.” I long for such a day.

The only problem is that the elements that made slavery possible are still thinkable now. We see it in how people behave toward children, particularly unborn children.

Consider the legal issues around Baby S., the little girl who God miraculously placed into a loving Christian family after her disabilities were discovered during a surrogate pregnancy for parents who decided they didn’t want her.

When her surrogate mother could not be bullied into an abortion, a lawyer for the genetic father reminded her that she had signed a contract. The lawyer made clear what that meant:

“You are obligated to terminate this pregnancy immediately,” wrote Douglas Fishman, an attorney in West Hartford, Connecticut. . . .

Fishman reminded Kelley that she’d signed a contract, agreeing to “abortion in case of severe fetus abnormality.” The contract did not define what constituted such an abnormality.

Kelley was in breach of contract, he wrote, and if she did not abort, the parents would sue her to get back the fees they’d already paid her — around $8,000 — plus all of the medical expenses and legal fees. (Elizabeth Cohen, Surrogate Offered $10,000 to Abort Baby, March 6, 2013)

In essence, this lawyer was arguing that the couple paying for the pregnancy could legally coerce the surrogate to abort that child because of a contract. If she refused, monetary damages would be sought. The unborn child had no rights at all.

Regardless of how one feels about surrogacy, in vitro fertilization, or even abortion, there isn’t a great deal of “choice” being offered in the scenario above. It is entirely about who has the right to do what to whom — including forcibly ending the life of a child against the wishes of the woman carrying the child.

Is this not the essence of slavery — one person asserting they can own another human being’s life through a contract?

We Must Get This Right

The church cannot expect governments or legal systems to get this right. From Dred Scott v. Sanford to Buck v. Bell to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court has egregiously erred, asserting that the powerful have legal rights that cause permanent harm to the weak. God will hold those justices to account for this evil they affirmed.

The church cannot expect the educational systems to get this right. Eugenics was born in American and British universities long before it was expressed in the killing camps of Nazi Germany. Equally vile is the assertion being discussed in academic and medical journals that unborn children are not actually persons — an argument that is now being extended even to children already born.

The church cannot expect the medical establishment to get this right. Too often parents feel the pressure from doctors and nurses to end a pregnancy when a disability is discovered. Pray that God would raise up hundreds of medical professionals who default to caring for the mother and child, rather than pretending to care for the mother by destroying the child.

The church, those of us trusting in Jesus, we must get it right:

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! (Psalm 127:3–5)

Church, please, do not let the language of law or property guide how we think of the children God gives us. Children — all children in every circumstance from every part of the world of every color and ethnicity and physical or cognitive ability — are not chattel. Children are not chattel. They are rewards and blessings from our gracious heavenly Father, for his glory and for our eternal good.

Epic of the Ordinary: Christian Mission for You and Me

Jonathan Parnell — Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The Book of Acts is clearly one of the most action-packed segments in the storyline of Scripture. The title, “The Acts of the Apostles,” cues us in on this clue from the start. As many commentators have suggested, a more accurate title would be something to do with the acts of the Holy Spirit, or perhaps “The Action of the Ascended Christ by His Spirit Through His Church.”

The book opens with Jesus ascending as human to the throne of the universe, sending the Spirit, and commissioning his messengers. “You will be my witnesses,” he promises, “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). And so Luke recounts the movements in that outline — all action and no slush.

There are powerful proclamations, riveting dialogues, and thousands of conversions. There is everything from miracles that disgruntle the white-collar villains to prison sentences that end in wild escape. There is character development — absolute transformation — when Paul is knocked off his horse by a shining light and propelled to play a prominent role thereafter. Then there is religious controversy and political trials and the backstory of Jewish factions and Roman rule. Add in the maritime adventures of suspenseful decision-making and shipwreck to an unknown island of nice natives and venomous snakes.

Sometimes Jesus’s messengers were mistaken as gods, other times they were killed by the sword. Sometimes they were stoned to death, other times they were stoned but survived. There are disputes among the protagonists, ironic encounters, and affectionate goodbyes. The world, honestly and truly, was being turned upside down (Acts 17:6), everywhere from the scruffy blacksmith who lost his business to the highest court of international law. This story has all the pieces for a box-office hit.

And then there’s the way it ends.

Throughout the book, the action has ramped up, up, up. Paul’s voyage to Rome has been like a symphonic crescendo. The percussion is blaring louder, louder, louder. And then the story closes with a bi-vocational leader talking to folks who visit him at his house. All of that action — head-spinning action — leaves us with an old man inviting everyone into his home to tell them about Jesus.

Plainness As the Peak

The Book of Acts is meant to frame the church’s self-understanding. It has a “formative function,” as it’s been called, which is aimed at answering the identity question: Who are we, and what are we supposed to do?

Luke doesn’t answer this question with a bulleted list. Nor does he give us a handbook full of prescriptive lines. Instead, he writes our story, our history, with a theological intentionality we can’t ignore. This kind of approach doesn’t call our plays on the field, it shapes the way we see the game. The whole book is pointing in this direction, and in particular, the way it ends.

The last verses about Paul in Acts 28 are no accident. The nature of what he is doing has huge implications for how we be Christian in our day.

To be sure, it doesn’t prescribe that we all go do house churches, and it isn’t the be-all, end-all of how we interact with culture. But it is important for how we understand our witness in this world, especially when we’re more allured by the idea of recreating Pentecost than sharing a meal with neighbors.

As an aside, don’t misunderstand me. I love packed-out arenas of Christ-exalting worshipers. Passion’s latest album is wearing out my iTunes. Conferences are great. My wife doesn’t knit. I like McDonald’s. But the point I’m highlighting is that the biblical vision of the gospel’s advance isn’t bright lights and a great sound system. It looks much more plain. No frills Christian mission — that’s the picture Luke leaves us.

A People of Open Doors

Luke has shown us the miracles. There are times when the Spirit may teleport us into the back of a limousine beside a foreign ambassador who’s reading the Bible. He can do that sort of thing. But that’s not the inspired author’s last word. The rhythm to which we should be bobbing our heads is the simple, reproducible strategy of opening our doors to whomever will come. Paul “welcomed all who came” into his house where he plainly taught the story of God and who Jesus is. Keep in mind that it’s not so much about doing what Paul did. It is about imbibing the nature of Christian mission that Luke has been narrating all along, building up to this final scene: Come in, have some coffee, pull up a chair, let me tell you about Jesus. This is the last thing we see a gospel messenger do in Acts and it’s what we can still do today, whether in Minneapolis or Malaysia.

With summer just around the corner in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the perfect season within the perfect aeon for us to do this. Men, take a few minutes to sit down with your wife, or gather your friends if you’re single or not-yet-married, to pray and plan how your home can become a center for the gospel’s triumph during the next four months. What will our hospitality look like this summer? Try to get at least one event on the calendar — one barbecue or discussion group or prayer meeting.

Now, it won’t feel epic, but it really is in this setting that the new creation peels into this old world. It’s in those conversations about who Jesus is and what he has done for us, simple as they may be, that we feel the force of his reign through us. It’s at our dinner tables, no less ordinary than any stable in first-century Bethlehem, where lives are transformed from darkness to light, where God’s enemies become his sons and daughters, where his glory shines a little brighter into this planet he will soon make new.

Luke means for us to walk from this book not disillusioned by a distant historical recount, but infused with encouragement to pick up where Paul left off. Because, after all, this book is more accurately “The Action of the Ascended Christ by His Spirit Through His Church” — which now includes you and me, and our homes.

Meaning and Metaphor

Tony Reinke — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:30:00 -0500

Sometimes spiritual truth is best communicated through the imagination, and I think this explains why the book of Revelation includes war tales of red dragons and multi-headed beasts — those nasty creatures are a great way to embody evil and rebellious nations.

But the non-fiction imagination comes in many different forms, and one form is the metaphor. Jesus, we are told, is “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29), a metaphorical truth meaning at the same time Jesus is and is not a lamb. Metaphors lead us to embrace a thing (Christ crucified) in terms of some, but not all, of the characteristics of another thing (a lamb).

Metaphors carry meaning, and we need them, writes pastor and author Doug Wilson: “Because we are creatures, we must necessarily see and express the world poetically. All our knowledge is in some fashion metaphorical. Only God knows things immediately. For us, wound tight in our finitude, knowledge of the world must be mediated, that is, apportioned to us the same way a toddler gets his mashed peas.”

The value of metaphor for communicating meaning is the latest topic in the Authors on the Line podcast. I put Doug Wilson on the line to talk about metaphor and meaning and to explain why metaphor is more than a garnish to sprinkle on prose, but finds itself deeply embedded in the process of Christian logic. Along the way Wilson explains why reformed theology makes the necessary connections for truly valuing metaphor, and then we talk about the opportunities and challenges he faces in using metaphor in contemporary cultural debates.

To listen to our 32-minute conversation, subscribe to the Authors on the Line podcast in iTunes here. Download the mp3 here (22.3 MB). Or listen from the resource page through the following link:

Meaning and Metaphor: An Interview with Douglas Wilson (32 Minutes)

Previous Authors on the Line podcasts —

Introducing Jon Bloom and His New Book

John Piper — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 06:02:00 -0500

There are books you should read at your desk hunched over and ready to wrestle with rarified ideas. Then there are books that you should read the way you stop by a shaded stream. The trust level is high. The expectation for refreshment is keen. Jon Bloom, the President of Desiring God, has written a book like that. I encourage you to get a copy.

Here is the way Jon describes his aim: “The purpose of this little book is to imaginatively reflect on the real experiences of real people in the Bible in order to help you grasp and live what it means to ‘trust in the Lᴏʀᴅ with all our heart, and . . . not lean on our own understanding.’ Its goal is to help you believe in Jesus while living in a very confusing and painful world.”

To help you get to know Jon and his book I wrote the Foreword. Here’s what I said:

Foreword

With the apostle John I say, I am writing these things to you so that my joy may be complete (1 John 1:4). My joy. Yes, yours too. But that’s not my point yet. To write on behalf of Jon Bloom and his book is a joy. So indulge me for a moment, if you are willing.

First, I love Jon Bloom. I want to praise the man. He is worthy of your attention.

Jon is a man of worship. He lives under the sovereign grace of God with a happy sense of submission and praise. In fact, he is a worship leader at his church.

Jon is a lover of the gospel of Jesus. He is manifestly glad that his sins are forgiven because of Christ, and his works are the fruit of his justification, not the root.

Jon is humble and ready to confess his sin and heal relationships.

Jon is strong in the word. He has a backbone and is not easily duped.

Jon is a man of vision — a vision for his life and family, and a vision for Desiring God. He has overseen this ministry since the beginning with far-seeing dreams.

Jon is reliable. I would trust him with my life. Indeed I have trusted him with the ministry — which is a huge part of my life.

Jon is wise. Though he is a generation younger than I am, I would turn to him before most older men. There is a gift of wisdom. Jon has it. He is my counselor.

Not surprisingly then this book is also worthy of your attention. All that Jon is as a person is poured out here. And his gifts.

Jon is creative. These meditations are not your ordinary exposition. These are stories. Really good stories. They are rooted in what the Bible says. The creative additions never go beyond what really could have happened. The truths that Jon sees for our lives are based not on what might have been but on what was. The might-have-beens give added flesh to the bones of truth. They are touchable.

Jon is persuaded that if you know the truth, the truth will make you free. And truths about the greatness of Christ are the best ones for freeing us from unbelief. And to be freed from unbelief is to be freed from fear and greed and pride and anger and lust and despair and a hundred other permutations of life-ruining sins.

New Christians or old Christians, what we need in order to walk by faith and not by sight is glimpses. I know that sounds contradictory. We need sight not to walk by sight? But it’s not contradictory, because the sight we need is not a sight of what the day holds, but a sight of who holds the day.

And even that sight happens by looking through the window of the word. Which means we see with our ears. Yes it sounds strange. But listen: “The Lᴏʀᴅ revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lᴏʀᴅ” (1 Samuel 3:21). So we “look” through the window of the word with our ears and what we hear is a sight of God!

If that makes no sense to you, here’s a suggestion. Pick a chapter in this book whose title looks relevant for you. Listen as you read. Look through what you hear. And see if Jesus does not show himself to you in such a way that you trust him more.

That is what Jon Bloom desires. That is what we both are praying for. Your joy of faith. So yes, I wrote this for my joy. And mine will be full if I hear that my happy commendations and Jon’s beautiful narrations awaken in you the gladness of walking by faith, Not By Sight.

John Piper
Founder and Teacher, Desiring God
Chancellor, Bethlehem College and Seminary

30 Reasons Why It Is a Great Thing to Be a Pastor

John Piper — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 06:19:00 -0500

God is the greatest Reality in the universe.
And pastors swim in that sea with ever-replenished joy.

I am the Lᴏʀᴅ, and there is no other, besides me there is no God. (Isaiah 45:5)

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33–36)
Jesus is the greatest Savior, Master, and Friend that ever was or will be.
And pastors contemplate and commend him every day.

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)

At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10–11)

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15)

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel. (2 Timothy 2:8)
The Holy Spirit is the greatest Helper in the world.
And pastors are driven to have his fullness constantly.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever. . . It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. (John 14:16; 16:7)

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? (Galatians 3:5)

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18)
The Bible is the greatest book there is.
And pastors delight to mediate on it day and night.

The words of the Lᴏʀᴅ are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. (Psalm 12:6)

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lᴏʀᴅ, and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1–2)
The gospel is the greatest news ever sent.
And pastors revel in believing it and telling it every day.

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3–4)

I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. (Romans 1:14–15)
Corporate worship is the great overflow of life together in treasuring Christ.
And pastors soar with the sacred privilege of fanning that flame.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. (Ephesians 3:8)
Faith is the great union with Christ and the embrace of all God is in him.
And pastors aim at this with every word, since faith comes by hearing.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith. (Philippians 1:25)
Hope in future grace is the great furnace of gospel obedience.
And pastors fuel it daily with the promises of God.

For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. (Hebrews 10:34)

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5–6)
Joy is the great impulse in pain and pleasure that makes its source in God look great.
And pastors renounce all abuse and live for the holy joy of their flock.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:8)

Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy. (2 Corinthians 1:24)
Love is the greatest act.
And pastors make it the great aim of all their acts.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

The aim of our charge is love. (1 Timothy 1:5)
Holiness is great likeness to the thrice holy God.
And pastors daily kill their own sins for the sake of the holiness of others.

As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:15–16)

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)
Suffering is a great seminary.
And pastors must attend it for the sake of their people.

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. . . It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. (Psalm 119:67, 71)

If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. (2 Corinthians 1:6)
Explaining great truth is a path to great understanding.
And pastors are charged to explain the greatest things relentlessly.

It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11–12)
Heralding the greatest realities is a great privilege.
And pastors are the heralds of the living God.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word. (2 Timothy 4:1–2)

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)
Humanly impossible aims throw us on a great Helper.
And all the spiritual aims of a pastor are impossible.

Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (Luke 18:26–27)

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2:24–26)
Heaven is a great destiny.
And pastors aim in everything to help people get there.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. (Matthew 5:12)

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Philippians 3:20–21)

I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. (2 Timothy 2:10)
Hell is a great danger.
And pastors aim in everything to help people escape it.

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)

I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. (1 Corinthians 9:22)
Prayer is a path to the great presence and power of God.
And pastors pray without ceasing.

Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. (Ephesians 6:17–18)

Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. (Psalm 50:15)
The new birth is a great miracle.
And pastors are the ever-amazed midwives of God.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6–7)

You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; . . . And this word is the good news that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:23–25)
Communion is the greatest supper.
And pastors hold the sacred emblems in their very hands.

I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. (Luke 22:15)

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:16)
Baptism is the greatest emblem of death and life.
And pastors enact this drama on behalf of Christ.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3–4)

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)
Funerals offer a great vista of eternity.
And pastors stand there full of hope with wide-eyed people.

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:6–8)

Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:54–57)
Weddings are God’s great, life-long joining together of man and woman.
And pastors put this drama on display for all to understand.

They are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. (Matthew 19:6)

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (Ephesians 5:22–25)
Hospital visits are a sacred imparting of great hope.
And pastors mediate this holy transaction with their voice and hands.

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. (James 5:14–15)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)

It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him healed him. (Acts 28:8)
The devil is a great enemy.
And pastors make holy war every day.

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith. (1 Peter 5:8–9)

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
Wise, biblical counsel is greater than much fine gold.
And pastors make many rich.

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. (Proverbs 25:11)

How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. (Proverbs 16:16)

Him we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (Colossians 1:28)
World missions is the greatest enterprise in the world.
And pastors preach and pray and agitate till all are goers or senders.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. (Matthew 9:37–38)
Loving money is the great root of countless evils.
And pastors sever it in their homes and seek its cheerful death in all their flock.

Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. (1 Timothy 6:9–10)

Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. (1 Timothy 6:6–8)

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)
Leadership in holy paths is the great need of all the sheep.
And pastors wear this mantel humbly under the Great Shepherd.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Hebrews 13:17)

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20–21)
Lowly servanthood is high greatness.
And pastors rejoice to say: He must increase, and I must decrease.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. (Mark 10:43)

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)

The Tuning Fork of the Soul

Tony Reinke — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Successful Christian living is very much about steadiness and consistency, about firm resolve and steadfast endurance. There’s more to the Christian life, but these remain certain marks of God’s Spirit at work. And yet we feel the circumstances of life trying to swing us from despair to delight. When circumstances grow dark and we take our eyes off the Savior, we lose our balance and swing toward despair. When life seems to be going well and we take our eyes off Christ, we swing towards blissful God-forgetfulness certain to end in sorrow.

Contemplating this swinging, wobbly, fallen but redeemed heart is what led the Puritans to talk about a joy in the all-satisfying Christ as the unchanging tuning fork hum for the Christian life.

The heart, let’s say, is a violin — a beautiful and delicate instrument made to make beautiful pleasing notes in the ear of its Maker. Previously stringless and useless, now refurbished in Christ, the violin fluctuates daily, finds itself so often out of tune, expands and contracts by the humidity or dryness of the seasons and the situation. Every day, several times throughout the day, the soul must be re-tuned again.

Joy in God is the pitch for our lives. Every day, several times throughout the day, the soul must be re-tuned again. But joy is the aim.

Always Rejoicing

This metaphor is especially striking when we assume our screeching, scratching tuneless heart-conditions cannot be justified by our circumstances. Rejoicing in God is a 24/7 command. The pitchfork hum is the sound of Philippians 4:4 — “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”

This means joy transcends circumstances, and prepares us for what’s to come our way in life, writes Puritan Richard Sibbes. Here’s how he said it in a sermon:

What is our life without joy? Without joy we can do nothing. We are like an instrument out of tune. An instrument out of tune it yields but harsh music. Without joy we are out of joint. We can do nothing well without joy, and a good conscience, which is the ground of joy. Without joy we cannot suffer afflictions. We cannot die well without it. Without joy, and the ground of joy, we can neither do, nor suffer, anything.¹

This is why joy is the pitchfork hum we aspire to live in without ceasing. Joy is how we gauge the spiritual condition of our souls. Joy is the aim. Joy is the goal. Joy in God is the tuning fork for our hearts, and our shared joy is a mutual symphony to our Maker’s glory. Joy is not the frosting over the highlights of our lives, it’s the tune God intends for our 24/7 lives.

The Marrow

Another Puritan, Stephen Charnock, notes that the command to rejoice precedes the command to pray, indicating in his mind that God expects us to address him with a certain joy (see 1 Thessalonians 5:16–17). Of course God also wants us to draw near to him when we desire joy and don't feel it. But Charnock’s point is well taken. If God wants us to rejoice first, then draw near to him — if joy is the ideal condition God wants to be addressed — then of course, “delight is the marrow of religion.”²

It is. Joy in God is at the center of the Christian experience now, and will be for all eternity. Joy in God is at the heart of the gospel. Joy in God drives us to evangelism and missions. Joy in God makes enduring trials and pain possible. Joy in God is the expulsive power of a new affection that drives out the loving affections we naturally have for sin. Joy in God is the mutual aim of our fellowship. The Christian life, from start to finish, centers on joy in God, it’s the marrow of religion, it is the note we tune our souls to every day and every hour.

And that’s what Desiring God is all about. Don't imagine Desiring God is a group of people who live in permanent perfect pitch harmony with joy in God. We're not. Think of Desiring God (the blog, the sermon archive, the free books, the thousands of articles, and everything else here), as a Scripture-centered tuning fork, always here and available for you in this one great and glorious end — your greatest satisfaction and God’s greatest glory.

¹ Richard Sibbes, Works, 3:223.

² Stephen Charnock, Works, 5:371.

Recent posts from Tony Reinke —

Marijuana, Caffeine, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Battling Selfishness (Ask Pastor John)

Tony Reinke — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

These were four themes featured in this week’s lineup of Ask Pastor John podcast episodes. What follows are excerpts from each episode (click on the hyperlinked titles to listen).

When Jehovah’s Witnesses Knock at Your Door (Episode 78):

If they come to the door, I say as gently and graciously as I can, “I know Jehovah’s Witness theology well enough to know that we have deep differences. I know that you believe Jesus is the highest created being, a created angel (Michael), and you do not believe that he is God, or of one essence with Jehovah. You think he is an angel, I believe he is co-eternal with Jehovah God, and therefore I think your religion is a serious dishonoring of the Lord Jesus and leads people astray from a true relationship with God. And so what I would like to do with you right now,” — I’m saying this right here on the porch — “is pray. And I am willing to let you pray, and I will pray, and we will both ask God to show us what is true in his Word, the true way to understand the Bible, and the true way to honor Jesus. Would you want to pray with me?” They have never said yes.

Christians and Marijuana (Episode 77):

Marijuana is ordinarily thought of, and I think ordinarily used, as a mood-altering or mind-altering drug that creates a pleasant euphoria. It is not generally thought of as making one more attentive to reality, but more oblivious of reality. And in that sense, if you try to compare it with caffeine, I can imagine somebody saying, “Well, what’s wrong? They are both mood-altering drugs. You drink your coffee in the morning to alter your mood, and I do my marijuana to alter my mood and so do the same.” Well, not exactly, because one of the effects of coffee is that it makes you more alert to reality — and if it didn’t, I think we should run away from it. In fact, I think it is possible to sin with caffeine. But there is a really significant difference.

The Power to Conquer Selfishness (Episode 76):

Serving is the measure of greatness (Matthew 20:26) because it takes greater power to conquer selfishness than to command service. ... So when Jesus is calling us to be servants, contrary to the world’s way of thinking about power, he means he is going to sever that horrible love of demanding selfish entitlement, and he is going to be our portion, and he is going to give us strength so that when we act against those natural inclinations by faith in him, he gets the glory, not us.

Reflections on His Last Sermon as Pastor (Episode 75):

I have chosen my text from Hebrews 13:20–21 and I do have an idea where I wanted to go. I chose that text because it is Easter and it begins, “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep.” So I chose it, first, because God brought again from the dead our great shepherd. But I chose it also because I am a shepherd and I am leaving my flock. And I want to say to them, “You have a great shepherd. Jason Meyer and John Piper are both going to be dead someday. And you cannot put your final hope in any man. But you have a great shepherd.”

How are Teachers Judged More Strictly? (Episode 74):

Paul says, “Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:12–15). So the picture there is: Teachers can build with wood, hay and stubble. Teachers can build with silver, gold, and precious stone. And the one will be burned up and the other will be preserved for his reward. And the more you know, the more you will be held accountable. And the more you blow it, given that knowledge, the more you will [potentially] suffer loss.

Also note that beginning with episode 76, we transitioned to a new recording setup to improve sound quality. We plan to stick with this new format.

Tuning In

The Ask Pastor John daily podcast is a series of 3–8 minute conversations released on weekdays at 11am (EST) via the DG Facebook and Twitter feeds. You can tune in to the new episodes through the new Ask Pastor John iPhone app, which can be donwloaded for free here. We’re currently hosting all the recordings on SoundCloud, a website that makes it easy to listen to several of the podcasts in one sitting. They’re also archived on the DG website and syndicated in iTunes.

We want to hear from you. To submit a question to Pastor John please include your first name, hometown, and question in an email to AskPastorJohn AT desiringGod DOT org.

Thanks for listening to the podcasts. We appreciate your engagement and interest.

Faith That Made Jesus Marvel

Jon Bloom — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Jesus… marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” (Luke 7:9)

Jesus, the “founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2), once marveled at the great faith he found in a man. And it’s the only instance recorded in the Gospels when Jesus responded that way. Who was this man? A rabbi? No. A disciple? Nope. A Roman soldier.

Jesus had walked down from the brow of the low mountain outside of Capernaum, his adopted home (Matthew 4:13). He had just delivered what would become the most famous sermon in history.

When Jesus entered the town, he was met by a group of Jewish elders. They had an urgent request. Would Jesus come quickly to the home of a Roman centurion whose servant was so ill he was near death? The centurion himself had sent these elders to Jesus to make this request.

This was strange. Jewish leaders were not in the habit of being fond of Roman soldiers.

Feeling the obvious oddness of the request, one of the elders quickly added, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.”

This was also strange. Roman soldiers were not in the habit of being fond of Jews.

Jesus discerned the Father’s direction in this and so he set off with them to the centurion’s home. He had also just been preaching on the importance of loving one’s enemies. This was something to encourage.

As they neared the house another group of men intercepted them. They huddled in a brief, hushed conference with the confused elders. Some observers figured it was too late.

Then a representative of the interceptors stepped over to Jesus and said respectfully, “Teacher, I have a message for you from my Roman friend. He says,

Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, “Go” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.

A murmur wove through the crowd. He didn’t want Jesus to come.

Jesus’s eyes held the man’s as he pondered the profound words. From a Roman soldier.

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lᴏʀᴅ been revealed? (Isaiah 53:1)

Jesus’s mouth eased into a smile. He shook his head slightly.

For that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. (Isaiah 52:15)

This emissary of Israel’s enemy understood what even these Jewish elders didn’t grasp. He looked at the elders.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lᴏʀᴅ’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. (Psalm 118:22–23)

Then he turned to his disciples and the small crowd that had followed him off the mountain and said in a loud voice, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith” (verse 9).

Jesus “marveled” at this man’s faith. When Jesus marvels, we must meditate.

Luke chose the Greek word thaumazo (thou-mad’-zo, also in Matthew 8:10), which we translate “marveled” or “amazed,” to describe Jesus’s response to the centurion’s faith. The only other time this word is used to describe Jesus’s response to someone else’s faith is in Mark 6:6, when he marvels at the lack of faith in the people of Nazareth, those who knew him best.

It is a gospel irony that the only person recorded in the gospels whose faith made Jesus marvel was a Roman soldier. The only reason he was in Palestine was to help keep the Jews under the domineering rule of the pagan Tiberius.

It amazed Jesus that a Gentile soldier of all people, a stranger to the covenant, a man with limited understanding of the Scriptures at best, saw what few of the covenant people saw when they looked at Jesus: the Son of God. Jewish crowds flocked around Jesus. Jewish leaders lobbied and debated him. But like Peter in the boat full of fish (Luke 5:8), the Centurion recognized divine holiness in Jesus and sinfulness in himself and knew he was not worthy of Jesus’s presence.

He also recognized Jesus’s authority. While Jewish elders asked Jesus questions like, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” (Matthew 21:23), this foreigner knew exactly who Jesus was. He knew Jesus had authority from the Father to command the natural world. He knew proximity was no factor. Jesus could speak disease out of existence from any distance.

And Jesus marveled that in this Centurion he saw a first fruit and foreshadow of what he had come to bring about: that “many [would] come from the east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11).

This man whose faith made Jesus marvel was not a disciple, did no miracles, planted no churches, had no degree, and no religious title. His spiritual résumé was unimpressive. The man with the greatest faith in Israel was a Centurion who simply knew who Jesus was, what he was able to do, humbly asked him, and trusted that he would receive what he needed. He really believed in Jesus.

That is still the faith that makes Jesus marvel.

This meditation is included in the book, Not by Sight: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Walking by Faith (Crossway, 2013).

John Piper and Mark Noll on the Life of the Mind

Jonathan Parnell — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:30:00 -0500

Jesus is king. He is the ascended, seated, reigning Lord over everything. Now what does this mean for how we think? How does his preeminence affect our intellectual pursuits?

Last fall Mark Noll and John Piper converged to discuss this topic. In an event hosted by Bethlehem College and Seminary and the MacLaurin Institute, Noll and Piper, authors of Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind and Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God respectively, each presented a lecture and interacted with questions related to the mind and Christian scholarship.

Noll’s lecture, starting at the 1:30 mark, examined two questions: first, why is the person and work of Christ the framework for the Christian approach to the work and word of God? And secondly, what benefit comes from orienting the life of the mind by this framework?

Piper’s lecture, starting at the 28:42 mark, builds on four points:

Knowing God and loving God is dependent upon the act of thinking and on the material world that we experience with our five senses.
Knowing God and loving God is transcendent and is not coterminous with my brain.
Thinking and knowing is penultimate, and loving God is ultimate. Logic exists for loving God; reason exists for rejoicing in God.
On this earth, there is no true knowledge of God and no true love for God apart from observing and thinking about the world he has made.

In Defense of Sports

Barnabas Piper — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Last week I had the chance to sit down with some of the team at Desiring God to talk about how Christians should interact with sports. During the conversation we briefly touched on how easily sports can become an idol, whether it’s as an athlete or fan or a parent of an athlete. Overall, though, we explored how Christians can be involved in sports and the goodness of sports in culture as an expression of God’s creativity and the gifts he’s given people.

One Facebook commenter responded to the podcast with a perspective that many people share — sports seems “like a whole other religion.” He went on to describe the amount of excitement and money people pour into sports and how that ought to be poured into “the true battle we live in,” such as healing the sick, feeding the poor, and saving souls. He makes the point that sports clearly aren’t as important as these things.

This perspective is quite common and deserves a thoughtful response. At first blush it has merit, but it is not entirely accurate. Let me take his objections one by one.

“Sports is its own religion”

As we discussed on the podcast, sports can easily become an idol. But that does not make it an inherently bad thing. Money can be an idol. So can music; attend any concert and you will find worshippers there. Or family. Anything that we devote ourselves to can become an idol which can then become a religion; that is, it can become something which gives structure to our lives and determines our values. But the human ability to make idols out of anything does not make those things bad. And sports contain enormous good as a reflection of God’s creative power and the unique abilities he has poured into people as athletes, coaches, strategists, broadcasters, journalists, and more.

“People should devote their excitement and energy to things of eternal value”

Taken at face value, this sentence is true, but when you use it to parse sports (or other forms of entertainment) out of life it creates a false dichotomy. Sports offer rest and refreshment. The energy poured into them is not draining a person from doing things that “matter” — it is restoring them for work. Sports also offer a kind of community and connection to people that is difficult to duplicate. Whether it’s regular pick-up basketball games, rooting for the same team, or being softball teammates, sports bring people together. And people together is where real eternal ministry is done best.

“The money and time devoted to sports are better spent elsewhere, serving those in need”

Such an objection is worthy of consideration as a matter of conscience at the personal level, but it is not a black and white issue. It is always wise to ask whether I am giving what I ought, helping who I ought, and being generous as I ought. Am I misallocating my own resources to serve my idol? This idol could be sports or it could be lattes or books or cars. In most cases, this is not a question anyone can clearly answer from the outside. It is not wrong to spend money on any of the things I’ve listed, but it could be a poor choice. Usually only God and the spender know whether it was wise or not.

The money in sports (and all entertainment industries) is enormous. It is so because we as a culture demand to be entertained. Cost and demand is a basic economic principle. We are better off examining our own lives to see if there is inequity or inconsistency than in haranguing about the system as a whole.

I believe sports are a gift, a good gift, that God gave through human creativity for our enjoyment. They should be participated in at every level and in every way as such. And just like all of life, we ought to approach them with thoughtfulness, discernment, and intentionality.

What’s the Big Deal with the Puritans?

David Mathis — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:25:00 -0500

He was the kind of adolescent who would keep secret reading material stashed under his mattress. Long after he was supposed to be fast asleep, the teenage Joel Beeke would lay in bed with the light still on, pouring over the pages. He had stumbled across his father’s forbidden collection, and long before most youths are exposed to the adult world, Beeke was getting acclimated.

By Beeke’s own admission, he was raised in a hyper-Calvinist home, and his wandering heart found a haven for indulgence. It was the Puritans.

These old English pastors and theologians, from the second half of the 16th century and the entirety of the 17th century, informed his mind, wooed his heart, and began guiding his life. He was only nine years old when he found the Puritans on his father’s shelf and began devouring the grace they exuded. Far from the staid and prudish caricatures we hear far too often, Beeke was finding the Puritans to be “the happiest group of people who ever lived on the face of the earth.”

Beeke now has been enjoying the Puritans for over 50 years, and he has authored, with Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology, the book he says he’d dreamed of writing as a teenager. He’s eager to help as many as he can “get a flavor for the incredible riches of their spirituality.”

In this new episode of Theology Refresh, we asked Beeke, one of the world’s foremost experts on the Puritans, to put them on the bottom shelf for us. This short interview is Puritanism 101 — a primer on the Puritans — not just for those who know them some, but especially for those who would ask, “So what’s the big deal anyway with the Puritans?”

To get this 12-minute episode, subscribe to Theology Refresh in iTunes, listen at the resource page, download the audio, or watch below.

Some previous episodes of Theology Refresh:

[To subscribe or see the full list of over 30 episodes, visit Theology Refresh in the iTunes store]

Envy Hunts in a Pack

Joe Rigney — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Picture your bathroom. Now picture your toilet. Now, you know that space behind the toilet, the disgusting place where nobody goes? The place that, if you should happen to drop your toothbrush, it means that you’ll just have to buy a new one? Okay, that place is like your heart. Or at least the sinful parts of your heart. All kinds of junk lives back there: lying, back-biting, lust, pride, bitterness, anxiety, envy.

Sanctification is our effort by God’s grace to clean behind the toilet, to remove the muck and the mire that still inhabit the dark recesses of our hearts. But sanctification can go wrong in all kinds of ways. Legalism is attempting to clean behind the toilet without any disinfectant; all you do is rearrange the gunk, smearing it all over tarnation. Licentiousness is embracing the gunk, going back there looking for a snack. (I realize that image is disgusting, but that's what sin is: disgusting).

But we don’t want legalism or licentiousness. We want gospel-driven sanctification. We want to take the disinfectant of the gospel and use it to make the-place-behind-the-toilet sparkle. But even gospel-driven sanctification can misfire. Instead of actually applying the gospel to the sin in our hearts, we just wave the disinfectant at the gunk, acting as though the mere presence of the gospel will have some magic effect. We can’t just wield the gospel like a mantra that is supposed to spontaneously transform the filth into fullness and fruit.

What’s needed instead is for us to roll up our sleeves and move into the corner behind the toilet, armed with the grace of God and a heavy-duty scrub brush. Practically speaking, this means both growing in our awareness of the gospel in all of its manifold glories as well as deepening in our knowledge of our own hearts — our temptations, our weaknesses, our particular brokenness, and our besetting sins. As we grow in both types of knowledge, we pray that the Holy Spirit makes the link and applies the right dimension of the gospel to the right manifestation of sin. This kind of dynamic, Spirit-empowered, grace-saturated effort is what John Piper calls “acting the miracle.”

Envy Again

Which brings me back to envy. If we’re to scrub envy with the steel wool of Scriptural promises and gospel truth, if we’re to assault the strongholds of covetous comparison with the sword of the Spirit, then we need to know the enemy and its schemes, plots, and plans. And the first thing we should note is that envy, like all sins, hunts in a pack.

In Galatians 5, Paul provides us with a list of works of the flesh that are evident and obvious. Most of the sins in the list can be grouped under two headings: sexual immorality and the wolf-pack of envy: enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, and envy. Romans 1:28–31 contains a similar list including the associates of envy like covetousness, malice, murder, strife, deceit, and maliciousness.

For me, lists like this are only helpful when I have some idea of what distinguishes the various sins from each other, when I know what it is that I’m up against when the desires of the flesh wage war against the Spirit. So here’s my attempt to differentiate envy and its vicious band of wolves.

Naming the Pack

Envy is a feeling of unhappiness at the blessing and fortune of others. In the words of one author, it is the painful and often resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by someone else.

We often lump envy and jealousy together, but there is an important distinction. Jealousy is oriented toward what we possess; envy is oriented toward the possessions of others. We are jealous for what we have (which is why jealousy is not always a sin); we are envious of what others have.

Covetousness is an overweening desire for that which is not yours. Covetousness wants what the other guy has; envy is angry that the other guy has it.

Rivalry is competition that is rooted in a proud and envious assessment of your own abilities and the abilities of others.

Resentment is a simmering bitterness at some perceived injustice. The “injustice” may be as simple and twisted as a friend receiving an opportunity that you didn’t.

Malice is the suppressed hatred that plots and takes pleasure in the downfall of another. When you envy another, malice dreams and envisions their ruin and then gives a satisfied chuckle if the ruin comes to pass.

The common features in these sins are 1) a distorted and corrupted desire; 2) a perverse comparison of oneself with others; 3) an ungodly preoccupation with the advantages of others; and 4) a smoldering anger at the blessings of others.

These sins always leave the same carnage in their wake: mistrust, conflict, divisions, dissensions, and strife. Envy inevitably tears people apart. It is corrosive to genuine fellowship and camaraderie. It makes friendship and unity impossible. It undermines all of the glorious “one-anothering” that the gospel calls us to: love one another, encourage one another, accept one another, honor one another, serve one another, be kind to one another, bear with one another, and so on. The wolf-pack of envy is the death of gospel-shaped community.

Defined by God’s Grace

So if this is the pack that hunts in the filthy places of our hearts, what does the disinfectant of the gospel actually do? When we encounter envy, covetousness, rivalry, resentment, malice, and strife in our hearts, what dimensions of the gospel should we bring to bear? How should we then scrub?

Many things might be said. For now, I’ll just point to one of the most fundamental. In 1 Corinthians 15, after recounting those gospel truths that are “of first importance,” Paul tells us something absolutely essential to living a full, big-hearted, sin-killing life of discipleship: “By the grace of God I am what I am.” Grace is what defines us. Grace is what forms and fill us. Grace is what makes us who and what we are.

God’s glad-hearted approval of us in Christ is what frees us from being defined by the blessings and opportunities of others. God’s warm-hearted embrace of us in his Son delivers us from petty enslavement to the gifts and abilities of our friends and family. The soul-enlarging grace of God enables us to say:

I do not need to grasp for the talents and gifts of others. I do not need to covet my neighbor’s spouse, house, family, ministry, or opportunities. I am not defined by the abilities of others; I am defined by the grace of God. Therefore, I will refuse to measure myself by a false standard. I will resist the compulsive and relentless urge to compete with everyone under the sun (especially those who are called to do the same things that I am). I will put to death malicious dreams about the downfall and failure of others by savoring the sure knowledge that God is lavish in grace and that he has promised to graciously, freely, and abundantly give to me and them all things in his Beloved Son.

So today, soak in God’s grace, kill the wolf-pack of envy, and don’t forget to scrub behind the toilet.

New Daily Devotional Website

Tyler Kenney — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:30:00 -0500

We’ve taken Solid Joys to a new level.

As of today, we are happy to announce that our daily devotional app is no longer restricted to Apple and Android mobile devices, but is now a fully functional website. We’re hoping many will find this to be a tremendous blessing.

The new Solid Joys site is simple, and easy to use, and features 365 of the best devotional excerpts from John Piper's online writings and from his “trilogy” of books with Multnomah (Desiring God, The Pleasures of God, and Future Grace). The devotional of the day automatically comes up when you visit the site at http://solidjoys.desiringGod.org, and you can click easily to the preceeding or following day’s reading.

We have also just released updates to the Solid Joys app on iTunes and Google Play. And you can now share devotionals via Facebook and Twitter from within the app, as well as change the font size and receive daily reminders to read.

Finally, we are excited to report that these devotionals are now available in Korean. You can access them on the Korean version of our website as well as on our new Korean Android app.

Our prayer is that God would use these devotionals to help more people see more of Jesus Christ, and that by seeing him they might have more substantial joy believing in him.

In God We Joy

Tony Reinke — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Our joy in God is bound up with our trust in God. The two cannot be separated — not ever. Trust is the backbone of joy. And joy is the outflow of trust in one who is fully Trustworthy.

We see this connection made throughout the Bible.

The Psalmist unites trust and joy:

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. (Psalm 5:11a)

The Lᴏʀᴅ is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. (Psalm 28:7)

For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. (Psalm 33:21)

And the Apostle Paul unites trust and joy:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)

I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith. (Philippians 1:25)

Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. (2 Corinthians 1:24)

And the Apostle Peter unites trust and joy:

Though you have not seen him [Christ], you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8–9)

This is only a bare sampling of texts, the point is made repeatedly in Scripture. Confident faith and joy are bound up together.

The Fight for Faith and Joy

Nineteenth-century Anglican Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones summarizes the connection well: “Trust is an indispensable element of a happy life. A suspicious, distrustful soul is like one walking in a fog, chilling, perplexing, distorting. One of a trustful nature who has no one to trust is like a lonely traveler, hungry and homeless.”¹

To be a trusting person, but to have no trustworthy object to trust in, results in tragic lostness. And to know One who is fully trustworthy, but to not trust him, is a chilling tragedy of its own, and yet we experience it in our daily Christian lives. How often do we walk in the chilling and perplexing fog of unbelief!

Calling Out Unbelief

Disillusionment and disappointment will always strike where genuine trust in God grows thin. And that’s why when trust is missing, joy will also go missing. There can be no joy in God where there is no firm trust in God, and no confidence in his all-sufficiency. And this is why we all feel the inner battle for joy, because we face a daily battle for faith. Our hearts are prone to trust in self, in money, in occupations, in a spouse, or in any other worldly security or circumstance. And when our faith wanes and we no longer trust God, we are set up for a disastrous fall into spiritual dehydration.

Unbelief, the Enemy of Joy

Eighteenth century pastor John Newton saw the challenge of unbelief in the Christian life, and employed the strongest language possible to confront it. “Unbelief is the primary cause of all our spiritual discomforts. This inability to take God at his word, should not be merely lamented as an infirmity, but watched, and prayed, and fought against as a great sin. A great sin indeed it is; the very root of our apostasy, from which every other sin proceeds. It often deceives us under the guise of humility, as though it would be presumption, in such sinners as we are, to believe the declarations of the God of truth. Many serious people, who are burdened with a sense of other sins, leave this radical evil out of the list.” ²

Unbelief in the Christian life is serious business. Joy will not grow where faith is absent. “But,” writes Paul, “we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith” (2 Corinthians 1:24). Until we have our confidence in God settled (what we call faith), our joy in God will remain elusive.

Unbelief evaporates joy. And very often the pathway to renewed joy in God begins when we evaluate the false securities of our lives and honestly assess whether we are trusting in our all-sufficient and all-trustworthy Christ for our eternal security and all our daily needs.

¹ Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones, The Pulpit Commentary, Psalms (Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 1:33.

² John Newton, Works, 6:468–69.

Recent posts from Tony Reinke —

The Power of a Parent’s Words

Christina Fox — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:30:00 -0500

“Mom, you are making me feel dumb” my son said quietly.

I drew in a quick breath and exhaled. My heart was pierced by his words. I looked over at my son. He stood there staring at me, the hurt stretched across his young face. I had just repeated an instruction to him for the third time because the first two times he didn’t seem to understand. Yet I didn’t simply restate the instruction, my tone was condescending and belittling.

“I’m sorry I spoke to you that way. You are not dumb. Will you forgive me?” I responded, hugging him close.

My son is eight and our conversation was deeply convicting. It was the first time he had ever voiced to me how my speech makes him feel. I wondered how often during his young life my words and tone have belittled him. It wasn’t that long ago that I realized how much I sigh audibly when I am annoyed by something my children do. No doubt, God is at work in me, using my role as a mother to show me my sin.

Why Words Matter

We all have memories embedded deep in our heart of hurtful things people have said to us. James says that “with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing” (James 3:9–10.) I could read this passage and think, “well I don’t curse anyone, so this doesn’t apply to me.” But I’d be wrong. While I would never think to call my children names, my very tone and body language can communicate that they are a nuisance, that I am annoyed with them, that they are unimportant, and yes, even dumb.

In the Power of Words and the Wonder of God, Sinclair Ferguson says, “How we use our tongues provides clear evidence of where we are spiritually.” Jesus said something similar when he said, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). My responses to my children, whether it is with actual words or even just the tone of my voice, reveal the condition of my heart. This conversation with my son led to deep conviction by the Spirit, as it should. When I consider how powerful the tongue is and the depth of responsibility I have as a Christian to use it to glorify God, I am overwhelmed. I begin to despair and wonder if I can ever change. But Ferguson reminds me of this truth,

Nobody — Jesus excepted — has succeeded in mastering the tongue! Our only hope as we pursue the discipline of self that leads to mastery of the tongue is that we are Christ’s and that we are being made increasingly like him. But this battle for vocal holiness is a long running one, and it needs to be waged incessantly, daily, hourly.

Cleansed in Christ

My only hope in my battle against this sin is Jesus Christ, my Savior and Redeemer. As the Spirit continues to use my parenting to reveal to me my sin, I am reminded anew of my great need for a Savior. It is because of my sin that Jesus came to die as a substitute in my place. While many in our world may think that the use of a sarcastic tone or a simple irritated sigh is no big deal, to a holy and righteous God — it is a big deal. Romans 3:10 says, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Isaiah says that even our so called ‘good acts’ are as filthy rags to God (Isaiah 64:6). I am a woman with unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. And without Jesus to cleanse them, I would be forever lost in my sin, never to stand in the presence of God.

This conviction of my sin leads me to repentance. Not only do I need to ask forgiveness from my son, but most importantly, I need to repent to God. David prayed regarding his own sin, “against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:4). All sins, including verbal sins, are ultimately sins against God. It is only through the gospel of grace through Jesus Christ that I am cleansed and where David’s prayer comes true, “create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right Spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). Because of Christ, I can now “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrews 4:16).

Toward Only One Accent

The more my heart is saturated by the truths of the gospel, the more I remember just who I am because of Christ. I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). I have been given the Spirit who is actively at work in me, transforming me to be more like Christ. Part of that work of transformation involves conviction of sin by the Spirit, followed by repentance, and application of the gospel to my heart over and over again. As Martin Luther once said, “the entire life of believers is one of repentance.”

Just as God’s word tells me of my sin, my need for a Savior, and the story of his plan to redeem me from sin; it is also his word which the Spirit uses to change me. The more I ingest the word, the more it overflows from my heart. As David said in Psalm, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11). Ferguson, once again, put it this way, “The most important single aid to my ability to use my tongue for the glory of Jesus is allowing the word of God to dwell in me so richly that I cannot speak with any other accent.”

And it is to that end that I pray.

Letter to a Parent Grieving the Loss of a Child

John Piper — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Earlier this year, a grieving mother, who recently had given birth to a stillborn son, wrote to me asking for counsel and comfort. The team at Desiring God thought this letter might be helpful to some others, whether other mothers who have lost infants, parents who have lost young children, or perhaps even more broadly.

Dear _____,

This loss and sorrow is all so fresh. I hesitate to tread into the tender place and speak. But since you ask, I pray that God would help me say something helpful.

First, please know that I know I don’t know what it is like to give birth to a lifeless body. Only a small, sad band of mothers know that. I say “lifeless body” because, as you made clear, your son is not lifeless. He simply skipped earth. For now. But in the new heavens and the new earth, he will know the best of earth and all the joys earth can give without any of its sorrows.

I do not know what age — what level of maturity and development — he will have in that day. I don’t know what level of maturity and development I will have. Will the 25-year-old or the 35- or the 45- or the 55-year-old John Piper be the risen one? God knows what is optimal for the spiritual, glorified body. And so it will be for your son. But you will know him. God will see to that. And he you. And he will thank you for giving him life. He will thank you for enduring the loss that he might have the reward sooner.

God’s crucial word on grieving well is 1 Thessalonians 4:13: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” Yours is a grieving with hope. Theirs is a grieving without hope. That is the key difference. There is no talk of not grieving. That would be like suggesting to a woman who just lost her arm that she not cry, because it would be put back on in the resurrection. It hurts! That's why we cry. It hurts.

And amputation is a good analogy. Because unlike a bullet wound, when the amputation heals, the arm is still gone. So the hurt of grief is different from the hurt of other wounds. There is the pain of the severing, and then the relentless pain of the gone-ness. The countless might-have-beens. Those too hurt. Each new remembered one is a new blow on the tender place where the arm was. So grieving is like and unlike other pain.

There is a paradox in the way God is honored through hope-filled grief. One might think that the only way he could be honored would be to cry less or get over the ache more quickly. That might show that your confidence is in the good that God is and the good that he does. Yes. It might. And some people are wired emotionally to experience God that way. I would not join those who say, “O they are just in denial.”

But there is another way God is honored in our grieving. When we taste the loss so deeply because we loved so deeply and treasured God’s gift — and God in his gift — so passionately that the loss cuts the deeper and the longer, and yet in and through the depths and the lengths of sorrow we never let go of God, and feel him never letting go of us — in that longer sorrow he is also greatly honored, because the length of it reveals the magnitude of our sense of loss for which we do not forsake God. At every moment of the lengthening grief, we turn to him not away from him. And therefore the length of it is a way of showing him to be ever-present, enduringly sufficient.

So trust him deeply and let your heart be your guide whether you honor him one way or the other. Everyone is different. Beware of blaming your husband, or he you, for moving into or out of grief at different paces. It is so personal. And what you may find is that the one who seemed to recover more quickly will weep the more deeply in ten years. You just don’t know now, and it is good not to judge.

May God make your grieving a bittersweet experience of communion with Jesus. Matthew tells us that when Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been beheaded, “he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself” (Matthew 14:13). So he knows what it is to go with you there.

We do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize. He was tested in every way as we are — including loss.

Grace to you and peace.

Affectionately,

Pastor John

Other letters from Pastor John:

How Far Is Too Far Before Marriage?

Tony Reinke — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Five new episodes of the Ask Pastor John podcast were released this week. Here's a list of brief excerpts from each episode (click on the titles to listen).

How Far Is Too Far Before Marriage? (Episode 73):

I would say to the women, don’t entice a man to touch you thinking that this is the way to keep a man. He is not worth keeping if that is the way he is kept. And feel free to say to any man, “No, please don’t take us there.” And you can discern what kind of a man you are dealing with by how sensitive he is to that dimension of purity.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, they will see God” [Matthew 5:8]. That is what we want. We want to see God. . . . If a single person is listening to this saying, “Oh, all very nice. I’m not married, and there is nobody on the horizon. What am I supposed to do?” I just want to say one thing. Don’t feel second class. Jesus Christ is the most complete human being whoever lived and he never had sex. Not to be married and not to have sex is not to be an incomplete human being.

What Is the Purpose of Fasting? (Episode 72):

Fasting is a physical exclamation point at the end of the sentence, “I need you. I want you. I long for you. You are my treasure. I want more of you. And, oh, for the day when you would return. Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus!” Fasting is the exclamation point at the end of all those sentences. . . . I think fasting is not only a positive statement, but it is also a negative way of exposing latent idolatries. When I am not being medicated by food what comes out of my heart? Anger? Lust? The need for television, and more and more of it, or something like that? People need to know what is at the bottom.

Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same Deity? (Episode 71):

I don’t care how many attributes line up between your god and mine. Jesus says you can’t be worshipping the Father if you are rejecting him [in the Son]. And that is the approach I think we should take with all Muslims. We should befriend all of the Muslims in our lives and there are many, at least in my neighborhood. And we tell them the unsearchable riches of Christ, and especially go to the gospel where the glory of God is revealed in the death and the resurrection of Christ.

Was Jesus for Real? (Episode 70):

The approach C. S. Lewis helped me so much with, and he taught thousands: liar, lunatic, or Lord? . . . Jesus is either crazy, or he is a liar, or he is Lord. And as you get to know Jesus you just can’t with any integrity say he is a liar or he is a charlatan trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes. And so people are confronted when they read the gospels with this question: Is this man true? Is he a liar? Is he a lunatic?

Is Jesus the Only Way to Be Saved? (Episode 69):

Jesus, it seems to me, makes the embrace of himself as the crucified and risen Messiah the litmus test of other religions. So if you are talking with somebody who has their set of religions and you want to test to see whether they have saving faith, what you do is you put Jesus and his fullness out on the table for them to see if they will embrace Jesus.

Tuning In

We want to hear from you. To submit a question to Pastor John please include your first name, hometown, and question in an email to AskPastorJohn AT desiringGod DOT org.

Thanks for listening to the podcasts. We appreciate your engagement and interest.

Leap and Weep: Pondering Again That It’s Over

John Piper — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

People continue to ask me how it feels. “You were a pastor non-stop for 33 years. Now you’re not. How does it feel?”

I have been tongue-tied too many times. So I have tried to come up with the shortest possible sound-bite answer. And the second shortest. The shortest is “Leap and Weep.” The second shortest is “Burden Lifted, Blessings Lost.” They refer to the same paradox. When a burden is lifted, you leap. When blessings are lost, you weep.

Paul said to the elders of Ephesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). I have lost a lot of steady-state giving. Weekly preaching is weekly giving. Weekly staff-meetings are weekly giving. Regular elder meetings are regular giving. Frequent funerals and hospital visits are frequent giving. Praying daily as a shepherd for the sheep is daily giving.

All of that pastoral giving is gone. And with it massive blessing. Weep.

And giving is not the only blessing. Shepherds get as well as give. It may be “more” blessed to give than to receive. But there are kinds of receiving that are also blessed. Being in heart-felt partnership with much-loved staff and elders is precious receiving. Looking out on familiar, hungry, eager, thoughtful, thankful, affirming sheep during sermons is powerful receiving. Reports of answered post-service prayers is sweet receiving. Seeing the regular ministry of the word lead people to salvation is unparalleled receiving.

All of that pastoral receiving is gone. Weep.

But paradoxically, there are moments of leaping. Burdens lifted make a light heart. And light hearts leap. Leadership is a sacred burden. It is worth all the costs. But it is heavy. It is meant to be. Jesus’s leadership cost him his life. Senior leadership means that, in one sense, all the bucks stop here. Imagine Jesus coming to Bethlehem and seeing some things he disapproves of. He would knock on my door first. That is what it means to be a leader.

Don’t misunderstand. God gives special grace for senior leaders. I was never left alone. So even in the burdens, there was the closeness of Jesus making it all worth it.

For me the heaviest burden was the ever-increasing challenge to develop, biblically faithful, pastorally fruitful, culturally appropriate, financially wise, Christ-honoring, consensus-building organizational plans and practices and structures that sustained and mobilized 5,000 people for vital Christian impact in all of life. I did not feel very effective at this organizational challenge in my latter years, and that made the burden all the heavier.

That burden is gone. Leap.

Now the challenge is: Lord, show me the new configuration of giving and getting and burden-bearing. I do not assume that in this life there is ever a season when these are gone — not if we trust God and love people. They just change. There is too much lostness and pain and ignorance in the world for coasting. I would value your prayers, during this next year especially, as I seek the Lord for the new pattern of joyful giving, receiving, and burden bearing.

Lay Aside the Weight of Fear

Jon Bloom — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

What happened in Boston on Monday was demonic. The thief (John 10:10) killed three precious lives, wreaked physical destruction on scores more and spiritual destruction on thousands. And he stole not only the joy of the race for millions, but far worse he stole trust. This will have widespread social and cultural repercussions.

This Boston massacre makes visible a spiritual reality. When the bombs exploded, the Boston Marathon stopped and everyone fled for cover. Likewise, when terror grips the human heart, we abandon the faith race. We just want to hide. Nothing stops the legs of faith like fear.

That’s why the devil seeks to terrorize you. He wants you to abort the race. Short of that, he’ll try to weigh you down and entangle your feet with fears (Hebrews 12:1).

Satan Perverts the Mercy of Fear

Fear is something God designed, not the devil. God designed fear so that we would flee real danger. Fear is meant to be a mercy. Its purpose is to direct us to safety. When our soul is ordered right, we fear the Lord and turn away from evil (Job 28:28).

But the devil perverts reality with his lies and seeks to use fear on us backwards. He wants us to fear evil and turn away from the Lord. He wants us to believe that the place of destruction is the place of safety. If he can convince us of this, he can end our race.

And because “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19), he puts on shows of force, like he did on Monday, to make us feel vulnerable in a thousand ways; to say to us, “You are not safe anywhere. Your trust in God is a foolish trust. Your God is not going to deliver you” (2 Chronicles 32:15). And he shoots these flaming dart threats (Ephesians 6:16) precisely at our most vulnerable places.

You Are Being Guarded Through Faith

So how can we keep running the race of faith in a world of fear with an unseen terrorist enemy hunting us? We fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Fearing the Lord is believing the Lord.

Here’s what I mean. In Luke 8, when the Galilean windstorm hit the disciples’ boat with Jesus sleeping in the back, the storm looked stronger than Jesus and the disciples panicked. But then Jesus rebuked the storm and it stopped. Jesus said to them, “Where is your faith?” Jesus transferred their fear from the storm to Jesus (Luke 8:25). Jesus's word was stronger than the evil in the world.

You “by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5, emphasis mine). You are guarded through faith by believing promises like these:

God forgives all your sins (1 John 1:9)
God has removed condemnation from you (Romans 8:1)
Your heart need not be troubled (John 14:1) by the demonic tribulations in the world for Jesus has overcome them for you (John 16:33).
God will provide you sufficient food for your needs (Luke 12:24).
God will provide you sufficient clothes for your needs (Matthew 6:30).
In fact, every need you will ever have will be provided for you (Luke 12:31; Philippians 4:19).
You can sell your possessions and give to the needy (Luke 12:33) because your Father will gladly give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32).
Nothing will be impossible for you (Matthew 17:20).
You can have peace in any storm of life (Luke 8:25).
Even if you’re persecuted, hated, and even killed for Jesus’s sake, not a hair of your head will perish (Luke 21:16–18)
You will never really die (John 11:26)
You will receive eternal life (John 3:16).
Nothing will ever separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38–39).
Every promise God has ever made to his people he will fulfill for you (2 Corinthians 1:20).
If you abide in Jesus and his word abides in you, whatever you ask will be done for you (John 15:7; Matthew 21:22).
The Holy Spirit will flow out of your heart like rivers of living water (John 7:38–39).
You will never suffer soul starvation or soul dehydration again (John 6:35).
Others will believe in Jesus through your witness (John 17:20).
God will cause ALL THINGS to work together for good for you (Romans 8:28).

Believing these (and many more) will guard you as you run. And through these promises Jesus says to you:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27)

So lay aside the weights of your fears (Hebrews 12:1) and believe in Jesus. Jesus is running with you (Hebrews 13:5) and he’s stronger than Satan (1 John 4:4).

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).

This is the third in a series of posts on “laying aside every weight and sin” (Hebrews 12:1). See the first and second.

Desiring God Blog

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Deeper Than a Splurge

To The Extreme

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A Pentecost to Celebrate

Catching Up on the Context

Remembering Israel’s Deliverance

Three Reasons to Celebrate

Recap of Recent Piper Messages

Grace Forfeited: A New Start for an Old Tradition

God’s Mercy in Making Us Face the Impossible

Love Letter to a Lesbian

Beyond the Rhetoric: Gosnell and the Late-Term Reality

Misguided and Dishonest

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Behind the Blog: Good People

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Honoring the Romantic Rationalist

Super Early-Bird Rate

Tullian Talks Regeneration

The Fight for Life: Why We Keep Standing

Grace Greater Than All Our Worries

Trust vs. Worry

Remembering His Grace

Grace for Today and Every Tomorrow

Preparing for the Future in the Age of Facebook

Start Early

The Allure of Distraction

Media Multitasking Diminishes Learning

Two Points of Application

Her Children Arise and Call Her Blessed

Such Influence over the Heart

A Mother’s Unforgettable Sway

Mothers Who Gave Us God’s Word

When Harsh Words Are Kind

The Situation with Simon

The Simon in Us

How Introverted Pastors Love

The Pastor As Introvert

The Pastor’s Devotional Life (And Dynamic Theology)

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The Outrageous Claim of the Ascension

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Ian and Larissa: One Year Later

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Everyday Lives of Sacrifice

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Jesus Came to Reverse the Curse

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