In two days I am performing a marriage ceremony and I am currently in the process of doing premarital counseling with another couple and I just finished reading John Piper’s new book, This Momentary Marriage (which is excellent — a review will be coming next week). So I’ve been thinking a lot about weddings and […]
Read More Thinking about weddings and marriageI spent today at the library reading and studying, so my attentions were away from the inauguration this morning. When I left the library for a few minutes to get a sandwich for lunch, a television in the restaurant pulled me back to reality as President Obama was giving his inaugural address. Which precipitated a […]
Read More A prayer for the new PresidentAt the beginning of a new year, we are wont to make resolutions. This will change. This time. It really will. Yet statistics I came across a few years ago have said that within one month, 45% of all people have not kept their resolutions. And only 19% keep their resolutions for as long as […]
Read More Having trouble praying?Christmas isn’t about babies. Or gifts. Or giving. Or sacrifice. Or thankfulness. Or in songs. Or family. Or tradition. Christmas is about death. More specifically, Christmas is about the death of Christ. That is to say, Christmas is about the gospel. The Christian faith demands clarity about many things. But it demands that we must […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers (12/21/08)John Piper, This Momentary Marriage, The most foundational thing to see from the Bible about marriage is that it is God’s doing. And the ultimate thing to see from the Bible about marriage is that it is for God’s glory.…Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. And ultimately, marriage is the display of God.
Read More Today’s Quote – Marriage (Piper)John Piper, Pleasures of God: God elects, predestines, and secures for one great ultimate purpose — that the glory of his grace might be praised forever and ever with white-hot affection. This is why God delights in election. It is the great first work of free grace that takes away the final refuge of human […]
Read More Today’s Quote (11/2/08)John Piper, What Jesus Demands from the World: …don’t be angry in a way that contradicts your confidence in God’s care over your life. God’s providence should change the way we experience circumstances that would otherwise be totally infuriating.
Read More Today’s Quote (10/25/08)Desiring God announced a couple days ago that several of the books published this fall by John Piper are now available for free online as .pdf files. If you are looking for an inexpensive way to read good books, this is it. I have either read or am currently reading all these books, or listened […]
Read More Free books!John Piper, Desiring God: The purposes of God cannot be frustrated; there is none like God. If a purpose of God came to nought it would imply that there is a power greater than God’s. It would imply that someone could stay his hand when he designs to do a thing. But ‘none can stay […]
Read More Today’s Quote (10/17/08)John Piper, Desiring God: Love is the overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others. The overflow is experienced consciously as the pursuit of our joy in the joy of another. We double our delight in God as we expand it in the lives of others. If our ultimate goal were anything […]
Read More Today’s Quote (10/10/08)At the recent Desiring God National Conference, Sinclair Ferguson offered these resolutions to controlling the tongue, based on the book of James. For all of us who speak, these are good words to hear before we speak: I resolve to ask God for wisdom to speak out of a single-minded devotion to him. (1:5) I […]
Read More 20 resolutions on taming the tongueYesterday evening I was telling Elizabeth that I’d read John Piper’s latest book, Spectacular Sins, on the plane trip to visit my Dad and brother this weekend. “Spectacular sins?” she queried in response. “Is John Piper still okay?” So I explained the title — it is not that he is inferring that the sins in […]
Read More Book Review: Spectacular SinsJohn Piper, Spectacular Sins: All that came into being exists for Christ — that is, everything exists to display the greatness of Christ. Nothing — nothing! — in the universe exists for its own sake, Everything — from the bottom of the oceans to the top of the mountains, from that smallest particle to the […]
Read More Today’s Quote (9/26/08)John Piper, Spectacular Sins: If God ever forsook his supreme allegiance to himself, there would be no grace for us. If he based his kindness to us on our worth, there would be no kindness to us. We are stiff-necked, rebellious, and ungrateful. Free, inmerited grace is our only hope to be otherwise.
Read More Today’s Quote (9/25/08)When I was in college, I taught a couple of classes at the school that met at my church. Frequently when one of the children was being disciplined for words that were unkind, profane, or angry, the principal would have the offending student transcribe James 3 a particular number of times. The greater the offense, […]
Read More The (destructive) power of words
Words of Grace 