Fighting against lust

Many years ago, John Piper gave this brief exhortation to help in the battle against lust — look at something greater than the puny desires of sinful, sexual indulgence: “The sky is a great power against lust. Pure, lovely, wholesome, beautiful, powerful, large-hearted things cannot abide the soul of a sexual fantasy at the same […]

Stimulants to gratitude

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about gratitude this week. Mostly I’ve considered things for which I am grateful as I consider the work of God in the ministry at GBC (more on that Sunday). But in my contemplation, I’ve also come across two thoughts that should stimulate gratitude in all of us. The first […]

Having trouble memorizing Scripture?

Do you have trouble memorizing Scripture? Or remembering what you memorized last week, never mind last year? So do I; so does John Piper. How can you be more effective remembering what you’ve learned? Repetition. Review, review, review. There is no way to memorize Scripture that keeps you from losing it. Some people don’t lose […]

Life sentence? Don’t waste it.

Continuing the theme that he explained in his book, Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper visited Angola Prison last fall and encouraged the believers there not to waste their life sentence. I typically don’t watch videos like this — but when someone gave me a preview copy of this a couple of months ago, I […]

Book Review: A Sweet and Bitter Providence

Title: A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God Author: John Piper Publisher: Crossway Books, 2010; 160 pp. $17.99 (or you may download the entire book as a PDF or listen to the sermons this book was based on for free) Recommendation (4-star scale): Who hasn’t experienced trouble and trial in […]

Sunday Leftovers (6/27/10)

Okay, I didn’t preach on Sunday, but appreciating what Jack said about missions and evangelism, these two statements came to mind in the past couple of days (one is an expansion of a quote he gave in his message): All of the early Christians were missionaries. They did not leave the evangelistic task either to […]

Will we risk?

Tomorrow begins a two-part series of sermons on missions at our church. And thinking about missions (overseas missions, anyway), often invites a question something like, “what will you risk for the cause of Christ?” John Piper has addressed the topic of risk in sermons and articles. But several years ago he gave two sermons entitled, […]

A few articles worth reading

A few articles I’ve come across on the internet recently that are worth reading. Here are the articles with some samples from each of them: “Pornography — The Difference Being a Parent Makes” Political scientists and sociologists long ago came to the realization that one of the most significant indicators of political behavior is parenthood. […]

Faith and works

Yesterday I interacted with two stories relating to the nature of saving faith. When a man is genuinely saved, the fruit of that salvation will be evidenced in his life. That is, empowered by the Holy Spirit, he will be changed so that while prior to salvation he could do nothing good, now after salvation […]

Grab bag

Al Mohler, “The Pill Turns 50” “Has God Predetermined Everything? Even Sin?“ “Why fight sin if God uses it for good anyway?” Together for the Gospel panel discussions are now available A new book by John Piper, Jesus, the Only Way to God (July, 2010) Practical suggestions for how to encourage missionaries — and without […]

Spiritual gifts and unanswered prayer

In studying our way through Ephesians 4, we’ve seen the importance of spiritual gifts and how God uses them to accomplish His purposes in His people. We seem to understand that, at least cognitively, if not also experientially. But the use of our gifts and our receiving the practice of the gifts of other believers […]

How far will you go in your battle against sin and pride?

Jesus said, “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it […]

Talk to yourself

My children somewhat regularly catch me talking to myself — “what did you say, Dad?” “Huh? Oh, nothing. I’m just talking to myself…” And even if it is not audible, everyone engages in much self-talk each day. In fact, the theologian you consult on the most regular basis is almost certainly yourself. For you listen […]

Two free audio books

Every month Christian Audio offers a free book download. And this month they have two — the classic The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and a more recent book by John Piper: Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die. Just go to the website and follow the directions provided. These books really are free!

Worship and missions

In what may be the best paragraph to begin a book on missions, John Piper writes this: Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the […]