Today’s Quote – Sin (Piper)

John Piper, Preaching the Cross: Every sin flows from the failure to treasure the glory of God above all things.

Today’s Quote – Hardening (Piper)

John Piper, Contending for Our All: One great hindrance to holiness of the Word is that we are prone to preach and write without pressing into the things we say and making them real to our own souls. Over the years words begin to come easy, and we find we can speak mysteries without standing […]

Sunday Leftovers (6/7/09)

After a sweet morning of worship in the renovated sanctuary, two ideas continue to roll around in my mind — the cruciality of entrusting the gospel to others (discipleship) and the means of suffering to accomplish discipleship. As was said Sunday, too often we tend to think of discipleship as the responsibility of someone else, […]

Today’s Quote – Forgiveness (Piper)

John Piper, Battling Unbelief: …one powerful way of overcoming bitterness and revenge is to have faith in the promise that God will settle accounts with our offenders so that we don’t have to.

Today’s Quote – Magnify God (Piper)

John Piper, “Jesus Christ and the Rescue of Joy, Part 1:” That word “magnify” is tricky. Because microscopes magnify and telescopes magnify. And they do something very different. Magnify with a microscope and you mike a very tiny little thing look bigger than it is. If you try to magnify God that way, you blaspheme. […]

Today’s Quote – Cross (Piper)

John Piper, in Preaching the Cross: God did not ordain the cross of Christ or create the lake of fire in order to communicate the insignificance of belittling his glory. The death of the Son of God and the damnation of unrepentant human beings are the loudest shouts under heaven that God is infinitely holy, […]

Today’s Quote – Cross (Piper)

John Piper, The Passion of Jesus Christ: We are not as Christ-centered and cross-cherishing as we should be, because we do not ponder the truth that everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good, was purchased by the sufferings of Christ.

Today’s Quote – Grace (Piper)

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: What is God looking for in the world? Assistants? No. The gospel is not a help-wanted ad. It is a help-available ad. Nor is the call to Christian service a help-wanted ad. God is not looking for people to work for Him but people who let Him work […]

Today’s Quote – Scripture (Piper)

John Piper, When I Don’t Desire God: We need the Word of God not only to see God in the Word, but to see him rightly everywhere else.

Head and heart

Fear of leaving the love of God might leave some thinking that the attention to doctrine practiced by the Ephesians is detrimental to a passionate, heart-filled following of Christ (I have a friend who leans in that direction). Yet, John Piper this week made “A Plea for Heart Devotions and Head Study.” It is a […]

Today’s Quote – Safety (Piper)

John Piper, “Will We Risk? Venturing in Ministry” (audio sermon only): Safety is a mirage. It ought to be. And yet our churches — American churches — are filled with people who only dream security, now and until they drop dead. Maximize safety. Maximize security. Maximize comfort. It’s the total opposite of the Biblical vision […]

Taking a risk

I had been looking forward to David’s sermon Sunday since he told me several weeks ago what he was planning on preaching. I’ve listened to several sermons on the same theme and found myself provoked, but was particularly wanting to hear how David processed his thoughts, having lived through several “risks” that are uncommon for […]

Today’s Quote – Worship (Piper)

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: If the inward essence of worship is satisfaction in God, then worship can’t be a means to anything else. You simply can’t say to God, I want to be satisfied in You so that I can have something else. Because that would mean you are not really satisfied […]

Book Review: This Momentary Marriage

Title: This Momentary Marriage Author: John Piper Publisher: Crossway Books, 2009; 180 pp. Recommendation (4-star scale): I suppose I own dozens of books on marriage, parenting, Biblical manhood, and the like. Not counting my counseling books, this topic accounts for something like 20 board feet of shelving in my library. I have preached lots of […]

Sanctity of human life

Thirty-six years ago this month, the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision, legalizing abortion in our country. Since then, somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 million babies have been aborted. What most Americans fail to realize, however, is that nearly that many are aborted every year worldwide. As great a problem as […]