Seeking happiness through sorrow

John Piper frequently quotes the French philosopher Pascal, who wrote in Pensees, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. the cause of some going to war and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attending with different views. The will […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: God’s Glory

This is the eleventh and final of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. I hope you knew I would have to conclude my reflections with the truth of God’s glory. I don’t think I came to GBC with the priority of God’s glory as preeminently clear in my […]

Bring the Book!

This morning we read Nehemiah 8, which is the passage that was the basis for Steve Lawson’s sermon “Bring the Book!” at the Shepherds’ Conference a few years ago. It is a really outstanding sermon. You may download it here. (It really is worth the hour or so it will take you to listen to […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: the Adequate Word

This is the tenth of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. To say that the Scriptures are adequate is something like saying that a bazooka is adequate to kill a mosquito or that a Lamborghini is adequate to defeat a bicycle in a ten-mile race. When we say […]

Identifying idols

Kenny Stokes (who is filling in as the preaching pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church while John Piper is taking his leave of absence) preached on 1 Jn. 5:20-21 last Sunday and asked these “13 Questions to Diagnose Your Idolatries:” What do you most highly value? What do you think about by default? What is your […]

Reading Nehemiah

Nehemiah is closely related to the book of Ezra. In fact, the Hebrew Bible has them as one single book. Nehemiah follows the story of Ezra by nearly 100 years. When Nehemiah came to Jerusalem in the third wave of the return from exile in 445 B.C., the initial returnees had been in the land […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: Godly Suffering and Godly Examples

This is the ninth of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. Twenty years ago, I did not have this category for gratitude in my life. I couldn’t conceive it. I hadn’t lived life long enough to experience any significant pain and sorrow. Nor had I been exposed to […]

Entertainment and the homosexual agenda

In case we are still living with the misperception that entertainment is only entertainment and is harmless and innocuous, the lead two paragraphs from an article in USA Today corrects that faulty notion. When it comes to gay marriage and gay families, politicians are still bickering and courts are still deliberating. But in entertainment, it’s […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: Repentance

This is the eighth of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. If there is nothing that makes a pastor’s heart more glad than people growing in Christ, then there is nothing that makes him more sad than people rejecting Christ. In a cabinet drawer in my office, I […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: Remembering Christ

This is the seventh of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. For many years I have been collecting books about the cross of Christ. I am captivated by the cross and find my heart to a love of Christ by these deep reflections on what was accomplished at […]

Reading Ezra

This week we read both Ezra and Nehemiah in our daily Bible reading. The books share a common historical background. The people had been taken into captivity to Babylon in three different segments, the first in’ 605 B.C., then 597 and 586. Jeremiah prophesied in 605 that Judah would face a 70-year captivity (Jer. 25:1). […]

A new counseling method?

This video is an internet classic — if anything on the internet can already be known as classic. I’ve seen references to it numerous times, and showed it to my family for the first time last week. It makes a good point about the necessity of putting off sin. It’s a spoof by Bob Newhart […]

What are the odds?

I received this from our missionary in France. The conclusion might be a little surprising.

Sunday Leftovers (8/22/10)

One of the frequently omitted realities about sanctification is that it is a process. No one is sanctified instantly, like a cheap pudding, or even fast, like an inexpensive hamburger. Sanctification takes time. In fact, it is part of a believer’s life every day until he is finally glorified through his death. In other words, […]

Reflections on Twenty Years of Ministry: Faithful Co-Laborers

This is the sixth of a series of reflections of gratitude on 20 years of ministry at GBC. We are part of a lineage that reaches back to Christ and reaches ahead into eternity. But we also are part of each other’s stories. We share life together. So in our church body there are two […]