Abortion: Not a "Family Matter"

See this video clip posted at desiringgod.org

Is Jesus Seen as All Satisfying Because You Drive a BMW?

We watched this in our discipleship groups last night.

Psalms 73:25-26
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. (26) My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Driscoll on Joel Osteen:

Loving Each Other Amid Differences

John Piper recently shared six unity-building/love-displaying principles to the pastoral staff at his church. I suggest you read the full article here.


This is great biblical advice we all would be wise to consider.

Do You Want an Explanation from God for Pain?

While on vacation I read this post on pain and the sovereignty of God. I think it's worth your read and meditation.

Why God Doesn't Fully Explain Pain

July 14, 2008 | By: John Piper

One of the reasons God rarely gives micro reasons for his painful providences, but regularly gives magnificent macro reasons, is that there are too many micro reasons for us to manage, namely, millions and millions and millions and millions and millions.

God says things like:

• These bad things happened to you because I intend to work it together for your good (Romans 8).
• These happened so that you would rely more on God who raises the dead (2 Corinthians 1).
• This happened so that the gold and silver of your faith would be refined (1 Peter 1).
• This thorn is so that the power of Christ would be magnified in your weakness (2 Corinthians 12).

But we can always object that there are other easier ways for God to accomplish those things. We want to know more specifics: Why now? Why this much? Why this often? Why this way? Why these people?

The problem is, we would have to be God to grasp all that God is doing in our problems. In fact, pushing too hard for more detailed explanations from God is a kind of demand that we be God.

Think of this, you are a blacksmith making horseshoes. You are hammering on a white hot shoe and it ricochets off and hits you in the leg and burns you. In your haste to tend to your leg you let the shoe alone unfinished. You wonder why God let this happen. You were singing a hymn and doing his will.

Your helper, not knowing the horseshoe was unfinished gathered it up and put it with the others.

Later there was an invasion of your country by a hostile army with a powerful cavalry. They came through your town and demanded that you supply them with food and with shoes for their horses. You comply.

Their commander has his horse shoed by his own smith using the stolen horseshoes, and the unfinished shoe with the thin weak spot is put on the commander’s horse.

In the decisive battle against the loyal troops defending your homeland the enemy commander is leading the final charge. The weak shoe snaps and catches on a root and causes his horse to fall. He crashes to the ground and his own soldiers, galloping at full speed, trample him to death.

This causes such a confusion that the defenders are able to rout the enemy and the country is saved.

Now you might say, well, it would sure help me trust God if he informed me of these events so that I would know why the horseshoe ricocheted and burned my leg. Well maybe it would help you. Maybe not.

God cannot make plain all he is doing, because there are millions and millions and millions and millions of effects of every event in your life, the good and the bad. God guides them all. They all have micro purposes and macro purposes. He cannot tell you all of them because your brain can’t hold all of them.

Trust does not demand more than God has told us. And he has given us immeasurably precious promises that he is in control of all things and only does good to his children. And he has given us a very thick book where we can read story after story after story about how he rules for the good of his people.

Let’s trust him and not ask for what our brains cannot contain.

Happy Birthday John Calvin

It's John Calvin's birthday (on of my heros). Please read the link below as appreciate the diligence of this preacher.

Click here.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

The Significance of Corporate Worship

I was reminded again how significant corporate worship is last week when I listened to Piper's sermon on the Psalms called "Spiritual Depression in the Psalms."

Most of us have a shallow view of the importance and power of the worship service. Listen to this quote from Piper's sermon as he points out that the "downcast" and "depressed" psalmist in Psalm 42 looked back to his experiences in the corporate worship in the temple (a worship service) to fight off the rolling waves of painful emotional attack.

Here is the audio to download and to listen to it streaming:



Pray that God would deepen your longing to experience more of Him as you gather with the people of God on Sunday mornings. Alone time in the Word is important; small group times are important; but there is something significant about the gathering of God's people to worship.

A Conference on Our Words

I want to go to this conference this fall in Minneapolis. Please consider.




Conference information can be found here.

Piper's Prayer Life

I found Adrian Warnock's interview with John Piper in the U.K. helpful. He talks about many subjects and here is a portion of his discussion on his own prayer life.
----
Adrian
So, what you’ve described — I suspect there may be many preachers out there saying, “Okay, I get what you’re saying, but how do I get to that place?” You mentioned prayer. I know prayer is important to you. You often talk about prayer in your books. Could you talk a little bit about what your own prayer life looks like? How you get, if you like, connected to God in that way you’re describing?...

John
I surely am not a model to hold up for prayer because I have models and I fall short of them. But, my life is a combination of private prayer, family prayer, corporate prayer at church—it’s a rhythm of those things. I try to be with the Lord every morning for an hour or so. The way it works for me is mingling together Word and prayer. I don’t read the Bible for twenty minutes and pray for twenty minutes, or forty and forty, whatever. It’s in and out and in and out. I learned that basically from George Mueller, who said he made the big mistake in his early Christian life of trying to pray for an extended period of time, and his mind inevitably went everywhere except toward the Lord, so he began by whispering up a one minute prayer for help, and then he took the Word and turned everything he’d read into prayer. He said I laid sixty things before the Lord this morning, and I laid them through the Word. And that’s pretty much the way I go about it.

When it comes to praying for things, besides what’s in the text, I pray in concentric circles. The most needy person I know is me. Therefore I pray about me first, because if I can’t be fixed, I won’t fix anybody. I won’t bless my wife or children or the Church. So I pray about this soul and my passion for God here, and then I move out to my wife and my children. I pray for them about whatever was in the text. Then I move out to my elders and my staff, and I name all the staff every day and our elders. And then I move out to the church, and move out to the city, and the nations. That’s the way I pray. And that can fill up a lot of time as God brings different things. I use helps. I have lists. I have lists of the names because I can’t even remember the names of 34 elders sometimes, and I have to say those. And then I use things like Operation World to pray for the nations. I keep it on my computer. I keep it in the book beside my old prayer bench at home.

By the way, I have a place of prayer. In my study there’s a little corner with a built wall, like this—it’s got a bench, it’s got books, it’s got a Bible. So I can kneel, it’s got a little rug. In 1975, so it’s now thirty-two years ago, I realized when I finished graduate school and owned my first home that this home should have a prayer place in it because otherwise, I think if you don’t have a place that’s designated that’s relatively secure, you tend to kind of sit on the couch, cross your legs, put some coffee beside you, and go to sleep, and call it prayer time. You don’t tend to do that if you have a place that’s just set aside for prayer.

You can read or view all the interviews here.

John Piper and Guns and a Rebuttal

On Sunday Piper wrote on his blog about guns:

What do the supreme court ruling on guns and the martyrdom of missionaries have to do with each other?

Noël and I watched Beyond Gates of Splendor, the documentary version of End of the Spear, the story of the martyrdom of Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, and Nate Saint in Ecuador in 1956. That same day we heard that the Supreme Court decided in favor of the right of Americans to keep firearms at home for self-defense.

Here’s the connection. The missionaries had guns when they were speared to death. One of them shot the gun into the air, it appears, as he was killed, rather than shooting the natives. They had agreed to do this. The reason was simple and staggeringly Christlike:

The natives are not ready for heaven. We are.

I suspect the same could be said for almost anyone who breaks into my house. There are other reasons why I have never owned a firearm and do not have one in my house. But that reason moves me deeply. I hope you don’t use your economic stimulus check to buy a gun. Better to find some missionaries like this and support them.

Here is a Rebuttal to Piper's argument by the "Thirsty Theologian."

Here is what he has to say:

Before I begin, I want to say that I appreciate John Piper’s ministry immensely. I have listened to him preach, and, deo volente, will again. I have read some of his books, and there are a couple still on my shelf that I am eager to read. Nothing I am about to say should be taken as a slight to his character or ministry.

However . . .

Today I must strenuously disagree with John Piper. I’ve disagreed with him before, but never like this. In most other disagreements, I’ve at least had some empathy with his position. In this case, I have none; his logic is badly flawed.

If it was almost anyone else, I’d probably ignore it; but John Piper has a following of bloggers who run to their keyboards every time he moves, gasping breathlessly at the profundity of his latest twitch. So I expect to see his latest statement spread virally all over the blogosphere in this and following weeks. In fact, I’m seeing it start already, and it was only posted this morning (it’s Sunday as I write this). And, though his sentiments are noble, I think they are completely wrong-headed, and deserve a rebuttal.

I’m referring to his statement on the Desiring God blog concerning the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the 2nd Amendment was properly (though narrowly) upheld.

Dr. Piper made no statement on the court’s decision per se. His statement addressed why he would not use a gun to defend his home, and expressed his hope that no one else would, either. He used, as his example, Jim Elliot and his fellow missionaries, who chose not to defend themselves against the spears of their attackers because “The natives are not ready for heaven. We are.”

I tend to believe that those young missionaries made the right choice. However, I don’t believe their reasoning applies in the vast majority of home-defense situations. My reasons are as follows (none of them would have applied in the jungles of Ecuador):

• In the majority of instances of defensive firearms use, no shots are fired. The threat is enough to subdue or put to flight the perpetrators. Yet being confronted with a violent response increases their fear of other potential victims, most of whom “are not ready for heaven.”
• The knowledge that potential victims, most of whom “are not ready for heaven,” might be armed is a known deterrent to criminals. Violent crime is highest in unarmed cities, and is known to decrease when citizens of those cities arm themselves.
• When an assailant is shot, more is accomplished than stopping the immediate crime: his future crimes — primarily against people who “are not ready for heaven” — are prevented; and a societal atmosphere is created in which criminals are more likely to think twice before attacking.
• While you can be sure that an intruder in your home is “not ready for heaven,” neither are most of his past and future victims — and you can be sure that there are, or will be, others. Sacrificing yourself only leaves him free to move on to his next victim, who is most likely — say it with me, now — “not ready for heaven.”

Piper’s goal of saving the lives of those who “are not ready for heaven,” though noble, is misdirected. It would be better served by doing whatever is necessary to stop the violent criminals who kill them.

Postscript: That was to be the end of this post, but a couple of additional points have crossed my mind.

• I realize that John Piper’s children are all grown and it’s just he and his wife at home. But many of us have children at home, and I am not one who assumes my children are “ready for heaven” just because they say they believe in Jesus. Shall I not protect them? Shall I value the soul of a murderer above theirs?
• Can a Calvinist really believe that evil must be allowed to go unchecked because God hasn’t had a chance to save the evildoers yet? In other words, is this really a dilemma at all?

Drunk with the Gospel of Jesus

Now that I caught your attention with the title, please take the time to listen to this three and a half minute audio clip by Piper on the necessity of having truly tasted of Jesus and the result it will have on opening our mouths in proclaiming him to the lost (evangelism).


Here is the Link DRUNK ON THE GOSPEL


You can now play the clip below.

Retirement and the Christian - Part 1

How should Christians think about "retirement"? My mid sixties seem so far away, but each year seems to go faster than the one before. Many of you are closer to "retirement" or have already entered that status. How does one think Christianly rather than culturally about the recent invention of retirement? Bob Rayburn says:

It is certainly fair to say that it is not obvious in the Bible that it is our Heavenly Father’s intention that we should work until we are 62 or 65 years of age and spend the remainder of our years touring the United States in our RV (that is, if we had a defined benefit retirement plan that has not gone bankrupt and we can afford the gasoline!).

Here is a challenging video clip by John Piper on retirement -- "DON'T WASTE YOUR RETIREMENT.

Suicide and the Question of True Faith

Yesterday I received a call from a friend who recently found out that his cousin had committed suicide. The question came up (and it probably has crossed your mind before) regarding suicide and salvation. Can a person who commits suicide go to heaven? Or, can a TRULY saved person commit suicide?

These are questions that you may face as you deal with the lose of someone you know or when questions come from friends and relatives.

The short answer to the main question (can they go to heaven) is YES. It is possible. Suicide is not the unpardonable sin.

However, it is important to look more thoroughly at the Scriptures to think rightly on this subject.

I encourage you to read the following two sermons on this subject by Piper:

"A Funeral Meditation for a Christian who Committed Suicide"

and

"Funeral Message for Luke Kenneth Anderson" (someone I knew when I was at Bethlehem)


Also -- A very help answer to the question can be found by Massimo Lorenzini in this article called-- "Can a Person who Commits Suicide Be Saved?"

Finishing Well

When I was in seminary, I listened to a series of sermons by John Piper that he preached and a conference for those who are entering (or have entered it a while ago) the second half of their life. He made a call to them to be counter-cultural in their thinking and to FINISH WELL. I like that concept! I am 32 years and I may have 1 day, 1 month, 1 year, 1 decade or 5 decades left to live--but I want to finish well. I want to be faithful. I want to say with Paul - "I finished my course and fought the good fight of faith."

Whether you are young or old, if you are a disciple of Jesus it is important to think on these things. Here is a sermon by Jerry Bridges (author of The Practice of Godliness) called "Four Essentials to Finishing Well."

You can listen to it, watch or download it.

You can also purchase the series by Piper I mentioned above called "Finishing Well" here.

Suffering and the Christian Life

I didn't focus on suffering as much in my sermon last week, which is an important aspect of understanding what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Few people have done a better job in our generation teaching on the purpose and plan of suffering for the Christian than John Piper.

Here is a sermon series he preached in the early 90s called "Called to Suffer and Rejoice."
It was very impacting on my thinking about the purpose and plans of suffering in the Christian life.

When Piper was diagnosed with Prostate cancer a few years ago he wrote a helpful article called "Don't Waste Your Cancer."

Is it OK to be Angry at God?

I was recently faced with this question--is it OK to be angry with God?

There are many Christians who answer this question with a strong affirmative -- YES!
For examples read this section from the Quest Study Bible or more thoroughly (and what I have heard from people before) in this article called "Go Ahead, Be Angry at God."


I agree with John Piper (I am sure you are not surprised -- right!) who wrote an article called "Is It Ever Right to Be Angry at God?" and answered the question with a NO--It is never right! I encourage you to read the whole article so you get the complete context but he sums his answer up by saying:

But when we get angry at a person, we are displeased with a choice they made and an act they performed. Anger at a person always implies strong disapproval. If you are angry at me, you think I have done something I should not have done.

This is why being angry at God is never right. It is wrong - always wrong - to disapprove of God for what he does and permits. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?" (Genesis 18:25). It is arrogant for finite, sinful creatures to disapprove of God for what he does and permits. We may weep over the pain. We may be angry at sin and Satan. But God does only what is right. "Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments" (Revelation 16:7).

He then advises us not to "stuff our feelings" but to confess our struggles with God:

But many who say it is right to be angry with God really mean it is right to express anger at God. When they hear me say it is wrong to be angry with God, they think I mean "stuff your feelings and be a hypocrite." That's not what I mean. I mean it is always wrong to disapprove of God in any of his judgments.

But if we do experience the sinful emotion of anger at God, what then? Shall we add the sin of hypocrisy to the sin of anger? No. If we feel it, we should confess it to God. He knows it anyway. He sees our hearts. If anger at God is in our heart, we may as well tell him so, and then tell him we are sorry, and ask him to help us put it away by faith in his goodness and wisdom.

When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, he removed forever the wrath of God from our lives. God's disposition to us now is entirely mercy, even when severe and disciplinary (Romans 8:1). Therefore, doubly shall those in Christ turn away from the terrible specter of anger at God. We may cry, in agony, "My God, My God, where are you?" But we will follow soon with, "Into your hands I commit my spirit."

I think this is helpful and biblical counsel on the subject.


The Puritans had much to say on suffering and the sovereignty of God and how we respond to God in thoughts and words. I recommend the follow two:

1. "The Art of Divine Contentment" by Thomas Watson that you can read online here.
2. "Seasonable Counsel: Or, Advice to Suffers" by John Bunyan which you can read online here.
   

I will conclude with a quote from Bunyan in his introduction to "Advice to Suffers":

Why then should we think that our innocent lives will exempt us from sufferings, or that troubles shall do us such harm? For verily it is for our present and future good that our God doth send them upon us. I count therefore, that such things are necessary for the health of our souls, as bodily pains and labour are for [the health of] the body. People that live high, and in idleness, bring diseases upon the body: and they that live in all fullness of gospel-ordinances, and are not exercised with trials, grow gross, are diseased and full of bad humours in their souls. And though this may to some seem strange: yet our day has given us such an experimental proof of the truth thereof, as has not been known for some ages past.

Alas! we have need of those bitter pills, at which we so winch and shuck: and it will be well if at last we be purged as we should thereby. I am sure we are but little the better as yet, though the physician has had us so long in hand. Some bad humours may possibly ere long be driven out: but at present the disease is so high, that it makes some professors fear more a consumption will be made in their purses by these doses, than they desire to be made better in their souls thereby. I see that I still have need of these trials; and if God will by these judge me as he judges his saints, that I may not be condemned with the world, I will cry, Grace, grace for ever.

The Rebelution -- Alex and Brett Harris

If you are a teenager or care about them, please consider this:
I recently heard about a newer Christian youth ministry by two 19 year olds called "The Rebelution." There website can be found here. Alex and Brett Harris, who are younger brothers of Joshua Harris, started this ministry to challenge teenagers to "rebel" against the western youth culture of low expectations and teenagers. This low expectation for teenagers is just is prevalent in the church and Christian homes. The Harris brothers have just released a book that they wrote called "Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations." In it they begin:

Most people don't expect you to understand what we're going to tell you in this book. And even if you understand, they don't expect you to care. And even if you care, they don't expect you to do anything about it. And even if you do something about it, they don't expect it to last.

Well, we do.

This is a different kind of teen book. Check online or walk through your local bookstore. You'll find plenty of books written by fortysomethings who, like, totally understand what it's like being a teenager. You'll find a lot of cheap, throwaway books for teens, because young people today aren't supposed to care much about books, or see any reason to keep them around. And you'll find a wide selection of books where you never have to read anything twice--because it's been dumbed down. Like, just for you.

What you're holding in your hands right now is a challenging, hardcover book for teens by two teens who believe our generation is ready for a change. Ready for something that doesn't promise a whole new life if you'll just buy the right pair of jeans or use the right kind of deodorant. We believe our generation is ready to rethink what teens are capable of doing and becoming. And we've noticed that once wrong ideas are debunked and cleared away, our generation is quick to choose a better way, even if it's also more difficult.

We're nineteen-year-old twin brothers, born and raised in Oregon, taught at home by our parents, and striving to follow Christ as best we can. We've made more than our share of mistakes. And although we don't think "average teenagers" exist, there is nothing all that extraordinary about us personally.

Here is a great video by John Piper mentioning this ministry:




Here is a preview of "The Rebelution Tour":

Happy Birthday Israel

I hear it is the 60th anniversary of the birth of the current state of modern Israel. Here are some articles that I read today or recently:

• John Piper's blog discusses the "unlikeliness of Israel" and the enduring reality of the Jewish people.

• Several years ago, Piper wrote a piece than many Christians wonder about -- "Do Jews Have the Divine Right to the Promise Land?" He answers -- NO. I encourage you to read.

• A few years back I read an article in World Magazine on the various Christian response to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It's called "Engaging Israel's Disengagement." (sorry the formating isn't so good)

Regardless of "divine right" or not -- I am thankful for our American allies in the middle east.

Does God Ever Have Regrets?

This morning in my Bible reading I came across a passage that has puzzled me in the past. In 1 Sam 15, King Saul has finally crossed the line. God is going to replace him with another king. And this is what 15:10-11 says:

The word of the LORD came to Samuel: (11) "I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments." And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night.

I also read to the end of the chapter where it says:

And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. (v 35)

The word that is used for "regret" could also be translated "repent" or "changed his mind."

How can the all-wise God, who is sovereign over everything regret, repent, or change his mind?

When Balaam spoke the words of God to Balek he said this:

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind [repent]. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19)

In fact, back in 1 Sam 15:29 it says about God ("The Glory of Israel"):

And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret."

Here are two helpful words from a old timer and one still on the scene:

John Calvin in His Institutes on "God's Repentance"
John Piper -- "God Does Not Repent Like A Man"

Robbing God, Tithing, Douglas Wilson...

Here are some verses, a quote and a link on giving and the tithe that I have found challenging lately.

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, 'How shall we return?' (8) Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions. (9) You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. (10) Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. (Malachi 3:7-10)

I have heard John Piper say this before and in one of his sermon he spoke about tithing with these words:

My take on tithing in America is that it’s a middle-class way of robbing God. Tithing to the church and spending the rest on your family is not a Christian goal. It’s a diversion. The real issue is: How shall we use God’s trust fund—namely, all we have—for His glory? In a world with so much misery, what lifestyle should we call our people to live? What example are we setting? — John Piper (1946-), pastor and author

I also would recommend you reading these two blog entries from Douglas Wilson on the Christian and money. Almost everything that Wilson writes is worth reading and thinking about -- he also is enjoyable to read.

Seeking Financial Wisdom
Robert P. Greedybuckets III

Parents -- "See God and His Word Rightly"

Disciples of Jesus (those who Follow Him) are in the essential process of seeing God and His Word rightly. As a parent of young children, I was challenged by the words of John Piper in his blog from April 26th on a book he is writing on the family. You can check out the Desiring God Blog here.

Piper writes [emphasis mine]:

The most fundamental task of a mother and father is to show God to the children. Children know their parents before they know God. This is a huge responsibility and should cause every parent to be desperate for God-like transformation. The children will have years of exposure to what the universe is like before they know there is a universe. They will experience the kind of authority there is in the universe and the kind of justice there is in the universe and the kind of love there is in the universe before they meet the God of authority and justice and love who created and rules of the universe. Children are absorbing from dad his strength and leadership and protection and justice and love; and they are absorbing from mother her care and nurture and warmth and intimacy and justice and love—and, of course, all these overlap.

And all this is happening before the child knows anything about God, but it is profoundly all about God. Will the child be able to recognize God for who he really is in his authority and love and justice because mom and dad have together shown the child what God is like. The chief task of parenting is to know God for who he is in his many attributes, and then to live in such a way with our children that we help them see and know this multi-faceted God. And, of course, that will involve directing them always to the infallible portrait of God in the Bible.

Grace, Paul, Elijah and ? -- May God grant your mom and dad grace to know Him and show Him to you!