It was almost nine years ago when Owen Shrameck died. His parents, a young couple from Bethlehem Baptist Church, had moved to the Middle East to work as cross-cultural peacemakers. Owen was born at 24 weeks and the medical context reduced his chance of survival to 10 percent. He lived on this earth for only 20 minutes.

After Owen's parents flew back to the States for his burial, John Piper preached his funeral sermon and comforted his family with the truth of the Bible. Pastor John listed eight propositions about who Owen is and his legacy for the glory of God.

1. Owen Shramek was and is a human being created in God's image.
2. Owen Shramek was and is your son.
3. Owen Shramek is safe and unc…

Continue Reading →

College should be a temporary season of academic preparation and personal growth to propel a lifetime of effective service to God and neighbor. It should be a launching pad into all that goes with responsible Christian adulthood. Yet for some it’s a time when they abandon the Christian faith, displaying that they never really belonged to Christ (1 John 2:19). For others, their faith remains intact, but they waste their college years with video games, partying, and other frivolities — an expensive vacation funded by Mom, Dad, and (often) debilitating student loans.

Today, seven out of ten high school graduates immediately go on to college, but about 30% will never become sophomores, and alm…

Continue Reading →

Puritan Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity:

If anything can make us rise off our bed of sloth, and serve God with all our might, it should be this, the hope of our near enjoyment of God forever.

(Design submitted by Jennifer Knight.)

Previous images —

• O Mother, Great Is Thy Power
• e-Boasting
• The Chief End of Man

Graduation is a high moment. It's like a wedding of sorts. All the many investments — the questions needing answers, the costs needing to be weighed — rise together in a public crescendo of accomplishment. Congratulations, here's your degree.

Tonight I graduate from seminary. The page of official training closes, and the real-world chapter, so it seems, is opened. It will be a high moment, indeed, and it would probably be a "higher" one if I was going into anything other than vocational ministry.

It has been four years of intense training, of deep learning and wrestling and sharpening of gifts, and now it's finished. But I won't feel strong when I walk through the exit — and perhaps that…

Continue Reading →

If you've explored our Resource Library, you've likely discovered our Online Books section, which contains over 60 John Piper titles available in English as free downloads.

What you may not have discovered is the tab that enables you to sort them "By Language," which ultimately reveals a list of 25 other languages in which you can find free ebooks.

One of the most popular titles between these languages is Piper's book Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, which is currently available for download in 8 different tongues:

1. English – Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die

2. German – Fünfzig Gründe, warum er kam, um zu sterben

3. Hindi – पचास कारण की यीशु क्यों मरने आया

…

Continue Reading →