If it weren’t for Pentecost, we wouldn’t know about Easter.

For most of us, tomorrow isn’t flagged on our calendars as Pentecost Sunday. But it is a big deal for Christians, and there are at least three reasons why it’s a day worth celebrating.

Catching Up on the Context

First, the back-story. Recall that Jesus spent forty days after his resurrection with his disciples (Acts 1:3). Imagine those moments — the risen Savior in a glorified body talking and praying with his close friends (Luke 24:39–43). But it cannot last. Jesus must ascend to the Father and establish his everlasting reign by receiving, as the God-man, all dominion, power, and authority (Luke 24:44–51; cf. Daniel 7:13–14).

W…

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We have never known days like these at Desiring God.

John Piper is now on staff full-time at DG and has begun a more unfettered ministry to the wider world through writing and speaking.

Along the way, we want to make it easy for you to see what he’s up to and hear what he’s been saying lately. Here’s a rich baker’s dozen of new messages from Pastor John so far in 2013.

1. “Joy As the Power to Suffer in the Path of Love for the Sake of Liberation”
Passion Conference | Atlanta, GA

The year began with a bang, as John addressed more than 60,000 college students in the Georgia Dome on how our joy in God frees us to suffer the sake of others’ freedom.

2. “Sailing to the Nations to Finish th…

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It’s a new start for an old tradition in American Journalism, says Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief of World Magazine. The news poem. Says Olasky,

Hardly a vile murder or a military victory went by without colonial poets bemoaning or celebrating the occasion in verse, with the work then published on a single page “broadside” and sold for a penny. Happily, my favorite pastor/theologian, John Piper, is also a poet, and below are his thoughts on justice in regard to Connecticut’s school shooting and Boston’s Marathon bombing.

Worldmag.com has posted Piper’s news poem “Grace Forfeited: Adam, Tamerlan, and the Lady” with the short introduction by Olasky.

Also, here at Desiring God, you can read …

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God is not content for us just to understand the idea that nothing is too hard for the Lᴏʀᴅ (Jeremiah 32:17). He wants us to have the overwhelming joy of experiencing it. But the sometimes agonizing period between his promise and his provision can push us to the brink of what we think we can believe, as it did for Abraham and Sarah.

[This imaginative conversation takes place shortly after Genesis 17:22.]

Abram entered the tent, his eyes on the ground, his mind a world away. He was breathing hard. Sarai was repairing a cloak. She watched him as he walked to the back corner and collapsed on the cushions with a sigh. She recognized the bodily weariness of a divine encounter.

“The Lᴏʀᴅ has sp…

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Dear ______,

I just want you to know that I understand.

I understand how it feels to be in love with a woman. To want nothing more than to be with her forever. Feeling as if the universe has played a cruel joke on your heart by allowing it to fall into the hands of a creature that looks just like you.

I too was a lesbian. I had same-sex attractions as early as five-years old. As I grew up, those feelings never subsided. They only grew. I would find myself having crushes on my female best friends, but I was far too ashamed to admit it to them — let alone to myself.

At the age of 17, I finally made the decision to pursue these desires. I entered into a relationship with a young lady who be…

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