I live in a culture that admires a man’s earning power, and his fertility, and his ability to rule his domain with an iron fist.

While Scripture certainly calls for a Christ-like masculinity that provides for and protects his family, the Bible takes a wrecking ball to the culture-based ideals of masculinity that are celebrated around the world.

By God’s grace, I enjoy the fruits of living with a man who demonstrates biblical masculinity. This is the kind of masculinity that emerges from the gospel, points back to the gospel, and celebrates the gospel in my home.

Unashamed

The masculinity I appreciate as a wife is of far greater value than wealth-earning power. It’s a masculinity that…

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The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied. (Proverbs 19:23)

Franklin D. Roosevelt coined one of America’s iconic maxims in his first inaugural address: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” It’s not true.

Roosevelt was trying to quell the national panic of financial crisis, urging Americans not to succumb to “unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts.” It is true that irrational fear must be resisted. But it’s not true that fear is the only thing we need to fear.   

In fact, fear itself is not wrong. God actually designed us to be fearers. Fear is a faith-revealer. What we fear reveals what we trust. It’s a strong response…

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Josh Etter joins today's episode of Behind the Blog for the background of how we learned about the amazing story of Ian & Larissa. Tony talks about why superheros matter, I discuss tweeting through 1 Corinthians, and David gives the rundown on our upcoming National Conference in September.

"Five-minutes or less" turned into seven minutes this week.

You can also listen here.

Blog posts mentioned in this episode:

• The Story of Ian & Larissa by John Piper
• The Avenger by Tony Reinke
• The Book of 1 Corinthians in 40 Tweets by Jonathan Parnell
• Announcing Our 2012 National Conference by Scott Anderson

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Recent…

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Americans, Daniel Boorstin once observed, suffer from extravagant expectations. In his much quoted 1962 book The Image, or What Happened to the American Dream, Boorstin observed that Americans “expect the contradictory and the impossible. We expect compact cars which are spacious; luxurious cars which are economical. We expect to be rich and charitable, powerful and merciful, active and reflective, kind and competitive. . . . We expect to eat and stay thin, to be constantly on the move and ever more neighborly, to go to a ‘church of our choice’ and yet feel its guiding power over us, to revere God and to be God.”

Boorstin argued that “ever enlarging our extravagant expectations we create t…

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We invite you to join us for our 2012 National Conference, September 28 - 30 in Minneapolis. The theme of the conference this year is “Act the Miracle: God’s Work and Ours in the Mystery of Sanctification". You can read lots more about the conference theme, speakers and schedule here.

The conference will feature the following speakers: Kevin DeYoung, Elyse Fitzpatrick, R W Glenn, Sally Lloyd-Jones, David Mathis, Carolyn McCulley, Russell Moore, John Piper, Ed Welch, Jarvis Williams.

This year we're also excited to welcome Fernando Ortega, who will lead a seminar on corporate worship. He will also lead us in "An Evening of Worship" on Friday night after Pastor John's first message.

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