John Piper is the Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church (Minneapolis, MN) and the founder of Desiring God.

It is essential to say grand old truths again and again. There is ample evidence in the Bible that they are quickly forgotten.

Remember, there are different kinds of forgetting.

One is that great truths are gone out of the mind never to return. The other is that they are gone out of the mind for a season (a day, a year) while we languish in discouragement and sin.

Don’t follow Israel here:

“And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side.” (Judges 8:34)

“I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder.... This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder.” (2 Peter 1:12-13; 3:1)

To mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of the modern State of Israel, let’s listen to a voice from 100 years before this state was born.

Who was it that said in 1867 that the existence of the Jews in the modern world was an insurmountable obstacle in the way of reasonable unbelief? It was J. C. Ryle. And who was he? J. I. Packer, quoting Richard Hobson and calling it a “just estimate,” describes Ryle like this:

He was great in stature; great in mental power; great in spirituality; great as a preacher and expositor of God’s most holy Word; great in hospitality; great as a writer of Gospel tracts; great as an author of works that will long live; great as a Bishop of the Reformed Evangelical Protestant Church of England, of which he was a noble defender; great as first Bishop of Liverpool. I am bold to say, that perhaps few men in the 19th century did as much for God, for truth, and for righteousness, among the English speaking race, and in the world, as our late Bishop. (Faithfulness and Holiness: The Witness of J. C. Ryle, 13-14)

Ryle observed the astonishing unlikeliness of the existence of the Jewish people in his day when so many other peoples of history have vanished or have been assimilated. Here is what he said:

I have not the least idea how questions like these are answered by those who profess to deny the divine authority of Scripture.... In fact it is my firm conviction that among the many difficulties of infidelity there is hardly any one more really insurmountable than the separate continuance of the Jewish nation.... God has many witnesses to the truth of the Bible, if men would only examine them and listen to their evidence. But you may depend on it, there is no witness so unanswerable as one who always keeps standing up, and living, and moving before the eyes of mankind. That witness is the Jew...

I assert that the peculiar position which Israel occupies in the earth is easily explicable in the light of holy Scripture. They are a people reserved and kept separate by God for a grand and special purpose. That purpose is to make them a means of exhibiting to the world in the latter days God’s hatred of sin and unbelief, and God’s almighty power and almighty compassion. They are kept separate that they may finally be saved, converted and restored to their own land. They are reserved and preserved, in order that God may show in them as on a platform, to angels and men, how greatly he hates sin, and yet how greatly he can forgive, and how greatly he can convert. Never will that be realized as it will in that day when “all Israel shall be saved.” (Are You Ready for the End of Time? 137-138)

Confirming Ryle’s assessment of the apologetic power of Israel, Anne Rice, the vampire novelist that several years ago turned from 30 years of atheism, said,

I stumbled upon a mystery without a solution, a mystery so immense that I gave up trying to find an explanation because the whole mystery defied belief. The mystery was the survival of the Jews.... It was this mystery that drew me back to God. (Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, 308-309)

None of this is a commentary on the prophetic place of the political State of Israel. It is a commentary on the eschatological meaning of the enduring reality of the people of Israel. And I think it is right.

For my thoughts on the place of the State of Israel see “Do Jews Have a Divine Right in the Promised Land?”

The following meditation comes from my devotional lingering over Psalm 96:7. All the modern versions translate it, “Ascribe to the Lord...strength” (ESV, NIV, NASB). Only the KJV renders it with the literal, “Give unto the Lord...strength.”

There’s nothing unusual about this Hebrew word “give” (yahab). It’s used over sixty times in the Old Testament in all the ordinary ways the word give is used.

The word ascribe in Psalm 96:7 is an interpretation. It’s a paraphrase. It’s a good interpretation, I think, but, as with all paraphrases, it short circuits our reflection...

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As the carnage from Cyclone Nargis moves toward 50,000 dead and beyond, there is a way to pray and act:

1. Be softened to the pain nearby.

The Good Samaritan knew nothing of the calamities in first century Burma, but was commended by the Lord for mercies at hand (Luke 10:25-37).

2. Pray for the followers of Christ in Myanmar:

• That they would be still and know that God is God (Psalm 46:10; 100:3).
• That they would be awakened from the illusion that this life is long or sure or the main point of eternal existence (James 4:14).
• That they would be given a new vision of the supreme value of Christ who promises his followers that famine, nakedness, and death will not separate them from his love (Romans 8:35).
• That God would meet their needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus, so that they might have to give to those in need (Philippians 4:19; Ephesians 4:28).

3. Pray for the millions of unbelievers near the calamity and far from it:

• That they would see the helplessness of man before the Power that rules the world and fly to Christ who alone delivers from the final cyclone of God’s wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
• That they would not respond like the people in Revelation (9:20; 16:9, 11) who did not repent at the devastation but cursed God.
• That they would hear the best news in all the world—not the news of health, wealth, and prosperity in this world, but the news that Christ became a curse for us (Galatians 3:13) so that in him we can be more than conquerors in every calamity of life (Romans 8:37).

4. Pray for those of us who live in the seeming security and prosperity of America:

• That we would see what is about to break over us in due time—either collectively as God removes the hand of his providential restraint, or individually as one by one we are whisked to the hospital, then wheeled to the nursing home, and then carried to the funeral home (Hebrews 9:27).
• That millions would be made to see this and repent from the adultery of treasuring anything more than Christ (James 4:4).

5. Give money to replenish the coffers of compassion “since you also are in the body” (Hebrews 13:3).

6. Muster a team from your church, and when the doors are open, be ready to go.

This kind of going always has the promise of a special, “I will be with you to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

God motivates us to feel and to do what we should by calling to our minds his past performances of love and his future promises of love—some near, some far.

Be sure that you are connected to the way God means to motivate you with the backward look and the distant forward look and the near forward look. For example:

Motivation by the backward look:

Forgive one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)

Motivation by the distant forward look:

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. (Matthew 5:12)

Let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. (Hebrews 13:13-14)

Motivation by the near forward look:

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

To lay a trap for an animal there has to be some truth to attract him. It must at least look like a meal even if the iron clamps lie just beneath. Mark says the Pharisees came “to trap" Jesus. So they put some truth over the trap. They said,

“Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God.” (Mark 12:14)

This is amazing insight coming from those who do not live it. Appearances were everything to the Pharisees. “They do all their deeds to be seen by others” (Matthew 23:5). It is frightening how much theological and moral wisdom can be spoken and not lived.

Twice they say that truth-telling depends on freedom from the fear of man.

1. “We know you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion.” Truth is compromised where we fear man’s disapproval. Is our finger in the text or in the wind?
2. “You are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God.” Literally: “You do not look at a man’s face, but teach the way of God in truth.” In other words, we will not be reliable truth tellers if we keep one eye on the facial expressions of people we need to please.

So let the hypocrites be our teacher today. Do as they say, not as they do. Fear no man. Tell the truth. Be like Jesus.

I have suggested that we should dream of ways to make much of Christ in the way we use our economic stimulus checks that will be arriving soon. That raises the question how we do that if our generosity should be done in secret. “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Matthew 6.3). Here’s what I think the Bible says about that.

Jesus warns of two dangers when it comes to what unbelievers think of us...

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Elder D. J. Ward, pastor of Lexington's Main Street Baptist Church for the past 19 years, died of complications from lung cancer Friday at Hospice Care Center at St. Joseph Hospital. What the Lexington Herald-Leader did not say about this amazing African-American is that he was a powerful spokesman for the glorious God worshiped through the wall-to-wall window called Calvinism.

I thank God for the one conference we had together. He invited me to the Lexington Pastors’ Conference at his church. I had no idea there was such a self-consciously reformed gathering of mainly African-American pastors almost totally distinct, as far as I could tell, from the resurgence of younger black Reformed brothers present on the internet today. But there it was thriving from around the country under the uncompromising sway of this giant.

Lord, thank you for over 40 years of Bible-saturated ministry with the majesty of Grace at the center. May the sowing of this seed in the ground bring forth a thousand sprouting lovers of the Truth.

You can leave words of condolence and remembrance at the Kentucky.com Guest Book.

For a moment, forget the political puzzle of getting money back when the country is nine trillion dollars in debt. The more immediate question is: How will you make much of Christ with your "economic stimulus payment"? The president says it will be in the mail in time for Cinco de Mayo.

Clue: Nobody in the world will see you spend your money on yourself and conclude that Christ is your treasure. They will assume you are just like them, no matter how loudly you thank God for this boon. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend it on yourself (the way we do with most of what we earn). Not everything we do can look different from the world—eat, pay utilities, fill up the car, wear clothes (even thrift-store clothes). And yes, we hope (somehow) that spending on ourselves in some way contributes to our being more Christ-exalting people.

But do we really need this money? Very few do. We would have gotten on fine without it. If we didn’t know it was coming, we wouldn’t even be feeling the desires we are feeling right now.

May I encourage you to be radically creative and hedonistic. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). And those crazy Macedonians in a “severe test of affliction” and in “extreme poverty” had an “abundance of joy” that overflowed in a “wealth of generosity.” They even begged Paul “for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:2-4). They really believed what Jesus said. Really.

Before the check comes dream of some person or ministry which might make much of Christ because you treasured him above your next home project.

The reason God created money and enabled us to earn it is so that we could show by the way we use it that money is not our treasure, Christ is. That’s why the checks are coming. So we can make Christ look great.

“Be content with what you have, for he has said,
‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

I am on writing leave. I hope you will pray for me. The first book I'm working on is one on marriage. This includes chapters on raising children. Here is a section I was working on yesterday:

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.

The first consequence of Adam’s and Eve’s sin mentioned in Genesis 3:7 is that “the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

Suddenly they are self-conscious about their bodies. Before their rebellion against God, there was no shame. “The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25). Now there is shame. Why?...

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Never be wise in your own sight. (Romans 12:16)

You might say:

1. It means that you gladly admit that all true wisdom is from God. It is his, and not finally ours.
2. It means that you recognize that any sense of superiority comes from comparing yourself only with your inferiors. But the most important person to compare yourself with is God, and he is infinitely wiser than you. Not only that, there are a lot of people in the world wiser than you.
3. It means that you feel humbled by the fact that you are a sinner deserving of God’s wrath, and that you are amazed at the grace that gives you eternal life. This humility and amazement swallows up a sense of pride.
4. It means that you do not count yourself worthy of being served, but rather “empty yourself” and become obedient and serve others, both the wise and the foolish.
5. It means that you are mainly not thinking about yourself at all but taken up with how admirable Jesus is and how wonderful his works are and how interesting and needy others are.

There are saving works that God will only do through small churches and ordinary people, not through large churches and more sophisticated people.

The Lord said to Gideon, "The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.’” (Judges 7:2)

Beware of missing your appointed fruit by envying bigger trees.

Sometimes I'm asked how I explain the disproportion between the size of the universe and the smallness of man created as the crown of God’s creation. The tension is felt in Psalm 8:3-5.

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”

My answer is that the magnitude of the universe is not meant to correlate with the image, but with the Original. The heavens are not designed to declare the glory of man. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalms 19:1). The point of the universe is that God is great and man is infinitely less great.

I did not say man is not great. Psalm 8 says man is great. “A little lower than the heavenly beings.” Now we are ready to see the point of the universe and why Psalm 8 begins and ends, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” It does not begin and end, “O Man, image of God, how majestic is your name in all the earth.”

Man is great. But compared to God’s greatness, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” The universe is designed to remind us of this distance between’s God’s infinite greatness, and man’s finite greatness. Man must reside on tiny planet earth in a seemingly infinite universe. And the universe must look infinite to be a fitting picture of what it cannot be: infinite. Only God is infinite. The universe is declaring that. Pretty well.

At least for me, this is how it is from time to time. And I am thankful for Satan’s folly in throwing Samuel Rutherford into prison in Aberdeen for seventeen months. Little did the devil know or intend that he would make this servant of Jesus a quick and gifted tuner of my soul, so that 371 years later he would send me back to the King’s Library with my strings taut and ready to play.

The opposition had apparently succeeded. In reality the devil had outwitted himself. True, the preaching of Christ, to limited congregations, was for the moment silenced, but only to give place to a ministry of Christ, that had been for the blessing and comfort of the generations of God’s people for all the succeeding years. At first his “silent Sabbaths” weighed heavily upon his spirit. But the gloom passed, and so feasted was he with the love of Christ that he can write, “My prison is a palace to me, and Christ’s banqueting house.”

Of his three hundred and sixty-two letters that have been preserved, two hundred and nineteen were written during the seventeen months he was confined in “Christ’s prison palace” of Aberdeen. (Hamilton Smith, editor, Extracts from the Letters of Samuel Rutherford, 8-9)

One of the reasons pursuing a passion for Christ (or if you prefer the old word, “zeal” for Christ) is so important is the good effects it has on others.

This is not the decisive reason for wanting passion. Passion is not like that. It is not utilitarian. Passion for Christ exists because Christ is magnificent, not because passion is useful. If the only reason you try to have passion is to help others have passion, your so-called passion will become manipulative and will prove in the end to be hypocrisy.

Nevertheless, if you have it, and if it is really a passion for Christ, then it will have a God-designed effect on others. This is part of why passion is so good. It is an honor to Christ, and satisfying to us, and transforming to others.

That’s what Paul points out in 2 Corinthians 9:2. With great zeal for Christ, the Corinthians are ready to share in the collection for the poor in Jerusalem. And what is the effect on the Macedonians? “Your zeal has stirred up most of them.” That is the God-designed effect of passion for God.

So, Lord, for your glory and our joy and the “stirring up” of others, give us a passion for your great name.

Every Christian should want to be a “fountain of life” for others. How does that happen?

Here is a group of passages that answer this question. The answer is in the order.

Psalm 36:9, For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.

Proverbs 16:22, Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it, But the discipline of fools is folly.

Proverbs 14:27, The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, That one may avoid the snares of death.

Proverbs 10:11, The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, But the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

Proverbs 13:14, The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, To turn aside from the snares of death.

For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. (1Corinthians 7:22-24).

I would have expected Paul to switch the places of “Lord” and “Christ.” He correlates our liberation with Jesus being our Master (“a freedman of the Lord”). And he correlates our new slavery with Jesus being our Messiah (“a slave of Christ”).

But in fact the Messiah came to liberate his people from their captors; and masters take control of people’s lives. Why does he say it this way?

Suggestion. The switch has two effects on our new liberty and two effects on our new slavery.

In calling us “the liberated of the Lord” he secures and limits our new liberty. His lordship is over all other lords; so our liberation is uncontested—secure. But, free from all other lords, we are not free from him. Our freedom is mercifully limited.

In calling us the “slaves of Christ” he looses and sweetens our slavery. The Messiah lays claim on his own to bring them from the confines of captivity into the open spaces of peace. “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:7). And he makes them his own to give them the sweetest joy. “With honey from the rock I would satisfy you” (Psalms 81.16).

That Rock is Christ.

Jesus never wrote anything. He hung out, and talked, and healed. But if his followers had only done that, we wouldn’t know even that about him. Both-And, not Either-Or. And some people more one than the other.

As we think seriously about contextualizing the message of the Bible, let’s remember that we must also labor to bring about, in the minds of our listeners, conceptual categories that may be missing from their mental framework. If we only use the thought structures they already have, some crucial biblical truths will remain unintelligible, no matter how much contextualizing we do. This work of concept creation is harder than contextualization, but just as important...

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C. S. Lewis’ advice to children on writing is good advice to pastors on preaching, or anybody on talking.

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn't mean anything else.
2. Always prefer the clean direct word to the long, vague one. Don't implement promises, but keep them.
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean "More people died" don't say "Mortality rose."
4. In writing, don't use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is "terrible," describe it so that we'll be terrified. Don't say it was "delightful"; make us say "delightful" when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers "Please, will you do my job for me."
5. Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

(Originally published in Letters to Children, letter from June 26, 1956. Quoted in Wayne Martindale and Jerry Root in The Quotable Lewis, p. 623.)

Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
May my teaching drop as the rain,
my speech distil as the dew,
as the gentle rain upon the tender grass,
and as the showers upon the herb.
For I will proclaim the name of the LORD.
Ascribe greatness to our God! (Deuteronomy 32:1-3)

Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD,
and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? (Jeremiah 23:29)

There is a knowing of love that surpasses ordinary knowledge. All thoughtful and true lovers know this. Being loved isn't identical to knowing that one is being loved. This is not spooky. It is in fact gloriously ordinary. Just as a blue sky, a bright sun, a cool breeze, yellow-green leaves, and a new bird-song may hold you in unexpected, unselfconscious thrall for a season, so there are moments when the heart apprehends the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

Paul prayed this for us:

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. (Ephesians 3:17-19)

My prayer: To know Christ’s love in a way that surpasses knowledge. Not less. More.

So again Samuel Rutherford quickens these longings:

Alas, that we should love by measure and weight, and not rather have floods and feasts of Christ’s love! O, that Christ would break down the old narrow vessels of these narrow and ebb souls, and make fair, deep, wide, and broad souls to hold a sea and a full tide, flowing over all banks, of Christ’s love. (The Loveliness of Christ: Extracts from the Letters of Samuel Rutherford, 67-68)

On this 40th anniversary of his death, I thank God for the life and cause of Martin Luther King, Jr. It was not the first day that he had met God. Twelve years earlier there was another meeting:

He put his head in his hands and bowed over the table. “Oh Lord,” he prayed aloud, “I’m down here trying to do what is right. But, Lord, I must confess that I’m weak now. I’m afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I can’t face it alone.”

He sat there, his head still bowed in his hands, tears burning his eyes. But then he felt something—a presence, a stirring in himself. And it seemed that an inner voice was speaking to him with quiet assurance: “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And, lo, I will be with you, even unto the end of the world.” He saw lightning flash. He heard thunder roar. It was the voice of Jesus telling him still to fight on. And “he promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, No, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone . . . .”

He raised his head. He felt stronger now. He could face the morrow. Whatever happened, God in His wisdom meant it to be. King’s trembling stopped, and he felt an inner calm he had never experienced before. He realized that “I can stand up without fear. I can face anything.” And for he first time God was profoundly real and personal to him. The idea of a personal God was no longer some “metaphysical category” he found philosophically and theologically satisfying. No, God was very close to him now, a living God who could transform “the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of hope” and who would never, ever leave him alone. (Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr., 85)

Can a pastor preach on joy when he is feeling little of it?

Yes. He is preaching what the word says and will say it whether he feels it or not.

Yes. He will be praying that in the very preaching of it, the gift of joy might be given. It does happen.

Yes. He will be honest with his people and over time communicate to them that he has his ups and downs and may have to preach on a text that does not find great fulfillment in his life at the time of preaching.

Yes. But over time the disjunction between text and person will undermine the ministry of the word. Preaching is expository exultation, and when the exultation is missing for extended periods of time, life will contradict content and this will weaken or even kill the ministry of the word.