Johnathon Bowers is a student at The Bethlehem Institute. He blogs at The Fool’s Gold.

John Piper shared these benefits of eloquence in the conclusion of his message this morning. You can listen to his message now or check back tomorrow for the full manuscript read the manuscript.

1. Eloquence—that is, artistic, surprising, provocative, or aesthetically pleasing language—may keep people awake and focused because they find it interesting for reasons they can’t articulate.

2. Eloquence may bring an adversarial mind into greater sympathy with the speaker.

3. Eloquence may have an awakening effect on a person’s heart and mind short of regeneration, but still important in awakening in them emotional sensitivity to beautiful things.

4. Certain kinds of eloquence (cadence, parallelism, meter, rhyme, assonance, consonance) may not only add interest, but also increase impact by helping the memory.

5. The beauty of eloquence can join with the beauty of truth and increase the power of your words.

In today's panel discussion, Justin Taylor asked questions of John Piper, Paul Tripp, Dan Taylor, and Bob Kauflin. Here are the questions and you can listen for the answers.

• Bob, you had a Job-like experience. How did the Lord use his words and the words of others to bring you through it?
• Paul, a lot of people must think you had an idyllic upbringing. Could you tell your own story about how the Lord brought you to himself?
• John, what do you mean by “the joy and the miracle of self-forgetfulness”? Are there strategies to cultivate it?
• How do you recognize the work of the Spirit in your life and the fruit of it and the progress you’ve made? Paul said, “Be imitators of me,” and yet he was being humble. How does that work?
• How should we use our bodies in worship?
• What would be some counsel for people to become more creative in a God-centered way?
• Could you talk about the role that art has had for you in the pursuit of holiness and the glory of God?
• How do you give encouragement in a way that is not flattering of other people, and how do you receive it in a way that’s not prideful?

The following is from notes I took during Mark Driscoll's session. You can listen to his message or read more complete notes.

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Pray for the shepherds. Pray for them more than you criticize, e-mail, gossip, or blog about them. Pray that they would have a discerning mind to know who is a sheep.

Pray that they would have a thick skin. Pray that they would have a humorous outlook. That they would laugh at themselves, that they would have a tender heart toward Jesus and the sheep. That they wouldn’t be hammered, that they would keep a tender heart, that they would have a humble disposition, that when criticisms are true, they would repent. That they would look at a criticism for a kernel of truth to be sanctified by.

Pray that shepherds would have encouraging families, that their wife would endure all the criticism, backbiting, people who would use her to get influence, that she would remain close to Jesus and be a place of refreshment for her husband, that she would know her job is to keep her husband from despair—not by always agreeing with him but agreeing that she will always be for him.

Pray for his children as people take shots at his family. That his children would not go astray because critics love that.

Pray that one of the elders in the church is a good sniper. That he could spot people who are trying to take down the pastor. If the pastor tries to do it, it’s a lose-lose situation. Some of you elders here need to get in the middle.

Pray that the shepherds would have evangelistic devotion, that they would not just feed the sheep, but that they would love the lost. That they would not waste their time checking their ratings and overlook Paul’s admonition to do the work of an evangelist. That they wouldn’t be so buried in firefights that they can’t see more people become sheep.

Pray for the shepherds, that they would learn selective hearing, that they would listen to their elders, that they would invite into their lives good counsel. Not everything that is said is worth a hearing. Shepherds can become so hard-hearted that their ears are closed and they spend time justifying themselves when they shouldn’t. They need to know who to listen to, who to heed, and who to not to.

Pray for the young shepherds, that older shepherds would not shoot them like wolves and wouldn’t criticize them like dogs, but would encourage them like dads.

During his message tonight, Sinclair Ferguson shared with us a list of 20 resolutions from the book of James for how to control our tongue.

1. I resolve to ask God for wisdom to speak out of a single-minded devotion to him. (1:5)

2. I resolve to boast only in the exultation I receive in Jesus Christ and also in the humiliation I receive for Jesus Christ. (1:9-10)

3. I resolve to set a watch over my mouth. (1:13)

4. I resolve to be constantly quick to hear and slow to speak. (1:19)

5. I resolve to learn the gospel way of speaking to both rich and poor. (2:1-4)

6. I resolve to speak in the present consciousness of my final judgment. (2:12)

7. I resolve never to stand on anyone’s face with the words I employ. (2:16)

8. I resolve never to claim as reality in my life what I do not truly experience. (3:14)

9. I resolve to resist quarrelsome words as evidence of a bad heart that needs to be mortified. (4:1)

10. I resolve never to speak decided evil against another out of a heart of antagonism. (4:11)

11. I resolve never to boast in anything but what I will accomplish. (4:13)

12. I resolve to speak as one subject to the providences of God. (4:15)

13. I resolve never to grumble. The judge is at the door. (5:9)

14. I resolve never to allow anything but total integrity in everything I say. (5:12)

15. I resolve to speak to God in prayer whenever I suffer. (5:13)

16. I resolve to sing praises to God whenever I’m cheerful. (5:14)

17. I resolve to ask for the prayers of others when I’m in need. (5:14)

18. I resolve to confess it whenever I have failed. (5:15)

19. I resolve to pray with others for one another whenever I am together with them. (5:15)

20. I resolve to speak words of restoration when I see another wander. (5:19)

The following is a guest post by Johnathon Bowers, a student at The Bethlehem Institute. He blogs at The Fool’s Gold and loves dreaming about the future with his wife, Crystal.

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God has been on the move in your heart lately. Maybe it all started with that sermon. Maybe it was that National Geographic issue on Iran. Maybe your Chinese friend. Maybe the missionary biography you just finished. Maybe Romans 15.

Whatever it was, you can’t get the nations out of your mind now. You’ve begun to think of other countries in terms of unreached people groups rather than their diplomatic relationship with America. Missions used to bore you. It was for…you know…“other people” (said in hushed tones with a shifty gaze).

But now, it’s strangely attractive. You start to get wobbly-kneed and giddy whenever you hear someone mention “contextualization” or “strategic access country.” When you meet someone who is interested in missions, you talk at length with them and ask lots of questions. You’re hooked. It’s taken a while, but you are seriously considering a missionary career.

When you finally muster the pluck to tell your spouse about your change of heart, his response is unsettlingly cool.

Polite, but cool.

He just doesn’t know if he could ever see the two of you overseas. Dinner is awkward that night. He asks for the check. The two of you drive home in silence. What you thought would be a glorious evening of united passion for missions has turned into a glorified punch in the gut.

What do you do?

M. David Sills, professor of Christian missions and cultural anthropology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has just written a book called The Missionary Call: Finding Your Place in God’s Plan for the World. In it he includes a chapter devoted to this very issue.

His counsel? Wait. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25). Wives, be subject to your own husbands and win them over by your respectful and pure conduct (1 Peter 3:2-3).

As it is with a call to faith, so it is with a call to missions. God must act. And you must wait, because a divided and resentful couple is no asset on the field.

But let your waiting be active. There is plenty to do to plow the soil that a unified call will sprout from. Sills writes:

While you wait, grow your marriage to be as healthy as it can be. Work on communication and ministering to one another. Learn a language together, read missionary biographies together, entertain furloughing missionaries in your home - as guests in a spare room or for a meal - and email missionaries on the field to be better able to pray for them. Go on short-term mission trips together. Be open and let God lead. In this way, when God clearly leads and guides you both into the same missionary calling, you will have a healthy marriage, practice learning new things together, and knowledge of missionary life. A healthy marriage and well-developed learning skills are essential for a couple living the missionary life with a world-changing testimony. (123-124)

May God extend his kingdom as his married servants bear with one another in love.