Several of the speakers from our upcoming conference answer the question, "What can we gain from Calvin today?"

Mark Talbot

We can gain an awareness that the best theology comes from ministering to people.

Sam Storms

We can gain a deep appreciation for the Lord's Supper.

John Piper

We can gain an orientation on the majesty and holiness of God.

Doug Wilson

We can gain a rock solid, absolute confidence in the Bible.

Marvin Olasky

We can gain an understanding that it's important to write clearly without losing depth.

The last national conference speaker to introduce is Julius Kim. John Piper talks about why he invited him:

Learn more about DG's conference, "With Calvin in the Theater of God":

• John Piper's invitation
• Speaker information
• Dates and schedule
• Registration

John Piper talks about inviting Marvin Olasky to our national conference:

You can also watch Olasky's testimony:

Learn more about DG's conference, "With Calvin in the Theater of God":

• John Piper's invitation
• Speaker information
• Dates and schedule
• Registration

John Piper talks about why he invited Mark Talbot to speak at our upcoming conference on Calvin :

For more from Mark Talbot, check out the message he gave at our 2005 conference, "Seeing God's Gracious Hand in the Hurt Others Do Us."

You can also watch his testimony:

Learn more about DG's conference, "With Calvin in the Theater of God":

• John Piper's invitation
• Speaker information
• Dates and schedule
• Registration

John Piper on why he invited Sam Storms to our national conference:

For more about Sam Storms, visit Enjoying God Ministries and watch his testimony:

Learn more about DG's conference, "With Calvin in the Theater of God":

• John Piper's invitation
• Speaker information
• Dates and schedule
• Registration

John Piper talks about why he invited Doug Wilson to speak at our national conference this September:

For more about Doug Wilson, you can check out his blog and watch his testimony:

Learn more about DG's conference, "With Calvin in the Theater of God":

• John Piper's invitation
• Speaker information
• Dates and schedule
• Registration

John Piper talks about why our national conference this year is on John Calvin:

More about this conference

• Read John Piper's invitation.
• See the other speakers.
• Register before June is over and get the early-bird rate.

The first 500 people to register for the Desiring God 2009 National Conference, "With Calvin in the Theater of God," will receive a free copy of The Soul of Life: The Piety of John Calvin edited by Joel Beeke.

Register today!

(If you've already registered, your copy will be automatically sent to you.)

It was T. H. L. Parker who introduced John Piper to John Calvin. In Piper's foreword to Desiring God’s new reprint of Parker’s Portrait of Calvin, he writes,

Desiring God is publishing T. H. L. Parker’s Portrait of Calvin out of theologically and historically informed nostalgia—and a sense of mission. The mission is to make much of the majesty of God. And the nostalgia is that this book was my first serious exposure to Calvin. I paid fifty cents for the book in a used rack. That was four decades ago.

Parker’s Portrait was first published in 1954. But it’s not the kind of book that goes out of date, because it’s only trying to be current with the sixteenth century. If you get it right, it stays right. When I saw the 500th anniversary of Calvin’s birth coming (July 10, 2009), I thought that maybe others would enjoy the same introduction to Calvin I enjoyed.

Watch some more thoughts from John Piper on this book:

This biography is now available exclusively through Desiring God.You can buy it or download it for free.

With Calvin’s 500th birthday just weeks away, reading Parker’s Portrait would be a fine way to mark the historic date.

Also, through the life and ministry of John Calvin, Desiring God will turn its sights to God and his Son at our national conference this September.

Registration is now open and if you register by the end of June, you'll get the early-bird rate.

Check out a new trailer for Advance09:

There are still some seats left. Register soon and we'll see you in June!

For our friends in the Atlanta area (isn’t that pretty much the whole Southeast?), John Piper has agreed to speak at Passion Twenty Ten in January, 2010.

It’s still early in the planning, but more info is available at Passion's site.

Here are 5 books that were recommended at CDG's conference.

• Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem
• Big Truths for Young Hearts, Bruce Ware
• Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, Paul Tripp
• Parenting by the Book, John Rosemond
• Instructing a Child's Heart, Tedd and Margy Tripp

The following is from my notes at Kempton Turner's session yesterday at the CDG conference.

1. Be a truth-drenched example.

1 Timothy 4:16

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

The example of your life is the hammer that drives your message home. If your life doesn't exemplify what you expect, your message will not be believable.

2. Have a truth-drenched marriage and family life.

1 Timothy 3:4-5

He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

We shouldn't see if someone is fit for the ministry by how they do in seemingly less important ministries. Rather, we should see what kind of husband and father he is. If he leads his family well, then maybe he's fit for the ministry.

Paul assumes that a church leader first leads his family. A truth-drenched youth ministry will get the overflow of the youth minister's leadership of his wife and kids.

3. Cultivate a truth-drenched staff.

Acts 13:2-3

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Gather as a staff mainly to go vertical. Meet with God and see what strategy comes from this worship.

4. Preach and teach truth-drenched messages and lessons.

Hebrews 13:7

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

The main thing your youth should think about when they remember you is how you spoke God's word to them.

Don't replace teaching truth with games, media, skits, etc.

5. Develop and implement a truth-drenched vision and philosophy of youth ministry.

Proverbs 29:18

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.

Picture youth ministry as a mountain. Develop a plan that puts the cross at the top with all the other good (but less important) things below. Then the truth of the gospel will flow down that mountain over everything you do, drenching your ministry.

What does it mean to lose heart?

To lose heart is to lose our courage or lose the will to go on. It means to be utterly spiritless and worn out, to throw in the towel. It is more than discouragement. It's discouragement to point of quitting the race before it is over.

God forbid that any of us should throw in the towel of our gospel ministries! We are those who do not lose heart! We do not throw in the towel of displaying the glory of God to the world! To throw in the towel of the gospel is to have believed in vain, to make shipwreck of our faith.

There are glorious promises that tell us that if we have indeed received this ministry that we will indeed not lose heart (John 10:27-30 for one). No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck us from his hand.

How do we keep from being among those who just give up?

We do it by fixing our eyes on the God-centered realities that describe us:

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. (2 Corinthians 2:14)

For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ. (2 Corinthians 2:17)

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. (2 Corinthians 3:5)

Surely there are times when it is wise to consider changing the way and type of ministry that we are doing. But we should be very slow to interpret our present difficulties as an indication that we should quit.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Despite all the difficulties we do not throw in the towel. For though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

The following is from notes on Paul Tripp's message last night at the CDG Conference. Audio will be available next week.

There are five things that you must know about the children you minister to. These must always be the backdrop to the ministry you provide as an ambassador of Jesus Christ.

1. They were created by God to be revelation receivers.

They were never wired to figure life out on their own. You'll never ever know the things you need to know by just using the process of human discovery. You have to have supernatural revelation.

2. They are by nature interpreters.

Human beings do not live life based on the facts of our experience. We live life based upon the interpretation of the facts. We're meaning makers.

3. They are worshipers.

Human experience is not the most essential thing about the human experience. Worship is. It's what we're born doing and what we continue to do all of our lives.

4. They are hard-wired to seek glory.

We're glory oriented. Glory is why we like chocolate mousse cake and great movies and the last quarter of basketball games. And glory is why we exalt ourselves over others around us: we want to get as much as we can for ourselves.

5. They are self-focused and self-obsessed.

Sin causes us to shrink our lives down to the claustrophobic confines of our lives, our wants and our needs. It makes us incapable of loving anyone else.

God Is Writing Our Story, Not Us

Because these 5 things are true of all of us, as God is writing the story of our lives, we're always inclined to try and take the pen from him so we can write it ourselves.

The Bible is one long story with God's notes. Ministry to children—or ministry to anyone else—means helping them forsake the urge to write their own story, and accept instead that God is the author. Then their story will be embedded in God's larger story of redemption, so that in every circumstance they recognize that their life is about and for God.

John Knight, Senior Director of Development at Desiring God, gave a message this afternoon entitled, "Beyond Access: God's Delight in Disabilities."

If you'd like some background on John and his story of God's faithfulness to his family, you can listen to his message from Bethlehem Baptist's 2008 men's retreat (Part 1 & Part 2).

The audio from today's talk will be available in a couple weeks. Until then, here are some of the notes:

God is purposeful in creating all people, including those with disabilities.

Psalm 139:13

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

God knew what he was doing when he knit John's son together without eyes, with autism, and with mental retardation in his mother's womb.

Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

This is even more explicit than the verse in Psalm 139—God creates disability. Does he seem embarassed about it? Is it ambiguous?

No.

God claims it: I make people mute, deaf, blind—disabled.

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

God uses disabilities intentionally for his glory.

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

God uses the disability of blindness to show that there is something far worse than being disabled—something we all suffer—namely, being sinners.

Sin is our primarily problem, not any disability, because when we sin, eternity is at stake. But there is a solution...

Adapted from a handout at the CDG seminar "Nursery and Toddler Ministry: Preparing the Littlest Ones to Stand on Truth." Audio will be available within the month.

1. Have an open Bible on your lap during story time. This reinforces where the story comes from—God's word.

2. Use short sentences and few words. Too many words overwhelm young minds.

3. Be animated in your facial expressions and tone of voice. This will help keep children engaged.

3. Incorporate movement into the story and singing. Children this age need to move their bodies. Movement helps them learn and remember what you're teaching them.

4. Create routines during the story/circle times by using songs, finger plays, etc.

5. Use repetition to cement biblical concepts in children's hearts and minds.

6. Keep it short and sweet. A story time of 5-10 minutes is the maximum children this age can attend to and sit for.

Here are my notes from Bruce Ware's message this morning at the Children Desiring God conference. The audio will be posted next week, Lord willing.

“There is None Besides Me”: Biblical Foundations for the Centrality of God

There are three themes from Isaiah 40-46 that demonstrate that God is exclusively and incomparably God.

1) God as Creator (Isaiah 40:18-26)

Implications:

• As Creator of all, God is independent of all that he has made. He doesn't need the world or you or me. His creation adds nothing to him. We cannot make God better or enrich his life. He is the Provider, we are the needy recipients.
• As Creator, God is rightful owner of all that he has made.

Application:

If we understand this rightly we should fall before God with a deep sense of humility and dependence before him. This is how to fight pride: by remembering the greatness, supremacy, and all-sufficient fullness of who God is. We have nothing we we can claim as our own that we have rights over or can take credit for.

2) God as Redeemer (Isaiah 43:1-13)

Implications:

• As Redeemer, God is rightful owner of his people. This was an implication of him being Creator. It's also an implication of him being Redeemer. Those redeemed by him are twice his people. They are doubly owned.
• As Redeemer, God demonstrates his selecting and particular love for his people. There is a lavish display of his goodness that God reserves for those whom he chooses with his electing love, though they are no more deserving of it than others.

Application:

This should make us respond with trust and confidence in God. He is for us. Can you believe it? We not only owe him our allegiance because he created us. We also owe it to him because of his great redeeming love for us. And we ought to gladly give it!

3) God as Sovereign Ruler over Good and Evil (Isaiah 44:24-45:7)

Implications:

• As Sovereign Ruler, God reigns over nature and nations. God not only makes everything; he also controls what they do. Whether sudden catastrophes or the installation of kings, all is in total control.
• As Sovereign Ruler, God rules over good and evil. We are usually OK with affirming the first. But Scripture is clear: he has absolute control over evil too. But just because God controls both good and evil doesn't mean that he is both good and evil (see Psalm 5:4; 1 John 1:5). God is good and wise in regulating everything that happens, even evil.

Application:

This truth should cause us to respond to God with hope and strength. Because everything is ordained by a wise and loving God, we can remain hopeful and strong in the midst of suffering.

Taken from notes on Piper’s message at the Children Desiring God conference.

1. Indoctrination

By indoctrination I mean putting thoughts into a child's head without a due concern that they should have good reasons for believing them. Whenever we teach children we must be concerned that we don't simply indoctrinate them.

To want to have truth go into a child's head is a very good thing. But you should also take care that while you are putting truth into their heads you should also try to give them a process they can test it with. Don't just give the what and the why behind it; also give the how.

2. Contextualization

Let's take a little people group called three-year-olds, for instance. If I only use words they don't know, they obviously won't learn anything. But if I only use words they do know, they won't learn anything either.

So contextualization isn't the most important thing with kids. The most important thing is concept creation. Children need to be given new categories of thought in order to learn.

Read the rest of the notes from this message.

The Children Desiring God National Conference starts tonight. We'll hear from John Piper, Bruce Ware, Paul David Tripp, David Michael, and more.

Here at the DG blog, Tyler Kenney and I will be blogging the plenary sessions as well as several of the almost 40 elective seminars.

If you'd like to follow along, please subscribe by RSS or email. We'll also link each new entry here, so if you want to let others know about the CDG conference blog, this is the post to send them to.

*               *               *

Conference posts:

• The God-centeredness of God, John Piper
• Two Cautions for Teaching Kids 
• A Book to Help You Teach Your Kids Theology
• 16 Passages that Emphasize God's Uniqueness
• Bruce Ware on Biblical Foundations for the Centrality of God
• 7 Ideas for Teaching Toddler's God's Word
  

Everyone who registers for Advance09 before the end of Friday will be entered to win a complete John Piper library.

(Also after Friday the prices go up a bit, but even then, it's a pretty inexpensive event.)

Check out the new trailer for Advance09:

We are excited about this event that we're putting on with The Resurgence to be held in Durham, NC, on June 4-6.

Hope to see you there!

Desiring God, The Resurgence, Acts29, and Re:Lit are joining forces for Advance09, "a conference about the power of God's gift to his people—the Church."

John Piper will give two messages on missions and the church based on his book Let the Nations Be Glad.

We'll also hear from

• Mark Driscoll
• Matt Chandler
• Ed Stetzer
• Eric Mason
• Bryan Chapell
• Daniel Akin
• J. D. Greear
• Tyler Jones

Register today—and we'll see you in North Carolina this June!

Registration is now open for our national conference.

We will be commemorating the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth.

The speakers are

• John Piper
• Doug Wilson
• Sam Storms
• Marvin Olasky
• Mark Talbot
• Julius Kim

Read John Piper's invitation or register.

We hope to see you this September!