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The Fight for Life: Why We Keep Standing
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Trinity 101
Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology defines the Trinity as follows: “God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God” (p. 226).
Broken down, this amounts to three propositions:
- God is three persons.
- Each person is fully God.
- There is one God.
In addition, it’s helpful to elaborate on the fact that when we say “God is three persons,” we mean that he is not just one person, and that the persons of the Trinity are not to be confused. So we can also say:
- The Father is God.
- The Son is God.
- The Holy Spirit is God.
- The Father is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Fathe…
Atlas Shrugged Fifty Years Later
Today, October 10, 2007, is the 50th anniversary of the publication of the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. As I write this on October 9, 2007, the book is ranked 237 at Amazon. That is phenomenal for a 1,200-page novel that contains philosophical speeches, one of which stretches to 90 uninterrupted pages. The book has sold over six million copies. In one survey from 16 years ago, Atlas Shrugged was ranked second only to the Bible as the book that influenced people most.
My Ayn Rand craze was in the late seventies when I was a professor of Biblical Studies at Bethel College. I read most of what she wrote both fiction and non-fiction. I was attracted and repulsed. I admired and cri…
When Does God Become 100% For Us?
I have asked the question in public, “When does God become 100% for us?” And I have given an answer that rightly troubles thoughtful, biblical people. So this article is an effort to answer their question.
In my message to the Desiring God National Conference on Sunday, September 30, I answered the question like this:
What the Bible teaches is that God becomes 100% irrevocably for us at the moment of justification, that is, the moment when we see Christ as a beautiful Savior and receive him as our substitute punishment and our substitute perfection. All of God’s wrath, all of the condemnation we deserve, was poured out on Jesus. All of God’s demands f…
Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer
Jesus’ “high priestly prayer” (John 17) is only about 650 words. It takes only 3 minutes and 30 seconds to read it aloud. But it will take all eternity for us to fully understand it!
I recently found it helpful to break down Jesus’ petitions and propositions into the following categories:
| The Father Gave the Son... | John 17 |
|---|---|
| authority to give eternal life | v. 2 |
| people out of this world | vv. 2, 6, 9, 24 |
| work to accomplish | v. 4 |
| words | v. 8 |
| his name | vv. 11, 12 |
Thank God for Matt Lund
Thank God for one of Desiring God's least thanked.
Matt Lund pours himself out to make the Desiring God Conference Bookstore the life-giving source of bargain-priced books it is.
Matt's been working faithfully for DG since 2002. Two years ago, he moved into his present bookstore role.
During a normal week, he stays almost invisible ordering, cataloguing, and shelving books at the Bethlehem bookstore--a mile from the DG offices and four thick floors from the Bethlehem offices where most of the weekday activity is.
Even at one of our Desiring God events, he's almost invisible--except to the trained eye who knows that this man runs the bookstore show, in the most holy …
A Call to Christology
Jesus’ person and his gospel-work for sinners have been joined together by God himself. And what God has joined together, let no man separate.
Assault on Christ’s person is an assault on the gospel. A compromised Christology inevitably will wreck the salvation of sinners.
Stephen Nichols gets this connection with crystal clarity. His just-published For Us and For Our Salvation: The Doctrine of Christ in the Early Church (Crossway, 2007) points time and again to the vital union between Christ’s person and the gospel. Jesus is one person with two natures. And the reason he took on the second nature was “for us and for our salvation” (in the words of Athanisus).1
Not only doe…
What I Said at My Granddaughter’s Funeral
I had the privilege of sitting with my family while Tom Steller and Sam Crabtree ministered to us at the funeral of Felicity Margaret Piper who was stillborn at full term on September 22, 2007. Her father Abraham asked me to speak for five minutes on “A Granddaddy’s Thoughts.” Here is what I said.
I didn’t know Felicity Margaret. My experience of her life was entirely through other people for nine months. And my experience of her death, even though it was physically immediate and touchable, has been emotionally experienced almost entirely through other people.
So at this moment, what it means for me to be Felicity’s grandfather is that I am living this …
Poem for Felicity
After my first day of work at DG, Abraham and Molly had me over for dinner. I remember asking then--since Molly was already showing--what their daughter's name would be. Their reply was a gentle rejection. They had resolved to tell no one until she was born.
We have learned your name, Felicity Margaret Piper, too soon. But your life shall not have been in vain. Our hearts now mourn and hope.
Felicity
Felicity,
that happy name
was
hidden with your forming frame
next
to the heart of mom and dad
until
the day you came.
You
did not come as we presumed—
a
place upstairs at home was groomed.
Yet other plans our Sovereign had
and
took you from the womb.
Life is never ill-conce…
The Body of Christ and the Pain of Grief
Nearly four years ago our friends Dustin and Kellie Shramek lost their precious son, Owen. In the book Suffering and the Sovereignty of GodDustin wrote a chapter about some of the lessons that God taught him--lessons about God, and also lessons about how and how not to minister to those in nearly unbearable grief and pain.
After the book was published, Women Today Radio did a brief interview with Dustin, that I thought might be helpful to reprint here:
If some female member of your household has influenced your life for Christ, share her story.
My wife has had a significant impact on my life for Christ. One thing I didn't mention in my chapter was what too…
Felicity Margaret Piper
In the hopes that you will pray for us, I’ll give you the news about Abraham’s daughter. Abraham is my son who serves as the Web Content Manager for Desiring God. He and Molly were expecting their second child on Sunday, September 23. Molly was big and healthy. Everyone was happy and excited about Orison’s little sister.
There had been no movement since Thursday. Molly had read this was nothing unusual, but the doctor said she could come for a check-up if she wished. Saturday morning (September 22) they went to Hennepin County Medical Center. No heart beat. Ultrasound confirms: the baby is dead.
The phone call came to me first. It was Abraham through sobs, “We lost the baby.”
…
