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The Fight for Life: Why We Keep Standing
Preparing for the Future in the Age of Facebook
Greater Than Graduation: All Things Are Yours
Few occasions are more anticipated than graduation. We invite our loved ones, wear clothes we never wear anywhere else, and take lots and lots of pictures.
This past Friday evening, John Piper addressed the graduates of Bethlehem College & Seminary with a stunning message from 1 Corinthians 3:21–23: In Christ, all things are yours.
While it may seem like there is plenty to boast about in graduation––good grades, completed papers, accumulated knowledge, years of hard work, and even future ministry possibilities––all are pitifully dwarfed by the riches of what Christ has purchased and secured for us. Paul is yours. Apollos is yours. Cephas is yours. The world, life, death, the present, a…
Hedonism to the Extreme: Lamborghini and Our Souls
“What does a tractor manufacturer know about sports cars?” said Enzo Ferrari to an Italian mechanic from humble roots.1
This mechanic, Ferruccio Lamborghini, did manufacture tractors, and he did well. But he also liked fast automobiles and building things, and in the decade following World War II he decided to try his hand at supercars. Frustrated with the Ferrari’s handling on the road, and Ferrari’s dismissal at some suggested improvements, Ferruccio blazed his own trail by creating Automobili Lamborghini. By the fall of 1963, at the Turin Motor Show, he released the Lamborghini 350 GTV and launched the beginning of an iconic supercar brand — a brand at which most men have only marveled f…
Spiritually and Emotionally, How Far Is Too Far Before Marriage? (Ask Pastor John)
ESPN analyst Chris Broussard on homosexuality. C.S. Lewis on joy. Choosing a seminary. Processing a tragedy. And how far is too far in dating. It’s all in a fortnight of Ask Pastor John episodes.
What follows are excerpts from each episode (click on hyperlinked titles to listen).
How Far Is Too Far Before Marriage, Spiritually and Emotionally? (Episode 84):
A man especially needs to stay awake to what is happening emotionally and spiritually and personally in the relationship. Don’t take yourself into a depth of spiritual and emotional bonding that will not consummate in marriage and sexual union. Be alert that every step deeper into emotional and spiritual union with a woman’s so…
A Pentecost to Celebrate
If it weren’t for Pentecost, we wouldn’t know about Easter.
For most of us, tomorrow isn’t flagged on our calendars as Pentecost Sunday. But it is a big deal for Christians, and there are at least three reasons why it’s a day worth celebrating.
Catching Up on the Context
First, the back-story. Recall that Jesus spent forty days after his resurrection with his disciples (Acts 1:3). Imagine those moments — the risen Savior in a glorified body talking and praying with his close friends (Luke 24:39–43). But it cannot last. Jesus must ascend to the Father and establish his everlasting reign by receiving, as the God-man, all dominion, power, and authority (Luke 24:44–51; cf. Daniel 7:13–14).
W…
Recap of Recent Piper Messages
We have never known days like these at Desiring God.
John Piper is now on staff full-time at DG and has begun a more unfettered ministry to the wider world through writing and speaking.
Along the way, we want to make it easy for you to see what he’s up to and hear what he’s been saying lately. Here’s a rich baker’s dozen of new messages from Pastor John so far in 2013.
1. “Joy As the Power to Suffer in the Path of Love for the Sake of Liberation”
Passion Conference | Atlanta, GA
The year began with a bang, as John addressed more than 60,000 college students in the Georgia Dome on how our joy in God frees us to suffer the sake of others’ freedom.
Grace Forfeited: A New Start for an Old Tradition
It’s a new start for an old tradition in American Journalism, says Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief of World Magazine. The news poem. Says Olasky,
Hardly a vile murder or a military victory went by without colonial poets bemoaning or celebrating the occasion in verse, with the work then published on a single page “broadside” and sold for a penny. Happily, my favorite pastor/theologian, John Piper, is also a poet, and below are his thoughts on justice in regard to Connecticut’s school shooting and Boston’s Marathon bombing.
Worldmag.com has posted Piper’s news poem “Grace Forfeited: Adam, Tamerlan, and the Lady” with the short introduction by Olasky.
Also, here at Desiring God, you can read …
God’s Mercy in Making Us Face the Impossible
God is not content for us just to understand the idea that nothing is too hard for the Lᴏʀᴅ (Jeremiah 32:17). He wants us to have the overwhelming joy of experiencing it. But the sometimes agonizing period between his promise and his provision can push us to the brink of what we think we can believe, as it did for Abraham and Sarah.
[This imaginative conversation takes place shortly after Genesis 17:22.]
Abram entered the tent, his eyes on the ground, his mind a world away. He was breathing hard. Sarai was repairing a cloak. She watched him as he walked to the back corner and collapsed on the cushions with a sigh. She recognized the bodily weariness of a divine encounter.
“The Lᴏʀᴅ has sp…
Love Letter to a Lesbian
Dear ______,
I just want you to know that I understand.
I understand how it feels to be in love with a woman. To want nothing more than to be with her forever. Feeling as if the universe has played a cruel joke on your heart by allowing it to fall into the hands of a creature that looks just like you.
I too was a lesbian. I had same-sex attractions as early as five-years old. As I grew up, those feelings never subsided. They only grew. I would find myself having crushes on my female best friends, but I was far too ashamed to admit it to them — let alone to myself.
At the age of 17, I finally made the decision to pursue these desires. I entered into a relationship with a young lady who be…
Beyond the Rhetoric: Gosnell and the Late-Term Reality
“It is a highly needed and valuable procedure.”
That statement above is referring to late-term abortion. In other words, says LateTermAbortion.net, it is highly needed and valuable that deadly poison be injected into the heart of an unborn child if the mother so chooses.
This reveals a cruel irony of late term abortionist Kermit Gosnell, the man convicted of murdering viable children after they were born alive during his abortion procedures. He claimed the babies were dead before leaving their mother’s wombs because his intra-cardiac injection had stopped their hearts, and therefore, he wasn’t guilty of murder. A matter of inches in one direction makes it “a guiltless procedure,” but in th…
Behind the Blog: Good People
A month ago today the bombs went off in Boston. Through the surge of media, many of us were left on the edge of our seats for a week. There was shock and confusion and deep questions. In this latest episode of Behind the Blog we talk about how we responded to this tragedy on the blog, including our personal wrestling with how to process events like this.
Other topics in this episode include an update on John Piper’s upcoming speaking schedule and wider ministry. We talk about our latest publications now available and our newest ebook, Doctrine Matters. We also introduce our National Conference this fall, “The Romantic Rationalist: God, Work, & Imagination in the Work of C.S. Lewis.”
St…
