Indomitable joy in Jesus in the very midst of suffering and sorrow — this is what the world needs from the church.

As tempting as it may be to figure things differently, what the world does not need from the services of the gathered church is chipper, frisky, high-spirited chatter designed to make people feel lighthearted and playful and bouncy. And the world does not need believers who are morose, gloomy, sullen, and dark, bringing with them a heavy atmosphere of solemnity.

No, what the world needs from the church, in her gathered services and in key moments of her scattered life, is the flavor of “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,” as the apostle Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 6:10. …

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Let the record show that we did not set out in 2012 to write more often about sports at Desiring God than previous years.

But as we’ve looked back on the last year, we noticed an uptick in our engagement with “the world of sports.” This trend doesn’t represent any new commitment on our part for the years ahead. It does, however, represent our great goal to see Jesus honored “in all things.” It’s the “supremacy of God in all things” part of our mission that keeps leading us here and elsewhere. We want to see Jesus honored and enjoyed in life and death, and in every nook and cranny of our existence — including sports and athletics.

The Cardinals and LinSanity

After doing some digging, i…

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On February 4–6, 2013, we will gather, God willing, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for the annual Desiring God Conference for Pastors. This time the theme is “Brothers, We Are Still Not Professionals: Reclaiming the Centrality of the Supernatural in Ministry.” Just days prior to the conference is the scheduled release of John Piper’s revised and expanded Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry.

This short new ebook Still Not Professionals: Ten Pleas for Today’s Pastors, available free from Desiring God, is a celebration and extension of that book — born not only from an effort to whet the appetite for the upcoming conference, but in a hope to bless pastors …

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It was the day after Christmas, 1862, in the town square of Mankato, Minnesota, that 38 Dakota warriors were hanged at the order of president Abraham Lincoln. After 150 years, it is still the largest mass execution in American history.

Mankato is about 80 miles southwest of the Twin Cities. In 1862, it was a frontier town in the thick of growing tensions between the quickly multiplying white settlers and the increasingly marginalized Dakota natives. The mass execution was essentially the memorable conclusion to what is now known as the U.S.-Dakota War (also known as the Sioux Uprising of 1862, as the settlers called the natives Sioux Indians).

How War Erupted

In the summer of 1862, the…

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Christmas is the day heaven kissed earth.

The Eternal Word, the golden son of heaven, humbly and willingly took up our comparatively lowly humanity, without ceasing to be God, and entered into the created realm, coming to earth as one of us.

And it wasn’t some kind of circus stunt, for mere show, but for our sake. The Great Move was all of grace and for our rescue. It is history’s climactic expression of love and favor.

Heaven kissed earth.

This way of talking about the incarnation comes from Thomas Goodwin (1600–1680), Puritan preacher, theologian, chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and member of the Westminster Assembly. Goodwin described the wonder of what happened at that first Christ…

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Jesus was born of a virgin. This is a glory unique to the one God-man.

Of the billions of humans who have lived throughout history, only one person entered the world in this way. There is only one mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), and there is only one human who was virgin born.

Jesus’s distinctive birth is no myth or mere random fact from the Gospels. It is a special honor conferred only on the Son of God incarnate. And it is full of significance for knowing the person of Jesus and the God who has revealed himself in him.

Supernatural, Not Mythical

Matthew and Luke wrote the authoritative accounts. We have no good reason to think either was gullible in the least. Matthe…

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By now, most of us in the West are up to our necks in holiday commercialization. Far too many of us feel like we’re once again stumbling toward Christmas, exhausted and depleted by the most consumeristic season in history’s most consumeristic civilization.

When inundated with the pressures and relentless commercializing of the Christmas season, one memorable personality on the sitcom Seinfeld abandoned Christmas altogether and up and created his own holiday, or anti-holiday. As some of us will recall, it was the father of Jerry Seinfeld’s good friend George — his name, Frank Costanza — who created the December 23 observance called “Festivus” in the 1997 episode called “The Strike.”

Toda…

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We dare you to find a better, and shorter, summary for the doctrine of the incarnation than John 1:14: “The Word became flesh.”

We grabbed Don Carson while he was in the Twin Cities earlier this month and asked him about this important doctrine at the very heart of Christmas. At the first Advent, the eternal Son of God took to himself full humanity. Without ceasing to be God, he became man. He is one uniquely spectacular person with two full and complete natures, perfectly and personally calibrated for us and for our salvation.

As always, Theology Refresh aims to sharpen pastors and other Christian leaders on important doctrines in hopes of making our theology be what must to be healthy …

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Most of us would have been scared away from the Middle East by the events of September 11, 2001. But not Mack Stiles.

Not that he didn’t waver just a bit. Here’s the story.

Loosening the Roots

For years Mack had labored stateside with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in an administrative job that, you might say, didn’t fit him like a glove. If you’ve met Mack, you likely noticed right from the start how outgoing and people-oriented and relationally energetic he is. Not that administrators can’t be people-people. It’s just this particular slot wasn’t optimal for this particular Mack.

After much wrestling, Mack sensed that God was loosening his American roots and preparing him and his…

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At long last, Bilbo Baggins is back. Whether you’re fanatic enough to dress up for the midnight showing, or patiently awaiting a weekend outing, or even content to meander into a theater after the crowds die down, here’s some advice for how to make the most of your experience of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Don’t worry, there’s no spoiler below. My hope in seeing an early screening of the film is to be at your service in preparing you for the viewing, not by letting any cat out of the bag — although if you’ve read the book, you know where this film is going.

It is fitting to mentally and emotionally prepare yourself for an experience like this. That’s precisely what the story’s cre…

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