Focusing on your marriage can be a good thing. And it can really mess you up.

It depends on what kind of focusing you’re doing. If it involves a season for extra attention and conscientiousness and investment, to deepen the roots, or to heal — and so to better reflect Jesus and his bride — that can be a Godsend. Many of us have profited from seasons like this, and perhaps should do this more often.

But there’s another kind of focusing on your marriage — and in particular, the good effects of marriage — that can actually rob marriage of its God-designed, world-transforming power.

Marriage’s Amazing Effects

Marriage is an extraordinary reality, which bears extraordinary fruit not only …

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It’s wise to periodically pause and refresh ourselves on why we do what we do.

For those of us taking a break from our labors on this Labor Day (ironic, as it may be), here’s a triad of encouragements from the apostle Paul to remind Christians why we labor.

1) We labor not to be a burden to others. (2 Thessalonians 3:8)

If you don’t do your part to feed your own mouth, and you plan to keep feeding it, then you’re banking on someone else to provide food for you. Same with clothes and shelter and Internet. One of the Christian motivations for laboring at our jobs is being able to provide for ourselves (and our families, 1 Timothy 5:8), and not be a burden to others.

Paul recounts tha…

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Is there a silver bullet for increasing Christlikeness? It’s doubtful that speaking like that will bring more clarity than confusion. But there is biblical precedent for talk about finding “the secret.”

In Philippians 4:11–13, the apostle Paul, having thanked his friends for their generous provision of his needs, concedes,

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

There it is, “the secret.” Paul says he’s learned “th…

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“In, but not of”— if you’ve spent much time Christian circles, you’re probably familiar with this slogan. In the world, but not of the world. It captures a truth about Jesus’s followers. There’s a real sense in which we are “in” this world, but not “of” it.

In, but not of. Yes, yes, of course.

But might this punchy phrase be giving the wrong impression about our (co)mission in this world as Christians? The motto could seem to give the drift, We are in this world, alas, but what we really need to do is make sure that we’re not of it.

In this way of configuring things, the starting place is our unfortunate condition of being “in” this world. Sigh. And our mission, it appears, is …

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Chick-fil-A was a veritable tempest in a pot of iced tea in recent weeks. But we weren't afraid to touch on the subject, albeit tangentally, with an angle on the tolerance of God.

In this latest edition of Behind the Blog, we talk about the tolerance posts, give an update on new Piper publications, provide the backstory on several recent ventures, and offer a glimpse into what's in the works.

This time, at the request of our producer Stefan Green, we threw caution to the wind — along with our "less than five minutes" slogan — for a more extended edition of Behind the Blog. Below are links for the topics we touch on in this episode.

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Holiness starts with God. Discussions about holiness get off on the wrong foot when they begin with what we don’t do, rather than with who God is.

This is essential to keep in mind as we talk about sanctification — the process of our becoming holy. Before we get too far down the road with the derivative holiness of the creature, let’s tune into the original holiness of the Creator.

The holiness of God, says R.C. Sproul in his classic book, is “one of the most important ideas that a Christian can ever grapple with. It is basic to our whole understanding of God and of Christianity” (12).

Holiness Carries Us to the Brink

In trying to define the almost indefinable, John Piper draws in a…

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We're serious about moving books.

At Desiring God, we seek to spread far and wide the "good news of great joy . . . for all the people" (Luke 2:10). And we aim to do this as freely as possible. One way we do that is through partners who join us in distribution through our outreach case specials by suggested donation.

While our ministry energies are focused primarily through our website, we also stand ready to move books in bulk so you can help us in the spreading. We've arranged for extraordinary case-lot specials on some of John Piper's books geared especially for outreach efforts. These titles are packaged in bulk, priced at the lowest possible rates (as suggested donations), ready…

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The clock is ticking. If you're faithfully "preaching the gospel" to your own soul, day in and day out, but distancing yourself from regular Bible intake, your freshness is fading. There's an expiration date on this fruit once it's off the vine.

Don't think I'm down on preaching the gospel to ourselves. I love it. I commend it. It's one of my main conscious sources for sanctification, an indispensable weapon for fighting the fight of faith. I'm eating this fruit daily. Warning you about the "shelf life" on gospel self-preaching is in hope of guarding and preserving this precious reality in the Christian life.

Gospel and Scripture — Together

The concern is that those of us convinced of …

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Is there any key to God's merciful blessings on a particular local church?

Pastors transition. Seasons of ministry change. Congregations are in flux. New initiatives come and go. But there is at least one thing that gives a battered little church ballast in the successive storms of change.

This excerpt begins at the 29:58 mark of this week's sermon, "All Scripture Is Breathed Out by God."

What if being a grace junkie didn't mean caring very little about Christian holiness and obedience? What if we could let grace be grace — wild and free — and at the same time let ourselves be captured by a desire to please God, without assuming it's automatically legalism?

Doug Wilson says we can. Indeed, such is the authentically Christian approach.

We asked for help navigating the ongoing discussion about the gospel and sanctification in the Reformed world. Some stress grace; others highlight holiness. Here's what Doug had to say:

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Sanctification is the theme of our upcoming National Conference. Visit the event page to learn more and register.