See our video team's footage of the scene yesterday and listen to John Piper talk about why there is suffering in the world.

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We've received quite a bit of feedback regarding John Piper's comments on racially diverse portraits of Jesus, so I want to offer some additional thoughts that I hope will be clarifying.

A few people have asked if it's a waste of time to discuss what color Jesus should be in artistic portrayals of him. There are certainly more important issues, but I think it is a worthwhile question, one reason being that it can lead to discussions of at least two deeper, more important issues: race and art.

Most of the feedback we've received has touched more on the artistic than the racial aspect, so that's what I'll respond to here.

If the goal of art is to strictly represent reality, t…

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Listen to John Piper talk about whether artistic portrayals of Jesus should be racially diverse.

Update: I've added some follow-up thoughts in a second post on this issue. 

Not that we need psychologists to show that the human heart is desperately sick, but apparently there is some scientific recognition now that babies are deceitful. What's amazing is not that infants lie as early as six months, but that "until now, psychologists had thought the developing brains were not capable of the difficult art of lying until four years old."

"Difficult art of lying"? I've never found it that hard, myself. And my two-year-old takes after me in that regard. Lying comes quite naturally; always telling the truth is what's difficult.

Dr. Reddy, the psychologist leading the study of infant lying, "thinks children use early fibs to discover what kinds of lie work in…

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It would be hard to have a slow, careful, exegetical Bible study about the second half of the book of Joshua. Chapters 13 to 21 are mostly lists: what parcels of land are going to which tribe of Israel.

Much of the Old Testament is like this—genealogies, lists, rules, procedures. As lovers of the Bible, what should we make of these mundane details? Is it even appropriate to call parts of God's word mundane? It sounds sacrilegious.

What does it matter, though, that Issachar received the territories around Jezreel, Chesulloth, Shunem, and 13 other cities? Or that Manasseh's land reached from Asher to Michmethah, just east of Shechem?

Joshua tells us why these obscure details …

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(This is the 5th message in a 7-part series we're posting on racial harmony.)

Five arguments that are used to oppose interracial marriage and responses to counteract them:

Listen

1. Races are God's will and therefore amalgamating them is against his will. (Genesis 11:6-9, Deuteronomy 32:8, Acts 17:26)

Responses:

1. These proof texts refer to separation of peoples that are along lines much more narrow than race. They are not racial divisions, so, used this way, they "prove" too much, since they would seem to forbid intermarrying between any people group boundaries even within the same race.
2. When God separated the peoples in Genesis 11:6-9 it was by language, not race. …

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Norman Fried writes about the value of fatherhood. He acknowledges that the feelings surrounding Father's Day are varied.

For some, it leaves us anxious, as we recall the man who couldn’t be there when we needed him, or the man who is not here now when we need him the most. For others, it stimulates feelings of gratitude as we honor the times we had with our father by our side. There are some among us who never knew our father; others who have not yet separated and, thus, never had to learn to say goodbye. Regardless of our own individual story, we are, all of us, reminded at this time every year just how important fatherhood is; how lives are shaped, and paths are forged, t…

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Watch an excerpt of Piper protesting the prosperity gospel and exulting in God, whose glory shines in suffering.

The audio in this clip is from the message "Where Is God? (UCF)."

(HT: Videos About Money)

Sometimes I pretend I don't have time. All the tasks on my to-do list are incredibly important.

I'm too busy to answer that email. Too busy to help my neighbor—anyway, I don't even speak Spanish. And I can't give my wife a hand—too much to do. I've got a meeting. I've got to get the sermon posted. I'm blogging. Terribly important, indeed.

Then there's Jesus.

When his cousin and friend John the Baptist had just been beheaded, Jesus tried to go to a lonely place to mourn, but the crowds beat him there. He healed their sick and he served them all dinner. Only then, in the evening, did he get a chance to be alone. And even that was interrupted (Matthew 14:10-25).

Another time…

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Two things show if someone is selling the Gospel, and two things should be preached in order to avoid it: Only in Christ is there satisfaction and only in Christ is there justification.

Listen to Piper's message to this year's graduating class at The Bethlehem Institute (20 min).

What Are the Signs of a Gospel-Peddler?

1. Craves earthly pleasure
2. Dreads earthly pain

What Does a Gospel-Peddler Preach?

1. Human prosperity is the gift of salvation. This appeals to the desire for earthly pleasure and replaces God’s worth with money.
2. Human obedience is the price of justification. This appeals to the desire for earthly achievement and replaces God’s …

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