A few years ago Piper preached 7 Wednesday night messages on racial harmony. We are going to offer them here as a blog series. You can subscribe to the RSS feed if you would like to see when a new installment is posted. Or you can just check back—I will try to post a new one each week.

His first message answers the question, "Why even deal with racial issues?"

Listen

(The intro is good, but long. If you are pressed for time, start the audio about 11 minutes in.)

From the Intro—This Is a Hard Issue

A bunch of you could do a better job, because I’m learning and you’ve dealt with it all you life, some of you.

But that would not have the same impac…

Continue Reading →

Noel Piper tells the story of one of her sons really enjoying the books The Cross and the Switchblade and Run, Baby, Run. This son did not generally like reading, so it was especially exciting that he had gotten into these stories. When he finished both books, he went to the library and asked if the librarian could direct him to more stories that he might enjoy. She asked him what he liked and he replied, “Christian books about gang warfare.”

Encouraging your children in their own peculiar interests and making sure they know the neighborhood librarian are two ways to help them enjoy reading. Kathy Zahler compiles a list of other strategies in her book 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Rais…

Continue Reading →

Many parents are brokenhearted and completely baffled by their unbelieving son or daughter. They have no clue why the child they raised well is making such awful, destructive decisions. I’ve never been one of these parents, but I have been one of these sons. Reflecting back on that experience, I offer these suggestions to help you reach out to your wayward child.

In summary:

1. Point them to Christ.
2. Pray.
3. Acknowledge that something is wrong.
4. Don’t expect them to be Christ-like.
5. Welcome them home.
6. Plead with them more than you rebuke them.
7. Connect them to believers who have better access to them.
8. Respect their friends.
9. Email them.
10. Take them to lunc…

Continue Reading →

The "Holi Baibul" is now completely translated into Kriol, a language spoken by 30,000 Australians. This is the first complete translation of the Bible into an indigenous Australian tongue.

According to "The Religion Report" from ABC Radio National, there are about 51,000 speakers of indigenous languages in Australia, so this translation means that 6 out of 10 of these speakers can now read the Bible in their own language. Although, Margaret Micken, the project coordinator, points out, "Maybe they won't all be able to read it first up because the spelling system reflects the traditional way that people have written and been writing Aboriginal languages, but if they read English, they'll…

Continue Reading →

The specific, nitty-gritty, sometimes disgusting, sometimes beautiful things that God has done really matter. We're saved by faith alone, but faith needs facts. We need to believe in something particular and concrete.

After Joshua and all his contemporaries died, we are told that "there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord" (Judges 2:10-11).

They didn't know God, and this led them into sin. They didn't know God because they hadn't learned about the things he had done for them in the past. Their parents neglected to tell them the stories.

They didn…

Continue Reading →

Some of you may know Charlie Handren as the guy in charge of the prayer ministry at several past DG conferences. He is also Bethlehem Baptist's Church Planting Resident and will be going out to start a new church in a few months. He preached this weekend while Piper is in Portland.

His sermon was on John 15:1-11. One of his points was that the word "ask" in the phrase "ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" implies fervency. To put this passion for prayer in practice, he led his small group (the nucleus of the new church) on a 40 day fast from February 27 to April 7. Each day he blogged a short devotional on this passage in John and concluded each post with suggestions of w…

Continue Reading →

I read an article a few days ago about the bleaker side of "Christian" fundraising--fake handwriting, ghostwriting, and all sorts of other manipulation (HT: SI). If I were on the outside of Christian ministry, I would be skeptical of it all, so I wanted to just make a few simple promises about DG's fundraising.

Here are some quotes from the article and how we would respond here at DG.

The fact is, the “personal” ministry letter you receive each month was probably not written by the ministry leader at all, but by a direct mail strategist, and designed by a graphic designer for maximum response.

There is no ghostwriting at Desiring God. If a person's name is on a …

Continue Reading →

Here's a messy way to draw your youngsters into the meaning of this weekend. Make a mountain out of playdough to tell the story of Jesus' death and then turn it around and you have the tomb he arises from.

This idea can be found in Noel Piper's book, Treasuring God in Our Traditions.

Ingredients for playdough:

• 4 c. of flour
• 1.5 c. salt
• 1.5 c. water
• 1 Tbs. oil

Mix ingredients and knead. Add small amounts of water as needed until the texture is right.

1. Use two backyard sticks bound together with twine to make a cross about five or six inches tall.

2. Shape the whole lump of play dough into a mountain. The size will be determined by the…

Continue Reading →

The more we know of the galaxies, the more intense our worship should be.

Piper made this point last weekend, noting that if the ancients were astounded by God's handiwork in the heavens, how much more should we be who can see millions of miles further than them.

But I live in downtown Minneapolis. The only star I can regularly point out from my neighborhood is the sun. So I was happy to come across Wikisky tonight (HT: The Daily Dish). It offers a star map of our sky along with details on whichever star you run your mouse over. These stats don't mean much to me, unfortunately--but they have pictures too.

Nothing on screen can compare to what God has actually made, of course, b…

Continue Reading →