Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1–2)

Hebrews 12:1–2 tells us to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Part of our motivation is that “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.” These are the runners from chapter 11 who finished the race of life before us. They have come around to line the way and cheer us on bec…

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Word pictures have power to put familiar wonders back where they belong — in the heart of worship. Isaiah pictured the Messiah as so tender he would not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick (Isaiah 42:3). Yet he will be so mighty that he will bring justice to victory over all the evil of the world (Isaiah 42:1, 3).

Some years ago God wakened a word picture in my mind for Holy Week. Then and now the effect was to put the familiar wonder of the tender mercy and terrible might of Jesus back where they belong—in my worshipping heart. I pray it will have a similar effect on you.

A little lamb was born all wooly-white with skinny legs and a wet nose, pretty much like all the other …

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A few years ago, I was asked on camera what I would say to the Pope if I had two minutes with him. I said I would ask him what he believed about justification. The video ended with me putting the question to the Pope and then responding as follows:

“Do you teach that we should rely entirely on the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by faith alone as the ground of God being 100% for us, after which necessary sanctification comes? Do you teach that?”

And if he said, “No, we don’t,” then I’d say, “I think that right at the core of Roman Catholic theology is a heresy,” or something like that.

“Heresy” is a strong word. The problem with it is that its meaning and implications are not clear.…

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The new website for Cross has just gone live.

Cross is a new student missions conference. I serve on the leadership team — along with Thabiti Anyabwile, Kevin DeYoung, David Platt, Zane Pratt, David Sitton, and Mack Stiles — and want to be among the first to invite you to come.

It will take place in Louisville, Kentucky, December 27–30, this year. I would love for the Desiring God regulars to get in on the $50 registration cost for the first 500 to sign up.

Why a new student missions conference? Here’s my seven-point answer.

1. With 7,000 schools of higher learning, and 15,000,000 students, and a spread of 5,000 miles (from Maine to Hawaii), there is room in America for another conferenc…

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Too Late

At concourse G, gate seventeen,
     My sweat and panting pleas
That obstacles were unforeseen 
     May have been fantasies 
For all they cared of where I’d been.
    The door was locked within.
“I waited at another gate,”
     I pled. They said, “Too late.”

I wait, and weary, fall—hurled back
    Through sluggish centuries—
Asleep. The roof of my poor shack
    Unrhythmic’ly taps. These
Drops of rain suddenly unite
    In weeks of raging night.
I linger, doubting. Then flail straight
    To Noah’s ark. Too late.

Again I dream. Esau. I scratch
    My hairy arms and smell
The wildness in my clothes, and snatch
    At ev’ry hollow shell
Of happiness—in vain—and gr…

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As I look back over 32 years of pastoral ministry at Bethlehem one of the sweet legacies I savor is the solid place Bible memorization has in the church. I am not the only, or even the main reason for this. David and Sally Michael hold that place under God’s good providence. But I have loved it, nurtured it, and tried to model it.

Because I believe in it with all my heart.

At the core of this commitment is what we call the Fighter Verse program. This is a church-wide encouragement for young and old to memorize together each week a portion of Scripture. The verses are planned out for five years. Then we start over.

They’re called “fighter verses” because the one offensive weapon in our spi…

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The Anglican Church designates February 27 as the Feast Day in commemoration of the pastor and poet George Herbert. So I am glad to wave again my little flag of love for Herbert’s poetry.

For depth of biblical insight, penetration of the human psyche, candor with his own wrestling soul, plundering of human language, surprising turns of phrase, technically unique versification, and musical much-making of the gospel, his poetry is unsurpassed.

• For the most thorough and helpful (and expensive) critical edition, see Helen Wilcox, The English Poems of George Herbert (Cambridge University Press, 2007).

• Jim Scott Orrick gives us one poem a week with his helpful comments in A Year with George Herb…

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Perhaps most of you are accustomed to saying that the kingdom of God is “not yet” here and is “already” here. Not yet here in its consummation, but already here in significant fulfillments.

In fact, “fulfillment without consummation” was the scandal of Jesus’s ministry. He claimed that the kingdom of God “is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:21), and yet Jesus was not overthrowing the Roman regime. Even John the Baptist was perplexed and asked, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3).

This was the “secret of the kingdom” revealed only to a few. “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables” (Mark …

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In my sermon last Sunday I argued from 2 John 1:5–7 that love among Christians is a great protection against deception. John wrote, “Love one another. . . . For many deceivers have gone out into the world.” So I take it that love helps protect us from these deceivers.

I said that I saw four reasons in 2 John that love functions this way. But I only had time to describe two of them in the sermon. So here are the other two.

1. Love takes seriously all the commandments of God.

Verse 6: “This is love, that we walk according to his commandments.” John had said this in 1 John 5:2, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.”

This doesn’t mean …

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I continue listening to The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797). In the midst of chapter seven the slave obtains his freedom. It was 1766.

His own description of his ecstasy jolted me into a joyful experience of my own freedom — my stunning manumission from the power of sin to God through the death of Christ. Here is his amazing description of his joy.

My imagination was all rapture as I flew to the Register Office. . . . I could scarcely believe I was awake. Heavens! Who could do justice to my feelings at this moment!

— Not conquering heroes themselves, in the midst of a triumph
— Not the tender mother who has just regained her long-lost infant, and presses…

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