In my neck of the Christian woods, words like narrative, meta-narrative, story, storyline, biblical theology, and big picture abound. I would like to sound a note that may encourage some who, like me, may wonder how this language works to build faith in the human heart.

First, I affirm the common-sense hermeneutical principle that in any message, or essay or poem or novel or scene from a movie or conversation or psalm or gospel or epistle or chapter or verse, it is the parts that give existence to the whole, and the whole that gives meaning to the parts. 

The word “boy,” does not have much meaning. “The boy in the corner,” has more meaning. “Feed the boy in the corner,” has even more. “…

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Having read several articles by people who don’t plan to vote in the presidential election, my conclusion is: I’m going to vote.

It seems to me that the good that can be done, presumably by the protest of not voting, is mainly done by talking about not voting rather than by not voting. Then it also seems that this same good would be accomplished if those who thought they would not vote did all that talking, but then voted.

This wouldn’t be duplicitous if the main point of the talk is not mainly, “I am not going to vote,” but is mainly that the system or the parties or the platforms or the candidates or the views are so flawed. So why not let the blogs roll down like rivers against the de…

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Marilynne Robinson, whose novels Gilead and Home have moved many of us deeply, has just published a new collection of Essays titled When I Was a Child I Read Books.

Here’s a caution. Her fiction is more easily understood than her nonfiction. She admits, “My style is considerably more indebted to Cicero than to Hemingway” (87). That means her sentences sound like translations of good Latin. In other words, she writes non-fiction like John Owen.

The preface puts the book under the banner of America losing Democracy. The lead essay puts it under the banner of losing our soul. She would say, it's the same danger.

If you are willing to dig, there are gems in this hard ground. For example:

…

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Joel Heck, Professor of Theology at Concordia University, Texas, has served us again by publishing rare materials relating to C. S. Lewis. In 2008 he published The Personal Heresy: A Controversy. And now he has published the Socratic Digest (Concordia University Press, 2012), a digest of the biannual publication of the meetings of the Socratic Club at Oxford from 1943 to 1952. Lewis was a regular part of this club and seven of his essays are included, plus other Lewis-related interactions.

Here is an excerpt from the preface to help you know what you will find.

With the reprinting of the Socratic Digest, one more major document in Lewisiana becomes available to the general public. . . .

…

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When Blaise Pascal¹ and Jonathan Edwards²  (and I³) say that all human beings desire happiness we say something true and, for some, misleading.

Here’s the problem. Happiness (I’m not distinguishing it from joy) is an experience of the soul, something outside of me to be desired. So to desire happiness is not the same as desiring a cheese biscuit at Red Lobster, nor the same as desiring forgiveness for my sins. The biscuit and the forgiveness are desired because they make me happy (yes, yes, vastly different degrees of happiness). But happiness is not desired because it makes me happy. It is my happiness.

You see the problem. Happiness, and things that make us happy, are not in the…

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The hill of dying, not of death,
     Is steeper,
And all the climbers gashed.

On hands and knees, I take a breath,
     A creeper,
Barely moving, slashed.

And though the door of death is shut,
      The keeper
Beckons with a skull.

“But if my death is why you cut,
     Grim Reaper,
Why is your scythe so dull?”

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Recent poems from John Piper:

• Calvary Love
• My Life
• God Answers

Is there a word to help us feel 
     the weight of Adam's fall?
          All.

How heavy will this burden weigh,
     (Spare not!) on those who fell?
          Hell.

O Lord, so great this forfeiture!
     Was there sufficient reason?
          Treason.

Then whence could any traitor hope
     before your burning face?
          Grace.

But surely that will cost beyond
     our wage. How is it priced?
          Christ.

Entirely paid? By him? O God,
     and is that gift for me?
          Free.

I would receive this gift, O Lord!
     How soon would you allow?
          Now.

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Recent posts from John Piper:

• Spiritual Awakening and the Knowledge of God
• My…

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I have never understood or empathized with the view that knowing more about God gets in the way of loving God. And yet there are people who, it seems, build their lives and ministries inside the fog of doctrinal ambiguity.

It has been my conviction, and my experience, for over 40 years that knowing more about God from his inspired, energy-filled word puts more kindling in place so that the Holy Spirit can ignite a greater and greater flame of passion for God in our hearts.

The Mountain of Majesty

But there are people who believe that we will marvel at the majesty of the mountain of God’s truth more if we don’t try to climb it, but stay at a distance, leaving it in a cloud, hazy and i…

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Shall I now live for him, 
     for you, for me?
I shall. 
     And do you see:

If not for him, 
      what good for you or me?
If not for me, 
       what worth then he?
If not for you, 
      Then less the sum would be.

And will you say to me,
       “Is not this quest outrageous pleasuring?”
I answer, “Speak of we,
      And call this life contagious treasuring.”

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Recent posts from John Piper:

• Same-Sex Attraction and the Inevitability of Change
• Sometimes the Lord Slays His Loved Ones
• What Did Jesus Come to Save Us From?

Whether sexual orientation can change or not, hearts can change and turn any sexual orientation into an occasion for the glory of Christ. When Paul says, "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19–20), he did not exclude people with same-sex attraction.

Feasting and fasting have always been ways of glorifying Christ with food. Similarly sexual relations in marriage and sexual abstinence outside marriage have always been ways of glorifying Christ with our sexuality.

The Bible is not unclear that same-sex attraction is disordered (Romans 1:26–27), and that same-sex intercourse (as all adultery and fornication) is sin (1 Corint…

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