John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.
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All videos from "The Devotional on Glory" —
Watch on Vimeo or see related sermons:
All videos from "The Devotional on Glory" —
Watch on Vimeo or see related sermons:
All videos from "The Devotional on Glory" —
Dear Friends,
Why was John Calvin so mastered by the majesty of God? What kind of ministry did this produce?
In addition to the short Reformation Day video we made available today, we're offering three free ebooks to help you dig deeper into the life of John Calvin.
We like to think of Hebrews 11 as a divine summons for us to read Christian biography. Flawed but faith-fueling saints. Stories of grace. Deep inspiration. Some of the most worthy entertainment in the world are the stories of men of whom the world was not worthy.
Jo…
Dear Friends,
Today is Reformation Day. Martin Luther posted his explosive 95 theses October 31, 1517. In the wake of Luther’s life, an army of Reformers soon emerged. Foremost among them was John Calvin. Together they recovered for the church the supreme authority and clarity of the Scriptures. Grace-erasing tradition had buried the glory of the gospel. But now light was breaking out. So the Reformers took up a Latin phrase to describe the wonder: “Post Tenebras Lux”—“After Darkness... Light.”
In honor of Calvin’s ministry and, even more, in celebration of the God who restored the gospel to his church, we are making this video available today. My prayer is that it would stir in your hear…
As Dana Robert tells the story of the conversion of the Irish, lessons abound for our day. For example, here is a paragraph about the effect of Christianity on the condition of women in the seventh century.
Although little is known of women’s roles in Ireland before the coming of Christianity, its spread launched a new day for women’s rights once a Christian leader gained the public authority to limit warfare. In 697 the Abbot Adomnan (d. 704) issued the “Law of the Innocents” that gave the testimony of women legal force, and gave women limited property rights. Endorsed by ninety-one Irish kings and bishops, Adomnan’s law repudiated the previous situation of women as abused slaves and f…
"Lest You Be Hardened"
Hebrews 3:13
Your thoughts, your words, your ways
Are high,
So far above my place
That I
Sometimes perceive your broad
Daylight—
Your brilliant blue, your sun—
As night.
You love me with some shock,
A threat.
Am I then in the dock,
In debt?
You answer, "No, you're blest.
It's my
Alert, my kindness, lest
You die."
I see. Then, Lord, invoke
Your Dove.
Cause me to feel this stroke
As love.
Come, teach my heart in this
To rest,
To savor and to kiss
This “lest.”
Recent posts from John Piper:
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. “…
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…
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:
…
