“The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:40). Jesus said this of second coming. But it’s also a familiar pattern of Jesus’ dealings with us in almost all areas. His reasons for this are mysterious and glorious, as the woman at the well in John 4 experienced.

Let’s imagine this Samaritan woman many years later as Photine¹, living in Rome and listening to a young friend, Clodia, expressing her discouragement in waiting on Jesus.

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Photine sensed Clodia’s invisible burden. “What’s on your mind, dear?”

“Nothing.”

“You know I don’t accept that response. Would you hand me the basket of pears?”

Clodia passed the basket. “I know. But nothing is what’s on my mind .…

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Cursed are the anxieties that choke the word and blind us to glory and true joy. Even the anxieties over things legitimate in themselves (Luke 10:40-42).

They frequently surround us and constantly demand our attention. The meal needs to be made, the car needs cleaning, the garage is out of control. Let’s not talk about the laundry room. Are you ever going to read that parenting book? You’re not saving enough for retirement! When are you going to complete that course? Have you updated your will yet? Has the child finished his chores? Oh for goodness’ sake, look at the bathroom!

Legitimate things all of them, and a thousand others like them. None of them is wrong to do in themselves. …

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Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation (Hebrews 11:1–2).

Hebrews 11 is in the Bible to remind us that God hides his most precious treasures for his saints in their most difficult and painful experiences.

When we read this chapter we are supposed to stop and reflect more deeply on this strange motif because it’s just a brief summary (“And what more shall I say, for time will fail me to tell of…” (Hebrews 11:32).

Think of how Abraham and Sarah agonized with infertility, then waited 25 years for God to fulfill his promise of Isaac. Think of how Isaac and Rebekah agonized over the treachero…

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There is nothing more wonderful than seeing and nothing more horrible than blindness.

But I’m not talking about physical blindness. Some whose physical eyes can’t see can see far, far better than others whose head-eyes see just fine (John 9:39). It’s blindness to glory—spiritual blindness—that is so horrible, so impoverishing to the soul.

That’s because “the deepest longing of the human heart is to know and enjoy the glory of God. We were made for this.”¹ To the degree that we do not see the glory of God, we live in the shadow-lands, wondering why our lives and affections seem so thin, why nothing satisfies.

Perhaps the greatest blinder of our spiritual eyes is our self-obsess…

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There is more mercy than we realize when God chooses not to tell us everything. When the disciples were with Jesus on the Mount of Olives just before his ascension to the Father, one of them asked a question that must have been on everyone’s mind: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).

It had been a long wait. 2,000 years had passed since Abraham had been promised a seed that would bless all the families of the earth. It had been 1,500 years since Moses foretold that a great prophet would arise to lead the people and 1,000 years had gone by since David had been promised an eternal heir to his throne.

Now, after Jesus's glorious, triumphal resurr…

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As a Christian, when you experience a painful providence like an illness or a rebellious child or a broken marriage or a financial hardship or persecution, do you ever wonder if God is punishing you for some sin you committed?

If you do, there is some very good news from the letter to the Hebrews.

The original readers of this letter had been experiencing persecution and affliction for some time. They were tired, discouraged, and confused — why was God allowing such hardships? And some were doubting.

So after some doctrinal clarifications and some firm exhortations and a few sober warnings (so they could examine if their faith was real) the author of the letter brought home a v…

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Paul called it a “profound mystery” (Ephesians 5:32). Earthly marriage between a man and a woman is a momentary parable of one of the most gloriously permanent things in the seen and unseen worlds: Christ’s marriage to his church.

That’s why John Piper writes, “There has never been a generation whose general view of marriage is high enough.” And in the United States the general view of marriage continues to erode. Every day in the public square it’s under fire:

• Who says that marriage should only be between one man and one woman?
• Why should any two consenting adults be denied marriage if they’re in love?
• Isn’t being in love essentially what marriage is all about?
• Who says marriage ough…

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“Man, that guy’s got a voice!” That was my first impression of Joe Hallett.

In the fall of 1990, my wife and I joined Bethlehem Baptist’s young adult Sunday School class. And during the worship times Joe’s voice would soar above everybody’s. He wasn’t a big guy — about 5-foot-7, maybe 130 pounds. But when he sang he was a man among men.

Joe wasn’t shy either. In our first conversation he just laid it out there. A decade earlier he had left college to dive into the gay community — the bars, the trysts, the flamboyant clothes, everything. And it had been exciting and liberating at first, after the misery of his sexually abused childhood and depressed teens. But the “gay lifestyle” turned…

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In January 1999, Desiring God was four years old and in a growth spurt. Our office was partly in two old Sunday School rooms and partly on the balcony of Bethlehem Baptist Church's vacated (and now demolished) old sanctuary. We had eight staff members, growing demands, and new dreams. But we needed someone with serious organizational horsepower to help us before things got out of hand.

And the Lord sent Bill Walsh.

Bill joined the DG team at the beginning of February of that year as our Production and Distribution Manager. Mainly it meant he made things run. And he did it really well. As DG grew, so did his job. Pretty soon he was Director of Operations.

But by 2006, the Lord h…

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How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep!
The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this” (Psalm 92:5–6).

The devil does not want you to wonder. Wonder is deadly to the domain of darkness because of its dangerous tendency to lead to worship.

So the devil is going to do his level best to keep you stupid — stupid in the sense of being sense-less. If he can’t damn you, he will try to dumb you. You must resist him (1 Peter 5:9)!

All the senses that God has given you are telling you about God today (Romans 1:20). And one of the healthiest things you can do for your soul after prayer and bathing in God’s living Word is to listen to creation tell you about t…

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