Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology defines the Trinity as follows: “God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God” (p. 226).

Broken down, this amounts to three propositions:

• God is three persons.
• Each person is fully God.
• There is one God.

In addition, it’s helpful to elaborate on the fact that when we say “God is three persons,” we mean that he is not just one person, and that the persons of the Trinity are not to be confused. So we can also say:

• The Father is God.
• The Son is God.
• The Holy Spirit is God.
• The Father is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father.
• The Holy Spirit is not the Son, and the Son is not the Holy Spirit.
• The Son is not the Father, and the Father is not the Son.

If your head is starting to spin—then pe…

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Pastor John has often commented on how helped he is by David Powlison’s thoughtful, biblical reflections on Christ and life. For example, Pastor John has written:

Among living authors who think deeply about the Word of God and the workings of the human soul, I know of no one who writes more perceptively or ministers more deeply to me than David Powlison. As I write this, for example (August, 2000), I am reading his article in The Journal of Biblical Counseling, titled “‘Peace Be Still’: Learning Psalm 131 By Heart.” I am finding myself naked before the Word of God, as if David Powlison were living inside of me and exposing the anxieties and obsessions of my heart. I am convicted and made to cry out for deeper, far deeper, freedom from pride and fear of man. There are many today who specialize in soul-care or deep, faithful grasp of Biblical t…

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Scott Klusendorf is addressing the topic of The Pro-Life Pastor in the 21st Century. His thesis is that “The pro-life pastor commits himself to four essential tasks. First, he preaches a biblical view of human value and applies that view to abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and cloning. Second, he equips his people to engage the culture with a persuasive defense of the pro-life view. Third, he restores lost passion for ministry with cross-centered preaching. Fourth, he confronts his own fears about preaching inconvenient truth.”

Jesus’ “high priestly prayer” (John 17) is only about 650 words. It takes only 3 minutes and 30 seconds to read it aloud. But it will take all eternity for us to fully understand it!

I recently found it helpful to break down Jesus’ petitions and propositions into the following categories:

The Father Gave the Son...	John 17
authority to give eternal life	v. 2
people out of this world	vv. 2, 6, 9, 24
work to accomplish	v. 4
words	v. 8
his name	vv. 11, 12
glory	vv. 22, 24

The Son Gives Believers...	John 17
ete

…

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Twenty years ago this year John Piper and Wayne Grudem were instrumental in founding The Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

CBMW has now redesigned their website.

Among the hundreds upon hundreds of free, helpful resources, I’d draw attention in particular to a special half-conference for pastors and church leaders that took place prior to the Desiring God Conference for Pastors (January 31, 2005). Wayne Grudem offered a biblical defense of God’s design in creation and marriage, then C.J. Mahaney followed with practical instruction on how to implement this vision in your church.

R.C. Sproul gives a masterful response to this common explanation:

It is common to say that hell is the absence of God. Such statements are motivated in large part by the dread of even contemplating what hell is like. We try often to soften that blow and find a euphimism to skirt around it.

We need to realize that those who are in hell desire nothing more than the absence of God. They didn’t want to be in God’s presence during their earthly lives, and they certainly don’t want Him near when they’re in hell. The worst thing about hell is the presence of God there.

When we use the imagery of the Old Testament in an attempt to understand the forsakenness of the lost, we are not speaking of the idea of the departure of God or the absence of God in the sense that He ceases to be omnipresent.…

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Jerry Bridges’s new book, Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate, should be available at the DG conference. NavPress has posted the table of contents and the first chapter online for free as a PDF. It looks as if the book—which I have not yet seen—not only offers an overview theology on sin and its remedy, but specifically addresses the following sins:

• Ungodliness
• Anxiety and Frustration
• Discontentment
• Unthankfulness
• Pride
• Selfishness
• Lack of Self-Control
• Impatience and Irritability
• Anger
• Judgmentalism
• Envy, Jealousy, and Related Sins
• Sins of the Tongue
• Worldliness

In the preface Bridges summarizes his intent for the book:

This book, as the title announces, is about sin — not the obvious sins of our culture but the subtle sins of believers, the target audience of this book. So let me…

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In a helpful summary article, entitled Sovereign Grace and the Mystery of Election (PDF), C. J. Mahaney cites the following quote by Philip Ryken, who in turn quotes Donald Grey Barnhouse:

The famous American Bible teacher Donald Grey Barnhouse (1895–1960) often used an illustration to help people make sense of election. He asked them to imagine a cross like the one on which Jesus died, only so large that it had a door in it. Over the door were these words from Revelation: “Whosoever will may come.” These words represent the free and universal offer of the gospel. By God’s grace, the message of salvation is for everyone. Every man, woman, and child who will come to the cross is invited to believe in Jesus Christ and enter eternal life.

On the other side of the door a happy surprise awaits the one who beli…

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This weekend thousands will be coming to Minneapolis to participate in Desiring God’s national conference, Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints.

Whether or not you are coming to the conference, I think you’ll find the following DG Conference YouTube videos to be both instructive and edifying:

John Piper

• What Is This Conference About?
• Why These Speakers?
• The Message of this Conference

Helen Roseveare (by Noel Piper)

• A Biographical Overview of Helen Roseveare
• A Word Picture from Helen Roseveare

Randy Alcorn

• A Message to 20-Somethings

Jerry Bridges

• Who Exemplifies Faithfulness?
• Relationships, Dependence, and Responsibility
• The Middle Class Threatens Faithfulness
• Bitterness and a Demanding Spirit Threaten Faithfulness…

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Nearly four years ago our friends Dustin and Kellie Shramek lost their precious son, Owen. In the book Suffering and the Sovereignty of GodDustin wrote a chapter about some of the lessons that God taught him--lessons about God, and also lessons about how and how not to minister to those in nearly unbearable grief and pain.

After the book was published, Women Today Radio did a brief interview with Dustin, that I thought might be helpful to reprint here:

If some female member of your household has influenced your life for Christ, share her story.

My wife has had a significant impact on my life for Christ. One thing I didn't mention in my chapter was what took place right after our son Owen died. He was delivered by an emergency C-section and only lived for twenty minutes. Since my wife, Kellie, had to undergo general anesthesia, she n…

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