Few occasions are more anticipated than graduation. We invite our loved ones, wear clothes we never wear anywhere else, and take lots and lots of pictures.

This past Friday evening, John Piper addressed the graduates of Bethlehem College & Seminary with a stunning message from 1 Corinthians 3:21–23: In Christ, all things are yours.

While it may seem like there is plenty to boast about in graduation––good grades, completed papers, accumulated knowledge, years of hard work, and even future ministry possibilities––all are pitifully dwarfed by the riches of what Christ has purchased and secured for us. Paul is yours. Apollos is yours. Cephas is yours. The world, life, death, the present, a…

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We have never known days like these at Desiring God.

John Piper is now on staff full-time at DG and has begun a more unfettered ministry to the wider world through writing and speaking.

Along the way, we want to make it easy for you to see what he’s up to and hear what he’s been saying lately. Here’s a rich baker’s dozen of new messages from Pastor John so far in 2013.

1. “Joy As the Power to Suffer in the Path of Love for the Sake of Liberation”
Passion Conference | Atlanta, GA

The year began with a bang, as John addressed more than 60,000 college students in the Georgia Dome on how our joy in God frees us to suffer the sake of others’ freedom.

2. “Sailing to the Nations to Finish th…

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Not long ago, we learned that Kermit Gosnell had been killing babies in the third trimester and even after they were delivered, for decades. Just this week, we watched as bombs ripped through an unsuspecting crowd in downtown Boston. They’re not the same, but they are horrifying and mouth-stopping evils.

It’s enough to make us cry out to God, “Arise, O Lᴏʀᴅ; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted. Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, ‘You will not call to account’?” (Psalm 10:12–13). Why God? Why allow Gosnell to gruesomely murder these innocents? Why allow the explosions to maim so many innocents, and even kill three? You are God, right? You won’t let them get…

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Sunday night, Bethlehem thanked God publicly for 33 years of John Piper’s pastoral ministry. As part of the celebration, Bethlehem partnered with Desiring God and Bethlehem College & Seminary to produce a 19-minute video tribute to Pastor John.

Here the storyline is told through the testimonies of five people — a pastor, a mother, a missionary, a student, and an inner-city worker — all powerfully touched by God through John’s ministry, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. As you watch, thank God with us for his work in and through John, and pray with us for more stories of God’s grace as John continues to write and speak.

More on John Piper’s transition:

• Recommissioned and…

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If you’re single, Satan is after you.

Okay, he’s after all of us, but there are some unique dangers in singleness — especially in unwanted singleness. He loves to deceive and discourage single people in the church and derail our devotion and ministry. But God intends to use you, your faith, your time, and your singleness in radical ways right now, as you are.

You might come away from a reading of 1 Corinthians 7 with two categories in mind: those who will live, serve, and die single and those who must marry. Paul sings singleness’s praises, listing the spiritual benefits of being spouse-free. The single life can be (relatively) free from relational anxieties (7:32), worldly distractions (7…

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Atlanta, Ga. – From the opening note, Passion 2013 has been another brilliant illustration of how big our God is, and that he is capable of capturing a generation of young people who know, love, and live for Jesus. 

Louie Giglio and the Passion team continue to grow and refine a movement that engages students with a big vision of God, and then aims to set their lives on a trajectory of mission, sacrifice, and service for the advance of the gospel.

It’s impossible to adequately describe the experience of standing together in one room with 60,000 college students worshipping through strong, God-centered music, and then sitting with them to receive God's word and his commission to make him …

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Some posts meet our readers in especially powerful or timely ways. We strive to provide God-glorifying, heart-stirring, church-building content every day, but we realize that some prove more memorable than others. With that in mind, here are the 25 most accessed posts from the Desiring God blog in 2012 to remind you of some of our highlights from the last year.

Many were touched by the story of Ian and Larissa. Others happily wandered into Chesterton’s elfland or Tolkien’s shire. Our posts for mothers and about parenting have been as popular as any. Some turned here before the election in deciding whether to vote or not, and how they should pray. More recently, thousands were comforted and…

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While there may be many Christians in the world truly qualified to speak on suffering for the gospel, few of them are Westerners. One with some qualification is Zane Pratt, who lived and ministered in Central Asia for 20 years and is now dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at Southern Seminary. For two decades, he sought to reach Muslims for Jesus in some of the regions most resistant to the gospel.

In Theology and Practice of Mission: God, the Church, and the Nations (B&H, 2011), a valuable volume edited by Bruce Ashford, Pratt writes that affluent Christians in the West “need to cultivate the mindset of readiness to lose anything and everything at a moment’s notic…

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My seminary education was unbelievably special. It was a unique and weighty privilege to give myself for a season to the intense, disciplined, and uninterrupted study of God in his word.

I graduated this May from Bethlehem Seminary, and I can honestly say I would do it all over again, if given the chance. I simply wouldn’t trade the lessons learned, friendships forged, or skills acquired for anything. Seminary was a sweet and special season. But was it really special?

In a fresh article for Tabletalk, summarizing the blog series “How to Stay Christian in Seminary,” David Mathis says no. I wish I could have read this in August of 2008 before diving into my seminary season. While it can be…

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When going to war or defending his family, a man would be silly to arm himself with the bellows from his fireplace. An accordion with a kazoo on the end simply won’t strike fear in any enemy, however weak, small, and outnumbered. How much power can there be in small, manual puffs of air?

But what if the enemy is Satan? And our bellows is blowing the life-sustaining, hope-inspiring oxygen of God’s promises in the gospel? That changes everything. When Paul wants to instill strength, courage, and perseverance in the face of persecution, he tells his young disciple Timothy, “Fan the flame.”

Don’t Let Faith Die

Timothy, says Paul, your mother and grandmother believed, and they built the ki…

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