Luther writes about “Abba, Father” in Galatians 4:6:

The lips say nothing, but the heart says something like this: ‘Although I am oppressed with anguish and fear on every side and seem to be forsaken and utterly cast away from your presence, I am still your child, and you are my Father, and for Christ’s sake. I am loved because of the Beloved.’

In serious temptations, when the conscience is wrestling with the judgment of God, it is inclined to call God not a Father but an unjust, angry, cruel tyrant and judge. And this crying, which Satan stirs up in our hearts, is felt strongly, for it seems then that God has forsaken us and will throw us down into hell. (See Psalm 31:12, 22.)

This is no…

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Here’s a hymn from John Newton that is worth reading and praying aloud several times (and returning to often):

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare:
Jesus loves to answer prayer;
He Himself has bid thee pray,
Therefore will not say thee nay;
Therefore will not say thee nay.

Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring;
For His grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much;
None can ever ask too much.

With my burden I begin:
Lord, remove this load of sin;
Let Thy blood, for sinners spilt,
Set my conscience free from guilt;
Set my conscience free from guilt.

Lord, I come to Thee for rest,
Take possession of my breast;
There Thy blood bought right maintain,
And without a rival

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John Piper on knowing God versus being known by God:

But in [1 Corinthians 8:3] Paul does not simply relate loving God to knowing as we ought to know. He says,  ‘But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.’ What is the point of saying, ‘He is known by God’? This is parallel to Galatians 4:9: ‘But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world?’

Deeper than knowing God is being known by God. What defines us as Christians is not most profoundly that we have come to know him but that he took note of us and made us his own.

Being known by God is another way of talking about election—Go…

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Piper on lowering standards to fill church leadership roles:

The acceptability of a church lowering its standards in order to fill leadership roles is this: "low" is partly relative, isn't it?

If you have a church that's made up mainly of long-term, seasoned, wise, mature, Bible-knowing Christians, your standards of who should lead in that group are going to be high, because in order to lead you have to be ahead of somebody.

In a church made up of newer believers or just simpler non-studying believers who don't know as much about their Bibles, what it will take to be ahead of others in that situation will not be as far ahead in Bible knowledge as in another kind of church. So for that to …

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Early on in Piper’s pastorate, he articulated some theological reasons for having church picnics:

If picnics don’t have to do with God we may as well close up shop. Either all we do has to do with God or he is not God. “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do (like picnics), do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Here are his main points:

Meeting as a church out-of-doors is an affirmation and celebration of God as creator of the world;

 

Informal togetherness, especially involving recreation, cultivates the unity of God’s people, which we are commanded to maintain (Ephesians 4:3);

A leisurely afternoon together affirms the need for rest and re-creation. 

Read Pipe…

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C. S. Lewis on “mere Christianity”:

I hope no reader will suppose that “mere” Christianity is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of the existing communions—as if a man could adopt it in preference to Congregationalism or Greek Orthodoxy or anything else.

It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals.

—C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins, 1952), xv.

This idea of “mere Christianity” did not originate with Lewis, but with English Puritan Richard Baxter in the 1600's:

For one sect…

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Romans 9:14-18—

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

In 2003 Piper preached on this text. Shortly afterward he composed this hymn based on this passage, sung to the tune of “O For a Thousand Tongues!”:

Is there injustic

…

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Scottish theologian John Murray reflects on the Christian’s spiritual adoption:

The great truth of God’s fatherhood and of the sonship which bestows upon men is one that belongs to the application of redemption. It is true in respect of all men no more than are effectual calling, regeneration, and justification.

God becomes the Father of his own people by the act of adoption. It is the marvel of such grace that constrained the apostle John to exclaim, ‘Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God’ (1 John 3:1). And to assure his readers of this privilege as a present possession and not simply a hope for the future he adds immediately,…

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Piper explains his position on alcohol and church membership:

When I came to Bethlehem Baptist Church over [three] decades ago, this was one of the first controversies I had to deal with. We survived it and are he better for it. I think what I learned may be helpful.

 

Among Baptist and other congregationally governed churches, the local church constitution generally contains an affirmation of faith and church covenant. The church covenant describes a core set of Biblical expectations relating to how members live; while the affirmation of faith describes a core of Biblical expectations relating to what members believe. As a general rule, therefore, the expectations of the church covenant, …

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C. S. Lewis writes about the problem of forgiveness:

. . . you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out. The difference between this situation and the one in such you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.

As regards my own sin it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men’s sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may sh…

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