ESPN analyst Chris Broussard on homosexuality. C.S. Lewis on joy. Choosing a seminary. Processing a tragedy. And how far is too far in dating. It’s all in a fortnight of Ask Pastor John episodes.

What follows are excerpts from each episode (click on hyperlinked titles to listen).

How Far Is Too Far Before Marriage, Spiritually and Emotionally? (Episode 84):

A man especially needs to stay awake to what is happening emotionally and spiritually and personally in the relationship. Don’t take yourself into a depth of spiritual and emotional bonding that will not consummate in marriage and sexual union. Be alert that every step deeper into emotional and spiritual union with a woman’s so…

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MINNEAPOLIS — It’s no secret John Piper is an introvert.

This week 75 pastors and ministry leaders gathered together as a local chapter of TGC Twin Cities to hear Pastor John share about his 33 years of ministry. The discussion was led by R.W. Glenn of Redeemer Bible Church.

One of the first questions was how an introverted pastor, like Piper, has learned to love others through his personal gifts and limitations.

The Pastor As Introvert

“It’s amazing how many introverts go into ministry,” Pastor John said of himself and others. But it’s true. For many pastors, hanging out with people is physically draining. “A lot of people would say that’s a bad thing; you should repent of that and…

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Tomorrow we celebrate the ascension of Jesus, a date marked out 40 days after his resurrection, when he departed from earth and returned bodily to heaven (Luke 24:50–53, Acts 1:9–11).

On first glance, Jesus rising up in the clouds may seem like something out of a Monty Python skit. It’s perhaps a little difficult to understand, maybe even a little bizarre to grasp, and even more difficult to apply. And yet the ascension of Jesus carries with it a full range of implications for our lives, something we discover in today’s episode of the Authors on the Line podcast.

I put two pastor-theologians on the line to explain. First up, Gerrit Scott Dawson, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church…

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Note: Click the CC button to watch this video with captions in 17 different languages.

It’s been one year since we released this video, very simply titled: “The Story of Ian and Larissa.” The response was (and continues to be) stunning — over 1.5 million plays online from viewers around the world. But such impressive numbers only faintly echo the measure of grace in the lives of Ian and Larissa Murphy. And to mark the one-year anniversary of the video release, we wanted to reconnect with them for a quick update through this written interview.

Ian and Larissa, thank you for your time. The video has generated a lot of responses — and diverse ones at that. Any thoughts on the response? A…

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C.S. Lewis, panhandlers, and laziness: these are all themes from this week's lineup of Ask Pastor John podcast episodes. Three episodes focus on C. S. Lewis and the fall DG national conference: "The Romantic Rationalist: God, Life, and Imagination in the Work of C.S. Lewis" (September 27–29 in Minneapolis). Details for the conference are forthcoming.

Excerpts follow from each episode (click on the hyperlinked titles to listen).

Why Host a Conference on C. S. Lewis? (Episode 81):

November 22nd, 2013 marks 50 years since C. S. Lewis died in 1963, the same day John Kennedy died, the same day Aldous Huxley died. But behind the occasion is the man and his extraordinary influence in so m…

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Sometimes spiritual truth is best communicated through the imagination, and I think this explains why the book of Revelation includes war tales of red dragons and multi-headed beasts — those nasty creatures are a great way to embody evil and rebellious nations.

But the non-fiction imagination comes in many different forms, and one form is the metaphor. Jesus, we are told, is “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29), a metaphorical truth meaning at the same time Jesus is and is not a lamb. Metaphors lead us to embrace a thing (Christ crucified) in terms of some, but not all, of the characteristics of another thing (a lamb).

Metaphors carry meaning, and we need them, writes pastor and author Doug Wil…

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Successful Christian living is very much about steadiness and consistency, about firm resolve and steadfast endurance. There’s more to the Christian life, but these remain certain marks of God’s Spirit at work. And yet we feel the circumstances of life trying to swing us from despair to delight. When circumstances grow dark and we take our eyes off the Savior, we lose our balance and swing toward despair. When life seems to be going well and we take our eyes off Christ, we swing towards blissful God-forgetfulness certain to end in sorrow.

Contemplating this swinging, wobbly, fallen but redeemed heart is what led the Puritans to talk about a joy in the all-satisfying Christ as the unchangin…

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These were four themes featured in this week’s lineup of Ask Pastor John podcast episodes. What follows are excerpts from each episode (click on the hyperlinked titles to listen).

When Jehovah’s Witnesses Knock at Your Door (Episode 78):

If they come to the door, I say as gently and graciously as I can, “I know Jehovah’s Witness theology well enough to know that we have deep differences. I know that you believe Jesus is the highest created being, a created angel (Michael), and you do not believe that he is God, or of one essence with Jehovah. You think he is an angel, I believe he is co-eternal with Jehovah God, and therefore I think your religion is a serious dishonoring of the Lord …

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Our joy in God is bound up with our trust in God. The two cannot be separated — not ever. Trust is the backbone of joy. And joy is the outflow of trust in one who is fully Trustworthy.

We see this connection made throughout the Bible.

The Psalmist unites trust and joy:

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. (Psalm 5:11a)

The Lᴏʀᴅ is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. (Psalm 28:7)

For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. (Psalm 33:21)

And the Apostle Paul unites trust and joy:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and pea…

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Five new episodes of the Ask Pastor John podcast were released this week. Here's a list of brief excerpts from each episode (click on the titles to listen).

How Far Is Too Far Before Marriage? (Episode 73):

I would say to the women, don’t entice a man to touch you thinking that this is the way to keep a man. He is not worth keeping if that is the way he is kept. And feel free to say to any man, “No, please don’t take us there.” And you can discern what kind of a man you are dealing with by how sensitive he is to that dimension of purity.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, they will see God” [Matthew 5:8]. That is what we want. We want to see God. . . . If a single person is listening …

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