"The activity by which the Christian directly secures the mortification of his sins is prayer," wrote J. I. Packer in his book A Quest For Godliness. But what does this practice of putting sin to death through personal prayer look like? We recently traveled to Vancouver to ask him to explain, and he kindly did in this 9-minute video clip.

J. I. Packer: "I never get to the end of mortifying sin because sin in my heart is still marauding, even though it is not dominant. Sin is constantly expressing itself in new disorderly desires, as bindweed is constantly expressing itself in fresh shoots and fresh blooms. Once bindweed has established itself in your garden or hedge it is very difficu…

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Returning to the "masculine feel" of Christianity discussion, it may be worthwhile to address one prominent point in the debate. While God the Father is spirit, and therefore is not a sexual being nor is he "male," he chooses to predominantly reveal himself in masculine language in Scripture.

But one of the immediate objections to this is the simple fact that God sometimes references himself through feminine imagery, and this is certainly true. By my count we find this in 26 places:

• Numbers 11:12
  
• Deuteronomy 32:18
  
• Ruth 2:12
  
• Job 38:8
  
• Job 38:28–29
  
• Psalm 17:8
  
• Psalm 22:9–10
  
• Psalm 90:2
  
• Psalm 91:4
  
• Psalm 123:2
  
• Psalm 131:2–3
  
• Proverbs 8:1
  
• Proverbs 8:22–25
  
• Isaiah 31:5
  
• …

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Recently between sessions at the Gospel Coalition Women's Conference in Orlando I sat down to chat with DG blog contributor Gloria Furman. Gloria is from Texas but now lives in Dubai with her husband Dave and their three kids.

In the 14-minute interview I asked her about her testimony, her writing and reading habits, and what makes a Christian blog post spread online. We also talked about her forthcoming book with Crossway and her seminary experience. The interview drew to an appropriate close with Gloria sharing her appreciation for theologian Herman Bavinck.

To record the interview I used a handheld audio recorder, and while the recording levels are a little wacky (operator error), the…

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What follows is a collection of 20 quotes that caught my attention as I read Greg Dutcher’s new book Killing Calvinism: How to Destroy a Perfectly Good Theology from the Inside (Cruciform Press, June, 2012):

“I am concerned that many Calvinists today do little more than celebrate how wonderfully clear their theological windshield is. But like a windshield, Reformed theology is not an end in itself. It is simply a window to the awe-inspiring universe of God’s truth, filled with glory, beauty, and grace. Do we need something like a metaphorical windshield of clear, biblical truth to look through as we hope to marvel at God’s glory? Absolutely. But we must make sure that we know the differenc…

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Skillful listening is a non-negotiable skill for everyone who enters a church building on Sunday or plays a sermon through headphones during the week. Scripture calls us not only to consider carefully what sermons we listen to, but also how we listen to those sermons.

It is very easy to slip into what Scripture calls “dullness of hearing,” to hear the weekly sermons without faith, and to see little or no moral fruit in our lives as a result. As Jesus makes clear, ultimately it is how we hear that reveals who we are (John 8:43, 47, 10:4, 27).

Take Care How You Listen is an ebook on listening well. It is comprised of five unedited sermon manuscripts from the preaching ministry of Past…

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It is easy to misinterpret the place of voting in the Christian life. For example, a recent StarTribune headline announced that Pastor John was "opting out of the marriage fight" in Minnesota.

That is not the case (and today's counterpoint attempts to set the record straight).

So why the misinterpretation?

The misinterpretation may originate in a misunderstanding of the Christian’s priorities. The Christian’s ultimate hope does not rest on political candidates or political power or political initiatives. Our ultimate hope changes how we view voting, and it changes our expectations of what the political process can achieve in the end.

In the weeks leading up to the fall 2008 election,…

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Robert A. J. Gagnon, on the final pages of his opus, The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (Abingdon Press, 2001), pens important words about the challenges ahead for the church.

The core proclamation of the gospel declares that God made amends for human sin while humans were still ungodly and hostile sinners, that God experienced the pain and agony of offering Christ up to death in order to rescue the maximum number of people from sin and transform them into Christ's image. To denounce same-sex intercourse and then stop short of actively and sacrificially reaching out in love and concern to homosexuals is to have as truncated a gospel as those who mistake God's love…

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The stakes could not be higher in the homosexuality debate, because — to put it rather bluntly — homosexual activity is a sin that parallels idolatry. The Apostle Paul seems to draw this connection in Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5, and he certainly does in Romans 1:18–27.

Robert Gagnon, a leading scholar on sexuality in Scripture, says these themes are closely related for Paul because both idolatry and same-sex intercourse equally oppose the designs of the Creator. He sees several strong connections that link Romans 1 to the creation account in Genesis 1–2. In his acclaimed book The Bible and Homosexual Practice, Gagnon writes, "Idolatry and homosexual behavior are in some measure paral…

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Pastor John originally penned this poem when Noël’s father, George Henry, passed away. He would later dedicate it to his own father, William Piper, when he died. It is a standing reminder of the profound gift of a godly father’s legacy.

In Memory of George T. Henry and William S. H. Piper, Our Fathers

Reflections on Psalm 1 and Joshua 24:15

No tree however deep the roots,
However high and green the shoots,
However strong the trunk has stood,
Or firm the fibers of the wood,
No tree was ever meant to be
A never-ending shade for me
Or you. Save one: where Jesus died
With bleeding branches spread as wide
And far as faith, for sinful men.

But there was shade, especially wh…

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In Ephesians 3:14–15, Paul prays, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father [patēr], from whom every family [patria] in heaven and on earth is named." In the Greek it is easy to pick up on Paul’s patēr/patria play on words. John Stott chose to translate this phrase as "the Father from whom all fatherhood is named." The ESV translation footnote makes a similar point.

God’s Fatherhood is the archetype of human fatherhood, a point made even more explicit in Hebrews 12:7–10. What that means for us fathers today is that we take our cues on fatherhood from the Father of Fatherhood, which is a great relief for any father today who was fathered by a sinful or absent father (which of course…

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