Pastor John has thought in terms of two heart dispositions:

Gravity:

For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary. (Isaiah 8:11-14)

Gladness:

Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.

…

Continue Reading →

Since our first Conference for Pastors in 1988, Pastor John has given a biographical study of a great hero of the faith—"men of whom the world is not worthy." This year Pastor John will focus on J. C. Ryle, the Bishop of Liverpool. Here's a quick preview:

Join us on January 30 to February 1 for our 2012 Conference for Pastors, "God, Manhood & Ministry: Building Men for the Body of Christ." Registration is now open.

For the full list of resources from J. C. Ryle, check out Ryle Books at JCRylequotes.com. Or read some of his books online for free:

• Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots
• A Call to Prayer
• The Cross: A Call to the Fundamentals of Religion
• The Du…

Continue Reading →

Pastor John's invitation to join us in Minneapolis on January 30 to February 1 for the Desiring God 2012 Conference for Pastors —

Theme

God, Manhood & Ministry: Building Men for the Body of Christ

Dates

January 30 to February 1

Cost

$130.00

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Speakers

• Doug Wilson
• Darrin Patrick
• Crawford Loritts
• Ramez Atallah
• John Piper

For more information or to register, visit the event page.

A special session convened in light of Rob Bell's book Love Wins. The panel, moderated by Kevin DeYoung, included D. A. Carson, Tim Keller, Crawford Loritts, and Stephen Um.

Listen to the audio of "God: Abounding in Love, Punishing the Guilty."

Carson framed the discussion giving a brief and clarifying overview on universalism:

1. Be clear about definition of universalism, don't muddle what it is.

2. Universalism is built out of several different assertions: a) everyone is savingly loved by God and is reconciled to God already; b) because of the wideness of God’s mercy, people of other religions will somehow find their way to heaven; c) initially, the only lost people are those who reject G…

Continue Reading →

Notes and full audio and video from each session are now available.

Joel Beeke — Cultivating Private Prayer as a Pastor

Beeke says, "Prayer is often treated as the appendix to our work rather than the foundation. . . . The problem is not that we don't pray, but rather it is that we seldom pray prayerfully." He explains two parts required for prayerful praying: taking hold of yourself and taking hold of God.

Paul Miller — Helping Your People Discover the Praying Life

Miller exhorts us, "God wants the 'muddy you'—you in all your brokenness—to come to him as a child in prayer." He says that when most people try to create a habit of prayer, they create a 'spiritual' version of them to …

Continue Reading →

(Click through if video doesn't appear.)

This is the second question and answer post with Jerry Rankin (read the first).

You have written directly on the subject of spiritual warfare. What led you to focus so much on this important topic, especially for missionaries?

If God’s ultimate desire is to be worshipped and exalted among all peoples, it is evident the adversary, Satan, who is jealous for God’s glory, is actively seeking to deprive God of his glory among the nations. 

Just as he robs God of his glory in our lives through temptation to sin, embracing of carnal values and self-centered gratification of the flesh, he is subtly imposing barriers to global evangelization. Scripture is prolific in alerting us to this spiritua…

Continue Reading →

This is the first question and answer post with Jerry Rankin.

What do you think are the greatest challenges to the world Christian movement today? What do you think are the greatest signs of hope?

From the perspective of one who has a global overview of Christian missions today, it is evident God is moving in unprecedented ways to fulfill his mission.  He is using warfare, ethnic violence, political disruption, social chaos, economic uncertainty and natural disasters to turn the hearts of people to a search for hope and security that can be found only in Jesus Christ. There is an apparent acceleration in engagement of unreached people groups and a global harvest.

The greatest challenge …

Continue Reading →

This is our third question and answer post with Paul Miller. (Read the first and second.)

Can you give us a summary of Sonship, the discipleship course you helped put together?

I designed the Sonship course over a period of ten years from ’83-’93, but the core of it was formed in the mid-80s. Half of the sixteen lectures was dad’s and the other half was split between my mom and myself. World Harvest continued to refine the course after I left in ’97.

The heart of the Sonship course is the gospel applied to my life. We begin to mature as Christians by realizing that we don’t have it all together. So the very thing that we avoid like the plague—our weakness and our sin—is the door to gra…

Continue Reading →

A second question and answer with Paul Miller. (Read the first.)

Your book, A Praying Life, talks about cynicism in prayer. How would you describe the problem of cynicism, and what is your advice to those who are struggling with it?

Cynicism is my biggest struggle in prayer. It is a quiet, cold rationalism that dulls the soul and just kills your walk with God. It is hard to even identify or name our cynicism because it just feels like being realistic. It says things like, “What good does it [prayer] do?” or “It [the answer to prayer] would have happened anyway.”

I think we are particularly susceptible to cynicism in the Reformed world because we are an intellectual world. We are rightly…

Continue Reading →