Fast approaching is a cultural moment we should not miss for trying to help people see Jesus Christ.

America may be post-Christian, but Christmas is graciously stubborn. There it is in December, immovable. God has mercifully ordained that much of our economy depends on a cultural remembrance of the birth of the Messiah. God employs irony by using the power of unrighteous mammon to force pagan Westerners to look at Jesus. Yes, he may be obscured by a lot of godless glitz and noise. But God has not been fully eclipsed by gaud.

It is the only time of the year you will walk through a mall and hear “Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!” or “Joy to the world! The Lord has come! …

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Joy changes everything, including our battle against evil.

John Piper explains in this two-minute video:

Christian Hedonism changes our combat with evil. Jeremiah 2:13 — the Christian Hedonist definition of evil — "for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water."

What's evil? The suicidal preference of empty wells over the river of delights flowing from heaven. That's evil!

So the battle against evil is not to constantly say "No, no, no. Bad, bad, bad." There's no power in that. The power of the flesh is coming at you, the power of the devil is coming at you, a…

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"I am concerned," writes David Platt, "about a general vagueness that has existed in contemporary Christianity regarding the next step..."

We have seen that God blesses us so that his glory might be made known in all nations. But an all-important question remains. How do we make God's glory known in all nations? If God has given us his grace so that we might take his gospel to the ends of the earth, then how do we do that? (Radical, 87)

Platt goes on to cast a vision for disciplemaking in the local church — a vision that is further developed by David Mathis in the appendix of Finish the Mission(Crossway, 2012). Mathis calls disciplemaking "blue-collar Christianity."

[It's the] …

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I forget the gospel. It’s one of the most maddening things about living with a truth-distorting sin nature. Let me give you a recent example.

A few weeks ago I said to my wife, “I’m feeling gospel fatigue. I’m tired of hearing ‘gospel’ in just about everything.” She looked at me funny. I explained that I was probably just feeling jaded by the commercialization of the gospel or how it seems like a trendy bandwagon. She didn’t buy that. She knows me well. She suggested I probe deeper. She was right, as usual.

So I asked myself what this “gospel fatigue” is. Am I really weary of hearing that Jesus became sin for me (2 Corinthians 5:21), cancelled my full sin debt (Colossians 2:14), and has…

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God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. This idea, called "Christian Hedonism" by some, is a massive and pervasive biblical truth that changes everything.

Perhaps the apostle Paul makes it clearest in Philippians 1:12–26.

So, taking up this text — the same as his January 1980 candidating sermon — John Piper clears the table for the biblical feast of pursuing God's glory and our joy, concluding with 11 illustrations from Scripture on how this looks in real life.

It's an understatement to say this is a very important message.

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From our own experience, and the many testimonies sent to us, we know th…

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Jesus died for me. What a treasure I must be!

I can think of a number of times over the years when I’ve heard people say something like this. And typically they were people I knew read the Bible frequently. But this idea isn’t in the Bible. Jesus didn’t die to purchase treasures. He died to ransom (Mark 10:45) enemies (Romans 5:10). We’re not the Pearl of Great Price (Matthew 13:46); Jesus is. So where did they get this idea from?

Faulty lenses.

Somewhere along the way their subjective experience and/or bad teaching caused them to look at the cross, see Jesus hanging on the cursed tree, and see a statement of their self-worth rather than amazing grace that saves wretches.

Lenses ar…

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"Harmonious complementarian marriage speaks forth the cosmic victory of Christ over evil," says Tony Reinke, speaking about the thesis of his upcoming JBMW article. In this latest episode of Behind the Blog, we discuss biblical complementarity, Trillia Newbell's newly posted review, and some takeaways from the National Conference.

You can also listen here.

Once again, thank you for reading and your partnership in spreading our resources online. If you have any suggestions or ideas, contact us at blog@desiringGod.org.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Audio and video from the 2012 National Conference
• Wise Words: Family Stories That …

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It is the paradox of paradoxes. The cross of Christ is both the most horrific happening in the history of the world, and the most beautiful. The universe's saddest moment and happiest turn came together one afternoon at Golgotha on a single tree.

Even now, those of us with the ears to hear, and eyes to see from God-given new birth, experience at the cross a kind of sadness that is not sad. And all the more, one day when freed from sinning and its ubiquitous effects, will we find our greatest treasure in the great sadness that is not sad.

In John Piper's sermon "Why Did God Create the World?", he concludes with four important soul-application questions related to the glory of God's g…

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When it comes to God, you must always keep your eyes open. If you don’t pay attention you’ll miss jaw-dropping glory.

Take the book of Esther, for example. If you’re not careful, you’ll only see a Hollywood-like story of a beautiful young orphan girl who against all odds becomes queen of Persia and, with a little help, recognizes her moment of destiny and courageously faces down a Persian Hitler.

And you would miss the real story.

The real story is not Esther’s inspiring courage or her beauty or Mordecai’s sage wisdom. This story is about what’s really going on behind the machinations of power.

Haman thinks he’s taking super-sized revenge on Mordecai for dissing him by orchestrati…

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