Images are designed to image — to reflect, to point.

Created in the image of God, we all are designed, like the God-man, to reflect God. To show God, to point to him, to image God.

One prominent way in which we reflect our Creator is through creating. We point to our Maker when we make. As John Piper says in the introduction to his new poetry book Esther, God made us to be makers.

It has always seemed plain to me that the imagination is a gift of God and is meant to reflect his own creativity. He thought up the universe out of nothing, then created us in his own image. So we do that kind of thing. Not that very thing. But that kind of thing. Only God creates out of nothing. We are not …

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In the past 12 months over 113,000 Portuguese speakers have visited the Desiring God website from places like Brazil, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola and Portugal. We rejoice in statistics like this, not for statistics’ sake, but because we know that each number represents a real person and a real gospel opportunity.

You may remember that last year we launched a Portuguese interface for our website. That site currently has over 100 translated Portuguese sermons and books.  

Our most recent initiative is a Portuguese-language Desiring God page on Facebook and Twitter.

We want to make it as easy as possible for the potential 180,000,000 Portuguese readers worldwide to…

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You can only dive deep in the Scriptures so long until you’re ready to get busy. Unless something’s seriously broken, you can only power up so much on theology — whether straight-up seven-point Calvinism, or something more dilute — until you're itching to pour out.

Sure, there are a few sad exceptions, but this is not where most of us live. We can only sit feasting at the banquet table so long before getting seriously eager to get up, get moving, and put the nourishment to work in legit action for something bigger than ourselves.

Reformed Restlessness Going Global

The theological substance and depth of Reformed evangelicalism has been filling our collective cup for a good season now. For …

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The ultimate purpose for which God created this world is the praise of the glory of his grace in the death of Jesus for sinners.

There you have it, the most important thing we could ever know.

Recognizing that God exists isn't enough. The question is: why does anything else exist? Why did God create the world? And in particular, why this world?

Working through key texts, John Piper shows the Bible's answer to life's biggest question and how it's connected to the cross.

Stream or download this week's sermon.

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him… in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God. (1 Corinthians 7:17, 24)

Most Christians struggle at some point with the sense that ministry jobs are just more sacred than other jobs. You can see this reflected in our terminology: we tend to call non-ministry jobs “secular jobs.” It can be hard not to see them as “unspiritual” or “less spiritual” jobs.  

But God draws no such distinctions. He does call some of his saints (a relative few) to serve the church vocationally in a variety of ways. But these folks are not the spiritual elite or some kind of Christianiz…

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"I can't imagine any greater verse in the Bible," says John Piper of Jeremiah 32:40. The infinite heart of God is engaged in doing us infinite good. And that is what Jesus paid for with his blood.

In this three-minute excerpt, John Piper explains how the cross of Jesus is connected to our persevering in faith.

This excerpt begins at the 27:18 mark of this week's sermon.

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

October will be here before we know it. And October ends with Reformation Day, because on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, lighting the fuse that exploded into the Protestant Reformation.

I have a suggestion for you. Since one of the great cries of the Reformation became Sola Fide (faith alone), how about making this October “Faith Month.” For private worship and reflection you could select and meditate on Scriptures that explain what faith is and how…

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Simple? Complex? How should we understand the process of sanctifcation? We've recently featured a series of videos from our friends at CCEF that detail the biblical and practical dynamics of growing in grace, which Tony discusses in this latest episode of Behind the Blog. David also gives some helpful background to recent posts, along with a few highlights on upcoming events and resources.

As always, it is a great pleasure to serve you, our readers, on the blog. We trust the Father, according to the riches of his glory, uses our content as a small means through which Jesus dwells in your hearts by faith. Thanks for reading!

You …

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God will keep his children. This is the basic and glorious truth in the doctrine of eternal security. God will never let those who are his fall away. He will complete the work he began in us. And one of the essential means by which he does this is the faith-sustaining truth we speak into one another's lives. So says the writer of Hebrews, "exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today'."

Expounding Hebrews 3:12–15 in this week's sermon, John Piper gets at the role of community in the perseverance of the saints and gives helpful application for what it looks like in the everyday.

Stream or download "Eternal Security Is a Community Project."

Lord… You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)

Christians are word people. We’re really into words because the Founder of Christianity is the Word (John 1:1). He came to earth to deliver a message in words. Those of us who have believed his words recognize them as the “words of eternal life” (John 6:68). And we seek to speak these words to others so they too can have eternal life. We call these words the gospel.

Christians are also book people. We’re really into books because our Founder left us a book, a collection of the words he determined are most important for us to know and remember.

This means we’re not into books merely because they’re good for us — as in a good book…

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