Life isn’t easy, but God gives us truth to stand on.

In this video, Lecrae talks about the biblical promise he turns to the most:

The biblical promise that I turn to most is that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called by him (Romans 8:28). I have to lean on the reality that even if it doesn’t look good to me, or feel good to me, God is ultimately being glorified. And in the end, even if it’s not until I am in heaven, it will work out to my benefit. Even if I don’t realize it until heaven, it will work out for my benefit.

I lean on that because life is difficult. Life is hard. It’s complicated. It’s not peachy keen, as a lot of people would like to ma…

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Bi-vocational ministry is a strategic and challenging call. Danny Ovalle, a bi-vocational pastor in New England, recently joined us to talk about the rationale and practice of serving as a pastor while supporting his family with an additional job.

The central passage about compensation for ministers, or lack of compensation, is found in 1 Corinthians 9:1–18. This apostolic precedent, along with particular contexts and practical concerns, forms the foundation for why bi-vocational ministry could be a wise option.

In this ministry-angled episode of Theology Refresh, Danny talks about what it’s like to live and work among his people at the First Church of Christ, a congregation that began in …

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Today we launch a new devotional eBook, Love to the Uttermost: Devotional Readings for Holy Week. Beginning Palm Sunday (March 24) through Easter Sunday (March 31), we invite you to join us in focusing on the self-giving love of our Savior.

Comprised of eight excerpts (plus one prologue reading) selected from John Piper’s extensive writing and preaching ministry, this new devotional was compiled and shaped for use in personal devotions or family and group settings.

As Pastor John explains, this one term — uttermost — is loaded with significance. When used of Jesus’s willing death for his friends, it means he endured unimaginable degrees of suffering to do so (John 13:1, NAS).

To love t…

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Does your speaking and writing have authority?

It does if you are tapping into the authority of the Bible.

John Piper recently addressed the students and apprentices at Bethlehem College and Seminary with a simple and earnest plea: write and teach as reliable spokesmen. He encourages Christian thinkers to scrutinize their thoughts by apostolic authority and to articulate them with precision.

Stream or download the message, “How to Give the Bible Functional Authority in Your Speech and Writing.”

Irritability isn’t that big a deal, is it?

Although we’re prone to believe it’s a lesser sin, Phil Ryken explains that irritability is actually a way of hating because it is “a way of non-loving.”

In his book, Loving the Way Jesus Loves, Ryken connects Paul’s teaching that “love is not irritable” with a positive example from Jesus’s life. The portrait of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is perfectly displayed in Jesus, and non-irritable love is one of his perfections.

Deception works by making you think that there is more joy apart from gospel-shaped community. It makes sin feel more attractive than a righteous commitment to our brothers and sisters in Christ. And one way we war against this, says John Piper, is by being a truly glad people, like in 2 John 1:4.

He explains, “The devil doesn’t have a hook in happy Christians, just miserable Christians who are looking for an alternative pleasure.”

This excerpt is taken from the most recent sermon, “Life Together at the End of the Age.”

Related resources:

• The Works of the Devil: Overcome by Christ (1984 sermon series)

• “Resist the Devil!” (1989 sermon)

• Watch Out or the Devil’s Gonna Get You

For 60 years now, he’s been with The Navigators, known for their discipling. So don’t expect Jerry Bridges to be naive about the process of disciplemaking.

Recently, when Bridges joined us at the Desiring God offices, he made some insightful observations about what he calls “two stages of disciplemaking.” He gave us permission to hit record, and we discussed his reflections in the latest episode of Theology Refresh.

An initial and primary stage, he says, is about helping baby Christians begin to grow and learn to be self-feeders in God’s word and in prayer and in the local church. This first stage of disciplemaking involves simply being a spiritual parent to a child in the faith. It can, a…

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It is with great enthusiasm that we announce the release of Desiring God’s new iPhone app Ask Pastor John, now available for free in the iTunes store.

Just this January, on John Piper’s 67th birthday, we relaunched the Ask Pastor John (APJ) podcast through Sound Cloud. The revitalized podcast provides daily audio clips of John answering tough theological and pastoral questions.

Already available are 40 new episodes — released five times each week, typically about 5 minutes long each. We call it a daily podcast, as we’re serving up something new each weekday. The new app is simple and easy to use. It plays the most recent seven episodes (and links to Sound Cloud for all episodes), includes …

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Lecrae wants you to see reality from a unique perspective. This is his intention in the Grammy Award-winning album, Gravity.

Exhibit A is the song “Mayday,” featuring Big K.R.I.T. and Ashton Jones, which demonstrates the clash of two different worldviews. Initially you hear the general outside world’s perspective on faith followed by Lecrae speaking as a rescued sinner: “when I look at Jesus, he lived the life I couldn’t, suffered for my crime so I wouldn’t.”

He explains more in this two-minute video:

Related videos from Lecrae:

• Music video for “Mayday” (featuring Big K.R.I.T. and Ashton Jones)

• Lecrae Explains True Manhood

• Lecrae Raps the Gospel in One Minute

A few years back, in a sermon titled, “I’m Sending You to Open Their Eyes,” John Piper said,

Be a lavish giver. Be known as a generous person, not a stingy person. Jesus said, “Lend, expecting nothing in return” (Luke 6:35). Combine this reputation with giving books, if you know someone is a reader. Give a Christian book that cost you seven or ten or fifteen dollars. Tell them what it meant to you and that you would love to talk about it sometime. If you don’t know the person, ask for their permission to give them a book that meant a lot to you.

This is what I regularly do on the plane. Sometimes conversations are easy to get into about Christ because I am a pastor. Other times they’re not…

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