Thank you for praying for me on my four week writing leave. It's over today. It was more productive than I thought it would be. Hence my heartfelt thanks. Four projects were more or less completed.

This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence - A book on marriage that exults mainly in its meaning not its emotion. But I do hope it helps people keep their covenant and be happier and make much of Christ. There is no marriage in the resurrection, hence “This Momentary Marriage.” And marriage mainly means: Christ keeps covenant with his church, hence “The Parable of Permanence.”

Finally Alive: What Happens When We are Born Again - A book about the miracle of sovereign, regenerating…

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Dear friends of TBI,

With trembling gratefulness in my heart, I look at the remarkable cluster of visionary ministries growing like fruit on the tree of Bethlehem Baptist Church.

• We are a kind of mission sending agency with 85 foreign missionary units (families or singles) who count Bethlehem as their main sending base.
• Campus Outreach has exploded in its four-plus years at Bethlehem with 25 staff on four campuses.
• Desiring God has been spreading resources and holding conferences for over a decade and nourishes people around the world with its Internet presence.
• Children Desiring God is transforming the way children are nurtured in over two thousand churches in the US …

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Desiring God, like all fallen, finite human ministries and people, sees “in a mirror dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12). We do not claim to be perfect in what we know. And we do not claim to know all that can be known. Nor do we claim to see what we know more clearly than others may see it.

But we do say with Paul, “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak” (2 Corinthians 4:13). Though we do not know everything there is to know, and though we do not know anything perfectly, yet we do know many things truly and confidently, because of God’s revelation and his Spirit...

Read the rest of t…

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At the Piper house, on special occasion days, the women do most or all the food preparation and set-up, so the men wash the dishes.

Now there’s a great reason to give thanks!

What turns the 4th Thursday of November into Thanksgiving? Turkey? I know one family who doesn’t like turkey. Their traditional Thanksgiving meal is Vietnamese carryout. But whatever our food traditions, is that all there is? Not if we plan real thanks into the day.

If we want to give thanks, we need only two things. Something we’re thankful for and somebody to thank. Seems so obvious, but I think I need to say it because it’s amazing how many people can say, “I’m thankful for _____ ,” without admitting that God is there to hear their thanks. And they’re certainly not giving him credit for whatever it is they’re enjoying.

Maybe we can get ready for Thanksgiving by giving someone el…

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This week Olive Nelson passed away at age 94. Olive and her husband, Arnie, were members of Bethlehem for decades until 1994. From 1978 to 1994 (16 years), Arnie and Olive faithfully operated Bethlehem’s tape ministry as volunteers. They diligently ran a tape library for BBCers and they managed a tape subscription service that began to grow significantly during Pastor John’s first 14 years.

Arnie would come in every week and duplicate tapes. I can still see him. He was tall and slim and dignified and had a head of thick, silver hair. He was soft-spoken, and I loved to listen to him. Olive was bright, assertive, and organized. She managed the tape ministry administration by hand-typing …

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It is with a mixture of sadness, deep gratitude, and joyful trust in the sovereignty of God that I inform you that Matt Perman, our Director of Internet Strategies, is leaving the staff of Desiring God.

Matt first joined the staff of DG in 1998 as a Resource Consultant and was, along with Justin Taylor and others, a part of the remarkable first TBI class. He also ran the bookstore at Bethlehem Baptist Church for a season, which was sort of like giving a junkie the job of a drug store manager. In 2001-2002, Matt worked for DG remotely from Louisville while, in typical Permanesque fashion, cramming a 3-year MDiv degree from Southern Seminary into 2 years. In 2002, he came back on staff full-…

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In the hopes that you will pray for us, I’ll give you the news about Abraham’s daughter. Abraham is my son who serves as the Web Content Manager for Desiring God. He and Molly were expecting their second child on Sunday, September 23. Molly was big and healthy. Everyone was happy and excited about Orison’s little sister.

There had been no movement since Thursday. Molly had read this was nothing unusual, but the doctor said she could come for a check-up if she wished. Saturday morning (September 22) they went to Hennepin County Medical Center. No heart beat. Ultrasound confirms: the baby is dead.

The phone call came to me first. It was Abraham through sobs, “We lost the baby.”

…

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My wife and I just finished reading through The Big Picture Story Bible with our 2-year-old for his bedtime devotions. We went from Creation to Revelation in 26 simply-told and colorfully-drawn stories. Obviously, a lot has to be skipped over in order to sum up the Bible in 26 segments. But that's this book's whole point: to sum it all up; to give kids the gist of God's word. The whole point of the story of redemption is Jesus, “the forever king.”

Nothing I say could emphasize the value of books like this more than just quoting my son. For the last several minutes he has been reading this book to himself and making up songs about the pictures that he recognizes.

At the beginning of …

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Last Sunday, for the first time in my life, I sang on request in a Sunday morning worship service. Another one of those milestones I said I could never do. The pastor saw me in the audience and said that he loved the song I sang to Talitha (that I mentioned in my article last week) and wondered what the tune was. Would I sing it?

Gulp.

I did. Admittedly, there were only 40 people in the congregation.

So according to the request, here’s my shot.

I wrote the words, and I sing them to the tune of "If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee" (listen).

Come rest your head and nestle gently,
And do not fear the dark of night.
Almighty God keeps watch intently,
An…

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