In this morning's message at the Ligonier Confernece, Pastor John recommended checking out Joshua Project as one tool to help engage our hearts and minds in the cause of world missions.

If you aren't familar with Joshua Project, it is a leading research initiative that highlights the most unreached ethnic people groups of the world. By identifying these people groups and the progress of evangelism, the Church is guided in fulfilling the Great Comission mandate to make disciples of all nations.

A couple of really helpful tools that Joshua Project provides is a complete listing of ethnic people groups represented in the world, and an active list (updated weekly!) of the unreached ethnic pe…

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Isaiah 66:2 —

But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

I.O.U.S is one prayer that helps us to humble ourselves before reading God's Word. You might consider printing it out and sticking it in your Bible.

Piper explains:

Ask God to Incline our hearts to him, not to money or fame or power (Psalm 119:36),

and to Open our eyes to see wonderful things in his Word (Psalm 119:18),

and to Unite our hearts in the fear of God rather than let them be fragmented over a dozen concerns (Psalm 86:11),

and to Satisfy us with his steadfast love (Psalm 90:14).

At our 2008 National Conference, Sinclair Ferguson connects the way we talk to the ministry of the Word in our lives:

Here's an excerpt:

The most important single aid to my ability to use my tongue for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is allowing the word of God to dwell in me so richly that I cannot speak in any other accent.

Dear brothers and sisters, that's why it is so important for you at the practical level to be under a ministry of the Word where the Word of God is really preached, and preached in the grace and truth of the Holy Spirit.

Watch, listen, or download the whole sermon, "The Tongue, the Bridle, and the Blessing: An Exposition of James 3:1-12." 

In this video excerpt, John Piper clarifies Christian Hedonism:

Sign up to read through Desiring God with John Piper beginning March 31.

Desiring God's staff meets together every Friday morning for an hour of biblical teaching and prayer. Pastor John led this morning's gathering by unfolding the role of poetry in the Christian life.

He explains:

Poetry is not the answer, but it is a greater part of the answer than 95% of what we do with our time.

Woe to me if I think souls are saved by me or them becoming poetic. But few are damned by it. And of the thousand things we fill our days with, this could be more useful to the glory of God than what we do most of the time.

Listen to the entire audio of "Poetry, Pain, and the Power to See: Why Words Matter at Desiring God."

Here are several Christian relief organizations responding to Japan's earthquake and tsunami disaster. Join us by praying for them and giving financially.

Churches Helping Churches

Churches Helping Churches (CHC) is working with CRASH Japan to establish a base camp near Sendai to distribute relief supplies to the community. They are appealing to their church network to take a special offering for Japan on the weekend of March 26–27. (A video will be available on their site for those who wish to show it in their services.)

Food for the Hungry

Food for the Hungry (FH) is working with local partners on the ground in northern Japan to initiate relief responses, including provision of med…

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With the launch of the new Fighter Verses, an iPhone® / iPad® app was developed. In line with John Piper's exhortation about smartphones, this is one app to wield in fighting fire with fire.

An Android® app is also available.

Learn more about Bible memory at FighterVerses.com, where you can see weekly verses and subscribe to the devotional blog. You can also find Bible memory helps, review tools, downloadable resources, songs, audio, and tips for launching a church-wide memory program.

My oldest daughter compares Tim Keller to Pixar: when they both release new material, you just know it’s going to be great. Since The Reason for God (2008), Keller and the Redeemer City to City team have produced four eagerly anticipated books. Now they’re launching the Redeemer imprint with King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus.

A narrative of the Gospel according to Mark culled primarily from previous sermons, King’s Cross is

an extended meditation on the historical Christian premise that Jesus’s [sic] life, death, and resurrection form the central event of cosmic and human history as well as the central organizing principle of our own lives….[Its purpose is] to tr…

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Foreword: Practicing Affirmation: God-Centered Praise of Those Who Are Not God

The point of being created in the image of God is that human beings are destined to display God. That’s what images do. And the point of being redeemed by Jesus, and renewed after the image of our Creator, is to recover this destiny.

But why? Surely not so that God’s handiwork in his people would go unnoticed or unpraised. If God is sovereign, and every good gift is from above, then not praising the good in others is a kind of sacrilege and soul-sickness.

When our mouths are empty of praise for others, it is probably because our hearts are full of love for self. This is what I mean by soul-sickness. C. S. Le…

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Following up on Piper's facebook post, he earlier spoke about the challenges technology poses to Bible reading and prayer at the 2011 Desiring God Conference for Pastors: