When Israel was fulfilling the Lord's command to take possession of the Promised Land and drive out its inhabitants, the Gibeonites, who were among them, recognized what was happening and concocted a plan.

They disguised themselves as worn out, weary travelers and approached Joshua, telling him they were from a far away land. They "acted with cunning" (Joshua 9:4) to escape being destroyed along with the other Canaanite nations.

They knew they couldn't ask Israel to just leave them alone. They had to secure some kind of positive, ongoing relationship. So, using their disguise, the Gibeonites urged Joshua to become allies. "Make a covenant with us," they pleaded (9:11).

Their cunning…

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Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4)

When our bodies need energy, we know that we need to eat. So we eat a variety of foods, some better and some worse sources of energy (and bodily health, but more on that in my next post). Our body then digests these foods and converts them into energy and we can keep going. No food, no energy. No energy, no going on.

This physical phenomenon mirrors a spiritual reality. Our souls also run on a kind of energy, and so require a sort of food that they convert into that energy.

So what do our souls eat?

Before we answer that question, let’s first ask this: what is the e…

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It is a profound gift of grace that God has not only promised us forgiveness, but that he has established the foundations of it right before our eyes.

The death of Jesus Christ is an eternal testimony before God that our sins have been sufficiently dealt with, which gives us confidence that we will receive mercy on the Day of Judgment and not wrath.

Jonathan Edwards ponders the alternative in Miscellanies #113:

Again, if there was no satisfaction for sin, nor any promises of forgiveness; seeing the best are daily renewing their sins, they would [be] in a dreadful case, not knowing whether there be any hope for pardon again, seeing God had pardoned them so often after they had renewed…

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The only thing that qualifies us to be followers of Jesus is that we are sinners who need grace. Sinners are the only kind of people Jesus calls, as the Apostle Levi (Matthew) discovered.¹

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Levi looked around the campfire circle at Jesus and the other eleven disciples. Strange rabbinical school, he thought. Not exactly the cream of the scholarly crop. Led by a rabbi with no formal theological training, his disciples tended to be a bit heavy on fishermen.

But he saw himself as the oddest of the oddballs.

Levi had been a tax collector. That meant he had essentially worked for Rome. And that meant he had been considered a traitor by most of his neighbors. “Tax col…

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But by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:2b)

Like many of you, I am deeply grateful for the free and easily accessible resources of Desiring God and other like-minded ministries. I frequently use these resources and by them grow in my affections for God and knowledge of the Word.

I am particularly grateful for this free and easy access when I come across websites and other information sources whose resources are neither free nor easily accessible.

But it is deeper than mere convenience. There are important discussions about the Bible happening in closed venues—discussions that influence the futur…

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It’s a bit of a strange word picture, the kind that causes you to wonder and to feel just a bit uncomfortable. But it says volumes about what you need and about what it is that God is doing.

If you’re confused about what God’s agenda is in your life, or if it doesn’t always seem like his promises are being fulfilled, then this strange little prayer from Psalm 51 is helpful and clarifying. In his psalm of repentance after his sin against God, Bathsheba, and Uriah, David writes this provocative little prayer, “Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.” What in the world is he talking about and how in the world can it give perspective and hope to you and me?

Let me begin to answer with …

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Justin Taylor and I are excited that we are now free to talk openly about For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper (Crossway, 2010).We’ve been diligent to protect the secrecy of this project ever since we first sat down three years ago in a Wheaton, Illinois, restaurant to talk and pray about a project that has become very dear to our hearts.

The first obstacle we had to overcome was our sense that John might not be as excited about this book as we were! But we quickly overcame any lingering concerns by reminding ourselves and our contributors that this book is about the fame of God’s name, not that of John Piper. Still, we are unapologetic about wanting to honor John and …

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The Supper that Jesus instituted on the night he was betrayed was a new Passover meal. Or we might say that the Passover was the Old Testament Lord’s Supper.

The reason the Lord instituted the Passover was so that people of Israel would always remember and proclaim their redemption from Egypt:

This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. (Exodus 12:14)

And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice o…

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Two days ago at our National Conference, Sam Storms and Justin Taylor took the stage just before lunch to make an unexpected announcement: after 3 years of undercover communication and composition, a special book had been prepared.

There on stage, Sam and Justin presented to John Piper a book written in his honor: For the Fame of God's Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper.

Sam began by reading from "A Note to John Piper," the first section of the book, in which he and Justin express (and defend) their hearts in masterminding the project. Then Justin read the name of each of the 27 contributors and the titles of their chapters (see below).

It was a weighty moment—in the happiest sens…

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Discussions about suffering and God's goodness must go to the cross. For an example of what that looks like, consider this portion of Randy Alcorn’s newest book The Goodness of God: Assurance of Purpose in the Midst of Suffering. 

Jesus Christ’s life and death demonstrate that God has never dished out any suffering he hasn’t taken on himself.

His death on the cross is God’s answer to the question, “Why don’t you do something about evil?” God allowed Jesus’ temporary suffering so he could prevent our eternal suffering . . .

God wrote the script of this drama of redemption long before Satan, demons, Adam and Eve—and you and I—took the stage. And from the beginning, he knew that the utterly …

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