The gospel turns people into pilgrims. It comes with a culture-correcting force that creates aliens and exiles of the world.

Drawing from a 1733 Jonathan Edwards sermon, John Piper offers seven descriptions of what this looks like:

1. Pilgrims are not diverted from their aim.
2. Pilgrims are to hold the things of this world loosely.
3. Pilgrims become like what they hope to attain.
4. Pilgrims will not be satisfied with anything less than God.
5. Pilgrims are not grieved by their arrival at the journey's end.
6. Pilgrims ponder what they pursue.
7. Pilgrims travel together.

Read the entire article, Jonathan Edwards on the Pilgrim Mindset.

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Recent posts from "Piper's Pen" —

• The Pastor's Role in World …

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I want to be like Jonathan Edwards, don’t you? The guy was amazing. He was a polymath, an incomparable scholar, “probably the greatest America mind ever” (as they say). Writing a treatise on spiders was like a few rounds of Angry Birds to him. He was the pastor-theologian. A school president. A missionary to unreached peoples. A leader in a movement that changed America. He was a giant.

Paul Talks About Us

And then the Apostle Paul reminds us with the Corinthians: “not many of you” were wise or powerful or noble. “Not many of you.” It doesn’t apply to everyone, but it does to most of us.

Most of us don’t come to faith in Jesus with the intellectual respect of secular scholars. Most of …

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Darrin Patrick's message at the 2012 Conference for Pastors was on being and building men in the local church. He expounded Galatians 5 and walked through the on-the-ground work of killing sin and living in the Spirit. Download the audio and video.

Memorable Quotes

• "When you become a leader of men, you plug your life into an ampiflier and everyone hears it."
• "You don't obey for your acceptance, you obey from your acceptance."
• "You don't measure your maturity by comparing yourself with others. You judge maturity by comparing yourself to Jesus."
• "Paul tells us to crucify the flesh. Crucifixion is a slow death, but it is a certain death."
• "Your flesh is anything you use othe…

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Crawford Loritts' message included practical insight and a short exposition of Galatians 5 on what it means to live and walk by the Spirit. Download the audio and video.

Memorable Quotes

• "Manhood is not a private matter. It is a public thing. A man aspires to be the desired destination at which others arrive."
• "This summarizes my dad: Stepping up, never walking away, if it belongs to you, you do something with it."
• "Our disproportionate desire for relevance is injecting embalming fluid into the next generation."
• "Out of struggle comes strength; out of strength comes discipline; out of discipline comes integrity; out of integrity comes inheritance."
• "How people treat you should ne…

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Doug Wilson's first message at the 2012 Conference for Pastors was about the role of fathers in leading the home. Download the audio and video.

He noted six things to learn about fatherhood in the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:16–17),

1. When Jesus was baptized, his father was there.
2. The Father made his presence felt.
3. The Father made his presence known by speaking.
4. The Father's statement identified with his son.
5. The Father expressed his love for his son.
6. The Father expressed his pleasure in his son.

Memorable Quotes

• "Fatherhood in the home and pastoral care in the church are analogous activities. This makes sense only if they are related activities."
• "When Paul considers the leadership of th…

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“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was grieved. Sitting on the beach after breakfast, Jesus had just asked him for the third time if he loved him. Peter had already wholeheartedly answered yes twice. What else was he supposed to say?

With these questions, the Lord was putting his finger on a very tender wound in Peter’s heart. Peter’s failure on the night of Jesus’ trial had been simply horrible. In the hour of his Lord’s greatest anguish, Peter had denied even knowing him. This sin shook Peter to the core of his being.

Jesus had told him that he would do it.¹ But in the Upper Room, over the Passover meal, with his fellow disciples around him, Peter did not believe it. He co…

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Psalm 119:25,

My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!

Have you ever felt something of a schizophrenic relationship to the Bible? At times our hearts are alive to the word of God, while at other times our hearts feel dull and almost dead. This is not merely a frustrating dynamic; it is a fearful condition.

But we find a kindred spirit in a surprising place: Psalm 119.

I say “surprising” because Psalm 119 is a poem of love for the word of God. Going here with our problem seems like a person struggling with singleness going to a wedding celebration! Help, however, comes in the stanza devoted to the Hebrew letter daleth (Psalm 119:25–32).

The Struggle of Dus

…

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The Bible is clear. While we can't exhaustively comprehend it all, the divine authorial intention communicated through the human authors is suffuciently clear for all purposes of salvation (WCF 1.7).

But why is Scripture clear? Here's one of the most basic and solid arguments:

John Frame writes,

Since Scripture is God’s word, it is his communication to us. In Scripture, God speaks, not primarily to himself or to the angels, or to the winds and waves, but to us human beings. God cannot fail to accomplish his purpose, so his communication cannot be anything less than successful. If words are unclear, they fail to communicate; they are not communication. So Scripture must be clear.

…

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Joe Rigney, Instructor of Theology and Christian Worldview at Bethlehem College and Seminary, has assembled a list of resources from John Piper and Doug Wilson that characterize their similarities, influences, and distinct emphases.

C. S. Lewis

• A Conversation on the Imagination of C.S. Lewis (DW)
• Ask Doug: Was C.S. Lewis a Calvinist? (DW)
• Lessons from an Inconsolable Soul: Learning from the Mind and Heart of C.S. Lewis (JP)

G. K. Chesterton

• The Sovereign God of Elf-land (JP)

Christian Hedonism

• Piperian Hedonism 3.0 (DW)
• A Full Tank of Gas and Wyoming Ahead (DW)
• The Barkity-Bark Midnight Dog (DW)
• Math Problems in a Dark Room (DW)
• Creation Is Thick, I Tell You (DW)
• A Tornad…

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Session 6, Ramez Atallah on "Pastoring with Vision, Creativity, and Courage in Hard Places" —

• "Obligated, eager and not ashamed. These should characterize a church with the gospel."
• "A Christian leader has to have a vision — he must see things other people don't see and empower them to capture it and incarnate it."
• "When I came to understand the gospel for the first time, I knew that this was what my peopled needed."
• "What approach would not threaten the Egyptian Orthodox church? Answer: Inductive Bible study: Observe, understand, and apply the text."
• "Effective leaders should have vision which empowers others."
• "Trust in God's sovereignty gives meaning to even failtures."
• "Creavitiy which t…

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