This week we released episodes 29–33 in the Ask Pastor John podcast. We began the week with an artist's question about the value of art. In episode 29 Pastor John offered a theology of art in five minutes. In part he said,

Art is basically a craft or a skill that aims at more than just keeping food on the table. What makes it Christian, I think, is that God is an artist. He made the heavens that are telling something about his glory [Psalm 19:1]. In other words, he didn’t just make the heavens to protect us from solar rays. The heavens are not just utilitarian, they are beautiful, they say something about his glory. … God is the maker, and we have the mind of the maker. We talked about …

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One of several helpful discussions in the speaker panel at the recent Desiring God Conference for Pastors dealt with implications from Kent Hughes’s pastor-saving message on “Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome.” Two possible errors were discussed — taking our identity from how outwardly “successful” our ministries may appear, or never really trying our best for God in his work (but only passively waiting for him to act).

One conclusion of that conversation was that while our faithfulness is the big category for which God is concerned, we are meant to pursue fruitfulness as well — to faithfully pursue fruitfulness. It is, of course, true that God gives the growth, but Paul does pl…

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God, not us, has designed the blueprint for manhood.

In this three-minute video, Lecrae explains what it looks like.

Related videos:

• Lecrae Raps the Gospel in One Minute (Lecrae)
• The Gospel in Two Minutes (Trip Lee)
• Biblical Masculinity and the Importance of Role Models (Trip Lee)
• How Manhood and Womanhood Are Different (John Piper and Darrin Patrick)
• The Deeper Strength of Masculinity (Darrin Patrick)

When I was pregnant with our first child it seemed like all of my related worries were shrouded in the mystery of the unknown. And now with our fourth child on the way, even in the midst of exuberant joy and thankfulness for this new life, worries creep into my imagination like looming, stone statues.

I can recall the physical challenge of carrying a baby while caring for my young children and serving my husband who struggles with chronic pain. I’m reminded of what labor feels like when I support women as a birth doula. I can remember what it’s like to feel bone-weary and emotionally spent at the end of the day knowing a long night was ahead.

If you called me on the phone right now to ca…

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We know from Romans 6 that from the early days of the church there has existed a temptation to distort this gospel of God’s grace by deemphasizing God’s holiness. Which is tragic. It’s precisely God’s holiness that makes his grace toward us sinners so amazing! Understanding the doctrine of God’s holiness is absolutely essential if we are to rightly understand the doctrine of God’s grace and the miracle of sanctification.

This is what the Children Desiring God National Conference, being held in Minneapolis May 2–4, is all about. The conference theme is “The Splendor of Holiness,” plenary speakers include John Piper and Bruce Ware, and there will be dozens of workshops.

If you are a children…

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For the first forty years of his life, Moses lived in a place of strength. As a member of Pharaoh’s household he had social prestige, wealth (Hebrews 11:26), and youthful strength. When he became aware of and troubled by his peoples’ oppression he used this strength to exact vigilante justice on an oppressive Egyptian. That wasn’t God’s plan for deliverance. He had to flee for his life and ended up tending livestock in the quiet fields of Midian for his second forty years.

So he passed his youth in a palace of power and his middle age in pastures of peaceful obscurity. Then one day he stumbled on a burning bush, which turned out to be God’s surprising call for his third forty years:

Behold…

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There’s lots of activity this week at the desiringGod.org offices, even with the single-digit temperatures in Minneapolis. With a team of web designers here to work on a site redesign, the content team sat down to talk about recent articles on the blog, the latest podcast episodes, and a new app under construction, among other things.

Listen to this 20-minute podcast.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Audio and Video from the 2013 Conference for Pastors
• From Radical Lesbian to Redeemed Christian (interview with Rosaria Champagne Butterfield)
• Hospitality on Mission (interview with Butterfield)
• Hospitality and the Great Commission by David Mathis
• Authors …

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I spent a lot of my early years in Africa trying to create a home for my family. When packing, I agonized over how much of America to stuff into Ziplock baggies. I packed shoes in five sizes for the kids to grow into and rolled packets of taco seasoning inside the toes to save space. I thought about holidays and recipes and music and toys and books.

But then we left. Evacuated in 30 minutes with one suitcase and a backpack. Three months and two countries later, we tried to establish a home again. Now we are ending a year in the States while my husband pursued a doctorate degree and where we tried, again, to establish a home —a home we will leave in two months.

Home keeps slipping through m…

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The tension in the air can feel thick enough to cut with a knife. It escalates to all-out war in some churches — the battle between living local and going global.

With limited time and resources and energy in any given context, it can feel like local mission and global missions are constantly vying for attention, competing articles rather than one seamless garment.

On one side, we see the needs around us in our city and feel deeply that proximity implies responsibility. God has called us to live on mission right here in our locale, “reached” as it may be, but still very needy. So many are lost in this city. On the other side, we ache over the world’s 7,000 unreached peoples and feel deep…

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Rosaria Champagne Butterfield shared her unlikely conversion story with us on the previous Authors on the Line podcast. We might have expected a Pauline conversion experience — perhaps a flash of light or an audible voice from heaven — but nothing of the sort happened. Rather, her conversion came through a series of ordinary means: a caring pastor in the area, a Bible, a copy of Calvin’s Institutes, and simple hospitality.

In this episode, we explore the role hospitality played in her conversion, and why she’s now challenging Christians to rethink the missional potential of our living rooms and dining rooms.

“It does not matter that there’s cat hair on the couch,” she says in the intervi…

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