The New Bethlehem Star Is Rising …
First Bethlehem Star Newsletter
Nine reasons why churches should have a weekly newsletter.
Nine reasons why churches should have a weekly newsletter.
Let your prayers embrace all kinds of people: high and low, white and black, democrats and republicans, Soviet premiers and Iranian Ayatollahs. Enlarge your heart until it embraces the world.
Can you think of any fact more encouraging than that God rejoices to do you good?
Our prayers should always aim not merely at our own satisfaction, but also at the benefit of others.
When it comes to persons, one plus one is more than two!
There are six things that should characterize every effort at team ministry in the church.
No single sin, not even suicide, evicts a person from heaven into hell.
The great tragedy of sin is the good we miss, not the evil we attain.
God's Word is every Christian's infallible guide to maximum sexual fulfillment.
Don't trust in the kind of tree you are. If there is no fruit that accords with repentance, you will be destroyed.
When a person strikes rock bottom with a sense of helplessness he may find that he has struck the Rock of Ages.
Marital sex is a great joy that also proves to be a fearsome weapon against our ancient foe.
You can tell where a man's heart is resting by the way he handles his money and by the attitude he has toward his possessions.
No one can stop the coming of spring—in nature or in the church—when God has appointed its time.
Something has to happen if we are to be saved from the wrath of God. We must be profoundly changed.
You can learn more from a book if you stop and ask it questions than if you just read it passively. That includes the Bible too.
The Holy Wind of God will not break or quench. He will lift up your head and fan your spark into a flame.
The great problem in contemporary Christian living is not learning the right things to do but how to do the right things. The problem is not to discover what love looks like but how to love by the Spirit.
Is it really possible for one's face and heart to be filled with sorrow and joy?
The fundamental meaning of being filled with the Spirit is being filled with joy that comes from God and overflows in song.
One of the things you do when you are full of the Holy Spirit is spill over with gratitude to God for everything.
God gives us spiritual gifts so that we can help others keep the faith in the midst of life's storms.
An early church service is the mark of a vibrant church.
The church is the cosmic showcase of God's mercy, but he gets cosmic reproach when we fail to receive his mercy with joy.
The possibilities of joyful service are too great to let yourself be paralyzed by the past.
There are at least seven qualifications if a group wants to be a church in the NT sense.
A church's nerve system needs the divine stimuli that comes through its fingers and toes.
How do you satisfy your pastor-congregation communication needs?
Jesus Christ is always eager and willing to make peace with anyone who will accept the terms of peace he offers.
Have you ever thought of your prayers as the aroma of heaven?
God loves his holiness with infinite love and cherishes his purity. This is the starting point for understanding God and man and the world. If we don't start here everything goes askew.
Both thieves wanted to be saved from death. But O how differently they sought their salvation.
If we are going to love like Jesus loved, even in times of great stress and worry, then we must be filled with living hope.
A pastor expresses his gratitude to those who minister in his church through music.
It is relatively unimportant to Satan whether we are healthy or sick, rich or poor; what he wants is to sift out our faith. If he can do it by suffering, he will try that; if he can do it by wealth, he will try that.
Can we be a people who embrace with gratitude both the scholarly enterprise and the simple joy of breaking bread together?
You can't bless somebody if you desire their harm. If you are a follower of Jesus, you must desire the good of everyone, no matter what their race or nationality.
The Lord measures the faithfulness of our labor, not our success.
What does it mean to "fear the Lord"? And why is it so important that we praise a woman who fears the Lord?
God is a joy and a refuge to those who cling to his neck, but he is a terror to those who flee.
Every time we let fear hinder us we are proudly trusting our emotions more than the promises of God.
What is wisdom? And what are some biblical instructions for how I can get it?
John Piper updates, honors, and urges his church in their financial campaign.
Why was Jesus' ascension into heaven good news for his disciples?
John Piper outlines the responsibilities of a worship pastor.
When God almighty pours himself into an individual, the inner life is changed; it is filled with God.
Hindrances to forthright witnessing rise mainly from taking our eyes off God.
How you do your job is an essential part of Christian discipleship.
Satan often tries to destroy us by affirming and then distorting Scripture.
We must honor God above the state. But if the state does not require us to disobey Jesus then we should be subject for the Lord's sake.
Freedom is not doing what you please, but knowing the truth, loving the good, and never fearing the future.
Do not fear the work God calls you to. He loves you deeply, knows you fully, and will turn all for your good.
Never underestimate the power of truth spoken in a single sentence.
John Piper outlines eight goals he has set to fill his vacation with vitality.
We are afflicted and blessed with a chronic restlessness, an insatiable soul-thirst, for this reason: that we might keep looking until we find Christ.
Trusting him is the one thing we can do to put God in debt.
Jesus is God's fullest revelation and the source of all the knowledge and power that is good for us to have.
All rich and meaningful experiences require preparation and expectancy.
Human hearts are hard to change, but don't forget the Holy Spirit.
Memorize Hezekiah's words to Jerusalem under siege, and you'll know God's power in a new way.
Labor to feast on Jesus. Satisfy yourself with his beauty and his hope-filled fellowship.
Fasting fosters humility, and humility positions us for the Father's blessing.
Only worship is an end in itself. Only worship should not be done as a means to achieving something other than itself.
Pastors should yearn for their people like Isaiah yearned for Israel.
God designs human support to sustain his children's faith and to lighten the burdens they bear in the service of love.
Nine characteristics of fruitful small groups.
When you value someone because they value God, you are not denying that God is your only good; you are expressing it.
God's mercy and sovereignty are the twin pillars of the Christian life.
Since God created everything, we and all our so-called possessions are his to do with as he pleases.
Total abstinence may be the best way to treat alcohol today, but it should not be a requirement for church membership.
Mixing God’s absolute power with his rights as Creator causes combustion in the heart.
The essence of the Fall and of our depraved hearts is the desire not to depend on God.
Everything that you try to do will come to nothing unless you do it through a conscious, abiding dependence on the enablement of Christ.
John Piper lays out six things that he wants his children to understand about money.
God's 4,000 year old relation to Abraham is of immense importance for your life as a believer today.
There's no biblical support for excluding people from church membership whose consciences condone occasional drinking.
Precautions have lengthened many lives; anxiety has lengthened none and shortened many.
Witnessing physical hunger should cause the church to wake up to the worldwide ravages of spiritual starvation.
Winning college students for the Lord and for the local church is crucial.
God shows great power on behalf of his people so that others might see and fear.
As I was reading about Joseph's unjust imprisonment the other day, I was struck all of a sudden with the similarity and contrast between Joseph and John the Baptist.
The law is a description of the obedience of faith; it is not a job description for how to earn the wages of God's blessings.
Do not grumble; it is God's grace that sends you into the wilderness. He is inoculating you against the infections of wealth.
Gratitude is not an act of will power but the glad response of one who acknowledges grace.
If the old Joshua was victorious over the enemies of God, then how much more the new Joshua.
We want our Christmas decorating and festivities to be as explicitly Christ-centered and Christ-exalting as possible.
The way we seek to have something may be wrong, when the having, itself, may not be wrong.
Christmas is a call to go on strike at the assembly plant of sin.
The promise will be fulfilled in spite of all judgment.
Christmas marks the arrival of the end of history, which will soon be consummated by Christ's second appearing.
Saint Francis left a legacy of delight and gratitude to God.
A poem on the glory of the Incarnate God and the gain of believing in him.
You can't cleave to Christ with white-hot devotion if you don't remember and feel what your plight would be without him.
When God aims to do a great work, he starts by planting a spark of desire in a few hearts. Then he fans it into flame through prayer.
Before God enables his people to bring in a harvest, he pours out a Spirit of prayer upon them. The surest sign that God is about to send power upon us is a great movement of prayer in our midst.