Good News of Great Joy

Daily Readings for Advent

"What I want most for Christmas this year is to join you (and many others) in seeing Christ in all his fullness and that we together be able to love what we see with a love far beyond our own half-hearted human capacities" (p. vi).

Portrait of Calvin

Foreword by John Piper

"I am eager for people to know Calvin not because he was without flaws, or because he was the most influential theologian of the last 500 years (which he was), or because he shaped Western culture (which he did), but because he took the Bible so seriously, and because what he saw on every page was the majesty of God and the glory of Christ" (p. 9).

Esther

“It’s precisely the inexpressible something that poetry is meant to help us see or feel. If it were merely expressible— if there were nothing ineffable about it—there would be no need for a poem. But everywhere in the Bible we meet reality that exceeds our comprehension. We must find a way to at least point or suggest or hint. It’s too wonderful—or too something—to keep to ourselves. So it is with the book of Esther. This book never mentions God. But he is everywhere – the invisible hand that moves empires for the sake of his people” (p. 8).

Finish the Mission

Bringing the Gospel to the Unreached and Unengaged

“The goal of missions is the worldwide worship of the God-man by his redeemed people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. The outcome of missions is all peoples delighting to praise Jesus. And the motivation for missions is the enjoyment that his people have in him. Missions aims at, brings about, and is fueled by the worship of Jesus” (p. 14).

John G. Paton

You Will Be Eaten By Cannibals!

"I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms" (p. 6).

Andrew Fuller

I Will Go Down If You Will Hold the Rope!

"The Bible was always paramount: 'Lord, thou hast given me a determination to take up no principle at second-hand; but to search for everything at the pure fountain of thy word.' ... That is one of the main reasons why it is so profitable to read Fuller to this very day: He is so freshly biblical" (p. 9).

Adoniram Judson

How Few There Are Who Die So Hard!

"Are you sure that God wants you to continue your life in this comparatively church-saturated land? Or might he be calling you to fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, to fall like a grain of wheat into some distant ground and die, to hate your life in this world and so to keep it forever and bear much fruit?" (p. 21).

Sanctification in the Everyday

Three Sermons by John Piper

"When Charles Wesley taught us to sing, 'He breaks the power of cancelled sin,' he was teaching the fundamental truth about how the cross and our battle with sin are related. The cross cancels sins for all who believe on Jesus. Then on the basis of that cancellation of our sins, the power of our actual sinning is broken. It’s not the other way around" (p. 6).