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Every Christian Who Struggles With Depression Struggles To Keep Their Hope Clear. There Is Nothing Wrong With The Object Of Their Hope - Jesus Christ Is Not Defective In Any Way Whatsoever. But The View From The Struggling Christian's Heart Of Their Objective Hope Could Be Obscured By Disease And Pain, The Pressures Of Life, And By Satanic Fiery Darts Shot Against Them... All Discouragement And Depression Is Related To The Obscuring Of Our Hope, And We Need To Get Those Clouds Out Of The Way And Fight Like Crazy To See Clearly How Precious Christ Is.

-John Piper

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Every Christian Who Struggles

John Piper

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Every Christian Who Struggles With Depression Struggles To Keep Their Hope Clear. There Is Nothing Wrong With The Object Of Their Hope - Jesus Christ Is Not Defective In Any Way Whatsoever. But The View From The Struggling Christian's Heart Of Their Objective Hope Could Be Obscured By Disease And Pain, The Pressures Of Life, And By Satanic Fiery Darts Shot Against Them... All Discouragement And Depression Is Related To The Obscuring Of Our Hope, And We Need To Get Those Clouds Out Of The Way And Fight Like Crazy To See Clearly How Precious Christ Is.

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Giving Is A Way Of Having What You Need.

Anger Devours Almost All Other Good Emotions. It Deadens The Soul. It Numbs The Heart To Joy And Gratitude And Hope And Tenderness And Compassion And Kindness.

Every Sin Flows From The Failure To Treasure The Glory Of God Above All Things.

Out Of The Freedom From Worry That God's Generosity Provides Comes An Impulse Toward Simplicity Rather Than Accumulation.

If We Love God's Fame And Are Committed To Magnifying His Name Above All Things, We Cannot Be Indifferent To World Missions.

I Just Want To Preach So Bad I Can Hardly Stand It. I Love What I Do.

When God Is Our Deepest Pleasure We Display Him As Our Highest Treasure.

If Gratitude Is Not Rooted In The Beauty Of God Before The Gift, It Is Probably Disguised Idolatry. May God Grant Us A Heart To Delight In Him For Who He Is So That All Our Gratitude For His Gifts Will Be The Echo Of Our Joy In The Excellency Of The Giver!

America Is The First Culture In Jeopardy Of Amusing Itself To Death.

Fight For Us, O God, That We Not Drift Numb And Blind And Foolish Into Vain And Empty Excitements. Life Is Too Short, Too Precious, Too Painful To Waste On Worldly Bubbles That Burst. Heaven Is Too Great, Hell Is Too Horrible, Eternity Is Too Long That We Should Putter Around On The Porch Of Eternity.

Life Is Too Short

The Further You Go In The Revealed Thoughts Of God, The Clearer You See That God's Aim In Creating The World Was To Display The Value Of His Own Glory.

The Abortion Industry Kills As Many Black People Every Four Days As The Klan Killed In 150 Years.

Exultation That Does Not Flow From Education, Affections That Do Not Flow From Knowing, Savoring That Does Not Flow From Seeing, Feeling That Does Not Flow From Thinking - Are Hollow And Rootless - Noisy Gongs And Clanging Cymbals. And God Is Not Glorified By Artificial And Empty Passions. True Delight Is Rooted In True Doctrine. God-centered Exultation Is Rooted In God-centered Education.

Many People Are Willing To Be God-centered As Long As They Feel That God Is Man-centered

Our Main Work Is, By The Spirit Of God, With The Word Of God, To Portray The Glories Of God As More Beautiful And More Satisfying Than Anything.

Lavish Giving And Open Homes Are Close To The Center Of Life In Christ.

The Deepest Need That You And I Have In Weakness And Adversity Is Not Quick Relief, But The Well-grounded Confidence That What Is Happening To Us Is Part Of The Greatest Purpose Of God In The Universe - The Glorification Of The Grace And Power Of His Son - The Grace And Power That Bore Him To The Cross And Kept Him There Until The Work Of Love Was Done.

God Is Infinitely Valuable. I Can't Think Of Anything That Would Have A Greater Impact On Your Life Than For You To Believe That.

Forgiveness Costs Us Nothing. All Our Costly Obedience Is The Fruit, Not The Root, Of Being Forgiven. That's Why We Call It Grace.

What Could Be A Greater Privilege Than To Listen To The Voice Of God, And Be Granted By God Himself The Ears To Hear?

If You Don't Feel Strong Desires For The Manifestation Of The Glory Of God, It Is Not Because You Have Drunk Deeply And Are Satisfied. It Is Because You Have Nibbled So Long At The Table Of The World. Your Soul Is Stuffed With Small Things, And There Is No Room For The Great.

I Do Not Elevate The Time Or Mode Of Baptism To A Primary Doctrine.

I Sometimes Fear That We Have So Redefined Conversion In Terms Of Human Decisions And Have So Removed Any Necessity Of The Experience Of God’s Spirit, That Many People Think They Are Saved When In Fact They Only Have Christian Ideas In Their Head Not Spiritual Power In Their Heart.

The Deepest Longing Of The Human Heart Is To Know And Enjoy The Glory Of God. We Were Made For This.

Grace Is Not Simply Leniency When We Have Sinned. Grace Is The Enabling Gift Of God Not To Sin. Grace Is Power, Not Just Pardon.

God Is At Work In The Worst Of Times. He Is At Work Doing A Thousand Things No One Can See But Him.

God's Global Aim In Creation And Redemption Is Not Only The Glory Of His Name, But Also The Gladness Of The Peoples.

It Is About The Greatness Of God, Not The Significance Of Man. God Made Man Small And The Universe Big To Say Something About Himself.

We Give Glory To God When We Trust Him To Do What He Has Promised To Do-especially When All Human Possibilities Are Exhausted. Faith Glorifies God. That Is Why God Planned For Faith To Be The Way We Are Justified.

Don't Marry So You Can Stop Pursuing Women. Marry So You Can Perfect The Pursuit Of One Woman For A Lifetime.

God Has Ordained That Our Preaching Become Deeper And More Winsome As We Are Broken, Humbled, And Made Low And Desperately Dependent On Grace By The Trials Of Our Lives.

The Murders Of Newtown Are A Warning To Me - And You. Not A Warning To See Our Schools As Defenseless, But To See Our Souls As Depraved. To See Our Need For A Savior. To Humble Ourselves In Repentance For The God-diminishing Bitterness Of Our Hearts. To Turn To Christ In Desperate Need, And To Treasure His Forgiveness, His Transforming, And His Friendship.

No One Will Be Able To Rise To The Magnificence Of The Missionary Cause Who Does Not Feel The Magnificence Of Christ.

If You Must Choose Between Loving Someone And Acting So That They Feel Loved, Always Choose To Love Them.

God Wills To Be Displayed And Known And Loved And Cherished And Worshiped.

God Is Love Precisely Because He Relentlessly Pursues The Praises Of His Name In The Hearts Of His People.

Oh, How Rare Are The Christians Who Speak With A Tender Heart And Have A Theological Backbone Of Steel.

Not Going To God Because Your Faith Is Weak Is Like Not Going To The Doctor Because You Feel Sick.

There Is A War Going On. All Talk Of A Christian's Right To Live Luxuriously "as A Child Of The King" In This Atmosphere Sounds Hollow - Especially Since The King Himself Is Stripped For Battle.

When I Pray For Revival I Pray First For The Most Radical Thing: The Utter Devotion And Allegiance Of Your Hearts To Christ. That You Would Love Him So Deeply And Long For Him So Passionately That His Coming Would Be Your Great Hope, And Death Would Be Gain, And Life Would Be For Christ And His Kingdom.

If We Cannot Claim To Live Sinless Lives, Then The Only Thing That Can Keep Us From Despairing Before A Holy God Is That We Have An Advocate In Heaven And He Pleads Our Case Not On The Basis Of Our Perfection But Of His Propitiation.

The Essence Of Faith Is Being Satisfied With All That God Is For Us In Jesus.

Wimpy Worldviews Make Wimpy Christians. And Wimpy Christians Won’t Survive The Days Ahead.

The Ultimate Purpose Of Life Is To Show That Jesus Is More Precious Than Life.

The Deepest And Most Enduring Happiness Is Found Only In God. Not From God, But In God.

The Really Wonderful Moments Of Joy In This World Are Not The Moments Of Self-satisfaction, But Self-forgetfulness. Standing On The Edge Of The Grand Canyon And Contemplating Your Own Greatness Is Pathological. At Such Moments We Are Made For A Magnificent Joy That Comes From Outside Ourselves.

Isn't It Ironic That Today People Say, 'if You Know The Love Of God, You Don't Have To Worry When You Go On In Sin.' But The Apostle John Said, 'if You Know The Love Of God, You Won't Be Able To Go On In Sin.'

Whether Sexual Orientation Can Change Or Not, Hearts Can Change And Turn Any Sexual Orientation Into An Occasion For The Glory Of Christ. Those With Same-sex Attraction Glorify Christ Through Sexual Abstinence And Through The Enrichment Of Significant Christ-exalting Relationships In Other Ways.

Where Feelings For God Are Dead, Worship Is Dead.

God Is Not Worn Out Running The Galaxy. He’s Not Taxed At All Guiding Every Dust Particle All The Time.

When The Heart No Longer Feels The Truth Of Hell, The Gospel Passes From Good News To Simply News

Sometimes People Stumble Over This Vastness In Relation To The Apparent Insignificance Of Man. It Does Seem To Make Us Infinitesimally Small. But The Meaning Of This Magnitude Is Not Mainly About Us. It’s About God… The Reason For ‘wasting’ So Much Space On A Universe To House A Speck Of Humanity Is To Make A Point About Our Maker, Not Us.

Faith Is Born And Sustained By The Word Of God, And Out Of Faith Grows The Flower Of Joy.

So, You Have Three Possibilities In World Missions. You Can Be A Goer, A Sender, Or Disobedient. The Bible Does Not Assume That Everyone Goes. But It Does Assume That The Ones Who Do Not Go Care About Goers And Support Goers And Pray For Goers And Hold The Rope Of The Goers.

Ways To Be Actively Involved In The Solution: 1. Consider Adoption. 2. Be A Regular Giver Of Your Money To Crisis Pregnancy Centers. 3. Volunteer In A Crisis Pregnancy Center. 4. Be Involved In Spreading Truth With Good Literature. 5. Make Your Presence Know At The Abortion Clinics In Town (by) Writing Or Phoning Or Visiting And Talking, If You Can, With Those Who Work There. 6. Dream A New Kind Of Ministry. 7. Pray!

What Is God Looking For In The World? Assistants? No. The Gospel Is Not A Help-wanted Ad. It Is A Help-available Ad. God Is Not Looking For People To Work For Him But People Who Let Him Work Mightily In And Through Them.

The Great Commission Will Not Get Done If We’re Not Ready To Risk Our Lives And The Lives Of Our Family.

Whatever Opposes Prayer Opposes The Whole Work Of Ministry.

Life Is War. That's Not All It Is. But It Is Always That. Our Weakness In Prayer Is Owing Largely To Our Neglect Of This Truth. Prayer Is Primarily A Wartime Walkie-talkie For The Mission Of The Church As It Advances Against The Powers Of Darkness And Unbelief.

If My Life Was To Have A Single, All-satisfying, Unifying Passion, It Would Have To Be God's Passion.

But Whatever You Do, Find The God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated Passion Of Your Life, And Find Your Way To Say It And Live For It And Die For It. And You Will Make A Difference That Lasts. You Will Not Waste Your Life.

The Highest Meaning And The Most Ultimate Purpose Of Marriage Is To Put The Covenant Relationship Of Christ And His Church On Display. That Is Why Marriage Exists. If You Are Married, That Is Why You Are Married. If You Hope To Be, That Should Be Your Dream.

The Ultimate Aim Of The Gospel Is The Display Of God’s Glory.

God Is Not An Employer Looking For Employees. He Is An Eagle Looking For People Who Will Take Refuge Under His Wings.

According To The Spirit Of This Age, The Ultimate Sin Is No Longer The Failure To Honor And Thank God But The Failure To Esteem Oneself. Self-abasement, Not God-abasement, Is The Evil. And The Cry Of Deliverance Is Not "o Wretched Man That I Am, Who Will Deliver Me?" But "o Worthy Man That I Am, Would That I Could Only See It Better"!

This Is The Centre Of The Gospel - This Is What The Garden Of Gethsemane And Good Friday Are All About - That God Has Done Astonishing And Costly Things To Draw Us Near.

Worship Is A Way Of Gladly Reflecting Back To God The Radiance Of His Worth.

Reflecting Back

The Great Barrier To Worship Among God's People Is Not That We Are Always Seeking Our Own Satisfaction, But That Our Seeking Is So Weak And Half-hearted That We Settle For Little Sips At Broken Cisterns When The Fountain Of Life Is Just Over The Next Hill.

Where Passion For God Is Weak, Zeal For Missions Will Be Weak.

We Need A Savior. Christmas Is An Indictment Before It Becomes A Delight.

Desire That Your Life Count For Something Great! Long For Your Life To Have Eternal Significance. Want This! Don’t Coast Through Life Without A Passion.

Christian Inspirational

Jerusalem Meant One Thing For Jesus: Certain Death.

Abstraction Is The Way To The Heart - It Is Not The Heart Itself.

One Of The Most Important Discoveries I Have Ever Made Is This Truth: God Is Most Glorified In Me When I Am Most Satisfied In Him. This Is The Motor That Drives My Ministry As A Pastor. It Affects Everything I Do.

To See Him And Know Him And Be In His Presence Is The Soul’s Final Feast. Beyond This There Is No Quest. Words Fail. We Call It Pleasure, Joy, Delight. But These Are Weak Pointers To The Unspeakable Experience.

Suffering For Jesus Is Temporary. Pleasure In Jesus Is Eternal.

Adjust Your Doctrine - Or Just Minimize Doctrine - To Attract The World, And In The Very Process Of Attracting Them, Lose The Radical Truth That Alone Can Set Them Free.

If You Don’t Know God As Beautiful And Satisfying, You Don’t Know Him.

Spiritual Leadership Is Knowing Where God Wants People To Be And Taking The Initiative To Get Them There By God's Means In Reliance On God's Power.

Will I Find Spiritual Communion With God Sweet Enough, And Hope In His Promises Deep Enough, Not Just To Cope, But To Flourish And Rejoice In Him?

It Isn't Sex By Itself That Makes Abortion. It Is Sex Plus Covetousness: Desiring Things That God Does Not Will For Us To Have Because We Are Not Willing To Find Our Satisfaction In Him. Illicit Sex And Unencumbered Freedom Without Children: For These We Covet, And Abortion Is The Result.

Marriage Is Not Mainly About Being Or Staying In Love. It’s Mainly About Telling The Truth With Our Lives. It’s About Portraying Something True About Jesus Christ And The Way He Relates To His People. It Is About Showing In Real Life The Glory Of The Gospel.

Don’t Be Surprised. There Is Nothing New Under The Sun. Only Endless Repackagings

God Without Christ Is No God.

God Seldom Calls Us For An Easier Life, But Always Calls Us To Know More Of Him And Drink More Deeply Of His Sustaining Grace.

Bad Theology Will Eventually Hurt People And Dishonor God In Proportion To Its Badness.

All The Money Needed To Send And Support An Army Of Self-sacrificing, Joy-spreading Ambassadors Is Already In The Church.

What Was Once Foolishness To Us-a Crucified God-must Become Our Wisdom And Our Power And Our Only Boast In This World.

Christ On The Cross

Zeal For The Glory Of God Motivates World Missions

What Defines Us As Christians Is Not Most Profoundly That We Have Come To Know Him But That He Took Note Of Us And Made Us His Own.

If A Tornado Twists At 175 Miles An Hour And Stays On The Ground Like A Massive Lawnmower For 50 Miles, God Gave The Command.

Too Many Christians Are Fighting Graduate School Sins With A Grammar School Knowledge Of God.

What Is Sin? It Is The Glory Of God Not Honored. The Holiness Of God Not Reverenced. The Greatness Of God Not Admired. The Power Of God Not Praised. The Truth Of God Not Sought. The Wisdom Of God Not Esteemed. The Beauty Of God Not Treasured. The Goodness Of God Not Savored. The Faithfulness Of God Not Trusted. The Commandments Of God Not Obeyed. The Justice Of God Not Respected. The Wrath Of God Not Feared. The Grace Of God Not Cherished. The Presence Of God Not Prized. The Person Of God Not Loved. That Is Sin.

The Rich Fruit Of Spontaneity Grows In The Garden That Is Well Tended By The Discipline Of Schedule.

The Gospel Of God And The Love Of God Are Expressed Finally And Fully In God's Gift Of Himself For Our Everlasting Pleasure. "in Your Presence There Is Fullness Of Joy; At Your Right Hand Are Pleasures Forevermore."

Marriage Is Not Absolutely For Making Children. But It Is Absolutely For Making Children Followers Of Jesus.

Husbands And Wives, Recognize That In Marriage You Have Become One Flesh. If You Live For Your Private Pleasure At The Expense Of Your Spouse, You Are Living Against Yourself And Destroying Your Joy. But If You Devote Yourself With All Your Heart To The Holy Joy Of Your Spouse, You Will Also Be Living For Your Joy And Making A Marriage After The Image Of Christ And His Church.

There Will Be No Passion To Draw Others Into Our Worship Where There Is No Passion For Worship.

Faith Begins With A Backward Look At The Cross, But It Lives With A Forward Look At The Promises

Where The Bible Is Esteemed As The Inspired And Inerrant Word Of God, Preaching Can Flourish. But Where The Bible Is Treated Merely As A Record Of Valuable Religious Insight, Preaching Dies.

Don't Coast Through Life Without A Passion.

All The Different Ways God Has Chosen To Display His Glory In Creation And Redemption Seem To Reach Their Culmination In The Praises Of His Redeemed People. God Governs The World With Glory Precisely That He Might Be Admired, Marvelled At, Exalted And Praised. The Climax Of His Happiness Is The Delight He Takes In The Echoes Of His Excellence In The Praises Of The Saints.

We Do Not Smirk At The Misery Or The Merrymaking Of Immoral Culture. We Weep. Being Pilgrims Does Not Mean Being Cynical. The Salt Of The Earth Does Not Mock Rotting Meat. Where It Can, It Saves And Seasons. And Where It Can’t, It Weeps.

The Ministry And Mission Of The Church Is At The Center Of Christian Giving.

If You Alter Or Obscure The Biblical Portrait Of God In Order To Attract Converts, You Don't Get Converts To God, You Get Converts To An Illusion. This Is Not Evangelism, But Deception.

Christ Did Not Die To Make Good Works Merely Possible Or To Produce A Half-hearted Pursuit. He Died To Produce In Us A Passion For Good Deeds. Christian Purity Is Not The Mere Avoidance Of Evil, But The Pursuit Of Good.

Life Is Too Short, Too Precious, Too Painful To Waste On Worldly Bubbles That Burst

Life Is Too Short

The Great Danger Of Riches Is That Our Affections Will Be Carried Away From God To His Gifts.

At One Level, The Message Of The Book Of Ruth Is That The Life Of The Godly Is Not A Straight Line To Glory, But They Do Get There.

Your Mind Was Made To Know And Love God.

The Ultimate Difference Between God's Wisdom And Man's Wisdom Is How They Relate To The Glory Of God's Grace In Christ Crucified. God's Wisdom Makes The Glory Of God's Grace Our Supreme Treasure. But Man's Wisdom Delights In Seeing Himself As Resourceful, Self-sufficient, Self Determining, And Not Utterly Dependent On God's Free Grace.

It Was Becoming Clearer And Clearer That If I Wanted To Come To The End Of My Life And Not Say, “i’ve Wasted It!” Then I Would Need To Press All The Way In, And All The Way Up, To The Ultimate Purpose Of God And Join Him In It. If My Life Was To Have A Single, All-satisfying, Unifying Passion, It Would Have To Be God’s Passion.

Marriage Is Not Mainly About Prospering Economically. It Is Mainly About Displaying The Covenant Keeping Love Between Christ And His Church

The Lord Is Kind. He Is Good To All Who Take Refuge Under His Wings.

Love Is Doing What Will Enthrall The Beloved With The Greatest And Longest Joy. What Will Enthrall The Beloved This Way Is The Glory Of God. Love Means Doing All We Can, At Whatever Cost To Ourselves, To Help People Be Enthralled With The Glory Of God. When They Are, They Are Satisfied And God Is Glorified. Therefore Loving People And Glorifying God Are One.

The Ultimate Meaning Of True Womanhood Is This: It Is A Distinctive Calling Of God To Display The Glory Of His Son In Ways That Would Not Be Displayed If There Were No Womanhood.

Not To Abide In Jesus’ Love Would Mean That We Stop Believing That We Are Loved By Jesus. We Look At Our Circumstances - Perhaps Persecution Or Disease Or Abandonment - And We Conclude That We Are Not Loved By Jesus Anymore. That’s The Opposite Of Abiding In The Love Of Jesus. So Abiding In His Love Means Continuing To Believe, Moment By Moment, That We Are Loved.

Treasuring Life Above Christ Is A Tragedy.

God Tests His People Through Hardship.

Our Concern With Truth Is Simply An Echo Of Our Concern With God .

The Greatest Cause In The World Is Joyfully Rescuing People From Hell, Meeting Their Earthly Needs, Making Them Glad In God, And Doing It With A Kind, Serious Pleasure That Makes Christ Look Like The Treasure He Is.

To Love God Passionately Is To Love Truth Passionately.

If You Remove Enjoyment Of God From Faith In God, It Ceases To Be Faith.

Nothing Makes God More Supreme And More Central In Worship Than When A People Are Utterly Persuaded That Nothing - Not Money Or Prestige Or Leisure Or Family Or Job Or Health Or Sports Or Toys Or Friends - Nothing Is Going To Bring Satisfaction To Their Sinful, Guilty, Aching Hearts Besides God.

There Is Hope In Forgiveness

The Gospel Is The News That Jesus Christ, The Righteous One, Died For Our Sins And Rose Again, Eternally Triumphant Over All His Enemies, So That There Is Now No Condemnation For Those Who Believe, But Only Everlasting Joy.

People Don't Enjoy Salt. They Enjoy What Is Salted. We Are The Salt Of The Earth. We Do Not Exist For Ourselves.

Wise People Know That All Their Money Belongs To God.

Worship Is An Inward Feeling And Outward Action That Reflects The Worth Of God.

The More Of God's Word You Know And Love, The More Of God's Spirit You Will Experience.

God Has Given Us Prayer As A Wartime Walkie-talkie So That We Can Call Headquarters For Everything We Need As The Kingdom Of Christ Advances In The World. Prayer Gives Us The Significance Of Front-line Forces, And Gives God The Glory Of A Limitless Provider. The One Who Gives The Power Gets The Glory. Thus Prayer Safeguards The Supremacy Of God In Missions While Linking Us With Endless Grace For Every Need.

Lives Of Faith Are The Great Mirror Of The Dependability Of God.

Love Is The Overflow Of Joy In God! It Is Not Duty For Duty's Sake, Or Right For Right's Sake. It Is Not A Resolute Abandoning Of One's Own Good With A View Solely To The Good Of The Other Person. It Is First A Deeply Satisfying Experience Of The Fullness Of God's Grace, And Then A Doubly Satisfying Experience Of Sharing That Grace With Another Person.

Worship Is What We Were Created For. This Is The Final End Of All Existence-the Worship Of God. God Created The Universe So That It Would Display The Worth Of His Glory. And He Created Us So That We Would See This Glory And Reflect It By Knowing And Loving It-with All Our Heart And Soul And Mind And Strength. The Church Needs To Build A Common Vision Of What Worship Is And What She Is Gathering To Do On Sunday Morning And Scattering To Do On Monday Morning.

God Is Pursuing With Omnipotent Passion A Worldwide Purpose Of Gathering Joyful Worshipers For Himself From Every Tribe And Tongue And People And Nation. He Has An Inexhaustible Enthusiasm For The Supremacy Of His Name Among The Nations. Therefore, Let Us Bring Our Affections Into Line With His, And, For The Sake Of His Name, Let Us Renounce The Quest For Worldly Comforts And Join His Global Purpose.

We Have A Name For Those Who Try To Praise When They Have No Pleasure In The Object. We Call Them Hypocrites.

I've Always Wondered, Am I A Writer Who Preaches Or A Preacher Who Writes? I Don't Know. I Love Them Both.

Maintaining Joy In God Takes 'work'; That Is, It's A Fight Against Every Impulse For Alien Joys And Every Obstacle In The Way To Seeing And Savoring Christ.

You Have To Decide What Those Issues Are For You. What Do You Think Disqualifies A Person From Holding Public Office? I Believe That The Endorsement Of The Right To Kill Unborn Children Disqualifies A Person From Any Position Of Public Office. It's Simply The Same As Saying That The Endorsement Of Racism, Fraud, Or Bribery, Would Disqualify Him - Except That Child-killing Is More Serious Than Those.

Gratitude Is The Joy That Arises In Response To God’s Good Will Toward Us In All His Gifts.

Waiting For The Lord In A Season Of Darkness Should Not Be A Time Of Inactivity. We Should Do What We Can Do. And Doing Is Often God's Appointed Remedy For Despair.

Do You Feel More Loved When God Makes Much Of You Or Do You Feel More Loved When God At The Cost Of His Son Allows You To Make Much Of Him?

Christian Fasting, At Its Root, Is The Hunger Of A Homesickness For God

Our Deeds Are Not The Basis Of Our Salvation, They Are The Evidence Of Our Salvation. They Are Not Foundation, They Are Demonstration.

Don't Ever Think That The Sin Of Your Past Means There Is No Hope For Your Future.

Headship Is The Divine Calling Of A Husband To Take Primary Responsibility For Christlike, Servant Leadership, Protection, And Provision In The Home.

I Don’t Know How People Pray Who Don’t Believe In The Sovereignty Of God To Do The Impossible. Because All The Things I Want To Happen Are Impossible. If They’re Possible I’ll Do Them.

My Feelings Are Not God. God Is God. My Feelings Do Not Define Truth. God’s Word Defines Truth. My Feelings Are Echoes And Responses To What My Mind Perceives. And Sometimes - Many Times - My Feelings Are Out Of Sync With The Truth. When That Happens - And It Happens Every Day In Some Measure - I Try Not To Bend The Truth To Justify My Imperfect Feelings, But Rather, I Plead With God: Purify My Perceptions Of Your Truth And Transform My Feelings So That They Are In Sync With The Truth.

So Saving Grace, Converting Grace, For Augustine, Is God's Giving Us A Sovereign Joy In God That Triumphs Over All Other Joys And Therefore Sways The Will. The Will Is Free To Move Toward Whatever It Delights In Most Fully, But It Is Not Within The Power Of Our Will To Determine What That Sovereign Joy Will Be.

History Is A Conveyor Belt Of Corpses Because Of Adam's Sin.

...we Should All Fortify Ourselves Against The Dark Hours Of Depression By Cultivating A Deep Distrust Of The Certainties Of Despair. Despair Is Relentless In The Certainties Of Its Pessimism. But We Have Seen Again And Again, From Our Own Experience And Others', That Absolute Statements Of Hopelessness That We Make In The Dark Are Notoriously Unreliable. Our Dark Certainties Are Not Sureties.

The Missionary Question Is Not, 'where Are There Unbelievers?' And Then Send A Missionary There. There Are Unbelievers Everywhere! The Missionary Question Is, 'where Are There People's Who Don't Have Any Christians In Them Or Don't Have A Church Strong Enough To Do The Neighbor Evangelism That We Can Do If We Just Want To Do It?' That's The Missionary Question.

It Is Better To Lose Your Life Than To Waste It.

There Are A Thousand Needs In The World, And None Of Them Compares To The Global Need For The Gospel.

If You Can't See The Sun You Will Be Impressed With A Street Light. If You've Never Felt Thunder And Lightning You'll Be Impressed With Fireworks. And If You Turn Your Back On The Greatness And Majesty Of God You'll Fall In Love With A World Of Shadows And Short-lived Pleasures.

Falling In Love

Even On Days When Every Cinder In Our Soul Feels Cold, If We Crawl To The Word Of God And Cry Out For Ears To Hear, The Cold Ashes Will Be Lifted And The Tiny Spark Of Life Will Be Fanned. For 'the Law Of The Lord Is Perfect, Reviving The Soul.'

Jesus' Teaching In General [implies] That Happy And Fulfilling Sexual Relations In Marriage Depend On Each Partner Aiming To Give Satisfaction To The Other. If It Is The Joy Of Each To Make The Other Happy, A Hundred Problems Will Be Solved Before They Happen.

Boasting Is The Outward Form Of The Inner Condition Of Pride.

The Dismembering Of A Human Being Routinely In 30 Minutes On An Outpatient Bases - Or Any Other Way - Is Barbaric. Four Blocks From Our Church All Year Long - Like Churches Within Smelling Distance Of Auschwitz Or Dachau Or Buchenwald.

My Take On Tithing In America Is That It's A Middle-class Way Of Robbing God. Tithing To The Church And Spending The Rest On Your Family Is Not A Christian Goal. It's A Diversion. The Real Issue Is: How Shall We Use God's Trust Fund-namely, All We Have-for His Glory? In A World With So Much Misery, What Lifestyle Should We Call Our People To Live? What Example Are We Setting?

We Are Not As Christ-centered And Cross-cherishing As We Should Be, Because We Do Not Ponder The Truth That Everything Good, And Everything Bad That God Turns For The Good, Was Purchased By The Sufferings Of Christ.

Mission Exists Because Worship Doesn't.

The Way Of The Cross Is The Way Of Suffering. Christians Are Called To Die, Not Kill, In Order To Show The World How They Are Loved By Christ.

You Can't Praise What You Don't Prize.

How Do You Get From, "we Do Not Know Whether This Is Protectable Human Life," To "therefore, We Will Not Protect It?" Wouldn't The Logic Just As Likely (some Would Say Far More Likely) Be, "since We Do Not Know Whether This Is Protectable Human Life, Therefore We Will Protect It?" Why Does The Judicial Uncertainty About The Humanity Of The Unborn Lead To Unbridled License To Destroy It?

So You Can See What Is Happening In The New Testament. Worship Is Being Significantly Deinstitutionalized, Delocalized, De-externalized. The Whole Thrust Is Being Taken Off Of Ceremony And Seasons And Places And Forms And Is Being Shifted To What Is Happening In The Heart - Not Just On Sunday But Every Day And All The Time In All Of Life.

In Every Situation And Every Circumstance Of Your Life, God Is Always Doing A Thousand Different Things That You Cannot See And You Do Not Know.

My Paradise: With Christ. Not Sinning. No Pain. New Earth. Precious In That Order.

The Main Reason God Has Given Us Minds Is That We Might Seek Out And Find All The Reasons That Exist For Treasuring Him In All Things And Above All Things.

Pastors And Missionaries (need) To Know God And To Find In Him A Treasure More Satisfying Than Any Other Person Or Thing Or Relationship Or Experience Or Accomplishment In The World.

Redemption Is Not Perfection. The Redeemed Must Realize Their Imperfections.

Only The #‎ Gospel Can Do Two Seemingly Contradictory Things: Destroy Pride And Increase Courage.

The Greatest Act Of Freeing Happened When Jesus Died In Our Place And Paid Our Debt.

I Do Not Aim To Be Immediately Practical But Eternally Helpful.

The Goal Of Missions Is The Gladness Of The Peoples In The Greatness Of God.

Sleep Is A Daily Reminder From God That We Are Not God. Once A Day God Sends Us To Bed Like Patients With A Sickness. The Sickness Is A Chronic Tendency To Think We Are In Control And That Our Work Is Indispensable. To Cure Us Of This Disease God Turns Us Into Helpless Sacks Of Sand Once A Day.

Do All Things Without Grumbling. Why? You Have A Sovereign God Who Is On Your Side, Who Works Everything Together For Your Good.

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Sin Is What You Do When Your Heart Is Not Satisfied With God. No One Sins Out Of Duty. We Sin Because It Holds Out Some Promise Of Happiness.

We Ought Not Speak Too Long About God With Our Minds Before We Turn And Speak To God From Our Heart. We Must Stir A Lot Of Prayer Into The Stew Of Our Theology.

'worship' Is The Term We Use To Cover All The Acts Of The Heart And Mind And Body That Intentionally Express The Infinite Worth Of God. This Is What We Were Created For, As God Says In Isaiah 43:7, Everyone Who Is Called By My Name, And Whom I Have Created For My Glory. That Means That We Were All Created For The Purpose Of Expressing The Infinite Worth Of God's Glory. We Were Created To Worship.

Our Obedience Is God's Pleasure When It Proves That God Is Our Treasure. This Is Good News, Because It Means Very Simply That The Command To Obey Is The Command To Be Happy In God. The Commandments Of God Are Only As Hard To Obey As The Promises Of God Are Hard To Believe. The Word Of God Is Only As Hard To Obey As The Beauty Of God Is Hard To Cherish.

Does Christ Get A Good Reputation Because Of The Way We Live? Is The Excellence Of Christ Displayed In Our Lives? That Should Matter To Us, Not Whether We Ourselves Are Praised.

Homosexual Behavior Has Been Exploited, And Reveled In, And Celebrated In Art, For Millennia.

That's Who Jesus Christ Is. He Became The Final Priest And The Final Sacrifice. Sinless, He Did Not Offer Sacrifices For Himself. Immortal, He Never Has To Be Replaced. Human, He Could Bear Human Sins. Therefore He Did Not Offer Sacrifices For Himself; He Offered Himself As The Final Sacrifice. There Will Never Be The Need For Another. There Is One Mediator Between Us And God. One Priest. We Need No Other. Oh, How Happy Are Those Who Draw Near To God Through Christ Alone.

The Formation Of The Life Of A Person In The Womb Is The Work Of God, And It Is Not Merely A Mechanical Process But A Work On The Analogy Of Weaving Or Knitting: "thou Didst Knit Me Together In My Mother's Womb" (psalm 139:13). The Life Of The Unborn Is The Knitting Of God, And What He Is Knitting Is A Human Being In His Own Image, Unlike Any Other Creature In The Universe... The Destruction Of Conceived Human Life - Whether Embryonic, Fetal, Or Viable - Is An Assault On The Unique Person-forming Work Of God.

When I Believe In Jesus, I Am United To Christ. Therefore, What He Did And Achieved Becomes Mine By This Union Through Faith Alone. His Righteous Life Is Imputed To Me. What Christ Achieved Is Counted As Mine.

Bitterness About Your Parents’ Brokenness Will Kill You. Be The Grace-filled End Of Generational Sin In Your Family.

Ignatius, When He Heard The Clock Strike, Would Say, "now I Have Another Hour To Answer For." (eph. 5:16)

The Task Of All Christian Scholarship—not Just Biblical Studies—is To Study Reality As A Manifestation Of God’s Glory, To Speak And Write About It With Accuracy, And To Savor The Beauty Of God In It, And To Make It Serve The Good Of Man. It Is An Abdication Of Scholarship When Christians Do Academic Work With Little Reference To God. If All The Universe And Everything In It Exist By The Design Of An Infinite, Personal God, To Make His Manifold Glory Known And Loved, Then To Treat Any Subject Without Reference To God’s Glory Is Not Scholarship But Insurrection.

God Aims To Exalt Himself By Working For Those Who Wait For Him.

The Goal Of Bethlehem College And Seminary Cannot Be Expressed With Man As The End Point. Christ Is The Endpoint.

In Our Proud Love Affair With Ourselves We Pour Contempt, Whether We Know It Or Not, On The Worth Of God's Glory. As Our Pride Pours Contempt Upon God's Glory, His Righteousness Obliges Him To Pour Wrath Upon Our Pride.

The Greatest Threat To Your Ministry, Dear Brothers, Is That You Lose Your Joy In God.

If You Are Sufficient For Your Task, It's Too Small.

It Is Not Surprising That Prayer Malfunctions When We Try To Make It A Domestic Intercom To Call Upstairs For More Comforts In The Den.

Prayer Causes Things To Happen That Wouldn't Happen If You Didn't Pray.

The Suffering Of Sickness And The Suffering Of Persecution Have This In Common: They Are Both Intended By Satan For The Destruction Of Our Faith, And Governed By God For The Purifying Of Our Faith... Christ Sovereignly Accomplishes His Loving, Purifying Purpose, By Overruling Satan's Destructive Attempts. Satan Is Always Aiming To Destroy Our Faith; But Christ Magnifies His Power In Weakness.

Every Spirit That Does Not Confess Jesus Is Not From God.

Sin Carries In It Its Own Misery.

One Of The Great Enemies Of Hope Is Forgetting God's Promises.

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Salmon P. Chase

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