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Suffering In The Path Of Christian Obedience, With Joy - Because The Steadfast Love Of The Lord Is Better Than Life (psalm 63:3) - Is The Clearest Display Of The Worth Of God In Our Lives. Therefore, Faith-filled Suffering Is Essential In This World For The Most Intense, Authentic Worship. When We Are Most Satisfied With God In Suffering, He Will Be Most Glorified In Us In Worship. Our Problem Is Not Styles Of Music. Our Problem Is Styles Of Life. When We Embrace More Affliction For The Worth Of Christ, There Will Be More Fruit In The Worship Of Christ.

-John Piper

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Suffering In The Path

John Piper

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Suffering In The Path Of Christian Obedience, With Joy - Because The Steadfast Love Of The Lord Is Better Than Life (psalm 63:3) - Is The Clearest Display Of The Worth Of God In Our Lives. Therefore, Faith-filled Suffering Is Essential In This World For The Most Intense, Authentic Worship. When We Are Most Satisfied With God In Suffering, He Will Be Most Glorified In Us In Worship. Our Problem Is Not Styles Of Music. Our Problem Is Styles Of Life. When We Embrace More Affliction For The Worth Of Christ, There Will Be More Fruit In The Worship Of Christ.

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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.

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Love Relationship

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Christ On The Cross

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

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Bad Theology Dishonors God And Hurts People.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

If God Were Not Just, There Would Be No Demand For His Son To Suffer And Die. And If God Were Not Loving, There Would Be No Willingness For His Son To Suffer And Die. But God Is Both Just And Loving. Therefore His Love Is Willing To Meet The Demands Of His Justice.

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

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.

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

Life Is Too Short

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

Why Don't People Ask Us About Our Hope? The Answer Is Probably That We Look As If We Hope In The Same Things They Do. Our Lives Don't Look Like They Are On The Calvary Road, Stripped Down For Sacrificial Love, Serving Others With The Sweet Assurance That We Don't Need To Be Rewarded In This Life.

The Critical Question For Our Generation—and For Every Generation— Is This: If You Could Have Heaven, With No Sickness, And With All The Friends You Ever Had On Earth, And All The Food You Ever Liked, And All The Leisure Activities You Ever Enjoyed, And All The Natural Beauties You Ever Saw, All The Physical Pleasures You Ever Tasted, And No Human Conflict Or Any Natural Disasters, Could You Be Satisfied With Heaven, If Christ Were Not There?

Leisure Activities

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

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.

The Wisdom Of God Devised A Way For The Love Of God To Deliver Sinners From The Wrath Of God While Not Compromising The Righteousness Of God.

Wise People Know That All Their Money Belongs To God.

We Belittle God When We Go Through The Outward Motions Of Worship And Take No Pleasure In His Person.

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

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

We Can Be Content With Simplicity Because The Deepest Most Satisfying Delights God Gives Us Through Creation Are Free Gifts From Nature And From Loving Relationships With People. After Your Basic Needs Are Met, Accumulated Money Begins To Diminish Your Capacity For These Pleasures Rather Than Increase Them. Buying Things Contributes Absolutely Nothing To The Heart's Capacity For Joy.

Without The Renewed Mind, We Will Distort The Scriptures To Avoid Their Radical Commands For Self-denial, And Love, And Purity, And Supreme Satisfaction In Christ Alone.

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

Treasuring Life Above Christ Is A Tragedy.

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.

The Bible Does Not Oppose Or Forbid Interracial Marriages But Sees Them As A Positive Good For The Glory Of Christ.

If At The Cross Every Sin Was Covered, Satan's Mouth Is Shut. He Has No Weapon. He Can Gum You But His Fangs Are Gone.

God Took The Record Of All Your Sins-all Your Sexual Failures-that Made You A Debtor To Wrath, And Instead Of Holding Them Up In Front Of Your Face And Using Them As The Warrant To Send You To Hell, He Put Them In The Palm Of His Son’s Hand And Nailed Them To The Cross.

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.

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.

One Accurate Way To Describe Abortion Is Subtle Infanticide. That Is: Child-killing Done In A Way That The People Don't Recognize It As Child-killing. That Reality Is Why The Word Abortion Exists. Some Words Are Created To Cloak Reality The Same Way Procedures Are Created To Cloak Reality. "abortion" Is Cloaked Child-killing

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.

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.

The Mind Serves To Know The Truth That Fuels The Fires Of The Heart.

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

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.

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.

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

Reflecting Back

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

The Very Longing For Contentment That Ought To Drive Us To Simplicity Of Life And Labors Of Love Contents Itself Instead With The Broken Cisterns Of Prosperity And Comfort.

It Has To Do With Seeing God. “blessed Are The Pure In Heart, For They Shall See God” (matthew 5:8).

If Grace Is To Be Free - Which Is The Very Meaning Of Grace - We Cannot View It As Something To Be Repaid.

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.

We Ought To Celebrate The Positive Glorious Gifts Of God, But The Worth Of God Shines In A Powerful Way To The World When In The Midst Of Suffering We Still Don't Curse God But Say "the Lord Gave And The Lord Takes Away, Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord."

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

Do We Eagerly Long For The Coming Of Christ? Or Do We Want Him To Wait While Our Love Affair With The World Runs Its Course? That Is The Question That Tests The Authenticity Of Faith.

Intensity Is All That Matters In Painting.

You Never Outgrow Your Need To Preach To Yourself The Gospel.

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

True Worship Comes From People Who Are Deeply Emotional And Who Love Deep And Sound Doctrine. Strong Affections For God Rooted In Thrush Are The Bone And Marrow Of Biblical Worship.

The Gospel Is Not A Way To Get People To Heaven; It Is A Way To Get People To God.

Every Criticism Or Slight Against You, Warranted Or Not, Received Or Endured Humbly, Is Written In Heaven For Your Reward.

The Inner Essence Of Worship Is Cherishing Christ As Gain - Indeed As More Gain Than All That Life Can Offer - Family, Career, Retirement, Fame, Food, Friends. The Essence Of Worship Is Experiencing Christ As Gain. Or To Use Words That We Love To Use Around Here: It Is Savoring Christ, Treasuring Christ, Being Satisfied With Christ.

Christianity Is Fundamentally Convalescence.. .god Is Not Only The Doctor Who Prescribes, He Is The Nurse Who Lifts Up Our Powerless Head And Puts The Spoon In Our Mouth...and He Is The Medicine.

It Is Not Saving Faith To Confess Christ As True. Saving Faith Receives Christ As A Treasure.

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.

Do Not Be More Devoted To Your Own Brain Than You Are To The Bible.

A God-centered Theology Has To Be A Missionary Theology

Christian Inspirational

The Strength Of Patience Hangs On Our Capacity To Believe That God Is Up To Something Good For Us In All Our Delays And Detours.

We Make A God Out Of Whatever We Find Most Joy In. So Find Your Joy In God And Be Done With All Idolatry.

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.

I Am Not A Missionary, But I Have Wanted My Life To Count For The Unreached Peoples Of The World.

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

If You Want To Be A Conduit For God's Grace, You Don't Have To Be Lined With Gold. Copper Will Do.

The Point Is Not That The Resurrection Is The Price Paid For Our Sins. The Point Point Is That The Resurrection Proves The Death Of Jesus Is An All-sufficient Price. If Jesus Did Not Rise From The Dead, Then His Death Was A Failure, God Did Not Vindicate His Sin-bearing Achievement, And We Are Still In Our Sins.

Giving In A Regular, Disciplined, Generous Way-up To And Beyond The Tithe-is Simply Good Sense In View Of The Promises Of God.

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

The Assurance Of The Believer Is Not That God Will Save Him Even If He Stops Believing, But That God Will Keep Him Believing--god Will Sustain You In Faith, He Will Make Your Hope Firm And Stable To The End. He Will Cause You To Persevere.

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

Life Is Precarious, And Life Is Precious. Don't Presume You Will Have It Tomorrow, And Don't Waste It Today.

Life Is Precious

Sin Carries In It Its Own Misery.

Life Is Wasted If We Do Not Grasp The Glory Of The Cross, Cherish It For The Treasure That It Is, And Cleave To It As The Highest Price Of Every Pleasure And The Deepest Comfort In Every Pain. What Was Once Foolishness To Us—a Crucified God—must Become Our Wisdom And Our Power And Our Only Boast In This World.

Sin Is What You Do When You Are Not Satisfied In God.

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.

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.

I Measure Your Love For Me By The Magnitude Of The Wrath I Deserved, And The Wonder Of Your Mercy By Putting Christ In My Place.

Husbands Are Not Christ. But They Are Called To Be Like Him. And The Specific Point Of Likeness Is The Husband's Readiness To Suffer For His Wife's Good Without Threatening Or Abusing Her. This Includes Suffering To Protect Her From Any Outside Forces That Would Harm Her, As Well As Suffering Disappointments Of Abuses Even From Her. This Kind Of Love Is Possible Because Christ Died For Both Husband And Wife. Their Sins Are Forgiven. Neither Needs To Make The Other Suffer For Sins. Christ Has Borne That Suffering. Now As Two Sinful And Forgiven People We Can Return Good For Evil.

God Without Christ Is No God.

Grace Is Power, Not Just Pardon.

God Did Not Just Overcome Evil At The Cross. He Made Evil Serve The Overcoming Of Evil. He Made Evil Commit Suicide In Doing Its Worst Evil.

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.

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.

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.

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