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God Will Not Turn Away From Doing You Good. He Will Keep On Doing Good. He Doesn't Do Good To His Children Sometimes And Bad To Them Other Times. He Keeps On Doing Good And He Never Will Stop Doing Good For Ten Thousand Ages Of Ages. When Things Are Going Bad That Does Not Mean God Has Stopped Doing Good. It Means He Is Shifting Things Around To Get Them In Place For More Good, If You Will Go On Loving Him.

-John Piper

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God Will Not Turn

John Piper

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God Will Not Turn Away From Doing You Good. He Will Keep On Doing Good. He Doesn't Do Good To His Children Sometimes And Bad To Them Other Times. He Keeps On Doing Good And He Never Will Stop Doing Good For Ten Thousand Ages Of Ages. When Things Are Going Bad That Does Not Mean God Has Stopped Doing Good. It Means He Is Shifting Things Around To Get Them In Place For More Good, If You Will Go On Loving Him.

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Humility Is Beyond Our Reach. If It Were A Product Of Reaching, We Would Instinctively Be Proud Of Reaching It. It Is A Gift.

Sin Is What You Do When Your Heart Is Not Satisfied With God.

Not Grace To Bar What Is Not Bliss, Nor Flight From All Distress, But This: The Grace That Orders Our Trouble And Pain, And Then, In The Darkness, Is There To Sustain.

We Will Wait. We Will Wait Till All Is Made Righteous (glorious) According To The Word Of God.

This Assumes That The Glory Of Christ Is Our Highest Treasure, Not Health, Wealth, Family Or Even Life. So Preaching Must Continually Show Not That Jesus Is The Means To Prosperity But That He Is Better Than Prosperity.

May We Catch Enough Of A Vision Of Christ That We Will Not Be Satisfied Unless We Know Him More Fully.

...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.

Adoption Is The Visible Gospel.

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

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

Prayer Is The Open Admission That Without Christ We Can Do Nothing. And Prayer Is The Turning Away From Ourselves To God In The Confidence That He Will Provide The Help We Need. Prayer Humbles Us As Needy And Exalts God As Wealthy

A Woman Who Fears The Lord Will Not Run Away From God To Satisfy Her Longings And Relieve Her Anxieties. She Will Wait For The Lord. She Will Hope In God. She Will Stay Close To The Heart Of God And Trust In His Promises. The Prospect Of Departing Into The Way Of Sin Will Be Too Fearful To Pursue; And The Benefits Of Abiding In The Shadow Of The Almighty Too Glorious To Forsake.

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

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.

In Colossians 2:12 And 1 Peter 3:21 Baptism Is An Expression Of The Faith Of The Person Being Baptized. I [do] Not See How An Infant Could Properly Receive This Ordinance As An Expression Of His Or Her Faith.

Wise People Know That All Their Money Belongs To God.

Grace Is Power, Not Just Pardon.

Life Is Not A Straight Line Leading From One Blessing To The Next And Then Finally To Heaven. Life Is A Winding And Troubled Road. Switchback After Switchback. And The Point Of Biblical Stories Like Joseph And Job And Esther And Ruth Is To Help Us Feel In Our Bones (not Just Know In Our Heads) That God Is For Us In All These Strange Turns. God Is Not Just Showing Up After The Trouble And Cleaning It Up. He Is Plotting The Course And Managing The Troubles With Far-reaching Purposes For Our Good And For The Glory Of Jesus Christ.

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.

Heaven Is A Place Of Unparalleled And Indescribable Joy

We Are All Starved For The Glory Of God, Not Self. No One Goes To The Grand Canyon To Increase Self-esteem. Why Do We Go? Because There Is Greater Healing For The Soul In Beholding Splendor Than There Is In Beholding Self.

The Immensity Of His Worth Is Reflected In The Intensity Of Your Worship.

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

You Ought To Marry Someone Who’s Willing To Go Anywhere For God. If They’re Not, They're Out.

Be Glad In The Lord And Receive Willingly From His Hand All That He Designs For My Holiness - Both Painful And Pleasant.

Blind People Don't Decide To See. Jesus Says, 'see!' And They See.

Treasuring Life Above Christ Is A Tragedy.

We Do Not Choose Suffering Simply Because We Are Told To, But Because The One Who Tells Us To Describes It As The Path To Everlasting Joy.

When It Comes To Killing My Sin, I Don't Wait For The Miracle, I Act The Miracle.

God Made Us In His Own Image So That His Image Would Be Shown.

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.

Taken As A Whole, The Story Of Ruth Is One Of Those Signs. It Was Written To Give Us Encouragement And Hope That All The Perplexing Turns In Our Lives Are Going Somewhere Good. They Do Not Lead Off A Cliff. In All The Setbacks Of Our Lives As Believers, God Is Plotting For Our Joy.

When You Are Deeply Peaceful And Confident That, Because Of Christ, God Will Bring You Safely To His Eternal Kingdom And Be The All-satisfying Treasure Of Your Life Forever, Then You Are Free To See The Truth, And Love The Truth, And Speak The Truth No Matter What, And Joyfully Spread A Passion For The Truth Whose Name Is Jesus.

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.

Why Does God Bless Us With Abundance? So We Can Have Enough To Live On And Then Use The Rest For All Manner Of Good Works That Alleviate Spiritual And Physical Misery. Enough For Us; Abundance For Others.

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

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.

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.

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

My Mother, Who Grew Up In Pennsylvania, Literally Washed My Mouth Out With Soap Once For Saying, 'shut Up!' To My Sister. She Would Have Washed My Mouth Out With Gasoline If She Knew How Foul My Mouth Was Racially When She Wasn't Around.

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.

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.

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

The Call Of God Creates Sight In Us. It's The Work Of God In Our Hearts To Awaken Us Before His Word.

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.'

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

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

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

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.

He Has Made Me Wary Of Chronological Snobbery. That Is, He Showed Me That Newness Is No Virtue And Oldness Is No Vice. Truth And Beauty And Goodness Are Not Determined By When They Exist. Nothing Is Inferior For Being Old, And Nothing Is Valuable For Being Modern. This Has Freed Me From The Tyranny Of Novelty And Opened For Me The Wisdom Of The Ages.

The Apex Of Glorifying God Is Enjoying Him With The Heart. But This Is Empty Emotionalism Where That Joy Is Not Awakened And Sustained By True Views Of God For Who He Really Is

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

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

God Is On The Move To Rescue People From Misery To Everlasting Happiness, Which Can Only Be Found In Him.

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

Christian Inspirational

Spot The First Risings Of Your Besetting Sin And Kill It, Till It Is No More.

God Created Me—and You—to Live With A Single, All-embracing, All-transforming Passion—namely, A Passion To Glorify God By Enjoying And Displaying His Supreme Excellence In All The Spheres Of Life.

Servanthood Does Not Nullify Leadership; It Defines It. Jesus Does Not Cease To Be The Lion Of Judah When He Becomes The Lamblike Servant Of The Church.

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.

We Cannot Know What Prayer Is For Until We Know That Life Is War.

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

I Wrote This Poem Called “the Calvinist” To Capture A Glimpse Of God’s Sovereign Intersection With The Life Of A Sinful Man. There Is No Part Of Life Where The Greatness Of God Does Not Penetrate Deeply. I Want To Help You Feel That.

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.

The Gospel Is Not A Picture Of Adoption, Adoption Is A Picture Of The Gospel.

Seek To See And Feel The Gospel As Bigger As Years Go By Rather Than Smaller. Never Let The Gospel Get Smaller In Your Heart.

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

"how Are You Doing?" - - - Better Than I Deserve.

James Says, "you Desire And Do Not Have; So You Kill" (jas. 4:2). We Kill Marriages And We Kill Unborn Babies Because They Cut Across Our Desires; They Stand In The Way Of Our Unencumbered Self-enhancement. And We Live In A Culture Where Self-enhancement And Self-advancement Is God. And If Self-enhancement Is God, Then The One Who Is At Work In The Womb Shaping A Person In His Own Image Is Not God And The Assault On His Work Is Not Sacrilegious, But Obedience To The God Of Self.

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

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

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.

The Evil And Suffering In This World Are Greater Than Any Of Us Can Comprehend. But Evil And Suffering Are Not Ultimate. God Is. Satan, The Great Lover Of Evil And Suffering, Is Not Sovereign. God Is.

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

The Bloodline Of Jesus Is Thicker, Deeper, Stronger Than The Bloodline Of Race, Ethnicity And Family.

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

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 All Your Favorite Preachers Are Gone, And All Their Books Forgotten, You Will Have Your Bible. Master It. Master It!

Do You Feel Loved By God Because You Believe He Makes Much Of You, Or Because You Believe He Frees You And Empowers You To Enjoy Making Much Of Him?

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

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

In All The Setbacks Of Your Life As A Believer, God Is Plotting For Your Joy.

Some Of You Will Die In The Service Of Christ. That Will Not Be A Tragedy. Treasuring Life Above Christ Is A Tragedy.

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.

So The Main Question Is Not, Which Humans Brought About The Death Of Jesus But, What Did The Death Of Jesus Bring About For Humans - Including Jews And Muslims And Buddhists And Hindus And Nonreligious Secularists - And All People Everywhere?when It Is All Said And Done, The Most Crucial Question Is: Why? Why Did Christ Suffer And Die? Not Why In The Sense Of Cause, But Why In The Sense Of Purpose?

God Is Not An Employer Looking For Employees. He Is An Eagle Looking For People Who Will Take Refuge Under His Wings. He Is Looking For People Who Will Leave Father And Mother And Homeland Or Anything Else That May Hold Them Back From A Life Of Love Under The Wings Of Jesus.

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.

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

It Is Unbiblical And Arrogant To Try To Worship God For Any Other Reason Than The Pleasure To Be Had In Him.

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?

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

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.

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.

The Importance Of Prayer Rises In Proportion To The Importance Of The Things We Should Give Up In Order To Pray

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

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 Are More Than A Collection Of Appetites - We Are Of God.

The Bible Is The Ultimate Authority And Infallible, Not The Pastor And Not The Elders. And It Doesn't Mean That You Believe Everything He Says Without Examining It.

There Is Hope In Forgiveness

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

Life Is Too Short

Strong Affections For God, Rooted In And Shaped By The Truth Of Scripture - This Is The Bone And Marrow Of Biblical Worship.

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

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

Put Your Ear To The Ground Of God's Word And Listen To The Rumble Of His Faithfulness Coming.

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

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.

You Get One Pass At Life. That’s All. Only One. And The Lasting Measure Of That Life Is Jesus Christ.

Neither Muslims Nor Anyone Else Truly Worships The True God If They Reject Jesus As He Really Is In The Gospels.

The Wonder Of Marriage Is Woven Into The Wonder Of The Gospel Of The Cross Of Christ, And The Message Of The Cross Is Foolishness To The Natural Man, And So The Meaning Of Marriage Is Foolishness To The Natural Man.

There Are Two Basic Restrictions On Marriage In The Bible: Number One, She Should Marry A Man. Number Two, He Should Be A Christian.

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

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.

I Will Not Waste My Life! I Will Finish My Course And Finish It Well. I Will Display The Gospel Of The Grace Of God In All I Do. I Will Run My Race To The End.” - Paul

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

The Purpose Of The Lord's Supper Is To Receive From Christ The Nourishment And Strength And Hope And Joy That Come From Feasting Our Souls On All That He Purchased For Us On The Cross, Especially His Own Fellowship.

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

God Doesn’t Waste Anything For Those Who Are Yielded To Him.

If You Live Gladly To Make Others Glad In God, Your Life Will Be Hard, Your Risks Will Be High, And Your Joy Will Be Full.

Don't Follow A Defeated Foe. Follow Christ. It Is Costly. You Will Be An Exile In This Age. But You Will Be Free.

And In These Last Hours, The Lifetime Of This Year Passes Before My Eyes, And I Face The Inevitable Question: Did I Live It Well? Will Jesus Christ, The Righteous Judge, Say “well Done, Good And Faithful Servant”?

Betrayed By Judas, Denied By Peter, Abandoned By The Eleven, Forsaken By God. Darkness, You Get One Hour. Then You Die.

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.

All That Looks Like Reality To Us Is Dependent On God. There Is Creation And Creator, Nothing More. And Creation Gets All Its Meaning And Purpose From God.

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

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

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?

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

Missions Is The Overflow Of Our Delight In God Because Missions Is The Overflow Of God's Delight In Being God.

Christian Inspirational

There Is A Warning. The Path Of God-exalting Joy Will Cost You Your Life. Jesus Said, “whoever Loses His Life For My Sake And The Gospel’s Will Save It.” In Other Words, It Is Better To Lose Your Life Than To Waste It. If You Live Gladly To Make Others Glad In God, Your Life Will Be Hard, Your Risks Will Be High, And Your Joy Will Be Full. This Is Not A Book About How To Avoid A Wounded Life, But How To Avoid A Wasted Life. Some Of You Will Die In The Service Of Christ. That Will Not Be A Tragedy. Treasuring Life Above Christ Is A Tragedy.

Being Infinite, God Is Inexhaustibly Interesting. It Is Therefore Impossible That God Be Boring.

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.

The Only Answer In These Modern Times, As In All Other Times, Is The Blood Of Christ. When Our Conscience Rises Up And Condemns Us, Where Will We Turn? We Turn To Christ. We Turn To The Suffering And Death Of Christ—the Blood Of Christ. This Is The Only Cleansing Agent In The Universe That Can Give The Conscience Relief In Life And Peace In Death.

Suffering And Death

God Is Always Doing 10,000 Things In Your Life, And You May Be Aware Of Three Of Them.

Whatever Opposes Prayer Opposes The Whole Work Of Ministry.

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

Our Lives Become Trivial. And Our Capacity For Magnificent Causes And Great Worship Dies.

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

Christ Died That We Might Live. This Is The Opposite Of Abortion. Abortion Kills That Someone Might Live Differently.

God's Greatest Interest Is To Glorify The Wealth Of His Grace By Making Sinners Happy In Him.

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.

The Infinite Reservoir Of Future Grace Is Flowing Back Through The Present Into The Ever-growing Pool Of Past Grace. The Inexhaustible Reservoir Is Invisible Except Through The Promises. But The Ever-enlarging Pool Of Past Grace Is Visible; And God Means For The Certainty And Beauty And Depth To Strengthen Our Faith In Future Grace.

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.

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.

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. That Promise Enslaves Us Until We Believe That God Is More To Be Desired Than Life Itself (psalm 63:3). Which Means That The Power Of Sin's Promise Is Broken By The Power Of God's.

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.

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.

In Demanding Our Praise God Is Demanding The Completion Of Our Pleasure (in Him).

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

Without Extended, Concentrated Prayer, The Ministry Of The Word Withers. And When The Ministry Of The Word Declines, Faith (rom. 10:17; Gal. 3:2, 5) And Holiness (john 17:17) Decline. Activity May Continue, But Life And Power And Fruitfulness Fade Away. Therefore, Whatever Opposes Prayer Opposes The Whole Work Of Ministry.

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

Worship Is A Way Of Gladly Reflecting Back To God The Radiance Of His Worth. This Cannot Be Done By Mere Acts Of Duty. It Can Be Done Only When Spontaneous Affections Arise In The Heart.

Reflecting Back

Faith Stands Or Falls On The Truth That The Future With God Is More Satisfying Than The One Promised By Sin. Where This Truth Is Embraced And God Is Cherished Above All, The Power Of Sin Is Broken. The Power Of Sin Is The Power Of Deceit. Sin Has Power Through Promising A False Future. In Temptation Sin Comes To Us And Says: "the Future With God On His Narrow Way Is Hard And Unhappy, But The Way I Promise Is Pleasant And Satisfying." The Power Of Sin Is In The Power Of This Lie.

One Of The Great Uses Of Twitter And Facebook Will Be To Prove At The Last Day That Prayerlessness Was Not From Lack Of Time.

Christian Inspirational

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

Sanctification Is A Community Project.

God Created Us For This: To Live Our Lives In A Way That Makes Him Look More Like The Greatness And The Beauty And The Infinite Worth That He Really Is. This Is What It Means To Be Created In The Image Of God.

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

Missions Is Not The Ultimate Goal Of The Church. Worship Is. Missions Exists Because Worship Doesn't.

There Are Only Three Kinds Of Christians When It Comes To World Missions: Zealous Goers, Zealous Senders, And Disobedient.

O, God Of Wonder, Enlarge My Capacity To Be Amazed At What Is Amazing, And End My Attraction To The Insignificant.

Darkness Comes. In The Middle Of It, The Future Looks Blank. The Temptation To Quit Is Huge. Don't. You Are In Good Company... You Will Argue With Yourself That There Is No Way Forward. But With God, Nothing Is Impossible. He Has More Ropes And Ladders And Tunnels Out Of Pits Than You Can Conceive. Wait. Pray Without Ceasing. Hope.

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.

It Is A Fight From Start To Finish To Be Happy In God.

God Is Most Glorified In Us When We Are Most Satisfied In Him.

Sin Carries In It Its Own Misery.

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 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.

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

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.

God Tests His People Through Hardship.

God Will Not Turn Away From Doing You Good. He Will Keep On Doing Good. He Doesn't Do Good To His Children Sometimes And Bad To Them Other Times. He Keeps On Doing Good And He Never Will Stop Doing Good For Ten Thousand Ages Of Ages. When Things Are Going Bad That Does Not Mean God Has Stopped Doing Good. It Means He Is Shifting Things Around To Get Them In Place For More Good, If You Will Go On Loving Him.

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.

If The Pursuit Of God's Glory Is Not Ordered Above The Pursuit Of Man's Good In The Affections Of The Heart And The Priorities Of The Church, Man Will Not Be Well Served, And God Will Not Be Duly Honored. I Am Not Pleading For A Diminishing Of Missions But For A Magnifying Of God. When The Flame Of Worship Burns With The Heat Of God's True Worth, The Light Of Missions Will Shine To The Darkest Peoples On Earth. And I Long For That Day To Come!

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"!

He Shook My Dozing Soul And Threw The Cold Water Of Reality In My Face, So That Life And God And Heaven And Hell Broke Into My World With Glory And Horror. (on Cs Lewis)

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.

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?

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.'

The Greatest Stumbling Block For Children In Worship Is That Their Parents Do Not Cherish The Hour. Children Can Feel The Difference Between Duty And Delight. Therefore, The First And Most Important Job Of A Parent Is To Fall In Love With The Worship Of God. You Can't Impart What You Don't Possess.

Falling In Love

Loving God With All Our Mind Means That Our Thinking Is Wholly Engaged To Do All It Can To Awaken And Express The Heartfelt Fullness Of Treasuring God Above All Things.

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 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.

Giving Is A Way Of Having What You Need.

It Horribly Skews The Meaning Of The Cross When Contemporary Prophets Of Self-esteem Say That The Cross Is A Witness To My Infinite Worth. The Biblical Perspective Is That The Cross In A Witness To The Infinite Worth Of God's Glory, And A Witness To The Immensity Of The Sin Of My Pride.

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

It Is A Myth That Man In His Natural State Is Genuinely Seeking God. Men Do Seek God. But They Do Not Seek Him For Who He Is. They Seek Him In A Pinch As One Who Might Preserve Them From Death Or Enhance Their Worldly Enjoyments. Apart From Conversion, No One Comes To The Light Of God.

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.

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.

Christ Is Glorified In You When He Is More Precious To You Than All That Life Can Give Or Death Can Take.

Our Obedience Is God's Pleasure When It Proves That God Is Our Treasure.

The Most Dangerous Thing In The World Is The Sin Of Self-reliance And The Stupor Of Worldliness.

Whenever Your Heart Starts To Be Anxious About The Future, Preach To Your Heart And Say, 'heart, Who Do You Think You Are To Be Afraid Of The Future And Nullify The Promise Of God? No, Heart, I Will Not Exalt Myself With Anxiety. I Will Humble Myself In Peace And Joy As I Trust This Precious And Great Promise Of God - He Cares For Me.'

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

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.

Books Don't Change People; Paragraphs Do, Sometimes Even Sentences.

All Of History Is Moving Toward One Great Goal, The White-hot Worship Of God And His Son Among All The Peoples Of The Earth. Missions Is Not That Goal. It Is The Means. And For That Reason It Is The Second Greatest Human Activity In The World.

Paradise Will Not Be A Hall Of Mirrors, It Will Be A Display Of Majesty, And It Won't Be Ours

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.

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.

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.

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.

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