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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.

-John Piper

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The Murders Of Newtown

John Piper

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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.

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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.

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At The Heart Of Mature Masculinity Is A Sense Of Benevolent Responsibility To Lead, Provide For, And Protect Women In Ways Appropriate To Man's Differing Relationships.

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.

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.

The Chief End Of Missions Is The Supremacy Of God In The Joy Of All Peoples.

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."

All Heroes Are Shadows Of Christ

The Answer, The Answer, My Friend, Is Not Yours To Invent Or Create. It Will Be Decided For You. It Is Outside You. It Is Real And Objective And Firm. One Day You Will Hear It. You Don’t Create It. You Don’t Define It. It Comes To You, And Sooner Or Later You Conform To It—or Bow To It.

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

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

A Saving Knowledge Of Christ Crucified And Risen Is Not The Mere Result Of Right Reasoning About Historical Facts. It Is The Result Of Spiritual Illumination To See Those Facts For What They Really Are: A Revelation Of The Truth And Glory Of God In The Face Of Christ-who Is The Same Yesterday Today And Forever.

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

Don't Coast Through Life Without A Passion.

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

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

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.

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

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

From Eternity To Eternity, The Beauty Of God Is Pervasive And Practical. Ask Him To Open The Eyes Of Your Heart (ephesians 1:18). Give Your Life To This Quest - Seeing And Savoring More And More Of The Happifying Beauty Of God.

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

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

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

If We Have No Zeal For The Glory Of God Our Mercy Must Be Superficial, Man-centred Human Improvement With No Eternal Significance. And If Our Zeal For The Glory Of God Is Not A Revelling In His Mercy, Than Our So-called Zeal, In Spite Of All Its Protests, Is Our Of Touch With God And Hypocritical.

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.

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

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

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.

Heaven Is A Place Of Unparalleled And Indescribable Joy

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?

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

If Truth Does Not Lead To Falling In Love, It Fails.

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

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.

Whatever Opposes Prayer Opposes The Whole Work Of Ministry.

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.

I Recall Hearing One Of My Professors In Seminary Say That One Of The Best Tests Of A Person's Theology Was The Effect It Has On One's Prayers.

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.

There Is A Great Gulf Between The Christianity That Wrestles With Whether To Worship At The Cost Of Imprisonment And Death, And The Christianity That Wrestles With Whether The Kids Should Play Soccer On Sunday Morning.

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

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

To Love God Does Not Mean To Meet His Needs, But Rather To Delight In Him And To Be Captivated By His Glorious Power And Grace, And To Value Him Above All Other Things On Earth. All The Rest Of The Commandments Are The Kinds Of Things That We Will Do From Our Hearts, If Our Hearts Are Truly Delighted With And Resting In The Glory Of God's Grace.

For The Mind Of Faith, A Promised Act Of God Is As Good As Done.

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

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.

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.

You May Be Going Through Things Right Now That Are Painfully Preparing You For Some Precious Service To Jesus And To His People. When A Person Strikes Rock Bottom With A Sense Of Nothingness Or Helplessness, He May Find That He Has Struck The Rock Of Ages

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

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

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

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.

Christians Belive In A Sovereign God Who Never Says "oops". We Believe That All Our Days ... Are Divine Strokes On The Canvas Of Our Lives By The Master Artist Who Certified His Skill, His Power, And His Love In The Masterpiece Of Calvary. If You Doubt His Skill In Painting Your Life - Look At The Calvary

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.

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.

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Evangelicals Are Distraught Over The State Of America Because They Have Not Been Taught That We're Aliens Here.

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

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

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

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Humble Us, O God, Under Your Mighty Hand, And Let Us Rise, Not As Professionals, But As Witnesses And Partakers Of The Sufferings Of Christ.

Marriage. The Roots Are Deep. The Covenant Is Solid. The Love Is Sweet. Life Is Hard. And God Is Good.

Prosperity Cannot Be A Proof Of God's Favor, Since It Is What The Devil Promises To Those Who Worship Him. (matt. 4:9)

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.

We Can Say That True Gratitude Does Not Give Rise To The Debtor's Ethic Because It Gives Rise To Faith In Future Grace. With True Gratitude There Is Such A Delight In The Worth Of God's Past Grace, That We Are Driven On To Experience More And More Of It In The Future...it Is Done By Transforming Gratitude Into Faith As It Turns From Contemplating The Pleasures Of Past Grace And Starts Contemplating The Promises Of The Future.

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

The Meaning Of Mature Femininity: At The Heart Of Mature Felinity Is A Freeing Disposition To Affirm, Receive, And Nurture Strength And Leadership From Worthy Men In Ways Appropriate To A Woman's Differing Relationships.

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

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

Worship Is Basically Adoration, And We Adore Only What Delights Us. There Is No Such Thing As Sad Adoration Or Unhappy Praise.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

We Are Far Too Easily Pleased.

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

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.

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

Reflecting Back

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

God Has Made Us To Be Conduits Of His Grace. The Danger Is In Thinking The Conduit Should Be Lined With Gold. It Shouldn't. Copper Will Do.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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."

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.

Giving Is A Way Of Having What You Need.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Wise People Know That All Their Money Belongs To God.

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

God In Eternity Looked Upon Me Forseeing My Faultness, My Pride, My Sin And Said 'i Want That Man In My Family, I Will Pay For Him To Be In My Family With My Son's Life. That's Love Folks. That Is Mega Off The Charts Love!!!

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.

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.

The Cross Is Not A Mere Event In History; It's A Way Of Life! Take Up Your Cross Daily, Jesus Said!

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

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

Adoption Is The Visible Gospel.

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

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.

Go, Send, Or Disobey.

Christian Inspirational

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.

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

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

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

Christian Inspirational

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

The Cost Of Food In The Kingdom Is Hunger For The Bread Of Life.

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.

Death Is Like My Car. It Takes Me Where I Want To Go.

Christian Inspirational

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

Bad Theology Dishonors God And Hurts People.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Here Is A Vocation That Will Bring You More Satisfaction Than If You Became A Millionaire Ten Times Over: Develop The Extraordinary Skill For Detecting The Burdens Of Others And Devote Yourself Daily To Making Them Lighter.

Prayer As A Relationship Is Probably Your Best Indicator About The Health Of Your Love Relationship With God. If Your Prayer Life Has Been Slack, Your Love Relationship Has Grown Cold.

Love Relationship

One Way To Appreciate C.s. Lewis Is To See How His Christian Humility Shaped His Life And Work.

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.

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.

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

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

People Are Not Prepared Or Able To Rejoice In Suffering Unless They Experience A Massive Biblical Revolution Of How They Think And Feel About The Meaning Of Life. Human Nature And American Culture Make It Impossible To Rejoice In Suffering. This Is A Miracle In The Human Soul Wrought By God Through His Word.

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.

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.

Zeal For The Glory Of God Motivates World Missions

There Will Be No People In Heaven Who Want To Be Around Their Things More Than Jesus.

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

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.

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

One Day America And All Its Presidents Will Be A Footnote In History, But The Kingdom Of Jesus Will Never End.

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

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.

It Is Evil To Justify Killing (unborn Babies) By The Happy Outcome Of Eternity For The One Killed. This Same Justification Could Be Used To Justify Killing One-year Olds, Or Any Heaven-bound Believer For That Matter. The Bible Asks The Question: "shall We Sin That Grace May Abound?" (romans 6:1) And: "shall We Do Evil That Good May Come?" (romans 3:8). In Both Cases The Answer Is A Resounding No. It Is Presumption To Step Into God's Place And Try To Make The Assignments To Heaven Or To Hell. Our Duty Is To Obey God, Not To Play God.

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

Great Waves, And Blaze With Fire Like Them.in Beauty, But Do Not Condemn,the Seamen Who Embark And Fail,but Only Those Who Will Not Sail.

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

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.

The Bible Says He Was Raised Not Just After The Blood-shedding, But By It. This Means That What The Death Of Christ Accomplished Was So Full And So Prefect That The Resurrection Was The Reward And Vindication Of Christ's Achievement In Death.

I Feel A Special Calling To Impart Hope To The Church I Serve.

The Right Creative Act Makes Its Own Laws, And Always Will Do.

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.

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.

To Be A Christian Is To Move Toward Need, Not Comfort.

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.

We Embrace The Hand We've Been Dealt, Because We Know The Dealer, And He Never Deals Badly.

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.

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.

Feeling Loved By God Means Feeling Glad Not Only That He Crushed His Son So That I Can Be Forgiven, But That He's Crushing Everything That Takes Away From My Praising Of The Glory Of His Grace.

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.

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

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 Whole World Lives For Pleasure. The Only Difference Is Theirs Is Fleeting, While Ours Is Forever In Jesus.

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

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.

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

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

Life Is Too Short

Where Feelings For God Are Dead, Worship Is Dead.

The Line Of Lovelessness Is Not Drawn Between Speaking And Doing, But Between Speaking And Doing In The Truth, And Speaking And Doing In Emptiness. Truth Turns Word-love Into Deed-love.

The Root Cause Of Abortion Is The Failure To Be Satisfied In God As Our Supreme Love. And, For All The Great Legal Work That Needs To Be Done To Protect Human Life, The Greatest Work That Needs To Be Done Is To Spread A Passion - A Satisfaction For The Supremacy Of God In All Things. That's Our Calling.

God Has An Inexhaustible Enthusiasm For The Supremacy Of His Name Among The Nations.

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.

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.

Christ Did Not Die To Forgive Sinners Who Go On Treasuring Anything Above Seeing And Savoring God. And People Who Would Be Happy In Heaven If Christ Were Not There, Will Not Be There. The Gospel Is Not A Way To Get People To Heaven; It Is A Way To Get People To God. It's A Way Of Overcoming Every Obstacle To Everlasting Joy In God. If We Don't Want God Above All Things, We Have Not Been Converted By The Gospel.

Satan's Aim Is To Destroy Our Joy And Trust And Delight In God, And To Make God Look Worthless In The World's Eyes. Everytime Someone Forsakes God For The World, Gets Angry At God When Part Of The World Is Taken Away From Them, They Highlight The World As Valuable... And Everytime Someone Stays With God, When The World Is Taken Away, And Praises God, They Highlight The Value And Glory Of God.

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.

God Created Us To Live With A Single Passion: To Joyfully Display His Supreme Excellence In All Spheres Of Life. The Wasted Life Is The Life Without This Passion. God Calls Us To Pray And Think And Dream And Plan And Work, Not To Be Made Much Of, But To Make Much Of Him In Every Part Of Our Lives.

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

The Key To Praying With Power Is To Become The Kind Of Persons Who Do Not Use God For Our Ends But Are Utterly Devoted To Being Used For His Ends.

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.

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.

Obedience Does Not Consist In Paying God Back And Thus Turning Grace Into A Trade. Obedience Comes From Trusting In God For More Grace - Future Grace - And Thus Magnifying The Infinite Resources Of God's Love And Power.

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