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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.

-John Piper

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The Ultimate Meaning Of

John Piper

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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.

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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.

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.

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?

Therefore Bread Was Created For The Glory Of Christ. Hunger And Thirst Were Created For The Glory Of Christ. And Fasting Was Created For The Glory Of Christ. Which Means That Bread Magnifies Christ In Two Ways: By Being Eaten With Gratitude For His Goodness, And By Being Forfeited Out Of Hunger For God Himself. When We Eat, We Taste The Emblem Of Our Heavenly Food—the Bread Of Life. And When We Fast We Say, “i Love The Reality Above The Emblem.” In The Heart Of The Saint Both Eating And Fasting Are Worship. Both Magnify Christ.

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

Marriage Is Not Mainly About Prospering Economically; It Is Mainly About Displaying The Covenant-keepin G Love Between Christ And His Church. Knowing Christ Is More Important Than Making A Living. Treasuring Christ Is More Important Than Bearing Children. Being United To Christ By Faith Is A Greater Source Of Marital Success Than Perfect Sex And Double-income Prosperity.

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.

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

Falling In Love

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

...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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.'

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.

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.

I Do Not Appeal To You To Screw Up Your Courage And Sacrifice For Christ. I Appeal To You To Renounce All You Have To Obtain Life That Satisfies Your Deepest Longings.

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.

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

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

The Key That Unlocks The Treasure Chest Of God's Peace Is Faith In The Promises Of God.

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

Intensity Is All That Matters In Painting.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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."

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.

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.

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.

The Highest Act Of Love Is The Giving Of The Best Gift, And, If Necessary, At The Greatest Cost, To The Least Deserving. That's What God Did. At The Loss Of His Son's Life To The Totally Undeserving, God Gave The Best Gift - The Display Of The Glory Of Christ Who Is The Image Of God.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Life Is Precious

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The Key To Christian Living Is A Thirst And Hunger For God. And One Of The Main Reasons People Do Not Understand Or Experience The Sovereignty Of Grace And The Way It Works Through The Awakening Of Sovereign Joy Is That Their Hunger And Thirst For God Is So Small.

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.

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.

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

Zeal For The Glory Of God Motivates World Missions

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

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

We Have Brought Nothing Into The World, So We Cannot Take Anything Out Of It Either.' There Are No U-hauls Behind Hearses.

We Weren't Meant To Be Somebody--we Were Meant To Know Somebody

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”?

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

The Gospel Is Not How People Get To Heaven. The Gospel Is How People Get To 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Journaling Is A Way To Be A Good Steward Of The Spirit's Illuminations.

Life And Death! They Seem Like Complete Opposites-at Great Enmity With Each Other. But For Paul-and For All Who Share His Faith-there Is A Unity, Because The Same Great Passion Is Fulfilled In Both-namely, That Christ Be Magnified In This Body-our Bodies-whether By Life Or By Death.

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

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.

We Will Not Let You Choose Between Being A Lover Of God And His Sovereignty And Being A Lover Of Lost People.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

What Is The Essence Of Evil? It Is Forsaking A Living Fountain For Broken Cisterns. God Gets Derision And We Get Death. They Are One: Choosing Sugarcoated Misery We Mock The Lifegiving God. It Was Meant To Be Another Way: God's Glory Exalted In Our Everlasting Joy.

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.

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

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

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

My Joy Grows With Every Soul That Seeks The Glory Of God In The Face Of Jesus Christ. Remember, You Have One Life. That’s All. You Were Made For God. Don’t Waste It.

The Presence Of Hope In The Invincible Sovereignty Of God Drives Out Fear.

Sovereignty Of God

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

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

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

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

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

A Christian Is Not A Person Who Believes In His Head The Teachings Of The Bible. Satan Believes In His Head The Teachings Of The Bible! A Christian Is A Person Who Has Died With Christ, Whose Stiff Neck Has Been Broken, Whose Brazen Forehead Has Been Shattered, Whose Stony Heart Has Been Crushed, Whose Pride Has Been Slain, And Whose Life Is Now Mastered By Jesus Christ.

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

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

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

Little Hearts, Little Souls Give Little Lusts Big Power. Big Hearts Give Little Lusts Little Power.

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.

The Pursuit Of Joy In God Is Not Optional. It Is Not An 'extra' That A Person Might Grow Into After He Comes To Faith. Until Your Heart Has Hit Upon This Pursuit Your 'faith' Cannot Please God. It Is Not Savng Faith. Saving Faith Is The Heartfelt Conviction Not Only That Christ Is Reliable, But Also That He Is Desirable.

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

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

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 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.

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"!

There Is No Other Way The World Is Going To See The Supreme Glory Of Christ Today, Except That We Break Free From The Disneyland Of America And Begin To Live Lifestyles Of Missionary Sacrifice That Looks To The World Like Our Treasure Is In Heaven And Not On The Earth.

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

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.

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.

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

Life Is Too Short

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 Happiest And Holiest Children In The World Are The Children Whose Fathers Succeed In Winning Both Their Tender Affection And Their Reverential And Loving Fear. And They Are The Children Who Will Come To Understand Most Easily The Mystery Of The Fatherhood Of God.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

God Created Us With Sexual Passion So That There Would Be Language To Describe What It Means To Cleave To Him In Love And What It Means To Turn Away From Him To Others.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

Bad Theology Dishonors God And Hurts People. Churches That Sever The Root Of Truth May Flourish For A Season, But They Will Wither Eventually Or Turn Into Something Besides A Christian Church.

Seeing & Savoring Jesus Christ Is The Most Important Seeing And Savoring You'll Ever Do.

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.

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

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.

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

Bad Theology Dishonors God And Hurts People.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

'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.

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 Exists Because Worship Doesn't. Worship Is Ultimate, Not Missions, Because God Is Ultimate, Not Man.... When This Age Is Over, And The Countless Millions Of The Redeemed Fall On Their Faces Before The Throne Of God, Missions Will Be No More. It Is A Temporary Necessity. But Worship Abides Forever.

Love Is The Overflow Of Joy In God That Meets The Needs Of Others.

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.

Avalanches Of Evil Begin With A Single Pebble Of Sin.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The Call Of God Does What The Call Of Man Cannot. It Raises The Dead.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Why Christians Do What They Do Is Just As Important As What They Do. Bad Motives Ruin Good Acts.

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.

The Gospel Is The Good News That The Everlasting And Ever-increasing Joy Of The Never-boring, Ever-satisfying Christ Is Ours Freely And Eternally By Faith In The Sin-forgiving Death And Hope-giving Resurrection Of Jesus Christ.

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

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

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

Jerusalem Meant One Thing For Jesus: Certain Death.

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

Don't Coast Through Life Without A Passion.

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.

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

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?

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

Grace Is Power, Not Just Pardon.

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 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

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

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.

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.

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.

We Are Far Too Easily Pleased.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Grace Is The Pleasure Of God To Magnify The Worth Of God By Giving Sinners The Right And Power To Delight In God Without Obscuring The Glory Of God.

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