Background Image

...

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.

-John Piper

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

We Can Be Content

John Piper

...

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.

Views: 8

Topic

More From John Piper

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.

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."

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

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

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

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.

I See No Thread Running Through My Work; I Simply Get On With My Life And My Painting.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Falling In Love

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

If We Were Made To Watch A Doctor Pull Off The Little Baby's Legs And Arms One By One And Place Them On The Table Like A Dentist Removing Cotton From Your Mouth - If All Americans Were Made To See What It Really Is, The Pro-life Goal Of Abortion Being Unthinkable (not Just Illegal) Would Be Much Nearer.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whatever Opposes Prayer Opposes The Whole Work Of Ministry.

Where Feelings For God Are Dead, Worship Is Dead.

O That We Would So Love The Gospel And Have So Much Compassion For Lost People That Tribulation And Distress And Persecution And Famine And Nakedness And Danger And Sword And Gun And Terrorist Would Turn Us Not Into Fearful Complainers, But Bold Heralds Of Good News.

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.

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

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

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

Sovereignty Of God

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.

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

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

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Engagement Of The Heart In Worship Is The Coming Alive Of The Feelings And Emotions And Affections Of The Heart. Where Feelings For God Are Dead, Worship Is Dead.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Sin Carries In It Its Own Misery.

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

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

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

I've Never Heard Anyone Say The Really Deep Lessons Of Life Have Come In Times Of Ease And Comfort. But, I Have Heard Many Saints Say Every Significant Advance I've Ever Made In Grasping In The Depth Of God's Love And Growing Deep With Him, Have Come Through Suffering.

All Heroes Are Shadows Of Christ

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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?

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

You Don’t Have To Know A Lot Of Things For Your Life To Make A Lasting Difference In The World. But You Do Have To Know The Few Great Things That Matter, Perhaps Just One, And Then Be Willing To Live For Them And Die For Them. The People That Make A Durable Difference In The World Are Not The People Who Have Mastered Many Things, But Who Have Been Mastered By One Great Thing.

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.

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

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.

Woe To Us If We Get Our Satisfaction From The Food In The Kitchen And The Tv In The Den And The Sex In The Bedroom With An Occasional Tribute To The Cement Blocks In The Basement!

Go, Send, Or Disobey.

Christian Inspirational

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.

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

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

The Greatest Enemy Of Hunger For God Is Not Poison But Apple Pie. It Is Not The Banquet Of The Wicked That Dulls Our Appetite For Heaven, But Endless Nibbling At The Table Of The World. It Is Not The X-rated Video, But The Prime-time Dribble Of Triviality We Drink In Every Night.

Doing Things In Secret That You Are Ashamed For Others To Know Is Practical Atheism. God's Knowing Doesn't Count?

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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!

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

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

Preaching Is The Pastor's Main Work, And Preaching Is Heart Work, Not Just Mental Work.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

The Christian Life Becomes Impossible. That Is, It Becomes Supernatural.

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.

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.

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

Giving Is A Way Of Having What You Need.

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

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?

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Every Experience In Life Is Designed To Magnify The Cross Of Christ.

God Loves To Show Mercy . . . His Anger Must Be Released By A Stiff Safety Lock, But His Mercy Has A Hair Trigger.

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.

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 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.

This Is God's Universal Purpose For All Christian Suffering: More Contentment In God And Less Satisfaction In The World.

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

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.

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.

God Is Not A Killjoy; He Just Opposes What Kills 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

You Don't Give God Authority Over Your Life. He Has It, Totally.

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

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

Adoption Is The Visible Gospel.

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

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

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?

The Thought Of Building A Life Around Minimal Morality Or Minimal Significance—a Life Defined By The Question, “what Is Permissible?”—felt Almost Disgusting To Me. I Didn’t Want A Minimal Life. I Didn’t Want To Live On The Outskirts Of Reality. I Wanted To Understand The Main Thing About Life And Pursue It.

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 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

Wise People Know That All Their Money Belongs To God.

We Need God In Ways We Do Not Know. Don't Limit Your Experience Of God To What You Can Think To Ask. Ask For The Unknown Joy.

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

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

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.

Mission Exists Because Worship Doesn't.

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

Trending Author

Anne Rivers Siddons

Carolyn Heilbrun

Otto Von Bismarck

Category