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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.

-John Piper

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Without The Renewed Mind,

John Piper

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Christian Inspirational

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.

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.

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

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

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

Suffering And Death

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

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.

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.

It's Amazing How Many Introverts Go Into The Ministry. It's Amazing How Many People Go Into The Ministry Who Don't Really Like To Be With People.

Grace Is Power, Not Just Pardon.

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

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

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

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.

When God Is Our Deepest Pleasure We Display Him As Our Highest Treasure.

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

Treasuring Life Above Christ Is A Tragedy.

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

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.

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

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

The Suffering Of Sickness And The Suffering Of Persecution Have This In Common: They Are Both Intended By Satan For The Destruction Of Our Faith, And Governed By God For The Purifying Of Our Faith... Christ Sovereignly Accomplishes His Loving, Purifying Purpose, By Overruling Satan's Destructive Attempts. Satan Is Always Aiming To Destroy Our Faith; But Christ Magnifies His Power In Weakness.

Maintaining Joy In God Takes 'work'; That Is, It's A Fight Against Every Impulse For Alien Joys And Every Obstacle In The Way To Seeing And Savoring Christ.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Zeal For The Glory Of God Motivates World Missions

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.

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

Christian Living Moves From What God Has Freely Done For Us In Christ To What We Should Freely Do For Others.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If You Don’t Know God As Beautiful And Satisfying, You Don’t Know Him.

We Are Far Too Easily Pleased.

Reading Is More Important To Me Than Eating.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Now Unto Him Who Is Able To Strengthen You … Be Glory.

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.

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!

Jerusalem Meant One Thing For Jesus: Certain Death.

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.

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

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

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

Nothing Is More Vital Than Prayer In Christian Existence, And Few Things Are More Vulnerable To Neglect.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

To Love God Passionately Is To Love Truth Passionately.

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.

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

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.

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

The Highest Mental Health Is Not Liking Myself But Being Joyfully Interested In Everything But Myself.

Go, Send, Or Disobey.

Christian Inspirational

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

The Main Reason God Has Given Us Minds Is That We Might Seek Out And Find All The Reasons That Exist For Treasuring Him In All Things And Above All Things.

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.

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

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

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

Your Mind Was Made To Know And Love God.

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.

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.

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

The Vast Majority Of Abortions Are Performed Between The Seventh And Tenth Week When The Baby Is Already Sucking His Thumb, Recoiling From Pricking, Responding To Sound. All His Organs Are Present, The Brain Is Functioning, The Heart Is Pumping, The Liver Is Making Blood Cells, The Kidneys Are Cleaning Fluids, And There Is A Fingerprint. His Genetic Code Is Uniquely And Unquestionably Human. And, If We Are Willing, He Can Be Seen By Ultrasound.

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.

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.

Jesus' Teaching In General [implies] That Happy And Fulfilling Sexual Relations In Marriage Depend On Each Partner Aiming To Give Satisfaction To The Other. If It Is The Joy Of Each To Make The Other Happy, A Hundred Problems Will Be Solved Before They Happen.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

At One Level, The Message Of The Book Of Ruth Is That The Life Of The Godly Is Not A Straight Line To Glory, But They Do Get There.

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

Worship Is Ultimate, Not Missions. Because God Is Ultimate, Not Man.

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.

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.

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

John's Baptism...was A Radical Act Of Individual Commitment To Belong To The True People Of God, Based On Personal Confession And Repentance... This Is One Of The Main Reasons That I Do Not Believe In Baptizing Infants, Who Cannot Make This Personal Commitment Or Confession Or Repentance. John's Baptism Was An Assault On The Very Assumptions That Give Rise To Much Infant Baptism.

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

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?

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

'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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

I Know Of No Other Way To Triumph Over Sin Long-term Than To Gain A Distaste For It Because Of A Superior Satisfaction In God.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

One Of The Most Important Discoveries I Have Ever Made Is This Truth: God Is Most Glorified In Me When I Am Most Satisfied In Him. This Is The Motor That Drives My Ministry As A Pastor. It Affects Everything I Do.

Don't Wait For A Feeling Or Love In Order To Share Christ With A Stranger. You Already Love Your Heavenly Father, And You Know That This Stranger Is Created By Him, But Separated From Him... So Take Those First Steps In Evangelism Because You Love God. It Is Not Primarily Out Of Compassion For Humanity That We Share Our Faith Or Pray For The Lost; It Is First Of All, Love For God.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Life Is Too Short

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The Best News Of The Christian Gospel Is That The Supremely Glorious Creator Of The Universe Has Acted In Jesus Christ's Death And Resurrection To Remove Every Obstacle Between Us And Himself So That We May Find Everlasting Joy In Seeing And Savoring His Infinite Beauty.

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

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.

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

Avalanches Of Evil Begin With A Single Pebble Of Sin.

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

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

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

Even On Days When Every Cinder In Our Soul Feels Cold, If We Crawl To The Word Of God And Cry Out For Ears To Hear, The Cold Ashes Will Be Lifted And The Tiny Spark Of Life Will Be Fanned. For 'the Law Of The Lord Is Perfect, Reviving The Soul.'

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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

I Do Not Elevate The Time Or Mode Of Baptism To A Primary Doctrine.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Giving Is A Way Of Having What You Need.

A God-centered Theology Has To Be A Missionary Theology

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