Desiring God Blog

Jesus Is with Me to the End of the Age (and the Week’s Ironing)

Gloria Furman — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:45:00 -0500

There is no shortage of sympathizing authenticity available to help moms absorb the impact of life in the trenches. Strangers, friends, blogs, and books freely offer their candid encouragements. I remember one occasion years ago when I was buying a package of preschooler underpants. The store clerk smiled and said, “When you start their toilet training you’re going to feel like there’s urine everywhere. But don’t worry, you’re not alone.” The woman behind me in line echoed her. “Ain’t that the truth!” There’s no doubt about the fact that we receive a special kind of encouragement knowing we’re not alone.

Believers in Christ are surrounded by “so great a cloud of witnesses” who walk by faith, their lives a testimony to the ultimate grace and the greatest peace. The grace and peace these men and women know keeps them going through heart-wrenching trials and even physically-threatening ordeals. God has given them eyes of faith to see our joy-pursuing, cross-enduring, shame-despising Christ who is exalted over all things and is seated at his right hand.

Having been given all authority in heaven and on earth, Jesus Christ gives us our marching orders and assures us with absolute certainty that he is always with us — even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).

We’re not alone.

For the Small Stuff

My everyday life is not replete with dangers to body and soul around every corner. I’m more likely to encounter a sibling squabble or some kind of monument to my own homemaking procrastination when I round a corner in our home. It’s tempting to consider Christ’s presence as only available for “the big stuff.” Even though I understand my work in the home as facilitating disciple-making to the praise of God’s glory among the nations, my disparaging heart attitude about the repetitive work of ordinary life reveals these fear-filled questions: Does this matter to the Lord? Is he with me?

I often echo Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians and ask it for myself and for others who need encouragement. What kind of assuring joy we would know as the Lord enlightens the eyes of our hearts to know the hope to which he has called us, and the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:18)! What kind of thrilling peace we can rest in knowing that Christ’s rock-steady presence in our lives is never, ever diminished by our foggy, shifting doubts!

Jesus is not absent from our domestic lives as we serve his disciple-making purposes. If he’s with you to the end of the age …

… then he’s with you to the end of packing the last box before a move.

… then he’s with you to the end of a dating relationship that is (finally!) culminating in a Christ-exalting marriage.

… then he’s with you to the end of the adoption paperwork when the judge declares, “Congratulations!”

… then he’s with you to the end of a difficult school year.

… then he’s with you to the end of cleaning a mess that is so profuse you’re not sure whether to laugh or cry.

… then he’s with you to the end of an awkward silence you’re not sure how to resolve.

… then he’s with you to the end of a long night awake with a colicky infant.

… then he’s with you to the end of the month when the budget isn’t working.

Supreme Treasure

Drawing comfort from Christ’s abiding presence makes all the difference in the way we live our lives in the home. Through the gospel of God, which is his very power for salvation, we have been given Christ as our supreme treasure. God’s amazing grace to us in Christ Jesus is the hope to which he has called us, and Christ himself is our glorious inheritance. Because of Jesus our lives are cups that are filled to overflowing with blessings, as John Newton so famously penned,

The Lord has promised good to me,

His word my hope secures.

He will my shield and portion be

As long as life endures. (Amazing Grace)

“As long as life endures” is but a short while, and then eternal life endures forever and ever. Christ will be our shield and portion to the end of the age ... and to the end of this week’s ironing.

Recent posts from Gloria Furman —

In and Out, In a Blaise of Glory

David Mathis — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Few have written with such passion and economy of expression. Rarely does one turn such manifest angst to articulation and channel such blood-earnestness into precise words.

Blaise Pascal burned with the kind of intensity and aggression uncharacteristic of those who have long, peaceful lives. He was a fierce flame with a short wick.

It was June 19, 1623 — 390 years ago today — that Pascal was born in Clermont, France, to a mother who would die when he was only a toddler. He himself would live a sickly and painful life and wouldn’t even see his fortieth birthday — though he left an indelible impression. While the world had him for less than four decades, the church only had him for eight years — from his “second conversion” in 1654 to his early death in 1662. But they were a very productive eight.

Prodigy, Physicist, Philosopher

His is one of the great minds of Western civilization — indeed, the history of the world. He was a child prodigy and first a mathematician and physicist, then a philosopher and theologian. A contemporary of René Descartes (1596–1650), the father of modern philosophy, Pascal was wise enough to be “the only philosopher until the nineteenth century who did not climb onto Descartes’s new methodological bandwagon” (Peter Kreeft, Christianity for Modern Pagans, 9).

If only Western philosophy en masse had Pascal’s resistance to the false prophet his fellow Frenchman has proved to be. Scoffing at Descartes’s program for certainty, utility, and ease, Pascal found him “pointless, uncertain, and arduous.”

Descartes. In general terms one must say: . . . Pointless, uncertain, and arduous. Even if it were true we do not think that the whole of philosophy would be worth an hour’s effort. (Pensées #84)

Arrows into Modern Pagan Hearts

Because he refused to swallow Descartes’s pill of naively applying the scientific method to every discipline, Pascal’s seventeenth-century writings prove hauntingly relevant today in a postmodern milieu in which more and more are awakening from the Enlightenment’s folly.

Pascal is the first postmedieval apologist. He is “for today” because he speaks to modern pagans, not to medieval Christians. Most Christian apologetics today is still written from a medieval mind-set in one sense: as if we still lived in a Christian culture, a Christian civilization, a society that reinforced the Gospel. No. The honeymoon is over. The Middle Ages are over. The news has not yet sunk in fully in many quarters.

It has sunk in to Pascal. He is three centuries ahead of his time. He addresses his apologetic to modern pagans, sophisticated skeptics, comfortable members of the new secular intelligentsia. He is the first to realize the new dechristianized, desacramentalized world and to address it. He belongs to us. . . . I know no pre-twentieth-century book except the Bible that shoots Christian arrows farther into modern pagan hearts than [Pascal’s] Pensées. (Kreeft, 12–13).

Pascal’s Inferno

While there’s nothing especially notable about his physical birth on June 19, 1623, his seeming new birth, bursting into the spiritual world, came in a blaze of glory he simply called “Fire.”

It was November 23, 1654. He was 31 years old. For two hours, from about 10:30 PM until 12:30 AM, he experienced a kind of spiritual inferno. He journaled the experience on a piece of a paper he sewed into his coat to keep near his heart.

Fire.
“God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,” not of philosophers and scholars.
Certainty, certainty, heartfelt, joy, peace.
God of Jesus Christ.
God of Jesus Christ. . . .
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy. . . .
“And this is eternal life, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent.”
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ. . . .

Some call it his “second conversion,” but it very well may have been his first. From then on, Pascal was a different man. He would be dead before age 39, but the next eight years were given to an entirely fresh Godward orientation of his intellect and vocation.

Pascal’s Wager

The most famous of his ideas is “the wager.” It’s an attempt to appeal to the unbeliever who might be interested in the faith and to the believing who are weak in faith. Neither those who were dead set against God’s existence, or those fully convinced of it, would have much to gain from his “gamble.” But he hoped such reasoning might find traction with those in the middle.

The essence of the wager is that it is wiser to “bet” on God existing, live accordingly, and end up being wrong than to “bet” that God doesn’t exist and find out in the end that he does. He develops it most fully in pensée #233 (in Trotter’s translation), but there’s a short summary angle on “the wager” in #241: “I should be much more afraid of being mistaken and then finding out that Christianity is true than of being mistaken in believing it to be true.” Kreeft comments,

The Wager is not an attempt to prove that God exists. It is not a new argument for the existence of God. Rather, it tries to prove that it is eminently reasonable for anyone to “bet” on God, to hope that God is, to invest his life in God. It moves on the practical, existential, human level rather than the theoretical, metaphysical, theological level. (291)

Pascal’s Pensées

Three times now we’ve quoted from the Pensées, his most important work, which deserves at least a brief explanation. Pensées is French for “thoughts.” When Pascal died in 1662, he was hard at work on his magnum opus, to be titled Apology for the Christian Religion. He left hundreds of fragments of his thoughts — some longer and likely near completion, and others shorter and more rudimentary. After his death, his “thoughts” were assembled and published in 1669. This is what we know as the Pensées.

One more of Pascal’s thoughts worth giving special note to is #425 (Trotter’s translation). Twice in the opening pages of Desiring God, John Piper quotes from this important pensée through which he was making seminal discoveries about God’s wiring us for satisfaction in him. The first is “all men seek happiness.”

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.

The second is “the infinite abyss.”

There was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.

(For more on how Pascal and C.S. Lewis conspired for a powerful modern-day apologetic for Piper, see Desiring God, pages 19–21.)

Struck Dead in Infinite Mercy

Pascal died August 19, 1662, on the heels of a long, painful illness. The church might think it a tragedy to lose such a one at this young age, but Kreeft glimpses a divine mercy.

In 1662 God in his infinite mercy struck Pascal dead at the tender age of thirty-nine, before he could complete the greatest book of Christian apologetics ever written.

We stand stupefied most of the time at the way God runs the world; but occasionally we get a hint, a little lifting of the curtain and a glimpse backstage. I think we have such a glimpse here. Why didn’t God let Pascal finish the book for which the pensées are only the scattered notes, like a scholar’s storm-struck study? Everyone who reads the pensées can sense the reason: they are too lively, too alive, to be contained in a book. (10)

Whether Pascal’s thoughts are too alive to be contained in a completed book or not, you’ll have to judge. Read Pascal’s Pensées for yourself (Kreeft’s “festooning” is a good place to start or Trotter’s translation online — or T.S. Eliot’s translation which is free today on Kindle), and feel the warmth firsthand from a blaze still strong enough to warm the hearts of modern pagans and Christians alike, just in time for the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Desiring God specially commissioned this new portrait of Pascal from artist Drew Blom

Love Is More Than a Choice

John Piper — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:51:00 -0500

This is a gentle pushback on a popular slogan.

There is truth in saying, “love is a choice” or “love is a decision.” It is true that if you don’t feel like doing good to your neighbor love will incline you to “choose” to do it anyway. If you feel like getting a divorce, love will incline you to “choose” to stay married and work it out.

If you shrink back from the pain of nails being driven through your hands, love will incline you to say, “Not my will but yours be done.” That’s the truth I hear in the statements: “Love is a choice,” or “Love is a decision.”

But I don’t prefer to use these statements. Too many people hear three tendencies in them that those who use the statements may not intend.

Saying “love is a choice” sounds like the tendency to believe love is in our power to perform, even when we don’t feel like it.
Saying “love is a choice” sounds like the tendency to make the will, with its decisions, the decisive moral agent rather than the heart, with its affections.
Saying “love is a choice” sounds like the tendency to set the bar too low: If you can will to treat someone well, you have done all you should.

I disagree with all three of these tendencies.

In their place I would say:

Both at the level of desiring to do good, and the level of willing the good we don’t desire, we are totally dependent on the decisive grace of God. All that honors Christ — both affections and choices — are gifts to fallen sinners (1 Corinthians 4:7; Galatians 5:22).
Beneath the will, with its decisions, there is the heart, which produces our preferences, and these preferences guide the will. “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).
If our love is only a choice, it is not yet what it ought to be.

Here are some of the verses from Scripture that cause me to shrink back from the statement, “Love is a choice,” or “love is a decision.”

God’s love for his people is more than a decision.

“The Lᴏʀᴅ will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).

“I [the Lᴏʀᴅ] will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul” (Jeremiah 32:41).

“As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:5).

“How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?. . . My compassion grows warm and tender” (Hosea 11:8).

Our love for God is more than a decision.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).

“There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness . . . for all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8). (That is we long for Jesus to be here; we desire him.)

Our love for fellow believers is more than a decision.

“Love one another with brotherly affection” (Romans 12:10).

“Love one another earnestly from a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22).

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:31–32). (These affectional dimensions are what it means to “walk in love” according to Ephesians 5:2.)

“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

“Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant . . . It is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:4–7).

Our love for our enemies is more than a decision.

“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). (A prayer for our enemy to be blessed without a heartfelt desire that he be blessed is hypocrisy.)

It is important to hear me say, “more than a decision.” I am not denying there are crucial choices and decisions to be made in a life of love. I am not denying that those choices and decisions are part of what love is. So I am not saying the statements “love is a choice” or “love is a decision,” are false.

But I am jealous that the richness and depth (and human impossibility) of what love is in the Bible not be lost. Hence this little pushback.

Our Choices Matter

Jonathan Parnell — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:54:00 -0500

Max McLean, the lead actor and director of the theatrical adaptation of The Screwtape Letters, has performed the role of Screwtape hundreds of times since the play debuted in 2010. This means that beyond reading C.S. Lewis, McLean has absorbed his thought.

We recently had the chance to ask him about any enduring lessons he’s learned from so much attention to Lewis’s work. He explains in this three-minute video:

Learn more about our upcoming conference, “The Romantic Rationalist: God, Life, & Imagination in the Work of C.S. Lewis,” and download our ebook from John Piper on C.S. Lewis, Alive to Wonder: Celebrating the Influence of C.S. Lewis.

Is There a Key to Godliness?

John Piper — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Whether you are in your twenties or sixties, you probably have some long-standing heart-responses you don’t like. These are like reflexes. You don’t choose them. They spring up unintentionally from your heart, usually in response to the people around you.

It may be anger, anxiety, envy, resentment, self-pity, disgust, frustration, discouragement, lust, irritability, impatience, hard-heartedness, brusqueness, unkindness, withdrawnness.

When any one of these attitudes springs up unbidden, you hate it. You have fought it for years with gospel-faithfulness, trusting in the blood of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to cover it and conquer it.

Still it returns. You weep over it, and ask your closest friends to pray for you. There is a short season of reprieve. And there it is again stamping you. Telling you: This is who you are. You say no. In Christ, this is not who I am. His stamp is on my life. True. But O you would be done with this! O to be new, through and through! Not in such a limited way.

Is there a remedy? Is there a key?

No. There are a thousand.

The point of this post is to remind us that “every Scripture is profitable for training in righteousness” so that we might be “complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). Every verse is profitable. Thousands of them.

Do Not Give Up

In other words, you don’t know what word of God will suddenly (or gradually) be used by the Holy Spirit to give the long-awaited victory. God has his reasons for why he allows us to fight so long. But he never intends us to give up on Scripture.

Owen wrote his Mortification of Sin. Ryle wrote his Holiness. Bridges has written his Transforming Power of the Gospel. Chapell his Holiness by Grace. Piper his Future Grace. And when they are all done, hundreds of verses remain untouched and profitable. God has said so much more than any of us has said.

Don’t give up the fight. God’s designs are to bring a surprising verse into your heart in a surprising moment in a surprising situation and do a surprising work of transformation.

The Immeasurable Moment

For example, you may be reading one morning and see for the hundredth time Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” And in a way that never happened before you feel how utterly short and fragile and uncertain and precious your life is. You feel, as never before, the connection between a wise way of life and the shortness of life.

And in that surprising awareness of death — that deeply felt awareness — you recall what James says about wisdom. You have never made this connection before in your whole life. You recall that James says, “the wisdom from above is gentle and full of mercy” (James 3:17).

Then you sense what God is doing. All your life, you have struggled with being harsh rather than gentle. Your reflexes are not merciful. And now, God is touching you at a place you have never been touched before. He’s making a connection in your heart that you have never made before. The connection between your coming death and your unkindness.

Awakened to a New Possibility

And the point is not that after death you will have to give an account. That’s true. But that is not what God is doing now. He is awakening in you a new possibility of life. He is opening you to a kind of gentleness and peace and kindness that could actually begin to feel natural to you. The shadow of your death is softening you. The numbering of your days is shaping in you a humble, gentle, heavenly wisdom. Your heart is actually softening.

This long-standing struggle with the reflexes of hard-heartedness, and unmercifulness, is suddenly (or gradually) different. Death is doing a strange and sweetening and wonderful work.

Will it last? Perhaps. If not, there are 999 more verses waiting to do their surprising work. You do not know what victories await. Read on. Pray on. Believe all things. Hope all things. “Every Scripture” is profitable. God is not done with you.

“O Lᴏʀᴅ, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” (Psalm 39:4).

14 Free eBooks for You

Jonathan Parnell — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:30:00 -0500

Twenty percent of all the books sold last year were electronic, says the latest report from Bookstats. This simply means that ebooks are still on the rise. More and more users like to carry their libraries in their hands. And this matters for the mission of Desiring God.

Though it won’t replace good old-fashioned books, the upward trend of ebooks has created a new platform for us to spread our message — that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

Over the past year we’ve created 14 new titles exclusively released as ebooks, all free, available in three different file formats to fit whichever mobile device you use. They have included specially curated content from John Piper on particular topics, reformatted single messages, combined articles from leading pastors, and foundational teaching from Piper’s corpus, along with introductory sections written entirely new. The topics range from how to listen to sermons to advice on marriage to the influence of C.S. Lewis.

The Current List

Below is the full list of our ebook exclusives over the past year. More are in the works. Here’s a chance to download the ones you may have missed, and a chance to help us get the word out if you’d like. Thank you for your reading and partnership!

Adoniram Judson: How Few There Are Who Die So Hard!

“Are you sure that God wants you to continue your life in this comparatively church-saturated land? Or might he be calling you to fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, to fall like a grain of wheat into some distant ground and die, to hate your life in this world and so to keep it forever and bear much fruit?”

Alive to Wonder: Celebrating the Influence of C. S. Lewis

“In this fiftieth year since he died, I offer this little book as a celebration of the influence of C. S. Lewis in my life. I hope I do so in humility. I know I do so with profound thankfulness.”

Andrew Fuller: I Will Go Down If You Will Hold the Rope!

“The Bible was always paramount: 'Lord, thou hast given me a determination to take up no principle at second-hand; but to search for everything at the pure fountain of thy word.' ... That is one of the main reasons why it is so profitable to read Fuller to this very day: He is so freshly biblical.”

David Brainerd May I Never Loiter On My Heavenly Journey!

“Brainerd's life is a vivid, powerful testimony to the truth that God can and does use weak, sick, discouraged, beat-down, lonely, struggling saints, who cry to him day and night, to accomplish amazing things for his glory.”

Disability and the Sovereign Goodness of God

“One of the reasons I believe the Bible and love the Bible is because it deals with the hardest issues in life. It doesn’t sweep painful things under the rug — or complex things or confusing things or provoking things or shocking things or controversial things.”

Doctrine Matters: Ten Theological Trademarks from a Lifetime of Preaching

“What the world needs from the church is our indomitable joy in Jesus in the midst of suffering and sorrow.”

Good News of Great Joy: Daily Readings for Advent

“What I want most for Christmas this year is to join you (and many others) in seeing Christ in all his fullness and that we together be able to love what we see with a love far beyond our own half-hearted human capacities.”

John G. Paton: You Will Be Eaten By Cannibals!

“I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms.”

Love to the Uttermost: Devotional Readings for Holy Week

“This Holy Week fix your gaze steadily on Christ as he loves you to the uttermost.”

Martin Luther: Lessons from His Life and Labor
“We are beggars — pray-ers. That is how we live, and that is how we study, so that God gets the glory and we get the grace.”

Preparing for Marriage: Help for Christian Couples
“Preparing well for marriage means asking each other all the hard questions.”

Sanctification in the Everyday: Three Sermons by John Piper
“When Charles Wesley taught us to sing, ‘He breaks the power of cancelled sin,’ he was teaching the fundamental truth about how the cross and our battle with sin are related. The cross cancels sins for all who believe on Jesus. Then on the basis of that cancellation of our sins, the power of our actual sinning is broken. It’s not the other way around.”

Take Care How You Listen: Sermons by John Piper on Receiving the Word
“So take heed how you hear! Hear with spiritual ears, not just the ears on your head. And hear with an honest and good heart, not a deceptive and evil heart.”

A Tribute to My Father: With Other Writings
“This is a fragment of the legacy of truth imparted to me by my father. The word imparted was no mere transmission of information. It involved a whole life of proclamation and demonstration.”

Why Boldness Matters Now

Jonathan Parnell — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The Book of Acts profiles a people living bold.

The theme of boldness takes center-stage in Acts 4 with the story of Peter’s and John’s trial before the Sanhedrin. We learn that what astonishes the Jewish leaders pertains mainly to the apostles’ content, not their emotions. The bewildering reality at work in Peter’s and John’s testimony is what they say about Jesus.

These two fishermen had become messengers of God’s salvation, heralds for a new age in human history. They were now spokesmen of the risen and reigning Lord over all. So yes, they spoke with passion. But the point Luke drives home is not their style, but their substance. Not their homiletics, but their hermeneutics. It was all centered on Christ — how he is the One to whom the whole Old Testament points, how his work has changed the world forever.

The heart of Peter’s and John’s boldness was how they spoke clearly about the identity and significance of Jesus. The picture Luke gives us of the early Christian mission is that the church was not without words when it came to the question of their King. They knew Jesus — they saw him in the Scriptures, they understood his epoch-shifting wonder and its implications for everybody everywhere. They knew Jesus, and so should we.

Boldness for Today

Now maybe this sounds like the bar is set too high for us. Maybe this sounds like some kind of unrealistic expectation about lay-level theological education. Maybe. But my unshakable impression from reading our brother Luke is that he envisions the people of Jesus as a people who know Jesus. That the people of Jesus can see him in their Book. That the people of Jesus know what to say if someone were to ask, “About whom, I ask you, is the prophet talking about in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah?” (Acts 8:34–35). Luke has written a theological narrative for the church to drink up, and when we do, he’s convinced me that it means we imbibe this kind of boldness for our day — that we know whom we have believed amid a culture of confusion. In a word, the church should know Jesus.

This vision of Christian boldness — of speaking clearly about the identity and significance of Jesus — is increasingly relevant in the day in which we live. This is worth highlighting, and there are two reasons why. First, the pluralism around us means inevitable indoctrination. Second, the more we’re marginalized, the greater the risk is that what’s important will muffle what’s the most important.

The World Is Full of Ideas

A pluralistic world is like a raging river of clashing currents. The currents are the vast array of competing metanarratives, which as Richard Bauckham explains, is “an attempt to grasp the meaning and destiny of human history as a whole by telling a single story about it” (Bible and Mission, 4). The point is that, in our world, everybody’s got a story. Everybody lives by some story that tries to make sense of it all, whether cultural, religious, or ideological. There are several rushing currents in this river of our world, and they’re always leading somewhere.

Toss in this river the glut of communication channels around us, and it means that we can’t really do anything without stepping through those tumultuous waters. And if our steps are not intentional — if we don’t know where we want to go — we’ll just drift along with the strongest pull. The idea of not being pulled somewhere is impossible. “One’s life is moving in one direction or another, taking one kind of shape or another,” writes Kevin Vanhoozer in The Drama of Doctrine.

It is essential that we get clear on who Jesus is and what his work means for the world, as the Bible shows us. Bauckham points out that only the Bible “tells a story that in some sense encompasses all other human stories [and] draws them into the meaning that God’s story with the world gives them” (5). The truth of Jesus in God’s story must be our navigating force. If it’s not, we’ll simply be tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every other current’s pull. Vanhoozer says, “To the extent that we are always following some direction or other, our very lives are ‘indoctrinated.’ The only question is whether the doctrine that informs one’s life is governed by the Christian gospel or by some other story, some other script” (Drama, 105). We’re either bold about Jesus, or we’re adrift with no anchor.

Being Clear About Jesus, Mainly

Secondly, when tensions are high and Christians are marginalized, our witness can feel increasingly complex. Articulating the person and work of Jesus doesn’t appear to answer the questions that confront us the most. People don’t want to hear about Jesus, they want to hear what we think about the issues. The issues — that’s the temptation. If we’re not careful, our witness in the world will be shriveled down to just our stance on the next hot topic. That will become our focus. That will be the main conversation we have and the primary object of our energy.

Hear me clearly: there are deathly important questions in our world, and our conviction is indispensable. We need to say it. And then say it again. And at the same time, we need to remember that our mission in this world is not about a stance, but a message. We have deathly important things to say about marriage, but the most radical, controversial thing that we will ever say is “Jesus is Lord.” There is nothing more counter-cultural than telling the world that the crucified Messiah is raised and reigning, and that therefore now “God commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).

The gospel of Jesus’s lordship is the best and wildest news anyone will ever hear. And it’s the most important thing we have to say. In fact, it’s because of his lordship that any other issue matters. Jesus is Lord, not the state, not you or me, and therefore his definitions are what really count. Whether we build our arguments from natural law or what have you, the Christian can only faithfully think and act when it’s in respect to Jesus’s reign. His reign and what it means for souls is what we should know best how to articulate. Say everything that is important, but be clear about Jesus, mainly.

So because ideas are everywhere out there and always pulling at us, and because high tensions want to trivialize our main message, we should be bold — that is, we should be very clear and outspoken about who Jesus is and what he has done.

More posts from Jonathan Parnell:

Live Bold

Let Us Read, As in Read

Hedonism to the Extreme: Lamborghini and Our Souls

What Makes Dad Special

David Mathis — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

All around the world, dads are special today. Father’s Day is the third Sunday of June in the United States and more than 80 nations. It is fitting that we not only annually honor moms on Mother’s Day, but our fathers as well.

God’s good design is for both moms and dads, and for their appreciation and honor, whether old covenant (Exodus 20:12) or new (Ephesians 6:2). It takes man and woman, father and mother, to image God to a child. “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).

Beyond Precise Description

Having just one or the other isn’t God’s ideal, though we greatly revere those who give such valiant effort to leading single-parent homes, difficult as it is. And having two of the one and none of the other is even more trouble. Father and mother aren’t interchangeable. God’s created order doesn’t just call for a guardian or two, whatever the gender, but for a mother and for a father, together.

There is something distinct, some special imaging of God, that both father and mother display for a child. It’s a glory beyond precise description, but not above several good glimpses in the Scriptures.

Like a Father with His Children

In Paul’s letter to the young believers of Thessalonica, he gives a good deal of space to recounting his early days among them. He notes that not only did he share the gospel with them in word, but he also “shared his own self” in deed and depth of relationship. Here’s how he says it in 1 Thessalonians 2:7–12 — watch especially for the mentions of mother and father.

We were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Much could be said here about how the images of mother and father work together to communicate depth and closeness of relationship. Paul says he has shared his own self with them, and not merely communicated to them a message. Both motherhood and fatherhood demand such, but on Father’s Day it’s worth trying to discern what’s distinct — what makes mom and dad each to be special in their own way.

What’s Distinct About Dad

On the one hand, Paul says that he and his apostolic team were “gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.” The associations here are not only gentleness and intense care, but also intimacy. Depth of relationship is in the offing. He sums it up in the first part of verse 8 as “being affectionately desirous of you.” There is manifest affection and tenderness. This Paul corrals in the mothering picture.

Then Paul takes up the father image. And it’s not the same as mothering. There’s overlap, no doubt, but they’re not interchangeable. He says, “like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God.”

A Father’s Exhortation and Encouragement

Don’t miss how personal this fatherly care is. He says he exhorted “each one of you,” not just the group at large. So he knows them personally. As Robert Coleman says, “The only way that a father can properly raise a family is to be with it.” And because he knows them, he doesn’t exhort like a slavemaster, or like a judge, or like a king, but he exhorts like a father — a father who knows his children and manifestly loves them and desires the best for them. There’s something about fatherhood that makes such warm but strong exhortation especially appropriate.

It’s not that mothers don’t exhort. It’s not that mothers shouldn’t exhort. It’s not that mothers should never step forward and, with manifest love and earnestness, charge a child to walk in manner worthy of God. But there is something about fatherhood that makes such exhortation and encouragement particularly fitting.

Dad’s Discipline for Our Good

While the mothering image is more gentle and nurturing and tender, the fathering image is more tough and strong and challenging. It’s the father who leads the way in discipline and correction. In Ephesians 6:4, Paul charges not the parents in general, but the fathers in particular, “Do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Same story in Colossians 3:21: “Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.”

And the special place of a father in exhorting a child — disciplining a child — comes into focus in Hebrews 12:7–11:

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

God’s Good Gifts of Moms and Dads

When we honor our father and our mother, we love mom for her nurture, and we respect dad for his exhortation. Many disclaimers abound. Dads also must nurture and show affection, and moms must discipline and exhort, but there are parental virtues which, while having their proper exercise in both mother and father, make their particular home in either mom or dad.

On this Father’s Day, whether your dad has been all that you ever hoped and dreamed, or you’ve now grown old enough to see his faults and failings (sadly the more common story), there are distinct virtues to respect in dad, even as we love the overlapping virtues in mom. Yes, it’s worth having not a Guardian’s Day or a Parent’s Day, but distinct Mother’s and Father’s Days in celebration of God’s good gifts of both moms and dads.

Let’s see if we can honor dad today not just by pointing out what made him a good parent, but a good father.

More on fatherhood from Desiring God:

A Tribute to My Father (new ebook from John Piper)

Learning Fatherhood from the Father of Fatherhood (article by Tony Reinke)

The Doctrine of the Fatherhood of God (episode of Theology Refresh)

Fathers Who Give Hope (sermon by John Piper)

Laboring in the Hills of Tennessee (Ask Pastor John)

Tony Reinke — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Much has happened in the past two weeks. The Ask Pastor John podcast recently reached the 1 millionth play milestone. Pastor John and his family moved temporarily from the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee (see episodes 111 and 112 for the details). And over the past two weeks, we have released 10 new episodes of the podcast. What follows are transcribed excerpts from these new episodes (click the hyperlinked titles to listen).

On Pastors Who Use Churches as Studios (Episode 103):

It seems to me there’s a profound inauthenticity about preaching past your people in front of you. And that inauthenticity may get a crowd in the short run, but will not be blessed by God in the wider Church in the long run. This is what I would say to anybody who is being tempted this way: Serve your people with your best energy. Serve your people with full affection. Serve your people with focused attention. Feed your flock with the food they need. Don’t give them generic messages for a generic audience. And if God means for you to have a wider impact because of what you are saying to your sheep, let others draw that out. You just be so faithful. Love your people. Serve your people. Feed your people. Beware of the addicting dangers of being widely known. Don’t pursue that. Pursue truth. Pursue edification and worship. Pursue your flock and let the ripples take care of themselves.

Can God Ordain Evil Without Being Evil? (Episode 104):

We need a category in our minds that goes something like this: God can will that sin be without sinning. It is not a sin for God to choose that sin should exist. And I say that because the Bible pictures God giving us grace in Christ Jesus before the ages began, which means that he was planning for the fall which would then need to be redeemed by the crucified Christ through grace. And that was all being planned before sin happened.

Personal Comfort in God’s Sovereignty Over Evil (Episode 105):

The truth of God’s sovereignty over sin — my sin, the world’s sin, and over all the evil in the world — creates a problem for some people. In the end, for those who rest in it, see it in the Bible, believe that God is their Father through Jesus Christ, for them, for me, we find this doctrine to be of enormous comfort in the face of the worst things in the world.

If he [God] is not there, and [evil] things are happening randomly, then we are victims of meaninglessness to the core of all things. And I know there are people who would rather live with that than live with a God of purposefulness. But I wouldn’t. I believe far deeper hope is given to those who have lost loved ones, and to those who are struck down with some terrible calamity. Far deeper hope is given to say, “This was not meaningless. This will prove to do something beyond all your imagination for your good if you will trust the living God and receive his Son as your Lord and Savior (Romans 8:28).”

How Evangelistic Should Sundays Be? (Episode 106):

This same gospel that builds people up, saves people. And the unbeliever who is sitting there while feeling out of place at first — which is inevitable — might come to have his heart opened, his eyes made keen to see the beauty of Christ, fall down on his face and love and trust Jesus. And then these become my people. I am not a foreigner anymore here. I think that happens while evangelism is in a secondary position, and vertical, radical, hard pursuit of God is in first position.

Who Has Most Influenced Your Life? (Episode 107):

Right at the top I am going to put Bill and Ruth Piper — Mom and Dad — because of tens of thousands of influences that are incalculable and unremembered by little boy John Piper. I mean, who of us could begin to estimate the impact of Christian parents on us?

Affections and Emotions (Episode 108):

The affections are the lively inclinations of the will. In other words, if the will, like a magnet, really snaps to something, those are affections. Or if the will really recoils from something with hatred, those are affections.

For Christian Loners (Episode 109):

I don’t want to twist the arm of a loner and say, “You ought to do this, or it is your duty to do this.” I want to say, “You are missing something. Really missing something.” There is more of Christ to be known. There is more of God to be known. God said to a happy man, “It is not good for you to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). And Paul said to a church, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” (1 Corinthians 12:21). They can’t. And if you are an eye or a hand or a finger or a pinky or big toe standing off by yourself saying, “I don’t need them,” you’re wrong.

Why Eternal Security Needs Community (Episode 110):

I have often said that eternal security is a community project, rather than something individualistic merely and automatic. God uses means to keep us eternally for himself. It is not like a vaccination against hell, it’s more like a committed therapist (God) who unfailingly sees to it that we hold to the health regimen that brings us to everlasting glory.

Our Move to Tennessee and New Projects (Episode 111):

We should always plan for life, but never presume upon life.

Adjusting to Life in the Country (Episode 112):

I have no desire to spend the last 10 years of my life sitting on a front porch staring at God’s beauty. The world is fallen, and I think God is going to give me a billion years sitting on a front porch staring at his beauty. His call on me now is to get retooled in a sweet place of peace and quiet as I write, and to fit me to be thrown back into the fray of where most people in the world live with all of their sorrows.

Tuning In

Ask Pastor John is a daily podcast series of 3–8 minute conversations released each weekday at 10:30am (EST) through the DG Facebook and Twitter feeds. You can tune in to the new episodes through the free Ask Pastor John mobile app for iPhone and Android. We’re currently hosting all the recordings on SoundCloud, a website making it easy to listen to several of the podcasts in one sitting. They’re also archived on the DG website and syndicated in iTunes.

We want to hear from you. To submit a question to Pastor John please include your first name, hometown, and question in an email to AskPastorJohn AT desiringGod DOT org.

Thanks for listening to the podcasts. We appreciate your engagement and interest.

Women in the Workforce

Andrea Froehlich — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:00:00 -0500

Is it possible for a woman to exercise leadership in the workplace while still retaining her femininity?

In this video, Mary Kassian talks about a misconception among some Christians that holds that women shouldn’t do anything or have any interests outside the home. But the Bible doesn't teach that. The portrait of complementarity put forth in the Scriptures includes women who fruitfully participate in the civic realm.

Recent videos from Mary Kassian:

How Are Women Fulfilled?

God Will Never, Ever Break His Promise

Jon Bloom — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

How might Isaac have explained to his young sons, Jacob and Esau, why God had commanded his father, Abraham, to offer him as a burnt offering (Genesis 22)?

Eight year-old Esau sat on his bed-mat firing imaginary arrows in the dark at his younger twin, Jacob, who could hear him making his “pheoo” sound with each shot. They were hitting the target.

“Esau, stop!” pheoo. “I said, stop!” pheoo. “Stoooooop!” Jacob’s protests were aimed at his Father’s ears. They were hitting the target. Soon the familiar scraping footsteps approached the tent. Esau lay down quickly, pretending to sleep. Father Isaac swept the flap aside, “Sons of mine, that’s enough. You’re disturbing the whole camp. It’s late. Go to sleep.”

“Father, tell Esau to stop shooting at me!”

“You have a shield, Jacob. It’s called ignoring him. Use it.”

“He’s just doing it to make me mad!”

“Yes, and you’re rewarding his effort. Esau,” Isaac said. Silence. “Don’t pretend you’re sleeping, Son. Answer me.”

“Yes, Father.”

“Stop,” Isaac couldn’t help letting a chuckle slip, “stop shooting your brother.”

There was a giggle in the darkness. “Yes, Father.”

“Father?” Jacob asked.

“Yes, my Son.”

“Was Grandfather Abraham really going to stab you with the knife?” The boy had been pondering the strange, disturbing story his father had told them the previous night.
Isaac walked in and knelt between the boys. “He would have if God had wanted him to.”

“Did God really want him to?”

“That’s a good question. What God really wanted was for Father Abraham to trust him, even if it meant sacrificing me.”

“Did you know Grandfather Abraham was going to sacrifice you?”

“No. I noticed we didn’t have a lamb. But when I asked him about it he said, ‘God will provide for himself a lamb.’”

“Did that mean you were the lamb?”

“Well, it looked like I was the lamb. But the main thing is that Father Abraham trusted that God would provide the lamb and was willing for me to be the lamb if that’s what God required.”

“But if you had died, Esau and I wouldn’t have been born.”

Isaac paused thoughtfully. “I don’t think that’s true, Jacob. Because God had made a promise to Father Abraham. Do you remember? He said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named’ (Genesis 21:12). When God makes a promise, he never breaks it. That means he knew I would grow up and have offspring and that you two scoundrels would be my offspring.”

“But if you died, you couldn’t have offspring!”

“I know it sounds strange. Here’s how Father Abraham explained it to me: he believed so strongly that God would keep his promise that even if God was asking him to sacrifice me, then God must have planned to bring me back to life from the dead.”

Esau interjected, “Like a ghost?”

“No, not like a ghost. God would have healed me and made me alive again, just like I am now.”

Jacob continued, “But he didn’t do that. God made a ram get caught in the bushes.”

“That’s right. God provided a sacrifice just like he promised. And it wasn’t me, God be praised!”

“But why did God tell Grandfather Abraham to make you the sacrifice if he knew he was going to provide the ram?”

“Well, I don’t know all of God’s reasons, Son. He always has more than he tells us. But remember what I told you last night. After Grandfather Abraham had offered me, God said to him: ‘By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.’ (Genesis 22:16-18) So, Jacob, you tell me: why did God tell Father Abraham to offer me as the sacrifice?"

Jacob thought for a moment. “To see if Grandfather would obey him?”

“Yes. Good. But it was also to show us — me and you and Esau and your children someday and their children — what it means to trust God. Father Abraham trusted God so much that he was willing to even sacrifice the fulfillment of God’s promise — me — because he believed that God would still fulfill his promise. That’s important to understand because the promise God made to Father Abraham he’s also making to you: 'in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.' Someday you’re going to have to trust that God will keep his promise even when it looks like he won’t. When that happens, remember Father Abraham and say with him, “The Lᴏʀᴅ will provide” (Genesis 22:14). Does that make sense?"

“Yes, Father,” said Jacob.

“Now, what the Lᴏʀᴅ wants to provide for you tonight is sleep. So let’s have it quiet.”
Two tired voices responded, “Yes, Father.”

As soon as Isaac’s footsteps faded away Jacob heard a sound in the dark: pheoo.

As he walked toward Moriah with Isaac, Abraham must have felt conflicted and heartbroken beyond words. He didn’t understand all that God was doing. He didn’t know he was illustrating for God’s people for all time what justifying faith looked like (James 2:21–23). He didn’t know this act would foreshadow the sacrifice of God’s only Son — a Son who would not be spared because he was the provided Lamb (John 1:29).

He only knew that God knew what he was doing and that God could be trusted to keep his promise even if it appeared like the promise was going to die (Hebrews 11:19). And God proved himself faithful to Abraham.

He will prove himself faithful to you as well. If it doesn’t look like it right now, God has his reasons and they are more than you know. Trust him.

Recent posts from Jon Bloom:

Lay Aside the Weight of Sluggishness

Two Kinds of Regret, One Kind of Hope

God’s Mercy in Messed Up Families

The Gospel Cure for a Child’s Heart (and Our Own)

Christina Fox — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:30:00 -0500

Lying in his bed, with tears running down his face, my son tried to calm down after an emotional outburst. I came into the room to talk to him about it. Snuggling up next to him, we discussed what had happened.

“But Mom, you don’t understand. It’s because you and brother irritate me so much. You make me angry. If you leave me alone, I won't be angry.”

My son has been engaged in an intense battle with anger lately. The littlest thing sets him off and I’m brought in as referee.

“Buddy, we don't make you angry. The anger comes from within you. It comes from your own sin inside your heart."

I recited Jesus’s words in Matthew 15:18, “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.” Needless to say, he did not agree with me. And looking back on that conversation, and my attempts to convince him that people don’t make him angry, I realized that it took me many years to learn that lesson myself.

The Blame Game

For much of my life, I’ve battled my own out-of-control feelings. Depression has held me hostage many times in the dark cell of despair and sorrow. And for so long, I blamed my circumstances and other people for those feelings. “If only my parents wouldn’t fight so much, I wouldn’t be so upset.” “If only my husband didn’t work so much, I wouldn’t be so stressed out.” “If only my kids would sleep, I wouldn’t be so irritable.” “If only my life would work out the way I want, then I’d feel better.”

I can understand my son’s heart and his attempts to blame others for his sin. I do the same thing. I live my life for me and me alone. I want what I want when I want it. I expect others to respond according to my desires. The sin in my heart seeks my best interest and responds in anger, frustration, worry, stress, and despair when things don’t work out the way I want.

The Gospel is the Key

The classic allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress, describes a scene where Christian, the main character, was held captive in Doubting Castle by the Giant called Despair. Christian had the key of Promise tucked in his shirt and had forgotten about it. But once he remembered that he had it, he used it to open the doors of his prison and was freed to continue on his journey to the Celestial City.

The same is true for me. While I wait with growing impatience for someone else to free me from my emotional prison, the truth is, I already have the key to get out. The good news of Jesus crucified and raised for me is the key that frees me from every cell that could ever hold me captive. The gospel tells me that Jesus came to save me from my enslavement and imprisonment to sin. He entered into the mess of my life, becoming sin for me and taking the punishment I deserved. Through faith in his redemptive work for me, I have been set free. He’s given me his Spirit to convict me, draw me to repentance, and transform me from the inside out.

The Real Change We Need

The journey to holiness is a slow one — it’s more of a marathon than a race. God doesn’t reveal to us all our sins at once. Instead, he peels back a layer at a time. My son is only five and has a long way to go. His problem with anger is a heart issue that only the gospel and the power of the Spirit can cure.

As much as I’d like to rush the process, I know God has a story for my son that he has to live out. While I continue to correct and instruct him in obedience, I know that the real change he needs can only come from the Spirit who transforms our hearts. So I walk beside him in the journey, pointing him to the cross and the freedom from sin that Jesus purchased for him there. I share the gospel with him every chance I get. Each day, I pray in humble reliance upon God and his work in my son’s heart, asking him to show my son his sin of anger and his desperate need for a Savior.

Because as I’ve learned from my own journey, the gospel is the only cure for a sinful heart.

More from Christina:

Grace Greater Than All Our Worries

The Sanctifying Work of Parenthood

The Power of a Parent’s Words

Dying Well: One Woman’s Extraordinary Story

Tony Reinke — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:45:00 -0500

Margaret Magdalen Jasper (1752–1789) doesn’t have a Wikipedia page. Google her name and you’ll find almost nothing about her life. What she looked like is a mystery. She wasn’t famous in her day, and she’s still not famous in our day. Her ordinary life was filled with disappointments, the kind of life history tends to forget.

But her story is worth telling.

Margaret lived in England, and there she was acquainted with loss. Her father died when she was only two years old. Her only brother later died in war and was buried in foreign soil. And her mother died in Margaret’s 30th year, at which point she writes in her diary that she was “left an orphan in this perplexing world of sin and sorrow.” She had no husband.

When Margaret’s hopes for marriage failed to materialize by age 24, she resigned herself to employment as a household servant in an 18th century London home. In her diary at the time of her decision, she writes, “To go out in the capacity of a servant, is a trial.” For Margaret Jasper, this was just another trial in a long line of trials.

Even her embrace of Christ by faith was preceded by years of unbelief and self-inflicted pain. She humbly acknowledged her stubbornness toward Christ and her resistance to the gospel as a teenager. She looked to the world for her happiness. “If Jesus, the sinner’s only friend, had not interposed, the world, the vain, deceitful world, would have destroyed me,” she penned in her diary.

But God did interpose, and she was eventually converted as a young woman when, “I was enabled immediately to believe that the blood of Christ had sufficient efficacy to clean me, even me, from all my sin.”

The Story of a Diary

We don’t know a lot about Margaret’s life, and the only reason we know anything about her life is through her personal diary, and the only reason we have access to her diary today is due to the interest of John Newton.

After Margaret’s death, her personal writings were gathered up and sent to Newton, the eminent letter writer, autobiographer, and pastor. Out of personal courtesy, Newton agreed to take the papers and give them a read. His low expectations were soon banished. Margaret was a simple woman who used simple language to record her simple faith in Christ as she lived out her simple life. But what Newton read so deeply moved him that he volunteered to edit her papers, to write a preface, and to see the work to print. It was published in 1793 under the title: The Christian Character Exemplified, From the Papers of Mrs. Margaret Magdalen.

Partly, Margaret’s life story resonated with Newton’s: God had overcome her hardness to the gospel after many years. And her life story illustrated the importance of finding joy in Christ. Newton said this in the preface. Her story reinforced the fact that “God made us, and not we ourselves. That He has given us a capacity and thirst for happiness which, both experience and observation demonstrate, the world cannot satisfy.” She sought pleasure in the world and found only bitterness. She, like Newton, eventually found joy in Christ, a sovereign joy enabling her to endure a life of trials.

By age 30, Margaret’s entire family was gone, she was now a servant, and she faced ongoing health issues, some of them very serious. Her diary gives self-disclosing glimpses into her battle against her besetting sin of pride, her struggle to overcome her own anger, and her struggle to handle interpersonal conflict with the humility of Christ.

In spite of her weaknesses and her sins, Margaret continued to cling to the atoning blood of Christ. “The longer I live, the more I see of the wickedness of my heart. Ah, what would become of me, were it not for the atoning blood of Jesus, to cancel the enormous sum of my transgressions.” And in another place, “My salvation must be free. And I am sure if I reach heaven, as I believe I shall through the blood of the God-man, I shall testify to all the blessed abound the throne that free, unmerited grace has brought me here.”

As Newton discovered, Margaret Jasper’s story of faith is a story worth telling.

The End of One Affliction

Singleness was for her a “drinking the bitter waters of affliction.” But against some odds, Margaret was approached by a man, engaged, and was married in January of 1784. At age 31, Margaret Magdalen Jasper became Margaret Magdalen Athens, wife to a Christian man named Frederick, meaning she could also now leave the service of household servant to become a wife and a mother, a calling she wholeheartedly embraced.

The marriage flourished and she soon became a mother to a son, Andrew Henry. After losing their next child in childbirth, she and Frederick had two more boys, William and George, the final son born in Margaret’s 36th year.

But what makes her story especially moving, and and especially exemplary model to note, is the way she died.

The End of All Affliction

Margaret was aware of the sacrifice of mothering children at her age, especially in light of her history of serious health problems. Each child exerted tremendous strain on her body. And after the birth of George, her third and final son, her health turned for the worse.

As Margaret faced the prospect of death (not for the first time in her life) we read in her diary how she wrestled with her faith in God and his future grace for her family. At this point we pick up her story from her own personal diaries beginning in the weeks following the delivery of her third son.

March 18, 1789:

It is the general apprehension of my friends, that I am going, if not already gone, into a deep decline. The physician intimates the same: and a cough, a pain in my side, a low fever, and night sweats, admonish me, that they judge rightly of my case. So that my sweet babe is ordered to be taken from my breast, and sent to another nurse. This is a painful stoke for a tender mother to bear. But I trust the Lord will support me under it; and influence the heart of the nurse to treat the child with tenderness. …

But here lies my weakness, of which the enemy takes advantage: the thoughts of parting with my husband, and leaving my dear children without being able to cultivate their tender minds in the paths of religion and virtue. But is not my God able to take care of them without me? Yes, He is. I am myself a monument of his goodness, and why should I disturb him? Oh, He has been a good Lord to me, in all his characters, offices, and providences.

Courage, then, my soul!

May 16, 1789:

I had the advice of a physician who agrees with the rest, that my disorder is a consumption (tuberculosis), and that, without the greatest care, my life is in danger. Be it so. I shall appear in glory, with Christ, who is my life. I only wish my affections were more weaned from my husband and children. But when I see one who is so dear to me, tenderly sympathizing over me, weeping tears of love, and afraid to express his apprehension that our union must soon be dissolved — This is too much for mere flesh and blood. Nothing but grace can enable me to stand upon this ground.

And then her final entry on June 13, 1789:

I am still under the care of a physician, but he gives me no hope. Indeed, it would be both cruel, and in vain, to flatter me now, for my own weakness informs me, that I am going apace [quickly]. I bless my God, I can now say, Thy will be done! I can give up my dear husband and children, with every earthly connection, into his hands. He will take care of them.

My husband’s trial is great. I feel more for him than for myself. But Heaven will make amends for all! Oh, how I pant and thirst for the happy hour, when my Father will send his Angels to convey my spirit to rest!

There remains a rest for the people of God. I know that my Redeemer liveth. O Death, where is thy sting! Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of Righteousness! When I walk through the valley, I will fear no evil; thy rod, and thy staff comfort me. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord!

I bless God, I have not one fear concerning dying. That Almighty Lord, who has so wonderfully preserved me to the present moment, will not forsake me in my last extremity. No, when flesh and heart fail, He will be the strength of my heart, and my portion forever!

In this state of peace and confidence of God’s future grace for her beloved husband and boys, Margaret passed peacefully out of this world on July 28th of 1789, just five days after her 37th birthday. Her story remains for us a faithful example of one simple woman who learned to entrust God with all the losses in the greatest trial to come for all of us — the day we die.

One Million Plays Later (Ask Pastor John)

Tony Reinke — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:30:00 -0500

Since launching the Ask Pastor John podcast in mid-January, we have released 112 episodes. And last weekend the podcast surpassed one million plays, which is a great time to hit pause and thank everyone who has been listening to the daily podcast either via Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook, iTunes, or through the iPhone or Android apps.

Thank you!

The stats are meaningful to us in as much as they represent a lot of real, thoughtful, inquisitive friends who are committed to living under God’s good authority in his revealed word. And while Pastor John may be perceived as something of a modern day Yoda (as one Twitter follower humorously suggested), he’s not infallible, and certainly doesn’t claim to be.

One great interest we have at Desiring God is to think with you about how God’s precious, perfect, and timeless word applies to the trickiest and thorniest questions of life and theology. To that end, we appreciate all the interest and support, the agreement and thoughtful disagreement (at times), and the thousands of questions that have come to us through email.

To mark the recent milestone, here’s a look back at the top-20 most played episodes (in descending order):

Can a White Woman Marry a Black Man? (Episode 98)

On Cussing (Episode 97)

How Far Is Too Far Before Marriage? (Episode 73)

Fighting Porn Addiction with Grudem’s Systematic Theology (Episode 18)

How Does It Glorify God to Predestine People to Hell? (Episode 52)

How Far Is Too Far Before Marriage, Spiritually and Emotionally? (Episode 84)

When Jehovah’s Witnesses Knock at Your Door (Episode 78)

A Response to the First Republican Senator to Support So-Called Gay Marriage (Special Episode)

How to Fight Laziness (Episode 79)

Christians and Marijuana (Episode 77)

Do You Use Bible Commentaries Written by Women? (Episode 56)

A Theology of Prayer in 3 Minutes (Episode 37)

How to Handle Panhandlers (Episode 80)

Can a Born-Again Christian Lose Salvation? (Episode 102)

Does God Ever Withdraw His Presence from His Children? (Episode 19)

Was Adam For Real, and Does It Matter? (Episode 4)

Reflections from John Piper on His 67th Birthday (Episode 1)

Boundaries for Non-Christian Friendships (Episode 100)

Biblical Womanhood in Five Minutes (Episode 42)

Is Jeremiah 29:11 a Promise to Christians? (Episode 101)

Feeling Unappreciated at Work?

Andre Yee — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:23:00 -0500

There are few things more difficult than giving our best labors daily in an environment where we feel unappreciated. You know the feeling, and it’s not a good one. No matter how good our work environment might be, from time to time we have all felt the sting of our contributions taken for granted and our mistakes magnified.

The sad reality is that this condition is almost inevitable in this broken world. So how do we sustain joyful work in such a situation?

For Unappreciated Workers

I am no stranger to the discouragement of feeling unappreciated, but over the years, I have found great help from the apostle Paul’s exhortation in Colossians 3:22–24.

Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

I have no detailed understanding of what working life may have looked like for these first-century Christian bondservants, but I suspect it wasn’t all that pleasant for many of them. Some were subjected to ill treatment, and undoubtedly much of their work was unappreciated.

Strength for Christian Employees

So how does Paul seek to encourage them? He does so in two ways. First, he exhorts them to look past their earthly masters, toward their heavenly master. He urges them to work “as for the Lord,” reminding them that they are “serving the Lord Christ.” Instead of simply being accountable to their earthly masters for the substance of their work, he points them to Christ as their true master and boss.

But Paul’s encouragement presses deeper still. Paul also assures these saints of a future reward as motivation for faithful labor in this present life — “knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.”

The Promise of Eternal Reward

Just imagine a Christian slave laboring day in and day out in a work environment where he might not only be unappreciated for his contributions but likely mistreated as well. The workdays were long. The labor was menial with little in terms of compensation. Under such conditions, how does one resist the gravitational pull of mediocrity — to only do what is minimally required? What would motivate such a servant to labor faithfully, earnestly and perhaps even joyfully?

Paul’s answer: the promise of an incomparably rich and eternal reward that is as sure as any present benefit he might receive. You see, Paul’s antidote to the problem of a tough and possibly discouraging work environment isn’t a motivational “rah-rah” speech or summoning the call of duty to persevere. Instead, he sheds light on God’s generous heart to be both the Rewarder and the Reward for all who trust in him.

The True and Ultimate Boss

As it turns out, this isn’t just encouragement for first-century bondservants but also for me as I navigate the waters of the modern work life. When I consider the promise of a future reward in Christ, my present need for appreciation from others is eclipsed by the blazing light of his mercies. I understand that even if no one recognizes my labors, I can entrust myself to Christ who is my true and ultimate boss. He will ensure that no work done faithfully to him will go unrecognized or unrewarded.

Are you feeling discouraged today because no one sees or appreciates what you do at work? These words from the apostle Paul would suggest that you are wrong — Christ your master does see, and from “the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.”

New Piper eBook for Father’s Day

David Mathis — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Father’s Day is this weekend, and John Piper and the team at Desiring God would like to help you get ready and make the most of it.

This new ebook from John Piper, A Tribute to My Father, brings together in one place his most significant writings that honor the indelible influence of his father, Bill Piper (1919–2007). Included here are the eleven “precious truths” John shared for Father’s Day 2005, as well as his journal entry from the night his father died, the funeral message from just days later, and the extended biographical address tracking his life and ministry as an evangelist and father.

For Father’s Day 2013

John writes in the new introduction written specially for the ebook,

My father was the happiest man I ever knew. One of the reasons for this was his singing faith. To feel the significance of this, you need to understand that he was a fundamentalist. That’s not a bad word in my vocabulary. And he’s the reason. Fundamentals are worth dying for and fighting for. But that fight has killed the Song in the hearts of many people. But not in Bill Piper.

Whether your own father has let you down monumentally or been a major means of God’s direct blessing in your life, we think you’ll be encouraged to see evidence of God’s work through one fallen, fallible father to profoundly affect a son for good. John says,

O how I love my father, and his great Savior — and his Song. Surely this indomitable Song in our home was the birthplace of my life’s theme: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. May God make this legacy a fitting tribute to my father, and a great honor to his song-inspiring King.

Free PDF, EPUB, and MOBI

To download A Tribute to My Father, visit the resource page or click on the following format options:

ebook as a PDF file (for computer or printing to read on paper)

ebook as an EPUB file (for e-readers like Nook, Sony Reader, and Apple iBooks on iPhone, iPad, and iPod)

ebook as a MOBI file (for Kindle applications — works on some mobile devices, but not others)

Note: To load the ebook on a mobile device, it may be necessary to view this blog post from within your device and then to click the download option.

Behind the Blog: Christian Dating

Jonathan Parnell — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:24:00 -0500

Four years ago, the small-budget, independent production 500 Days of Summer premiered at the Sundance Film Festival with decent accolades. Since then the movie has surprisingly gone on to earn over $60 million. Why? Because it’s a realistic story of an all-too-common dating relationship — one that ends up lopsided and empty because of a plastic vision of romance.

Its popularity seems to tell us something about Western culture and relationships: the system is broken. Expectations are inflated. People are confused.

But a similar report fits for many Christians. How should we think about dating? What’s the best way to journey toward marriage?

In this new episode of Behind the Blog, we talk dating and dating alone. Building off Marshall Segal’s not-yet-married manifesto, we get into the details of how to think Christianly about the familiar scene of boy meets girl.

Stream or download the new 30-minute audio, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Related content:

When the Not-Yet Married Meet: Dating to Display Jesus

Single, Satisfied, and Sent: Mission for the Not-Yet Married

Manhood Restored

Tony Reinke — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 10:20:00 -0500

Our all-sufficient Savior is many things, including a perfect model of masculinity. This point is a significant theme in Eric Mason’s new book Manhood Restored: How the Gospel Makes Men Whole.

Mason joined me to talk more about his book and masculinity in the latest Authors on the Line interview. Mason is a husband, father, and church planter, who lives and ministers in the heart of Philadelphia, as the co-founder and lead pastor of Epiphany Fellowship.

In our 24-minute conversation, Mason shares the story of his father, a man who escaped the Jim Crow South to become a decorated WWII Buffalo Soldier, only to return home disillusioned by ongoing segregation. Then we talk about manhood’s highest expression, in the life and work of Jesus Christ, and why conversations about masculinity are opening new doors for the gospel. We discuss distinguishing Christ-centered manhood from cultural macho-ness, and we talk about the battle against pornography and why joy in God is an essential weapon. We look at the role of the local church in giving vision for masculinity in gospel-mission advance. And we close our conversation with the one thing every wife wishes her husband would provide (think outside the bacon).

To listen to our conversation, subscribe to the Authors on the Line podcast in iTunes here, download the mp3 here (16.9 MB), or listen from the resource page through the following link:

Manhood Restored: An Interview with Eric Mason (24 Minutes)

Previous Authors on the Line podcasts —

Gospel Peace in a Cluttered House: An Interview with Gloria Furman

Spurgeon’s First Five Years in Ministry: An Interview with Tom Nettles and Christian George

The Bible as One Story: An Interview with Tom Schreiner

Why the Ascension of Jesus Matters: An Interview with Gerrit Scott Dawson and Jonny Woodrow

Meaning and Metaphor: An Interview with Doug Wilson

The Role of the Psalms in the Life of the Church: An Interview with Gordon Wenham

Young, Restless, and Reformed Five Years Later: An Interview with Collin Hansen

Getting Real with Personal Sin: An Interview with Matt Chandler

Hospitality on Mission: An Interview with Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

From Radical Lesbian to Redeemed Christian: An Autobiographical Interview with Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

Enjoying God’s Beatific Beauty: An Interview with Kyle Strobel

Marriage on the Cosmic Stage: An Interview with G. K. Beale

The Cross-Centered Christmas: An Interview with Ann Voskamp

Eyes Wide Open to God’s Created Beauty: An Interview with Steve DeWitt

Christmas and the Sting of Personal Loss: An Interview with John Piper and Paul Maier

The Trinitarian Shape of Jonathan Edwards' Theology: An Interview with Michael McClymond

Union with Christ in Paul’s Theology: An Interview with Constantine Campbell

God’s Work and Ours: An Interview with Timothy Keller

Christians Leading in the Secular World: An Interview with Dr. Albert Mohler

Same-Sex Temptations in the Church: An Interview with Robert Gagnon

The Church in a Homosexual Culture: An Interview with Robert Gagnon

Delighting in the Trinity: An Interview with Michael Reeves

Charity and Its Fruits: An Interview with Kyle Strobel

How Do We Rest in the Face of Horrible Calamity?

John Piper — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

What happens to our emotions if we really believe in the sovereign wisdom and goodness of God in horrible persecution?

This question rises for me for two reasons.

One is because of God’s will for our emotions revealed in the Bible, and the other is what I see happening in the hearts of God’s people today. They are not always the same. One of my aims is to help today’s saints experience more of God’s aims for our emotions.

Here is the most recent example in my experience.

Refreshed by Horrible Persecutions?

In Revelation 6 John saw “the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God.” These are martyrs for Jesus in heaven. “They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood?’” (verse 10).

Since they are in heaven, where “the spirits of the righteous are made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23), we should be slow to call this cry sinful. But God directs their emotions from this rising sense of urgency to a different heart-experience.

The martyrs were “told to rest a little longer.” This is an emotionally peaceful and refreshing word (anapauō). We can feel the connotations in these examples:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

“They refreshed my spirit” (1 Corinthians 16:18).

“The hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you” (Philemon 1:7).

“Refresh my heart in Christ” (Philemon 1:20).

But here’s the striking thing emotionally.

They were explicitly made aware of the horrible persecutions on earth. They were told to rest and be refreshed “until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.”

This is emotionally jarring.

The Key to Their Rest

Note four things: 1) They are told to rest and be refreshed; 2) They are told that while they are resting, people are being killed, some by beheading (Revelation 20:4); 3) They are told that while they are resting, these dying people are their “brothers”; 4) And they are told that the number of these killings is appointed by God.

So we are confronted with this real, practical, emotional question: Does God really expect these saints to step back from their urgency about immediate vengeance, and rest while their brothers are being horribly killed?

Yes. He does. He would not have told these perfected saints to rest if he did not think it was possible and right.

The key to their ability to rest is precisely the sovereign wisdom and goodness of God implicit in the statement of Revelation 6:11 — there is an appointed number of martyrs yet to come. “Rest until the number of your brothers is complete, who are to be killed.”

Deep Soul-Rest in God’s Wisdom and Goodness

What this means for our emotions is that deep confidence in God’s sovereign wisdom and goodness is profoundly transforming to our emotional reaction to horrible things. We are made able, in a supernatural way, to have a soul-rest in God amid terrible calamity.

This is not the same as indifference. It is not callousness or lack of compassion. It is not the absence of tears. But it is rest. It is a sweet repose on Jesus.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose, 
I will not, I will not desert to its foes.

There is a profound emotional “repose” — a deep restfulness of soul — even as we know the horrors of calamity and persecution — including our own.

Recent posts from John Piper:

When Two So-Called “Married” Women (or Men) Repent

Prayer: We Get the Help, He Gets the Glory

The Power for Our Patience

The Jagged Void (A Poem for Grieving Mothers)

John Piper — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:09:00 -0500

When the tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma on May 20, nine children died in the Plaza Towers Elementary School. I’ve been thinking about their parents, especially the mothers who bore them — and trying to imagine the void. And the more I think, the more the whole battery of recent losses crowd in on my mind — Newtown, Boston, Philadelphia, my own church. I wrote this for those mothers — perhaps all the mothers who’ve lost a child.

The Jagged Void

Tomorrow morn
      The sun will shine.
But this sharp thorn
      Will still be mine —

This jagged void
      Where you were born,
Sharply deployed
      When you were torn

From me—and yes,
      An arrow, shorn,
As if, roseless,
      It could adorn

This womb. My lot
      To curse? Forsworn.
Yet will I not
      Tomorrow mourn?

Recent poems from John Piper:

Grace Forfeited

Too Late

Pilgrim’s Conflict with Sloth

When a Black Woman Married a White Man

Trillia Newbell — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:01:00 -0500

It’s interesting that something so commonplace and natural to me can be such a mystery to others. You see, I’m a black woman married to a white man. For many — perhaps more than would like to admit — my marriage is viewed as radical, strange, or even unbiblical. People are confused about interracial relationships and this was made clear in a recent “Ask Pastor John” podcast.

A listener wrote in to ask an important question: “Can a white woman marry a black man?” I applaud the bravery of this woman because instead of remaining confused she searched for wisdom. What may have been surprising was that the podcast generated many hits. To me this indicated that there are others who are searching for answers. And the real question is: why wouldn’t interracial marriage be okay?

Not That Long Ago

Some may think that because it’s 2013 we in the United States should be past racial confusion and prejudice. But the racial divisions in this country are deep-rooted and significant changes didn’t occur until only 50 years ago. Interracial marriage was illegal in many states until 1967. Think about that for a moment. That is the generation of most of our parents and grandparents.

John Piper vividly remembers these laws and wrote about it in his book Bloodlines. “This is very fresh historically. I spent the first eighteen years of my life growing up in a state [South Carolina] where interracial marriage between white and black was illegal. When those laws were struck down by the Loving case in 1967, I was a senior in college” (204).

Though the state did not uphold the law, South Carolina hadn’t erased the language from their constitution until 1998. So this history really isn’t far off and its effects linger on even today.

The other difficulty is that sin remains until Jesus comes and makes all things new. So besides our history, we have the battle with our sinful hearts. We have the propensity to be filled with pride and self-righteousness as we look at others who are different from us.

Creation and Redemption

But I wonder if the problem also lies in that we are simply confused about creation and redemption.

Again in Bloodlines, Piper shares four reasons why interracial marriage is permitted by God and is a positive. His reasons include:

All races have one ancestor, and all humans are created in God’s image.

The Bible forbids intermarriage between unbeliever and believer.

In Christ our oneness is profound and transforms racial and social differences from barriers to blessings.

Criticizing one interracial marriage was severely disciplined by God. (210–211)

Oh what sweet truth! God’s redeeming grace and historical gospel (his promise to Abraham to bless all nations in Genesis 12:3) breaks barriers. The likeness of Christ among Christians is bigger than anything else that could divide us.

My Story

In Christ our oneness is profound and transforms racial and social differences from barriers to blessings. That’s what my husband and I experienced. We were divided, to be sure. But our barriers had less to do with our so-called differences and more to do with our rejection of Jesus. When we first met, neither of us were Christians.

Christ was merciful to reconcile each of us to himself and then to each other. We became Christians and a few years later were married. A lot happened in-between but what has been most profound in our marriage isn’t first and foremost that we are an interracial couple; rather, it is that we are a couple redeemed by the blood of Christ. It’s that we are brought together as one under a covenant with God and each other. That is amazing! I’d say that Christ’s work on the cross broke the barrier first between God and us, then between us racially.

And it is a blessing. Perhaps one of the most tangible witnesses of the blessing of our marriage is our two children. Each step into the public is a declaration of racial reconciliation to a world that is broken and divided. Each time we sit together in church is a reminder that God’s gospel is for Jew, Greek, slave and free. Our marriage is a blessing to me personally, but we hope it is a display of the gospel to others.

True Reconciliation and Love

The confusion about race doesn’t discourage me because I am aware of the power of the gospel. We can all be encouraged because God is in the business of changing hearts. Believing that interracial marriage isn’t opposed in the Bible isn’t a matter of salvation, but a matter of the heart. To be clear, this isn’t about preferences (a matter of attraction). We want to explore our hearts to see if there is pride, bitterness, self-righteousness and hate against our brothers and sisters in Christ.

God’s word says if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us and purify us (1 John 1:9). It is God’s kindness that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4). It is here, when we begin to confess and repent, that we will see true reconciliation and love for our neighbor.

More from Trillia:

Legalism or Love? Religious or Radical?

The Amazing Calling of Being “Mom”

Why Accountability Matters

Love and Interracial Marriage: 5 Principles for Engaging a Disapproving Family

Phillip Holmes — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Most of us agree that interracial relationships, though beautiful, can potentially be harder. I stress “potentially” since often it is assumed that people of different ethnicities are automatically opposites.

When engaging the topic of interracial dating, we must recognize that no ethnicity is monolithic. Therefore, we are called to get to know individuals and avoid jumping to conclusions based on the color of one’s skin.

I am extremely thankful for John Piper’s labors on the topic of interracial marriage. Here’s how he responds to those who would claim that “cultural differences make interracial marriage wrong because the couple will be incompatible”:

1. We should base ideas of compatibility on the facts of a situation not on the color of the people.

2. There are same-race couples that are less compatible than interracial couples, because the issue is not race but sufficient spiritual union, common conviction, and similar expectations to make the marriage workable. (The Ethics of Interracial Marriage)

So yes, interracial marriages can potentially be harder, yet we have to avoid the conjecture that it absolutely will be harder as well as the notion that because it may be hard, it should be avoided. Piper again has helpful words:

Here is where Christ makes the difference. Christ does not call us to a prudent life, but to a God-centered, Christ-exalting, justice-advancing, counter-cultural, risk-taking life of love and courage. Will it be harder to be married to another race, and will it be harder for the kids? Maybe. Maybe not. But since when is that the way a Christian thinks? Life is hard. And the more you love, the harder it gets. (Racial Harmony and Interracial Marriage)

Responding to a Disapproving Family

With that being said, we know that one of the main things that can really make an interracial relationship/marriage difficult is a disapproving family. It can be physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually draining. It comes with disapproving looks, racist and prejudice comments, rejection, and poor theological arguments against your interracial relationship from loved ones who have previously supported and loved you well.

How should one respond? What should be said? How should you deal with a family that is rejecting you, or your significant other, based on ethnicity?

The goal of this article is not to provide a biblical basis for interracial marriage. I’m thankful for John Piper’s and Trillia Newbell’s writings on this. What I would like to provide here is biblical and practical advice on to how to engage a disapproving family, whether it is your own or your significant other’s, toward the ends of God being glorified, sin mortified, Satan horrified, and all involved edified. Here are five biblical principles applied to engaging a disapproving family.

1. Love your enemy (Matthew 5:44).

The term “enemy” may sound a bit harsh to some, but when a family is opposing you or your relationship simply because of the racial dynamic (while simultaneously making a relationship with a potential spouse more difficult), it’s hard to view them as anything else. Love is crucial and can be extremely effective. Biblical love is the basis for everything I have to say here. Why? The Scriptures call us to love that prevails and changes our current circumstances.

Without love, you will simply be “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). Interracial couples fighting for a relationship without love only prove that they are ill equipped to love one another when times are tough. Biblical love demands that we go above and beyond worldly standards, remaining patient and kind to our perceived enemies. This can be hard when those closest to you remain stubborn and selfish, spewing hatred and condescending remarks about your relationship or significant other. However, biblical love demands that we endure the suffering.

Are you willing to endure the disapproving looks, words, and actions of relatives? Loving and enduring the hate is crucial to winning them. Dr. Martin Luther King was spot on when he revealed the supernatural effects of love:

But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory (Strength to Love, 56).

You may get your way with hate; however, this could lead to problems in your marriage and the chances of having a good relationship with the disapproving family in the future is slim. Choose the path of Christ, and let your love be genuine. Only then will it never end (1 Corinthians 13:8).

2. Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger (James 1:19).

This is extremely critical, especially in the earlier stages, but also throughout your dialogues with the family. Whether it’s your family or your significant other’s, listening to their questions and concerns will better equip you to address them. It also guards you from making rash judgments that are merely speculative. The concerns a family has may not be rooted in race. It would be unwise and unfruitful to pull the race card hastily when a family has legitimate concerns about an interracial relationship.

I realize that few families will come right out and say that race is their main concern. We live in a day where racism is frowned upon; therefore, people don't feel comfortable admitting that it's a struggle. I have experienced situations where smoke screens went up when race was, in fact, the real issue. If the couple involved listens carefully and calmly to the concerns a family has, they will have a better chance at getting to the root of the issue and avoid unnecessary quarreling. After the couple has listened carefully, they are prepared to converse and defend the relationship, if necessary.

3. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit (Philippians 2:3).

In other words, check your motives. Why are you fighting for this relationship? Is it because the two of you are spiritually compatible, or do you want to prove the family wrong?

One of the worst reasons to pursue a relationship is because the family is against it. To enter a marriage in order to prove someone wrong is selfish and unloving to everyone involved. The gospel calls us to a higher standard. The Christian is willing to forfeit battles for the love of all involved.

Sometimes when an interracial couple finds themselves going against a family’s wishes, they get so entangled in winning the battle that they lose sight of what’s important — God and each other. They feel pressured to make it work because if they give up on the relationship, they feel as if the family has won.

Be on guard against this lie. Remember, God is at work regardless of the outcome, and he is able to change a family’s collective heart whether the relationship survives or not. Remember Christ’s example in that he was willing to lay down his rights out of obedience to the Father. At the cross, it appeared as if Satan had won and Christ had been defeated. Christ knew the end result, and he lived with that end in mind. That end was glory. Likewise, we await our glory.

4. Be strong in the Lord (Ephesians 6:10).

If an opposing family was previously a loving, caring, and supportive unit to an individual in the relationship and now rejects him or her due to the interracial relationship, human strength will only last so long and go so far.

Imagine a daughter dreaming of her dad walking her down the isle, her mom helping her pick out her wedding dress, or a son looking forward to being loved and accepted by a family previously foreign to him, and now all of this is in jeopardy because of race. This is heartbreaking and painful to go through. It will result in sleepless nights and lots of tears.

Most can comprehend the phrase “be strong,” but the “in the Lord” part can be confusing — yet it’s the most important part of the phrase. I think there are a few ways a Christian interracial couple can be and remain strong in the Lord.

First, they can remind themselves that what they are doing is God-honoring. To know that Jesus is pleased with us should radically transform how we view our hardships. Second, they can rest in the promises of God. We are promised that Christians who suffer for righteousness should not fear because they will be blessed (1 Peter 3:14).

Therefore, don’t be ashamed of your godly interracial relationship, and continue to commit it to Jesus. You may be tempted to avoid talking about your relationship with the disapproving family or cut your significant other out of stories because you know the family disapproves. The relationship should be neither forced into conversation nor hidden as if it is taboo. Interracial couples in Christ can date and marry with confidence because the Lord approves. His opinion is most important.

Every battle, hardship, pain, and trial that the Christian endures for righteousness’s sake has already been dealt with at the cross. We should not fear or be ashamed because we are “in the Lord” and in him we are victorious.

5. Preach in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2).

Paul charged young Timothy to preach the word in season and out of season. I offer this same exhortation in two ways. First, share and defend the true beauty of interracial marriage and the multi-ethnic church in light of the gospel whether you are dating interracially or not. The temptation will be to only defend this with your family when you have a dog in the fight. Whether the relationship works out or not, defend biblical truth when you hear it being distorted. Share this truth in season and out regardless of your current relationship.

Second, always look for a chance to share the gospel with the opposing family. Share it in every dialogue and debate. Confront them lovingly with biblical truth. Never assume that the family understands the gospel or its implications. Bring the gospel to bear directly on the situation by reminding them that Christ died for all and in him there is no longer Jew or Greek. We are one in Christ, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Finally, remind them that Jesus, the God-man, came as human and died for humans — spanning not just a racial divide, but the Creator-creature divide — and now we are his bride and he is our groom. One day Christ will return for his bride, and we will all be a part of the most jaw-dropping interracial marriage the world has ever seen, the marriage of Christ and his Church, a people from every tribe, tongue and nation.

More from Desiring God on interracial marriage:

When a Black Woman Married a White Man

Racial Harmony and Interracial Marriage (sermon)

Interracial Marriage: Celebrating and Serving Diversity in Christ (article)

Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian (book)

Fighting the Tyranny of Ministry Success

Ben Stuart — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

What is the most loving thing God can do for a 22-year-old minister?

In my case, it was ordaining that my inaugural, epic, game-changing, well-publicized ministry event be attended by one kid.

One single human being. A junior high boy named Austin.

Feed His One Sheep

My honest reaction as I sat there and looked into the face of this young man was one of resentment. I wanted, needed, and even expected God to give me a far more successful ministry. Like the frustrated sniper in Saving Private Ryan, I felt that God’s placement of me in this context was a “complete misallocation of resources.”

For the first time in my life, I decided to voice that complaint to God. As I prayed, I felt as though he posed the question from John 21:15 to me, “Ben, do you love me?” My response mirrored Peter’s, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Then that rare mixture of comfort and conviction that only the Spirit can bring came over me, “Then feed my sheep. One sheep.” My heart broke.

The Crowd Versus the King

I realized in that moment that I did not love young Austin. In fact, I resented him because he wasn’t 20 people, or 2,000. I wasn’t seeing him as a person. I was seeing him as a way to advance myself.

I also realized that I wasn’t loving God! Rather than seeking him, I was looking for ministerial success to be my comforter and my source of significance. In that moment, I believed my longing for significance would be satisfied by the roar of a crowd, rather than by the approval of my King.

Religious Bad Men Are the Worst

I thank God that he used that moment early in my ministry to expose this evil motivation in my heart. And make no mistake, it is evil. God will not bless this mentality.

We are designed to glorify God and to love people. When we use God and use people to glorify ourselves, we place our lives and our ministries at cross-purposes with the Almighty. That is not the place we want to live. C.S. Lewis said, “Of all bad men, religious bad men are the worst.” So let us rejoice when God wages war on this motive early in our ministries before we can do some real damage.

Responding to the Cult of Celebrity

So what do you do if your frustration level is rising because you do not see your service attendance, podcast numbers, or Twitter followers escalating as much as you’d like? How do you respond if you are tyrannized by seeing a cult of celebrity surround a different minister rather than yourself? Three things:

1. Repent. Confess to God the wickedness in your heart. Declare to him your desire to distance yourself from any kind of self-exalting motives. His forgiveness comes rushing in when we humble ourselves.

2. Love the sheep. Embrace the people that he’s put in front of you. Don’t envy someone else’s sheep. Care for yours. Know well the condition of your flocks and give attention to your herds (Proverbs 27:23). Be like Jesus whose proclamation of truth was fueled by his deep compassion for his people (Mark 6:34). Consider the pain they experience. Think about the hopes they grip onto. Imagine what it would look like for them to have deep communion with the Lord. Do all you can to foster their passion for living for him. Or, in the words of Peter,

Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. (1 Peter 5:2–4)

3. Enjoy the sweet peace that accompanies the knowledge that we are doing work that pleases our Chief Shepherd. I promise, this is where true, lasting peace is found.

Loving Muslims, While Rejecting Islam

David Mathis — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Only one major world religion has a built-in apologetic against Christianity: Islam.

“While I profoundly disagree with Islam,” says Zane Pratt, dean of missions at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, “I love Muslims.”

For 20 years, Pratt lived and ministered the Christian gospel among Muslims in Central Asia. He knows the religion well and is one of the foremost evangelical teachers on Islam. And perhaps the first thing he’d say to Christians about Muslims is, “Don’t be afraid.”

“We Fundamentally Disagree on Essentially Everything”

In our post-9/11 milieu, Pratt finds himself not only combating fear but many popular misconceptions about Islam — one being that Arab and Muslim are the same. They’re not. Most Arabs are Muslims — but not all — and the majority of Muslims are not Arab.

Another misconception he hears is that Christianity and Islam are essentially the same. When someone asserts this, Pratt profoundly disagrees, and responds, “You don’t know one, the other, or both!” Says Pratt about Christians and Muslims, “We fundamentally disagree on essentially everything.” But he stresses that Christians need not agree with Islam to be loving, and to care deeply about our neighbor’s immediate and eternal good.

Love and Pray for Muslims

In a nutshell, Pratt’s advice to Christian pastors and leaders is, “Lead your congregations to love Muslims, and not be afraid of them. Pray for them and engage them wherever you are, and you will find them almost anywhere — even in small towns in America now. Love them, pray for them, and expose them to the word of God.”

In less than 15 minutes, Pratt gives us a veritable “Islam 101” in this episode of Theology Refresh. In some ways it’s a straightforward and simple religion, he says, able to be summarized in six doctrines and five practices. He not only warns of misconceptions but highlights the importance of Christian intentionality and hospitality in seeking to extend the gospel to Muslims — whether in the U.S., the U.K., the Middle East, or elsewhere.

To access this new episode, subscribe to Theology Refresh in iTunes, listen at the resource page, or download the audio.

Four books on Islam that Pratt recommends in the interview:

Islam: The Straight Path (John Esposito)

The Gospel for Muslims: An Encouragement to Share Christ with Confidence (Thabiti Anyabwile)

Greear, Breaking the Islam Code: Understanding the Soul Questions of Every Muslim (J.D. Greear)

Questions Muslims Ask: What Christians Actually Do and Don’t Believe (Robert Scott)

Some previous episodes of Theology Refresh:

Francis Chan on the Sovereignty of God

David Platt on the Doctrine of Hell

David Platt on the Doctrine of Suffering

Don Carson on the Wrath of God

Don Carson on the Incarnation

R W Glenn on the Grace of God

Darrin Patrick on Biblical Complementarity

Paul Miller on the Doctrine of Prayer

Ed Welch on Biblical Counseling

Russell Moore on Ethics

Russell Moore on the Person of Christ

Ann Voskamp on Gratitude

Jerry Bridges on Two Stages of Disciplemaking

Jerry Bridges on the Christian Spiritual Disciplines

Tope Koleoso on Spiritual Warfare

John Piper on the God-Centeredness of God

John Piper on the Gospel and Sanctification

John Piper on the Gospel and Sanctification (Part 2)

John Piper on the Celebrity Factor and Pastoral Ministry

[To subscribe or see the full list of over 30 episodes, visit Theology Refresh in the iTunes store]

The Genius of C.S. Lewis

Jonathan Parnell — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 11:09:00 -0500

You’d probably recognize his voice. Max McLean has narrated the Bible five times, as well as John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and several other pieces of Christian literature. But his most celebrated work is a theatrical adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s famous novel, The Screwtape Letters. This critically acclaimed production is currently on national tour, playing in over fifty major cities and performing arts venues, including recently in Minneapolis.

While Max McLean was in town, we had the chance to ask him a few questions about his study of Lewis from an arts perspective, and especially his mastery of Lewis’s theological fantasies. In this two-minute video, McLean explains how the core of Lewis’s genius is found in his understanding of the imagination.

Learn more about our upcoming conference, “The Romantic Rationalist: God, Life, & Imagination in the Work of C.S. Lewis,” and download our latest ebook from John Piper, Alive to Wonder: Celebrating the Influence of C.S. Lewis.

Lay Aside the Weight of Sluggishness

Jon Bloom — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

“And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6:11–12)

Sluggishness in a runner signals danger to a coach. Something isn’t right. Something is causing ambivalence, draining confidence. The runner is losing heart. Half-hearted running is a forerunner to quitting.

That’s when a caring coach intervenes. Every athlete, even a premier one, loses focus or desire and at times wants to give up in the stress and strain of training and competition. I have never heard of a successful athlete who didn’t have a coach who pushed him (or her) when he got discouraged, lost confidence, wanted to quit — pushed him beyond what he thought possible.

The best coaches don’t just encourage; they also exhort. They come on strong. They get angry if they must. They warn against the dangers of foolishness, indolence, or losing resolve. And that’s because they know that humans are not only motivated by reward, we are also motivated by fear. It’s how we are designed. God is the ultimate reward (Hebrews 11:26) and the ultimate terror (Luke 12:4–5) and we are equipped to understand, be awed by, and be motivated by both aspects of him.

And Jesus is the best, most caring coach there is. When we are injured, helpless, legitimately tired, or ashamed, our Coach is almost always comforting and encouraging (Matthew 12:20). But he also loves us enough to get in our face when we need it. And that’s usually what we need when we feel sluggish.

Spiritual sluggishness is a manifestation of unbelief. It’s a sign that there’s something about God that we doubt and it’s draining our hope, which means it’s draining our energy and drive. We’re not giving it all we have because we doubt it’s worth the effort.

When we feel like this we typically want an arm around the shoulder and a gentle word of understanding and commiseration. What we typically need are loving reproofs, like these:

“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” (Hebrews 3:12)

“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.” (Hebrews 4:1)

“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:26-27)

Spiritual sluggishness is not to be tolerated; it’s to be fought. It’s potentially a faith-race abortifacient (Hebrews 3:19). It’s a weight that needs to be laid aside (Hebrews 12:2). So how do you do that?

Identify the doubt. Sluggishness has a cause. What is sapping your faith?

Repent. Unbelief is a sin. Seek to actively turn from it.

Target that unbelief with biblical truth. Stop whatever else you may be doing for devotional reading and focus on and pray through texts that deal directly with this issue. Lay aside your other book reading and read things that address this doubt.

Don’t go it alone. Humble yourself and share your struggle with trusted counselors God has given you. Our great Coach often speaks through assistant coaches (Hebrews 3:13).

Spiritual sluggishness is common to man (1 Corinthians 10:13). We all experience it. In the slog of our long faith-race and the adversity we encounter from the world, our flesh, and the devil (Ephesians 2:2–3), there are times the reward gets obscured by confusion and discouragements.

Though we may not want them, these are when we most need our Coach’s exhortations. They may sting, they may humble us, but they are laced with mercy because they help clear our muddled minds, shake off the lethargy, and run again with endurance.

“Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.” (Hebrews 12:12–13)

Recent posts from Jon Bloom:

Two Kinds of Regret, One Kind of Hope

God’s Mercy in Messed Up Families

God’s Mercy in Making Us Face the Impossible

Not Your Ordinary Exposition

Josh Etter — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 16:13:00 -0500

John Piper writes in the foreword to Jon Bloom’s new book Not by Sight: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Walking by Faith,

These meditations are not your ordinary exposition. These are stories. Really good stories. They are rooted in what the Bible says. The creative additions never go beyond what really could have happened. The truths that Jon sees for our lives are based not on what might have been but on what was. The might-have-beens give added flesh to the bones of truth. They are touchable.

In addition to Piper’s written commendation in the foreword, here’s a short video commendation.

For this week only, Westminster Bookstore is offering Not by Sight for only $6.50 — and just $6 per book for three or more copies.

For more, see John Piper’s recent post, Introducing Jon Bloom and His New Book.

Gospel Stability for a Life in Spin Cycle

Gloria Furman — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 10:30:00 -0500

Around the time our first child was born it felt like the physics of my well-ordered life had been tossed into a salad spinner. The centrifugal force of my circumstances made me feel out of control in my day-to-day work, and my heart quickly followed suit.

In the midst of finishing grad school, getting ready for a move overseas, and learning to take care of a newborn, I found ready answers and wisdom to managing my chaotic home life. But none of these remedies quelled the chaos in my heart. God’s amazing grace felt like an ethereal, irrelevant concept as I was scrubbing spit up out of my newborn’s onesies for the umpteenth time and manipulating the shopping cart into our grocery budget each week. Why wasn’t my “quiet time” translating into peace in Christ as the rest of my day devolved into “chaos time?”

Mountains of Mundane

I think many of us struggle to see how the gospel — the good news about Jesus’s sin-atoning death on the cross — is something that is meant to land in our living rooms. We believe with all our heart that God’s sweet-sounding, amazing grace saves wretches like us and turns the lost into the found. But we collapse into bed at the end of a long day and wonder: Now that I’m no longer blind, what exactly is it that “now I see?”

The mountains of the mundane seem to loom larger than eternal life and block our perspective, and we’re tempted to set our gaze on a season when these everyday things are behind us.

But by the grace of God we are what we are. In his sovereign love he has placed us here, with these fellow image bearers, in these circumstances, to the praise of his glory in heaven and on earth. What we need to see most is not a time when “this, too, shall pass.” What we need to see most is a crystal clear vision of God’s faithfulness that will never pass. This can only be seen with the eyes of our heart wide-open to God’s word.

Work in Progress

In God’s word we read that we’re not what we ought to be. We’re sinners who fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). Time and again we fail to praise his wisdom, and we behave as ingrates grumbling about life that he is graciously sustaining.

We’re not what we might be, considering the abundant gifts he’s given us. And oh! How we’re not what we wish to be! We love God’s righteous law and we want to cherish Jesus above all else, yet the war in our flesh rages on, taking us captive to sin. Even in the midst of a picture-perfect home, our hearts can be in a wretched estate. Can a to-do list or a how-to book solve our most pervasive problem? Can we organize our way into peace with God?

Praise the Lord!

Through Christ’s reconciling work on the cross we’re no longer God’s enemies as we once were. As he gave his own body to pay for our sin, Jesus made his enemies his friends. Through faith in Jesus we can boldly lay claim to Christ our own, our crucified and resurrected Friend and King saying, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Rest in the Spin Cycle

This gospel-grounded vision of God’s faithfulness rests in the finished work of Christ on the cross, trusts him for today, and hopes fully on the grace to be revealed to us in the future. The chaos in our heart is no match for God’s mercy toward us in Christ Jesus. Our hearts are anchored fast to God’s faithfulness even in the spin cycle of our circumstances.

Life in our earthly home is but a breath, but God has put songs of praise in our hearts that will echo from now through eternity. Even after we’ve been living in our Father’s house for ten thousand years! There’s no better day to sing his praises than every mundane day from here to ever after.

Gloria’s new book — Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home — is now out! And by purchasing a copy of the book this week, you qualify for some freebies from the publisher (Crossway). Here are the details:

Purchase a copy of Glimpses of Grace from your favorite local or online retailer from June 3–7 and receive a free Glimpses of Grace ebook as well as one of Gloria’s favorite resources — the ESV Study Bible Online (ESVBible.org Web App & Ebook)!

To redeem your free extras, simply scan and email your receipt to glimpses@crossway.org before 11:59am on Friday, June 7. [Note: Any receipts that are not legible, not included, or believed to be fraudulent will be disqualified. Limited to one promotion per person.]

When the Not-Yet Married Meet: Dating to Display Jesus

Marshall Segal — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Dating is dead.

So says the media. Girls, stop expecting guys to make any formal attempt at winning your affections. Don’t sit around waiting for a boy to make you a priority, communicate his intentions, or even call you on the phone. Exclusivity and intentionality are ancient rituals, things of the past, and misplaced hopes.

I beg to differ. It’s not that this new line of thinking is necessarily untrue today, or that it’s not the current and corrupt trend of our culture. It’s wrong. One of our most precious pursuits, that of a life-long partner for all of life, is tragically being relegated to tweets, texts, and Facebook pokes, to ambiguous flirtation and fooling around. It’s wrong.

Dating That Preserves Marriage

There is a God. And this God created and rules his world, including men, women, the biological compulsions that bind them together, and the institution that declares their union and keeps it sacred and safe. Therefore, only he can prescribe the purpose, parameters, and means of our marriages.

If fullness of life could be found in sexual stimulation, or if it was just a matter of making babies, the “forget formality and just have sex” approach might temporarily satisfy cravings and cause enough conception. But God had much more in mind with romance than orgasms or even procreation, and so should we. So must we.

When people in the world are expecting less and less of each other in dating, God isn’t — so among the single we have to work harder in our not-yet married relationships to preserve what marriage ought to picture and provide.

Mom, Where Do Weddings Come From?

Nothing in my life and faith has been more confusing and spiritually hazardous than my pursuit of marriage. From far too young, I longed for the affection, safety, and intimacy I anticipated with a wife.

Sadly, my immature and unhealthy desires predictably did much more harm than good. I started dating too early. I stayed in relationships too long. I experimented too much with our hearts and allowed things to go too far. I said, “I love you,” too soon. And now my singleness is a regular reminder that I messed up, missed opportunities, or did it wrong.

Maybe dating has been hard for you, too, for these reasons or others. Maybe Mr. (or Mrs.) Right has started to look like Mr. (or Mrs.) Myth. Maybe you’ve wanted the relationship or liked the guy or girl, and you’ve never had the chance. Maybe all the suggestions and advice you’ve collected has become a confusing mess of good-intentioned contradictions and ambiguity. It’s enough to leave you like an 8-year-old, asking, “Mom, where do weddings come from?”

Expecting More from Marriage

The vision of marriage we see in God’s word –– the beautiful, radical display of God’s infinite, persevering love for sinners –– makes it worth it to date, and date well. The world’s approach can provide fun and sex and children and eventually even some level of commitment, but it cannot lead to the life-giving Jesus after whom our marriages are to take their cues.

Friends who enjoy sex with “no strings attached” will find pleasure, but not the peaks waiting on the other side of mutual promises. The happiness of marriage is not only or even mainly physical. With the sex, there ought to be a deep sense of safety, a sense of being loved and accepted for who you are, a desire to please without the need to impress. When God engineered the sexual bond between a man and a woman, he made something much more satisfying than the act itself.

Those who recklessly give themselves to a love-life of dating without really dating, of romantic rendezvouses without Christ and commitment, are settling. They’re settling for less than God intended and less than he made possible by sending his Son to rescue and repurpose our lives, including our love-lives, for something more. More happiness. More security. More purpose.

And the more is found in a mutual faith in and following of Jesus. With this “more,” we can say to the watching world, don’t settle for artificial and thin loyalty, affection, security, and sexual experimentation when God intends and promises so much more through a Christian union. And a Christian union can only be found through Christian dating.

If Christian dating, the intentional, selfless, and prayerful process of pursuing marriage, sounds like slavery, we don’t get it. If low-commitment sexual promiscuity sounds like freedom, we don’t get it. Jesus may ask more of us, but he does so to secure and increase our greatest and longest-lasting (sexual) happiness.

How Then Shall We Date?

For those whose roads are marked more by mistakes than selflessness, patience, and sound judgment, take hope in the God who truly and mysteriously blesses your broken road and redeems you from it, and who can begin in you a new, pure, wise, godly pursuit of marriage today.

Here are (some) principles for your not-yet marriages. It’s not nearly a comprehensive or exhaustive list. They’re simply lessons I’ve learned and hope can be a blessing for you, your boyfriend or girlfriend, and your future spouse.

1. It really is as simple as they say.

In a day when people are marrying later and later and more and more are resorting to online matchmaking, we probably need to be reminded that marriage really is less about compatibility than commitment. After all, there has never been a less compatible relationship than a holy God and his sinful bride, and that’s the mold we’re aiming for in our marriages.

There is a reason the Bible doesn’t have a book devoted to how to choose a spouse. It was not an oversight on the part of the God of all history, as if he couldn’t see into the 21st century. The qualifications are wonderfully clear and simple: 1) they must believe your God (2 Corinthians 6:14) and 2) they must be of the opposite sex (Genesis 2:23–24; Matthew 19:4–6; Ephesians 5:24–32).

Now undeniably there will be more involved in your discernment while dating. Apart from questions of attraction and chemistry, which are not insignificant, the Bible articulates some roles for wives and husbands. Men ought to protect and provide for their wife (Ephesians 5:25–29). Women ought to help and submit to their man (Genesis 2:18; Ephesians 5:22–24). Fathers ought to lead their families in God’s word (Ephesians 6:4). Parents must love and raise their children in the faith (Deuteronomy 6:7). So admittedly we are looking for more than an attractive person who “loves Jesus.”

That said, many of us need to be reminded that God’s perfect person for me isn’t all that perfect. Every person who marries is a sinner, so the search for a spouse isn’t a pursuit of perfection, but a mutually flawed pursuit of Jesus. It is a faith-filled attempt to become like him and make him known together. Regardless of the believer you marry, you will likely find out soon that you do not feel as “compatible” as you once did, but hopefully you will marvel more at God’s love for you in Jesus and the amazing privilege it is to live out that love together, especially in light of your differences.

2. Know what makes a marriage worth having.

In our worst moments, our objectives are small and misguided. We just don’t want to be alone on a Friday night anymore. We just want to post almost-candid, artistically-framed pictures with someone on a bridge somewhere. We want a guilt-free way to enjoy sex. We just want a guy or girl to tell us we’re handsome and funny and smart and good at our job, etc.

If marriage only offered us these things, though, it really wouldn’t be worth it. Many will try to deny that, but the divorce statistics are enough to establish that marriage asks more of you than most could have ever imagined on their wedding day. Most of my married friends would say that what seems fun and pretty and unbreakable at the altar did not feel as clean or easy even days into their lives together. It’s still intensely good and beautiful, but it’s costly, too costly for small aims.

Marriage is worth having because you get God in your lifelong commitment to one another. Marriage is about knowing God, worshiping God, depending on God, displaying God, being made like God. God made man and woman in his image and joined them together, giving them unique responsibilities to care for one another in their broken, but beautiful union.

What makes marriage worth having is that you, your spouse, and those around you see more of God and his love for us in Jesus. If you’re not experiencing that with your boyfriend, break up with him. If that’s not our priority, we need to get a new game plan and probably a new scorecard for our next significant other.

3. Look for clarity more than intimacy.

The greatest danger of dating is giving parts of our hearts and lives to someone to whom we’re not married. It is a significant risk, and many, many men and women have deep and lasting wounds from relationships because a couple enjoyed emotional or physical closeness without a lasting, durable commitment. Cheap intimacy feels real for the moment, but you get what you pay for.

While the great prize in marriage is Christ-centered intimacy, the great prize in dating is Christ-centered clarity. Intimacy is safest in the context of marriage, and marriage is safest in the context of clarity. The purpose of our dating is determining whether the two of us should get married, so we should focus our effort there.

In our pursuit of clarity, we will undoubtedly develop intimacy, but we ought not do so too quickly or too naively. Be intentional and outspoken to one another that, as Christians, intimacy before marriage is dangerous, while clarity is unbelievably precious.

4. Find a fiancé on the frontlines.

This is a throwback to a previous post. The idea is to look for love in the right places. Focus on the harvest, and you’re bound to find a helper. Instead of making it your mission to get married, make your mission God’s global cause and the advance of the gospel where you are, and look for someone pursuing the same. If you’re hoping to marry someone who passionately loves Jesus and makes him known, it’s probably best to put yourself in a community of people committed to that.

This does not mean that we should serve because we might find love. God is not ultimately honored with that kind of self-serving service. No, it simply means that if we’re looking for a particular kind of person, there are good, safe, identifiable places those kinds of people live and serve and worship together. Get involved in a community like that, serve each other, and look for God to open doors for dating.

5. Don’t let your mind marry him before the rest of you can.

While this may seem like it’s much more common among women, I’ve been single long enough around enough single guys to know it’s not exclusively a female problem. The trajectory of all truly Christian romance ought to be marriage, so it should not surprise us that our dreams and expectations, our hearts, race out ahead of everything else.

It simply isn’t that hard to imagine what your children would look like or where you would vacation together or how family holidays would work or what kind of house you might buy. And just like sex, all these things could be really good and safe and beautiful, but in the context of your covenant. Satan wants to subtly help you build marriage and family idols that are too fragile for your not-yet married relationship.

“He told me he loved me.” “She said she would never leave.” They’re the seemingly priceless sentences that don’t always cash. They’re often said with good intentions, but without the ring — and without a ring, the results can be devastating. Guard your heart and imagination from running out ahead of your current commitment.

6. Boundaries make for the best of friends.

The most oft-asked dating question among Christians might be, “How far is too far before marriage?” The fact that we keep asking that question suggests we all agree we need to draw some lines, and that the lines seem pretty blurry to most. If you’re pursuing marriage and it’s going well, you’re going to experience temptation, a lot of temptation.

Sexual sin may be the devil’s weapon of choice in corrupting Christian relationships. If you don’t acknowledge your enemy and engage him, you’ll find yourselves wondering how you lost so easily. Some of our best friends in the battle will be the boundaries we set to keep us pure.

While spontaneous plunges into intimacy look great in chick-flicks and feel great in the moment, they breed shame, regret, and distrust. Let’s try talking about touching before touching. Trade some titillation for trust, surprise for clarity and confidence. Make decisions prayerfully and intentionally before diving in.

Boundaries are necessary because on the road to marriage and its consummation, the appetite for intimacy only grows as you feed it. You are biologically built that way. Touching leads to more touching. Being alone together in certain situations will welcome fierce temptation. Even praying together or talking for hours upon hours on the phone can create unhealthy overdoses of intimacy with not-yet spouses.

If we’re honest, we much more often like to error by wading into love too far rather than waiting too long to take the next step. You will be hard-pressed, though, to find a couple regretting the boundaries they made in dating, while you will very easily find those that wish they would have made more. As followers of Christ, we really ought to be the most careful and vigilant.

Boundaries protect, and boundaries provide the trenches of trust-building. As we establish some mutual boundaries, small and large, and commit to keeping them together, we develop depths and patterns of trust that will serve our intimacy, covenant-keeping, and decision-making should God lead us to marry each other.

7. Consistently include your community.

Dating is a matter of doing your best to discern a person’s ability to fulfill God’s vision and purpose for marriage with you. While you might be the one with the final say, you might not be the best person to assess at every point. Just as in every other area of your Christian life, you need the body of Christ as you think about who to date, how to date, and when to wed.

While it’s rarely quick or convenient, gaining the perspective of people who know you, love you, and have great hope for your future will always pay dividends. It may lead to hard conversations or deep disagreement, but it will force you to deal with things you did not or could not have seen on your own. You’ll find safety with an abundance of counselors (Proverbs 11:14).

Invite other people to look into your relationship. Spend time together with other people, couples and singles, who are willing to point out the good, the bad, and the ugly.

8. Let all your dating be missionary dating.

No, I am not encouraging you to date not-yet believing men or women. When I say missionary dating, I mean dating that displays and promotes faith in Jesus and his good news, a dating that is in step with the gospel before the watching world. I want us to win disciples by dating radically, by confronting the world’s paradigms and pleasure-seeking with sacrifice, selflessness, and intentionality.

Men and women in the world want many of the same things you want: affection, commitment, conversation, stability, sex, etc. And eventually they will see that the ground under your lives and relationship is firmer than the flimsy flings they know. They’ll see something deeper, stronger, and more meaningful between you and your significant other.

Do the people in each of your lives know and love Jesus more because you’re together? Do they see God’s grace and truth working in you and your relationship as you walk through life together? Are the two of you thinking proactively about how to bless your friends and family and point them to Christ? More and more, as the world is watering down dating, your relationship can be a provocative picture of your fidelity to Christ and a call to follow him.

Pursuing Marriage the Right Way

Is this dating perfectly safe? No. Will it keep you from being hurt or disappointed? No. Will it guarantee you never go through another break up? No. But, by God’s grace, it may guard us from deeper heartache and more devastating failure. My prayer is that these principles would prepare you to love your spouse in a way that more beautifully and dramatically displays the truth and power of the gospel.

If you are like me, you may have blown it on multiple fronts already. Maybe you’re blowing it right now in a relationship. Be willing to make the hard decisions, large and small, to pursue marriage the right way today. Whether you’re ultimately married to one another or not (or married at all, for that matter), you will thank each other later.

When the Christian Life Becomes Impossible

Jonathan Parnell — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:04:00 -0500

“Christian Hedonism is a liberating and devastating doctrine,” John Piper writes.

It teaches that the value of God shines more brightly in the soul that finds deepest satisfaction in him. Therefore it is liberating because it endorses our inborn desire for joy. And it is devastating because it reveals that no one desires God with the passion he demands. Paradoxically, many people experience both of these truths. That certainly is my own experience.

So begins his book When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy. I’ve hardly read anything that resonates with my soul the way this book does. The command to enjoy God — as right and central as it is biblically — is beyond our ability to perform. Piper explains what that discovery is like: “The Christian life became impossible. That is, it became supernatural.”

We simply can’t flip a switch to make our hearts love God the way he deserves. Our only hope of delighting in God is God himself giving the help. Piper writes, “God would have to transform my heart to do what a heart cannot make itself do, namely, want what it ought to want. Only God can make the depraved heart desire God.”

Amen, but what about us? Can we do anything? Relying completely on God’s grace, what are the means of grace and patterns of thinking to which we should avail ourselves in faith? That is what When I Don’t Desire God is about — how to fight for joy.

So we’re excited to say that you can now watch John Piper teach through the entire content online.

In 2005, Pastor John led a regional conference on this theme which was turned into a DVD product. Desiring God recently acquired the footage from that resource and has now transferred it completely to our site for free streaming and audio or video download.

Now keep in mind that the video is a bit of a throwback. Eight-years-old in web-years feels like fanny packs and Zubaz pants (when they were cool the first time). But the teaching is worth its weight in gold and hasn’t aged a day.

When I Don’t Desire God (Part 1)

When I Don’t Desire God (Part 2)

When I Don’t Desire God (Part 3)

When I Don’t Desire God (Part 4)

When I Don’t Desire God (Part 5)

When I Don’t Desire God (Part 6)

Singing to Silence the Enemy

John Knight — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 10:30:00 -0500

Two weeks ago I took an oath, “so help me God,” in a courtroom where two lawyers asked me questions about my son with multiple disabilities. At the conclusion of their questions, the judge determined that my son did not have the capacity to take care of himself as an adult and that my wife and I would be named his legal guardians, making all decisions about his life and finances for him.

It took about ten minutes. The severity of his life-long disabilities made the decision easy for everyone.

It is also a sign of how weak and vulnerable he is.

To those who identify a person’s value in terms of strength, independence, productivity and creativity, my son has no reason to exist. There are some who would even deny he is a person. That worldview is dangerous for young men like my son, and for all of us.

Trusting God’s Assessment

And while that is dangerous, it is an equally unhelpful response when we are overly sentimental about those God has created with disabilities, especially those with limited cognitive abilities. Sweet, loving, gentle, funny, innocent, precious, dear — all are descriptors I have heard for my almost-adult son. Yes, my son is sweet (most of the time) and loving (except when he isn’t) and innocent.

But if that becomes the entire measure of his value, we risk denying that there is more that God may have for him, and for children and adults like him, to bring glory to God and help to Christ’s church.

We also lose an opportunity to show the world that we trust God’s word more than we trust our own assessment of who can do the good works described in Ephesians 2:10.

In fact, God describes the so-called weaker member as being his choice in bringing him glory:

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:27–29)

Three times Paul tells us that God chooses those we would not naturally choose. Let us pay attention as it has profound implications for how we think about cognitive disabilities.

Out of the Mouth of My Son

For example, my son operates at the intellectual level of about an 18-month-old child, depending on the tests. He is also very short in stature.

He has been known to sing praises to God at the oddest of moments — during school therapy sessions, in the grocery store, or at a restaurant. People, thinking he is much younger than he is, will sometimes say, “out of the mouth of babes you have prepared praise.” They are quoting Jesus from Matthew 21.

But what many people don’t realize is that Jesus is referencing Psalm 8:2:

Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. (Psalm 8:2)

So if this is the case, and I believe it is, my weak and disabled son — with all his limitations — is part of God’s plan to still the enemy and the avenger. And that makes him an effective warrior against a vile and spiritually violent enemy, equipped by God to do what those who are strong and proud cannot do, no matter their physical or intellectual giftings.

Matthew Henry helpfully shows why God would use the weaker members to bring him glory:

The devil is the great enemy and avenger, and by the preaching of the gospel he was in a great measure stilled, his oracles were silenced, the advocates of his cause were confounded, and unclean spirits themselves were not suffered to speak.

In singing this let us give God the glory of his great name, and of the great things he has done by the power of his gospel, in the chariot of which the exalted Redeemer rides forth conquering and to conquer, and ought to be attended, not only with our praises, but with our best wishes. Praise is perfected (that is, God is in the highest degree glorified) when strength is ordained out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. (emphasis added)

When He Sings

My son will be an adult in a few weeks, and he will never develop adult-like capacities. But he has been graced with both innocence and confidence. When he sings, he sings without fear or any thought of what others might think. He proclaims, frequently, who God is.

Can you imagine what that does to the evil one when my boy, and all the others like my son, sing? How many unclean spirits have our brothers and sisters with significant cognitive disabilities silenced by their praises? How often have we been spiritually protected through those in our care?

Parents of children like mine, I know it seems easier to stay home than to go to church. The social and cultural and even spiritual barriers to anything good happening for your child can seem so high and the benefit can feel so small. But our churches need these God-equipped soldiers, especially in these days of such rapid cultural change away from our historic Christian understanding on so many issues.

Church, I know families like ours are complicated and you don’t know what to do. The investment can feel so large and the return can seem so small. Do not look simply with your physical eyes to what they can and cannot do. Ask God to give you spiritual eyes to see the potential in and the worth of those he has called indispensable (1 Corinthians 12:22).

Two weeks ago a court rightfully determined my son cannot live independently. Unfortunately, that is all that the world sees. He is so much more than that. Let us see accurately and stand in awe of a God who, because he is both good and strong, graces the world with boys and girls like mine, for his glory and for our everlasting joy.

Recent posts from John Knight:

Beyond the Rhetoric: Gosnell and the Late-Term Reality

A Child Is Not Chattel

The Light Does Shine in the Darkness

Live Bold

Jonathan Parnell — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

To live Christianly in a culture of confusion is to live boldly.

There is some explaining to do here. On one hand, the above sentence is simple and agreeable at face-value. On the other hand, there’s a sense in which it will resonate with certain personalities while alienating others. Does our culture really need Christians to live bold? What does that even mean?

The answer hangs on our understanding of “bold.” And if we’d learn from the Book of Acts, the answer is yes — the call of Christian living is to live bold the way Luke shows us. It’s not so much because our culture needs it, but because “boldness” is an identity-shaping element of the church.

How’d They Do That?

It started when Peter and John said some annoying things in the Jerusalem of AD 30.

After Peter’s sermon in Acts 3, after healing a man at the temple, Luke tells us that the Jewish leaders were fed up with Peter and John “because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 4:2). The leaders didn’t like this for more than one reason. In one case, the Sadducees (who were part of the leadership) disputed the resurrection in general. But at the same time, and more significantly, the issue is what the “resurrection of the dead” signified for the history of the world. This was the real deal. This was what really disturbed the leaders, Sadducees and Pharisees alike. In essence, when Peter and John proclaimed “in Jesus the resurrection of the dead,” they were saying that the end-time blessings of the resurrection age had intruded the present age for the sake of everyone who believed in Jesus (Alan Thompson, The Acts of the Risen Lord Jesus, 79–81).

This is important to wrap our heads around. These end-time blessings of the resurrection age were the hope of Israel, as Paul calls them in Acts 28:20. These Jewish leaders knew all about them — about the pouring out of the Spirit and the triumph of God’s salvation and the defeat of his enemies. They had read Joel 2:28–32 and Isaiah 12:3–6 and Jeremiah 51:24. They understood what the resurrection age meant. And now these fishermen-turned-preachers were walking around “their” temple saying that this age had arrived in Jesus, the guy they killed. Peter and John were telling the Jewish people that Jesus had launched a new and long-awaited epoch in the history of humanity. This didn’t sit too well with “the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees” in Acts 4:1, nor with the whole Sanhedrin gathered in Acts 4:5–6.

But it gets worse.

Peter and John were arrested and escorted to stand trial before the same court that condemned Jesus. These were the “rulers and elders and scribes,” or we might say, the professionals of Old Testament interpretation in that day. So they asked Peter and John how they did what they did (Acts 4:7). How did Peter heal the man at the temple? Where did they get this teaching on the arrival of the resurrection age?

Astonishing Boldness

The profound answer to their questions is Jesus, which is precisely what Peter says. “Hear me loud and clear,” he explains, “Jesus is behind this work.” He speaks with meticulous care, Galilean accent and all, as he continues, “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11–12).

The response of the leaders reveals something crucial. Luke tells us that they took note of Peter and John’s “boldness” (Acts 4:13). The leaders saw their “boldness” and “perceived that they were uneducated, common men.” That last bit means that Peter and John weren’t trained in the rabbinical schools of their scribal accusers (David Peterson, Acts of the Apostles, 194). Peter and John were not skilled interpreters of Scripture. They didn’t travel down the long educational path to be groomed for Jewish leadership, and yet they had this “boldness.” How could they be both unschooled and so bold? This was absolutely astonishing to the leaders.

But why was it astonishing? It has everything to do with what “boldness” means. It’s more than a general confidence. It doesn’t mean zeal enough to holler. Peter and John’s “boldness” was in what they said about Jesus. Or more specifically, their boldness was in how they were so outspoken about the identity of Jesus in their use of the Old Testament. That is what is happening in Acts 4:11. Peter quotes Psalm 118:22 to tell the Jewish leaders about the world-transforming significance of Jesus. He says that Jesus is the “stone” rejected by the leaders who has now become the “cornerstone.” Indeed, a new day had dawned — a day that the Lᴏʀᴅ had made (Psalm 118:24) — all because of this Jesus who was crucified, dead, buried, who is now raised and ascended.

And this blew the minds of the Jewish leaders. How in the world do these untrained fisherman know how to read the Scriptures like this? How can they be so frank and open about who this Jesus is? So the Jewish leaders were astonished. Astonished, that is, until they recognized that Peter and John had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).

Because Jesus Taught Them

So that explains it. Jesus had taught them how to read the Bible. Peter and John had been around Jesus, who, as we saw in Luke 24, said the whole thing was about him (Luke 24:44–48). Boldness, then, at least in this instance, is not red-faced passion or impenetrable extroversion. Rather, it has to do with speaking — which is not so much about how we speak, but in what we say about Jesus, even when we presume our hearers won’t be happy with it.

That’s how Peter and John disturbed the peace in Acts 4. Now, as modern readers, we could simply observe what’s happening here and move on. But I think there’s more.

Later in Acts 4, after Peter and John are released from Jewish custody, they gather with their friends for a prayer meeting (Acts 4:23). Luke actually gives us the insider glimpse of what they pray. It is more Old Testament interpretation centered on Jesus (Acts 4:24–27). And then, well, we see “boldness” again. These believers ask the Father “to grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29). Then Luke shows us that God answers their prayer: “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). Notice again that boldness has to do with speaking, and this time the whole church is getting in on it.

The Greek word behind “boldness” (parresia) shows up throughout the New Testament. It’s range of meaning includes courage or fearlessness, which is in mind in places like Hebrews 4:16. It also can mean outspokenness or frankness — “a use of speech that conceals nothing.” And interestingly, right along with the several verb-uses, each of the five occurrences of parresia in Acts is connected to speaking (Acts 2:29; 4:13, 29, 31; 28:31). F. F. Bruce actually translates it “freedom of speech” in Acts 4:13 (The Book of Acts, 94–95). The two uses outside of chapter 4 are in Peter’s first sermon when he explains that Psalm 16 is about Jesus (Acts 2:29–30); and then in the very last verse of the Book of Acts that describes Paul’s ministry: “[He] welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:30–31). So the two bookends to apostolic proclamation in Acts include “boldness,” which, if I might be so bold, means to be outspoken about the identity and significance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is the “boldness” to which we’re called.

Christian in a Confusing Culture

Luke, the theologian-historian, is writing for us. He intends to answer big questions in the minds of his Christian audience, in part to assure us of the “continued outworking of God’s saving purposes” (Thompson, 19); and to form a “coherent theological perspective” that tells us who we are (Thiselton, “Hermeneutical Dynamics,” 13). While the book is historical, and therefore, mainly descriptive, it can take on a prescriptive function when Luke emphasizes things through repetition or key placements throughout the storyline — which is the case in how the apostles spoke so openly about Jesus.

Luke wants the church-for-all-time to imbibe this kind of boldness — to know Jesus and what his gospel work means for the world. To know Jesus and speak clearly about who he is. This is being Christian in a confusing culture. This is how we’re called to live.

More posts from Jonathan Parnell:

Let Us Read, As in Read

Hedonism to the Extreme: Lamborghini and Our Souls

Where Is Jesus?

When Two So-Called “Married” Women (or Men) Repent

John Piper — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:25:00 -0500

One of the sweet advantages of insisting that there is no such thing as same-sex “marriage” is that there is therefore also no such thing as same-sex “divorce.” In the days ahead, this will be very good news for many who repent.

In the years to come, God will be merciful on thousands of those who have been damaged by the present moral madness of our culture. He will exalt Christ in the conversion of many who have lived in same-sex relationships. More complexities than we can imagine will be presented to us in the church.

One of the more difficult scenarios will be what the church should do when, say, two women, who have lived in a so-called married state for some years, are converted to Christ, repent of their sin, and want to join the church. And what if they have children?

In this uncharted territory, here is a map with some of the biblical guideposts I foresee. It is not exhaustive. I invite every pastor to pray that God would grant him the great privilege of leading new believers through this process.

1. Rejoice. We should join all heaven in the joy that our Father and the angels feel over this repentance.

“There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7)

2. Pray. This is going to be complex and difficult. We need humble wisdom beyond the merely human.

The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. (James 3:17)

3. Listen. We must not assume we know all we need to know about the situation. Disentangling the relational threads (both sinful and natural) will require significant knowledge of the situation present and past.

If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. (Proverbs 18:13)

“Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” (John 7:51)

4. Instruct. Based on what we have learned from listening, we will share what the Bible says first about the gospel, and second about the sin of sexual relations outside biblical marriage.

Christ died for our sins. (1 Corinthians 15:3)

All sins will be forgiven the children of man. (Mark 3:28)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. (1 John 1:9)

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Put off your old self [and] be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and . . . put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22–24)

Flee from sexual immorality. (1 Corinthians 6:18)

5. Clarify that same-sex attraction is a brokenness that is part of humanity’s fallen condition, along with other emotional/psychological/physical desires, dispositions, and infirmities. Explain that willful expressions of this brokenness through prohibited behaviors is what the Bible has in mind when it says,

Neither those who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy . . . will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:10)

6. Help them see, therefore, that what the state has called a “marriage” between them is not marriage. There is no such thing as “same-sex marriage” in God’s eyes. Therefore, they are not married in the sight of God, regardless of how the state defines their relationship. Do not embrace the state’s prostitution of language by calling the former state “marriage” or the ending of it “divorce.”

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)

“From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife.” (Mark 10:6–7)

7. Make plain that, therefore, since there is no such thing as “same-sex marriage,” there is no such thing as “same-sex divorce” in the sight of God. The biblical condemnations of divorce do not apply to non-existent “marriages.” What God has not joined together, man cannot separate.

“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.” (Luke 16:18)

“What God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Mark 10:9)

8. Patiently help them think and pray through the many painful and complex issues involved in ending this romantic, sexual relationship.

Encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. (1 Thessalonians 5:14)

Love is patient and kind. (1 Corinthians 13:4)

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. (Colossians 3:16)

9. Be ready to surround them with loving and generous brothers and sisters who can help provide for all the practical necessities that will be involved: from housing to childcare to counseling to legal assistance to transportation to financial counsel. Fold them into a nurturing web of new caring relationships.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. (Romans 12:13)

If one of you says to a brother or a sister, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? (James 2:16)

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:18)

There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands (Mark 10:29–30)

10. Assist them in the legal processes and expenses of undoing what the state called “marriage.” That the state will call this process “divorce” is not decisive in what it really is: the removal of a sinful fiction.

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21)

Let us decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. (Romans 14:13)

11. Help them see that in all likelihood an ongoing cohabitation without romantic or sexual involvement will be unrealistic relationally, and misleading as a witness to the world. A new way of living in community will be needed. And perhaps, painful as it may be, some distance between them may be necessary for a significant season.

Abstain from every form (or appearance) of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:22)

“Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16)

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. (Psalm 32:8)

12. Help them pray and think through what may be the most painful issue of all, the custody of the children. If the children are old enough to have some sense of what is happening, provide the most sensitive counsel and instruction so that they can understand that God is doing something really good, even if at the time it may feel painfully disruptive. Pray that God would create in all the adults involved a heart of sacrifice and love that puts the good of the children above immediate desires. And hold out the possibility with pressure that God is able to work the wonder of providing a father for these children.

Children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. (2 Corinthians 12:14)

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction. (James 1:27)

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. . . . Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:1–4)

“With God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

13. Don’t leave these women and children on their own once a new life has been established. There will be many ongoing temptations and challenges for years to come. Seek to fold them into gospel-rich churches with seriously supportive relationships.

If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Corinthians 12:26–27)

We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. . . . Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. (Romans 12:4–10)

This post was inspired by Sunday night’s panel discussion at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis on the implications of Minnesota’s recent legalizing of so-called same-sex marriage. Available now are both audio and video.

More from John Piper on homosexuality:

“Let Marriage Be Held in Honor”: Thinking Biblically About So-Called Same-Sex Marriage (sermon)

Discerning the Will of God Concerning Homosexuality and Marriage (sermon)

“My Eyes Shed Streams of Tears”: Thoughts on the New Calamity (article)

Gospel Peace in a Cluttered House

Tony Reinke — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 10:30:00 -0500

Frequent DG blog contributor Gloria Furman has a new book.

Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home, is a book showcasing Gloria’s skill in applying the gospel to the everyday life of a wife and mother. Here’s one short excerpt, to illustrate my point.

For me, as I go about my day in my home, I can see how attempting minimalism and simplicity seems like the solution to my discontent. When I glance into my children’s room after I’ve asked them to clean up, and I see piles of books strewn all over the place, the play jewelry has been dumped onto someone’s bed, and tiny chunks of crusted Play-Doh litter the floor, I feel a tremendous lack of peace.

The clutter bothers me, so I start lobbing vain threats into the atmosphere: “If these toys don’t get put away properly I’ll assume you don’t want them anymore, and I’ll throw them into the garbage.” I might make a mental note of the things I need to organize better. If only I had that particular closet available or a more efficient system for storing toys, school supplies, clothes, whatever — then I’d be happy.

I think that if I don’t see any chaos, then that assumes the presence of peace. That’s the deluding lie. I humbly submit to you, if your heart is anything like mine, it doesn’t matter how well you’ve organized your storage closet, your kids’ toys, or your in-box if there is discontent bound up in your heart.

This natural impulse we all feel to quell inner chaos through outer order is one reason I wanted to put Gloria on the line to talk about her new book.

To listen to our 17-minute conversation, subscribe to the Authors on the Line podcast in iTunes here. Download the mp3 here (11.4 MB). Or listen from the resource page through the following link:

Gospel Peace in a Cluttered House: An Interview with Gloria Furman (17 Minutes)

By purchasing a copy of Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home this week you qualify for some freebies from the publisher (Crossway). Here are the details:

Purchase a copy of Glimpses of Grace from your favorite local or online retailer from June 3–7 and receive a free Glimpses of Grace ebook as well as one of Gloria’s favorite resources — the ESV Study Bible Online (ESVBible.org Web App & Ebook)!

To redeem your free extras, simply scan and email your receipt to glimpses@crossway.org before 11:59am on Friday, June 7. [Note: Any receipts that are not legible, not included, or believed to be fraudulent will be disqualified. Limited to one promotion per person.]

Previous Authors on the Line podcasts —

Spurgeon’s First Five Years in Ministry: An Interview with Tom Nettles and Christian George

The Bible as One Story: An Interview with Tom Schreiner

Why the Ascension of Jesus Matters: An Interview with Gerrit Scott Dawson and Jonny Woodrow

Meaning and Metaphor: An Interview with Doug Wilson

The Role of the Psalms in the Life of the Church: An Interview with Gordon Wenham

Young, Restless, and Reformed Five Years Later: An Interview with Collin Hansen

Getting Real with Personal Sin: An Interview with Matt Chandler

Hospitality on Mission: An Interview with Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

From Radical Lesbian to Redeemed Christian: An Autobiographical Interview with Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

Enjoying God’s Beatific Beauty: An Interview with Kyle Strobel

Marriage on the Cosmic Stage: An Interview with G. K. Beale

The Cross-Centered Christmas: An Interview with Ann Voskamp

Eyes Wide Open to God’s Created Beauty: An Interview with Steve DeWitt

Christmas and the Sting of Personal Loss: An Interview with John Piper and Paul Maier

The Trinitarian Shape of Jonathan Edwards' Theology: An Interview with Michael McClymond

Union with Christ in Paul’s Theology: An Interview with Constantine Campbell

God’s Work and Ours: An Interview with Timothy Keller

Christians Leading in the Secular World: An Interview with Dr. Albert Mohler

Same-Sex Temptations in the Church: An Interview with Robert Gagnon

The Church in a Homosexual Culture: An Interview with Robert Gagnon

Delighting in the Trinity: An Interview with Michael Reeves

Charity and Its Fruits: An Interview with Kyle Strobel

Learning from an Insane Prayer Life

Tony Merida — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Two things have me thinking about my personal prayer life: “Insanity” and Elijah.

I just finished my seventh week of the max interval workout called “Insanity.” Every morning around 5:45, I head to my garage, roll out my mat, turn on my computer, and proceed to “dig deeper.”

My pastor friend Greg finished the program before I did, and sent me an email to instruct and inspire me, both physically and spiritually. He challenged me with this honest admission: “I wish I could pray 45 minutes a day for nine weeks straight. I’m working on that.”

Me too.

While Shaun T has been teaching me about switch kicks and plank punches, Elijah has been teaching me about faith and prayer. We’re currently studying 1 Kings at the church I pastor, and we are now looking at the prayer warrior Elijah.

Like Us and Not

Elijah’s life is dazzling. Ravens bring him food; God uses a widow to provide daily bread for him in Baal’s territory; Elijah prays and God raises the widow’s son from the dead. Elijah wins the showdown against the prophets of Baal at Carmel; he called down fire from heaven; and he struck down 450 false prophets. Plus, he was an athlete! He ran seventeen miles from Carmel down to Jezreel, outrunning horses and chariots.

Elijah was like Moses whom he later appeared with at the Transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1–7). Like Moses, Elijah went eastward for a season, after an initial confrontation. Like Moses, he lived on God’s abundant provision of bread, meat, and water (Exodus 16). Elijah was also like John the Baptist, whom he is associated with in the New Testament (Malachi 4:5; Luke 1:17). Elijah is a mega prophet, whose coming was to pave the way for the Messianic Age. In many ways, he is not like us.

Yet, in the New Testament James makes an extraordinary statement when he says that Elijah was a “man like us.” Us? Yes. While Elijah does hold a unique place in redemptive history, James focuses on the fact that every believer can have an effective prayer life like Elijah.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on earth. (James 5:16b–17)

The language James uses is the language Paul and Barnabas used in Lystra, when the people wanted to worship them as gods (Acts 14:15). “We also are men, of like nature with you.”

So Elijah is like us, and we should seek to be like him.

Elijah grew up in obscurity (like many of us). Yet, God chose him out of obscurity in order to confront apostasy publically.

Additionally, while I’m not a fan of the “Days of Elijah” song, I do think our days are a lot like his days. He lived in a day, like us, where people call evil “good” and good “evil.” Such evil is undergirded by twisted theology. Those under Ahab’s reign wanted a little bit of everything — a little goddess worship, a little Baal worship, a little Yahweh worship, and throw in some male cult prostitution. Exclusive worship of God was absent in most places. We live in a similar time, in which people worship a little bit of everything, but not the living God exclusively — a little God, a little horoscope, a little TBN, a little pop psychology, a few conspiracy theories, aliens, New Age, naturalism, and more.

The Drought Prayer

The context James describes is found in 1 Kings 17–18. Appearing out of nowhere, Elijah speaks to King Ahab boldly: “As the Lᴏʀᴅ, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

God proclaims his message through this hillbilly from Tishbe. Draught was coming because of the people’s idolatry.

Although the text in 1 Kings 17 never says Elijah prayed for a draught, we do find Elijah pictured in prayer in 1 Kings 18:42 for the draught to end. Other examples of his insane prayer life exist in the Kings narrative (including a prayer in the same chapter for God to raise a boy from the dead), but James focuses on the famine. Even though we don’t read of him praying, Douglas Moo is surely right in saying, “It is a legitimate inference to think that he prayed for its onset as well.”

I think the prayers of Eljiah preceded his proclamation to Ahab. Elijah had been before God in the prayer closet, prior to being before Ahab in the palace. Because he knew of the real King, before whom he stood, he did not fear standing before this mere mortal.

What do we learn from Elijah’s prayer for this draught? Surely, there are many lessons about faithfulness, persistency, and passion, but I want to underline one very important lesson. Elijah teaches us here to pray according to God’s word.

Elijah is simply claiming the promise of God’s word. Why a draught? It was because this came directly from Scripture.

Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the Lᴏʀᴅ will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land the Lᴏʀᴅ is giving you. (Deuteronomy 11:16–17)

Eljiah knew his Bible. He knew that the punishment for idolatry was famine. He could pray for a famine, and proclaim the certainty of the famine because God said it. Eljiah’s prayers were not rooted in his own imagination. He wasn’t asking God to perform neat tricks. He was boldly asking God to act on his own word.

Our Great Source of Hope

Therefore, Elijah is a model for us. We live in an evil day; we worship the Living God; and we can pray according to God’s word. Read, pray. Read, pray. Fill your prayers with the word of God, and cry out to the Father to act for the good of others and the glory of his name.

Elijah is like Moses. He is like John the Baptist. He is like us.

And . . . he is like Jesus.

Someone else knew what it was like to live on every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4); who was called out of obscurity to confront unbelief (John 1:46); who cared for the widow (Luke 7:11–17); who raised the dead (John 11:25); whose prayers were effectual (John 17); who also fasted forty days and forty nights.

Some thought Jesus was Elijah (Matthew 16), and one can see why. Elijah was an end-time figure, and a miracle-working prophet. Jesus was too, but he was more than that.

Jesus, unlike Elijah, never sinned. Jesus lived and died, finishing his course, taking judgment upon himself instead of pouring it out on those that deserved it. He was raised from the dead, and is now interceding for us (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25). Yes, Elijah prayed. Yes, we should have an “insane” prayer life like Elijah. But what saves us is Jesus’s insane work, and what sustains us now is his insane prayer life.

May the life of Elijah inspire us to pray biblically and faithfully, and may his life point us to our great source of hope: the true and better prophet, the ultimate mediator; the King of Kings, Jesus.

Ask Pastor John — Now for Android

Tyler Kenney — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 10:30:00 -0500

Update: Ask Pastor John is now available for Kindle Fire (and other Android devices) in the Amazon Appstore.

What’s the Christian way to think about marijuana, cussing, interracial marriage, the historical Adam, and homosexuality?

Listen to John Piper answer these and other tough pastoral and theological questions using the new Ask Pastor John app for Android. Similar to the iPhone app we released in March, this new app streams the latest episodes of the Ask Pastor John podcast straight to your Android mobile device. It even has the option for you to submit your own questions for Pastor John to answer.

A new episode of Ask Pastor John is released each weekday at 10AM Central and is typically about 5 minutes. The app showcases the seven most recent episodes (15 for tablets) and includes a link to view the podcast page on SoundCloud, where you can access the full, ever-growing library of episodes (over a hundred already). It also includes the option to share episodes via multiple channels.

We remain grateful to John Piper for the extra time and thought he gives to answering these questions each week, and to Tony Reinke, who continues to skillfully prepare and host each episode.

How Jack Miller Saved My Life

R W Glenn — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

If you’re truly a Christian, God has no reservations about you whatsoever. None. Whatsoever.

This is a truth I learned — or rather, began to learn — from Jack Miller.

It happened in the fall of 2010, during my first sabbatical after 15 years in the pastorate. The wheels had really begun to come off my life and ministry. I had worked eighty-hour weeks for more than a decade. And the cumulative impact of such a schedule had finally begun to take its toll.

But more than that, a long-held belief that I had carried with me had made such headway in my life that it, perhaps more than anything, was the deeper impetus for my sabbatical.

Black Cloud Looming

More and more I was becoming convinced that there was a black cloud of inevitability looming over my head, that I would commit a ministry-ending sin, that it was my destiny, that it was inevitable.

Before the sabbatical, I shared these feelings with two other pastors at our church. In response, one asked, “Why do you think that to this point in your ministry you have not committed a ministry-ending sin?” And without a beat, I said, “Because God loves his people.” He said, “What about you? Doesn’t God love you, too?” My response? “Well, sure, yeah . . . of course he does.”

Questioning at the Crux

Only in retrospect did I understand what was going on. There was a fundamental questioning of God’s love for me at a very practical point in my life. And it seemed so ironic.

I like to think of myself as the harbinger of grace, the pastor that relentlessly preaches the love of God to people — but in a critical way, I had never preached it to myself. I had begun to see in myself what is common for many Christians: so few of us really grasp, really apprehend, especially at the most critical and practical junctures of our lives, God’s love for us in the gospel.

Enter Jack Miller.

He planted churches, founded World Harvest Mission, taught practical theology at Westminster in Philadelphia, and eventually wrote books. Being a Westminster grad, he already had legendary status in my mind. My real acquaintance with him came through reading The Heart of a Servant Leader, a book that has massively impacted my understanding of the Christian ministry. After devouring it, I was on the hunt to find and consume as much of his work as possible.

So in addition to his books, I started hunting for sermons. At the Redeemer Presbyterian Church website, I came across a message that he preached there about five years before he died (1996) called, “Covered by Jesus’ Blood.” That sermon became the anthem of my sabbatical. I listened to it over and over and over again and wept every time.

And the reason is that God used it to convince me not only that he loves his people, but that he loves me!

The Friend with No Reservations

In the message, Miller argues from 1 John 4:10 that by the sacrifice of Jesus, God the Father “was permanently constituted, not only your forgiving God, but your friend. And he has no reservations about you whatsoever!” He goes on,

God has loved me so much that he covered me over completely with the righteousness and blood of his Son. And there’s no more feeling on his part of any kind of having any anger or disapproval with me and no matter what may come out of my past, out of my memories of what anyone may have said against me, good, bad, or indifferent, whatever it may have been, I live before God, and have a freedom from God and that freedom is powerful.

I am a son of God, or you are a daughter of God, through propitiation . . . and that is unshakeable. It will never be repealed. It is a complete forgiveness.

But more than a complete forgiveness, it is a total reconciliation with God. And it means that he is your friend forever!

Jack Miller saved my life. Not because he was a savior, but because he pointed me to the only one who is. Now I am convinced more than ever that God doesn’t just love the people of my church. He loves me.

Moving Evangelicals Beyond Idolatry

R. C. Sproul — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The central theme of Romans 1 concerns the general revelation that God makes of himself to the whole world. Paul labors the fact that the revelation of the gospel is to a world that is already under indictment for its universal rejection of God the Father. Christ came into a world that was populated by sinners. The most basic sin found in the world is that of idolatry.

Man is a fabricum idolarum. So wrote John Calvin in an attempt to capture the essence of human fallenness. In Germany, a fabrik is a factory. It is a place where products are mass-produced. Calvin’s phrase simply means “maker of idols.”

In cultured civilizations, we tend to assume that idolatry is not a problem. We may complain about the use of statues and focus on certain ecclesiastical settings but where they are absent, we feel relieved from concern about primitive forms of idolatry. In a broader sense, however, any distortion from the true character of God is an act of idolatry. Our theology itself may easily become idolatrous. If our concept of God is incorrect at any point, that point of error is itself an element of idolatry.

The Sin of Theological Error

To commit theological error is to commit sin. We excuse ourselves lightly by appealing to the weakness of the intellect and the difficulty of the subject matter. We pride ourselves in being noble seekers after truth and dismiss our errors as mere “mistakes” along the way. Mistakes are something children make when they err in the sum of 3 + 5. We do not think of such mistakes in moral terms.

God commands us to love him with all of our minds. He calls us to diligent discipleship. We are called to meditate on his word day and night. Our errors in theology are rooted in our pride and our slothfulness. We are satisfied with sloppy views of God. We are comfortable with idols. It is our fallen nature to prefer the idols to the real God. Idols are lifeless and worthless. But they are also harmless. That is why we are comfortable with them. We make our own idols. What we make, we own; and what we own, we can control. We did not make God. We cannot control him. That makes us uncomfortable.

Special Judgment for Teachers

Let me be candid, revealing my innermost thoughts about the problem of idolatry. I am a student of theology. I am also a professor of theology who has taught the doctrine of God in theological seminaries. That is supposed to mean that I know something about the subject. Like most students, however, I realize that the more I learn about God, the more aware I become of what I don’t know about him. I realize that I should know a lot more than I do know about God.

I also know that as a teacher, I am supposed to know more about God than the average Christian. That terrifies me. The Bible warns that not many are to become teachers because there is a special judgment in store for teachers. If I am guilty of leading the little ones astray, that makes me a candidate for a millstone around my neck.

A Major Problem Among Evangelicals

I like to think that my theological errors are mere “mistakes.” The truth is, however, I err because I have not done my homework. I have not applied my mind fully to the love of God. So my own failures in theology haunt me.

There is still another matter that deeply concerns me. I see a problem with idolatry in the evangelical world. There is much that is orthodox within current evangelicalism. Sadly, there is also much that is not orthodox. I see the problem of idolatry, not as a slight deviation here and there, but as a major problem. Idolatrous views of God are rampant within current evangelicalism. I find a God who is not immutable, who is not infinite, who is not holy, and who is not sovereign. Such a god is simply not God. It is an idol.

The Roots of Idolatry

In Romans 1, the apostle Paul traces the root of idolatry. He writes,

… although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him … (verse 21)

The problem with idolatry is not a matter of ignorance. It is a problem of human attitudes toward God. The primary posture of fallen man is one of refusing to honor God.

Somehow it seems that to honor God means to sacrifice the honor of ourselves. I do not want God to get the credit for my achievements. This is our most basic sin, our pride that squeezes out any room for the proper honoring of God. The sin of ingratitude is linked to the sin of dishonoring God. Obviously, if we had a proper sense of gratitude to God for all the benefits he has bestowed upon us we would have an intense desire to honor him. Our hearts would be aflame with adoration.

Defining Idolatry

The apostle goes beyond describing the roots of idolatry to providing a solid definition of the nature of idolatry. He writes,

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (verse 25)

Idols are not made from scratch. It involves the distortion of already present truth. The truth is changed into a lie. The lie depends upon the truth it is distorting for its power, just as the counterfeit depends upon the authentic for its value. Our idols of God contain truths within them, making them all the more seductive to us. To be sure, God is love. To reduce God to love, however, is to change the truth into a lie.

If evangelical Christianity is to move beyond idolatry, we must do serious study of the character of God. We, of all people, carry that responsibility. That the “liberal” distorts the character of God is no surprise. That ardent evangelicals do it should shock us awake from dogmatic slumbers.

This article is © Tabletalk Magazine, and was originally published as “Man — The Maker of Idols” in the March 1989 issue, pages 20–21. Until now, it has never appeared online.

For more information about Tabletalk visit: www.ligonier.org/tabletalk; email: tabletalk@ligonier.org; or call toll free: 1–800–435–4343.

On Cussing and Interracial Marriage (Ask Pastor John)

Tony Reinke — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Over the past two weeks we released nine new Ask Pastor John episodes, including milestone episode number 100. We also released two episodes which quickly generated over 25,000 plays (each) in the last week: an episode on cussing (97), and an episode on whether a white woman can marry a black man (98). Those two new episodes quickly became the most played of all the other 102 tracks we've released to date.

What follows are brief excerpts from each of the new episodes (click the hyperlinked titles to listen).

On Cussing (Episode 97):

Paul says, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:4). At the end of that verse it says, “but instead let there be thanksgiving,” which I think means this: if your heart is right and brimming with gratitude to God in all things, that will be a monitor on the kind of crudeness that comes out of your mouth. People that tend to use a lot of four-letter words, scatological talk, a lot of harsh, crude, rough, crass talk, are generally sounding pretty angry. They are not content, not thankful, not happy in Jesus.

Can a White Woman Marry a Black Man? (Episode 98):

There are two basic marriage restrictions for a woman in the Bible. Number one, she should marry a man. Number two, he should be a Christian.

Do Online Sermons Undermine Local Churches? (Episode 94):

Is it a bad thing to have exposure to knowledge that might reveal unhelpful things in your pastor? My answer: that may be a bad thing, or it may be a good thing. If it makes the pastor acknowledge that he has to make a good case so that people can see in the Bible what he is saying is really there, and that his plans for the church are really biblical, then that is a good thing for him to feel that pressure. But if going on the Internet makes a person or a family disrespectful to their pastor, or cynical to their pastor, or disengaged from their church, then I think it is hurting them.

Encouragement for Ordinary Pastors (Episode 95):

Being a flashy communicator, being a great orator, doesn’t necessarily lead to edification. It doesn’t necessarily lead to the conversion of sinners. It doesn't necessarily lead to the glory of Christ. In fact, it can get in the way of glorifying Christ. What builds up the church is a clear, heartfelt, faithful, explanation of what the Word means, sentence by sentence — an exultation over the Word so you reveal how precious and valuable it is to you. And I think a man who is anointed with the Holy Spirit and has a love for the Word of God and a measure of gifted explanation, as pedestrian as he may feel his communication style, can take a people deep into the Word of God.

Will World History Become the Ballad of Eternity? (Episode 96):

If Christ really is the center and the apex of redemptive history, for that apex to happen, the rest of history has to be known and understood and celebrated as well.

Stranded on a Desert Island, What Books Do You Bring? (Episode 99):

I would take the Bible. I cannot live without the Word of God, and though I have enough of it stored up in my mind to survive — maybe — I don’t want to just survive. So I would take a Bible. And then I would cheat …

Boundaries for Non-Christian Friendships (Episode 100):

I would say, ask these two questions. First, which way is the transforming influence flowing? When you are with someone, are they being transformed, or are you being transformed? Are you being drawn to minimize the value of holiness? Have your standards been compromised? Are you being made callous and hard towards things in movies, say, or on television, or in language that you were once sensitive to? And the second question is this: Are we loving these people for their sake? ...

Is Jeremiah 29:11 a Promise to Christians? (Episode 101):

Yes, Christians can lay claim to this and they do it because of Christ. And here is the way I see it fitting together …

Can a Born-Again Christian Lose Salvation? (Episode 102):

A lot of people think eternal security is like a vaccination. When I was six I prayed, God vaccinated my arm, and I can’t get the disease of damnation. That is not the way it is. Rather, it is more like entering lifetime therapy with a doctor who says, “You are my patient, you will do what I say, and I will get you to the end whole in the last day.”

Jeremiah 32:40 has got to be one of my favorite all-time yes verses to my perseverance. The New Covenant Jesus bought with his blood is a covenant of preservation. It is not just a security in some mechanical way. It is preservation in an active way. … You will wake up a Christian tomorrow morning because God is faithful. God will wake you up and awaken in you his faith.

Tuning In

Ask Pastor John is a daily podcast series of 3–8 minute conversations released each weekday at 10:30am (EST) through the DG Facebook and Twitter feeds. You can tune in to the new episodes through the new Ask Pastor John iPhone app, which can be downloaded for free here. We’re currently hosting all the recordings on SoundCloud, a website making it easy to listen to several of the podcasts in one sitting. They’re also archived on the DG website and syndicated in iTunes.

We want to hear from you. To submit a question to Pastor John please include your first name, hometown, and question in an email to AskPastorJohn AT desiringGod DOT org.

Thanks for listening to the podcasts. We appreciate your engagement and interest.

Entertaining Pulpits and the Legacy of “Tethered Preaching”

David Mathis — Fri, 31 May 2013 12:55:00 -0500

Initially, it may be tough to tell the difference. A gifted Bible-expositor and an entertainment-oriented preacher, with a penchant for garnishing his ideas with some Bible, may not demonstrate much disparity at first.

But give it some time. And check the congregation over the long haul. It will make a world of difference.

Tethered to the Bible

John Piper coins a term in his short article “In Honor of Tethered Preaching: John Calvin and the Entertaining Pastor.” “Tethered preaching,” he says, is cut from a different cloth altogether. It is Bible-oriented, rather than entertainment-oriented, even as it often proves captivating to the born-again palette.

The Bible tethers us to reality. We are not free to think and speak whatever might enter our minds or what might be pleasing to any given audience—except God.

A Relentless Reformer

While many fine preachers, no doubt, could be celebrated in the legacy of “tethered preaching,” Piper holds up the great Reformer John Calvin (1509–1564) as one example.

For Calvin, preaching was tethered to the Bible. That is why he preached through books of the Bible so relentlessly. In honor of tethered preaching, I would like to suggest the difference I hear between preaching tethered to the word of God and preaching that ranges free and leans toward entertainment.

Piper goes on to characterize the entertainment-oriented preacher as one who

doesn’t seem to be shaped and constrained by an authority outside himself

gives the impression that what he says has significance for reasons other than that it manifestly expresses the meaning and significance of the Bible

is at ease talking about many things that are not drawn out of the Bible

seems to enjoy more talking about other things than what the Bible teaches

“His words seem to have a self-standing worth as interesting or fun. They are entertaining. But they don’t give the impression that this man stands as the representative of God before God’s people to deliver God’s message.”

However, the Bible-oriented preacher

sees himself this way: “I am God’s representative sent to God’s people to deliver a message from God”

knows that the only way a man can dare to assume such a position is with a trembling sense of unworthy servanthood under the authority of the Bible

knows that the only way he can deliver God’s message to God’s people is by rooting it in and saturating it with God’s own revelation in the Bible

wants the congregation to know that his words, if they have any abiding worth, are in accord with God’s words, and so constantly tries to show the people that his ideas are coming from the Bible

is hesitant to go too far toward points that are not demonstrable from the Bible

“His stories and illustrations are constrained and reined in by his hesitancy to lead the consciousness of his hearers away from the sense that this message is based on and expressive of what the Bible says.”

And so, in sum, “People leave the preaching of the Bible-oriented preacher with a sense that the Bible is supremely authoritative and important and wonderfully good news. They feel less entertained than struck at the greatness of God and the weighty power of his word.”

Piper expanded this article into a new chapter for the recently revised edition of Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, which is available for a limited time for $4.99 on Kindle.

Other recent publications from John Piper:

Alive to Wonder: Celebrating the Influence of C.S. Lewis (Desiring God ebook, May)

Doctrine Matters: Ten Theological Trademarks from a Lifetime of Preaching (DG, April)

A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Prayer and Fasting (Crossway Books, April)

Risk Is Right: Better to Lose Your Life Than to Waste It (Crossway, January)

Two Kinds of Regret, One Kind of Hope

Jon Bloom — Fri, 31 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

What do you regret? That question can trigger some vivid memories. I don’t like to think about them. I wince as I remember things I wish I had never done—terrible, wounding words I spoke, confidences I betrayed, dark lusts I indulged.

We’re supposed to feel regret (feel sorry) for evil things we do. But not all regret is godly.

Judas and Peter both committed heinous sins on the same night. Judas led the guard to Jesus in Gethsemane. Peter publicly disowned Jesus in the courtyard. Both were betrayals. Both men regretted what they had done.

Peter was forgiven and went on to preach at Pentecost and lead the church. Judas was not forgiven and ended up committing suicide.

Why?

What Is Godly Grief?

A clue is in the nature of each man’s regret. Paul helps us in 2 Corinthians 7:10:

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

The context is that the Corinthians had sinned grievously and Paul had rebuked them in a previous letter (probably 1 Corinthians).

The rebuke produced “grief”—a kind of regret;

their sad regret over their sin produced repentance;

repentance brought about forgiveness and removal of their guilt through Jesus’ atoning death;

forgiveness brought about salvation;

salvation meant they did not have to live (or die) in regret.

This meant no condemnation! 1 John 1:9 was applied to them: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

When Grief Is Godless

But a person who has godless, worldly regret grieves over the terrible thing he has done without believing that Jesus’s death will atone for him. A person who has godless grief believes he is either beyond forgiveness or that he must atone for his own sin in order to please God. His regret leads to death—a living death of condemnation (sometimes suicide) and eventually spiritual death.

This was Judas. His guilt was real and terrible. But he did not believe in Jesus and was condemned.

Turn Toward God in Faith

A person who has godly regret grieves over the terrible thing he has done and believes that only God can help him. God is his only hope. So he turns toward God in faith, confesses his sin, and looks to the cross where the penalty of that sin was placed on the Son of God.

He believes in God’s promise to forgive those who trust in his Son, and receives God’s free grace of forgiveness. Then he leaves his sin and lives in the freedom of the forgiven and not in the regret of the unforgiven.

This was Peter. His guilt was real and terrible. But he believed in Jesus and was forgiven. And the same can be true for you and me.

Recent posts from Jon Bloom:

God’s Mercy in Messed Up Families

God’s Mercy in Making Us Face the Impossible

When Harsh Words Are Kind

How Are Women Fulfilled?

Andrea Froehlich — Thu, 30 May 2013 16:24:00 -0500

Do we really need to “have it all” to be fulfilled?

In this short video, Mary Kassian reminds us that we were created to be in relationship with God and it’s that relationship which affects everything else. Our ultimate fulfillment cannot be found “out there” in what we do, but in who we are in Christ.

Prayer: We Get the Help, He Gets the Glory

John Piper — Thu, 30 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

One of the unique things about God is that he displays his glory by helping rather than demanding help. “No eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4). “He is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25). “He exalts himself to show mercy” (Isaiah 30:18).

This changes the way we pray.

When we ask him for help, we know that he will give it for his name’s sake, not because we deserve it. His helping us highlights his riches. “God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Jesus died to obtain all the help we need. So not just our praises, but also our petitions, become ways of glorifying God. They draw attention to his riches, not our rights.

The principle is this: We get the help; he gets the glory.

Attention to His Riches, Not Our Rights

For example, the psalmist prays,

Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and atone for our sins,
for your name's sake! (Psalm 79:9)

We get help and deliverance and atonement; he gets an exalted name. So it is again and again in the Old Testament:

For your name’s sake, O Lᴏʀᴅ,
pardon my guilt, for it is great. (Psalm 25:11)

For your name’s sake, O Lᴏʀᴅ, preserve my life! (Psalm 143:11)

O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive.
O Lord, pay attention and act.
Delay not, for your own sake. (Daniel 9:19)

Giving Help, Not Demanding It

Similarly, when Jesus comes, the first thing he tells us to pray for is the glory of God’s name: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matthew 6:9).

And when Paul prays, all his petitions are to this same end:

It is my prayer that you be . . . filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God (Philippians 1:9–11).

We always pray for you, that our God may . . . fulfill every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12).

This is wonderful. God exalts his grace and power by giving help rather than demanding it. He designs the Christian life so that we get the joy as he gets the glory.

But this does require that we be born again.

Happy for God to Be God

Before the new birth, we are allergic to such humility. We didn’t just want to be happy, we wanted to be happy by being somebody. We did not like the idea that God gets all the glory while all we get is help from him and joy in him.

But when we are born again, we are happy for God to be God. We are content for God to get all the glory, while we remain cheerful supplicants of mercy. So pray without ceasing and put God’s glory on display.

You are coming to your King, 
Large petitions with you bring;
 For his grace and power are such 
None can ever ask too much. (John Newton)

Recent from John Piper:

New ebook: Alive to Wonder: Celebrating the Influence of C.S. Lewis

Christian Adoption: Disavowals and Affirmations

The Fight for Life: Why We Keep Standing

30 Reasons Why It Is a Great Thing to Be a Pastor

If You Don’t Know Jack

David Mathis — Wed, 29 May 2013 10:20:00 -0500

Perhaps you’re a verifiable lover of C.S. Lewis and his mere Christianity, his Narnia chronicles, his brilliant and diabolical missives from hell itself, and his unmatched blend of uncompromised heart and head.

Or maybe you’d consider him a casual acquaintance — you’ve read a few things here and there and often sensed his presence through his influence on others.

Or perhaps you’d admit you don’t know Jack at all.

Whatever your orientation on Lewis heretofore, we invite you to join us and get to know “Jack” and his writing better this September 26–28 at the Desiring God 2013 National Conference.

Super Early-Bird Rate Until Midnight Friday

Under the banner of “The Romantic Rationalist: God, Life, and Imagination in the Work of C.S. Lewis,” we’ve scheduled six plenary addresses — from Randy Alcorn, Phil Ryken, Kevin Vanhoozer, Douglas Wilson, and two from John Piper — as well as four breakouts and a dozen short 10-minute talks to pick and choose from on various aspects of Lewis’s life and thought (more info to come). We think this smattering will engage both the Lewis-lover and the Lewis-stranger alike.

When you register between now and midnight this Friday, May 31 (Central Time), you take advantage of our “super early-bird rate” (the regular early-bird rate runs until July 26). The digest of details is available at desiringGod.org/Lewis.

Why They Called Him Jack

So, if you’re wondering why they called Clive Staples Lewis by the name Jack...

The story goes back to his childhood when the Lewis family had a dog named Jacksie — to whom little Clive was very attached. When Jacksie was run over by a car, the four-year-old announced that he now would be going by the name Jacksie in memory of his dearly loved pet. Initially, he responded only to Jacksie, but eventually he softened and began answering to Jack. For the next 60 years, those who knew him best called him Jack.

Also, as part of their Preview Days event, Bethlehem College and Seminary will be hosting a concert from artists Shane and Shane on Thursday evening, September 27. Learn more information or register.

For more on C.S. Lewis and the Desiring God 2013 National Conference:

Announcing Our 2013 National Conference

Conference Event Page

We Are Far Too Easily Pleased

New eBook: Piper Celebrates the Influence of Lewis

New eBook: Piper Celebrates the Influence of Lewis

Jonathan Parnell — Wed, 29 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

We’re happy to announce the release of our latest ebook from John Piper, Alive to Wonder: Celebrating the Influence of C.S. Lewis. It includes a significant introduction from Piper, written for this project, with a collection of extended excerpts from his corpus where Lewis’s fingerprints are most vividly seen.

Piper calls it “the immeasurable moment” — that instance in reading when we come across a sentence or phrase that unleashes a new glimpse of truth. The lights go on. We read it and reread it. We’re gripped to see more. While it’s an experience that can happen when reading any good author, many would testify that it abounds when reading C.S. Lewis. Undoubtedly, this has been the case for Piper.

Even a cursory reading of Piper’s most foundational books shows Lewis’s influence. From the deep truths of Christian Hedonism to the good interpretive deed of valuing an author’s intention, Lewis-thought is there. And in this fiftieth year since Lewis’s death, Piper expresses his profound thankfulness in the form of this new ebook. (We’d like to thank Crossway and Multnomah for their partnership in making these extended excerpts available for this special volume — including the entirety of the chapter “How to Wield the World in the Fight for Joy” from When I Don’t Desire God.)

In the Introduction, Piper calls attention to a quality of Lewis’s work coined “magisterial humility,” which hangs as a banner over the particulars Lewis teaches. This magisterial humility, says Piper, is a need in our day, and while it won’t keep us from all error, we can learn from Lewis how to “embrace truth more wisely and humbly, even the truth he didn’t see.” So it is in this spirit that we commend Awake to Wonder.

To download Alive to Wonder click on the following format options:

Download ebook as a PDF file.

Download ebook as a EPUB file formatted for readers like the Nook, Sony Reader, and Apple iBooks (iPad, iPhone, iPod).

Download ebook as a MOBI file formatted for Kindle applications (this option works well on some mobile devices, and not so well on others).

Our National Conference this September is on the theme, “The Romantic Rationalist: God, Life, and Imagination in the Work of C.S. Lewis.” Learn more at desiringGod.org/Lewis.

Spurgeon’s First Five Years in Ministry

Tony Reinke — Tue, 28 May 2013 10:30:00 -0500

The celebrated preacher Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) was converted at age 15. He preached his first sermon just after his 16th birthday. By age 18, he took his first pastorate in the country. And before turning 20, Spurgeon was pastoring in London.

Spurgeon’s entire life and ministry are fascinating, but those first five years of his Christian life, between 1850–54, are years that especially interest me, and in this episode of Authors on the Line we go on the line with two Spurgeon scholars to learn more.

First, we talk with Tom Nettles, the Professor of Historical Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He’s also the author of a forthcoming book, Living By Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Christian Focus, September). He provides us with a historical overview of these first five years of Spurgeon’s Christian life.

Second, we talk with theologian and author Christian George, the Jewell and Joe L. Huitt Assistant Professor of Religious Education at Oklahoma Baptist University. While studying in London, George stumbled onto eleven handwritten journals kept by Spurgeon over these same early years. The journals have never been published. George is now transcribing them for publication, and he joins us to share what's in the 1,400 pages.

To listen to our 37-minute conversation, subscribe to the Authors on the Line podcast in iTunes here. Download the mp3 here (25.2 MB). Or listen from the resource page through the following link:

Spurgeon’s First Five Years in Ministry: An Interview with Tom Nettles and Christian George (37 Minutes)

From the unpublished journals, Dr. George kindly offered to share with us the following images. In the podcast he mentions bird drawings, and here are a few that provide a rare glimpse into Spurgeon's artistic skill. Also, here’s a sermon outline from the journals (click to see a larger version). Note the dates Spurgeon preached this sermon are listed in the bottom-left corner.

Previous Authors on the Line podcasts —

The Bible as One Story: An Interview with Tom Schreiner

Why the Ascension of Jesus Matters: An Interview with Gerrit Scott Dawson and Jonny Woodrow

Meaning and Metaphor: An Interview with Doug Wilson

The Role of the Psalms in the Life of the Church: An Interview with Gordon Wenham

Young, Restless, and Reformed Five Years Later: An Interview with Collin Hansen

Getting Real with Personal Sin: An Interview with Matt Chandler

Hospitality on Mission: An Interview with Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

From Radical Lesbian to Redeemed Christian: An Autobiographical Interview with Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

Enjoying God’s Beatific Beauty: An Interview with Kyle Strobel

Marriage on the Cosmic Stage: An Interview with G. K. Beale

The Cross-Centered Christmas: An Interview with Ann Voskamp

Eyes Wide Open to God’s Created Beauty: An Interview with Steve DeWitt

Christmas and the Sting of Personal Loss: An Interview with John Piper and Paul Maier

The Trinitarian Shape of Jonathan Edwards' Theology: An Interview with Michael McClymond

Union with Christ in Paul’s Theology: An Interview with Constantine Campbell

God’s Work and Ours: An Interview with Timothy Keller

Christians Leading in the Secular World: An Interview with Dr. Albert Mohler

Same-Sex Temptations in the Church: An Interview with Robert Gagnon

The Church in a Homosexual Culture: An Interview with Robert Gagnon

Delighting in the Trinity: An Interview with Michael Reeves

Charity and Its Fruits: An Interview with Kyle Strobel

Going Soft Against Wrath

Ray Ortlund — Tue, 28 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.

What is the wise response to an angry person who says something cruel, false or demanding? Proverbs 15:1 helps us in those awkward moments at home, at work, in our churches.

The key is “a soft answer.”

So, you’re standing there, stunned by those words that have just exploded in your face. In that instant of decision, as your mind is forming a response, “a soft answer” is the category you need. What is that?

Maybe, for Sure

The word “soft” means tender, delicate, gentle, even weak. We don’t like being weak, especially when we find ourselves in the crosshairs of anger. We would rather justify ourselves. It is hard to be wronged. It is doubly hard to be wronged and not fight back but respond softly.

Of course, if the angry person is a heretic, bent on wrecking your church, he or she must be confronted strongly. But if that person is not a danger but only immature, then a tender, delicate, soft, weak answer might help that person see things in a new way. Maybe not. Maybe nothing will help. When God himself answered Jonah’s anger softly, Jonah wasn’t satisfied (Jonah 4:1–11). But with the wisdom of Proverbs 15:1, the tension in the air might not escalate. The awkward moment might even be turned into something positive.

But dishing out anger in response to anger will surely go badly. Here is what we can always expect: “. . .a harsh word stirs up [more] anger.” A harsh – literally, “painful” – response can include words with sharp edges, a tone of sarcasm, implied threats of retaliation. There are many ways for the encounter to escalate quickly.

God Gets the Last Word

The Bible gives us many encouragements to restrain ourselves when people are unkind. For example, “You shall reason frankly with your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:17). “Let your reasonableness be known to all” (Philippians 4:4). “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (Colossians 3:15).

Most wonderfully, we have in our Savior the perfect example of wisdom: “When Christ was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).

That helps, doesn’t it? It helps to remember that God sees, and God judges justly. Sometimes people judge unjustly. They don’t mean to. They just do. But God always judges justly. So, we don’t have to get in the last word. On that great and final day, God will finish every conversation in this life that didn’t go well. He will do so with perfect justice, fully satisfying to every redeemed heart. Let’s trust him for that now, whenever we are under this kind of pressure.

Venting is the world’s foolish way, intensifying conflict. Restraint is the Lord’s wise way, spreading shalom. And the Lord’s way succeeds. It might satisfy our aggressor, and it will surely safeguard us.

The Unmarked Tomb of a Well-Known Soldier

David Mathis — Mon, 27 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Today many of us in the United States will visit cemeteries and find other ways to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving in the Armed Forces.

Memorial Day, observed annually on the last Monday of May, began in the nineteenth century as Decoration Day in memory of those who died in the American Civil War. It soon included all who died in military service — especially following World War II — and the name was officially changed to Memorial Day in 1967.

Remembering Those Who Went Before

Not to be confused with Veterans Day (November 11), which honors all military veterans (both those who died in service and those who did not), Memorial Day has become an occasion, over time, for broader expressions of memory, including deceased relatives and other loved ones who have gone before us.

In this spirit, it’s fitting that Memorial Day 2013 falls on May 27, the day John Calvin died — 449 years ago today. Likely no other Christian in the last 500 years, save only Martin Luther, has exerted such an influence. Below is how we tell the story of his death in the book With Calvin in the Theater of God.

Almost Dead Before Fifty

Calvin fell deathly ill in the winter of 1558 at age forty-nine. He thought himself at death’s doorstep and so turned his few remaining energies to his final revision of his Institutes. Until this time, he hadn’t been fully pleased with the shape and content of his often-revised magnum opus. Wanting to leave the church with a definitive edition, he worked feverishly, despite the fever, to finish it.

His health returned in the spring of 1559, and he soon returned to the pulpit. It was at this time that Denis Raguenier began taking extended shorthand notes on Calvin’s sermons, since he didn’t prepare manuscripts but preached extemporaneously. The sermon manuscripts of Calvin we have today are largely owing to Raguenier’s unflagging and far-sighted labors.

Founding the Academy, Translating the Institutes

Also in 1559, Calvin and sidekick Theodore Beza founded the Academy of Geneva. Beza would serve as its day-in, day-out head, and before long the Academy would become famous across Europe and produce lasting effects long after Calvin’s death.

In his final five years, Calvin translated the final edition of the Institutes into French, wrote a large commentary on the Pentateuch, and preached and lectured almost tirelessly. Almost. At barely fifty years old he was battling increasing illness and frailty, but his labors continued unceasing. There were seasons of sickness followed by renewed strength.

Buried in an Unmarked Grave

The great Reformer began slowing for the final time in February 1564. Soon it was too draining to preach and lecture. He spent his final months bedridden and died May 27, 1564, just weeks shy of his fifty-fifth birthday.

Calvin could tell in his lifetime that he’d likely be remembered long after his death. So he took pains to fade as namelessly from this world as he could. He requested burial in an unmarked grave hoping to prevent pilgrims from coming to see his resting place and engaging in the kind of idolatry he’d spent his lifetime standing against.

In death, he completed his life’s labors, not seeking to make much of Calvin, but striving with all his might to point beyond himself to the One who saved him and was his greatest joy, the only One most worthy of being made much of — the one who truly had made for his church the Ultimate Sacrifice.

Desiring God books on John Calvin (free PDF available for each):

With Calvin in the Theater of God (edited by John Piper and David Mathis)

John Calvin and His Passion for the Majesty of God (by John Piper)

Portrait of Calvin (by T.H.L. Parker)

The Power for Our Patience

John Piper — Sun, 26 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. (Colossians 1:11)

Strength is the right word. The apostle Paul prayed for the church at Colossae, that they would be “strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience” (Colossians 1:11). Patience is the evidence of an inner strength.

Impatient people are weak, and therefore dependent on external supports — like schedules that go just right and circumstances that support their fragile hearts. Their outbursts of oaths and threats and harsh criticisms of the culprits who crossed their plans do not sound weak. But that noise is all a camouflage of weakness. Patience demands tremendous inner strength.

For the Christian, this strength comes from God. That is why Paul is praying for the Colossians. He is asking God to empower them for the patient endurance that the Christian life requires. But when he says that the strength of patience is “according to [God’s] glorious might,” he doesn’t just mean that it takes divine power to make a person patient. He means that faith in this glorious might is the channel through which the power for patience comes.

Patience is indeed a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22), but the Holy Spirit empowers (with all his fruit) through “hearing with faith” (Galatians 3:5). Therefore, Paul is praying that God would connect us with the “glorious might” that empowers patience. And that connection is faith.

This excerpt from Future Grace is also featured today on Solid Joys, the daily devotional from John Piper available as a free app for Apple and Android devices, as well as through a new website.

Let Us Read, As in Read

Jonathan Parnell — Sat, 25 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

I read the Bible at the dinner table last night.

One of our daughters was laid out horizontally across her chair. Our son was crying, reaching for me to pick him up. And then our other daughter was doodling letters on the table with her sauce-glossed finger.

So I helped with that, and then I read. Galatians 3:26 says, simply, “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” Within a minute, I gave a short explanation, prayed, and closed with a hearty amen.

But before we transitioned to busing the table, our three-year-old spoke up. She claimed it was her turn to share and so, without reservation, I slid her the Bible and leaned in with full attention. She opened to some random pages and mumbled something about God and Satan and so forth. She then closed the Bible and said amen with a big smile on her face. It was really cute.

She made a statement about God with language from an open Bible without actually reading it. What she said was pure fluff. And it was cute. But only because she is three and can’t actually read.

It’s a Human Problem

It is an altogether different story when literate adults say stuff about reality in the name of Jesus without actually listening to what Jesus has said.

There’s a way to do that, of course, that doesn’t look as troubling as it sounds. Keep it nice and cheery and float in a verse citation when you can. As it turns out, our world isn’t so much turned off about Jesus-talk so long as it bears his name but not his truth.

For example, telling the world that everyone who does good will be redeemed by Jesus garners popularity, but it ironically fails to meet its own criterion. Despite how wonderful they may sound, lies are never loving.

But, hey, people like them. It’s cool to cite the Book, just don’t hold too tight to its authority on the things that repel us. We prefer fluff, not facts. Trifles, not truth. This is not a generational issue, nor a cultural one. It’s a human problem — a fallen human problem.

Not Really a Game

We see it happening vividly in the Book of Jeremiah. Hananiah of Gibeon tells a people under Babylonian threat that the threat is ending. He says that God is going to break the yoke of the king of Babylon, and within two years everything will be back to normal (Jeremiah 28:1–4). And this would have been great, if it had been accurate. But it wasn’t. Hananiah simply knew what the people wanted to hear, and that’s what he said. From our vantage looking back, that is so obviously silly. Just silly. But had we been there in the Jerusalem of 580 BC, Hananiah could have been our hero.

It’s dangerous, though, to vouch for ease over validity. We can so easily slip into this way of thinking that sees the world as one giant T-ball game of talk — just a cosmic clutter of ideas running after the same ball. So play nicely and keep it cute. It’s a gnostic T-ball game, after all. We defer to what sounds good in the moment and reading becomes part of the fun. It becomes this exercise of decoding our own desires rather than discovering the data of the Page.

But where reading is a game, people get hurt, and Jesus isn’t heard. For Christians, we don’t merely live among a world of words, but under the Word made flesh — who speaks with ultimate authority. What Jesus has to say isn’t stuck in the realm of his lessons, but in the rights of his lordship.

The Lord of Words

Behind every text of Scripture is no mere idea, but the person who reigns over everything. Jesus, crucified, dead, buried, and risen, seated on a real throne, reigns here and now by his Spirit, both in his people and throughout the world, through what he says. The biblical canon is where he speaks. How we read it is emphatically a lordship issue.

Reading is excavation, not invention. We observe — we don’t create. Faithful interpretation at its best is faith-filled repetition. God speaks through what we say from what he has said. And that means what we do with texts says more about our hearts than our intellects. By grace, we lean humbly on him, the divine author. We put our ear next to his heart by putting our eyes intently on his word. That’s when we shed the scales of carnal preference and cultural pressure.

That’s when we read as in read, not like a three-year-old, but as listeners who don’t want to make the text say what it doesn’t. For one, because we can’t. And most importantly, because why would we want to anyway? Only one has “the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Jesus is Lord, not us.

More posts from Jonathan Parnell:

Hedonism to the Extreme: Lamborghini and Our Souls

Where Is Jesus?

Epic of the Ordinary: Christian Mission for You and Me