Two and a half years ago, John Piper wrote a moving article entitled “Don’t Waste Your Cancer.” I’m now observing one of my best friends, Matt Hoskinson, evidence God’s grace in yet another way—this time by modeling Piper’s wise advice. Check out Matt’s letter that Danny Brooks read to Heritage Bible Church this morning.
(Matt is the tallest one in the pic below.)
Here’s a convicting excerpt (pp. 173–74) from John Piper’s “Faith in Future Grace vs. Impatience” (chapter 13 in Future Grace): [Read more…] about Piper: “Impatient people are weak”
My pastor, Dr. Mike Bullmore, is currently preaching through 1 Corinthians, and this morning he finished a sensitive, insightful, pastorally wise exposition of chapter 7.
Today’s sermon (#5 above) is particularly outstanding. Its target audience is older teenagers and their parents, but it is especially applicable to singles in their 20s, 30s, 40s, etc. Bullmore gives two reminders followed by five statements summarizing biblical priorities in preparing for marriage. Highly recommended!
Mike Bullmore’s preaching is like a combination of John Piper and C. J. Mahaney! More of his MP3s are available here, here, and here.
D. A. Carson’s Christ and Culture Revisited (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008) is now available.
I heartily recommend this volume.
I had the privilege of meticulously reading this volume straight through at least three times at various stages last year. It’s the type of book that rewards slow, thoughtful, even repeated reading.
Mark Dever posed his eighth “T4Free question” on the T4G blog earlier this week, and I was surprised that my answer was selected. (Perhaps mine had the least misspelled words and the most Piper-like hyphenated ones! Regardless, I’m grateful for this happy providence and eager for edification along with about 5,000 other people at T4G in mid-April 2008.) Here’s Mark’s question followed by the 100-words-or-less answer I submitted:
Q: “What Christian book (other than the Bible) do you think has been read by the most people attending T4G 2008, and why?”
A: “John Piper’s Desiring God
“This richly theological and warmly devotional best-seller has been the means for sending countless Christians on a trajectory towards theology that is increasingly joyful, robust, God-centered, Christ-exalting, and gospel-treasuring.
“My testimony is not unusual. I read it as a freshman in college and again during my first year of seminary, and it had a revolutionary effect on my Christian life. It shaped my attitude towards Reformed soteriology and convinced me that God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him.”
In addition to selling the print book for just $9.50, Desiring God Ministries offers the following free resources:
I thank God for John Piper. He is a gift to the church.
On a related note, D. A. Carson pays Piper no small compliment in the preface to Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson by mentioning him parallel to three other giants of the faith:
“But my aim is much more modest: to convey enough of his [i.e., Tom Carson’s] ministry and his own thought that ordinary ministers are encouraged, not least by the thought that the God of Augustine, Calvin, Spurgeon, and Piper is no less the God of Tom Carson, and of you and me” (p. 11).
Last Thursday evening one of my wife‘s pre-K4 students was tragically killed. On Monday morning Jenni had to inform her students that their little friend would not be coming back to school. Here’s a lightly edited excerpt from a moving letter she sent to parents Monday afternoon.
I just wanted to give you a quick update on this morning and how gracious God was to us and to the children as we discussed KC’s loss.
“If by chance you bear a child, if it is a boy, let it be, if it is a girl, expose it.”
Those chilling words are a husband’s instructions to his wife in a letter dated 1 B.C. (documented below).
[Read more…] about Infanticide: Comparing Ancient Greco-Roman Practices with Modern America
Mark Driscoll was on the TEDS campus on January 29-30 leading the 2008 Chicago Boot Camp for the Acts 29 network, and I attended and profited from the following (sometimes provocative!) sessions he led:
Also available from the same conference is Mark Dever’s thoughtful session: Church Planting Evangelism.