As much as we can, let's defend the truth by pointing to what the apostles taught, and let's call out sin by pointing to the inconsistencies between what we say we believe and what we do.
— John Piper
Reading and understanding the Bible involves lots and lots of interpretation. Not just in light of the world and culture around us, but in reference to other parts of the Bible.
Life is in God's hand.
I want to learn from everybody.
The absence of God in most spheres of life is perceived to be normal, and even Christians feel it as normal - which is why absorbing the culture all around us and its priorities is so dangerous.
The best news of the Christian gospel is that the supremely glorious Creator of the universe has acted in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection to remove every obstacle between us and himself so that we may find everlasting joy in seeing and savoring his infinite beauty.
I am not a good example of an urban pastor. Because of the way I believe God calls me to use my time, I don't have significant relationships with most of my neighbors.
I believe God has a future for ethnic Israel.
Not all single women want to be married. Not all boys like football. Not all homemakers like to cook. Not all messy people are lazy. And not all the obese are gluttons. There are glands and diabetes and a dozen conditions you never heard of that may account for things. Put your sermon through the counter-stereotype sieve.
It's amazing how many introverts go into the ministry. It's amazing how many people go into the ministry who don't really like to be with people.
There are two basic restrictions on marriage in the Bible: Number one, she should marry a man. Number two, he should be a Christian.
The giving of the Quran is in Islam what the incarnation of Christ is to Christianity. If this is so, then Quran-burning is parallel to Christ-crucifying.
If a tornado twists at 175 miles an hour and stays on the ground like a massive lawnmower for 50 miles, God gave the command.
Blind people don't decide to see. Jesus says, 'See!' and they see.
God was alive when this universe exploded into existence. He was alive when Socrates drank his poison. He was the living God when William Bradford governed Plymouth Colony. He was the living God in 1966 when Thomas Altizer proclaimed him dead and Time magazine absolutely absurdly put it on the front cover.
We are all responsible to Jesus first, and then, under him, to various other persons and offices. Discerning the path of love and obedience when two or more of these submissive relationships collide is a call to humble, Bible-saturated, spiritual wisdom.
One way to appreciate C.S. Lewis is to see how his Christian humility shaped his life and work.
Few things give rise to imprecise rhetoric like the issue of race. It's understandable, but damaging.
I know God's voice. I've seen God's hand. If the Lord is my helper, why should I be afraid?
God gives life and he takes life. Everybody who dies, dies because God wills that they die.
You do the hundreds of things that a Christward heart does in the hope that God will put a match to those little sparks to cause it to become a conflagration in a community or in a nation.
Whenever the strength of God is not recognized as the source of our strength, we are breaking the First Commandment: Do not have any gods before me.
God revealed himself through the Law, which pointed to Christ as its end and goal, commanded the obedience that comes from faith, increased transgressions, and shut the mouths of all humans because no one has performed the righteousness of the Law so as not to need a substitute.
I owe my life and hope to the gospel.
Supernatural does not mean methodological stupidity.
Early on, you talk about God because you consider Him to be most important. But later, you realize there are means by which God is known and portrayed.
Don't assume that all fat people are gluttons. And don't use the word 'fat.' There is a principle here. Learn from logic and experience not to associate things - especially in preaching - that don't necessarily go together.
Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
Redemption is not perfection. The redeemed must realize their imperfections.
Little hearts, little souls give little lusts big power. Big hearts give little lusts little power.
God is infinitely valuable. I can't think of anything that would have a greater impact on your life than for you to believe that.
Homosexual behavior has been exploited, and reveled in, and celebrated in art, for millennia.
Whether sexual orientation can change or not, hearts can change and turn any sexual orientation into an occasion for the glory of Christ. Those with same-sex attraction glorify Christ through sexual abstinence and through the enrichment of significant Christ-exalting relationships in other ways.
The Bible does not oppose or forbid interracial marriages but sees them as a positive good for the glory of Christ.
It's amazing how many introverts go into the ministry.
God is not beholden to us at all. He doesn't owe us anything.
We look at life from the back side of the tapestry. And most of the time, what we see is loose threads, tangled knots and the like. But occasionally, God's light shines through the tapestry, and we get a glimpse of the larger design with God weaving together the darks and lights of existence.
Human beings were put on the planet to depend upon their Creator and to worship their Creator at every point in every sphere of culture.
The saving love of God is his doing whatever must be done, at great cost to himself, and for the least deserving, so that he might enthrall them with what will make them supremely happy forever, namely, himself.
God created a good world that was subjected to futility because of the sinful, treasonous choice of the first human beings.
My prayer is that the good news of Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah, would flood Jewish communities around the world, that the veil would be lifted, and that we would see a massive turning of Israel to the Lord Jesus.
Darkness comes. In the middle of it, the future looks blank. The temptation to quit is huge. Don't. You are in good company... You will argue with yourself that there is no way forward. But with God, nothing is impossible. He has more ropes and ladders and tunnels out of pits than you can conceive. Wait. Pray without ceasing. Hope.
When people think about 'thinking,' they often think 'academia;' they think 'threat.' They think 'coldness.' I want to reverse all those images and say, 'No, the brain God gave you is intended to throw fuel on the fire of your affections for God. It's really good at it if you let it.'
The Bible is the ultimate authority and infallible, not the pastor and not the elders. And it doesn't mean that you believe everything he says without examining it.
I've always wondered, am I a writer who preaches or a preacher who writes? I don't know. I love them both.
The Christian - the biblical - concept of mercy toward wrongdoers only exists in relation to justice. Showing mercy, in relation to wrongdoing, means treating someone better than they deserve.
You can't make yourself saved. This is very threatening to people, even Christians, because of what it seems to say about freedom.
You don't give God authority over your life. He has it, totally.
Sin carries in it its own misery.
God has levels of willing and delighting. He wills and delights in things in different ways so that approval and disapproval can coexist without being contradictory, without canceling each other out. I am making the case here for infinite complexity.
