Sitting on the dock, looking out over the still, dark waters of the lake, I just knew. It wasn’t surprising; I’d been toying with the idea for almost a year. But now, after much prayer, and at the end of an especially meaningful retreat, everything was clear. My mind relaxed, the decision made: I was going into ministry. I can still remember that easy certainty, the calm assurance that this was what I supposed to do. In hindsight, it’s a little surprising how quickly I set aside my other plans and launched into ministry preparation. At the time, though, nothing could have been more obvious.   Three years later, everything was different. It was late, well after midnight, and the church was empty. All the kids had gone home hours ago. But I was still in my of...

  [Editor’s Note: Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is observed this year on January 20, 2013.]   Don’t get me wrong, the call to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ is a joy. Nothing is more thrilling than opening the Word of God to the people of Christ week-by-week. But it provokes my spirit to preach the Sanctity of Human Life (SOHL) emphasis on a Sunday morning. I don’t hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday because I think it, somehow, unbiblical. No, indeed. The entire canon throbs with God’s commitment to the fatherless and to the widows, his wrath at the shedding of innocent blood. I don’t hate it because I think it’s inappropriate. Just as every Lord’s Day should be Easter, with the proclamation of the Resurrection of Jesus, and Christmas,...

[Editor’s Note: In a recent feature story for Esquire, actress Megan Fox spoke of a number of non-Christian beliefs to which she holds but then also described what it feels like to speak in tongues. (See quote below). Since such experiences are neither provable nor deniable, people are curious about what the Bible teaches. After all, what is the Christian’s authority? God’s Word or experience? Bible scholar, Ron Rhoads, offers the following brief summary on what the Bible says about speaking in tongues.]  The Holy Spirit is the one who bestows spiritual gifts on believers (1 Corinthians 1:11). Not every Christian has every gift. So Christians should be happy with whatever gift the Holy Spirit has sovereignly decided to give them. There are a number of facts about spe...

“Truly God is good to Israel.”Psalms 73:1 I don’t think we have categories today that get at what these words are saying. The words roll off your tongue so easily your mind barely has time to consider their content. The words are so familiar and mundane they barely draw interest out of us, let alone awe. At breakfast you’ll say something like, “Wow, this cereal is good!” Or, “We had a good time at the park.” Or, “Let me tell you where to get a good cup of coffee.” Or, Sam is really a good husband.” So maybe when we read that God is good what is supposed to happen inside of us doesn’t happen. When you read the words, “God is good,” your heart should be filled with wonder, amazement, gratitude, humility, and ...

Knowing and wanting to be in the Lord’s design for our lives is one of the most pivotal heart issues Christians encounter. A woman who mentored me early in my faith journey said, “The Lord wants you in His will even more than you want to be. So don’t let figuring out His will become an idol. Pursue the Lord and trust Him to keep you in His path.” When we seek God just for a formula, too often we miss Him and profoundly miss His best for us. Yes, He wants our obedience. But a beautiful thing about the Hebrew word we translate into obey in English is that it is the same word in Hebrew for hear. It’s a hearing that brings response. What the Lord wants is relationship. He wants us to hear Him, know Him, and respond. As we faithfully follow the general, foundational principles of being committe...

One of my earliest memories is of a substitute Sunday school teacher chastening me for putting a coin in my mouth. “That’s filthy,” she said. “Why, you don’t know if a colored man might have held that.” It might just be my imagination playing tricks on me, but it seems as though she immediately followed this up with, “Alright children, let’s sing ‘Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World.’” Now, this lady probably didn’t consciously think of herself as a white supremacist. She almost certainly didn’t think of herself as subversive of the gospel itself. She never thought about the hypocrisy of holding the two contradictory worldviews together in her mind. She probably didn’t see how her dehumanizing of African-Americans was a twisted form of Darwinism rather than bibli...

[Editor’s Note: January 22, 2013 marks the 40th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, which effectively legalized the roughly 50 million abortions that have now been committed in America. The following is an edited transcript of a sermon delivered by pastor and long-time pro-life advocate, John Piper. Audio and video versions are available at desiringGod.org.] How does abortion relate to spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things? The way I’ve thought about abortion over the years as a preacher—and I’m mainly a preacher, one who has to speak about abortion in the context of worship from the Bible—is to relate it to God. We always devote one Sunday (the Sanctity of Life Sunday) to abortion and one Sunday ...

Another Christmas season has come and gone. The last remaining decorations have been packed away for next year. Many people heard the wonderful story of Christ’s incarnation, and some understood it for the very first time. But the version of the Christmas story that most haven’t heard, the one that even many Christians don’t seem to understand is the one found in Revelation 12. It is this account that guards Matthew’s and Luke’s from the dangers of sentimentality. It keeps our vision of the incarnation from getting dislodged from the broader drama of redemption. And it reminds us that Christ’s Advent to earth was nothing less than a strategic, decisive military move in the raging cosmic battle between darkness and light. This is the full-orbed Christmas story that we need reminding of all ...

“The very center and core of the whole Bible is the doctrine of the grace of God.” –J. Gresham Machen “Grace” is the most important concept in the Bible, Christianity, and the world. It is most clearly expressed in the promises of God revealed in Scripture and embodied in Jesus Christ. Grace is the love of God shown to the unlovely; the peace of God given to the restless; the unmerited favor of God. What is grace and what are some ways people have defined grace? “Grace is free sovereign favor to the ill-deserving.”(B.B. Warfield) “Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues.”(John Stott) “[Grace] is God reaching downward to people who are in rebellion against Him.”(Jerry Bridges) “Grace is unconditional love toward a person who does not deserve it.” (Paul Zahl) Grace is most neede...

The Christian-owned arts-and-crafts chain Hobby Lobby faces steep fines for refusing to comply with the Obamacare mandate requiring employers to provide contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs in their health insurance plans. As Hobby Lobby continues to fight the mandate in court, what are the implications of the case for religious liberty in the United States? Originally published January 23, 2013.

As the earliest extra-biblical Christian confessional document, the Apostles’ Creed has stood the test of time as the preeminent testament to creedal orthodoxy.  The creed, attributed to the earliest missionary followers of Jesus, distills the basic outline of what it means to be a Christian into a short summation that belies the depth and richness of what it proclaims. The Apostles’ Creed We believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; (He descended into hell.)1 On the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father; from which he w...