more from Piper on the prosperity gospel

here are ten minutes from John Piper about the prosperity gospel and why he hates it.

more here from Dr. Mohler and John Piper being more strident on this topic.
Hat tip to Vitamin Z.

Restless hearts

Justin Taylor posts the following quote from C.S. Lewis regarding our restless hearts.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (HarperOne, 1980), pp. 49–50:

What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of [...]

the gospel

another post defining the Gospel. this one is excellent. check out the whole post, but here is the meat of the coconut:
So what is the gospel?
Although this brief survey is far from complete, it consistently reveals that the gospel is good news concerning Jesus and what he did to accomplish salvation for sinners.
In [...]

the Jesus threat

Todd Bumgarner posts an interesting quote from John Stott. what do you think about this?
The context is Stott talking about the first century Jewish people and their priests and how they reacted and responded to Jesus’ ministry:
“So they felt threatened by Jesus.  He undermined their prestige, their hold over the people, their own self-confidence [...]

Choice, Sovereignty and an example

John Piper recently explored free will, God’s sovereignty and Paul’s example. fascinating stuff.
One of the most influential passages in the Bible that God used to open my mind to his sovereignty over my will is Philippians 2:12-13.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will [...]

any marriage is fixable

any marriage is fixable/salvageable with the right spirit and in the right power (II Peter 1:3).
check out this story:
Al added, “We kept drifting apart. I knew what I was doing was wrong; I was too proud to ask for help.”
After a brief pause, I quietly asked, “So are you guys going to call it quits [...]

J.I. Packer on Repentance

Timmy Brister is starting a blog series on the importance of ongoing repentance in a Christian’s life.
His post today in that series is this quote from J.I. Packer:
“We need to realize that while God’s acceptance of each Christian believer is perfect from the start, our repentance always needs to be extended further as long as [...]

Driscoll in Austin

Mark Driscoll started the Austin Song of Solomon conference yesterday evening. It was an excellent way to spend a Friday evening with my lovely wife of 20 years.
Tim Hawks the pastor of Hill Country Bible Church kicked off the festivities by welcoming everyone to the church.

Mark spoke for the next couple of hours.

and then [...]

death to self-righteousness

the Gospel ends self-righteousness.

ht to Timmy Brister

two on suffering

first courtesy of Vitamin Z we get this comforting bit that we will never be able to fully explain the problem of evil but that we can trust God anyway:
So how do Christians explain the problem of evil?
The reality is, we can’t provide an exhaustive theodicy or explanation of the existence of evil.  Our minds [...]

accountability for rejecting Christ

here is John Piper’s illustration of the difference between moral inability and legal inability and why a person can be held accountable for rejecting Christ even though they can’t choose Christ on their own accord.
Give it a listen and see what you think of the argument.

HT to Reformation Theology

alarmed by bad news?

Iain D. Campbell posts a devotion form Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional book on Psalm 112:7.
Excellent reminder from CHS:
“He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.”

Christian, you ought not to dread the arrival of evil tidings; because if you are distressed by them, what do you more than other men? Other men have not your God [...]

II Timothy 3:12

II Timothy 3:12 says “12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,”. Do you believe that? Do you believe that all means all and that persecution really means persecution? Really?
here is a John Piper quote from Vitamin Z:
“Obedience in missions and social justice has [...]

the Ministry of Meekness

Continuing to read Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we arrive on pages 95-97 at his description of the ministry of meekness that Christians owe to one another:
Only he who lives by the forgiveness of his sin in Jesus Christ will rightly think little of himself. He will know that his own wisdom reached the [...]

spiritual leadership

John Piper’s article on spiritual leadership is a treasure trove of extremely valuable information.
I found this bit on marks of a good teacher especially interesting since I have spent a lot of time teaching.
9. Able to Teach
It is not surprising to me that some of the great leaders at Bethlehem Baptist Church have been men [...]

David Powlison on marital intimacy

fascinating talk from David Powlison on marital intimacy. Part 2 below about transparency in small groups about struggles is critically important. making prayer requests that are personal, real, and humbling is extremely important. If you are part of a group where the culture says that it is not ok to not be [...]

Got to thinking about eyes

Yesterday after I posted about Joel Osteen and his blurb about his forthcoming newest book, I got to thinking.
What I was thinking about is how the worldview he is promoting is completely foundationally skewed. It is exactly backwards.
Here is part of what he says:
Instead, your declarations should be: I am closer than I think. [...]

more prosperity gospel

back to vitamin z for an update on Joel Osteen’s newest book.
check it out:

So, Joel Osteen sent us an email yesterday to let us know about his new book, It’s Your Time. Joel wanted us to know that we could achieve our dreams with his new book. That was the subject line, seriously.
Here’s more encouragement from [...]

4 G’s

from Jonathan Dodson, Tim Chester’s 4 G’s:
In You Can Change, Tim Chester helpfully points us to four basic promises. The 4 Gs:
1. God is great – so we don’t have to be in control

2. God is glorious – so we don’t have to fear others
3. God is good – so we don’t have to look elsewhere

4. God [...]

Driscoll coming to Austin

The Resurgence Blog is and has been in the blogroll. I encourage you to check it regularly. Lots of good articles and series by Acts 29 church planters all over the country.
Recently, Mark Driscoll announced that he and his lovely wife were coming to Hill Country Bible Church here in Austin to talk [...]

Desiring God Blog

I put a link in the blogroll to Desiring God Blog over on the right. I have it bookmarked in Safari, but Tim N. pointed out that it wasn’t in the blogroll, so there it is.
here is a recent video that Abraham Piper posted of his dad talking about the protestant work ethic.
[...]

powerful stuff

Timmy Brister posted this video “Choosing Thomas” and like he says it is worth the next ten minutes of your time.

somewhat related, Randy Alcorn talks here about the absolute necessity for Christians to have a well developed theology of suffering to avoid falling into serious error when something like the events [...]

group think

the inability to reconsider (or even see) built in assumptions is something that is very interesting to me about people. @texaszman pointed to this interesting article on twitter this morning.
check out this bit here:
My theory—call it the “Oakley effect”—is that really smart people often don’t know how to accept and react constructively to criticism.  [...]

danger of moralistic deism

here is Matt Chandler talking about the necessity of the centrality of the Gospel and the danger when it is assumed.

Love that last line.
“But you don’t put God in your debt. I know this because really really faithful men in the Scripture have it go really really bad for them.”
hat [...]

Do people have free will?

Andrew Naselli takes a long look at the question of free will over here. Fascinating stuff. take some time this weekend to explore it.
Here is the introduction to get you started:
Non-Christians and Christians alike often give the same answer to difficult questions like these: Why did God allow sin in the first place? Why [...]