Showing results by author "John Piper" in All Categories

Reflecting on 40 years of matrimony, John Piper exalts the biblical meaning of marriage over its emotion, exhorting couples to keep their covenant for all the best reasons. Even in the days when people commonly stayed married "'til death do us part," there has never been a generation whose view of marriage was high enough, says Pastor John Piper. That is all the more true in our casual times.

John Piper examines depression from a spiritual perspective, guiding and encouraging those for whom joy seems to stay out of reach.

In the sixth volume of the Swans Are Not Silent series, John Piper celebrates the importance of poetic effort by looking at three influential Christians whose words magnificently display a commitment to truth and a love of beauty. Examining the lives of George Herbert, George Whitefield, and C. S. Lewis, Piper helps us appreciate the importance of carefully crafted words by exploring how Christians can use them to testify to God's glory, wonder at his grace, and rejoice in his salvation.

Jesus' words in John 12 are sobering: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it will bear little fruit. The history of Christianity's expansion proves that God's strategy for reaching unreached peoples with the gospel includes the sufferings of his frontline heralds - the missionaries who willingly die a thousand daily deaths to advance God's kingdom. For William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton, the price they paid to translate the Word of God, to pave the way for missionary mobilization around the world, and to lead the hostile to Christ was great.

Physical sickness affects more than just our bodies; it takes a toll on our emotional and spiritual health as well. In this honest book, best-selling author John Piper shares 10 lessons he learned while in the hospital. Written to help those in the hospital focus their attention on God, his grace, and his plan - when such focus can be especially hard - this volume blends together personal narrative with biblical reflections to help listeners rely on the God who stands ready to comfort and support his people.

John Piper delivers powerful biblical reassurances to bolster readers' trust in the sovereignty of God and the supremacy of Christ when evil and tragedy come. If God governs the sinful acts of men, then does the devastation caused by those terrorists, dictators, murderers, cheats, and abusers discredit Jesus' words: "All authority in heaven and earth belongs to me"?

Christian preaching is a God-appointed means of transforming its hearers in both head and heart, not only in intellect but also in affections. With clear examples of specific methods, John Piper shows preachers how and what to communicate from the pulpit in a way that takes seriously the task of handling the word of God week in and week out in the context of, and as, Christian worship. 

Piper has gathered many of Jesus' demands from the four Gospels and puts the demands in a redemptive, historical context, then concisely examines each. The result is an accessible introduction for thoughtful inquirers and new believers, as well as meditative meat for veteran believers who want to know Jesus better.

Join a veteran author, pastor, and Christian leader as he captures the 10 astonishing, compassionate, life-giving, joy-awakening, hope-sustaining truths that have held everything together for him. 

What happens in the heart when it experiences real saving faith? John Piper argues that faith in Christ is not saving unless it includes an “affectional dimension of treasuring Christ.” Nor is God glorified as he ought to be unless he is treasured in being trusted. Saving faith in Jesus Christ welcomes him forever as our supreme and inexhaustible pleasure. What Is Saving Faith? explains that a Savior who is treasured for his all-satisfying worth is more glorified than a Savior who is only trusted for his all-forgiving competence.

This book is a passionate call for this generation to make their lives count for eternity. John Piper acknowledges that the risks for those who seek to accomplish something in life - risks in relationships for the sake of righteousness and authenticity, risks with money for the cause of the Gospel, and risks in witnessing to the truth and beauty of Christ. Readers will find their passion for the cross of Christ enlarged as a result of reading this book.

This newly revised edition is an essential guide for preachers who want to stir the embers of revival. Piper focuses his study on the example of Jonathan Edwards as an illustration of a leader who submitted to God.

Marriage between sinners has its inevitable messes. If you’ve been married longer than a week or two, you know how the hard realities of life in a fallen age can come crashing in. Perhaps you had a season of “once upon a time,” but soon enough you realized that this marriage, in this world, is not yet your “happily ever after.”

Grace is the heart of God to do you good when you deserve it least. But do we really know how deeply we don't deserve it? Only God can reveal that to us. He does it through the bible. And when he does, the wonders of his grace explode with brightness as never before. These Five Points are about how Christians come into being, and how we are kept forever. It reaches back into times past when we were freely chosen. It reaches forward into the future when we will be safe and happy forever.

The Christmas season is often one of the busiest and most stressful times of the year, and it’s easy to lose sight of what makes it special. Helping us refocus on what’s truly important, well-known pastor and author John Piper leads readers through twenty-four short meditations on Advent. The devotionals - drawn from Piper’s extensive preaching and teaching ministry - lead readers to ponder afresh the birth of Jesus, Israel’s long-awaited Messiah and the Savior of the world.

As in previous years, Desiring God has put together a book based on the six sessions of their annual national conference. The 2011 event boasted an impressive line-up of speakers whose messages are now featured in this volume: David Platt, Louie Giglio, Michael Ramsden, Michael Oh, Ed Stetzer, and John Piper. The book is purposed to compel Christians to cross cultural and linguistic barriers to reach the lost with the gospel.

The central issue of Jesus' death is not the cause, but the meaning - God's meaning. That is what this book is about. John Piper has gathered from the New Testament 50 reasons. Not 50 causes, but 50 purposes - in answer to the most important question that each of us must face: What did God achieve for sinners like us in sending his Son to die?

Can a Christian-killer really endure 195 lashes from a heart of love? Can a mystic who thinks he was caught up into heaven be a model of lucid rationality? Can an ethnocentric Jew write the most beautiful call to reconciliation? Can a person who lives with the unceasing anguish of empathy be always rejoicing? Can a man's description of the horrors of human sin be exceeded by his delight in human splendor? Can a man with a backbone of steel be as tender as a nursing mother?

John Piper fires readers' passion for the centrality and supremacy of God by unfolding Calvin's exemplary zeal for the glory of God. God rests all too lightly on the church's mind in our time. Consequently, the self-saturation of his people has made God and his glory auxiliary, and his majesty has all but disappeared from the modern evangelical world. John Calvin saw a similar thing in his day, and it was at the root of his quarrel with Rome.

After grounding readers in the important truths of Christ's deity and the gospel, The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World strives to help believers understand how to share these truths in a postmodern society. As readers begin to apply the lessons from this book, they will gain a practical, biblical vision of ministry for the 21st-century world.