You can read, listen to or watch the entire message here.
This was not the main part of the message, but it was nonetheless a great point that John Piper made this past Sunday during his message at Bethlethem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. That is, seven reasons why we as believers and members of the church need small groups:
He has given pastors to the church “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12). I believe in what I do. And I believe that it is not enough. Here are the seven reasons I gave the small group leaders.
1. The impulse avoid painful growth by disappearing safely into the crowd in corporate worship is very strong.
2. The tendency toward passivity in listening to a sermon is part of our human weakness.
3. Listeners in a big group can more easily evade redemptive crises. If tears well up in your eyes in a small group, wise friends will gently find out why. But in a large gathering, you can just walk away from it.
4. Listeners in a large group tend to neglect efforts of personal application. The sermon may touch a nerve of conviction, but without someone to press in, it can easily be avoided.
5. Opportunity for questions leading to growth is missing. Sermons are not dialogue. Nor should they be. But asking questions is a key to understanding and growth. Small groups are great occasions for this.
6. Accountability for follow-through on good resolves is missing. But if someone knows what you intended to do, the resolve is stronger.
7. Prayer support for a specific need or conviction or resolve goes wanting. O how many blessings we do not have because we are not surrounded by a band of friends who pray for us.
I have enjoyed reading C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters” several times over the years. At the local library, I was even able to find this audiobook version, performed well by John Cleese. So I was very excited to hear that Focus on the Family has produced a new audio version, which will be out Oct. 15. Especially intriguing is that Andy Serkis, who made Gollum come to life so vividly in the “Lord of the Rings” movies, will be performing the role of Screwtape. Visit the link below the video clip to learn more.
Here is the description of the production from the Focus on the Family site:
From the award-winning audio drama team that brought you Radio Theatre’s Amazing Grace and The Chronicles of Narnia. In his enduringly popular masterpiece The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis re-imagines Hell as a gruesome bureaucracy. With spiritual insight and wry wit, Lewis suggests that demons, laboring in a vast enterprise, have horribly recognizable human attributes: competition, greed, and totalitarian punishment. Avoiding their own painful torture as well as a desire to dominate are what drive demons to torment their “patients.” The style and unique dark humor of The Screwtape Letters are retained in this full-cast dramatization, as is the original setting of London during World War II. The story is carried by the senior demon Screwtape (Andy Serkis) as he shares correspondence to his apprentice demon Wormwood. All 31 letters lead into dramatic scenes, set in either Hell or the real world with humans—aka “the patient,” as the demons say—along with his circle of friends and family. This Radio Theatre release also stars Geoffrey Palmer (Tomorrow Never Dies), Laura Michelle Kelly (Sweeney Todd), Eileen Page (The Secret Garden), and other world-class actors.
Like all our heroes here on this earth, David Robinson is not perfect. But the humility he displayed while being given the highest honor in his profession is refreshing and something we can aspire to. While many focused on the speech given by Michael Jordan on this night, it was Robinson who gave the memorable speech. Thanks, David.
John Piper tweeted this by quoting his wife Noel: One of my daughter’s heroines honored by one of my husband’s fav songs sung by one of my fav singers.
I love this song so much and the way it is sung by Fernando Ortega. All in all, just a beautiful video. Go with God and lean on Jesus.
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise, give me Jesus
Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus
When I am alone
When I am alone
When I am alone, give me Jesus
Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus
When I come to die
When I come to die
When I come to die, give me Jesus
Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus
James 3:10 says: Blessing and cursing come from the same mouth. My brothers, these things ought not to be.
This video is really discouraging in a way because it is a reminder of how we can deliver a load of garbage with the same mouth we deliver praises, all within the same day. It is a hard thing to realize how far we fall short.
The 2008 Desiring God National Conference, The Power of Words and the Wonder of God, dealt with how we use our words. Now a new book of essays based on that conference is available. Here is what the blurb at Desiring God says about it:
Words carry immeasurable significance: The universe was created with a word; Jesus healed and cast out demons with a word; rulers have risen and fallen by their words; Christians have worshiped through words of song, confession, and preaching. Even in our technological age, politics, education, business, and relationships center on words. Since the tongue is such a powerful force—for good or evil—we are wise to ask: What would homes, churches, schools, even the public square be like if we used words with Christian intentionality and eloquence?
The Power of Words and the Wonder of God seeks to answer this difficult question. In these chapters, derived from Desiring God’s 2008 national conference, John Piper, Sinclair Ferguson, and Mark Driscoll team with worship pastor Bob Kauflin, counselor Paul Tripp, and literature professor Daniel Taylor to help readers harness their tongues and appropriately command their silences for the glory of God and the ministry of the gospel.
We live in a charged age where our words can fly off our tongues (or fingertips) to a wide audience in a moment’s notice. The subject addressed in this book is important. We have a great and deadly tool at our disposal. We need wisdom in using it.
What does God not need? He doesn’t need proud people. He doesn’t need self-sufficient people. He doesn’t need people who are looking for their own glory. He does not need and so people like that are at odds with who God is.
This past Sunday afternoon, I had the joy of watching three people from my church be baptized. It is a wonderful thing to be a witness to this event in a Christian’s life because it points in a public way to the fact that God does a great thing in people’s live — he saves them — by first making them humble. John Piper, in his sermon from this past Sunday, says that humility “is the work of God under everything that makes all other good things in Christianity possible.” He gives just a few examples:
Faith. Would anyone depend on Christ as a needy, weak, and sinful person, if God hadn’t made him humble?
Worship. Would anyone earnestly make much of the worth of God, instead of craving to be made much of himself, if God hadn’t made him humble?
Obedience. Would anyone surrender his autonomy and submit obediently to the absolute authority of Scripture, if God had not made him humble?
Love. Would anyone seek the good of others at great cost to himself, if God hadn’t made him humble?
So, we are all in need of humility if we are to be of any good to God. The world, Piper reminds us, tells us that the best sort of courage is self-confidence. The humble person, however, is God-confident and lives his life not fearing man, but fearing God. Fearing men is a sign of pride, not humility. And because the humble person fears and loves God, that person works and is not passive. Remember what Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 15:10:
By the grace of God I am what I am . . . I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
Because we are freed from the chains of self esteem and the concerns of the world, God allows us to be productive, creative, industrious people who do great things for God’s sake, not our own.
The new documentary movie Collision, based on the series of debates by Christopher Hitchens (God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything) and evangelical pastor Doug Wilson will be released on DVD on Oct. 27. You can pre-order it now at Amazon.
I am very excited that one of my favorite artists, Matthew Smith, will be releasing this fall a new CD comprised on songs off two of his “road” albums. If you’re not familiar with him, what he does is take hymns — many that have been long forgotten — and refreshes the music and smoothes out in some cases archaic lyrics. Great lyrics are wed with great music. The song below is a perfect example. Guitarist Clint Wells provides a musical vehicle for profound lyrics written by Samuel Crossman. I love this song and what it says about a wonderful savior we have in Jesus. I hope it speaks to you as well.
My song is love unknown
My Savior’s love to me
Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take, frail flesh and die?
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take, frail flesh and die?
He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow
But men made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know
But oh my Friend, my Friend indeed
Who at my need His life did spend
But oh my Friend, my Friend indeed
Who at my need His life did spend
Here might I stay and sing
No story so divine
Never was love, dear King
Never was grief like Thine
This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend
This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise
I all my days will gladly spend
Today is the 500th anniversary of the birth of reformer John Calvin, an important man in the history of the Christian church. To help mark the occasion, the Desiring God blog is doing a nine-part series on his biography. Here is the first part:
Five hundred years ago today, he was born Jean Cauvin in Noyon, France—about 70 miles north of Paris. His father was Gerard, son of a barrelmaker and boatman. Gerard was a lawyer, and it was his law practice that brought him into the everyday sphere of the church.
The young Jean benefitted immensely through his father’s ecclesiastical connections. He was able to be educated privately with the children of the wealthy De Montmor family and eventually garnered church support for his further studies.
Gerard originally planned a career for his son in the church. But when things later soured with the dioceses, he would redirect his son toward law.
When Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, and unknowingly launched the Reformation in earnest, the young Calvin was a mere 8 years old. He likely heard very little, if anything, about the rebellious German monk until he left for university in Paris at age 14. There he would hear more.
As part of the celebration, Desiring God is, today only, offering THL Parker’s 1954 biography of John Calvin, called “Portrait of Calvin,” for only $2. You can also download it for free. Why care about a man who lived hundreds of years ago and is not without controversy? I think John Piper gives good reason in his foreward to “Portrait of Calvin.”
“I am eager for people to know Calvin not because he was without flaws, or because he was the most influential theologian of the last 500 years (which he was), or because he shaped Western culture (which he did), but because he took the Bible so seriously, and because what he saw on every page was the majesty of God and the glory of Christ.”
Rockstanding 
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