'The God Who Is There' by D.A. Carson (book, audio and video, and study guide)

There are many good books that should be read for both personal and professional profit. If there's only one book you read, however, let it be the Bible, for it warns of eternal peril and promises eternal profit. After the Bible, ensure you read books that help you understand the Bible. "The God Who is There" by D.A. Carson is such a book. I could recommend so many more books that go deeper than Carson's book, which surveys the Bible and shares its main message in 14 chapters, but Carson is a good place to start. Check out the link below for more information about the book, audio and video messages upon which the book is based, and a study guide. If you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will not regret it.

"The God Who is There" by D.A. Carson (book, audio and video, and study guide)

You may also view previews at the link above. A preview for the first session is below.

The God Who Is There - Part 1. The God Who Made Everything (Preview) from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Christianity is for imperfect people

"People who want a religion that will merely affirm them will find Christianity disappointing. Christianity is about repentance. Now, if you believe you have never sinned, you may believe that you don’t need to repent. If you do have sins to repent of, then Christianity is for you. Christianity is the religion for sinners. Every other religion on the planet will explain everything you must do to make yourself right with God. Christianity alone will explain that you have already failed; that, though majestically made in God’s image, you have selfishly turned in on yourself and rebelled against him; and that your only hope lies in acknowledging your sin and crying out to God to forgive you for Christ’s sake. Friend, according to the Bible, there has been only one person who had no sin to repent of. There has been only one on whom God’s justice had no claim. At the same time, there has been only one who bore the punishment for the sin of whoever would repent and turn to him."

(Mark Dever, "The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made," pages 209-210)

Lewis on Love and God

C.S. Lewis on Love and God:

“(Sensual love) ceases to be a devil when it ceases to be a god. So many things—nay every real thing—is good if only it will be humble and ordinate.” (from a 1940 letter)

“When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” (from a 1952 letter)

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Andrew Peterson - Dancing in the Minefields

Check out Andrew Peterson’s song "Dancing in the Minefields," which is about the joys and trials of marriage from his new album "Counting Stars."



(HT: Justin Taylor)

How God loves!

God's love is not sentimental or passive. Consider the following regarding God's love:

"The love of God is not God's making much of us, but God's saving us from self-centeredness so that we can enjoy making much of him forever. And our love to others is not our making much of them, but helping them to find satisfaction in making much of God. True love aims at satisfying people in the glory of God. Any love that terminates on man is eventually destructive. It does not lead people to the only lasting joy, namely, God. Love must be God-centered, or it is not true love; it leaves people without their final hope of joy." (John Piper, October 14, 2000 article titled "The Goal of God's Love May Not Be What You Think It Is")

"The love of God is his doing whatever needs to be done, at whatever cost to himself or to us, so that we will see and be satisfied by the love of God in Christ forever and ever." (John Piper, November 18, 2001 sermon titled "Thankful for the Love of God! Why?"

In light of Piper's comments, consider how much God loves you if you have any love for God in your heart and strive to obey God on his terms. If you don't love God, why not? There's no one and nothing more worthy of our trust, hope and love.

Below is a music video of the song "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan from his album titled "The Medicine." The song helps communicate in song some of what John Piper points out in prose and what prayerful reading of God's Word will cause us to ponder. The lyrics are posted below the video.

How He Loves

he is jealous for me
loves like a hurricane
i am a tree
bending beneath
the weight of his wind and mercy
when all of a sudden
i am unaware of these
afflictions ecclipsed by glory
and i realize just how
beautiful you are
and how great
your affections are for me

oh how he loves us so
oh how he loves us
how he loves us so
yeah he loves us
oh how he loves us

so we are his portion
and he is our prize
drawn to redemption by the grace
in his eyes
if grace is an ocean
we're all sinking
so heaven meets earth
like a sloppy wet kiss
and my heart turns violently
inside of my chest
i don't have time
to maintain these regrets
when I think about the way

that he loves us
oh how he loves us
yeah he loves us
oh how he loves us

Check out McMillan's album "The Medicine" on iTunes or Amazon.

What one thing would you say to rising church leaders?

John Piper answers that question in the following video:



His answer is sound advice for all people: Make the Bible the supreme intellectual and emotional authority in your life, for the sake of magnifying Christ in the fullness of his person and his work, so that generation after generation preserves the foundation and the capstone of the glory of God in Christ, and the grace that is the apex of that glory.

See an edited transcript of the audio at the Desiring God Blog.

Christ is All

Here's a prayer titled "Christ is All" from "Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions" edited by Arthur Bennett (pages 32-33):

O LOVER TO THE UTTERMOST,

May I read the meltings of thy heart to me
in the manger of thy birth
in the garden of thy agony,
in the cross of thy suffering,
in the tomb of thy resurrerction,
in the heaven of thy intercession.

Bold in this thought I defy my adversary,
tread down his temptations,
resist his schemings,
renounce the world,
am valiant for truth.

Deepen in me a sense of my holy relationship
to thee,
as spiritual Bridegrooom,
as Jehovah's Fellow,
as sinners' Friend.

I think of thy glory and my vileness,
thy majesty and my meanness,
thy beauty and my deformity,
thy purity and my filth,
thy righteousness and my iniquity.

Thou has loved me everlastingly, unchangeably,
my I love thee as I am loved;

Thou has given thyself for me,
may I give myself to thee;

Thou hast died for me,
may I live to thee,
in every moment of my time,
in every movement of my mind,
in every pulse of my heart.

May I never dally with the world
and its allurements,
but walk by thy side,
listen to thy voice,
be clothed with thy graces,
and adorned with thy righteousness.

Losing the gospel

"Losing the gospel doesn't happen all at once; it's much more like a four generation process too:

The gospel is accepted —>

The gospel is assumed —>

The gospel is confused —>

The gospel is lost.”

(J. Mack Stiles, "Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living, and Speaking the Gospel")

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble

"God has surely promised His grace to the humbled: that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled till he realizes that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will and works, and depends absolutely on the will, counsel, pleasure and work of Another -- God alone. As long as a man is persuaded that he can make even the smallest contribution to his salvation, he remains self-confident and does not utterly despair of himself, and so is not humbled before God. Such a man plans out for himself - or at least hopes and longs for - a position, an occasion, a work, which shall bring him final salvation, but which will not. Conversely, the man who is out of doubt that his destiny depends entirely on the will of God, despairs entirely of himself, chooses nothing for himself, but waits for God to work in him; and such a man is very near to grace for his salvation." (Martin Luther, "Bondage of the Will")

Christ the Word

Here's a prayer titled "Christ the Word" from "Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions" edited by Arthur Bennett (pages 30-31):

MY FATHER,

In a world of created changeable things,
Christ and his Word alone remain unshaken.

O to forsake all creatures,
to rest as a stone on him the foundation,
to abide in him, be borne up by him!

For all my mercies come through Christ,
who has designed, purchased, promised,
effected them.

How sweet it is to be near him, the Lamb,
filled with holy affections!

When I sin against thee I cross thy will, love, life,
and have no comforter, no creature, to go to.

My sin is not so much this or that particular evil,
but my continual separation, disunion,
distance from thee,
and having a loose spirit towards thee.

But thou has given me a present, Jesus thy Son,
as Mediator between thyself and my soul,
as middle-man who in a pit
holds both him below and him above,
for only he can span the chasm breached by sin,
and satisfy divine justice.

May I always lay hold upon this Mediator,
as a realized object of faith,
and alone worthy by his love to bridge the gulf.

Let me know that he is dear to me by his Word;
I am one with him by the Word on his part,
and by faith on mine;

If I oppose the Word I oppose my Lord
when he is most near;

If I receive the Word I receive my Lord
wherein he is nigh.

O thou who hast the hearts of all men
in thine hand,
form my heart according to the Word,
according to the image of thy Son,

So shall Christ the Word, and his Word,
be my strength and comfort.