At this very moment, you are running a race. You are running a race even if you are sitting on the bus reading these words on your phone, even if you are reading this to take a break from the drudgery of your work. Everywhere and at all times you are running the race of…
When I was in my early 20s, one of my friends had a sudden experience of spiritual growth and enthusiasm. Suddenly, he had a new fervor for the Lord and a fresh desire to serve him. He began using new words and imaginative phrases to describe his relationship with God and his longing to live…
“Productivity? But I’m a stay-at-home mom!” That’s roughly how Aileen replied when we sat down to talk about the fact that our lives were veering out of control. We were emerging from an especially busy season but coming up to what promised to be an even busier one. Our son was ready to begin high…
A friend asked the question: How do I pray for unbelievers? How do I pray effectively? I trust that every Christian regularly prays for family or friends or colleagues or neighbors who do not yet know the Lord. And while we can and must pray for matters related to their lives and circumstances, the emphasis…
“I’m not afraid of failure. I’m afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter.” You may recognize those words as belonging to the great missionary William Carey who was giving voice to thoughts many of us have had at one time or another. There are a lot of things in life we could do, there…
The effects of extremism have been on display all weekend. Even this morning they are splashed across every television screen, every news site, the front page of every newspaper. The attacks in Paris have shown us extremism at its most brutal and bloody, the kind that celebrates death, destruction, and mayhem. But did you know…
We tend to react to new technologies in one of two ways: Wide-eyed terror or breathless excitement. Some people look at that new gadget and see it as the enemy, the latest in a long line of innovations that really only undermine our humanity or captivate us with bells and whistles. These people are suspicious…
Today I am continuing this series on getting things done. Yesterday we saw that we exist to bring glory to God, and that, as Christians, we bring glory to God when we do good works for other people. Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a…
They are questions I receive often: “Do you ever sleep? Do you work all the time? Do you ever stop?” There seems to be this impression among certain people that either I am an unrepentant workaholic or that I am remorselessly neglectful toward life’s other responsibilities. The truth is far less sordid: I have invested…
We are not God. That seems obvious when we consider it and yet so often we act as if we actually are God, or gods, at least. John Piper talks about this and many of its implications in one of his meditations from Pierced by the Word. Here is what he says: We are not…
Rick Holland kicked off the final session by introducing John Piper as a man who has emphasized church history and a teacher who stands between two worlds, the historical world and our contemporary world. The Resolved organizers asked him to provide a historical address based on a figure from church history. And, of course, Jonathan…