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40f27e1
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If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.
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hunger
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John Piper |
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5388976
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If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full.
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John Piper |
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eb378df
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Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It's a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel.
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theology
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John Piper |
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c347137
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What is sin? It is the glory of God not honored. The holiness of God not reverenced. The greatness of God not admired. The power of God not praised. The truth of God not sought. The wisdom of God not esteemed. The beauty of God not treasured. The goodness of God not savored. The faithfulness of God not trusted. The commandments of God not obeyed. The justice of God not respected. The wrath of God not feared. The grace of God not cherished. ..
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god
what-is-sin
sin
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John Piper |
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3be4177
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The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours.
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John Piper |
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97d3612
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My feelings are not God. God is God. My feelings do not define truth. God's word defines truth. My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives. And sometimes - many times - my feelings are out of sync with the truth. When that happens - and it happens every day in some measure - I try not to bend the truth to justify my imperfect feelings, but rather, I plead with God: Purify my perceptions of your truth and transform my fee..
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John Piper |
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9c6a8eb
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All heroes are shadows of Christ
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heroes
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John Piper |
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5f324ed
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It is about the greatness of God, not the significance of man. God made man small and the universe big to say something about himself.
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John Piper |
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7d39b30
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The wisdom of God devised a way for the love of God to deliver sinners from the wrath of God while not compromising the righteousness of God.
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John Piper |
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ef01fe3
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Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback. And the point of biblical stories like Joseph and Job and Esther and Ruth is to help us feel in our bones (not just know in our heads) that God is for us in all these strange turns. God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managin..
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John Piper |
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797069a
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Books don't change people; paragraphs do, Sometimes even sentences.
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john-piper
reading-books
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John Piper |
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ac0012c
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The critical question for our generation--and for every generation-- is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not th..
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John Piper |
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710cbd3
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The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night.
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god
fasting
nibbling
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John Piper |
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61ad708
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Desire that your life count for something great! Long for your life to have eternal significance. Want this! Don't coast through life without a passion.
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John Piper |
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8775c11
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I am wired by nature to love the same toys that the world loves. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call earth "home." Before you know it, I am calling luxeries "needs" and using my money just the way unbelievers do. I begin to forget the war. I don't think much about people perishing. Missions and unreached people drop out of my mind. I stop dreaming about the triumphs of grace. I sink into a secular mind-set t..
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money
fitting-in
mind-set
worldliness
missions
materialism
sickness
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John Piper |
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6316426
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The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness. Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon and contemplating your own greatness is pathological. At such moments we are made for a magnificent joy that comes from outside ourselves.
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John Piper |
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fe942a1
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He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
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John Piper |
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787cadf
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Your daddy is standing in a swimming pool out a little bit from the edge. You are, let's say, three years old and standing on the edge of the pool. Daddy holds out his arms to you and says, "Jump, I'll catch you. I promise." Now, how do you make your daddy look good at that moment? Answer: trust him and jump. Have faith in him and jump. That makes him look strong and wise and loving. But if you won't jump, if you shake your head and run awa..
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inspirational
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John Piper |
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bdf80ca
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Suffering in the path of Christian obedience, with joy - because the steadfast love of the Lord is better than life (Psalm 63:3) - is the clearest display of the worth of God in our lives. Therefore, faith-filled suffering is essential in this world for the most intense, authentic worship. When we are most satisfied with God in suffering, he will be most glorified in us in worship. Our problem is not styles of music. Our problem is styles o..
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John Piper |
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d0145d1
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Your daddy is standing in a swimming pool out a little bit from the edge. You are, let's say, three years old and standing on the edge of the pool. Daddy holds out his arms to you and says, "Jump, I'll catch you. I promise." Now, how do you make your daddy look good at that moment? Answer: trust him and jump. Have faith in him and jump. That makes him look strong and wise and loving. But if you won't jump, if you shake your head and run awa..
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John Piper |
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31f84cd
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But whatever you do, find the God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated passion of your life, and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it. And you will make a difference that lasts. You will not waste your life.
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passion
making-a-difference
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John Piper |
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6591da8
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There is hope in forgiveness
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hope
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John Piper |
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80248e5
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God is not an employer looking for employees. He is an Eagle looking for people who will take refuge under his wings. He is looking for people who will leave father and mother and homeland or anything else that may hold them back from a life of love under the wings of Jesus.
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grace
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John Piper |
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7d6b196
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My joy grows with every soul that seeks the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Remember, you have one life. That's all. You were made for God. Don't waste it.
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John Piper |
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3db4050
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Don't follow a defeated foe. Follow Christ. It is costly. You will be an exile in this age. But you will be free.
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religion
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John Piper |
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81835bb
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Christ did not die to make good works merely possible or to produce a half-hearted pursuit. He died to produce in us a passion for good deeds. Christian purity is not the mere avoidance of evil, but the pursuit of good.
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John Piper |
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97d471b
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God created me--and you--to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion--namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life.
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god
purpose
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John Piper |
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11bb4b9
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America is the first culture in jeopardy of amusing itself to death.
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amusement
excess
entertainment
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John Piper |
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a754f6a
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Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. What was once foolishness to us--a crucified God--must become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this world.
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cross
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John Piper |
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f589f85
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I will not waste my life! I will finish my course and finish it well. I will display the Gospel of the grace of God in all I do. I will run my race to the end." - Paul"
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John Piper |
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50b2311
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He shook my dozing soul and threw the cold water of reality in my face, so that life and God and heaven and hell broke into my world with glory and horror. (on CS Lewis)
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John Piper |
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e750737
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God without Christ is no God.
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John Piper |
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1119a2a
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You get one pass at life. That's all. Only one. And the lasting measure of that life is Jesus Christ.
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John Piper |
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d81a246
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You don't have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, perhaps just one, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing.
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John Piper |
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25b05f6
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The answer, The answer, my friend, is not yours to invent or create. It will be decided for you. It is outside you. It is real and objective and firm. One day you will hear it. You don't create it. You don't define it. It comes to you, and sooner or later you conform to it--or bow to it.
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John Piper |
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17f0464
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Husbands are not Christ. But they are called to be like him. And the specific point of likeness is the husband's readiness to suffer for his wife's good without threatening or abusing her. This includes suffering to protect her from any outside forces that would harm her, as well as suffering disappointments of abuses even from her. This kind of love is possible because Christ died for both husband and wife. Their sins are forgiven. Neither..
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John Piper |
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343ad18
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He has made me wary of chronological snobbery. That is, he showed me that newness is no virtue and oldness is no vice. Truth and beauty and goodness are not determined by when they exist. Nothing is inferior for being old, and nothing is valuable for being modern. This has freed me from the tyranny of novelty and opened for me the wisdom of the ages.
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old
value
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John Piper |
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250da99
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the only legitimate reason that kingship is not attractive to us is because in this age and this world the only kings available are finite and sinful. Listen to C. S. Lewis describe why he believes in democracy: A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that everyone deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending..
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god
kingship
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John Piper |
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8fb18d3
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Don't be surprised. There is nothing new under the sun. Only endless repackagings
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John Piper |
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37a6e5b
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We are not as Christ-centered and cross-cherishing as we should be, because we do not ponder the truth that everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good, was purchased by the sufferings of Christ.
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religion
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John Piper |
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ac34322
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Your mind was made to know and love God.
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mind
god
love
purpose
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John Piper |
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eb49040
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God will not turn away from doing you good. He will keep on doing good. He doesn't do good to His children sometimes and bad to them other times. He keeps on doing good and He never will stop doing good for ten thousand ages of ages. When things are going bad that does not mean God has stopped doing good. It means He is shifting things around to get them in place for more good, if you will go on loving Him.
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John Piper |
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34ab8b2
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It was becoming clearer and clearer that if I wanted to come to the end of my life and not say, "I've wasted it!" then I would need to press all the way in, and all the way up, to the ultimate purpose of God and join him in it. If my life was to have a single, all-satisfying, unifying passion, it would have to be God's passion."
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god
purpose
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John Piper |
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11ae0ad
|
The ultimate good of the gospel is seeing and savoring the beauty and value of God. God's wrath and our sin obstruct that vision and that pleasure. You can't see and savor God as supremely satisfying while you are full of rebellion against Him and He is full of wrath against you. The removal of this wrath and this rebellion is what the gospel is for. The ultimate aim of the gospel is the display of God's glory and the removal of every obsta..
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John Piper |