The Radical Christian Sacrifice

The best part IMHO

Christ- supreme, glorious, magnificent, personal and precious is that reward.
He is God’s final revelation.
He is the heir of all things.
He is the creator of the world.
He is the radiance of God’s glory.
He is the exact imprint of God’s nature.
He upholds the universe by the word of his power.
He made purification for sins
He sits at the right hand of the Majesty
He is God, enthroned forever, with a scepter of uprightness.
He is worshiped by angels.
His rule will have no end.
His joy is above all other beings in the universe.
He took on human flesh.
He was crowned with glory and honor because of his suffering.
He was the founder of our salvation.
He was made perfect in all his obedience by his suffering.
He destroyed the one who has the power of death, the devil.
He delivered us from the bondage of fear.
He is a merciful and faithful high priest.
He made propitiation for sins.
He is sympathetic because of his own trials.
He never sinned.
He offered up loud cries and tears with reverent fear, and God heard him.
He became the source of eternal salvation.
He holds his priesthood by virtue of an indestructible life.
He appears in the presence of God on our behalf.
He will come a second time to save us who are eagerly waiting for him.
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

John Piper recently preached a message to a group of Christian counselors and his opening statements are, to me, simply astounding. That the same sins he should be struggling with are so similar to mine. Surely apart from Grace we are all undone.

Beholding Glory and Becoming Whole: Seeing and Savoring God as the Heart of Mental Health

So to spare you some analysis, I will tell you that you are listening to as sinner. A man

who must crucify the love of praise every day;
who struggles with the same adolescent fear at age 63 that he had at 15, the fear of looking foolish;
who is prone to feel self-pity and pout when he doesn’t get loved the way he wants;
who is almost never sure he has used his time in the best way and therefore struggles with guilt;
who is short on compassion and long on critical analysis;
who can freeze up emotionally when he’s tired, and feel instinctively that it’s someone else’s fault;
who loves to praise God in the great assembly and feels a constraint on his spirit in his own living room;
who has loved his wife of forty years imperfectly and spent with her over three of those years with a Christian counselor trying to become better images of Christ and the church;
and who never feels sure that his motives are pure, including right now, for why he is telling you all this.
At one level, I want you to be open to what I have to say, and I thought that being open with you might help you be open to me. At another level, a better one I hope, I want you to see why I love the grace of God. He has infinite warrant to throw me away. And he hasn’t done it. So the theme of this conference, Grace and Truth, is very precious to me. “The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life” (Psalm 63:3)

- John Piper

You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

- Isaiah 26: 3-4

Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of REFRESHING may come from the PRESENCE of the Lord

- Acts 2:19

You are made to find your ultimate joy not in being significant but in knowing the infinitely significant one.

- John Piper

Here in the silence I say a prayer
Though I've never seen you somehow I know you're there
You're in the faces of the people that I meet
You're as silent as the Earth beneath my feet
So if I should complain that all I have is not enough
Forgive me, I've been given so much

And I am blessed, every time I look into my baby's eyes
I think of all the friends who've touched my life
I realise in a world where some have more and some have less
I have love and I am blessed

So many changes this world can put you through
Sometimes it's hard to find a way if a heart can get confused
But then I hold you and it all falls into place
You've given me what time cannot erase
So when I'm feeling down or feel sorry for myself
I look around and it's easy to tell

That I am blessed, every time I look into my baby's eyes
I think of all the friends who touched my life
I realise in a world where some have more and some have less
I have love and I am blessed

Every time I look into my baby's eyes

I realise I think of all the friends who touched my life

And I am blessed (I am blessed)
Every time I look into my baby's eyes (I look into your eyes)
I think of all the friends who have touched my life
I realise (I realise) you've given me such peace and happiness
In this world where some have more and some have less
I am loved
And I am blessed

John Piper on Holy Emulation

An interesting post for all to read here

The Supremacy of Christ

[A]nd what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

- Ephesians 1: 19-21

"There is not one square inch on planet Earth over which the Risen Christ does not say, 'Mine! And I rule it. I am supreme over it.'"

- Abraham Kuyper

John Piper on Augustine and Lust

Some Thoughts

A video that Charles introduced to me some time back. Finally decided to post it here for the benefit of all who pass by. Will comment on some thoughts I have on it later, God willing.

The Prosperity Gospel and John Piper

"God is most glorified in you when you are most satsified in Him
in the midst of loss, not prosperity"
- John Piper

*Edit* I dun think I will comment on this just yet. Hopefully will do so
sometime during the coming week