Desiring God - Daily Blog
DG Daily Blog is produced by Desiring God ministries. Keep update to date on the current ministries at Desiring God.
Safe and Uncondemned for the Glory of God
20 May 2012, 5:00 am
It was almost nine years ago when Owen Shrameck died. His parents, a young couple from Bethlehem Baptist Church, had moved to the Middle East to work as cross-cultural peacemakers. Owen was born at 24 weeks and the medical context reduced his chance of survival to 10 percent. He lived on this earth for only 20 minutes.
After Owen's parents flew back to the States for his burial, John Piper preached his funeral sermon and comforted his family with the truth of the Bible. Pastor John listed eight propositions about who Owen is and his legacy for the glory of God.
- Owen Shramek was and is a human being created in God's image.
- Owen Shramek was and is your son.
- Owen Shramek is safe and uncondemned in the presence of Jesus Christ.
- Owen Shramek was created to glorify God.
- The length of Owen Shramek's twenty-minute life on earth was virtually indistinguishable from the length of ours.
- Owen Shramek is happier today than the happiest person on earth has ever been.
- Owen Shramek was a test for your faith.
- Owen Shramek is a gift to you and the Middle East.
In his book, The Hardest Sermons You'll Ever Have to Preach, which includes this story and full sermon, Bryan Chapell writes:
Pastor Piper assumes two critical burdens in this message: 1) proving from Scripture that a newborn is incapable of expressing faith can, nonetheless, be eternally safe and uncondemned, and 2) proving from Scripture that the short life of a newborn can bring glory to God and change the world. (119–126)
Suffering such as this demands the voice of God be delivered with clarity and love. Along with Owen's parents, to honor Owen and for the glory of God, we commend this sermon to you in the hopes that "the truth here continue to speak grace and comfort from our good and kind Father."
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How to Thrive in College
19 May 2012, 1:00 pm
College should be a temporary season of academic preparation and personal growth to propel a lifetime of effective service to God and neighbor. It should be a launching pad into all that goes with responsible Christian adulthood. Yet for some it’s a time when they abandon the Christian faith, displaying that they never really belonged to Christ (1 John 2:19). For others, their faith remains intact, but they waste their college years with video games, partying, and other frivolities — an expensive vacation funded by Mom, Dad, and (often) debilitating student loans.
Today, seven out of ten high school graduates immediately go on to college, but about 30% will never become sophomores, and almost half will not have graduated even six years later.1 Many who do graduate move right back home with their parents, assuming little responsibility and armed with little ambition for Christ.
Own Your Faith
I’m convinced that you should not just
survive college but
thrive at college. Don’t just
maintain your faith, but really come to
own it — growing thick, strong roots (1 Timothy 4:12). Don’t just perpetually visit churches but find one to
join — one that clearly proclaims the gospel, practices vibrant worship, and welcomes you into authentic iron-sharpening-iron community. You need a good church off campus as much as you need strong Christian friendships on campus.
Don’t trifle with sin; stay clear of impurity (Ephesians 5:3). God is not mocked; we never get away with anything (Galatians 6:7–8). Be quick to repent when you stumble. Practice being deeply satisfied with all that God is for you in Jesus and the pleasures at God’s right hand will overwhelm the deceitful siren calls of sin (Psalm 16:11). Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life (Proverbs 4:23).
Walk With the Wise
Preempt loneliness with a strategy to find Christian community on campus, particularly at secular schools. But even at Christian schools, be intentional about cultivating relationships that most provoke you to live fully for Christ (Proverbs 13:20). College is a time to establish life-long friendships — not just the kind you have a great time with (good as that is) but the kind that spur you on to love, trust, and follow God. Pursue relationships that help you put away childishness, grow in maturity, increasingly make wise choices, and “expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.”
College is a time for assuming responsibility, for becoming a disciplined steward of time and money, for recognizing that recreation is a gift of God to be enjoyed in measure but never to dominate our lives. Rather, when properly pursued, recreation empowers us for our work rather than distracting us from our work.
Be Trained to Make a Difference
Don’t just squeak by in your classes with as little effort as possible, but strive to discover your calling — what God uniquely wired you to do — and to love God with all your mind by giving it your very best (Ecclesiastes 9:10). As a student, remember that your work is learning (studying) so that you can, for a lifetime, increasingly love God with a well-trained mind, a mind that can identify key questions, pursue understanding, dissect arguments, discover logical fallacies, and communicate effectively.
College is an opportunity to get the training you need to make a difference in the world — by becoming a business person, an engineer, a doctor, a teacher, a historian, a physical therapist, a husband, a wife, a parent, who sees God’s lordship extending to every area of life and every corner of the globe.
It’s a time to take the gifts God has given you and develop them into finely-tuned skills — the kind that can really serve and benefit other people (some of whom may even pay you). It’s a time to become a man or woman with unshakable character and faithfulness — the kind that can be given increasing areas of responsibility, and who can eventually rise to leadership. It’s a time to honor all that your parents did for you by learning to own your decisions, even your mistakes, as you embrace a full-orbed, God-dependent adulthood.
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Motivating Joy
19 May 2012, 5:00 am
Puritan Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity:
If anything can make us rise off our bed of sloth, and serve God with all our might, it should be this, the hope of our near enjoyment of God forever.
(Design submitted by Jennifer Knight.)
Previous images —
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Degree in Hand, More Desperate Than Ever
18 May 2012, 6:00 pm
Graduation is a high moment. It's like a wedding of sorts. All the many investments — the questions needing answers, the costs needing to be weighed — rise together in a public crescendo of accomplishment. Congratulations, here's your degree.
Tonight I graduate from seminary. The page of official training closes, and the real-world chapter, so it seems, is opened. It will be a high moment, indeed, and it would probably be a "higher" one if I was going into anything other than vocational ministry.
It has been four years of intense training, of deep learning and wrestling and sharpening of gifts, and now it's finished. But I won't feel strong when I walk through the exit — and perhaps that’s a mark of a good seminary experience. In fact, tonight when I gather with my band of brothers to walk across the stage, shake hands, smile, and receive our degrees, I will feel quite weak.
Two years ago I didn't want it to be this way. Then, I hoped that come graduation I’d be stepping out into the world of local church ministry as an evangelical Rambo. I wanted to be an ecclesiological blue chip, trained with all the skills and ready to play. But, no, that's not how it is now. I feel worn out, a little like an old dog, the grad with the asterisk, more aware of my failures now than ever before.
I feel weak.
And here's the thing: It seems this is exactly how God wants it to be. Remember what Paul said? “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27)
Presumption has been decimated. Yes, God give us godly ambitions, please — I have some and want more. But before I can set my sights on changing the world for the glory of God, I need to wake up tomorrow morning. And I can't do that on my own. And I need to not ruin my children’s lives by being an absentee dad under the same roof. And I can't get this right on my own. I need to continue seeking God himself for who he is before I skip to expounding his word for others. And I can't produce these affections on my own.
I am desperate for him. Degree in hand, and more desperate than ever.
I have learned so many really good things in seminary — too many to count — and above them all, as the summary banner, I have learned how to stay Christian. What I mean is that I have learned to follow Jesus and be satisfied in all that God is, amid the stress of due dates and assignments and responsibilities outside the classroom that make the other stuff seem like drivel. I have gotten to know God more. I have learned of his faithfulness, how time after time after time he comes through. How he keeps good on his promises. I have learned that ministry is about pleasure and the real joy isn't found in our achievement, but in God. And despite my weaknesses, despite my leadership foibles and occasional illegitimate totality transfers (HT: D. A. Carson), the obstacle that keeps me from this greatest joy has already been overcome. Jesus Christ, the righteous, suffered for us the unrighteous that he might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18). God has made me his, and he is enough.
So though I may not feel strong, give me more of this kind of weakness. I think this is what seminary is supposed to do to you.
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"Fifty Reasons" eBook – Free in Eight Languages
18 May 2012, 4:31 pm
If you've explored our Resource Library, you've likely discovered our Online Books section, which contains over 60 John Piper titles available in English as free downloads.
What you may not have discovered is the tab that enables you to sort them "By Language," which ultimately reveals a list of 25 other languages in which you can find free ebooks.
One of the most popular titles between these languages is Piper's book Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, which is currently available for download in 8 different tongues:
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English – Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die
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German – Fünfzig Gründe, warum er kam, um zu sterben
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Hindi – पचास कारण की यीशु क्यों मरने आया
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Hungarian – Ötven ok, amiért Krisztus meghalt
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Persian – پنجاه دلیل چرا عیسی به دنیا آمد تا مصلوب شود
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Russian – Пятьдесят причин, по которым Христу надлежало пострадать и умереть
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Swahili – Je, Kwa Nini Kristo Alikufa Msalabani?
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Telugu – [title doesn't paste well]
(A sample is available in Traditional Chinese – 基督受死的50個理由)
Offering free translated ebooks is just one more way we're aiming to reach the world with the life-changing message that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
Related posts:
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A Celebration of Biblical Masculinity
18 May 2012, 12:45 pm
I live in a culture that admires a man’s earning power, and his fertility, and his ability to rule his domain with an iron fist.
While Scripture certainly calls for a Christ-like masculinity that provides for and protects his family, the Bible takes a wrecking ball to the culture-based ideals of masculinity that are celebrated around the world.
By God’s grace, I enjoy the fruits of living with a man who demonstrates biblical masculinity. This is the kind of masculinity that emerges from the gospel, points back to the gospel, and celebrates the gospel in my home.
Unashamed
The masculinity I appreciate as a wife is of far greater value than wealth-earning power. It’s a masculinity that is unashamed of the gospel which is the power of God (Romans 1:16).
The unashamed masculinity I enjoy in my home leaves a legacy that is more enduring than prolific fertility. It’s masculinity that fervently loves others from a heart that has been born again, born not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable. True masculinity is reborn through the living and abiding word of God.
The unashamed masculinity I love to follow in my home is far more impressive than macho pride. It’s masculinity that is willing to take the painful shrapnel in the battle against his own sin, rather than run from sin and hide in the comfort of silence. It is a masculinity that willingly exposes its life to the iron-sharpening-iron of open and honest male accountability relationships.
The unashamed masculinity that guards the hearts in my home puts away rash, cutting words that pierce like a sword. My husband’s Christ-honoring masculinity understands the power of words, and he uses words to bring healing to me and our children.
The unashamed masculinity I cherish in my home is such that fixes its eyes on Jesus and turns its eyes away from all the vain things of this world that hold a potent charm over other men. My husband’s Christ-honoring masculinity flees from promises whispered by a hiss.
The unashamed masculinity I need in my home is concerned that others find their delight in God. Nothing quite says, “I love you” to me than when my husband is willing to humbly stand up to the things I pursue that obstruct my everlasting joy in God. His loving masculinity reassures me of Christ’s atonement made on my behalf, and of the privilege I have to boldly approach the throne of grace.
Unashamed masculinity has less to do with how many horses a man owns, or how fast he can run. Unashamed masculinity is about what a man does with the gospel.
Where can you see this unashamed masculinity? You see it whenever a man has peered into the empty tomb and found new motivation to lay down his own life to spread the gospel into the souqs of Casablanca, into the office spaces in Dallas, into the cafes in Geneva, into the shantytowns of Mumbai, into the barrios of Sao Paulo, and into the universities of Toronto.
My Unashamed Husband
My dear, godly, husband once explained to someone that he wasn’t able to shake hands because of the nerve disease in his arms. This person said, “That’s awful! Everyone can tell a real man by the firm grip of his handshake.”
I just smiled to myself.
I’ve watched my husband find his strength in the joy of the Lord. He has a firm grip on grace. And I can testify that he is “a real man” by his unashamed passion for the gospel.
When he cares for our family, our church, and our city with the gospel, he grabs hold of the gates of hell and shakes them without fear and without shame.
That is the kind of gospel-centered masculinity that I thank God for, and it’s the masculinity that I want to celebrate.
_______________
Other posts by Gloria Furman —
