Missional-Life

If at the end of your life you could say one thing to the next generation of church leaders, what might it be?

This is risky, because I know how it could be misused by people who don’t like me anyway. But I think I’m going to say to them on my death bed, “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.”

I’m a Calvinist, and I’m not going to go there, because I believe I got my Calvinism from the Bible. If I didn’t get it from the Bible, then I don’t want people to be Calvinists. So it seems better to say, “Hold fast to the Bible. Base everything on the Bible. If you are going to criticize somebody, criticize them from the Bible. If you are going to affirm somebody, affirm them from the Bible. If you are going to do a strategy, do it from the Bible. Be a Bible saturated people.” That’s what will make for long term staying power for the gospel.

I know this is going to be called bibliolatry, and people will say, “You worship the Bible, not God.” Bologna on that. People who reject the Bible for God become idolaters. The only God worthy of knowing and loving is the one we meet in and discover through the Bible. I do want him to be everything, and the Bible is secondary compared to him; but if we try to say him or something about him without stressing the foundation of the Bible, then we will lose what we are trying to preserve after a generation.

John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

This youtube click was circulated on facebook a couple of weeks ago, but for those of you who missed it–it’s amazing!

Here is an extract from John Piper’s excellent book “Don’t Waste Your Life”

I love the provocative nature of this challenge! It would be easy to justify the decisions of the couple in Piper’s story, but don’t be too quick to. Allow the provocation and challenge to sift your heart motives. Don’t Waste Your Life!

Yesterday a good guy from our church led us in communion. He opened up the communion by applying John Piper’s worship quote to communion. He said… “our times spent round the communion table should be times of gravity and gladness”. Gravity and the magnitude of what Christ both gave up and accomplished for us. Gladness at the wonderful inheritance that is now our due to his sacrificial death for us. What a fitting description!

“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. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the peebles you drop to becomewaves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on into eternity, you don’t need to have a high IQ. You don’t have  to have good looks or riches or come from a fine family or a fine school. Instead you have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things–or one great amm-embracing thing–and be set on fire by them.” – John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life, Pg. 44

John Piper at his best!

John Piper…

“The gospel is a message in words. Paradoxically, words are heard and glory is seen. Therefore, Paul is saying (see 2 Cor 4:3-4) that we see the glory of Christ not mainly with our eyes but through our ears.” (p. 112)

John Piper …

“God did not ordain the cross (Luke 22:22) of Christ or create the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41) in order to communicate the insignificance of belittling his glory. The death of the Son of God and the damnation of unrepentant human beings are the loudest shouts under heaven that God is infinitely holy, and sin is infinitely offensive, and wrath is infinitely just, and grace is infinitely precious, and our brief life–and the life of every person in your church and in your community–leads to everlasting joy or everlasting suffering. If our preaching does not carry the weight of these things to our people, what will? Veggie Tales? Radio? Television? Discussion groups? Emergent conversations?”

Over the next couple of days I’m going to be posting some excellent quotes from Chapter 5 of Preaching the Cross. The Chapter is written by John Piper and is called Preaching as Expository Exultation.

“Preaching is not conversation. Preaching is not discussion. Preaching is not casual talk about religious things. Preaching is not simply teaching. Preaching is the heralding of a message permeated by the sense of God’s greatness and majesty and holiness. The topic may be anything under the sun, but it is always brought into the blazing light of God’s greatness and majesty in his word.” (p. 104-105)

On Monday I’m on holiday for 2 weeks. Below is the stock of book that I’m taking with me to plough through.

How Long, O Lord? Reflections on suffering and evil (D. A. Carson)

Shepherds After My Own Heart. Pastoral traditions and leadership in the Bible (Timothy S. Laniak)

Biblical Eldership. An urgent call to restore biblical church eldership (Alexander Strauch)

Planting Churches Changing Communities (David Stroud) – NEW

Preaching to a Post-Everything World. Crafting biblical sermons that connect with our culture (Zack Eswine)

How to Read a Book. the classic guide to intelligent reading (Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren)

Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (John Piper & Justin Taylor)

The Week. The best of British and Foreign Media (for a bit of light reading)