Barnabas Piper's Blog, page 20

Kindle Deals for May 28

A few Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:

The Lord of Psalm 23: Jesus Our Shepherd, Companion, and Host by David Gibson – $4.99

Walking with God through Pain and Suffering by Tim Keller – $4.99

15 Things Seminary Couldn’t Teach Me edited by Collin Hansen & Jeff Robinson Sr. – $2.99

The Goodness of God: Assurance of Purpose in the Midst of Suffering by Randy Alcorn – $4.99

Jesus and the Gospels, Third Edition: An Introduction and Survey by Craig Blomberg – $4.99

The Complete Father Brown Stories by G.K. Chesterton – $.99

The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware by Patrick O’Donnell – $4.99

These links are all affiliate links to Amazon.

Rejoice in Hope

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)

Sometimes the commands of the Bible feel impossible. I’m thinking specifically of the commands to rejoice. How am I supposed to just up and be full of praise? That isn’t a thing that naturally wells up in my heart, especially not early in the morning or in frustrating times. So when I read Romans 12:12, which says, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer,” I tend to feel stuck at first.

But we need to see the whole verse. We are not called only to “rejoice” but to rejoice in hope. And what hope are we to rejoice in? None other than the hope we have in Jesus, the sealed and confirmed hope of eternal life and joy with him.

Then it says to be patient in tribulation. Frankly, that sounds even harder than rejoicing. Except that, again, we have hope. So while waiting and persevering aren’t pleasurable, we can do them confidently because of Jesus.

Finally, we aren’t left with the idea that we must do these things in our own power. The verse says to be constant in prayer, so we are to constantly depend on God as we rejoice and persevere. We pray for help. We pray so that our eyes are lifted to where our hope lies. And we pray because communion with God will fill our hearts with rejoicing, no matter the circumstances.

I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe! 

Kindle Deals for May 25

A few Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:

Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth by Alister McGrath – $2.99

The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism by D.A. Carson – $4.99

Escape from Reason: A Penetrating Analysis of Trends in Modern Thought by Francis Schaeffer – $6.99

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton – $2.99

The Power of Prayer by Charles Spurgeon – $3.99

Kindle Deals for May 24

A few Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:

6 Great Ideas by Mortimer J. Adler – $2.99

The Pastor: A Memoir by Eugene Peterson

$3.99

Suffering Is Never for Nothing by Elisabeth Elliot – $2.99

The Heritage of Anglican Theology by J.I. Packer – $2.99

The Mark of the Christian by Francis Schaeffer

$5.99

Jesus: A Very Short Introduction by Richard Bauckham

$6.99

Jesus’s Ascension into Heaven – He Reads Truth

Matthew 28:16-20, Acts 1:1-11, Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 7:26-27, Hebrews 10:11-14

I learned a lot of Bible stories during my Sunday School days. I knew the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus inside and out. But I learned little about the ascension of Jesus. It was generally treated as a “He rode off into the sunset” moment, as if Jesus disappeared from the story until His return in Revelation. What a travesty to have missed the magnificence and importance of this pivotal moment that is full of promise. Wrapped up in the few short accounts of Jesus’s departure from the earth are a handful of truths that shape the direction of all Christians.

First, Jesus promised not to leave His followers alone when He departed. In the same way that God promised the people of Israel that He would not leave or abandon them (Deuteronomy 31:6), Jesus promised, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you” (Acts 1:8). Yes, He was leaving, but the Holy Spirit was coming. And this was no consolation prize or fallback plan. It was the presence and power of God for all believers everywhere. Instead of His ministry being tied to His physical, human presence, it was now expanded to wherever His followers went. This is what He meant when he said, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). By ascending into heaven, Jesus exponentially increased His kingdom on earth.  

Second, Jesus told His followers what their (and our) mission was: “Make disciples of all nations” (v.19). In Acts, He laid out the route they would take to fulfill this mission: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). They were eyewitnesses to His life, death, resurrection, and now, “he was taken up as they were watching” (v.9). We, also, are witnesses to the work of Christ through the Holy Spirit and the Word across the centuries. We, too, have the Holy Spirit empowering us and directing us as disciple-makers, and we are the ends of the earth. So Christ’s mission marches on through the obedience and faithfulness of His Church.

Third, after ascending to heaven, Jesus is now interceding on behalf of all believers while He is “waiting until his enemies are made his footstool” (Hebrews 10:13). He is now our advocate and our Great High Priest in the presence of God until He returns in glory. 

The ascension wasn’t the end of the story. It wasn’t a “happily ever after” or a ride into the sunset. It was the fuse for the explosion of Christ’s ministry across the globe and through the ages, the very ministry we are now part of.

I have the privilege of contributing to He Reads Truth, a website of whose purpose is “To help men become who we were made to be, by doing what we were made to do, by the power and provision that God has given us to do it, for the glory of Jesus Christ.” They do this by providing scripture reading plans accompanied by reflections that can be accessed for free online or purchased as print books. This is one of the pieces I wrote for the Encounters with Christ plan.

Kindle Deals for May 23

A few Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:

Women and God: Hard Questions, Beautiful Truth by Kathleen Nielson – $2.99

Reactivity: How the Gospel Transforms Our Actions and Reactions by Paul Tripp – $2.99

The Expulsive Power of a New Affection by Thomas Chalmers – $2.99

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson – $2.99

The Lord of the Rings: One Volume by J.R.R. Tolkien – $2.99

The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds by Joe Posnanski – $2.99

The Victors: Eisenhower and His Boys: The Men of World War II by Stephen Ambrose – $2.99

Curious Curmudgeons Episode 4: The Church Journey and Authentic Faith Connections

In this episode we talk about our church histories, examining the fabric of their faith from childhood to the present. We reflect on their formative years in the pews, the nuances of congregational life across different geographies, and the profound impact of long-term church relationships from San Diego’s sun-soaked sanctuaries to the Bible Belt’s abundance of worship.

In this heartfelt conversation, we navigate the ebb and flow of church life and church transitions. With personal stories of denominational shifts, crises of faith, and the grappling with the realities of church politics, we explore the landscape of church involvement. You’ll hear how journeys through job losses, divorce, and a call to ministry have been underpinned by the support of local church families. This is a narrative of resilience, demonstrating how, even amid life’s upheavals, the grace of God maintains our connection to this unique community.

Lastly, they delve into the complex dynamics of church membership, from the challenges of over-politicization within congregations to the role of church music and community engagement. Whether you’re rooted in a church, searching for one, or somewhere in between, this episode speaks to the enduring quest for a vibrant, Christ-centered fellowship.

Listen to Episode 4

Spotify
Apple Podcasts
Amazon

30 Great Quotes from “You’re Not Crazy”

You’re Not Crazy: Gospel Sanity for Weary Churches by Ray Ortlund & Sam Allberry is a wonderful, uplifting, reorienting book for any church leader or church member. While it is aimed particularly at those in leadership it offers wonderful encouragement to a churchgoer. I love and respect both these men and have learned so much from serving alongside them at Immanuel Nashville. I cannot recommend this book more highly. Here are 30 of the most significant quotes from its pages.

Every church has its own culture. The question is, how fully does its culture align with its doctrine? Whatever the answer, a church’s culture always reveals whatever the people most deeply believe. Not every truth that preached is believed down at the level of felt, shared reality. 

The gospel–and justification in particular–calls for more than doctrinal subscription. It also calls for cultural incarnation.

Legalism is our native tongue.

It is possible to preach and defend the doctrine of justification by grace alone out of motives of self-justification–and to do so with its bitter fruit.

In a gospel-shaped church, for starters, people are honest in confession, bear one another’s burdens, and seek to outdo one another in showing honor.

Without the doctrine, the culture is unsustainable. Without the culture the doctrine appears pointless.

The ultimacy of Christ does not position us to go with the crowd, not even the Christian crowd, as if we need Christ plus human applause to stand on our own two feet.

The reassuring finality of “it is finished” had been eroded away by the acids of legalism. And self-justification creates only howling demand that nothing outside Christ can satisfy.

There’s the gospel in four words: “Christ has welcomed us.”

The church isn;t just meant to be a new community (there are plenty of those constantly springing up); it’s meant to be a new kind of community. This entails a different kind of welcome–one that’s ultimate origin isn;t earth but heaven. We don’t just welcome one another; we welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us.

Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve.

We’re not meant to be conveying our welcome but Christ’s welcome. It is not about exchanging a cultural pleasantry but declaring a heavenly reality. We’re meant to be inviting brokenhearted sinners to collapse into the open arms of Jesus.

The welcome on a Sunday morning is where we pastors deconstruct the posing of nongospel culture and reconstruct in its place the beauty of gospel culture.

Whatever darkness inside of you troubles your heart, whatever capacities for wickedness and stupidity lurk within, whatever still haunts you from your past, however fearful you are that you will never change, know this: your sin does not intimidate Jesus. What is right in him far out-weighs what is wrong in you. There is more grace in him than guilt in you. He is better at saving than you are at sinning.

Biblical hospitality, however, is about opening up to others rather than trying to impress them. This means all of us can be great at hospitality. It only takes humble willingness. 

The deepest reason for all our personal problems, and all the evils of history, is that we don;t know how beautiful God is. We barricade ourselves against the one we can most eagerly receive. Without him all we’re left with is ourselves. 

If God really is light with no darkness at all, if God really is beauty with nothing distasteful at all, then we really can come out of hiding. We can get real with him. We can get real with one another. We don;t have to appear better than we really are.

The hope of the gospel frees our hearts from brooding self-focus, leaving us with nothing to give others. Instead, we look around at one another, and we start coming alive to “Christ in you, hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27)

The most noteworthy thing about you is not you but God’s love for you.

There’s a difference between Bible-based and being biblical. Being Bible-based is simply using Scripture, often just a verse or two, to justify what you’re saying, but being biblical is making sure what you’re saying is true to what Scripture as a whole says.

Apparently there’s a form of orthodox theology in hell. So, before we congratulate ourselves on having sound doctrine, we need to remember that believing the right, scriptural things isn’t enough.

Grace is not like a runway, the thing that launches us off. Grace is the plane itself. We get nowhere apart from God’s grace.

Leadership in the church is to be fundamentally different from leadership in the world. The characteristics so visible in this world’s rulers are to have no place among Jesus’s people. Jesus himself shows us that greatness is not to be measured by prowess but service, not by following the examples of the world but by imitating the Savior before us, not by being served but by serving others. 

Leadership that only takes is an ever-present danger.

Inasmuch as we’re to put others” in their place,” it should be to put them above us, not beneath us.

If a believer has certain doctrinal views or behaves in certain ways simply because a pastor has coerced such behavior, then those views or actions do not proceed from faith. It’s not the Spirit of Christ who has brought them about but the forcefulness of the leader. This is catastrophic because such a believer isn’t led by the Lord, but by man.

People’s deepest impression of who Christ is will inevitably come from what they perceive their pastor’s heart toward them is.

The pastor must demonstrate ongoing repentance, for no Christian grows without repentance. 

Age is valued as being a form of spiritual capital and a blessing to the church, not a hindrance.

The quality of our relational life in our churches is to be an apologetic to the world around us.

Kindle Deals for May 22

A few Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:

Faith Alone: A Daily Devotional by Martin Luther – $2.99

Don’t Hold Back: Leaving Behind the American Gospel to Follow Jesus Fully by David Platt – $4.99

Adoption: What Joseph of Nazareth Can Teach Us about This Countercultural Choice by Russell Moore – $6.99

The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America by Ethan Michaeli – $2.99

Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series by Eliot Asinof – $2.99

Kindle Deals for May 21

A few Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:

Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I?  By Tim Keller – $4.99

Praying the Bible by Donald S. Whitney – $5.22

You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit by James K.A. Smith – $3.99

How Does God Change Us?: Real Change for Real Sinners by Dane Ortlund – $5.98

The Confessions by St. Augustine – $4.99

Suffering and the Sovereignty of God edited by John Piper & Justin Taylor – $6.99