If you have the Ask Pastor John book handy, and you open to page 177 and look down at the very bottom of the page, in the footnote, you’ll see that I quote Pastor John making this very important claim: “My favorite verse in the Psalms is Psalm 16:11.” Underline or highlight that. John Piper’s…
As I thought about this conference of young professionals, and the opportunity to speak to you about “what to expect on your journey home,” my mind went back twelve years. My wife and I were deeply embedded in a community of young adults at Bethlehem Baptist Church in downtown Minneapolis. On January 10, 2013, that…
I have learned to . . . season my prayers with the word of God. It’s a way of talking to God in his language — speaking his dialect, using his vernacular, employing his idioms. —Joni Eareckson Tada When the Holy Spirit indwells us, he causes us to cry, “Abba. Father!” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).…
It’s no small secret that Christianity and hospitality go hand and hand. “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:13). “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9). “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers” (Hebrews 13:2). Like a knock at the door or food on…
Audio Transcript This week, we’re reading Psalms 13–18 together. And on the podcast, we are looking specifically at questions related to two of the most notable verses in that range — specifically, verses found in Psalm 14 and Psalm 16. We read Psalm 14 together tomorrow, and it opens with a very famous line in…
He helps the soul to approach with confidence, and yet with reverence; with filial fear, and yet with an emboldened faith; with zeal and importunity, and yet with humble submission; with lively hope, and yet with self-denial. —David Clarkson (1622–1686) Imagine Esther. She stands at the door to the king’s inner court. She has not…
During my year in the ICU as I trained as a trauma surgeon, the threat of tragedy loomed daily. Every morning, I would tweak ventilator settings and titrate drips in desperate attempts to keep people alive. When all efforts failed, the afternoon would find me in a conference room, walking a tearful family through horrific…
Three years ago, in the summer of 2021, the first episodes were launching for the podcast “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” The series had twelve episodes, plus several bonus episodes. In one of those, from two years ago (July 2022), the host interviewed Tim Keller, who died in May 2023. Late in the…
A new year of Bible reading is upon us. Some, like the five wise virgins who prepared their lamps beforehand, have already sketched out a fresh strategy to read through the whole Bible or to study select portions; others are scrambling at midnight to find new fuel for the faint light of their ambitions. Wherever…
Audio Transcript Today’s episode is a bit longer than normal because it’s a special episode — a celebration. But before we get to that, we begin with today’s question from an anonymous listener who is putting together a few texts that we will be reading together in the next week ahead in our Bible reading.…
