September 29, 2008
“With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.” -James 3.9
This past weekend I had the blessing of being in Minneapolis, MN for the 2008 version of John Piper’s Desiring God National Conference. This years topic was The Power of Words and the Wonder of God and included as speakers John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Sinclair Ferguson, and Paul David Tripp. There was also musical worship and a couple of Panel Discussions, alongside massive Christian fellowship, which all added up to a supremely joyous three days.
On a personal note, by an act of providence, though I was traveling by myself, I wound up encountering a couple of guys from my hometown that I had served in church with and was able to spend a great deal of time over the weekend with them. I was also able to meet up with several other Christians, particularly some who roam around in the blogosphere.
The message shared in the conference itself was fantastic. All of the speakers really challenged us on how we use words in our life, if we are using them in effect to focus people on the Gospel or if our use of words is more likely to lead people to sin. Dr. Sinclair Ferguson looked at how difficult mastering the tongue is through the passage in James 3, giving the illustration that what comes out the mouth reveals what’s inside the heart. Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace Ministries shared how music can biblically accentuate our words. Mark Driscoll addressed using hard words and sometimes controversial words. Paul Tripp explored the use of words and how no words are neutral, they either give life or give death. And Pastor Piper closed it all up with a look at how words can be used in a biblically eloquent way and practically what doing this may accomplish.
To me, the biggest takeaway that I got was my need to work on being less harsh in the words I use, something which appears more in my day-to-day vocal interactions with people around me than it does here on the net, and so I want to be more conscious of that.
I have composed a review of Mark Driscoll’s message which should be available shortly as a guest write-in on the Ignite UK Pastor’s Blog. As well, all of the conference messages are available in various media formats at the Desiring God website.
I would highly recommend trying to attend a Desiring God conference in the future. I know that in listening to past conferences I had become aware of how impactful they could be and the experience of being there certainly did not disappoint. The title of next years conference is With Calvin in the Theater of God, which I’m sure will have an all-star lineup of speakers. Check it out if you can.
(UPDATE: Here is the link to the review posted on the Ignite UK Pastor’s Blog.)
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John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Observations, Sermons | Tagged: Conference, Desiring God, James, John Piper, Language, Mark Driscoll, Words | 
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Posted by Todd Burus
September 16, 2008
“‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.’ Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? . . . You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.‘” -Haggai 1.9
At this point in the book of the prophet Haggai we find that God has allowed for the exiled Jews to return back to Jerusalem under proclamation of the king in order that they may rebuild the temple of God. Yet, once in Jerusalem, we find that the Israelites have taken up resting in their own houses, gathering their own fortunes, while neglecting the house of God. It is to this mindset which God speaks in the above verses.
Similar to the Jews returning from exile I think the church in America suffers from the same problem: we know that things aren’t the way they should be in the church, but we are so concerned with our own creature comforts that we have little urgency for doing the work God has called us to. We create programs and “fellowship” events which, though necessary in moderation, soon become the core purpose of the ministry. We exist to please each other. And in pleasing each other no one ever takes the time to see if God is being pleased by what we do.
John Piper champions the idea of Christian Hedonism, announcing that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” Note the emphasis here, “when we are most satisfied in him.” When we build these church worlds where everyone’s good time revolves around the presence of a big screen TV or the cheese dip brought by Sally Servant, where are we finding ourselves satisfied in God? The big question is, if God wasn’t there would anybody notice? Would anyone notice if there was no God there for us to worship and serve or would everybody continue to act the same as always?
It is important that we maintain our focus in the church. Yes, we can have big events. Yes, we can have extravagant children’s ministries. Yes, we can eat, drink, and be merry. But none of that stuff is worth anything if we aren’t doing it with the ultimate goal of the deepening of our communion with the One True God and the furtherance of the Gospel message to all peoples. If our children’s ministry just exists to give the parents a break for a few hours a week we should kill it. If we are getting together just to make each other feel good, we might as well stay at home. In the Christian life, doing nothing means your moving backwards since at all times you are either serving God or serving the Devil.
God has given us a calling to rebuild the city, to rejuvenate and reinforce the strength of the church in a nation which is becoming more secular every day. And if we are to see that goal accomplished then it is incumbent upon us to keep our focus in the right place at all times, that being the throne of Christ, seated at the right hand of God.
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John Piper, Rebuilding the City | Tagged: John Piper, Christian Hedonism, Haggai, Focus, Intentional | 
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Posted by Todd Burus
August 23, 2008
“Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned-every one-to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.” -Isaiah 53.4-6
“Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’” -Luke 24.44
Two thousand years after his death people still debate why it was that Jesus came to the earth. Was it to be a great teacher? To die for sins? To save Christians? To feed the poor? Just why did this “humble Galilean peasant” rise up from Nazareth (where surely nothing good comes from; John 1.46), go about performing miracles, enter into Jerusalem, and then, when at the height of popularity, subject himself to being executed on a Roman cross? And then, three days later, if you really by into this part, why did he raise out of the grave and reveal himself to his mourning followers? These questions are variously answered and debated everywhere, from churches to coffeehouses to blogs and even in the jungles of South America, and the convictions on such drive the lives of millions of people still today.
One place to search for answers to these questions is in the Old Testament scriptures. As it says in the Gospel of Luke, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to [the disciples on the road to Emmaus] in all the [Old Testament] the things concerning himself” (24.27). Similarly in Luke 24.44 and Acts 8.35.
Particularly with the Acts 8.35 verse we see that one key passage of prophecy which spoke of Christ was Isaiah 53. I personally refer to Isaiah 53 quite frequently when expounded on my feelings about the necessity of the cross, God’s intentions in it, and what was accomplished. I am not alone in this either, and so, because I don’t think I have nearly enough time myself to talk about the amazing contents of this passage, I thought I would point you guys to someone who I think does it better than I could anyways. That someone is John Piper and what I want to post is a series of three sermons which he delivered over Isaiah 53 some time ago in his church in Minneapolis. I hope that you can take the time to listen to them, each one is about 35 minutes in length, and that through listening to them you can further appreciate and understand what Christ came to this earth to accomplish, and that this accomplishment was the intention of the Father all along.
Please feel free to comment as well, as I think the discussions that can arise from Isaiah 53 are ones that really get to the heart of what it truly means to be a Christian and be saved and forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ.
John Piper- Jesus Christ in Isaiah 53, part 1, part 2, part 3
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John Piper, Sermons | Tagged: Isaiah, Jesus, John Piper, Prophecy, Sermons, Sin, The Cross | 
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Posted by Todd Burus
August 2, 2008
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” -2 Timothy 3.16
“But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” -John 20.31
“The Battle for the Bible” often times is used in Southern Baptist circles to refer back to the period of debate in the 1970’s when the claim of Scriptural inerrancy was questioned strongly and evangelicals had to make a decision which way to go. Should we deny inerrancy and move more towards the liberal theology of many mainline denominations or should we uphold inerrancy and cement ourselves as the true conservative position in the church?
Today, more widely, the Battle for the Bible has come to mean the struggle over inerrancy along with debates over appropriate hermeneutics to use, how much authority does Scripture have over our lives, and is the Bible the only spiritual text which reveals God to us. It is in light of this type of continuing debate that leaders such as Albert Mohler comment that every generation must decide if they are going to stand on the authority of Scripture or not, every generation must fight the Battle for the Bible.
For our generation, I think the time is now. Look at the landscape: teachers like Rob Bell invoke trajectory hermeneutics to liberalize Scripture into accepting current moralities which are specifically opposed in the Bible; in their book The Lost Message of Jesus, Steve Chalke and Alan Mann refer to God’s crushing Christ for our iniquities (Isaiah 53.5) as a form of “cosmic child abuse”; Brian McLaren (the liaison to evangelicals for Barack Obama) runs around the country questioning the existence of hell and a literal second coming, at times even proposing a sort of universalism; multiple denominations are facing splits due to some ramifications of a refusal to stand on the clear Scriptural teaching that homosexuality is a sin. In all, our post-modern, post-Christian, emerging landscape is covered with major rifts which all center around the denying the inerrancy or supreme unique authority of Scripture.
To this effect, and to start our battle smartly, I want to give you guys a link to a wonderfully thorough handling of this material conducted earlier this year by John Piper. Over the course of 5 messages Dr. Piper argues what the Scriptures are, what we mean by their inerrancy and authority, why we should believe their message, and how this should inform our behavior. These messages are well researched and I believe will prove very beneficial to you as you begin to pick sides in this current Battle for the Bible.
This is important, please realize that. If we lose the Bible we lose God’s revelation of himself and any way of resting our church on the true authority of His Word over the broken philosophy of man. Put on the full armor, take up arms, and fight!
John Piper- Why We Believe the Bible
No Comments » | Emerging Church, John Piper, Observations | Tagged: Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Hell, Scripture, John Piper, Homosexuality, Bible, Battle for the Bible, Inerrancy, Authority, Steve Chalke | Permalink
Posted by Todd Burus
June 19, 2008
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” -Romans 8:18-25
Last week at the Resolved 2008 conference, John Piper gave an excellent message on why it is that there are so many disasters, natural and not, that occur in our world. He also touches the ever so controversial issue of human suffering. Dr. Piper has such an amazing heart and his passion for pursuing and preaching the things of God is so evident in all of his messages. This one is no exception and is especially pertinent for us to observe in the wake of this weeks flooding in the Midwest. I encourage you guys to take a few moments and spend time in listening to John Piper’s words for us in this never-ending world of suffering. Enjoy!
John Piper- The Echo and the Insufficiency of Hell
No Comments » | John Piper, Sermons | Tagged: Flooding, Hell, John Piper, Natural Disasters, Resolved, Romans, Suffering | Permalink
Posted by Todd Burus
