Look at the Book

God wants us to grow up and leave behind childish ways. And he has done everything necessary to ensure it can happen.

Those who live for riches and the praise of man today will have hunger, mourning, and weeping tomorrow.

Do we err when we love others for the reward God offers us? No. Only those who labor for what God promises are rich enough to love others selflessly.

Those who follow Christ can weep now, can be poor and temporarily hated now, and yet remain wildly blessed because theirs is the coming kingdom.

If we are Christ’s disciples — whether poor, hungry, weeping, or persecuted — we are blessed.

All of the New Testament commandments are a call to become in experience what we are in Christ. And what we are in Christ is a new creation.

The Christian’s life on earth will always be walking along the narrow path. Living for sin is easy. Following Christ requires carrying a cross daily.

When we read commands and obligations, we are being summoned to become in experience what we are in Christ.

We are going to win this race. We are going to get the crown. Not because we are great runners, but because Christ has made us his own.

Pursue, strain forward, press on. God wants us to put all energy into making it to the end, not revisiting the life we had before we started the race.

Devote your whole life to this one pursuit: attaining the fullest possible experience of Christ imaginable.

God wants to give his children the assurance that they will be saved. But not the kind of assurance that ignores the warnings along the way.

The crown of life belongs to those who seek holiness, who hold fast to Christ, who finish the race. The crown of life belongs to Christians.

We do God no favors by excusing him from being sovereign over evil. But we can steal confidence from his children that nothing happens to them without a purpose.

Planning becomes sinful when we presume whatever we schedule will come to pass. Preface all of life with “If the Lord wills.”

God’s sovereignty means he reigns over every trial. And his love means that he intends them all for our good and his glory.

Don’t get discouraged if the fight against sin seems endless. The fight is necessary, the fight is winnable, and the fight will end.

Christian, God is working in your suffering. He is working Christlikeness, working trust, working to draw you closer to himself.

God gives us power — not to escape or avoid suffering — but to endure suffering while looking to Christ.

In this life, we will suffer. And through that suffering, we will know Christ in a way nothing else can provide.

Prosperity preachers not only twist and mangle the Bible’s message. They twist and mangle their hearers.

Faith is the experience of Christ as our surpassing worth and all else as rubbish by comparison.

When we gain Christ, we get a right standing before God that depends upon Christ and not ourselves.

A Christianity that never inconveniences us, never discomforts us, never costs anything, is not Christianity.

We can feel safe before a holy God and boast of a sure eternity. But we cannot do that by looking to ourselves.

The right parents, religious fervor, even good deeds will not save. We could have thousands of confidences, but all will fail unless it is Christ.

We act out miracles when we do ordinary tasks — attending a work meeting, eating dinner with our family, talking to a neighbor — relying on Christ.

Paul had an impressive résumé and a lifetime’s worth of accolades — but none of them could save him, and none of them could compete with gaining Christ.

A longing for heaven can’t help but eclipse longings for worldly pursuits because a longing for future glory produces in us a pursuit of glory today.

Our hope does not rest on ourselves, our neighbors, our politicians, or our kings, but on the one and only true and coming King.

Those who say they know grace while refusing to pursue holiness do not know God’s grace as taught by Paul.

God’s grace didn’t appear in a note from heaven telling sinners not to worry about it. God’s grace came in the person of Jesus Christ.

God rules over sin, but never sins. This truth does not come from John Piper’s ideals, but from the Bible.

Where was God when the worst evil in history took place? Right where he’s always been: seated on his throne, ruling over all.

The silent begin to speak, the timid become courageous, the army begins to march when the church prays for boldness.

A sovereign God reigns over suffering. Therefore, we have a place to go for help, healing, and hope.

We all must decide how we are going to fill the hours of our week. But how do we know what to commit to?

Missions exists because God’s glory deserves global recognition.

If Christ is not your treasure, you can search the whole globe and you will never find what you’re looking for.

If you are in Christ, you have a new family, a new inheritance, a new identity.

Loving others will be costly, uncomfortable, and countercultural. But he gives more grace in our times of need.

A culture of fast food and insta-everything has nearly made biblical meditation extinct.

Does the Bible teach that atheists, members of other religions, and others who never followed Christ will be saved in the end?

We have no promise that our sorrows will go away. But we have the promise that God will give us grace to make it through.

Many of us desire to genuinely love others better than we do now. But are we willing to pay the price?

Most of the decisions we make in life are not based upon direct commands from the Bible. But that does not mean we cannot make biblically informed, wise decisions.

No time spent learning how to study the Bible more faithfully is wasted.

Every temptation rendered powerless, every sickness eradicated, every tear banished — this is only the start of what eternity with God will be like.

Judas believed. The demons believe. And if we believe in the same way, we’ll share their fate. Faith must believe in and treasure all that God is for us in Christ.

Soldiers take bullets for one another. Parents sacrifice daily for their kids. But who dies for their enemies? God did.