Look at the Book

Wars rage, cancer lingers, and suffering remains so that we all might know how horrible sin really is.

For God’s children, all suffering is light compared to the weight of the glory coming, and all affliction is temporary compared to eternal bliss.

Satan loves to lie to us in our suffering. He tells us that God must be against us if he would allow us to experience pain, the experience of discipline really proves that we are children.

If you who are evil know how to embrace your children when they cry, how much more will your heavenly Father embrace those who run to him in their pain?

When we suffer, we often cast ourselves as the victims. When Jesus was asked about suffering, he called a world of sinners to repent.

The final chapter in any book is often the best, and yet many Christians do not rejoice in Revelation because it can be hard to understand. In this lab, Pastor John helps us read the last pages of Scripture.

Revelation can be difficult to interpret. In this lab, Pastor John illustrates how to begin to understand the symbols, and apply them to life today.

We can lose our love for one another. One comment, one moment, one interaction can put out the flame of our affection. But can our love for God be extinguished?

Every Christian tastes and sees that God is good. Then we suffer and witness to a dying world, hoping that they might taste and see the same.

Heartache, brokenness, and death may mark our biological families, but God’s grace creates a new family that death, disease, and disaster cannot shake.

The grace of God meets us more faithfully than the morning and strengthens us more ardently than our daily bread. We rest, labor, and stand firm in grace.

God’s grace turns rebels into citizens, orphans into children, an adulteress into a sinless bride. We receive the grace, he receives the glory.

Our suffering can be so severe that all we can say is, “How long, oh Lord?” In those moments, God gently responds with, “Just a little while longer.”

God’s grace is amazing because God is. His tenderness and compassion avalanche upon us from the peaks of his steadfast love and mercy.

As Christians, we have often been trained to fight pride, lust, anxiety, laziness, and other sins. But do we know how to war with Satan?

Satan is a fierce predator. He has devoured souls of men and women, children and the elderly. He hates none more than Christians. Can he destroy them?

The grace of God saves us. The grace of God frees us. The grace of God enslaves us. The grace of God keeps us.

While the world sings sweet lullabies to try and destroy us, God calls us to joyful wakefulness. Our eternity hangs on how we respond.

Women are saved by faith in Christ. In what sense then, according to 1 Timothy 2:15, are they saved through childbirth?

The Bible is serious about two realities: God cares for, saves, and protects his people, and his people need to be alert, active, and aggressive against Satan and sin.

Anxieties attack our faith and torment our peace. The question with anxiety is not whether it will come, but rather, how can I fight it when it does?

Righteousness is a big deal for every single person on the planet. In this lab, John Piper shows why Jesus being perfect on our behalf does not free us from pursuing perfection.

Pride not only multiplies the weight of our anxieties, but makes our loving Creator, our honorable King, our gracious God into our omnipotent enemy.

The world scratches and fights each other in order to be exalted. The church joyfully submits to each other in order to exalt their King.

Does God reward pastors for their service? And if so, doesn’t that contaminate the pure aims of loving others?

The world’s CEOs often are ambitious, stern, and overworked. The church’s leaders need to be happy, holy, and humble.

Pastors cannot be men who preach what others should practice, but do not practice what they preach.

Silence from family and friends is one thing, silence from God is another. But no matter how hard it is, we must trust that he is working all things for our good.

If God has not redeemed you, nothing will make you choose God over your sin. If God has chosen you, no scheme of Satan can keep you from choosing him.

Unconditional election means that God chose his people without them first meeting any conditions. God’s choice does not depend on our works, faith, or beauty, but rather his choice creates each in us.

When our thoughts have been unruly, our hearts hard, our deeds despicable, when we teeter from the devastation of sin and straddle the precipice of hell, cry out to God for mercy.

All thoughts are not created equal, all opinions are not valid, and no worldview matters but God’s.

While the world threatens, the Christian serves. As the world imprisons, the Christian prays. When the world does evil, the Christian does good.

The baby lay in the manger and the man hung on the cross, that by his life and death we would be free to enjoy God forever.

When a Christian Hedonist says, “Merry Christmas,” he means much more than a warm holiday with friends and family.

How Jesus Christ came to lay in the cradle, has massive implications for what he did on the cross.

Although the world may send us into its furnace for not bowing our knees, we know that the Son of God is with us in the flames.

No matter how bad your sufferings are in this life, rejoice that they can only cut so deep and last for so long.

It’s hard to hear in the moment that God is sovereign over our suffering, but in the long run it makes all the difference.

If the Father judged Jesus on our behalf, doesn’t that mean that we won’t be?

We know we should never be ashamed of Jesus. But when that coworker asks, or that relative puts us on the spot, we can be slow to own the name Christian.

Non-believers often tell Christians to mind their own business. They may be more right than we might think.

The cross defangs the fatal bite of sin — but it can still have devastating consequences. Don't consider yourself to be a martyr when you suffer because of your sin.

We read stories about Christians being horrifically persecuted for their love of Christ. We marvel at their endurance and secretly wonder: if I were in their place, would I endure?

For the joy set before him, Jesus endured suffering. For the joy set before us, we must also.

Jesus was persecuted. Many in the early church were persecuted. Many Christians today are persecuted. You also will be persecuted.

God invites us to cast our cares upon him because he cares for us. How can we do that honestly and yet not complain in a way that dishonors him?

Those who know the horrors of war are thankful for peace. Those who understand justice get excited about grace. Christian, grace and peace are yours.

God gives gifts to his people to bless others. If you want to glorify God: steward your gifts, speak God’s words, and serve with God’s strength.

When we speak, we speak in God’s power and with God’s words. When we serve, we serve in his power and point to his glory.