John Piper, in a sermon from Isaiah 44:1-5, “A Precious Promise: The Outpouring of God’s Spirit” God promised in the eighth century BC that a day was coming when he would fill his upright servants with himself. The idea of pouring is the idea of copiousness. When we say, “It’s pouring outside,” we mean something … More Drenched with the Spirit….Singing in the Rain
Hebrews 9:23-28 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the … More “FOR US…. is not complimentary. But it is wonderfully hope-giving.”
In my research on Luke 23, I came accross this wonderful sermon by Pastor Steven Cole, of Flagstaff, AZ. He tells of Simon of Cyrene through the eyes of his son, Rufus. Please take time to click this link and read the entire story! The Roman soldiers in our day got a sadistic kick out … More A Dad Who Bore The Cross
Proverbs 26:4-5 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Hmm…which is it? When we come to confusing passages, we can approach it in one of two ways: “Do these verses contradict each other? Sure … More Contradiction in Proverbs?
Isaiah 43:10-13 “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. I … More If we lose the sovereignty of God, we eventually lose God.
John Piper on Hebrews 9: So here we are in the modern age, the age of science, space travel—E-mail, heart transplants, instant replays, beepers, 911—and our problem is fundamentally the same as always: our consciences condemn us and make us feel unacceptable to God. We are alienated from God. We don’t feel good enough to … More The Only Answer
Luke 23:18 But they all cried out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”— 19 a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. 20 Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, 21 but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” 22 A third time he said … More We are all like Barabbas
Proverbs 25:21-22 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. From the ESV Study Bible: Although interpreters differ about the meaning of the metaphor of heaping burning coals … More Heaping Burning Coals
John Piper, on coming to something in the Bible that is ” Old and Strange and Foreign to Me”(as in Hebrews 8 ) It’s almost inevitable that people who live in the modern world of computers and jets and television and antibiotics will read these verses with a sense of tremendous foreignness. That is not my world, … More How do you deal with stuff in the Bible that is “old, strange and foreign?”
John Piper, on Hebrews 8, in a sermon “Jesus:Mediator of a Better Covenant, Part 1” Remember from Hebrews 8:5 that the priests serve a copy and a shadow of heavenly things. The tabernacle and temple were a shadow; the official priesthood was a shadow; the animal sacrifices were a shadow; the feasts and dietary laws … More Shadow has Become Reality!
