It's summer

My Facebook newsfeed is clogged with pictures of the Jazz Club in Reading. Sweaty undergrads and Graduands with mouths open and fingers pointing. It's not a pretty sight, but it makes me happy. But it does mean one serious thing. Summer is here. Summer, rolling meadows, endless days filled with idle distractions, getting a summer job, getting a real job, finding your tent for Forum. Summer is a wonderful time. There is nowhere better than the Chiltern Hills in June and July. I can't wait to show my wife.

Summer is dangerous though, and so without much apology, and only some editing, here's something i wrote just over two years ago... don't waste your summer, use it for Jesus:

John Piper writes this about summer:

Don’t let summer make your soul shrivel. God made summer as a foretaste of heaven, not a substitute. If the mailman brings you a love letter from your fiancé, don’t fall in love with the mailman. That’s what summer is: God’s messenger with a sun-soaked, tree-green, flower-blooming, lake-glistening letter of love to show us what he is planning for us in the age to come—“things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Don’t fall in love with the video preview, and find yourself unable to love the coming reality.

What can we do this summer to set our minds, and keep our minds on the things above?


Keep reading the Bible.
I know this sounds like an obvious point, but once there is little work to be done, there is little routine to be kept to...and i need routine to keep me reading the Bible. last year my Graduand period (the bit in between finishing your finals and getting to wear a mortarboard) passed in a haze of barbeques, football and bucky 'o hare. And none of that is bad in itself, we need refreshing after working hard, but to seek refreshment away from the Bible, away from Christ is only to turn your back on what will refresh you. Sit in the sun, read slowly, read lots, read Galatians over and over again. Enjoy the birdsong, enjoy the Word.

Read good books.
I don't think i'm ever going to have as much time on my hands as i did last summer. What a great opportunity to read and read well. Reading Christian books must never become a substitute for reading the Bible, and it must never start to become a dry intellectual fact collecting exercise. But good books can make you long for more of Christ in your life, drive you back to the Bible to bathe in things you hadn't noticed before. Good books can strengthen your faith and your love for the Lord. Take time to read them and think about them and apply them.

Make the most of time with your friends.
especially if you're graduating, and all being flung across the four corners of the country. Spend time with people, enjoy time with people, sit in a beer garden, lie on the grass outside mojos. enjoy the fellowship of your Christian mates, but seek out and don't waste time with your non Christian mates. Use this time to explode for Christ in your house or hall. Use this time to be braver than you've been before. Use this time to live with your non Christian friends to demonstrate that Christ is the greatest, best and most fulfilling reality there is. Pray for them lots.

Prepare for whats next.
Leaving uni is really hard. Going back home for a long time is really hard. Starting a job, even one that you love is really hard. So get ready for it. Pray into it. Think about how you're going to work for Christ next year, or study even better for Christ next year, and delight in Christ with your family. Don't waste time wishing you were back at uni, enjoy the time you've got the prepare for what's happening next...doing the other things in this list should help a bit.

It's terribly easy to waste summer. When the sun comes out i really struggle to remember the eternal battle we're all in, to keep my eyes focused on Heaven and not on the earthly pleasures summer brings us. Use free time wisely for Christ...don't waste your summer.

No Mr President (human life is awesome)

John Piper at the Basics Conference

John Piper's first two messages from the Basic's Conference are now online thanks to the tireless and speedy efforts of the DG team:

We are workers with you for your Joy
Preaching Justification Undiminished

Also, if you're super keen you can follow along with Piper's current sermon (and subsequent movements no doubt) 'Preaching Regeneration Undiminshed' on Twitter.

Letting dead men teach you

Piper blogs about heart devotions and head study:

without a book or a class about what some part of the Bible means and a teacher who is ahead of you, your devotions will probably flatten out at a low level of insight. Year after year you will go over the same biblical ground and find it as perplexing as before. There will be little advance in understanding

Now, for my favourite part of any day...to the books!

DesiringGod.org redesigned

DesiringGod.org has been redesigned, it looks really, really good.

Abraham shares the four major redesign points:

1. Weekly Sermon Featured Front and Center
2. A More Robust Rotating Carousel
3. More Space for the Blog
4. New Place for Latest Resources

I love the new placing the the weeks sermon, its going to make it so much easier to watch online and embed video. And having the blog more prominent makes a lot of sense to...It's a lot more user friendly...

Some random links about Psalms and Wrestling

Somehow i missed this, but Bish has posted twelve minutes of Mike Reeves on the titles of the Psalms. It was really helpful, especially as at the moment i'm near about Psalm 40 and Numbers 26!

Also, Paul has set five of the Psalms to music on his Myspace page. Paul, these are excellent...Jesus is the man!

High school wrestling is weirdly popular in North Carolina, and it seems, in Minnesota. For about four days last week, during the state championship meet the front page of the local paper was full of pictures of sweaty high school types rolling around on a mat. Piper comments on men wrestling girls (because ultimately, in high school, that's what it is), and is at his cutting best.

Finally Alive: John PIper

'Finally Alive' was described by Adrian Warnock as Piper's most important book. Challies said it's become his favourite John Piper book. It's gate crashed my top three, and i'd agree with Adrian, it is his most important book.

Finally Alive deals with the sometimes murky area of regeneration, of new birth. Piper sets out to answer five questions: What is the new birth? Why must we be born again? How does the new birth come about? What are the effects of the new birth? How can we help people be born again. In 15 chapters and 193 pages he answers those questions.

Piper points out the need for this book in the introduction. The term 'born again' has been almost politicised, it's meaning lost. Studies by the Barna group conclude that born again Christians are little different in practice and living to people who don't claim to be Christians. Piper burden for this book is to reclaim the Biblical truth of being regenerated. Not that it's proved by what we say, but that it's proved by how we live.

Alistair Begg describes this book as having 'crystal clear' exposition, and i think he's spot on. Piper tackles passages from Acts, 1 Peter, 1 John, John and Ephesians and applies them with love and clarity. His chapter on John 3:1-15 bought me a great deal of clarity on what it means to be born 'of water and of Spirit' (very exciting) which is helpful in an area where, maybe even the majority of churches, teach that salvation is by baptism. We are cleansed and new, still us, but new. This is good news.

This is probably one of the most 'popular level' books Piper has written, and ends so strongly. The final section, with chapters on 'How can we help others be born again?' has really stoked my fires for evangelism and personal witness to people and given me a fresh desire to see people saved. This is built upon the firm foundation of the previous section, which talks the role of Gospel proclamation in the new birth. Finally, the section on our faith which overcomes the world made me near enough want to stand on my head for joy. YES!

I can not recommend this book enough, it will refresh, humble, energise and excite. Go buy

Guess the Pastor

Can you name the Pastor who knows how many paces it is from the front door of his house to the front door of his church?

Of course, it's John Piper, briefly interviewed here by C.J Mahaney

Piper: be courageous Mr. President

John Piper: Augustine's battle against lust and the fight for joy

'take and read, take and read, clothe yourself with Christ'

In honour of tethered preaching: Piper on Calvin

The Bible tethers us to reality. We are not free to think and speak whatever might enter our minds or what might be pleasing to any given audience—except God.

By personal calling and Scripture, I am bound to the word of God and to the preaching of what the Bible says. There are few things that burden me more or refresh me more than saying what I see in the Bible. I love to see what God says in the Bible. I love to savor it. And I love to say it.

The Guardian

Calvin asks, in his Commentary on Colossians, "How comes it that we are 'carried about with so many strange doctrines' (Hebrews 13:9)?" And he answers, "Because the excellence of Christ is not perceived by us". In other words, the great guardian of Biblical orthodoxy throughout the centuries is a passion for the glory and the excellency of God in Christ. Where the center shifts from God, everything begins to shift everywhere. Which does not bode well for doctrinal faithfulness in our own non-God-centered day.

Piper, The Legacy of Sovereign Joy, P121.

The weight, the depth, the loveliness of the glory of Christ, is what drove Calvin forward. A man who desired a quiet life in the study in Strasbourg, but instead was thrown into the middle of, essentially, a war zone, and kept going. A man who knew Christ from the scriptures, was fed by Christ by the scriptures, who loved to feed his people by the scriptures. it's hard not to be inspired by a man who would preach every day on alternate weeks, and in the course of an average month would preach twenty times and lecture twelve times, and that's even before you mention his commentaries on every New Testament book except Revelation, and nine Old Testament books. 

It was his focus on the glory of Christ, as revealed in the Word that sustained Him, that drove Him. It is this weight, this glory, this determination not to waste our lives that we need to see from scripture. A passion for Christ  is the guardian of the church though the ages, and in every age the centrality of the Bible must be fought for. That is where we meet with Christ, this is where we are fed, this is where lives and ministries stand or fall. Oh, let us be men and women of that book!

Generousity at DesiringGod

Like, i suppose, many churches and ministries, the current economic climate has affected Desiring God's budget plans for next year. Our normal human reaction to that would be to withdraw from all but the necessities of spending, and pray and budget hard for 2009. Not so Desiring God. here are four generous offers i've seen from them in the last couple of days which really go to show that Christ, not financial security, really is their treasure.

John Piper's new book, Finally Alive, available for $5.

An all expenses paid trip to the 2009 Pastors' Conference.

Free moleskin journals with Adrian's order of books.

And, on a personal note, a letter i received yesterday offering me the CD of the talk 'The Goodness of God and the Guidance of Sinners' for free.

I think these offers really really says a lot about their heart, and i thank God for it.

The Compost Pile

One of the reasons i so enjoy reading good books is that i love the pictures authors can paint with words. I love being drawn into an illustration or story. Ever since i read 'Far from the madding crowd' for GCSE English, i've thought words were great.

Rachel and i are reading Piper's 'momentary marriage' together, as a sort of pre wedding prep primer. Each week we try and get some time together where we can be alone and discuss what we've read this week, where we disagree, and why i'm right (i jest). This coming sunday we're headed down to Bonner Point, where our reception we be, to look out over the Pamlico River and talk about chapter four, 'Forgiving and Forebearing.' It will be the highlight of the weekend. 

What links those two paragraphs is how Piper finishes chapter four, and what i'll read to Rachel as we start talking on Sunday:

Picture your marriage as a grassy field. You enter it at the beginning full of hope and joy. You look out into the future and you see beautiful flowers and trees and rolling hills. And that beauty is what you see in each other. Your relationship is the field and flowers and the rolling hills. But before long, you begin to step in cow pies. Some seasons of your marriage they may seem to be everywhere. Late at night they are especially prevalent. These are the sins and flaws and idiosyncrasies and weaknesses and annoying habits in you and your spouse. You try to forgive them and endure them with grace.

But they have a way of dominating the relationship. It may not even be true, but it feels like that’s all there is—cow pies. I think the combination of forbearance and forgiveness leads to the creation of a compost pile. And here you begin to shovel the cow pies. You both look at each other and simply admit that there are a lot of cow pies. But you say to each other: You know, there is more to this relationship than cow pies. And we are losing sight of that because we keep focusing on these cow pies. Let’s throw them all in the compost pile. When we have to, we will go there and smell it and feel bad and deal with it the best we can. And then, we are going to walk away from that pile and set our eyes on the rest of field. We will pick some favorite paths and hills that we know are not strewn with cow pies. And we will be thankful for the part of field that is sweet.

Our hands may be dirty. And our backs make ache from all the shoveling. But one thing we know: We will not pitch our tent by the compost pile. We will only go there when we must. This is the gift of grace that we will give each other again and again and again—because we are chosen and holy and loved.

Thanksgiving

There are many reasons i'm looking forward to thanksgiving tomorrow, golf, lots of turkey, NFL all day, off work from wednesday thru sunday, and lots of time with Rachel and her family.

There is one more reason though, and thats the pleasingly high voice of John Piper in 1980...good words too!

you'd better start getting selfish

The Walk (or, embracing the beautiful and the bleak)

This afternoon i indulged in that most unAmerican of activities. I went for a walk. I went from my apartment on the corner of 2nd and Hackney, down to West Main, and along the waterfront on the broadwalk, where i walked until the waterfront became the water, and looped round on Water Street, and back. In the oncoming Autumn gloom and drizzle it was lovely.

I took with me TheologyNetwork's latest Tabletalk with Mike Reeves and John Piper on the doctrine that created the western world. Heart thrilling stuff.

On the way back i listened to 'In Rainbows' by Radiohead, and, amidst the drizzle, the fading light and Thom Yorke's voice, settled in my heart the bleak, sad peace that comes from knowing that you're a long, long way from home.

More John Piper on the election

A prayer for Tuesday

Why a woman shouldn't run for VP but wise people may still vote for her

Justin Taylor shares a few very helpful thoughts

John Piper on thr 2008 election

The issues that Piper raises have been discussed on Justin Taylor's blog in detail, here are my thoughts for what they're worth:

1) We should be excited, very excited that an African American is running for President. Very excited. i hadn't really grasped this until i moved to the USA, but having a black President might revolutionise particularly small town American race relations. Even here in small, middle class, prosperous water front home owning hundred thousand dollar boat building Washington, North Carolina there are some streets that white people just do not go. And it's awful. So to have an African American candidate, barely a generation on from Brown vs the Board of Education, is worth getting 'giddy' about.

2) But goodness me isn't it complicated? Obama is probably the most ardent protector of abortion in the Senate. He's voted three times against giving financial aid to the survivors of partial birth abortions. Whereas the McCain/Palin ticket gives us the best window of opportunity for overturning Roe vs Wade, possibly for a long time. If Obama wins, and the Democrats get 60 seats in the Senate, that will seem a long, long, long way away.

3) Palin is a woman. Is it Biblical that she should stay at home and look after her family? Yes...maybe. Is it Biblical that we shouldn't have a female Commander in Chief? Yes...maybe. But if Obama wins then Nancy Peloisi is only one step further away.

4) McCain is not a very good candidate. his ad campaign has stepped up in the last week, but he's not convincing. At all. His one massive advantage, aside from being pro-life, is that he won't seem like such an easy target to Russia, North Korea, Iran and Al-Queda. Oh, and he's actually lead and done things in the political sphere, which is more than can be said for Obama. 

5) I wish, wish Piper had said that for him Obama's stance on abortion is the tipping point. Because it has to be doesn't it? If i was voting on Tuesday, it would be for McCain/Palin, probably because of this single issue, but with prayers in my heart that Obama has opened the door for the first African American president of the United States. 

John John and the Song

Two new preaching series which i'm very excited about.

John Piper on John's Gospel. I'm thrilled that Piper is taking on another book after finishing Romans last year. And i'm thrilled it's a Gospel. I'm also glad that this article shows that John Piper is a church pastor first and foremost, and has been preaching on subjects that his elders wanted him to, rather than for people with iPods thousands of miles away! As someone in the article notes, John is twice as long as Romans, so i guess we'll be done in 2025!

Mark Driscoll on the Song of Soloman. After his stuff on Ruth and Ecclesiastes, it's hard not to be excited by this! Even if some of the sermon's come with a PG rating on his website.

John Piper at your small group

I love small group study. I loved being part of cell at RUCU and Reading Family church, i love being part of our sunday school class here. I can not overstate the importance of the training i got when i was a Cell leader at RUCU. This looks like a really interesting idea...