I thank God that he has kept John Piper faithful, and I pray that he would continue to do so until Christ returns or Christ calls him home.
Thank you, Lord, for the decisive calling you did in his heart, 30 years ago this evening.
Click here and listen to the first five minutes of a talk John Piper
gave at an American Counselor’s Conference last month. John Piper opens by
publicly confessing sins and failures that he has wrestled with over the years
and the only response that he receives from the audience is continued laughter.
How odd. Perhaps this is only another example of the spiritual state of
Christianity in America…
"Have you viewed sexually explicit material?" is a much better question than "Have you looked at pornography?" because I can click on sexually provocative news stories or click on links that I know will have scantily-clad chicas on them and still pat myself on the back at the end of the week, saying, "I didn't look at pornography!" Uh-huh. The deceitfulness of sin at work.
You can see Piper and MacArthur...though it's hard to see past the glare of the head of the man who was sitting in front of me, lol.
John, Jamison and I with Justin Taylor aka King of the Blogworld. (the picture was taken by Purgatorio...man, I miss his blog!)
Here we are with Helen Roseveare.
She was the cutest little woman I have ever seen...and she has such a story to tell!
Here is the panel of John Piper, Helen Roseveare, Jerry Bridges and Randy Alcorn. Justin Taylor was asking the questions.
We had a great time. It is always sad when it is over...but there is always next year! They didn't announce the theme for next year yet, so we wait on the edge of our seats for it! Jamison did great and slept through several of the speakers. He was a trooper, staying up later than usual and getting pushed around Minneapolis like a king! I was happy to see that there was a television set up out in the lobby for all the parents with young children. I didn't miss anything!
I loved how Helen made the point that we are called to persevere, more than to endure. There is something about the word endure that makes us think we have to grit our teeth and just do it...whereas to persevere has a much more positive message.
On Sunday night, we went to Bethlehem Baptist Church to see Joni Earickson Tada. It was the first time I have ever seen her in person, and I have to say, she glows with the joy that only God can give. It is my daily prayer to be as content in Christ as she is. Joni is a true testament to the grace and sufficiency of God.
In concluding the chapter (and the book), it would be good to summarize its
major underlying assumption: the different modalities of Christian soul care are
unified by a radically theocentric agenda. The use of these modalities is
Christian to the extent that it aims at the glory of God as its highest end, by
fostering the counselee’s analogical performance of Christ’s life, death and
resurrection through a deepening and manifesting faith in Christ . . . We
concede one may use all of these modalities without any reference to God or
Christ—as secular therapists do (and some Christians). But God’s glory is at
stake in the therapy of our day, and his truth, goodness, beauty and power are
best displayed when his role in our soul healing is consciously acknowledged,
made explicit and relied on, and when his Scriptures are given the primary role
in guiding the development of distinctly Christian psychological research,
theory building and soul-care practice. To the extent our faith is explicit and
authentic in our work, we manifest our own conformity to Christ. As we, and
those with whom we work, more and more come to flourish in communion with the
triune God and with the rest of the church, we together become better signs of
the Divine Life. Such is our common calling, so that Christian soul care,
properly conceived, has a significant role to play in the end for which God
created the world. (p. 604).
