The Blazing Center Study Guide


Book Description

What Do You Revolve Around? All the planets of your life—from your labor and leisure to your thinking and feeling—are held in orbit by the greatness, gravity, and blazing brightness of Jesus Christ at the center of your life. When He ceases to be the center, the planets of your life fly into confusion, sending a hundred things out of control. Pastor John Piper’s powerful teaching is recorded during an intimate retreat for youth leaders and students onto three The Blazing Center DVDs. With the study guide, this is an ideal package for adult and youth Sunday school classes, small groups, retreats, classrooms, and families. Discover surprising insights about the reality of sin, how your love for God is really revealed, and how only joy in Him will sustain you through times of suffering. God Is the Blazing Sun at the Center of Reality Everything revolves around Him. And as the most valuable and glorious person who exists, God is loving, not conceited, when He calls us to worship Him. His pursuit of glory and our pursuit of joy are not at odds—because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. This study guide is designed to be used in a ten-session, guided group study that focuses on The Blazing Center DVD set: Lesson 1—Introduction to The Blazing Center Lesson 2—The Blazing Center: A Personal Story Lesson 3—The Blazing Center: Is God Vain? Lesson 4—Pursue Your Joy: Isn’t That Hedonism? Lesson 5— Pursue Your Joy: God Commands It! Lesson 6—True Love: Duty or Delight? (Part 1) Lesson 7—True Love: Duty or Delight? (Part 2) Lesson 8—Suffering: For the Joy Set Before You (Part 1) Lesson 9— Suffering: For the Joy Set Before You (Part 2) Lesson 10—Review and Conclusion Complete with Scripture and key quotations for reflection, penetrating questions, and five daily assignments per week, this study guide will help you place God at the center of your life. When God is the blazing sun at the center of your solar system, all the planets of your life come into proper orbit. Leader’s guide included! Story Behind the Book “The greatest news in all the world is that there is no final conflict between my passion for joy and God’s passion for His glory. The knot that ties these together is the truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Jesus Christ died and rose again to forgive the treason of our souls, which have turned from savoring God to savoring self. In the cross of Christ, God rescues us from the house of mirrors and leads us out to the mountains and canyons of His majesty. Nothing satisfies us—or magnifies Him—more.” —John Piper




Crazy Love


Book Description

Revised & Updated Edition! God is love. Crazy, relentless, all-powerful love. Have you ever wondered if we're missing it? It's crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe—the Creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor—loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss. Whether you've verbalized it yet or not, we all know something's wrong. Does something deep inside your heart long to break free from the status quo? Are you hungry for an authentic faith that addresses the problems of our world with tangible, even radical, solutions? God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn't working harder at a list of do's and don'ts—it's falling in love with God. And once you encounter His love, as Francis describes it, you will never be the same. Because when you're wildly in love with someone, it changes everything. Learn more about Crazy Love at www.crazylovebook.com.




When I Don't Desire God


Book Description

Explaining how to become a Christian hedonist, a bestselling author offers guidance on how to find spiritual joy to readers who are unsure of where to seek it.




How to Study the Bible


Book Description

Which translation is best? Which Study Bible? What are the secrets of resolving difficult or controversial passages? From forty years of intensive Bible study and teaching, Missler shares his favorite helps, secrets and practical suggestions on how to take the Bible seriously. Most Christians, although they want to do in-depth Bible study, know little of the types, philosophies and tools of study available. Is the Bible to be taken literally or figuratively? What study aids would be most helpful in beginning my own home study library? Going through the Bible book by book. "Eat the elephant one bite at a time." These studies produce the most lasting results. There is a balance in the "whole counsel of God." Emmaus Road in Luke 24:27. Where to Start? A good "first book" is the Gospel of John: "A child can wade in it and an elephant can bathe in it!" Other good starting points include Genesis, Acts, Matthew, Daniel, and Revelation (Which is the only book which unequivocally promises a blessing to the reader). You are unique: let the Spirit lead you




Sex and the Supremacy of Christ


Book Description

The Bible has a way of shocking us. If Americans could still blush, we might blush at the words, "Rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love" (Proverbs 5:18-19). But, of course, sin always tries to trash God's gifts. So we can't just celebrate sex for what God made it to be; we have to fight what sin turned it into. The contributors to this unique volume encourage you to do both: celebrate and struggle. This book has something for all-men and women, married and single-from contributors like John Piper, C. J. and Carolyn Mahaney, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, Carolyn McCulley, and others.




Life as a Vapor


Book Description

31 meditations from the founder of Desiring God that will connect you to a fresh understanding of God and renew your faith. "You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14). Living knowing that your life is a vapor is different than just living. Things here are passing away. You’ve got to hold on to what will stand. Savor what matters. This collection of thirty-one articles is full of that heart-longing after Christ that distinguishes Piper’s preaching ministry. You will feel as though you have stumbled into a garden as you enter these pages. The Scripture cuts, Christ is exalted in God, and we worship Him. Life Is Short. Eternity Is Long. Live Like It. You will exist forever. You and God are both in the universe to stay—either as friends on His terms, or enemies on yours—which it will be is proven in this life. And this life is a vapor. Two seconds, and we will be gone. In these thirty-one meditations, John Piper will connect you to a fresh understanding of God and a renewed relationship with Him. You’ll find your faith stirred to make every day count for Christ when you consider life as a vapor. Story Behind the Book Time is precious. We are fragile. Life is short. Eternity is long. Every minute counts. Oh, to be a faithful steward of the breath God has given me. Three texts resound in my ears: “Redeem the time” (Ephesians 5:16 ); “It is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy” (1 Corinthians 4:2); “His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10 ). Surely God means for our minutes on earth to count for something significant. Paul said, “In the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain” (Philippians 2:16). In the same way, I have good hope from the Lord that my “labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58 ).




Trusting God


Book Description

Over 500,000 copies sold “Why is God allowing this? What have I done wrong?” Many of us have asked these questions when life hits us hard. When our circumstances defy explanation, it is difficult to untangle our emotions from the truth. Before long, we feel confused and frustrated. We doubt His care for us. We wonder how He could allow these circumstances at all, or if He is really in control. During a time of darkness and adversity in his own life, Jerry Bridges dug deep into the Bible for answers on God’s sovereignty. What he learned changed his life—and it will change yours too. Find the answers to some of your most heartfelt questions, such as: Is God in control? Can I trust God? What is our responsibility when things are hard? How can I grow through adversity? And more Explore the scope of God’s care and control over nations, nature, and the tiny details of your life. You’ll find yourself trusting Him more completely―even when life hurts. Now with an added study guide for personal use or group discussion so you can dive deeper into this staple of Jerry Bridges’s classic collection. “The writings of Jerry Bridges are a gift to the church. He addresses a relevant topic with the wisdom of a scholar and the heart of a servant.” —Max Lucado, pastor and bestselling author




Psalms in 30 Days


Book Description

From generation to generation, many Christians have adopted the habit of praying every month through all 150 psalms—songs that form the bedrock of both corporate worship and individual devotion. Through thousands of years of memorization, recitation, and singing, the people of God have found in this book a God-centered view of reality—words that put into perspective all our emotions, conflicting desires, times of suffering, and experiences of faith and doubt. In Psalms in 30 Days, Trevin Wax has adapted a centuries-old approach to reading the psalms by providing a "Morning," "Midday" and "Evening" pattern—following the Scriptural precedent for praying three times a day. This journey through the psalms, as translated in the Christian Standard Bible® (CSB), also features other songs from the Bible, as well as written prayers from faithful Christians who have gone before us. Here is a guide to praying all the psalms every month by—three times a day—lifting your eyes above your circumstances and reminding yourself that God is the blazing center of all things. Psalms in 30 Days features the highly readable, highly reliable text of the Christian Standard Bible® (CSB). The CSB stays as literal as possible to the Bible's original meaning without sacrificing clarity, making it easier to engage with Scripture's life-transforming message and to share it with others.




This Book Is for You


Book Description

This is a book about falling in love with the Bible . . . that feels nothing like reading a book about the Bible. This Book Is for You will help you learn that the Bible has something life-changing to say about who you are, where you are, and the God who is in the midst of it. When you finish this book, you just might say, "I see what she did here. I didn't realize it, but I was learning while I was laughing. She invited me into a dialogue about things I didn't know I wanted to learn. She stirred within me a love for the Bible, but it didn't hurt at all." This Book Is for You invites you into the author's life using stories, humor, and charm, revealing how the Bible has become Tricia Lott Williford's daily lifeline. Regardless of your notions of the Bible, Tricia will help you engage with it as a living, meets-me-where-I'm-at thing. Tricia is not a seminarian. She is a lover of God's Word. She is not a highbrow academician. She is educated as a grade school teacher who sometimes uses comic relief to make her point. She is not a theologian, a Bible teacher, or even a Bible scholar. Tricia is a lover of messy people; a mom of two teenage boys who are likely late for school and wearing mismatched socks. She has been known to absent-mindedly doodle in the margins of overdue library books. She has battled depression and anxiety to degrees that have nearly drowned her. She has begged the Lord for miracles that only He could provide. And somewhere in the midst of all that, she fell hopelessly in love with the Word of God as a light to her next step and the air for her next breath. Now Tricia wants you to experience this too.




The Blazing World


Book Description

1666 Dystopian Science Fiction, Woman Author The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World. A Merchant travelling into a foreign Country, fell extreamly in Love with a young Lady; but being a stranger in that Nation, and beneath her, both in Birth and Wealth, he could have but little hopes of obtaining his desire; however his Love growing more and more vehement upon him, even to the slighting of all difficulties, he resolved at last to Steal her away; which he had the better opportunity to do, because her Father's house was not far from the Sea, and she often using to gather shells upon the shore accompanied not with above two to three of her servants it encouraged him the more to execute his design. Thus coming one time with a little leight Vessel, not unlike a Packet-boat, mann'd with some few Sea-men, and well victualled, for fear of some accidents, which might perhaps retard their journey, to the place where she used to repair; he forced her away...