Author : John Piper
Publisher : Multnomah
Page : 91 pages
File Size : 16,41 MB
Release : 2001
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1576738833
Strengthen your relationship with God by enjoying Him and His creation! Discover just how to delight in the Lord in this compact version of Piper's classic Desiring God.
Author : Desiring God
Publisher : Multnomah
Page : 114 pages
File Size : 33,40 MB
Release : 2006-07-03
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1590526856
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
Author : John Piper
Publisher : Crossway
Page : 223 pages
File Size : 44,33 MB
Release : 2016-03-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1433552663
God has provided a way for all people, not just scholars, to know that the Bible is the Word of God. John Piper has devoted his life to showing us that the glory of God is object of the soul’s happiness. Now, his burden in this book is to demonstrate that this same glory is the ground of the mind’s certainty. God’s peculiar glory shines through his Word. The Spirit of God enlightens the eyes of our hearts. And in one self-authenticating sight, our minds are sure and our hearts are satisfied. Justified certainty and solid joy meet in the peculiar glory of God.
Author : Dorothy Day
Publisher : Image
Page : 754 pages
File Size : 31,41 MB
Release : 2011-10-25
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0307888843
For almost fifty years, through her tireless service to the poor and her courageous witness for peace, Dorothy Day offered an example of the gospel in action. Now the publication of her diaries, previously sealed for twenty-five years after her death, offers a uniquely intimate portrait of her struggles and concerns. Beginning in 1934 and ending in 1980, these diaries reflect her response to the vast changes in America, the Church, and the wider world. Day experienced most of the great social movements of her time but, as these diaries reveal, even while she labored for a transformed world, she simultaneously remained grounded in everyday human life: the demands of her extended Catholic worker family; her struggles to be more patient and charitable; the discipline of prayer and worship that structured her days; her efforts to find God in all the tasks and encounters of daily life. A story of faithful striving for holiness and the radical transformation of the world, Day’s life challenges readers to imagine what it would be like to live as if the gospels were true.
Author : John Piper
Publisher : Crossway
Page : 194 pages
File Size : 12,20 MB
Release : 2006-01-20
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1433517884
Athanasius. John Owen. J. Gresham Machen. Each of these men stood for the truth of God's Word in the face of opposition-all out of a deep love for Christ and a desire for people to know God in his fullness. Popularity was not a concern, and they took no joy in controversy for argument's sake. However, these men were willing to suffer for the sake of guarding the sanctity of the gospel. Many threats, years of exile, deaths of loved ones, opposition from friends and authorities, sickness and pain-none of these setbacks could keep these three from maintaining their efforts for the furthering of Christ's Kingdom or quench their zeal for Christ himself. In his fourth book of The Swans Are Not Silent series, Contending for Our All, John Piper has given us biographies of Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen-bishop, pastor, and seminary founder. In the life of each one, personal holiness was emphasized publicly and privately despite suffering. They were true soldiers for the sake of the cross, and each man offers life lessons for Christians today. Athanasius The deity of Christ and all its worth consumed Athanasius. He devoted his life to defending it. The great adversary was the Arian heresy. Athanasius would be banished by the emperor five times. He was contending for his all-the essential, life-giving truth of Christ and his gospel. John Owen Communion with Christ was the focus of John Owen's vast intellect and expansive heart. He battled Christ-belittling errors of the mind and heart with passion and skill. Going deeper in the understanding of Christ was for him the key to going deeper in fellowship with him. J. Gresham Machen Representing Christ in all his fullness with all of Scripture drove J. Gresham Machen. He saw in the liberal Christianity of the early twentieth century another religion. His exposure of its subtleties and his emphasis on the facts of history are astonishingly relevant for our time in the early twenty-first century. The Swans Are Not Silent When Augustine handed over the leadership of his church in A.D. 426, his successor was so overwhelmed by a sense of inadequacy that he declared, "The swan is silent," fearing the spiritual giant's voice would be lost to time. But for 1,600 years Augustine has not been silent-and neither have those who faithfully trumpeted the cause of Christ after him. Their lives have inspired every generation of believers and should compel us to a greater passion for God. Part of the The Swans Are Not Silent series.
Author : John Piper
Publisher : Multnomah
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 11,66 MB
Release : 2009-11-11
Category : Religion
ISBN : 030757427X
A Godward Life is the first of three devotional volumes by John Piper, each feature 120 vignettes that focus on the radical difference it makes when we choose to live with God at the center of all that we do. Scripture-soaked and touching on the issues which most affect our lives today, A Godward Life is a passionate, moving, and articulate call for all believers to live their lives in conscious and glad submission to the sovereignty and glory of God.
Author : John Piper
Publisher : Multnomah
Page : 183 pages
File Size : 41,28 MB
Release : 2009-01-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0307563863
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 ).
Author : Mary Balogh
Publisher : Delacorte Press
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 43,5 MB
Release : 2004-06-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0440334993
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Mary Balogh's The Secret Mistress. All of London is abuzz over the imminent arrival of Wulfric Bedwyn, the reclusive, cold-as-ice Duke of Bewcastle, at the most glittering social event of the season. Some whisper of a tragic love affair. Others say he is so aloof and passionless that not even the greatest beauty could capture his attention. But on this dazzling afternoon, one woman did catch the duke’s eye—and she was the only female in the room who wasn’t even trying. Christine Derrick is intrigued by the handsome duke…all the more so when he invites her to become his mistress. What red-blooded woman wouldn’t enjoy a tumble in the bedsheets with a consummate lover—with no strings and no questions asked. An infuriating lady with very definite views on men, morals, and marriage, Christine confounds Wulfric at every turn. Yet even as the lone wolf of the Bedwyn clan vows to seduce her any way he can, something strange and wonderful is happening. Now for a man who thought he’d never lose his heart, nothing less than love will do. With her trademark wit, riveting storytelling, and sizzling sexual sparks, Mary Balogh once again brings together two polar opposites: an irresistible, high-and-mighty aristocrat and the impulsive, pleasure-loving woman who shows him what true passion is all about. A man and a woman so wrong for each other, it can result only in the perfect match.
Author : Dane C. Ortlund
Publisher : Crossway
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 14,62 MB
Release : 2020-03-18
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1433566168
Christians know that God loves them, but can easily feel that he is perpetually disappointed and frustrated, maybe even close to giving up on them. As a result, they focus a lot—and rightly so—on what Jesus has done to appease God’s wrath for sin. But how does Jesus Christ actually feel about his people amid all their sins and failures? This book draws us to Matthew 11, where Jesus describes himself as “gentle and lowly in heart,” longing for his people to find rest in him. The gospel flows from God’s deepest heart for his people, a heart of tender love for the sinful and suffering. These chapters take readers into the depths of Christ’s very heart for sinners, diving deep into Bible passages that speak of who Christ is and encouraging readers with the affections of Christ for his people. His longing heart for sinners comforts and sustains readers in their up-and-down lives.
Author : Stephen Tobolowsky
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 19,43 MB
Release : 2012-09-25
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1451633173
From legendary character actor Stephen Tobolowsky, comes a collection of memoiristic pieces about life, love, acting, and adventure, told with a beguiling voice and an uncommon talent for storytelling. The Dangerous Animals Club by Stephen Tobolowsky is a series of stories that form a non-linear autobiography. Each story stands on its own, and yet there are larger interconnecting narratives that weave together from the book's beginning to end. The stories have heroics and embarrassments, riotous humor and pathos, characters that range from Bubbles the Pigmy Hippo to Stephen's unforgettable mother, and scenes that include coke-fueled parties, Hollywood sets, French trains, and hospital rooms. Told in a vivid, honest, and wondrous voice, Tobolowsky manages to render the majestic out of the seemingly mundane, profundity from the patently absurd, and grace from tragedy. This book marks the debut of a massively talented storyteller.
