“God’s work in us does not eliminate our work; it enables it.  We work because he is the one at work in us.  Therefore, the fight for joy is possible because God is fighting for us and through us.  All our efforts are owing to his deeper work in and through our willing and working.” - John Piper (still looking for in which of his books I first read this) SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Enabled", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2009/02/06/enabled/" });

Never been able to make it to a Desiring God conference . This year’s conference ended today, and it looked to be an insightful time in God’s Word. Look forward to perhaps working through the audio recordings and become a better communicator of God’s glorious wonder. ————— The DG Blog has some recent posts summarizing the messages, with audio links and some notes either from the speaker or from an attentive listener Some of the posts: Pray More than You Criticize (about Mark Driscoll’s message) 3 Ways Singing Serves the Word (from Bob Kauflin’s...

“The tragedy of the world is that the echo is mistaken for the Original shout. When our back is to the breathtaking beauty of God, we cast a shadow on the earth and fall in love with it. But it does not satisfy." —John Piper, The Dangerous Duty of Delight , p. 9. "The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust them… For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.” —C.S. Lewis, quoted by Piper, same page. SHARETHIS.addEntry({...

Here is a real picture of a man who considers himself a real sinner, who’s identity is found in Jesus, and who has relied upon Him for decades. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "A compelling interview", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2008/09/06/a-compelling-interview/" });

Just finished reading a fascinating book, Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists by Collin Hansen (Crossway Books, 2008). Hansen is editor-at-large for Christianity Today magazine, and a phenomenal writer and story teller, in my humble opinion. His new book is an expansion and more detailed research project of his September 2006 article in Christianity Today magazine . During that time and afterward he traveled all around the country (for nearly two years) chronicling the diverse movement, from the Passion conferences to Southern Seminary, to Bethlehem Baptist...

“Our only hope for living the radical demands of the Christian life is that God is totally for us now and forever. Therefore, God has not ordained that living the Christian life should be the basis of our hope that God is for us. That basis is the death and righteousness of Christ, counted as ours through faith alone. On the cross Christ endured for us all the punishment required of us because of our sin. And in order that God, as our Father, might be completely for us and not against us forever, Christ has performed for us, in his perfect obedience to God, all that God required of us...