Me and my dad are both reading one of John Piper’s recent books – ‘Spectacular Sins and their global purpose in the glory of Christ’. It’s a book about God being in complete control of EVERYTHING, and not just that it’s about EVERYTHING having one purpose – to give God glory… everything means everything, even the worst sins ever committed in human history!

“At the all-important pivot of human history, the worst sin ever committed served to show the greatest glory of Christ and obtain the sin-conquering gift of God’s grace. God did not just overcome evil at the cross. He made evil serve the overcoming of evil. He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil.

Evil is anything and everything opposed to the fullest display of the glory of Christ. That’s the meaning of evil. In the death of Christ, the powers of darkness did their best to destroy the glory of the Son of God. This is the apex of evil. But instead they found themselves quoting the script of the ancient prophecy and acting the part assigned by God. Precisely in putting Christ to death, they put his glory on display – the very glory they aimed to destroy. The apex of evil achieved the apex of the glory of Christ. The glory of grace.”

John Piper, Spectacular Sins [pg. 12]

When I read this it blew me away, and this is just part of the introduction! I’m going to give a full review when I finish reading it… shouldn’t be long, it’s hard to put down!

I love the banter that goes on between these two…

At the last Resurgence conference there was the joke question from Driscoll… “Would you let an Arminian cut your grass?” and just after the infamous Driscoll-Chandler punch.

Then there’s his 4 reasons why I love John Piper…

and reason number 5, “He’s a good sport”… see below:  John’s Piper’s New Coat!

Hope to see him preaching in it soon! Best line in the video… “I love John Piper… but not in an Episcopalian way!”

Just lead a student interactive Bible study on the topic of discernment… here’s where I went:

I suggested that there were perhaps two types of Christian discernment; discernment of God’s will, what we might call guidance, and also discernment of truth, from error – particularly focusing on the truth and error in doctrine, what we believe as Christians.

The second type, discerning Truth, comes with a big premise, namely that there is Truth and error. So already with this premise we are battling against prevailing worldviews: post-modernism that says there is no ultimate Truth, and relativism which says there are many truths – which taken to it’s logical conclusion also affirms there is no ultimate Truth.

So… What is discernment?
Groups looking at:  Hebrews 5:11-14, Philippians 1:9-10, Romans 16:9, Ephesians 5:8-10, Romans 12:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, 1 John 4:1

We need to have a good grasp of the gospel to be able to discern truth from error!

What is the Gospel?  – 1 Corinthians 15:1-5

Gospel – it’s good news!

It’s apostolic – Paul preached it!

It’s a first-order, fight over, go to the stake issue – FIRST IMPORTANCE!

Cue 6 points nicked from John Piper: Planned, Historical, Objective Accomplishment, Free offer to faith, Application to the individual, joyful eternal future.

Warning against false gospels! -  Galatians 1:6-9

It’s not good news – no gospel at all. Perversion of the true gospel. Eternal condemnation!

Case studies

Here’s the PDF handout from the study, complete with case studies – wonder if you can guess who the dodgy quotes are from…

From Desiring God.

Desiring God conference – ‘The Power of Words and the Wonder of God’ – begins 26th September