John Piper on Living the Most Significant Life Imaginable

“As individual Christians with many hard things in front of you, let’s not miss either of these—the hard and the glorious. If we only see the hard part, we will miss the power and the freedom. If we only see the glorious part, we will minimize the sacrifice…Remember this: the glory Jesus’ promises compensates for the hardness of it all. In fact, the glory turns the hardness into the most significant life imaginable.”

From “If a Grain of When Dies it Bears Much Fruit” By John Piper © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

The Source of A Thankful Spirit

“Let us pray for a deeper sense of our own sinfulness, guilt and undeserving. This, after all, is the true secret of a thankful spirit.  Iy is the man who daily feel his debt to grace, and daily remembers that in reality he deserves nothing but hell, – this is the man who will be daily blessing and praising God. Thankfulness is a flower which will never bloom well excepting upon a root of deep humility.”

-J.C. Ryle

Wise Words on Joe Paterno and the Gospel

My friend Caleb Southerland posted these helpful lessons from Joe Paterno and the scandal at Penn State

• What you don’t do is often louder and than what you do.
• How you finish is much more important than how you start.
• One of the worst decisions to make is to decide to do nothing or little.
• I never want to end with the phrase “I wish I had done more”
• He was informed of a grave wickedness and did little; I see wickedness daily and do little…we both need grace.
• My identity is found in Jesus alone, my righteous is by Him alone; never my job no matter how good or bad I am at it.
• Redemption comes from Jesus alone, not apologies or ‘right doing’

You can read his blog here.