Ask Pastor John

We miss the miracle of what Christmas is if we forget why Christmas happened: God the Son became man — to die in our place.

Christmas is not just another bend in the river of redemptive history. Christmas marks the end of the river and the arrival of the ocean.

The Bible teaches both the absolute sovereignty of God and the genuine accountability of man. And nowhere are they considered contradictory.

No Christian consistently longs for God, which is one reason God gives us prayers like Psalm 86:11: “Unite my heart to fear your name.”

Those who live for joy in God now will possess joy in God forever. And until then, God pledges his protection over body and soul, through life and death.

Christians sometimes talk about giving God “some” glory, “more” glory, or “most” glory, but are those really biblical categories?

None of us has an infallible understanding of the Bible, but at what point does open contradiction of Scripture call into question someone’s profession of faith?

God, in his grace, does not keep us from trouble and pain. But he does order and measure our trouble and pain — and then uphold us through it all.

A love for excellence can easily grow into a hypercritical spirit. How can we resist the tendency to focus mostly on the failures of others?

John Piper’s ministry has been marked by rigorous attention to God’s word paired with deep delight in God’s word — a double emphasis captured in Psalm 119:97.

The story of Elijah on Mount Carmel shows that God rules over fire and rain, bulls and rocks — and even over every human heart.

If we allow anger to come quickly and stay long, it will eventually consume love, consume gratitude, consume mercy, and consume true perceptions of reality.

God has reasons for everything he does — and an ultimate purpose driving it all. Personal mission statements help us align all of life with that great purpose.

Gratitude is a duty — we ought to thank God for the grace he has given. But genuine Christian gratitude is far more than mere duty.

Jesus healed people with deep, lifelong disabilities. So should we pray that he would heal loved ones with disabilities like Down syndrome or cerebral palsy?

When we don’t understand God and his ways, we can still rest here: God is always totally sovereign, and God is always infinitely good.

Jesus never lied, stole, coveted, grumbled, lusted, or sinned in any other way. And that means Jesus alone knows the full force of temptation.

When suffering overshadows the life of a family, how can parents help their children embrace God’s all-good, all-wise, all-governing providence?

Are God’s callings for men and women merely functional and practical, or do they flow from something deeper in his design?

We live in the day of salvation, the day of patience, the day of tolerance. But when Jesus returns, that day will end forever.