Ask Pastor John

God causes the miracle of unhardening our hearts, and we act the miracle of unhardening them.

Christ shared in our suffering as fallen mortals so that we could be included in the divine family, with Christ as our superior older brother.

The command to “pray without ceasing” should motivate rather than intimidate us. Armed with joy and thankfulness, we can overflow in prayer.

Nowhere in the New Testament is it commanded or forbidden that local churches meet in homes. Leaders must use other factors to make that decision.

Pastors must affirm the absolute power, goodness, and wisdom of God during the most tragic of circumstances to give their people comfort and hope.

Jesus’s miracle of fish and bread proves it. An appetite for miracles is no proof one is a Christian. As John Piper explains, “Seeing the mere event of an external physical miracle should never be the goal of the Christian.”

Yes, we can overdo Christian Hedonism, “because it is possible to overemphasize anything,” says John Piper. So what are the warning signs?

When you want God over everything else, you glorify the value of God.

“The division of humanity into languages and ethnicities was a judgment from God,” says John Piper. And yet it was also part of his unfolding plan to save the nations.

Evangelicalism’s global growth is mainly Pentecostal, says John Piper. This is cause for celebration, and for concern, because the growth is often entangled by prosperity theology.

In the digital age, needs surround us. So how do we avoiding inactivity paralysis? We return to God, says John Piper, whose shoulders alone can bear the crushing weight of global suffering.

If Christians are born again and have therefore died to sin, why do we need to fight so hard to put sin to death?

Personal suffering should not surprise us (1 Peter 4:12). The Bible not only promises it, it also teaches us how to “squeeze as much Christ-exalting meaning out of our suffering as we can.” John Piper explains.

What drives John Piper? “This is one of the greatest discoveries of my life,” he recent told an audience in Italy, “that God’s purpose to be glorified and my passion to be satisfied are not at odds.”

If you’re married, keep your promise. If you’re divorced and remarried, keep your promise. Don’t break your word a second time.

The greatest stumbling block for children in worship is parents who don’t cherish their own worship. We can’t impart what we don’t possess.

“Until we find our rest in Christ, we will be trying to invent ourselves in ways that will only end in tears.” Rob Smith on the hopes, tensions, and roadblocks of the transgender movement.

“Transgender surgery often contradicts the Hippocratic principle of ‘Do no harm,’” says theologian and ethicist Rob Smith in today’s episode. “You are now perhaps mutilating a perfectly healthy body to try and address a psychological problem.”

“Christians should get as good a grasp on questions about transgender, whether or not we have transgender friends,” says theologian and ethicist Rob Smith. “Because when a person hurts themselves, it hurts others.”

“God has given us distinct body and soul, but they exist in psychosomatic unity,” says theologian and ethicist Rob Smith. “The two are knit together (Psalm 139:13).” So what does this mean in the transgender debate?