Desiring God Blog

Mark 7:26,

". . . Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter."

J. C. Ryle comments,

The woman who came to our Lord, in the history now before us, must doubtless have been in deep affliction. She saw a beloved child possessed by an unclean spirit. She saw her in a condition in which no teaching could reach the mind, and no medicine could heal the body — a condition only one degree better than death itself. She hears of Jesus, and beseeches him to “cast forth the devil out of her daughter.” She prays for one who could not pray for herself, and never rests till her prayer is granted.

By prayer she obtains the cure which no human means could obtain. Through the prayer of the mother, the daughter is healed. On her own behalf that daughter did not speak a word; but her mother spoke for her to the…

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On March 16-17 at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Pastor John will be giving a free, two-day seminar on the theme of Future Grace —

Details

Bethlehem Baptist Church
720 13th Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55415

Day 1
Friday, March 16
7:00 - 9:00pm (two sessions, + Q&A)

Day 2
Saturday, March 17
9:00am - 12:00pm (three sessions)

Register

Please register online. There is no cost to attend, and included in your registration is a free copy of the book Future Grace.

Recommended Hotels

Comfort Suites
425 South 7th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55415
612.333.3111

Holiday Inn Metrodome
1500 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55454
612.333.4646

Hilton Minneapolis
1001 Marquette Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55403
612.376.1000

One highlight of the Conference for Pastors is the hour-long panel where speakers interact with questions from the pastors in attendence. Download the audio and video.

Time-markers —

00:50 — What is biblical femininity? (Wilson, Patrick)

05:12 — Does Christianity have a feminine feel? (Piper, Loritts, Patrick)

11:25 — How can fathers best care for their daughters? (Wilson, Patrick, Loritts)

15:44 — How do we know to apply strictness or mercy? (Wilson, Piper, Loritts)

24:55 — How do we model Christ in parenting foster children? (Piper, Wilson)

28:40 — Lessons for courage, boldness, and wisdom. (Atallah)

30:56 — How does Christian worship threaten the pattern of this world? (Wilson)

33:43 — How does masculinity relate to our worship music? (Piper, Wilson)

40:45 — What are strategies for building godly men? (Loritts, Patrick)

43:45 — How do we surround ourselves…

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When the Journal of Medical Ethics released the article, “What makes killing wrong?” in January, they set off a mini-storm of outrage and controversy.  The authors, from Duke University and the National Institutes of Health, asserted that ‘universally and irreversibly disabled people’ could be killed for the sake of retrieving their organs for people who are not totally disabled.

On the whole, the issue raised is when it becomes appropriate to retrieve organs from one person for the sake of another. The governing rule that a person must be dead before vital organs can be removed, known as the ‘dead donor rule,’ has many difficult aspects to it that make even its proponents uncomfortable.

But a dry journal article on the philosophical and ethical issues around such an issue would not have been interesting. 

So, these authors created a provocative scenario invol…

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Ramez Atallah, general secretary of the Bible Society of Egypt, spoke at the 2012 Conference for Pastors on ministering with vision, creativity, and courage. Download the audio and video.

Memorable Quotes

• "Obligated, eager and not ashamed — these should characterize a church with the gospel."
• "When I came to understand the gospel for the first time, I knew that this is what my peopled needed."
• "A Christian leader has to have a vision — he must see things other people don't see and empower them to capture it and incarnate it."
• "Faith respects people who are eccentric and marginal."
• "Humility allows us to be mission oriented, rather than gift oriented."

The gospel turns people into pilgrims. It comes with a culture-correcting force that creates aliens and exiles of the world.

Drawing from a 1733 Jonathan Edwards sermon, John Piper offers seven descriptions of what this looks like:

1. Pilgrims are not diverted from their aim.
2. Pilgrims are to hold the things of this world loosely.
3. Pilgrims become like what they hope to attain.
4. Pilgrims will not be satisfied with anything less than God.
5. Pilgrims are not grieved by their arrival at the journey's end.
6. Pilgrims ponder what they pursue.
7. Pilgrims travel together.

Read the entire article, Jonathan Edwards on the Pilgrim Mindset.

________

Recent posts from "Piper's Pen" —

• The Pastor's Role in World Evangelization
• Planning for Spiritual Necessities in 2012
• How and Why God Changes People

John Piper gave his annual biographical message at the 2012 Conference for Pastors. This year he spoke about the life and ministry J. C. Ryle. Download the audio and video.

Pastor John begins the message by explaining what he means that "Christianity has a masculine feel."

Theology and church and mission are marked by overarching godly male leadership in the spirit of Christ, with an ethos of tender-hearted strength, and contrite courage, and risk-taking decisiveness, and readiness to sacrifice for the sake of leading, protecting, and providing for the community — all of which is possible only through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

It’s the feel of a great, majestic God, who by his redeeming work in Jesus Christ, inclines men to take humble, Christ-exalting initiative, and inclines women to come alongside the men with joyful support, intelligent helpfulness…

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I want to be like Jonathan Edwards, don’t you? The guy was amazing. He was a polymath, an incomparable scholar, “probably the greatest America mind ever” (as they say). Writing a treatise on spiders was like a few rounds of Angry Birds to him. He was the pastor-theologian. A school president. A missionary to unreached peoples. A leader in a movement that changed America. He was a giant.

Paul Talks About Us

And then the Apostle Paul reminds us with the Corinthians: “not many of you” were wise or powerful or noble. “Not many of you.” It doesn’t apply to everyone, but it does to most of us.

Most of us don’t come to faith in Jesus with the intellectual respect of secular scholars. Most of our conversion stories don’t include anything close to a Nebuchadnezzer-like experience of boasting in our kingdom. Most of us weren’t born into noble families with financial frei…

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Darrin Patrick's message at the 2012 Conference for Pastors was on being and building men in the local church. He expounded Galatians 5 and walked through the on-the-ground work of killing sin and living in the Spirit. Download the audio and video.

Memorable Quotes

• "When you become a leader of men, you plug your life into an ampiflier and everyone hears it."
• "You don't obey for your acceptance, you obey from your acceptance."
• "You don't measure your maturity by comparing yourself with others. You judge maturity by comparing yourself to Jesus."
• "Paul tells us to crucify the flesh. Crucifixion is a slow death, but it is a certain death."
• "Your flesh is anything you use other than Jesus to get God’s approval. Your flesh will take your ministry and make it your righteousness."
• "A key to killing your spiritual flesh is through surrounding yourselves with broth…

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The price William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton paid to translate the Word of God, pave the way for missionary mobilization around the world, and lead the hostile to Christ was great. Yet their stories show how the gospel advances not only through the faithful proclamation of the truth but through representing the afflictions of Christ in our sufferings.

You can now order the book for just $5.

(Offer good only for purchases made through our online store and while supplies last.)

Other Specials

• Finally Alive ($5)
• The Dangerous Duty of Delight($5)
• Think ($5)
• A Holy Ambition ($5)
• Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ ($5)
• Fifty Reasons Jesus Came to Die ($5)
• The Gadarene ($5)
• Portrait of Calvin ($3)
• God Is the Gospel ($5)
• With Calvin in the Theater of God ($5)
• Ruth: Under the Wings of God ($5)