God wants your heart. The whole Bible teaches truth and awakens emotions, but the Psalms are in a category of their own. They do not just awaken the heart; they put it in the foreground. They do not merely invite our emotions to respond to God’s truth; they put our emotions on display.

The Psalms are more than commanding—they are contagious. We are not just listening to profound ideas and feelings. We are living among them in their overflow. We touch pillows wet with tears. We hear and feel the unabashed cries of affliction, shame, regret, grief, anger, discouragement, and turmoil. But what makes all this stunningly different from the sorrows of the world is that all of it—absolutely all of it—is experienced in relation to the totally sovereign God.

Shaped by God is an invitation. God wants our hearts. He will take them as he finds them. And then, with the healing contagion of the Psalms, he will shape them. Accept his invitation to come.

God wil jou hart hê. Die hele Bybel is vol waarheid en werk in ons hart, maar die psalms is net besonders. Hulle raak nie net ons hart nie – hulle plaas ons hart op die voorgrond. Hulle nooi nie net ons emosies om op God se waarheid te reageer nie – hulle stel ons emosies ten toon.

Die psalms doen meer as om ons te leer. Ons ervaar alles wat dit leer. Ons hoor en ervaar die onbeskaamde uitroepe van smart, skaamte, berou, verlies, woede, ontmoediging en ontsteltenis. Maar wat hierdie gedigte – almal van hulle – so verstommend anders maak as die smart van die wêreld is dat hulle almal ervaar word in verhouding tot die totaal alleenheersende God.

Hierdie boek is ’n uitnodiging. God wil ons hart hê. Hy sal dit neem soos dit is. En dan, deur die inspirasie van die psalms, sal Hy dit vorm. Aanvaar sy uitnodiging om te kom.

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” This simple but powerful statement has been a cornerstone of John Piper’s ministry for nearly 40 years. Laying out the principles behind this “Christian Hedonism” Desiring God has proved to be a source of rich theological insight for countless readers through the years, guiding them to the fullness of joy found in Christ.

In this foundational work, John Piper addresses profound questions about the purpose of life and the human pursuit of pleasure. Drawing wisdom from Scripture and insights from church history, Piper challenges the belief that believers must sacrifice joy in order to please God. Instead, finding delight in God does not diminish his glory; rather, it magnifies it and fulfils the deepest desires of our souls.

Every Christian needs dependable role models to whom one can look for teaching and example. Many of the greatest role models have departed from this life, but their legacy lives on. Believers of this day and age can learn much about a godly life from saints of the past. Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen are three such saints. Each stood for the truth of God's Word in the face of opposition-all out of a deep love for Christ and a desire for people to know God as he truly is. Popularity was not a concern, and they took no joy in controversy for argument's sake. However, these men were willing to suffer for the sake of guarding the sanctity of the gospel. Many threats, years of exile, deaths of loved ones, opposition from friends and authorities, sickness and pain-none of these setbacks could keep these three from maintaining their efforts for the furthering of Christ's Kingdom or quench their zeal for Christ himself. John Piper's Contending for Our All gives us biographies of Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen-bishop, pastor, and seminary founder. In the life of each one, personal holiness was emphasized publicly and privately despite suffering. They were true soldiers for the sake of the cross, and each man offers life lessons for Christians today

Since September 11, 2001, I have seen more clearly than ever how essential it is to exult explicitly in the excellence of Christ crucified for sinners and risen from the dead. Christ must be explicit in all our God-talk. It will not do, in this day of pluralism, to talk about the glory of God in vague ways. God without Christ is no God. And a no-God cannot save or satisfy the soul. Following a no-God--whatever his name or whatever his religion--will be a wasted life. God-in-Christ is the only true God and the only path to joy. To bring us to this highest and most durable of all pleasures, God made his Son, Jesus Christ, a bloody spectacle of blameless suffering and death. This is what it cost to rescue us from a wasted life. The eternal Son of God "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing." He took "the form of a servant" and was born "in the likeness of men . . . . He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:6-8). All Things Were Made for Him This Jesus was and is a real historical man in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9). Since he is "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God," as the old Nicene Creed says, and since his death and resurrection are the central act of God in history, it is not surprising to hear the Bible say, "All things were created through him and for him" (Colossians 1:16). For him! That means for his glory. Ever since the incarnate, redeeming work of Jesus, God is gladly glorified by sinners only through the glorification of the risen God-Man, Jesus Christ. His bloody death is the blazing center of the glory of God. There is no way to the glory of the Father but through the Son. All the promises of joy in God's presence, and pleasures at his right hand, come to us only through faith in Jesus Christ. If We Reject Him, We Reject God Jesus is the litmus test of reality for all persons and all religions. He said it clearly: "The one who rejects me rejects him who sent me" (Luke 10:16). People and religions who reject Christ reject God. Do other religions know the true God? Here is the test: Do they reject Jesus as the only Savior for sinners who was crucified and raised by God from the dead? If they do, they do not know God in a saving way. That is what Jesus meant when he said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Or when he said, "Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him" (John 5:23). Or when he said to the Pharisees, "If God were your Father, you would love me" (John 8:42). If we would see and savor the glory of God, we must see and savor Christ. For Christ is "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). To put it another way, if we would embrace the glory of God, we must embrace the Gospel of Christ. The reason for this is not only because we are sinners and need a Savior to die for us, but also because this Savior is himself the fullest and most beautiful manifestation of the glory of God. He purchases our undeserved and everlasting pleasure, and he becomes for us our all-deserving, everlasting Treasure. The Gospel is the Good News of the Glory of Christ This is how the Gospel is defined. When we are converted through faith in Christ, what we see with the eyes of our hearts is "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4). The Gospel is the good news of all-conquering beauty. Or to say it the way Paul does, it is the good news of "the glory of Christ." When we embrace Christ, we embrace God. We see and savor God's glory. There is no savoring of God's glory if we do not see it in Christ. This is the only window through which a sinner may see the face of God and not be incinerated. The Bible says that when God illuminates our hearts at conversion, he gives "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). Either we see the glory of God "in the face of Jesus Christ," or we don't see it at all. And "the face of Jesus Christ" is the beauty of Christ reaching its climax in the cross. The bloody face of Christ crucified (and triumphant!) is the countenance of the glory of God. What was once foolishness to us becomes our wisdom and our power and our boast (1 Corinthians 1:18, 24). Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain.

According to Warren Wiersbe, The Supremacy of God in Preaching "calls us back to a biblical standard for preaching, a standard exemplified by many of the pulpit giants of the past, especially Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon." This newly revised and expanded edition is an essential guide for preachers who want to stir the embers of revival. Piper has added valuable new material reflecting on his thirty-three years of preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church, offering a glimpse of what a lifetime of putting God first has done for the faith of the hundreds of thousands who have heard him preach over the years.

In this bestselling book, John Piper makes a passionate plea to the next generation of Christians to not waste their lives, but to live for Jesus with all their hearts.

Most people, when they ponder what it means to be loved by God, do not think God-centred thoughts. They think of the things that God does for us but which, in their minds, don't have God as the satisfying centre. But it wouldn't be loving of God to give us everything but himself - and so his love doesn't do that. It gives us himself for our enjoyment, and it gives us other things as means of knowing him better and loving him more. In John Piper's reflective, paradigm-challenging book, he drives home the point that what is most loving about God is not his making much of us, but his enabling us, at great cost to himself, to enjoy making much of him forever.

Longtime Pastor and Author John Piper Walks through Jesus’s Commands and Their Meaning for the Christian Life.

The four Gospels are filled with commands straight from the mouth of Jesus Christ. They are not the harsh demands of a taskmaster, but Jesus's way of showing his followers who he is and how to be more like him.

In All That Jesus Commanded, John Piper walks through Jesus’s commands, in 50 short chapters, explaining their context and meaning to help readers understand Christ’s vision of the Christian life and what he still requires today. The result is a helpful guide for thoughtful inquirers and new Christians, as well as veteran believers, whether for their own study or as a resource in disciple-making.

• Biblical and Theological: Piper examines Jesus’s commands and explains their context, meaning, and application today
• Comprehensive: Features Scripture, person, and subject indexes
• Accessible: Written in a clear, engaging tone, this book is an excellent resource for new and seasoned believers alike, and for use in discipling younger believers

When Jesus said to Nicodemus, 'You must be born again', the devout and learned religious leader was unsure what Jesus meant. It would seem nothing has changed. Today 'born again Christians' fill churches that are seen as ineffectual at best, and even characterised by the 'mosaic' generation as 'unchristian'. The term 'born again' has been devalued both in society and in the church. Those claiming to be 'born again' live lives that are indistinguishable from those who don't; they sin the same, embrace injustice the same, covet the same, do almost everything the same. Being 'born again' is now defined by what people say they believe. The New Testament however defines Christians very differently. "When Jesus said to Nicodemus, "You must be born again" (John 3:7), he was not sharing interesting and unimportant information. He was leading him to eternal life... If he does that for you (or if he already has), then you are (or you will be) truly, invincibly, finally alive." John Piper

"A Parable of Permanence . . ."
Reflecting on 40 years of matrimony, John Piper exalts the biblical meaning of marriage over its emotion, exhorting couples to keep their covenant for the right reasons. Even when people commonly stayed married "till death do us part," there has never been a generation whose view of marriage was high enough, says Pastor John Piper. That is all the more true in our casual times. Understanding God's design according to his Word can awaken a glorious vision capable of freeing every person from small, Christ-ignoring, romance-intoxicated views. As Piper explains: "Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. And ultimately, marriage is the display of God. It displays the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his people to the world in a way that no other event or institution does. Marriage, therefore, is not mainly about being in love. It's mainly about telling the truth with our lives. And staying married is not about staying in love. It is about keeping a covenant and putting the glory of Christ's covenant-keeping love on display."
"Una parabola de permanencia . . ."
Reflexionando sobre cuarenta anos de matrimonio, John Piper enaltece el sentido biblico del matrimonio por encima de la emocion, exhortando a las parejas a mantener su pacto por las razones correctas. Incluso cuando la gente comunmente permanecio casada "hasta que la muerte nos separe," nunca hubo una generacion cuya perspectiva del matrimonio fue lo suficientemente alta, dice el pastor John Piper. Esto es todavia mas cierto en nuestra informal epoca. Comprender el diseno de Dios segun su Palabra puede despertar una gloriosa vision capaz de liberar a todas las personas de perspectivas que ignoran a Cristo y estan intoxicadas por el romance. El matrimonio es fundamentalmente, mas que nada, la obra de Dios. Y, en ultima instancia, el matrimonio es la demostracion de Dios. De una manera mejor que ningun otro evento o institucion, en el matrimonio se muestra al mundo el mantenimiento del pacto de amor entre Cristo y su pueblo. El matrimonio, por lo tanto, no se trata principalmente de estar enamorado. Es, sobre todo, decir la verdad con nuestras vidas. Y permanecer casados no se trata de permanecer enamorados. Se trata de mantener el pacto y demostrar la gloria del amor fiel de Cristo.

John Piper challenges fellow baby boomers to forego the American dream of retirement and live out their golden years with a far greater purpose in mind.

They say it's a person's reward for all those years of labor. "Turn in your time card and trade in your IRAs. Let travel plans and golf-course leisure lead the way." But is retirement really the ideal? Or is it a series of poor options that ignore a greater purpose-and will kill a person more quickly than old age?

John Piper responds: "Lord, spare me this curse " And his resounding message is for anyone who believes there's far more to the golden years than accumulating comforts. It's for readers who long to finish better than they started, persevere for the right reasons (and without fear), experience true security, value what lies beyond their cravings, and live dangerously for the One who gave his life in his prime. With this brief book, Piper is sure to spur fellow baby boomers in their resolve to invest themselves in the sacrifices of love-and to grow old with godly zeal.

John Piper brings a lifetime of theology, Bible meditation, and pastoral ministry to bear on the doctrine of God's providence, showing how God's all-pervasive governing of all things glorifies Christ, and is spectacularly good news for those who trust him.

Trusting Jesus is hard. It requires following the unseen into an unknown, and believing Jesus's words over and against the threats we see or the fears we feel. Through the imaginative retelling of 35 Bible stories, Not by Sight gives us glimpses of what it means to walk by faith, counsel for how to trust God's promises more than our perceptions, and the way to find rest in the faithfulness of God.

Featuring contributions from leading Bible teachers such as John Piper, D. A. Carson, and Tim Keller, this compilation of eight expository messages explores the theme of redemption from Genesis to Revelation, filling us with joyful hope in light of Jesus's return.

We all want to experience liberating, love-producing, risk-taking satisfaction in God. But the reality is that we often struggle to find, and hold onto, true and lasting joy--even when we have embraced the good news of God's grace. So we face a crucial question: What should I do when I don't desire God?

John Piper aims to help us find joy in Jesus that is so deep and so strong that it frees us from bondage to comfort and security, and impels us to live merciful and missional lives. Written with the radical hope that all Christians would experience the fullness of life in Christ, this book will help you fight for joy daily by leading you to rediscover the soul-satisfying glory of God.

A choice lies before you: Either waste your life or live with risk. Either sit on the sidelines or get in the game. After all, life was no cakewalk for Jesus, and he didn't promise it would be any easier for his followers. We shouldn't be surprised by resistance and persecution. Yet most of us play it safe.
We pursue comfort. We spend ourselves to get more stuff. And we prefer to be entertained. We are all tempted by the idea of security, the possibility of a cozy Christianity with no hell at the end. But what kind of life is that really? It's a far cry from adventurous and abundant, from truly rich and really full, and it's certainly not the heights and the depths Jesus calls us to.
Discover in these pages a foundation for fearlessness. Hear God's promise to go with you into the unknown. And let Risk Is Right help you see the joys of a faith-filled and seriously rewarding life of Jesus-dependent abandon
Risk Is Right is a significantly expanded version of a chapter previously published in the book Don't Waste Your Life (chapter 5).

John Piper's classic poem about the innkeeper who provided the stable for Jesus's birth has been redesigned.

Only two weeks from his crucifixion, Jesus has stopped in Bethlehem. He has returned to visit someone important--the innkeeper who made a place for Mary and Joseph the night he was born. But his greater purpose in coming is to pay a debt. What did it cost to house the Son of God?

John Piper shares a tale of what might have been through the story-poem of an innkeeper whose life was forever altered by the arrival of the Son of God. Ponder the sacrifice that was made that night. Celebrate Jesus's birth and the power of his resurrection. And encounter the hope his life gives you for today--and for eternity.

This imaginative story has been redesigned and makes a great gift for families.

Originally published in 1948, and edited by the artist John Piper, An English Farmhouse is Geoffrey Grigson's careful survey of the old English farmhouse, and its associated buildings, whether made from sarsen, thatch, timber, tile or brick. Grigson paints a vivid and human picture of rural life in the preceding centuries and creates a delicate weave of social history.

The belief that Jesus died for us, suffering the wrath of his own Father in our place, has been the wellspring of hope for countless Christians through the ages. However, with an increasing number of theologians, church leaders, and even popular Christian books and magazines questioning this doctrine, which naysayers have described as a form of "cosmic child abuse," a fresh articulation and affirmation of penal substitution is needed. And Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach have responded here with clear exposition and analysis.

They make the case not only that the doctrine is clearly taught in Scripture, but that it has an impeccable pedigree and a central place in Christian theology, and that its neglect has serious consequences. The authors also systematically analyze over twenty specific objections that have been brought against penal substitution and charitably but firmly offer a defining declaration of the doctrine of the cross for any concerned reader.