John Piper

Here__ an Advent illustration for kids _ and those of us who used to be kids and remember what it was like. Suppose you and your mom get separated in the grocery store, and you start to get scared and panic and don__ know which way to go, and you run to the end of an aisle, and just before you start to cry, you see a shadow on the floor at the end of the aisle that looks just like your mom. It makes you really happy and you feel hope. But which is better? The happiness of seeing the shadow, or having your mom step around the corner and it__ really her?That__ the way it is when Jesus comes to be our High Priest. That__ what Christmas is. Christmas is the replacement of shadows with the real thing.

An eye for beauty instead of bleakness might have lightened some of his load.

The "war" is being fought along the line between sin and righteousness in every family. It is being fought along the line between truth and falsehood in every school... Between justice and injustice in every legislature... Between integrity and corruption in every office... Between love and hate in every ethnic group... Between pride and humility in every sport... Between the beautiful and the ugly in every art... Between right doctrine and wrong doctrine in every church... Between sloth and diligence between coffee breaks. It is not a waste to fight the battle for truth and faith and love on any of these fronts.

If truth does not lead to falling in love, it fails.

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. What was once foolishness to us__ crucified God__ust become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this world.

All heroes are shadows of Christ

God without Christ is no God.

If we are cut loose from the anchor of God's Word, we will not be free. We will be slaves of personal passions and popular trends.

Tasks don't have to be high-impact to be worthy of high effort. Most things we do in any given day are relatively low impact. The cumulative impact of thousands of low-impact test is huge. These tasks can be transposed into worship.

Desire for and delight in God's Word are inseparable.

Don't make peace with the sin in your life.

Salvation is the creation of new desires, not just new goodies.

God is willing and able to turn his judgements into joys . . . Don't ever think that the sin of your past means there is no hope for your future.

The horror of Hell is an echo of the infinite worth of God's glory.

I want you to see persecution and opposition and slander and misunderstanding and disappointment and self-recrimination and weakness and danger as the normal portion of faithful pastoral ministry.

We would do our theology better if more was at stake in what we said.

God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose.

Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It's a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel.