We are deeply humbled and very grateful to God for the more than 630 people who gave to Desiring God through GiveMN yesterday. 

As we prayed last week about this opportunity and how to present it in a prayerfully-dependent, God-centered way, we had no idea that God would raise up so many people during that short amount of time. It appears that this group of friends gave just over $139,000 in that 24-hour period.  We will know final results, including our portion of the match, in the coming days.

We are also grateful for all those who emailed who cannot give to us right now because of unemployment, health issues, or giving being guided to church or other ministries. We feel your affections and your prayers!

Please continue to pray for us.  This is a great help as we enter December, which is our month of greatest financial need. God is kind to provide that encouragement so early in this year-end season.  And, obviously, we remain dependent on him to provide the rest.

Thank you for being part of God’s provision to Desiring God!

Dear fellow shepherds of God's people,

For over 20 years, we have assumed the foundation of Christian Hedonism at the Desiring God Conference for Pastors. But we have never focused on it. Until now. I thought it was time. Our theme for 2010 is

The Pastor, the People, and the Pursuit of Joy
The Apostolic Aim of Pastoral Ministry

At least twice, the apostle Paul sums up the goal of his ministry in the joy of his people. First, to the Corinthians:

"Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy." (2 Corinthians 1:24)

Second, to the Philippians:

I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith." (Philippians 1:25)

The pastoral implications of being "workers for your joy" are huge. I am still trying to figure them out and work them out after 30 years at this church.

Speakers

Sam Storms

I am eager to have Sam Storms help me. Sam has written extensively on the place of joy in biblical theology and in the Christian life. Sam and I have both drunk deeply at the fountain of Jonathan Edwards. That's one reason why I resonate so deeply with Sam's insights. He will give 3 keynote addresses.

Sam is pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City and President of Enjoying God Ministries. He has served for over 30 years in the pastoral ministry and taught theology at Wheaton College for 4 years. He's been married to Ann for over 37 years and has two grown daughters and two grandsons.

My prayer is that the man God has made Sam to be, and the messages God will give us through him, will make us more and more into the kind of pastors who serve "with joy and not with groaning" (Hebrews 13:17).

Eric Mason

I am deeply thankful that Eric Mason was willing to come and be a part of the conference this year. He is the co-founder and lead pastor of Epiphany Fellowship in Philadelphia. He serves on the boards of the Acts 29 Network and Reach Life Ministries and is an adjunct professor at Biblical Theological Seminary.

When I invited him I said,

When I heard your message on the credibility of the church at Advance 09 [in Durham, NC], I took note especially of the ending where "glory in the church" was the focus. We wear the God-gear for the world to see and go out and buy it (Matthew 13:44, my addition). I wondered to myself, How does Eric relate the pursuit of maximum joy in God to that gear? And specifically, How does he do it in his context? How does the pursuit of joy in God relate in your context to the things people need and enjoy?

He said yes, and I told him to do whatever he thought would be helpful for pastors under this general theme. I expect to be helped.

Bob Blincoe

Every year, because Jesus lays claim on all the peoples, we bend our focus toward the unreached nations of the world. To help us do that this year, Bob Blincoe will tackle the theme of joy in the context of world missions.

I wrote to him and said,

You are a risk-taker and are bold to call others to risk their lives, not in the hobbies of skydiving and hang-gliding and ropeless mountain climbing, but in the proclamation of the gospel. I have heard you speak, and I am eager for you to open your heart for the Muslim world for these brothers.

I am thrilled that he said yes.

Biography of C.S. Lewis

My part will be a biographical study of C.S. Lewis. There is no one quite like him. He does so much good and gets some things so wrong. But mainly I love him and owe him more than I can say. He is in the top 5 dead people who have shaped the way I see and respond to the world. His autobiography is called Surprised by Joy. Not surprisingly, his life is hugely relevant to the conference theme.

Worship

With a theme like the pursuit of joy, I expect our corporate worship to be profoundly rich with great reasons for gladness in God. There are not many sounds I love more than your voices singing at the pastors' conference. We will pray for each other. We will reconnect with friends. We will lug home kilos of discounted books. And we will, I pray, leave empowered to live for the glory of Christ in the progress and joy of the faith of our people.

Eager to see you and worship with you,

John Piper

As of 3:30 p.m. today, God has provided 315 gifts to Desiring God through GiveMN.org!  We are grateful to God for his kind provision to us through these friends of the ministry.

And, as Pastor John tweeted this morning, “zero pressure,” but if you are prayerfully considering a donation to Desiring God, gifts given by 8:00 a.m. (CST) tomorrow morning (November 18) qualify for a match from GiveMN.org.  You can give through Desiring God’s site at GiveMN.org. 

We’ll provide an update on the totals when we have them tomorrow, probably later in the morning.

Thank you for praying for us.

As we reported last Friday, from now until 8am tomorrow, GiveMN will be matching donations made through their website to all Minnesota-based non-profit organizations, including Desiring God. $500,000 has been committed to be given to Minnesota non-profits through this one-day campaign.* 

GiveMN is covering all transaction fees, so 100% of your gift will come to Desiring God.  You do not need to be a resident of Minnesota, nor do you need to register with their site to make a one-time gift.

I tried it out last week and everything worked as they described, including the opportunity to make an anonymous gift if you prefer.

Here’s how to participate:

1. Pray about giving.  If you have never given before, would you pray about financially supporting Desiring God?  We only want you to participate as you feel the Lord leading.  God is good to provide for all of our needs and we are grateful for every person who donates. But we do not want you to feel any pressure to participate except happily in response to God’s call.  And please only give after you have first given to your local church.
2. Visit Desiring God’s page at GiveMN.org between now and 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. 
3. Choose your donation amount and click the green “Donate” button.  You’ll be asked for credit card information and an email address for your receipt.  The minimum amount that can be donated is $10.  There is no maximum, but they limit their match to $2,500 per individual.
4. You’re done!  An electronic receipt will be generated through Network for Good.  It will indicate your donation amount and date, and list Desiring God Ministries as the recipient of your donation.  Desiring God will receive your gift and the match by December 15 from GiveMN.org.
5. You may also choose to give a recurring gift through this site, which requires registration.

* We won’t know how much of the $500,000 matching funds are coming to Desiring God until after all the gifts to all non-profits have been tabulated.  If Desiring God’s portion of total giving to all non-profits is 5%, we will receive $25,000, or 5%, of the $500,000 matching grant, regardless of how much is actually given to Desiring God.

Thank you for your prayers!

Did you know that we depend on God to provide nearly half of Desiring God’s budget through donations? Donations help underwrite everything from the freely accessible resources found here on our site to our whatever-you-can-afford policy to our global spreading opportunities through International Outreach. We are grateful to God for his provision to us through people he leads to give!

Friends of Desiring God recently alerted us to a special matching gift donation opportunity through GiveMN, an organization designed to help create a stronger nonprofit community in Minnesota. Desiring God Ministries is one of the non-profits listed on their website.

GiveMN has a total of $500,000 they are dedicating to match gifts made during a 24-hour period to Minnesota-based non-profits.* They're also covering all transaction fees, so 100% of each gift designated to Desiring God through this site will come to DG.  You do not need to be a resident of Minnesota to participate, and you do not need to register to make a one-time gift.  You may also give anonymously if you choose. 

The matching gift opportunity will be from 8:00 a.m. Tuesday, November 17 through 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, November 18.

Here’s how to participate:

1. Pray about giving.  If you have never given before, would you pray about financially supporting Desiring God?  We only want you to participate as you feel the Lord leading.  God is good to provide for all of our needs and we are grateful for every person who donates. But we do not want you to feel any pressure to participate except in response to God’s call.  And please only give after you have first given to your local church.
2. Visit Desiring God’s page at GiveMN between 8:00 a.m. Tuesday, November 17 and 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, November 18. 
3. Choose your donation amount and click the green “Donate” button.  You’ll be asked for credit card information and an email address for your receipt.
4. You’re done!  An electronic receipt will be generated through Network for Good. It will indicate your donation amount, date, and list Desiring God Ministries as the recipient of your donation. Desiring God will receive your gift and the match by December 15 from GiveMN.org.
5. You may also choose to give a recurring gift through this site, which requires registration. 

And please pray for us! Your prayers are an important part of God’s good provision to Desiring God.

* The amount of the match to Desiring God will be determined as a ratio of the total amount given. GiveMN will track the total amount given to all Minnesota non-profits that day, and whatever percentage of it was given to DG, we'll receive that percentage of the $500,000 that is set aside for this project.

So, for example, if $1 million is donated to all Minnesota-based non-profits that day and Desiring God receives $25,000 in donations (2.5% of total), the match to Desiring God would be $12,500 (2.5% of $500,000).

Tomorrow morning, you can watch a Q&A with John Piper live from 8-11 AM, Central Time.

The questions will be a combination of those that have been emailed to us recently and those that are submitted via Twitter during the Q&A.

To send in a question tomorrow, simply Tweet it and add #apj to your Tweet. We'll be selecting questions as they come in.

For those of you (most of you, probably) who can't join us live tomorrow, the answer is, yes, we'll be recording it and making it available within a few days.

Many of you are trying to download the free Desiring God audio book from Christian Audio and having trouble. Their servers are overwhelmed because there's so much interest.

We're happy so many people want the book, but we're sorry for the frustration, too! Please remember the book will be free for all of November, so you may want to try your download again in a couple days when traffic has leveled out.

Our mission at Desiring God is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. By turning a few things around, we can also see what our mission is not - and therefore more clearly what it is.

Our mission is not to create cul-de-sacs, but to spread.

Our mission is not to spread just knowledge about God. It is to spread a passion for God. Head and heart.

Our mission is not to spread a passion for the mediocrity of God or for the overlooking of God or for the assuming of God. It is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God.

Our mission is not to spread a passion for the supremacy of human beings or Western materialism or even you. It is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God.

Our mission is not to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in just a few things, or just a few parts of your life like the time you spend at church, but in all things.

We aim to do this not simply for Americans or Western Christians but for all people groups.

We aim to do this not for the boredom or gloom or sadness of all people groups, but for the joy of all people groups. “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy” (Psalm 67:4).

And we aim to do this not through our own efforts or with an ambiguous God-is-whoever-you-think-he-is God in mind, but through Jesus Christ, who died for us on the cross 2,000 years ago, rose again, ascended into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, and will come again.

Tim Challies is doing a series of interviews about different ministries. This week, we hear from DG's Senior Director of Strategy, Matt Perman.

Check out the interview if you're curious about...

• How Desiring God began.
• What our main goals are.
• How we want to serve you.
• Why we post everything for free.
• Who our leaders are.
• How big we are—both our staff and budget.
• How we're financed.
• What we expect over the next 10-20 years.

Desiring God is seeking a full-time, on-site Media Creative with a strong desire to spread a passion for the supremacy of God. Qualified candidates will agree to DG’s Affirmation of Faith, embrace the vision of John Piper’s book Desiring God, and possess skills necessary to perform the duties of the position.

These duties include providing creative direction and technical expertise for the video, audio, and design needs of Desiring God as they pertain to the design and development of the ministry’s teaching, narrative, and promotional resources.  Please send resume, cover letter, and film reel (online or DVD) to jobs@desiringGod.org or Desiring God c/o Lukas Naugle 2601 E. Franklin Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55406. No phone calls, please.

Desiring God is seeking a part-time (maximum 20 hours per week), on-site Information Technology Assistant with a strong desire to spread a passion for the supremacy of God. Qualified candidates will agree to DG’s Affirmation of Faith, embrace the vision of John Piper’s book Desiring God, and possess skills necessary to perform the duties of the position.

These duties include assisting with maintenance and repair of all in-house computer systems, providing end-user technology support for the office staff and assisting the Information Systems Administrator with other technology projects. Please send resume and cover letter to jobs@desiringGod.org. No phone calls, please.

Pastor Tim Smith of Mars Hill church in Seattle did a brief (7.5 minute) interview with me at a recent conference on how Desiring God got started 15 years ago.

Today we're opening up comments here at the DG Blog.

Given the feedback that we've received over the last couple years about our lack of comments, this will be good news to some and annoying news to others.

Some of you have appreciated that that there are no posted comments, and we obviously understand that position. But many others of you have let us know that you would prefer if they were posted.

So we're giving it a shot.

We're not interested in opening comments just for comments' sake. We want this move to genuinely improve the blog.

So for the next couple months, we'll be in trial mode. If comments make this a better site, we'll keep them. If not, we won't. We have high hopes that this could go well and that a comment section could add a lot of value. It's up to you, the readers.

Our expectations are really very simple, and for most of you they go without saying. We will moderate comments according to the following rules.

Most important: Be kind and be sincere.

Less important:

1. Stay on topic.
2. Be coherent.
3. Limit the length of your comment to 300 words or so.
4. Only link to items that are relevant.
5. Post your own work.           
6. Don’t self-promote for the sake of self-promotion.
7. Don’t respond to provokers.
   

You can read our comment policy for a fuller explanation.

We're excited to see how this will open doors of communication, both between us and you, and—even more importantly—between you and other readers.

So come on and join in. Thanks, as always, for reading, and, now, thanks for commenting, too!

You may have noticed that there hasn't been a new sermon for awhile. That's because John Piper is on vacation.

He'll be preaching again on August 8.

Visit the photoblog of Bill Walsh, our Director of International Outreach, to see some great shots from the DG team's trip to China.

To wrap up our posts from China, we’ve asked our friend and guide during this trip to describe the activities of our day and point you to a valuable online source of information on China.

*               *               *

As a friend of DG, and someone who has lived and worked in this great land for 20+ years, I have had the privilege of playing host to the team this week. I absolutely love showing people around and helping them to get a glimpse of what God is doing here.

We spent a good part of the day in tourist mode—shopping, eating great food, and visiting the Temple of Heaven. This is where the emperors of old, who were regarded as Heaven’s representative on earth, came once a year to make sacrifices and offer prayers on behalf of the people. 

We also visited with a friend of mine who runs a tea house and heard amazing stories of how God is using her and her tea house as a launching pad for spreading the Good News.

As the DG team's time in Beijing is winding down, our thoughts are now turning toward ways in which they can stay informed about the Chinese Church and dig deeper into the challenges and opportunities she faces. 

My main recommendation is a quarterly called the ChinaSource Journal. ChinaSource is a California-based think-tank dedicated to providing balanced perspectives and analysis on the Chinese Church. 

It's a subscription publication, but they have graciously made a special offer for DG readers. For the next two weeks, you may download the current issue for free. The theme of this issue is leadership development, and it looks at new patterns and trends in the development of Chinese church leaders. 

To quote the editor of the journal:  “Chinese church leaders are changing their strategies. Is the global church ready?” 

We began the third day of our China vision trip by viewing some of the historical and cultural sites of this amazing nation. It has been a joy to learn about this great land, its history, and its people.

We started off at Tiananmen Square (literally, Gate of Heavenly Peace), the symbolic center of the nation. We then journeyed north to the massive gate-laden compound called the Forbidden City, which served as the home of China’s emperors from the 1400’s to the 1920’s. (The last emperor of China abdicated in 1912, but was allowed to live there until 1924.)  

In the evening, we continued our crash course on the current state of Christianity in China, fellowshipping and learning from some dear brothers about the victories and challenges stemming from the unprecedented growth of the Chinese church.

We have learned many things this week, yet in many ways are more confused. In preparation for this trip we read the book “China Road,” by Rob Gifford and one of his quotes has been rung true:  “If you’re not confused you’re not paying attention.” My respect and appreciation for the leaders who maneuver these complex situations and relationships grows day by day.

Another highlight yesterday was learning about a company called Baojiayin, a book distribution center delivering legally published books all over China. As we walked into their distribution center we saw stacks and stacks of newly published books like Mere Christianity, Theology of the Reformers, and Through the Gates of Splendor. It was great to meet the staff and hear their vision of helping Chinese believers access encouraging Christian literature. 

If you have friends in China please direct them to Baojiayin to see what books are available. Books can be ordered and delivered anywhere in the country for less than $1.

One of the books they sell is a recently-published bilingual version of The Big Picture Story Bible. That such a book has been approved for publication and distribution in China is truly amazing.  If you would like to help get copies of these books into the hands of Chinese orphans, please contact them.

Yesterday we visited a Christian bookstore here in China and came across a title you might recognize. So for an update on the DG team in Beijing, here’s an image from the second day.

You may be surprised to find out that Christian books can be legally published and distributed inside mainland China.

We spent most our day discussing Christian publishing in China and getting an update on current projects involving translation of DG resources into Simplified Chinese for publication and for the web.

Pray with us that God will assist us in these projects and that they will bear fruit for the church in China.

On Day 1 of the Desiring God trip to China, we were able to experience firsthand some of the amazing things God is doing here.

Our first visit was to The Phillip Hayden Foundation, a foster home specializing in care for children with serious medical conditions or special needs. It was so encouraging to see dozens of staff and volunteers selflessly putting James 1:27 into practice.

We then met with an American expat family from Minnesota for an authentic (read: not Panda Express!) Chinese lunch and fellowship. Their business—and family—has been growing. They plan to add another employee this summer, and even more exciting, they are praying that their unique adoption case will be finalized later this year.

For the rest of the day, we received a crash course on the current state of Christianity and Religion in China from three Chinese citizens:

We met a man who runs a think tank focusing on religious policy in China, which in itself is an amazing testimony to the changes that have occurred in this country over the past 20 years. He explained the history and rationale behind the government’s view of religion, as well as his hope for a more open, "free market" approach to religion in the future. His research and writings are widely read by officials.

We also met the founder of  China ActionLove Volunteer Association an indigenous Christian Relief worker who mobilized Christians to assist with the relief work of last year's devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province. With tacit approval from local authorities, China ActionLove is now planning a series of Community Centers in Southwest China to extend the scope of efforts.

Finally, we met a seminary professor who explained the history of seminary education in China, as well as some of the current trends and needs for ongoing theological training. He told the story of one of his professors who had spent 30 years in prison for his faith, only to resume teaching in a seminary as soon as he was released in 1981.

At the end of this busy day, our minds were full of ideas and new insights into God's extraordinary work in China. And it's only Day 1.

You can participate by praying for the following needs:

• The Phillip Hayden Foundation could use prayer for a new Vocational Training Facility they are building to assist non-adopted adolescent orphans transfer into a meaningful, self-supporting work. They need to raise $37,000 USD by July 1 to meet an important deadline.
• Pray for a quick resolution to the our friends' upcoming adoption.
• Pray for God to bless the work of China Actionlove as they build their network of community centers in Southwest China.
• Ask God to continue to bless the work of Paul as he seeks to influence policy-makers.
• Seminaries in China are in need of more resources to be translated into simplified Chinese, especially texts of Systematic Theology and Commentaries.

A few months ago, Seth wrote about amazing developments in China. I recommend that you visit that post if you didn’t see it, and spend time reading the articles he links to. The Global China Center also regularly posts excellent content describing the church in China.

This past year, we’ve begun several significant publishing projects within mainland China as well as translation of sermon manuscripts for the web. God has been blessing these efforts and we are making good progress.

This week, a group from Desiring God will be visiting China to continue expanding our vision for partnering with the church to spread solid theological resources. We’ll visit leaders in Beijing, get an up-date on our projects, and learn more about Chinese culture.

Please pray that God will direct our steps and show us how we can serve our brothers and sisters in China.

In an interview with one of our favorite leaders in the cause of missions, George Verwer, he says:

Right now with the present global financial crisis we need to pray even more for the release of funds. We don’t want to have to pull back at this time.… [W]e need to be pro-active in getting new people involved in this vision. I’m sure some of the finance will then come and help us do what God has put on our hearts.

Desiring God International Outreach is partnering with Operation Mobilization by providing resources for the two OM ships. Piper books are given out during pastors conferences that are held on board when Logos Hope and Doulos pull into strategic ports around the world.

Related Resources by George Verwer

• The Gospel in Contemporary Culture
• Money, Ministry, and the Magnificence of Christ

Every week our Philippian Fellowship receives a letter from us with updates and prayer requests about things going on here at DG. This week, in praise to God, we wanted to go a little more public with it.

*               *                *

Praise God for the First Quarter of 2009!

God has done marvelous things for Desiring God so far this year—please join with us in praising him for all that he provided! 

• New resources have been released, such as Noel Piper’s Do You Want a Friend?
• The DG home page has been completely redesigned with new functions to more easily view video.
• The Pastors Conference in February served more than 1,500 pastors.
• The media team travelled to Angola Prison to document five Christian rap artists in concert there. They then travelled to Memphis to finish filming DG’s first music video, Don’t Waste Your Life, which was released last week by Reach Records.
• Donations have exceeded our expectations, both in numbers of dollars and numbers of donors, in each of the first three months of the year so far.  We are grateful to God for what he has provided through the Philippian Fellowship and others.
• God opened up opportunities for International Outreach to donate books and media resources for ministry partners in 37 countries including...Bulgaria, China, India, Malawi, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, and the UAE.  Pray with us for impact and fruitfulness for the global church.
• DG signed a lease to stay in our current offices while considering our longer-term needs.

Pray for Pastor John

Please continue to pray for Pastor John as he fulfills a number of preaching and speaking commitments through the end of April:

• April 19 — Preaching at Park Street Church, Boston
• April 21-23 — Speaking at The Gospel Coalition
• April 23 — Lecture and discussion at Park Community Church
• April 25-26 — Services at Bethlehem Baptist Church
• April 30 — Children Desiring God Conference

Thank you for praying with and for us,

John Knight

If you came to our blog today through our site, you've seen the new homepage. But if you clicked through from another site or you're reading this in your feedreader or inbox, you may want to check out the updates we've made.

4 Main Changes to Our Homepage

1. Weekly Sermon Featured Front and Center

You can now watch the sermon each week from the homepage in HD and full screen. It's also very easy to share via Facebook, Twitter, or email straight from the homepage.

For now the featured sermon is from several weeks ago, but when John Piper is back from his writing leave, this will be updated each Monday with the latest message.

Throughout the week, we will also feature events, products, and resources in that top banner that we hope will be especially helpful for you to know about.

2. A More Robust Rotating Carousel

The section beneath the banner that rotates with different information is now more thorough.

There you can find an introduction to DG, ministry updates, featured products and resources. You can even start browsing our resource library straight from the carousel.

3. More Space for the Blog

When we designed our last homepage, our blog didn't exist. Instead, we had a news section that was rarely updated. As the news section developed into the blog, it remained in the space that had been designed for simple and irregular updates.

The blog has become key to our communication with you and our goal to spread Christ-centered content, so we've given it a spot on the homepage that represents this. Obviously this won't really matter to those who subscribe, but we hope the extra space given to the blog on the homepage will make it even more useful to those who get our content by visiting the site.

4. New Place for Latest Resources

Before now, the latest sermon, Taste & See article, and Ask Pastor John were featured in a middle section of the homepage. These are now listed in the right column, next to the blog.

Thanks!

We appreciate that you use this site. We hope it serves you and that this new homepage makes it even better. Feel free to respond to this post if you have any feedback.

John Piper has been on writing leave for about five weeks and has three more. Here's a 4-question interview on how it's going.

What have you finished so far?

I have completed a manuscript titled Seek It Like Silver: The Place of Thinking in the Pursuit of God. It’s the same length as Finally Alive.

To explain the title, here’s the last paragraph of the introduction:

If you...raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver...then you will...find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:3-6). I need all the help I can get to love the knowledge of God more than the profits of silver. I assume you do too. So I wrote this to remind myself of the place of thinking in the pursuit of God. As a little echo of Calvin and Augustine, I say with them, “I count myself one of the number of those who write as they learn and learn as they write.” If you join me, I hope you find it helpful.

I put the finishing touches on the fifth book of The Swans Are Not Silent series, Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ: The Cost of Bringing Christ to the Nations in the Lives of William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton.

I tweaked the endings of the four narrative poems on Ruth with a view to producing a new artistic book on Ruth like the big Job book. This will go with a new book on Ruth that will be out in about a year titled, A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and Sovereignty in the Book of Ruth.

What are you working on now?

A book on how the pursuit of racial and ethnic diversity and harmony relate to the gospel. No title yet.

What do you hope to accomplish during the rest of your time?

If I could finish the book on ethnic diversity I would be happy. But I would love to get at least a little start on a larger book on the sovereignty of God that would take several years to do.

How can people pray for you?

That I see the truth clearly, feel it dearly, and tell it with compelling power. That I not spin my wheels or waste time. That I not neglect prayer and a moment-by-moment sense of dependence on God’s grace. That I love Noël and Talitha the way I should. That the church flourish in my absence. That God’s name be hallowed and Christ be exalted in all of this.

Each spring, we remember an event more ground-shaking than any other event in human history. We remember the incredible fulfillment of one man’s claim:

I lay down my life.... No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. (John 10:17-18)

On Easter morning, Jesus did just that. Having laid down his life for his sheep, he took it back up. No ambulance, no doctors, no medicine.

Who is like our great Christ? Who has dared to claim what he claimed? Who could dare to do what he has already done—and for our great good!

If you would like some resources to help you share this good news with others, we are offering three different choices in our Easter Outreach Special:

• Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die
• Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die Audio Book
• History’s Most Spectacular Sin

You can get these from us by the case at deep discounts if you will be giving them away.

This Easter, let's point people to the good news of the resurrection and rejoice with Paul,

I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. (Rom. 1:16)