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Piper Quote of the Day
"…God designed a way to vindicate the worth of his glory and at the same time to give hope to sinners who have scorned that glory. What he designed was the death of his Son."
(The Supremacy of God in Preaching, pg. 31-32) - John Piper
2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
This is one of my favorite scriptures for helping me see what conversion truly means. God creates light in our dark hearts and that light is knowledge of glory. Before what seemed to us untrue or uninteresting has now become true and compelling. The light that God shines into our heart creates the desire.
John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
Hebrews 1:3
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
One of my favorite scriptures for helping see Christ. Here is what I see when I read this. He is the outward brightness of God's beauty and excellence. His nature IS the nature that God has. The entire universe is under his complete constant care. The smallest subatomic particle to the largest cluster of galaxies only continue to exist because he wills. After his decisive act of redeeming mankind he sat down in power at the right hand of God.
I came across this while reading an article by John Piper today.
"What happened in the fall of man at Adam and Eve's sin was that they believed the lie that they would be wiser and better off if they did what they felt like instead of what God said. Since then, our hearts and our minds have been not just prone to make bad decisions but are deeply depraved. Sin is a condition of our hearts that produces all kinds of preferences that are contrary to God. Sin is like Satan offering you a beautiful ebony broach that you put around your neck. Conversion is God making the light go on and you see it's a roach. The devil had put a thread through an ugly, dirty, black, horrible roach and it's hanging around your neck and now you grab it and say, "Aah! Get that out of here!" As God awakens our spiritual taste buds, then we find sin to be distasteful and righteousness to be our delight. " - John Piper
To read the article that this quote was taken from visit this link. I highly recommend the article.
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure - Matthew 13:44
44"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
This scripture speaks of the value of the kingdom of heaven. The point is not that we can buy the kingdom by doing good deeds, or that we should hide what we have found but rather, the kingdom brings great joy to those who value it more than any possession.
