Crossway John Piper Collection (39 vols.)

by John Piper; Justin Taylor; Paul Kjoss Helseth; David Mathis; Jonathan Edwards

and

1 more

Publisher:

Crossway

, 1997–2013

Overview

After more than 30 years of preaching and ministry, John Piper continues to teach and influence Christians. Perfect for building your library or continuing your study of Piper’s theology, this diverse collection includes some of his most significant devotional and academic works. There are volumes on important figures of the faith—Augustine, Luther, Bunyan, Wilberforce, and Edwards—as well as instruction for Christian living and spiritual reflection.

Find words of encouragement and practical applications for use in personal study and preaching. Whether you are trying to grasp timely and difficult theological questions, to better understand specific biblical passages, or to live more faithfully, this collection can help guide you along the way in your faith journey.

Key Features

• Provides a diverse selection of titles written by one of the most influential pastors in America
• Addresses timeless topics in Christianity
• Offers practical applications for your faith journey
• Assists in the study of theological questions
• Discusses important figures of the faith

Product Details

• Title: Crossway John Piper Collection
• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Volumes: 39
• Pages: 6,950
• Christian Group: Reformed, Baptist
• Resource Type: Collected Works
• Topic: Theology

Beyond the Bounds: Open Theism and the Undermining of Biblical Christianity

• Editors: John Piper, Justin Taylor, and Paul Kjoss Helseth
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2003
• Pages: 395

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This understanding of God’s foreknowledge has united the church for 20 centuries. But advocates of “open theism” are presenting a different vision of God and a different view of the future. The rise of open theism within evangelicalism has raised a host of questions. Was classical theism decisively tainted by Greek philosophy? Is open theism a product of process theism? What philosophical presuppositions and cultural conditions are allowing open theism to flourish? How should we understand passages that tell us that God changes his mind or repents or expresses surprise? Are essentials of biblical Christianity—like the inerrancy of Scripture, the trustworthiness of God, and the gospel of Christ—at stake in this debate? Where, when, and why should we draw new boundaries—and is open theism beyond them? Beyond the Bounds brings together a respected team of scholars to examine the latest literature, address these questions, and give guidance to the church in this time of controversy.

We have prepared this book to address the issue of boundaries and, we pray, bring some remedy to the present and impending pain of embracing open theism as a legitimate Christian vision of God. . . . As a pastor, who longs to be biblical and God-centered and Christ-exalting and eternally helpful to my people, I see open theism as theologically ruinous, dishonoring to God, belittling to Christ, and pastorally hurtful. My prayer is that Christian leaders will come to see it this way, and thus love the church by counting open theism beyond the bounds of orthodox Christian teaching.

—John Piper, from the foreword

The downsized deity of open theism is a poor substitute for the real God of historic Christianity—as taught by Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox theologians through the centuries. This book offers an important analysis and critique of this sub-Christian view of God. Well researched and fairly presented.

—Timothy George, dean, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University

Justin Taylor (PhD candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is vice president of book publishing and an associate publisher at Crossway. He has edited and contributed to several books, including A God Entranced Vision of All Things and Reclaiming the Center.

Paul Kjoss Helseth (PhD, Marquette University) is a professor of Christian thought at Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of Right Reason and Princeton Mind: An Unorthodox Proposal.

Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2011
• Pages: 304

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Sharing from his own experiences growing up in the segregated South, Pastor John Piper thoughtfully exposes the unremitting problem of racism. Instead of turning to organizations, education, famous personalities, or government programs to address racial strife, Piper reveals the definitive source of hope—teaching how the good news about Jesus Christ actively undermines the sins that feed racial strife, and leads to a many-colored and many-cultured kingdom of God.

In Bloodlines readers will learn to pursue ethnic harmony from a biblical perspective. Piper also helps readers understand how to relate to others despite differences and how to take part in the bloodline of Jesus that is comprised of “every tongue, tribe, and nation.”

John Piper has given us an exquisite work on the matter of race. He addresses the issue with biblical and theological soundness coupled with personal sensitivity and practical advice. This is a must read for those who wish to pursue unity God’s way.

—Tony Evans, cofounder and senior pastor, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship

Contending for Our All: Defending Truth and Treasuring Christ in the Lives of Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2006
• Pages: 192

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Athanasius. John Owen. John Gresham Machen. Each of these men 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 in his fullness. 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. In Contending for Our All, John Piper has given 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. Athanasius devoted his life to defending the deity of Christ against the Arian heresy. John Owen battled Christ-belittling errors of the mind and heart with passion and skill. Going deeper in the understanding of Christ was for him the key to going deeper in fellowship with him. J. Gresham Machen saw in the liberal Christianity of the early twentieth century another religion. His exposure of its subtleties and his emphasis on the facts of history are astonishingly relevant for our time in the early twenty-first century.

Counted Righteous in Christ: Should We Abandon the Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness?

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 144

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Are Christians merely forgiven, or do they possess the righteousness of Christ? Recently the time-honored understanding of the doctrine of justification has come under attack. Many question how—or if—we receive the full righteousness of Christ. Martin Luther said that if we understand justification “we are in the clearest light; if we do not know it, we dwell in the densest darkness.” And now, in this new and important book, John Piper accepts Luther’s challenge. He points out that we need to see ourselves as having been recipients of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and therefore enjoy full acceptance with God and the everlasting inheritance of life and joy. Piper writes as both a pastor and a scholar. His pastor’s heart is shown in his zeal for the welfare of the church. His careful scholarship is evident in each explanation and undergirds each conclusion.

Does Christ’s lifelong record of perfect obedience to God get ‘credited’ to your account when you trust in Christ and are ‘justified’ by God? This has been the historic Protestant understanding of the ‘imputation of Christ’s righteousness,’ but John Piper warns that we are in danger of losing this doctrine today because of attacks by scholars within the evangelical camp. In response, Piper shows, in careful treatment of passage after passage, that the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to believers is clearly the teaching of the Bible, and if we abandon this doctrine we will also lose justification by faith alone.

I am thankful to God for John Piper’s defense of this crucial doctrine.

—Wayne Grudem, research professor of theology and Bible, Phoenix Seminary

The gospel must be defended in every generation. Today, as in the sixteenth century, the central issue is the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. John Piper clearly and powerfully proves this is the view of the Bible and not merely of orthodox Protestant theology. The church must say ‘No!’ to those who declare that imputation is passé. If imputation is passé, then so is the gospel.

—R.C. Sproul, executive editor, Tabletalk

Don’t Waste Your Cancer

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2011
• Pages: 16

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With pastoral sensitivity, compassion, and strength, Piper gently but firmly acknowledges that we can indeed waste an unusual opportunity when we don’t see how cancer fits into God’s good plan for us and for the kingdom of God.

Written on the eve of Piper’s own cancer surgery, Don’t Waste Your Cancer is for anyone touched by a life-threatening illness. It is a hope-giving resource for healthcare workers and counselors, pastors and church communities, as well as friends and families.

Don’t Waste Your Life

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2003
• Pages: 192

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John Piper writes, “I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider this story from the February 1998 Reader’s Digest: A couple ‘took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. . . .’ Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: ‘Look, Lord. See my shells.’ That is a tragedy.

“God created us to live with a single passion: to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives.”

Most people slip by in life without a passion for God, spending their lives on trivial diversions, living for comfort and pleasure, and perhaps trying to avoid sin. This book will warn you not to get caught up in a life that counts for nothing. It will challenge you to live and die boasting in the cross of Christ and making the glory of God your singular passion. If you believe that to live is Christ and to die is gain, read this book, learn to live for Christ, and don’t waste your life.

Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2006
• Pages: 128

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The most important questions anyone can ask are: Why was Jesus Christ crucified? Why did he suffer so much? What does this have to do with me? Finally, who sent him to his death? The answer to the last question is that God did. Jesus was God’s Son. The suffering was unsurpassed, but the whole message of the Bible leads to this answer. The central issue of Jesus’ death is not the cause, but the meaning—God’s meaning. That is what this book is about. John Piper has gathered from the New Testament 50 reasons. Not 50 causes, but 50 purposes—in answer to the most important question that each of us must face: What did God achieve for sinners like us in sending his son to die?

Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ: The Cost of Bringing the Gospel to the Nations in the Lives of William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2009
• Pages: 128

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Throughout history, God’s strategy for reaching unreached people groups with the gospel has often included the suffering of his front-line heralds—the missionaries who made countless sacrifices to advance the kingdom of God.

In Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ, John Piper focuses on the flesh and blood reality of pain in the lives of William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton. Paying dearly to translate the Word of God, mobilize missionaries around the world, and lead the hostile to Christ, their stories illustrate how God builds his kingdom through the suffering of his servants.

Finish the Mission: Bringing the Gospel to the Unreached and Unengaged

• Editors: John Piper and David Mathis
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2012
• Pages: 192

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In Finish the Mission, contributors David Platt, Louie Giglio, Michael Ramsden, Ed Stetzer, Michael Oh, David Mathis, and John Piper take up the mantle of the Great Commission and its spirit-powered completion.

From astronomy to exegesis, from apologetics to the Global South, and from being missional at home to employing our resources in the global cause, Finish the Mission aims to breathe fresh missionary fire into a new generation, as together we seek to reach the unreached and engage the unengaged.

Finish the Mission issues a clarion reminder of God’s enduring passion to glorify himself by blessing all nations on earth. The gospel and mission are inseparable. A clear understanding of the mission of the church is absolutely essential in today’s fast-changing global environment.

—Steve Richardson, president, Pioneers USA

The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2007
• Pages: 240

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Respected all over the world, N.T. Wright has spent a lifetime studying the New Testament. Yet, many church leaders and traditional scholars have identified significant points of discontinuity between Wright’s conclusions and what many interpreters—from Augustine to today—have to say about “justification by faith” as it is taught in Paul’s epistles.

The Future of Justification, written by pastor and New Testament scholar John Piper, pinpoints where Piper believes Wright has departed from traditional teaching regarding justification. Piper explains why it is crucial that the church not lose the gospel message it has proclaimed for over 1500 years.

John Piper’s challenging yet courteous book takes issue with Tom Wright regarding Paul’s teaching on justification. This serious critique deserves to be read by all who want to understand more fully God’s righteousness in Christ and his justifying the ungodly.

—Peter T. O’Brien, senior research fellow in New Testament, Moore Theological College, Australia

The so-called ‘New Perspective on Paul’ has stirred up enormous controversy. The issues are not secondary, and, pastor that he is, John Piper will not allow believers to put their trust in anyone or anything other than the crucified and resurrected Savior.

—D.A. Carson, research professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards

• Editors: John Piper and Justin Taylor
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 288

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“Useful men are some of the greatest blessings of a people. To have many such is more for a people’s happiness than almost anything, unless it be God’s own gracious, spiritual presence amongst them; they are precious gifts of heaven.”

Certainly one of the most useful men in evangelical history was the man who preached those words, pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards. Commemorating his 300th birthday, general editors John Piper and Justin Taylor chose 10 essays that highlight different aspects of Edwards’s life and legacy and show how his teachings are just as relevant today as they were three centuries ago.

Even within the church, many people know little more about Edwards than what is printed in American history textbooks—most often, excerpts from his best-known sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” They unjustly envision Edwards preaching only fire and brimstone to frightened listeners. But he knew and preached God’s heaven as much as Satan’s hell. He was a humble and joyful servant, striving to glorify God in his personal life and public ministry.

This book’s contributors investigate the character and teachings of the man who preached from a deep concern for the unsaved and a passionate desire for God. Studying the life and works of this dynamic Great Awakening figure will rouse slumbering Christians, prompting them to view the world through Edwards’s God-centered lens.

God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 192

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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 (2 Corinthians 4:6). This book is a cry from the heart of John Piper. He is pleading that God himself, as revealed in Christ’s death and resurrection, is the ultimate and greatest gift of the gospel. None of Christ’s gospel deeds and none of our gospel blessings are good news except as means of seeing and savoring the glory of Christ. Forgiveness is good news because it opens the way to the enjoyment of God himself. Justification is good news because it wins access to the presence and pleasures of God himself. Eternal life is good news because it becomes the everlasting enjoyment of Christ. All God’s gifts are loving only to the degree that they lead us to God himself. That is what God’s love is: his commitment to do everything necessary (most painfully the death of his only Son) to enthrall us with what is most deeply and durably satisfying—namely, himself.

Saturated with Scripture, centered on the cross, and seriously joyful, this book leads us to satisfaction for the deep hungers of the soul. It touches us at the root of life where practical transformation gets its daily power. It awakens our longing for Christ and opens our eyes to his beauty. Piper writes for the soul-thirsty who have turned away empty and in desperation from the mirage of methodology. He invites us to slow down and drink from a deeper spring. “This is eternal life,” Jesus said, “that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” This is what makes the gospel—and this book—good news.

God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards; With the Complete Text of The End for Which God Created the World

• Authors: John Piper and Jonathan Edwards
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 1998
• Pages: 272

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Half Edwards and half Piper, this ECPA Gold Medallion winner brings the God-entranced passion of Jonathan Edwards into the twenty-first century. Piper passionately demonstrates the relevance of Edwards’s ideals for the personal and public lives of Christians today through his own book-length introduction to Edwards’s The End for Which God Created the World. In this essay, Edwards proclaims that God’s ultimate end is the manifestation of his glory in the highest happiness of his creatures.

This book also contains the complete essay supplemented by almost a hundred of Piper’s insightful explanatory notes. The result is a powerful and persuasive presentation of the things that matter most in the Christian life.

The Hidden Smile of God: The Fruit of Affliction in the Lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2001
• Pages: 176

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Bunyan. Cowper. Brainerd. We read their stories and wonder how they endured. How does one survive 12 years in a dank prison cell? How does one survive month after month of a depression so debilitating that death seems the only hope? How does one endure tuberculosis? Or cancer, or emptiness, or death, or loneliness, or divorce? Whatever the trial may be, how does one endure without the soul shriveling up and blowing away with the breeze? In the lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd, we find the strength of soul that not only endures hardship, but honors God in the midst of it. The giver and sustainer of life enabled them to worship through all their suffering. That’s why their affliction bore so much fruit. The story of their suffering, their perseverance, and their passion is one that can inspire the same hunger for the supremacy of God in your life. John Piper invites you to read their stories, consider their lives, and be encouraged that no labor and no suffering in the path of Christian obedience is ever in vain. But “behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.”

Just as Bunyan’s, Cowper’s, and Brainerd’s suffering produced the worship and humility that is essential to Christian living, we too can look to God for great privileges to come from our own pain. And we too can remember, “The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.”-John Bunyan. He suffered imprisonment for 12 years, even when a simple promise to cease preaching would have gained him freedom. But Bunyan’s steadfast belief that God ordered every trial would not allow him to relent, and moved him to rely even more upon “Him who is invisible.” Even when his own sky was filled with clouds of dread, Cowper’s poetry was a reflection of the sustaining character of God. So great was Brainerd’s desire to honor God that he joyously cried, “Oh for holiness! Oh, for more of God in my soul! Oh this pleasing pain! It makes my soul press after God.” Through the loneliness of wilderness ministry and the agony of tuberculosis, he pressed on, transforming the world missions forever.

A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 1997
• Pages: 240

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There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. John Piper invites you to turn from the dulling effects of food and the dangers of idolatry, and to say with some simple fast: “This much, O God, I want you.”

Our appetites dictate the direction of our lives—whether it be the cravings of our stomachs, the passionate desire for possessions or power, or the longings of our spirits for God. But for the Christian, the hunger for anything besides God can be an archenemy,while our hunger for God—and him alone—is the only thing that will bring victory.

Do you have that hunger for him? As Piper puts it: “If we don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.” If we are full of what the world offers, then perhaps a fast might express, or even increase, our soul’s appetite for God.

Between the dangers of self-denial and self-indulgence is this path of pleasant pain called fasting. It is the path John Piper invites you to travel in this book. For when God is the supreme hunger of your heart, He will be supreme in everything. And when you are most satisfied in him, he will be most glorified in you.

John Calvin and His Passion for the Majesty of God

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2008
• Pages: 64

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Nothing mattered more to John Calvin than the centrality, supremacy, and majesty of the glory of God. His aim, he wrote, was to “set before [man], as the prime motive of his existence, zeal to illustrate the glory of God”—a fitting banner over all of the great Reformer’s life and work.

In John Calvin and His Passion for the Majesty of God John Piper illuminates this theme in Calvin’s life and thought in a succinct but accessible fashion. Using Calvin as springboard, Piper wishes to impart a similar desire for all Christians.

The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God’s Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2000
• Pages: 160

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Augustine, Luther, and Calvin. We admire these men for their greatness, but the truth is Augustine grappled with sexual passions. Martin Luther struggled to control his tongue. John Calvin fought the battle of faith with worldly weapons. Yet each man will always be remembered for the messages he declared—messages that still resound today. John Piper explores each of these men’s lives, integrating Augustine’s delight in God with Luther’s emphasis on the Word and Calvin’s exposition of Scripture. Through their strengths and struggles we can learn how to live better today. When we consider their lives, we behold the glory and majesty of God and find power to overcome our weaknesses. If ever you are complacent about sin, if ever you lose the joy of Jesus Christ, if ever you are dulled by the world’s influence, let the lives of these men help you recapture the wonder of God.

Love Your Enemies: Jesus’ Love Command in the Synoptic Gospels and the Early Christian Paraenesis

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2012
• Pages: 288

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Love Your Enemies, originally published as John Piper’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Munich, examines the command to “love your enemies” as it occurs in various forms in the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, Romans, 1 Thessalonians, and 1 Peter. Piper examines the various critical interpretations offered by scholars, and also incorporates the pertinent extra-canonical literature into his study. Arguing that the early church practiced non-retaliatory love, Piper presents a comprehensive case about what Jesus meant when he commanded his followers to love their enemies.

The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 80

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As we ponder Job’s misery, do we see the threads of God’s mercy in it? We will all face suffering at some point in our lives. It is inescapable. But what makes calamity endurable is not that God shares our shock, but that through every sickness, disaster, or tragedy, his sovereign goodness sustains us.

The Misery of Job and the Goodness of God, an interpretive poem by John Piper, reminds believers of the unshakable fact that God governs all things for his good purposes—if we allow our eyes to see life in the context of God’s larger plan. Piper calls those who are struggling to know that the Lord is not only sovereign, but gracious. Also featuring the photography of Ric Ergenbright, this book combines Piper’s poetic insight with stunning imagery, drawing the reader’s attention to God’s grandeur and mercy.

This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2012
• Pages: 192

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Reflecting on over 40 years of matrimony, John Piper exalts the biblical meaning of marriage over its emotion, exhorting couples to keep their covenant as a display of Christ’s covenant-keeping love for the church. He aims to lift the church’s low view of marriage to something infinitely greater, namely, a vision of Jesus’ unswerving allegiance to and affection for his bride. This Momentary Marriage unpacks the biblical vision, its unexpected contours, and its weighty implications for married, single, divorced, and remarried alike.

Theologically, this book exalts human marriage as a metaphor for the ultimate love story in Christ. Practically, it applies that glorious vision of grace to our daily experiences in marriage, singleness, parenthood, and the most universal of human realities—sin. This book opens our eyes and guides our feet with the grace of Christ.

—Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., lead pastor, Immanuel Church, Nashville, TN

The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life and Ministry

• Authors: John Piper and D.A. Carson
• Editors: David Mathis and Owen Strachan
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2011
• Pages: 128

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Recognizing the need for pastors and scholars to embody both theological depth and practical focus, John Piper and D.A. Carson have boldly used their careers to advance role of pastor as theologian and of theologian as pastor.

In The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor, Carson and Piper draw on personal anecdotes and their own reflections in order to help others think holistically and biblically about the roles of the pastor and theologian, as well as how the two coalesce. Insightful and balanced, this book is a critical guide for all those who wish to embody these roles faithfully.

D.A. Carson is an internationally distinguished New Testament scholar. He is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has published more than 50 books and is the editor of three series: New Studies in Biblical Theology (IVP), the Pillar New Testament Commentary (Eerdmans), and Studies in Biblical Greek (Peter Lang). He received his MDiv from Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto and his PhD from Cambridge University. He has held several pastoral positions and is currently president of the Gospel Coalition.

The Power of Words and the Wonder of God

• Editors: John Piper and Justin Taylor
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2009
• Pages: 176

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Words carry immeasurable significance—the universe was created with a word; Jesus healed and cast out demons with a word; rulers have risen and fallen by their words; Christians have worshiped through words of song, confession, and preaching. Even in this technological age, politics, education, business, and relationships center on words.

Since the tongue is such a powerful force, one may ask: what would homes, churches, schools, and even the public square be like if words were used with Christian intentionality and eloquence? The Power of Words and the Wonder of God seeks to answer this difficult question. In these chapters, derived from Desiring God’s 2008 national conference, John Piper, Sinclair B. Ferguson, and Mark Driscoll team with worship pastor Bob Kauflin, counselor Paul Tripp, and literature professor Daniel Taylor to help readers harness their tongues and appropriately command their silences for the glory of God and the ministry of the gospel.

Rethinking Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of Christ

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2009
• Pages: 32

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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 golfcourse 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?

Risk Is Right: Better to Lose Your Life Than to Waste It

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2013
• Pages: 64

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A choice lies before you: 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.

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!

The Roots of Endurance: Invincible Perseverance in the Lives of John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 176

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John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce suffered lifelong opposition and endured for the causes of gospel truth, missionary zeal, and political justice. They found, in solid doctrine and humble joy, the tough roots for habitual tenderness in response to their adversaries—without doctrinal or moral flinching. They are examples of remarkable grace. John Piper looks at the lives of these three great men and focuses on how they not only endured great opposition, but that they did so with joy and without bitterness. Their lives exemplify how to set a pace and finish the race before us, encouraging every heart that it is possible to jump the hurdles in our paths.

Ruth: Under the Wings of God

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2010
• Pages: 96

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This cycle of poems by John Piper tells the story of God’s care for Naomi and the love affair between Ruth and Boaz through the eyes of their son, an aged Obed, as he narrates the account to his 80 year old grandson David, the future king of Israel. Through this creative work, readers will walk with Boaz from promise to fulfillment, with Ruth from widowhood to motherhood, and with Naomi from death to life.

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 128

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Who is Jesus Christ? You’ve never met him in person, and you don’t know anyone who has. But there is a way to know who he is. How? Jesus Christ—the divine person revealed in the Bible—has a unique excellence and a spiritual beauty that speaks directly to our souls and says, “Yes, this is truth.” It’s like seeing the sun and knowing that it is light, or tasting honey and knowing that it is sweet. The depth and complexity of Jesus shatter our simple mental frameworks. He baffled proud scribes with his wisdom but was understood and loved by children. He calmed a raging storm with a word but would not get himself down from the cross. Look at the Jesus of the Bible. Keep your eyes open, and fill them with the portrait of Jesus in God’s Word. Jesus said, “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” Ask God for the grace to do his will, and you will see the truth of his son. John Piper has written this book in the hope that all will see Jesus for who he really is and will come to enjoy him above all else.

Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2013
• Pages: 128

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This is not just another book about the problem of evil. It is more specific and more radical. The focus is not on spectacular calamities, but spectacular sins. The question is not: where was God in the storm? But, what is God’s design in sin?

Piper’s claim is that God does not just rule the wind—he rules wickedness, your sin, and the sin of those who have hurt you. How can this be good news—for you and for the world? That is the question. Piper answers with unswerving allegiance to God’s Word. And it is good news.

Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints

• Editors: John Piper and Justin Taylor
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2008
• Pages: 160

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Many people seek to better their lives by leaving, changing, swapping, or modifying their commitments. But God’s Word holds up a beautiful value that, while difficult, leads to deep satisfaction and great reward: endurance.

This thoughtful book both elevates the virtue of godly endurance and bears witness to its power in the Christian life. This volume’s contributors include John MacArthur, Jerry Bridges, Randy Alcorn, and Helen Roseveare. Each individual represents a different kind of endurance—from MacArthur’s longtime, faithful shepherding of a church to Alcorn’s radical obedience in the culture wars, and from Bridges’ unswerving patience through suffering to Roseveare’s courageous constancy on the war-torn mission field. This inspiring volume awakens and solidifies Christ-exalting endurance in people who are weary in their faith journey or who simply long to remain firm to the end.

Justin Taylor (PhD candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is vice president of book publishing and an associate publisher at Crossway. He has edited and contributed to several books, including A God Entranced Vision of All Things and Reclaiming the Center, and is a blogger at Between Two Worlds—hosted by The Gospel Coalition.

Suffering and the Sovereignty of God

• Editors: John Piper and Justin Taylor
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2006
• Pages: 256

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In Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, contributors John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, Steve Saint, Carl Ellis, David Powlison, Dustin Shramek, and Mark Talbot explore the many categories of God’s sovereignty as evidenced in his Word. They urge readers to look to Christ, even in suffering, to find the greatest confidence, deepest comfort, and sweetest fellowship they have ever known.

John Piper and friends tackle some of the hardest and most significant issues of Christian concern, producing one of the most honest, faithful, and helpful volumes ever made available to thinking Christians. It is filled with pastoral wisdom, theological conviction, biblical insight, and spiritual counsel. This book answers one of the greatest needs of our times—to affirm the sovereignty of God and to ponder the meaning of human suffering. We need this book.

—R. Albert Mohler Jr., Joseph Emerson Brown Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

This book will challenge you to believe that God is truly sovereign, not just in the safe haven of theological inquiry, but also in the painful messiness of real life. You will be encouraged to live more consistently by God’s grace and for his glory.

—Mark D. Roberts, senior director and scholar in residence, Laity Lodge

Justin Taylor (PhD candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is vice president of book publishing and an associate publisher at Crossway. He has edited and contributed to several books, including A God Entranced Vision of All Things and Reclaiming the Center, and is a blogger at Between Two Worlds—hosted by The Gospel Coalition.

The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World

• Editors: John Piper and Justin Taylor
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2007
• Pages: 192

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Six of today’s leading pastor-theologians—John Piper, Voddie Baucham, D.A. Carson, Timothy Keller, Mark Driscoll, and David Wells—have joined together to offer Christians a practical, biblical vision of Christ’s supremacy. After grounding readers in the important truths of Christ’s deity and the gospel, The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World strives to help believers understand how to share these truths in a postmodern society. Through applying lessons from this book, readers gain a practical, biblical vision of ministry for the twenty-first century.

Many would have us believe that life is hopelessly fragmented and truth an elusive dream. The authors of this book beg to differ and enthusiastically point us to the cohesive centrality and absolute supremacy of Jesus Christ.

—Sam Storms, senior pastor, Bridgeway Church, Oklahoma City

Justin Taylor (PhD candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is vice president of book publishing and an associate publisher at Crossway. He has edited and contributed to several books, including A God Entranced Vision of All Things and Reclaiming the Center, and is a blogger at Between Two Worlds—hosted by The Gospel Coalition.

A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2010
• Pages: 160

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The sovereignty of God, the sexual nature of humanity, and the gospel of God’s mercy for the undeserving—these massive realities never change. And since God is still sovereign, and we are male or female, and Jesus is alive and powerful, A Sweet and Bitter Providence bears a dangerous message of providence and love for readers from all walks of life. But be warned, Piper tells his audience: this ancient love affair between Boaz and Ruth could be dangerous, inspiring all of us to great risks in the cause of love.

This book surprised me at how it both comforted and convicted me. And in the midst of a difficult circumstance it inspired me to look for God’s hand of providence. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t benefit from its call to purity, faith and Christ-centered hope. John Piper’s God given gifts as a teacher and pastor are on full display in these pages. Reading this book will serve your soul.

—Joshua Harris, senior pastor, Covenant Life Church, Gaithersburg, MD

Thinking. Loving. Doing.: A Call to Glorify God with Heart and Mind

• Editors: John Piper and David Mathis
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2011
• Pages: 176

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Thinking. Loving. Doing. challenges readers to be thinkers (engaged and serious about knowing God), feelers (pulsing with passion for Jesus and his gospel), and doers (endeavoring great acts of love for others).

Our savior shows us that holistic Christianity is comprised of mind, heart, and hands. He shows us that the Christian life is multidimensional—irreducibly and inseparably thinking, loving, and doing.

With contributions from Francis Chan, Rick Warren, Albert Mohler, R.C. Sproul, and Thabiti Anyabwile, Thinking. Loving. Doing. extends a thorough and compelling invitation to experience the fullness of the Christian life.

I found this book to be a fascinating, challenging, insightful, practical, and surprisingly personal discussion of how Christians can grow in both knowledge and love.

—Wayne Grudem, research professor of Bible and theology, Phoenix Seminary

David Mathis (MDiv, Reformed Theological Seminary Orlando) is executive editor at DesiringGod.org and an elder at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Bethlehem College and Seminary.

Velvet Steel: The Joy of Being Married to You: Selections from the Poems of John Piper

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2009
• Pages: 80

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In Velvet Steel, John Piper shares a series of poems written for his wife, Noël, during the first 42 years of their relationship, starting from the day of their engagement. In it he provides readers with a taste of one man’s tender affections for his wife—poems that he hopes will fan into flame reader’s affections for their own spouses and ultimately for the maker of marriage.

What Jesus Demands from the World

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2006
• Pages: 400

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The four Gospels are filled with demands straight from the mouth of Jesus Christ. These demands are Jesus’ way of showing us who he is and what he expects of us. They are not the harsh demands of a taskmaster. For example, the demand that we come to Jesus is like the demand of a father to his child in a burning window, “Jump to me!” Or like the demand of a rich, strong, tender, handsome husband to an unfaithful wife, “Come home!” What Jesus demands from the world can be summed up as: “Trust and treasure me above all.” This is good news! What Jesus Demands from the World begins with an introduction that puts the demands in a redemptive-historical context, then concisely examines each demand. The result is an accessible introduction for thoughtful inquirers and new believers, as well as meditative meat for veteran believers who want to know Jesus better.

The Christian gospel is more than just a wonderful offer of saving grace; it is a demand for supreme loyalty, for surrender to the lordship of Jesus. We forget this too easily in our contemporary church, besieged as we are by a philosophy of pluralism that rejects ultimate authority and a culture of rights that scorns submissiveness. But John Piper reminds us of the real truth: obedience to Christ’s commands is our absolute duty; yet, paradoxically, in his service is perfect freedom and joy!

—William J.U. Philip, minister, St George’s-Tron Church, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

This book is a special gift from the pen of John Piper. How long has it been since you carefully reflected upon the authoritative commands of Christ? Through these pages you will encounter the savior and experience the transforming effects of the gospel. Few endeavors are more worthy of your time.

—C.J. Mahaney, former president, Sovereign Grace Ministries

Scholars, popularists, and now even novelists are falling over each other today in a blind passion to discover an alternative Jesus to the one so magnificently portrayed in the biblical Gospels. In stark and refreshing contrast John Piper clear-sightedly grasps the obvious—the biblical Jesus is worth living for and dying for.

—Sinclair Ferguson, senior minister, The First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, SC

What’s the Difference?: Manhood and Womanhood Defined According to the Bible

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2008
• Pages: 187

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This study guide—a companion to the What’s the Difference? DVD—commends the beauty and the biblical truth of God’s plan for men and women as part of a six-session, guided group study. Each lesson comes complete with Scripture and key quotations for reflection, penetrating questions, and five daily assignments per week to prepare group members for and reinforce Piper’s powerful teaching so that all may come to recognize and embrace our God-given differences.

When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 272

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For over 25 years John Piper has trumpeted the truth that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” He calls it Christian hedonism. The problem is that many people, after being persuaded, find that this truth is both liberating and devastating.

It’s liberating because it endorses our inborn desire for joy. And it’s devastating because it reveals that we don’t desire God the way we should. What do you do when you discover the good news that God wants you to be content in him, but then find that you aren’t?

If joy in God were merely the icing on the cake of Christian commitment, this book would be insignificant. But Piper argues that joy is so much more. Our being satisfied in God is necessary to show God’s worthiness and to sustain sacrifices of love.

Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. He tasted it. It sustained him through the deepest suffering. His father was glorified. His people were saved. That is what joy in God does.

The absolutely urgent question becomes: What can I do if I don’t have it? With a pastor’s heart and with radical passion for the glory of Christ, John Piper helps you answer that question.

When the Darkness Will Not Lift: Doing What We Can While We Wait for God—and Joy

• Author: John Piper
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2007
• Pages: 80

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Even the most faithful, focused Christians can encounter periods of depression and spiritual darkness when joy seems to stay just out of reach. It can happen because of sin, satanic assault, distressing circumstances, or hereditary and other physical causes. In When the Darkness Will Not Lift, John Piper aims to give some comfort and guidance to those experiencing spiritual darkness.

With Calvin in the Theater of God: The Glory of Christ and Everyday Life

• Editors: John Piper and David Mathis
• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication Date: 2010
• Pages: 176

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John Calvin saw this world as God’s theater where his glory is always on display. Just as “day and night pour forth speech,” the universe and history are not silent either—they tell the glory of God. Reflecting on over 500 years of Calvin’s legacy, John Piper and other contributors invite us to join Calvin in the theater of God.

Stemming from the 2009 Desiring God National Conference, this volume includes chapters by Julius Kim, Douglas Wilson, Marvin Olasky, Mark Talbot, Sam Storms, and John Piper. It touches on topics such as Calvin’s life, the Christian meaning of public life, sin and suffering, the joy of the last resurrection, and Jesus Christ as the dénouement of God’s story.

Editors John Piper and David Mathis, along with the contributors, make John Calvin’s Christ-exalting perspective on the glory of God accessible to today’s readers. Both Calvinists and other evangelicals interested in the life and work of Calvin will find these essays refreshing and instructive, leading to a robust understanding of the world as God’s theater.

From the recent flurry of studies on John Calvin, it is evident that we can understand neither the sixteenth century nor our own times without reference to the reformer of Geneva. This little book reveals Calvin to be a God-saturated theologian whose love for Jesus Christ and his church touches every area of human life. A jewel of a book!

—Timothy George, founding dean, Beeson Divinity School

What does a theologian and his theology look like if he and it are firmly centered on the Triune God and his glory? These essays will show you. You will meet Calvin the pastor, the theologian, the polemicist, the husband, the father, the sufferer, the lover of God and his church—all roles played out in “the theater of God.” Whether you’re meeting Calvin for the first time or spending time with an old friend, this book will give you a glimpse of the wide horizons that are opened to one who has God’s glory firmly at the center of life. Be warned, Calvin’s vision is contagious.

—Stephen J. Nichols, research professor of Christianity and culture, Lancaster Bible College

With Calvin in the Theater of God is a rich and readable introduction to one of the church’s greatest pastor-theologians. Examining Calvin from many angles—including pilgrim, counselor, public intellectual, sinner—the contributors offer an elegant composite of the man even as they point to the object of his worship and work: Jesus Christ. It is perhaps the resolute faithfulness of Calvin’s life that most stands out here; this steadfastness, which in God’s providence produced a major Christian movement bursting with energy today, reminds us that our faith is exercised hour by hour, day by day, trial by trial, all for the honor and acclamation of the Lord. Whether eminent or unknown, we are reminded in these pages that in the grand theater of God’s glory, there are no bit players.

—Owen Strachan, assistant professor of Christian theology and church history, Boyce College

About John Piper

John Piper(1946– ) is a widely respected theologian and bestselling author who served as pastor for Preaching and Vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church for 33 years. He still serves as chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary.

Piper attended Wheaton College where he majored in literature and minored in philosophy. He completed his bachelor of divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he studied under Daniel Fuller. Piper received his doctorate in theology from the University of Munich and taught biblical studies for six years at Bethel College.

In 1994, Piper founded Desiring God Ministries, which provides Piper’s sermons, articles, and information on titles he has authored. One of his bestsellers, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, prompted the name of the ministry.