Internet Bible Church

Bethlehem Baptist Church is in the midst of an historic moment. As John Piper exits as the Pastor for Preaching and Vision, and Jason Meyer enters, 1 Corinthians 3 is a timely word on human leadership and the sovereignty of God. Two leaders, Paul and Apollos, have become a flashpoint for pride and division in Corinth. Visit link: This Week’s Sermon: "I Planted, Apollos Watered, But God Gave the Growth"

Bethlehem Baptist is one step closer to commissioning John Piper from the local church pastorate to greater involvement with Bethlehem College and Seminary and to a wider ministry nationally and internationally through Desiring God. Today the Bethlehem elders are announcing to the congregation their candidate for Associate Pastor for Preaching and Vision and, God willing, John Piper’s eventual successor as the church’s senior pastor. Jason Meyer, 36-year-old Assistant Professor of New...

Bible scholar Don Carson cautions us about parental hypocrisy by recalling the enduring impact of his parents’ prayerful example: My father was a church planter in Québec, in the difficult years when there was strong opposition, some of it brutal. Baptist ministers alone spent a total of eight years in jail between 1950 and 1952. Dad’s congregations were not large; they were usually at the lower end of the two-digit range Read the rest here: Keeping Home Priorities In View

It’s not enough to know that Jesus died on the cross and rose again on Easter morning. People need to know why. To help you reach out to your community this Easter, we are making cases (48 books) of Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ and Fifty Reasons Jesus Came to Die available for a suggested donation of $79 each. Shipping is free within the Continental United States. Go here to read the rest: Easter Outreach Tools — Tell People Why Jesus Died

Tears sum up everything gone wrong in this fallen world. Grief, frustration, pain, disappointment, loss, stress, tragedy, disaster, regret, mourning, depression, lament, brokenness, abandonment — all of it can be expressed through the universal language of tears. We need no interpreter to read this language: the wet, bloodshot eyes, the sobs, the facial contortions, the sporadic breathing, the body tremors, the broken speech. We are instantly struck by the tearful face of one who weeps the...

The video and audio recordings, along with Pastor John’s 94-page slide presentation, are now online from the recent seminar on Future Grace. Here are the links: Session 1 Session 2 Slides (PDF download) Registration for this event filled up quickly and we are grateful for each of you who attended. We are especially honored by those of you who traveled some distance to join us View original post here: Future Grace Seminar Recordings and Slides

Christian Counseling Debt and The Bible “Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.” Matthew 18:27 Is debt biblical? It is not a sin to be in indebtedness but the Bible does have a lot to say about being good stewards of what we have been blessed with. The bigger sin is being too prideful to acknowledge your need and your current financial condition and look for help or counsel. There are Christian counseling debt centers to aid with...

New York City authorities continue their fight to publicly disclose the cause and manner of death of Zachery Tims, the former senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center (NDCC) in Apopka, Fla. Tims’ August death remains a mystery to the public as the legal battle between the minister’s family and the City continues. View original post here: NYC Fights for Right to Disclose Zachery Tims’ Cause of Death

Growing up in the South in years when there was a lot more etiquette in the air, I learned an important lesson about Easter — that’s the day you can begin to wear white shoes again after winter. Fortunately, my family and church taught me more crucial lessons about the holiday that marks the crux of the Christian’s life. Crucial, crux, holiday — in these words we see even our language bowing to the essential nature of the event we remember during Lent and Easter. Good Friday is not just a day...

At 4:00 AM on February 24, 1807, the British Parliament overwhelmingly voted to abolish the slave trade and then “rose almost to a man and turned towards [William] Wilberforce in a burst of Parliamentary cheers…while he sat, head bowed, tears streaming down his face.” 1 ? This extraordinary moment was the culmination of 20 years of relentless, determined personal and legislative exertion to bring this evil trade to an end. After that Wilberforce would fight another 26 years until the evil of...

There are still lots of great titles available as part of our transition sale. You can read more about the reason behind the sale in Pastor John’s update from last week. Books The Power of Words and the Wonder of God $2 With Calvin in the Theater of God $2 For the Fame of God’s Name $5 A Holy Ambition $5 Ruth: Under the Wings of God $3 Velvet Steel $2 Portrait of Calvin $2 The Pleasures of God (Revised Edition) $5 CDs Hebrews: The Radiance of His Glory $3 Trilogy: Desiring God, The Pleasures...

Psalm 40:6–8, In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. ? Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: ? I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” For many of us, Psalm 40:6–8 is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma — as Winston Churchill once said of Russia. Read more here: Psalm 40: Obedience Better Than David’s

Any time a selfish sinner is tasked with leading other selfish sinners in a Godward direction — whether in families, friendships, small groups, churches, or broader movements — there’s going to be trouble. Take Moses, for example. No Old Covenant leader was as meek as Moses (Numbers 12:3), had more intimate interaction with God (Exodus 33:11), and was more unjustly and harshly criticized by those he led Go here to see the original: Spiritual Leadership May Be Heartbreaking, but It Is Always...

Learn a lesson from Jerry Seinfeld. Daily Bible intake is about soul survival. Very Much into Just Surviving When his wildly successful sitcom ended, Seinfeld went on a nationwide stand-up comedy tour called “I’m Telling You for the Last Time.” The routine was recorded for compact disc (remember those?) at New York’s Broadhurst Theater in August of 1998. At the end is a question-and-answer segment, where a zealous fan shouts, “Do you have favorite Seinfeld episode?” Seinfeld answers, I get...

Consider: the glory of his eternality that makes the mind want to explode with the infinite thought that God never had a beginning, but simply always was; the glory of his knowledge that makes the Library of Congress look like a matchbox and quantum physics like a first grade reader; the glory of his wisdom that has never been and can never be counseled by men; the glory of his authority over heaven and earth and hell, without whose permission no man and no demon can move one inch; the glory...