Tried With Fire

This is transcribed* from the Q&A after John Piper's talk on Charles Simeon: 'The question is would I comment on the teachings of self esteem in the church today especially the comment that before you can love God and others you must love yourself? I think it is extremely wrong headed, and I would treat it much the way Dr. Nicole treated all those inadequate views of the atonement and say there is of course a seed of truth in it. Namely, we must not deny that we are created in God's image, and we must not deny that God in His grace has a great purpose for every person and can use us significantly no matter who we are. But it is wrong headed. I mean, I would have answered Steve Roy's question differently than Dr. Nicole did the other night, and that may just have to do with our relative positions. Steve said "What do you feel about the view that says Christ died to rescue valuable humanity and thus we see a reflection of our diamond-like quality in the price pa...

I listened to John Piper's talk , Brothers We Must Not Mind a Little Suffering , on Charles Simeon yesterday and again today. Charles Simeon (1759-1836) endured decades of hostility from his own church and did not give up. This kind of spiritual backbone seems to be a rare thing today. In the light of that, Piper had some very astute comments about 20th century America. "I think we live in a very emotionally fragile time, and I am a child of my times much more than I wish I were. When I am honest with myself, the things I hate about about my culture, I see evidences of in myself." "By emotionally fragile, I mean that we are easily hurt. We pout easily. We mope easily. When I say we, I mean the American culture today, inside and outside of church. We break easily. Our marriages break easily. Our faith breaks easily. Our happiness breaks easily. Our commitment to the ministry and to the church breaks easily. We are easily disheartened and discouraged. We seem to ha...