Today's Expositor's Quote is another from John Piper:
Pray that the Lord would make you real. Pray that you would really feel the way one ought to feel about hell, and about heaven and about death and sin and forgiveness and resurrection and eternal life. This is THE GREAT battle: do we really feel and think in accord with the measure of the reality that we are speaking of. It will be very hard not to express authentic emotion if we HAVE authentic emotion. Fight the battle mainly at this point. Lord, sober me. Lord, delight me. Lord, satisfy me. Lord, frighten me. Lord, break me. Lord, make me tender. Lord, give me passion for the perishing. Lord, fill me with exultation over your gospel. This is THE battle. And it has more to do with real tone and gesture and posture than anything else.
John Piper, "Random Thoughts on Posture, Gesture, Action and Tone," unpublished class handout, 3/21/99.
[Is God making you real? Are you exulting over these truths, and crying over the lost and self-deceived? Or are you going through the motions, imitating the tone and gestures and posture of conviction but preaching from an unmoved heart? Lord! Make us real! -- Coty]
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