Quotes from John Piper

Come to the end of your life—your one and only precious, God-given life—and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: "Look, Lord. See my shells." That is a tragedy.

The joy of the Lord will arm us against the assaults of our spiritual enemies and put our mouths out of taste for those pleasures with which the tempter baits his hooks."5

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:8).

If we could live a thousand years, and experience a thousand relationships in the thousand times and places and cultures, perhaps we wouldn't need books in order to (eventually) become wise. But our lives are short, and God has been merciful to give us many places, many times, many cultures, and many experiences distilled into books. Find the ones that strengthen your faith and make you want to live all-out for God.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him

One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.

If you 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 you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.

If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full.

Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It's a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel.

It is better to lose your life than to waste it.

Grace is the pleasure of God to magnify the worth of God by giving sinners the right and power to delight in God without obscuring the glory of God.

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't.