John Piper: Let Judas Shake You

Judas left the fellowship of the twelve apostles after the anointing in Bethany and arranged to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-15). But when they met again at the last supper, there he was! Near enough to dip in the Savior’s cup.

When our family read this for devotions last night I was angry at the absolute wickedness of Judas coming back to eat Passover with the one he had just sold. I said to my daughter, evidently with more emotion than she was used to, “That is utterly wicked!”

She said, “What is so wicked?” I said: “What if I went out tonight and arranged for a cruel man to kill you on the way to school tomorrow morning? That would be horrible. But then would it not be wicked to high heaven if I came home, after arranging for your murder, and had devotions with you and prayed with you?”

She was shaken.

Small wonder that Jesus said, “It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” (Matthew 26:24).

Let us be shaken this week, again and again.

Via: Desiring God Blog

Not Faith, But Christ

Faith is not our saviour. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us; that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for our sins. Faith is one thing, the Saviour is another. Faith is one thing, and the cross is another. Let us not confound them, nor ascribe to a poor, imperfect act of man, that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the Living God.

Our security is this, that it matters not how poor or weak our faith maybe: if it touches the perfect One, all is well. God has asked and provided a perfect righteousness; He nowhere asks nor expects a perfect faith. So a feeble, very feeble faith, will connect us with the righteousness of the Son of God; the faith, perhaps, that can only cry, ‘Lord, I believe; help mine unbelief.’

—Horatius Bonar
Not Faith, But Christ

Via: Of First Importance

The Great Commission

There are three possibilities with the Great Commission. You can go. You can send. Or you can be disobedient. Ignoring the cause is not a Christian option. If we love God’s fame and are committed to magnifying his name above all things, we cannot be indifferent to world missions. Over and over we read this in the Bible — that God does what he does so “that [his] name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” (Romans 9:17) The central command of missions is Isaiah 12:4, “Make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.”

—John Piper
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Minstry

Related: Passage for March from the 2008 Desiring God Calendar.