“Pastor John, do you believe there is a difference between film nudity versus pornography? I know many Christians who are against porn, but they have no issue watching movies or TV shows that show graphic nudity.” A young woman named Emily emailed this question to the Ask Pastor John inbox. A day later, Adam emailed to ask, “Pastor John, what would you say to a Christian who watches the cable TV show Game of Thrones ?” This is a television series rated TV-MA, and has become rather infamous for its explicit nudity and sex scenes, and for graphic scenes of rape and sexual violence against women. Game of Thrones is now the most popular series in HBO history, with an average audience of more than 23 million viewers. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of John Piper’s response. The closer I get to death and meeting Jesus personally face-to-face and giving an account for my life and for the careless words that I have spoken ( Matthew 12:36 ), the more sure I am of m
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The Age of Ambition Our focus on reaching more people could take our attention away from those God has placed in our midst. Chris Nye | posted September 19, 2015
This past spring, in Leadership Journal , pastor-of-pastors and writer Eugene Peterson was asked what concerns him most about the current state of the pastoral vocation. If I could be so bold as to summarize his response in one word it would be “ambition.” His distress over the concept of ambition amongst pastors seems to be connected with it as a priority. "I'm alarmed that we measure things by what the world counts as important," he said. One can imagine the "things" Peterson speaks of: numbers, money, influence, sex appeal, and power, just to name a few. The evangelical landscape is marred with scars of our ambition: burned out ministers, adulterous pastors, isolated leaders, and the collapsing of organizations that got out of hand by over-reaching. We are guilty of this sin, for sure. The evangelical landscape is marred with scars of our ambition: burned out ministers, adulterous pastors, isolated leaders, and the collapsing of organizations that got
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