Theology/Bible

Hello, My Father Just Died

Everyone who reads this blog knows about my love for Pastor John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He wrote something this week that I shall not soon forget, and I want to share it with you.

Pastor John’s father passed away on Tuesday, and he wrote in his journal about his final moments with “Daddy,” who was an old-school Southern Baptist evangelist. I don’t normally get emotional when I read things, but I wept when I read this journal entry. There’s glory all over this little tribute, and I commend it to you.

“Hello, My Father Just Died” – by Pastor John Piper

[Excerpt]

Thank you, Daddy. Thank you for sixty-one years of faithfulness to me. I am simply looking into his face now. Thank you. You were a good father. You never put me down. Discipline, yes. Spankings, yes. But you never scorned me. You never treated me with contempt. You never spoke of my future with hopelessness in your voice. You believed God’s hand was on me. You approved of my ministry. You prayed for me. Everyday. That may be the biggest change in these new days: Daddy is no longer praying for me.

I look you in the face and promise you with all my heart: Never will I forsake your gospel. O how you believed in hell and heaven and Christ and cross and blood and righteousness and faith and salvation and the Holy Spirit and the life of holiness and love. I rededicate myself, Daddy, to serve your great and glorious Lord Jesus with all my heart and with all my strength. You have not lived in vain. Your life goes on in thousands. I am glad to be one.

I kissed him on his cold cheek and on his forehead. I love you, Daddy. Thank you.

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