![]() So we went to Fuller Seminary, and I had the most influential teacher of my life there, Daniel Fuller, who did two things: He showed me a magnificent view of a sovereign God, especially through the lens of Jonathan Edwards. And so, I did a bait and switch on her and said, “I think I’m going to go to seminary, not to medical school.” And she was okay with that. I got mono and was in the hospital for three weeks and decided not to be a medical doctor, but to go to seminary, because I was listening to Harold John Ockenga preach two hundred yards away in the Wheaton Chapel.Īnd as I lay there with my big yellow tonsils and my palpitating spleen, I said to myself, “I’d give anything to do what he’s doing right now, opening the word of God.” I said, “That’s glorious.” My girlfriend had fallen in love with a premed student. I met Noël Henry on an auspicious date: 6/6/66. John Piper: Yes, I went off to Wheaton College as a literature major. And my mother laughed next hardest until the tears would roll down her cheek, and my sister and I would sit there looking at each end of the table, thinking, “They’re having a good time enjoying Jesus.” Why would anybody want to go to a movie or dance or smoke? I mean, I just never kicked because I lived in a glorious family. And he laughed harder at his own jokes than anybody. That’s extraordinary.Īnd not only did he sing, but when he came back from evangelistic crusades (he was an evangelist) he would come back with stories of triumph about the gospel - and a new joke. And my sister and I were in the back seat, listening to my mother and father sing gospel choruses. He and my mother would sing in the front seat of our old Buick driving from Greenville, South Carolina, to Daytona Beach for our annual ten-day beach vacation. I’ve tried to figure out why that is, because I know a lot of people who grew up in homes sort of like mine who did kick, rebel, leave, and never come back.īut I think one of the means God used to keep that from happening was that my father was the happiest man I’ve ever known. ![]() And you would think that a fellow like me would grow up and kick against the standards that were used. I think one of the most helpful things for me to say here in this context would be that my father would have self-identified as a fundamentalist of the good old southern American variety. I never remember rebelling against my parents. I never remember being an unbeliever, and I’m thankful for that. So, I’m not sure what the pilgrimage was. ![]() What matters to me is that I see by grace. He said, “Let there be light.” And whether it’s a 6-year-old or 14-year-old or 23-year-old discovering God-centeredness, the first seeing doesn’t matter much to me. Once upon a time, the devil was blinding the mind of an unbeliever, and God said, “Let there be light” ( 2 Corinthians 4:4, 6). When I began to see is not of the essence. I don’t remember any of that, but it doesn’t matter to me whether that’s a true story or not. And she knelt with me by the bed in the motel room and led me in a prayer of confession of my sin and faith in Jesus. So my mother told me that when I was six in a motel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, I became convicted of my sin and asked her what I could do. If you think you have a handle on the majesty and magnificence and wonder of your conversion because you remember it and how glorious the transition was, you don’t know a fraction of it, because you can’t know the miracle without being told by God what happened there. John Piper: I don’t remember being converted, which I am happy with because I think we learn the wonder of conversion not primarily through remembered experiences, but through the word of God. But by way of broad introduction, tell us about yourself: your journey to faith, a short biography, and what you’re doing now. And so we want you to know that we owe you a debt of gratitude for your faithful service. Keith Getty: I suspect most people in this place have been influenced by you over the years, either directly by your preaching, your books, and your podcasts, or indirectly through those who have. Keith Getty, the Northern Irish Christian singer and songwriter, asked the questions. ![]() Sometimes the best questions are the simplest ones, like “Who is John Piper? Where did he come from? How was he saved? How did he become a preacher?” These are the very types of questions asked of Pastor John during a recent ministry trip to Belfast.
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