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About the Book
"Hunger for God" by John Piper explores the concept of embracing a deeper spiritual hunger for God in the Christian faith. Piper emphasizes the importance of cultivating a passionate desire for a closer relationship with God, through prayer, fasting, and a commitment to His Word. He encourages readers to seek fulfillment in God alone, rather than in worldly pursuits, in order to experience true satisfaction and joy in their faith journey.
Warren Wiersbe
Dr. Warren Wiersbe once described Heaven as “not only a destination, but also a motivation. When you and I are truly motivated by the promise of eternity with God in heaven, it makes a difference in our lives.”
For Wiersbe, the promise of eternity became the motivation for his long ministry as a pastor, author, and radio speaker. Beloved for his biblical insight and practical teaching, he was called “one of the greatest Bible expositors of our generation” by the late Billy Graham.
Warren W. Wiersbe died on May 2, 2019, in Lincoln, Nebraska, just a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday.
“He was a longtime, cherished friend of Moody Bible Institute, a faithful servant of the Word, and a pastor to younger pastors like me,” said Dr. Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute. “We are lifting up pastor Wiersbe’s family in prayer at this time and rejoicing in the blessed hope that believers share together.”
Wiersbe grew up in East Chicago, Indiana, a town known for its steel mills and hard-working blue-collar families. In his autobiography, he connected some of his earliest childhood memories to Moody Bible Institute; his home church pastor was a 1937 graduate, Dr. William H. Taylor. After volunteering to usher at a 1945 Youth for Christ rally, Wiersbe found himself listening with rapt attention to Billy Graham’s sermon, and responded with a personal prayer of dedication.
In a precocious turn of events, the young Wiersbe was already a published author, having written a book of card tricks for the L. L. Ireland Magic Co. of Chicago. He quickly learned to liven up Sunday school lessons with magic tricks as object lessons (“not the cards!” he would say). After his high school graduation in 1947 (he was valedictorian), he spent a year at Indiana University before transferring to Northern Baptist Seminary in Chicago, where he earned a bachelor of theology degree. His future wife, Betty, worked in the school library, and Wiersbe was a frequent visitor.
While in seminary he became pastor of Central Baptist Church in East Chicago, serving until 1957. During those years he became a popular YFC speaker, which led to a full-time position with Youth for Christ International in Wheaton. He published his first article for Moody Monthly magazine in 1956, about Bible study methods, and seemed to outline his ongoing writing philosophy. “This is more of a personal testimony,” he said, “because I want to share these blessings with you, rather than write some scholarly essay, which I am sure I could not do anyway.”
At a 1957 YFC convention in Winona Lake, Indiana, Wiersbe preached a sermon that was broadcast live over WMBI, his first connection to Moody Radio. “I wish every preacher could have at least six months’ experience as a radio preacher,” he said later (because they would preach shorter).
While working with Youth for Christ, Wiersbe got a call from Pete Gunther at Moody Publishers, asking about possible book projects. First came Byways of Blessing (1961), an adult devotional; then two more books in 1962, A Guidebook for Teens and Teens Triumphant. He would eventually publish 14 titles with Moody, including William Culbertson: A Man of God (1974), Live Like a King (1976), The Annotated Pilgrim’s Progress (1980), and Ministering to the Mourning (2006), written with his son, David Wiersbe.
In 1961, D. B. Eastep invited Wiersbe to join the staff of Calvary Baptist Church in Covington, Kentucky. forming a succession plan that was hastened by Eastep’s sudden death in 1962. Warren and Betty Wiersbe remained at the church for 10 years, until they were surprised by a phone call from The Moody Church. The pastor, Dr. George Sweeting, had just resigned to become president of Moody Bible Institute. Would Wiersbe fill the pulpit, and pray about becoming a candidate?
He was already well known to the Chicago church—and to the MBI community. He continued to write for Moody Monthly and had just started a new column, “Insights for the Pastor.” The monthly feature continued to run during the years Wiersbe served at The Moody Church. Wiersbe would become one of the magazine’s most prolific writers—200 articles during a 40-year span. Meanwhile he also started work on the BE series of exegetical commentaries, books that soon found a place on the shelf of every evangelical pastor.
His ministry to pastors continued as he spoke at Moody Founder’s Week, Pastors’ Conference, and numerous campus events. He also inherited George Sweeting’s role as host of the popular Songs in the Night radio broadcast, produced by Moody Radio’s Bob Neff and distributed on Moody’s growing network of radio stations.
Later in life he would move to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he served as host of the Back to the Bible radio broadcast. He also taught courses on preaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary. He kept writing, eventually publishing more than 150 books and losing track of how many (“I can’t remember them all, and I didn’t save copies of everything,” he said.)
Throughout his ministry, Warren Wiersbe described himself as a bridge builder, a reference to his homiletical method of moving “from the world of the Bible to the world of today so that we could get to the other side of glory in Jesus.” As explained by his grandson, Dan Jacobson, “His preferred tools were words, his blueprints were the Scriptures, and his workspace was a self-assembled library.”
Several of Wiersbe’s extended family are Moody alums, including a son, David Wiersbe ’76; grandson Dan Jacobsen ’09 and his wife, Kristin (Shirk) Jacobsen ’09; and great-nephew Ryan Smith, a current student.
During his long ministry and writing career, Warren Wiersbe covered pretty much every topic, including the inevitability of death. These words from Ministering to the Mourning offer a fitting tribute to his own ministry:
We who are in Christ know that if He returns before our time comes to die, we shall be privileged to follow Him home. God’s people are always encouraged by that blessed hope. Yet we must still live each day soberly, realizing that we are mortal and that death may come to us at any time. We pray, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).
jesus is coming again
Reader, do you know that Jesus is coming again? He said, "I will come again" (John 14:3) and His word endureth forever (1 Pet. 1:25), for He is the truth (John 14:6). The angels said He would come again. "This same Jesus," and "in like manner" (Acts 1:11), and they were not mistaken when they announced His first coming (Luke 1:26-33; see also Luke 2:8-18). The Holy Spirit, by the mouth of the apostles, hath repeatedly said He would come again (1 Thess. 4:16; Heb. 9:28, Heb. 10:37). Is not such an event, stated upon such authority, of vital importance to us? At His first coming, the world rejected Him. He was the despised Nazarene. But when He comes again, He will appear as "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords" (1 Tim. 6:13-15). He is coming to sit upon the throne of His glory (Matt. 25:31), and to be admired in all them that believed (2 Thess. 1:10), and to rule, in judgment and equity, all the nations of the earth (Psa. 2:9; Isa. 9:6-7; Rev. 2:25-27). How glorious it will be to see the King in His beauty (Isa. 33:17). Perhaps you are not a Christian, and say— "I Don't Care Anything About It." Then, dear friend, we point you to the crucified Savior as the only hope of salvation. We beg of you to "kiss the Son," lest ye perish from the way. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him (Psalm 2:12). What shall it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul? (Matt. 16:26-27) He is coming, and we know neither the day, nor the hour, when He may come (Matt. 25:13). What if He should come now? Would you be found of Him in peace (2 Pet. 3:14), or would you be left behind to endure the terrible things which shall come upon the world (Luke 21:25-26), while the church is with Christ in the air (Luke 21:36; 1 Thess. 4:17), and be made at His appearing (2 Thess. 1:7-10) to mourn (Matt. 24:30) and pray to the mountains and rocks to hide you from His face? (Rev. 6:16). "Prepare to meet thy God," was the solemn injunction to Israel (Amos 4:12), and every one of us, both Jew and Gentile, must meet Him, either in grace or in judgment. We, then, as ambassadors for Christ, beseech you: be ye reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20), now, in the accepted time, in the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2; Luke 14:31-33). Do let us entreat you to repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out (Acts 10:42-43; Acts 17:30-31), and that you may turn "to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from Heaven" (1 Thess. 1:9-10), and be unblamable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 3:13). But if you are a Christian, then we point you to His coming again, as The True Incentive to a Holy Life.(1 John 3:2-3) Jesus is coming, therefore mortify your members which are upon the earth, that you may appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:4-5). Strive and pray for purity of heart, that you may be like Him and see Him as He is (Matt. 5:18; 1 John 3:2-3). Search the Word, that you may be sanctified and cleansed thereby (Eph. 5:26), and that your whole spirit, and soul, and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:23). But possibly you say, with contempt, "Oh, That's Second Adventism." Beloved, have you considered that Moses (Deut. 33:2), so David (Psa. 102:16), Isaiah (Isa. 59:20; Isa. 60:1), Jeremiah (Jer. 23:5-6), Daniel (Dan. 7:13), Zechariah (Zech. 14:4-5), all the prophets and apostles (Acts 15:15-17), were believers in the second advent of Christ? And because some, by setting dates, and other errors, have brought disrepute upon this doctrine, shall we cast it aside altogether? But it may be you say (as we have been pained to hear from so many even earnest Christians): "Well, I Don't Think It Concerns Me Much, Anyway: I've always thought that in most cases it meant death, and if I'm prepared for death, that's enough; and there is too much speculation about it to suit me; and I don't believe it's a practical doctrine; and, more than that, I think it's a mistake to pay so much attention to it." Yes, even thus do many Christians, — who profess to be members of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27), and who have been espoused unto one husband, that they may be presented to Him (2 Cor. 11:2) — summarily dispose of this precious truth, that Jesus is coming, to take unto Himself His bride (John 14:3; Eph. 5:23, 32). O, beloved, do not thus deprive yourself of this comforting truth. Please take your pencil and mark in your Bible the passages that pertain to it; and see How Large a Portion of the Word Is Devoted to It. If the Holy Ghost has deemed it so important, is it not worthy of our attention? The Word exhorts us (1 Thess. 4:18; 1 Cor. 1:7) to give attention to it (Rev. 1:3); and the danger of condemnation is to them who do not (Luke 12:45-46; Luke 21:34-36; 1 Thess. 5:1-7). Again, please examine the passages cited under the heading, A Practical Doctrine, and see how Jesus and the apostles used this doctrine to incite us to watchfulness, repentance, patience, ministerial faithfulness, brotherly love, etc., and then decide whether anything could be more practical. Surely no doctrine, in the Word of God, presents a deeper motive for crucifying the flesh, and for separation unto God, and to work for souls, as our hope and joy and crown of rejoicing (1 Thess. 2:19; Dan. 12:3) than this does. For the whole teaching of it is, that our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body (Phil. 3:20-21). It awakens groaning for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23; Luke 21:28). It gives us a view of the world, as a wrecked vessel (Matt. 7:13-14; 1 Thess. 5:3; 2 Pet. 2:3-9; 2 Pet. 3:5-12), and stimulates us to work with all our might that we may save some (1 Cor. 9:22). Most, if not all, of the evangelists of our day are animated by this doctrine, and surely their work is practical. Again, Peter says, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:" (2 Pet. 1:19); and he exhorts us to be mindful of these words (2 Pet. 3:1-2). Therefore we are not speculating when we prayerfully study prophecy. From Jesus is Coming by W. E. B. 3rd. rev. New York: Fleming H. Revell, ©1908. Chapter 1.
