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Coming Back to Life Meet Stephen · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: My name is C. Stephen David and I come from Hyderabad, India,
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  Speaker 1: which is the southern part of India. Right after I
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  Speaker 1: came to the Lord, I went to a Bible college,
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  Speaker 1: did my theological studies and then I started discipleship ministry
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  Speaker 1: and I was on fire for the Lord, serving the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: But after a few years I have seen that I
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  Speaker 1: was progressively getting into depression. It happened progressively, I got
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  Speaker 1: into a carnal life and I was also at times
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  Speaker 1: slowly was getting addicted to pornography. And also I was
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  Speaker 1: quite away from the Lord. This happened many many years ago,
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  Speaker 1: and I came to the point that I thought about
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  Speaker 1: I lost my heart for God. I lost my heart
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  Speaker 1: for ministry. I was a man who was dead. And
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  Speaker 1: then in God's sovereign providence, I came across the book
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  Speaker 1: When I Don't Desire God. I started to read Bible
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  Speaker 1: first in my personal devotions and also when I don't
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  Speaker 1: deserve God. I devolved the book and every word was
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  Speaker 1: so personal, as if God sat before me and speaking
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  Speaker 1: to me, encouraging me and motivating me, enlightening me, convicting me.
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  Speaker 1: I was so blessed by reading that I've learned about
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  Speaker 1: memorizing the scriptures, especially from that I was so challenged
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  Speaker 1: during that time. I fell in love with the Word
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  Speaker 1: of God, and I started to memorize the books of
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  Speaker 1: the Bible. I memorized so much of the Bible and
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  Speaker 1: was filled with the Word of God. And again I
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  Speaker 1: came back to life. It was as if I was
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  Speaker 1: born again again after reading when I don't desire God
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  Speaker 1: and I don't want to exalt the book, because I
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  Speaker 1: know this is God's work. It is God who brought
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  Speaker 1: this book, who brought Piper's writings in my life, so
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  Speaker 1: that he would enliven me, revive me, get me back
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  Speaker 1: to himself, so that I can love Him and love
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  Speaker 1: his word. And I fell in love with the Word
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  Speaker 1: of God, not in not with the writings of Piper,
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  Speaker 1: because the writings of Piper doesn't point it to himself
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  Speaker 1: or to the writings. It points to God, to the
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  Speaker 1: glory of God, and to the authority of the Scripture.
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  Speaker 1: So the testimony is not about how powerful the book is.
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  Speaker 1: The testimony is that as a result of reading that book,
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  Speaker 1: God has used it to cause me to fall in
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  Speaker 1: love with Him and love with the Scripture again. And
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  Speaker 1: I honestly say that if I am today in ministry
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  Speaker 1: in this way, one of the major reasons is that God,
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  Speaker 1: in his grace and mercy, has used Piper's writings to
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  Speaker 1: get me back to himself so that I can love
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  Speaker 1: him him and serve him and glorify him and fulfill
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  Speaker 1: his purpose in my life. Manamee devonlo Atikamina santrtamo Apu
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  Speaker 1: DevD Adi Ganga Mahima m h