It's John Piper...!

Contrary to the belief of a crazy English teacher trying to pretend he is a moose, the man in the picture is John Piper. One of my faithful commenters Ryan Potter guessed the right man! Congrats Potter, I would of been a bit disappointed if you got him wrong, since you did introduced me to his works and let me borrow his book. I highly recommend reading this book. The entire theme of the book, is 'Don't waste your life.'

Here is a paragraph from the book which I really liked.

"For me as a boy, one of the most gripping illustrations my fiery father used was the story of a man converted in old age. The church had prayed for this man for decades. He was hard and resistant. But this time, for some reason, he showed up when my father was preaching. At the end of the service, during a hymn, to everyone’s amazement, he came and took my father’s hand. They sat down together on the front pew of the church as the people were dismissed. God opened his heart to the gospel of Christ, and he was saved from his sins and given eternal life. But that did not stop him from sobbing, and saying, as the tears ran down his wrinkled face—and what an impact it made on me to hear my father say this through his own tears—"I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!"

This was the story that gripped me more than all the stories of young people who died in car wrecks before they were converted—the story of an old man weeping that he had wasted his life. In those early years God awakened in me a fear and a passion not to waste my life. The thought of coming to my old age and saying through tears, "I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!" was a fearful and horrible thought to me."

A little background on Piper...
John Piper is the Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, where he first sensed God’s call to enter the ministry. He went on to earn degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.) and the University of Munich (D.theol.). For six years he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem. John is the author of more than 20 books and his preaching and teaching is featured on the daily radio program Desiring God. He and wife Noël have four sons, one daughter, and an increasing number of grandchildren.

What really got my attention about Piper is that he spent 8 years of his studies in the book of Romans. Wow, is all I can say to that. (Romans is my favorite book) His sermons are awesome, you can check them out here…

www.desiringgod.org