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Safety Is a Myth
by Tony Reinke | February 2, 2013

Recently Pastor John released his short book Risk Is Right, a significantly expanded version of a chapter originally published in Don't Waste Your Life. In Risk Is Right, Pastor John claims the so-called safety we seek to preserve in our lives is really a myth.

We asked him to explain “safety is a myth” in a recent Ask Pastor John podcast (episode 10). In part he explained it this way:

You can’t put enough padlocks on your door and enough bars on your window to keep a heart attack from happening. There is no guarantee that anybody is going to live another breath. And therefore all the efforts that we make to keep ourselves safe are ultimately an illusion in terms of absolute security.

He then quoted James 4:13–15:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” — yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

It’s in this context — the myth of personal safety — that Pastor John explained the value of risk, and you can listen to the entire 7-minute podcast here.

But even if risk is right, there is surely a difference between right risk and wrong risk. This question was the focus of the follow-up podcast (episode 11).

But it was the latest episode, released on Friday, that quickly became our most played to date: Fighting Porn Addiction with Grudem’s Systematic Theology (episode 18).

These are a few of the topics and questions we're trying to address in the Ask Pastor John (APJ) daily podcast.

Current List of Episodes

In total, we released five new APJ podcasts this week. Here’s a list of episodes to date:

Fighting Porn Addiction with Grudem’s Systematic Theology (Episode 18)
We Are Makers — Lessons on Vocation from Dorothy Sayers (Episode 17)
Interpreting the Miracles of Jesus (Episode 16)
Why False Doctrine Can Make You Happy (Episode 15)
Why John Piper Recycles (Episode 14)
The Essential Warfare for Holiness (Episode 13)
Exercising the Body (For the Sake of the Soul) (Episode 12)
What Is the Difference Between Right Risk and Wrong Risk? (Episode 11)
Safety Is A Myth (Episode 10)
Arrests and Imprisonments In Opposing Abortion (Episode 9)
Leadership Lessons from Martin Luther King (Episode
Takeaways from Passion 2013 (Episode 7)
What’s It Like Preaching to 60,000 People? (Episode 6)
Why Adam Matters for Global Missions (Episode 5)
Was Adam For Real, and Does It Matter? (Episode 4)
How Important Is a Christian Writer's Influence? (Episode 3)
Who Was George Herbert? (Episode 2)
Reflections from John Piper on His 67th Birthday (Episode 1)
Tuning In

The Ask Pastor John daily podcast is a series of 3–8 minute conversations released on weekdays at 11am (EST) via the DG Facebook and Twitter feeds. We're currently hosting all the recordings on SoundCloud, a website that makes it easy to listen to several of the podcasts in one sitting. They’re also archived on the DG website.

And soon the podcast will be syndicated in iTunes.

We want to hear from you. To submit a question to Pastor John please include your first name, hometown, and your question in an email to AskPastorJohn AT desiringGod DOT org.

Thanks for listening to the podcasts, and thanks for already submitting a bunch of excellent questions over the past three weeks. We appreciate your engagement and interest.

Wayne Grudem believes that 'theology is meant to be lived and prayed and sung' - but before this can happen, it must be understood.
In this best-selling textbook, each chapter begins with a clear definition of the doctrine under consideration and moves on to a thorough exposition of its basis in Scripture. Then follow questions for personal application which help to bring out the relevance of the doctrine to the life of the individual and the church; and finally, a hymn suitable for corporate use or personal meditation.

Controversial issues such as the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit, male-female roles in marriage and church, and the nature of final judgment are given a full treatment. Where he differs from other theologians, Professor Grudem is firm but courteous.

Wayne Grudem's warm, pastoral and practical approach to systematic theology has been widely appreciated. He demonstrates on page after page how important biblical doctrine is both for the spiritual health of the individual and for the well-being of the church at large.