You just never know where God is schooling you for something very, very important.

It may seem small and insignificant now and will be used wonderfully in the years to come.

How should Christians deal with the increasing sense of emptiness and hopelessness

that characterizes much of today's world?

As society moves away from objective truth and meaning, the need for a God-centered worldview

becomes even more urgent. In this two-part series on light and truth,

John Piper talks about how Francis Schaefer tackled this kind of despair by pointing people to the

reality of God and showing how faith and reason work together. In this episode, John Piper begins with an overview of Schaefer's life.

The seminar was originally delivered at Bethlehem Baptist Church on March 6th, 1991.

Well, Francis Schaefer tonight, so let me tell you a little bit about my personal contact with Francis Schaefer,

just to give you a connection for why he's significant in my life.

Fall of 1965, in fact, if you read the chapter, there was a reference to Wheaton College

and some lectures he gave there.

I can see exactly where I was sitting as a sophomore at Wheaton in 1965, and I can picture

him.

I was very near the back, and therefore he's sort of a haze,

but his hair was longish, though not nearly as long as on the front of this book.

As he got older, his hair got longer, unlike most people,

goes the other direction.

But it was longish, beetle-like hair in those days,

and he wore knickers, and he wore a coat with no collar on it.

And so he looked real different, you know, cool, I thought.

...