Abraham Piper is the Web Content Editor at Desiring God. He also blogs at 22 Words.

If you're looking for an organization to channel your money through for Haiti—and you probably should be—here are some options.

1. Compassion International
2. Feed My Starving Children
3. Food for the Hungry
4. World Vision
5. World Relief
6. Samaritan's Purse
7. Love a Child
8. Northwest Haiti Christian Mission
9. Compassion Weavers
10. Mennonite Central Committee
11. Water Missions International

Update: Another ministry to consider giving to is Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center. They're operating one of the only clinics near the epicenter that's open right now.

Update #2: Another ministry worth giving through is Children's Hunger Fund. 

In November, John Piper spoke at Angola Prison in Louisiana. That message and the follow-up Q & A are now available to watch or listen to.

• Jesus Came Not to Give Bread, but to Be Bread
• Q & A

You can now watch or listen to the two messages that John Piper gave at Campus Crusade's conference here in Minneapolis on December 30 and 31:

• God's Passion for His Glory
• Holy Ambition: Paul's and Yours
  

John Piper's brand new book A Sweet and Bitter Providence is an exploration of the book of Ruth. In the introduction, he writes,

I don't know you or your circumstances well enough to to say for sure that you should read this book.... [L]et me simply tell you why I think you might be helped if you join me in listening to the message of Ruth.

He lists 7 reasons:

1. Ruth is the Word of God.

[T]he message of Ruth is unwaveringly true. It's a rock to stand on when the terrain of ideas feels like quicksand. It's an anchor to hold us when tides are ripping....

The message of Ruth is filled with God-inspired hope.

2. Ruth is a love story.

The way Ruth and Boaz find each other is the stuff of epics.... But the story is the flesh-and-blood experience of one family living the unexpected plan of God.

3. Ruth is a portrait of beautiful, noble manhood and womanhood.

In a day when movies and television and advertising and the Internet portray masculinity and femininity in the lowest ways, we are in great need of stories that elevate the magnificent meaning of manhood and womanhood....

Ruth and Boaz are extraordinary. Men and women today need heroes like this.

4. Ruth address racial and ethnic diversity and harmony.

Ruth is an "unclean" pagan Moabitess. But she is drawn into faith and into the lineage of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Her marriage is an interracial marriage. There are lessons here that we need as much as ever today.

5. Ruth displays the sovereignty of God.

Is God's bitter providence the last word?... Everywhere I look in the world today, whether near or far, the issue for real people in real life is, Can I trust and love the God who has dealt me this painful hand in life? That is the question the book of Ruth intends to answer.

6. Ruth displays radical acts of risk-taking love.

[The book of Ruth is in the Bible] to make you a new kind of person—a person who is able "to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).

7. Ruth displays the glory of Christ.

[A] thousand years before Christ, this book glorifies his saving work on the cross, as we will see. Ruth is about the work of God in the darkest times to prepare the world for the glories ot Jesus Christ.

Tomorrow morning we'll be hosting another live session of "Ask Pastor John." Tweet your questions with the hashtag #apj, and from 10 AM to noon (CT) John Piper will answer them.

When you register for our upcoming pastor's conference, you'll receive two free audio books from ChristianAudio.com, The Religious Affections and The Pleasures of God.

(If you're already signed up, we'll email you the code to download them.)

John Piper will be speaking tomorrow and Thursday at Campus Crusade's TCX 2009 conference. We will be live-streaming both messages.

• Wednesday, December 30, 7:45 PM CT
  "God's Passion for His Glory"
• Thursday, December 31, 7:15 PM CT
  "Holy Ambition: Paul's and Yours"

If you're coming to our pastors conference, here's why we think you might want to register before the end of the year.

1. The price is only $110 right now, but it goes up on January 1.
2. Everyone who registers this year will be entered to have all their conference expenses paid—travel, lodging, food, registration and even books.
3. Seats are limited and filling up for Paul Tripp’s pre-conference seminar.

We're looking forward to seeing you in February!

John Piper's new book A Sweet and Bitter Providence is now available. In it, Piper explores the themes of sex and race that are so prominent in Ruth's story. And then, most importantly, he looks at how God is graciously in control of circumstances no matter how bitter they are.

Let people know that you'll be coming to our pastors conference this February with one of the new banners we've made available.

We would be honored if you wanted to embed one on your own site and help us spread the word about the conference.

You could also point people to the event using the conference trailer.

Thanks a lot!

*** Contest closed. Thanks for participating! ***

We have 12 different packages on sale for Christmas this year. One of them is especially for moms.

Leave a comment on this post with one word that describes your mother, and Monday morning we'll do a drawing and send one commenter the set of books to give their mom for Christmas.

*** Contest closed. Thanks for participating! *** 

Everyone who registers for our pastors conference before the end of the year will have a chance for all their conference expenses to be paid.

On January 1, we'll draw one pastor's name. We'll cover the cost of that pastor's conference registration, travel, hotel, food, and bookstore purchases.

And so that your odds of winning something are a little better, we're also going to draw an additional five names to each receive a $50 gift certificate to our conference bookstore.

So if you're planning to come, register now!

Small Print

Here's what you'll get if you win:

• Conference Registration: The winner's registration will be credited back to him in full.
  
• Travel: The winner will book the flight that works best for him, and we'll reimburse him for these travel expenses up to $500. If the winner is driving, we'll reimburse for fuel and parking.
  
• Hotel: The winner may book his own room and be reimbursed for two nights up to $150/night or we can book a room for him at the Minneapolis Hilton (which is connected to the convention center).
  
• Food: The winner will be registered for the two lunches that are provided at the conference. If he has already paid for these, he'll be reimbursed. We will also give the winner $100 to cover his food for the rest of the conference.
  
• Books: The winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to the conference bookstore. And, if needed, we'll ship his books home for him for free.

The theme for our upcoming pastors conference is "The Pastor, the People, and the Pursuit of Joy: The Apostolic Aim of Pastoral Ministry." John Piper, Sam Storms, Bob Blincoe, and Eric Mason will be exploring how Christian Hedonism affects a pastor's work and life.

On the first day of our pastors conference in February, you can participate in a 2-session seminar with Paul Tripp for only $20.

Sign up to come by adding it to your conference registration or you can register for just Tripp's seminar.

This event is titled "Dangerous Calling." Tripp will give two messages:

1. The Pastor: Who Do We Think He Is, Anyway?
2. The Pastor: Not Yet Perfect, Still Under Attack

In the first session, Tripp will explore unbiblical expectations placed on pastors that isolate them in the body of Christ. And, then, of course, he'll discuss how to change these.

And in the second session, he'll address the temptations that go along with pastoring, how to examine yourself for them, and then conquer them.

Finally, in case you don't know who Paul Tripp is, he's a pastor, writer, and counselor on a mission to "connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life." He pastors at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and is adjunct faculty at the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation.

Learn more about him at his site, Paul Tripp Ministries. We think he's well worth listening to, so we hope to see you in February!

Here are four past Thanksgiving meditations for you to read today if you'd like:

• Pray for More Thanksgiving
• A Tribute to Gratitude
• 3 Truths to Induce Thanksgiving
• Ganging Up on Gratitude

There's a little while left to invite people over for tomorrow's feast. Listen to John Piper talk about who to have over.

(And if your table is already full, you can listen to the clip just because it's funny to hear how high his voice was in 1980.)

Originally posted last year.

My wife Molly met our sponsored child in El Salvador yesterday. I recommend reading her thoughts on the day.

**Contest Closed**

We have 12 different packages on sale for Christmas this year. One of them is especially for pastors.

Leave a comment on this post with the name of your pastor or retweet this with his name, and tomorrow morning we'll draw one of your pastors to send the gift set to for free.

Update: The contest is over now and the winners have been notified. Thanks for participating.

You’re going to be buying presents for all sorts of people this Christmas, so we thought for our Christmas sale we'd put together sets of books and other resources aimed at different kinds of readers.

We've created 12 packages and put them on sale. We hope that this will make it easy to choose a perfect present for some of the people on your list.

Check out your different options:

• The (Almost Complete) John Piper Library
• For Mom
• For Dad
• For the Little Ones
• For the Bargain Hunter
• For the Student
• For a Missionary
• For Your Pastor
• For a New Christian
• For Anyone in a Hurry
• For the Conference Lover
• For the Armchair Theologian

Tomorrow morning, you can watch a Q&A with John Piper live from 8-11 AM, Central Time.

The questions will be a combination of those that have been emailed to us recently and those that are submitted via Twitter during the Q&A.

To send in a question tomorrow, simply Tweet it and add #apj to your Tweet. We'll be selecting questions as they come in.

For those of you (most of you, probably) who can't join us live tomorrow, the answer is, yes, we'll be recording it and making it available within a few days.

Many of you are trying to download the free Desiring God audio book from Christian Audio and having trouble. Their servers are overwhelmed because there's so much interest.

We're happy so many people want the book, but we're sorry for the frustration, too! Please remember the book will be free for all of November, so you may want to try your download again in a couple days when traffic has leveled out.