Tag: John Piper

Scholarship or Insurrection?

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes3 Comments

I want to share and ponder one more quote from John Piper’s book, Think, that really caught my attention:

If all the universe and everything in it exist by the design of an infinite, personal God, to make his manifold glory known and loved, then to treat any subject without reference to God’s glory is not scholarship but insurrection.

What do you think? 

And do you think we can apply this statement to everyday thinking about everyday life?  That is: if I am thinking without reference to God’s glory, I am being rebellious.

If that is so, it seems to me we are much more rebellious and sinful than we probably thought.  And it raises some good self-reflection questions: 

Why do you think about what you think about?  For God’s glory?  Or for man’s applause?  To please people?  To impress yourself?  For your own glory? 

And then there is Jesus who always sought to to do will of the Father – to live for God’s glory even in his thinking.  And we realize we don’t measure up and never could and desperately need him to be our Savior.

Thinking and Treasuring God

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes

John Piper writes in Think about the connection between thinking and treasuring God.  A few worthwhile quotes to consider:

The way we glorify him is by knowing him truly, by treasuring him above all things, and by living in a way that shows he is our supreme treasure….  The main reason God has given us minds is that we might seek out and find all the reasons that exist for treasuring him in all things and above all things.

Thinking is indispensible on the path to passion for God.

Our thinking should be wholly engaged to do all it can to awaken and express the heartfelt fullness of treasuring God above all things.

I love God because I know God.  And I want to know him more because I love him.

Book Look: Think

On By BrianIn Book Look1 Comment

Think by John Piper reminds us that thinking is important.  It is a “plea to embrace serious thinking as a means of loving God and people” (p15).  Thinking, he argues, “exists to help us know God more so that we may treasure him more.  It exists to bring as much good to other people as we can – especially the eternal good of enjoying God through Christ” (p167).

The book is divided into several sections.  He begins by considering the importance of reading as it relates to thinking, and then addresses the importance of thinking in conversion.  He then combats two giants in our world (and too often our churches): relativism and anti-intellectualism.  His section on relativism I found to be particularly timely and helpful as he argues that relativism undermines thinking, and hence love.  He further outlines seven specific problems with relativism which I found particularly compelling.  His section on anti-intellectualism addresses the all too common suspicion in the church of study and learning by relooking at some common misunderstood passages. 

All in all a most helpful and needed book.  Read it to be encouraged to think more about God that you might love him more.  Read it to decimate any traces of relativism and anti-intellectualism in your own life, and to lovingly help others do the same in their lives.  Highly recommended.

God and Earthquakes

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

On March 11, Japan was hit with a massive eathquake.  Such a disaster raises many questions.  Did God merely allow the earthquake or was he behind it?  And either way, why did he allow or cause it?   What can we learn from all this?  How should we respond?  How should we pray?  John Piper shares some wise answers to these questions.

Book Look: This Momentary Marriage

On By BrianIn Book Look

This Momentary Marriage – John Piper

I’ve already mentioned in past posts how helpful this book was in helping me think through what it means to have a gospel shaped marriage.  Christ’s passion for us should affect our marriages.  The book also tackles being single and the issue of divorce.  Recommended.

Click here for other posts about the family.

Web Weekly

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

I have decided to start a new weekly feature collecting some of the best things I’ve found on the web related in some way to living with a passion for God and compassion for people in response to Christ’s passion for us.  So here are a few links to check out:

Coram Deo reminds us to live for God’s glory, including a great quote from one of my favorite author’s – A.W. Tozer.

Tullian Tchividjian reminds us of the need to trade in our sinful individualism for gospel shaped Christian community.  This interview addresses a great need in the church today.  In two parts – Part 1 and Part 2.

Christianity Today has an excerpt of J. I. Packer and Gary Parrett’s new book: Grounded in the Gospel.  This book is high on my reading list, and the excerpt reminds us of the need for the church to be trained “in the gospel and its implications for doctrine, devotion, duty, and delight.”  Their answer is foreign to my growing up years, but has slowly become a conviction for me.  The church is filled with too many untrained Christians and here is at least part of the answer.

Finally, Collin Hansen at Christianity Today responds to John Piper’s recent announcement that he is taking an eight month sabbatical.  Hansen reminds us that we can become so focused on kingdom work that we ignore our families and our own spiritual health.  Too much Martha and not enough Mary.  I needed to read this, and you may too!

Trust that you will have a restful Easter glorifying God and reflecting on the truth of Christ’s resurrection with your church!

Gospel Shaped Suffering 4

On By BrianIn Miscellaneous

How should the gospel shape our suffering?  We have looked at six ways already.  Let’s look at two final ways today.

Bearing Witness to Christ (Evangelism)

We receive the gospel by faith, but how will people hear the gospel unless we bear witness to Christ?  Suffering offers us a powerful platform to share the work of Christ in our lives.  Several people in my church have shared how they have had opportunities to tell others about Christ in the midst of their suffering.  There are records from the early church of people who witnessed the suffering and death of Christian martyrs and were saved as a result.  Courage, trust, and hope in trials leaves a lasting impression, a strong witness for Christ.  In fact, sometimes are suffering is for the purpose of bearing witness.  Jesus told his disciples that they would be taken to court, flogged, and dragged before rulers for his sake, “to bear witness before them” (Matthew 10:17-18).  Using our suffering as an opportunity to bear witness to Christ is gospel shaped sufferings.

Counting All as Loss for the Treasure of Christ (Worship)

The gospel is spread through evangelism and received by faith, but what is the goal of the gospel?  The goal is worship.  As John Piper writes in his book on missions, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”  We were created to glorify God, but we all sin and fall short of his glory (Romans 3:23).  The gospel exists to save us from our sins and change us back into worshippers who glorify God, worshippers who love God and serve God, who treasure God above all else.

Worshippers like Paul.  In Philippians 3:7-11, Paul says he suffers the loss of all things for Christ.  What is suffering?  Often it is loss – loss of heath, loss of a loved one, loss of comfort, loss of a relationship, loss of a dream.  Paul says he suffer the loss of all things, counts it all as loss.  Why?  Because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus.  He will share in the sufferings of Christ because what he wants most of all is Christ.  Gospel shaped suffering means we are willing to suffer loss because in Christ we have the greatest treasure of all.

What is gospel shaped suffering? It is:

  • Following the path of Christ
  • Becoming more like Christ
  • Resting in the love of Christ
  • Rejoicing in the hope of Christ
  • Trusting God like Christ
  • Comforting others in Christ
  • Bearing witness to Christ
  • Counting all as loss for the treasure of Christ

May God help us suffer in this way for his glory.

Gospel Shaped Marriage

On By BrianIn Family/Single Life

Our culture has a low distorted view of marriage.  This is not news.   The high divorce rate, the thousands living together outside of marriage, the media’s portrayal of marriage, the attempt to redefine marriage, and the frothy romantic feelings many base marriage on – all point to a low distorted view of marriage.  In the midst of this mess, the church needs a renewed vision of marriage, a high view, a real view, a Biblical view.

To find such a view, we could turn back to creation.  We could see that God designed marriage between a man and a woman, that he designed sex for the safety of a loving committed marriage relationship, and that he designed marriage to be a lasting commitment.  But by and large the church knows these things, so I want to look at marriage from a different vantage point.  I want to consider marriage not in the context of creation, but in the context of salvation.

I want to ask: how should the gospel shape our marriages?  Ever asked that question?  Ever even consider that there might be a connection?  Let’s begin by exploring the connection:

Read Ephesians 5:22-33.  What is this passage about?  The marriage relationship?  The Christ/church relationship?  Both?  Indeed both.  Paul weaves the two together throughout the passage.

Looking closer, we notice that the husband’s role is based on Christ’s role: “the husband is the head…even as Christ is the head….husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church.”  Similarly the wife’s role is based on the church’s role: “as the church submits…so also wives should submit.”  The marriage relationship then is based on the Christ/church relationship.

Look at verses 31-32.  Verse 31 quotes Genesis 2 which is speaking of marriage.  Yet verse 32 says it (the marriage relationship) refers to Christ and the church.  That is, the marriage relationship points to or pictures the Christ/church relationship.  Our marriages are a picture of Christ and his church.  Marriage is a picture of the gospel.

So marriage is based on the Christ/church relationship and pictures the Christ/church relationship.*  Marriage is closely connected to the gospel.  That means my question – how should the gospel shape our marriages? – is not incidental but essential.  The gospel must shape our marriages because our marriages are based on the gospel and point to the gospel.  We’ll look at specific ways the gospel should shape our marriages in the next post.

*I am indebted to John Piper’s book This Momentary Marriage for the insight that marriage is based on and pictures the Christ/church relationship.  I recommend the book to you.

Old-fashioned Commitment in New Contexts

On By BrianIn Revival

John Piper’s last chapter in his book Finally Alive begins this way:

“We’re ending this book on the ground.  On the street.  In the car.  At Starbucks.  In the back yard.  In school.  At work.  Over lunch.  On the phone.  On Facebook and MySpace.  And text messaging.  And Skyping.  And blogging.  And airplanes.  And a hundred ordinary conversations.  We’re ending with personal evangelism – an old-fashioned commitment in new contexts for the sake of the new birth in thousands of spiritually dead people for the glory of Jesus Christ.”

That phrase – “old-fashioned commitment in new contexts” caught my eye,  as did some of his examples – like blogging and Facebook.  It is a call to use today’s social and technological contexts for sharing the gospel.

I just started using Facebook about a month ago.  It is a great way to connect with people…and a great way to waste your life.  Many of the comments are trivial, even mindless.  Words, words, and more words with little significance.  But couldn’t we use it to share important thoughts and ideas?  To share what Christ means to us?  To fill the “walls” of our “friends” with Jesus?  Lovingly – not in your face.  Naturally – flowing out of who we are in Christ. Facebook is all about sharing what we are doing and thinking – so let’s share about what we are thinking and doing that relates to Christ.

And that is only one context.  How might we use every context we have as an opportunity to share about Christ?  I don’t usually think this way, but I need to!  I need to think about how I might use every situation to share Christ with others.

What if we filled our conversations and blogs and e-mails and phone calls and “walls” and towns with Jesus – “for the sake of the new birth in thousands of spiritually dead people for the glory of Jesus Christ”?

Fill your town with Jesus

On By BrianIn Revival2 Comments

I just finished reading John Piper’s solid book about being born again called Finally Alive.  In his last chapter, he applies the doctrine by calling us to do our part to lead people to Jesus that they might be born again.  He writes:

When the apostles were put on trial in Jerusalem, the hight priest said, “You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching” (Acts 5:28).  That is what I dream for the churchs of my city.  If all the Christians were talking about Christ, and giving out literature about Christ, and sending e-mails about Christ, and inviting people to church for Christ, and being lavishly generous to others for Christ, then someone might say, “Those Christians have filled the city with their teaching.”  May it be so.

Do we dream of filling our towns with Jesus?  How might we do it?  What are we waiting for?