Desiring God - John Piper

"I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed summation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed." - C.S. Lewis

Do you find true joy and true happiness in God? Do you enjoy praising God and therefore complete your joy in Him? Are you a "Christian Hedonist" as John Piper famously puts it. This was an excellent book that I had meant to read for the longest time and I am so glad that I finally made the time to do so. 

Note: These "Book" blogs are more or less for myself. I find that I retain information a lot better when I write it down. But, if these bless you as well as you read it, then I am glad.

Chapter 1: Happiness of God

God is absolutely sovereign over the world, he can do anything that He pleases and He is therefore not a frustrated God but a deeply happy God, rejoicing in all His works and nothing can thwart his plan. 

So the question is, what could God give to us to enjoy that would prove Him as most loving? Himself because He is of the utmost value and if he withheld Himself from us, he would not be loving. 

Chapter 2: Conversion

God made us for His glory (Isaiah 43:6-7) and therefore it is the duty of every person to live for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31) which means to acknowledge His glory, to value it above all things, and to make it known. However, we have all failed to give God the glory he deserves and therefore are subject to eternal condemnation by God. But the Good News of the Gospel is that God himself has decreed a way to satisfy the demands of His justice without condemning the whole human race.

Therefore, the pursuit of joy in God is not optional. It is not an "extra" that a person might grow into after he comes to faith. It is not simply a way to "enhance" your walk with the Lord. Until your heart has hit upon this pursuit, your "faith" cannot please God and therefore you cannot be truly happy.

Chapter 3: Worship

"Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of His worth."

Worship is a way for us to express the feelings and emotions and affections that we have for God and where feelings are dead, our worship of God is dead. For Christians, we should long for not any of God's good gifts, but for God himself. To be sure, God gives good gifts to us and we should be grateful but ultimately we want God and we express this longing for God when we worship Him.

"In the moment of authentic emotion, the calculation vanishes. We are transported (perhaps only for seconds) above the reasoning work of the mind, and we experience feeling without reference to logical or practical implications." - How I long to be so captivated in worshipping my God

Chapter 4: Love

"If love is the overflow of joy in God that gladly meets the needs of other people, and if God loves such joyful givers, then this joy in giving is a Christian duty, and the effort not to pursue is sin."

Whether it be ministry, providing needs, counseling, etc we be joyful about it. Not some fake mustered up joy but true joy knowing that our joy in God overflows in a joy to meet the needs of others out of love. If not, we are saying that we don't trust Jesus when he says it is more blessed, more joy, more lasting pleasure if we devote ourselves to helping others. 

"It is an indictment of our own worldliness when we feel more exhilaration when we conquer an external mountain of granite in our own strength than when we conquer the internal mountain of pride in God's strength." - I pray God's strength would overcome mountains that only He can overcome so He gets all the glory

Chapter 5 - Scripture

"Normal Christian life is a repeated process of restoration and renewal. Our joy is not static. It fluctuates with real life. It is vulnerable to Satan's attacks...My aim in this chapter is to help you wear the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and wield it to preserve your joy in God."

"Our physical life is created and upheld by the Word of God, and our spiritual life is quickened and sustained by the Word of God."

"The more of God's Word you know and love, the more of God's Spirit you will experience."

"The first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man."

Chapter 6 - Prayer

"Just as the thirst deer kneels down to drink at the brook, so the characteristic posture of a Christian hedonist is on his knees."

"If we seek from the world the pleasures we should seek in God, we are unfaithful to our marriage vows. And, what's worse, when we go to our heavenly Husband and actually pray for the resources with which to commit adultery with the world, it is a very wicked thing. It is as though we would ask our husband for money to hire male prostitutes to provide the pleasure we don't find in him!" - Our prayers need to be less self serving and self centered to spend on our own pleasures

One of the reasons Christians do not have a significant prayer life is because we don't plan to pray. We need to set time aside for seeking God's face in prayer.

Chapter 7 - Money

"If your godliness has freed you from the desire to be rich and has helped you to be content with what you have, then your godliness is tremendously profitable."

Good test: Have you learned your attitude toward money from the Bible, or have you absorbed it from contemporary American merchandizing?

"The reason the use of your money provides a good foundation for eternal life is not that generosity earns eternal life, but that is shows where your heart is."

"Why does God bless us with abundance? SO we can have enough to live on, and then use the rest for all manner of good works that alleviate spiritual and physical misery. Enough for us; abundance for others."

"Do not desire to be rich, be content with the wartime necessities of life, set your hope fully on God, guard yourself from pride, and let your joy in God overflow in a wealth of liberality to a lost and needy world."

Chapter 8 - Marriage

"Husbands should devote the same energy and time and creativity to making their wives happy that they devote naturally to making themselves happy."

"The roles of husband and wife in marriage are not arbitrarily assigned, but are rooted in the distinctive roles of Christ and His church."

"Where a man belongs is at the bedside of his children, leading in devotion and prayer. Where a man belongs is leading his family to the house of God. Where a man belongs is up early and alone with God seeking vision and direction for his family." - I need to strive to be this man!

"Wives, seek your joy in the joy of your husband by affirming and honoring his God-ordained role as leader in your relationship. Husbands, seek your joy in the joy of your wife by accepting the responsibility to lead as Christ led the church and gave Himself for her."

Chapter 9 - Missions

People without the gospel are without hope because only the gospel can free them from their sin

"Any burden in this chapter is to kindle a desire in your heart to be part of the last chapter of the greatest story in the world."

Lottie Moon - "Surely there can be no deeper joy than that of saving souls."

Chapter 10 - Suffering

"There is joy in affliction but this joy comes because of the hope that affliction itself is helping to secure and increase."

All suffering is with Christ (comes to us as we are walking with Him by faith and is endured by His strength) and for Christ (suffering tests and proves our allegiance)

We make a personal presentation of the sacrifices of Christ when we suffer (Colossians 1:24).

"One way of rejoicing in suffering comes from fixing our minds firmly on the greatness of the reward that will come to us in the resurrection."

"Through our suffering others are seeing the worth of Christ and standing firm because of our faith in the fire."

Taking God At His Word - Kevin DeYoung

"I want to convince you that the Bible makes no mistakes, can be understood, cannot be overturned, and is the most important word in your life, the most relevant thing you read each day."

This is one of the best books I have read in quite some time. I love books that talk about God's word and the importance of it. Every Christian should delight in the Bible, desire the Bible and depend on the Bible. Every Christian should not depend on external experiences or "voices from God" when we have a more sure word, the Bible, God's very words, spoken to us. The Bible is relevant to all of life because we know that the Bible is sufficient.

God's word is also final. General revelation (nature, etc) gives us a sense of God's power but only special revelation (His word) reveals God "more openly" so that we might be saved.

Some practical implications of the sufficiency, clarity, authoritative and necessity of scripture are "Counselors can counsel meaningfully because Scripture is sufficient. Bible study leaders can lead confidently because Scripture is clear. Preachers can preach with boldness because their biblical text is authoritative. And evangelists can evangelize with urgency because Scripture is necessary."

It is also important for us to realize that the "Red Letters", those words spoken by Jesus, are not any more important or authoritative than the rest of Scripture because all the Bible is breathed out by God.

Ultimately, the Bible is the most important book in the Bible; it shows us who God is, it moves us to more Christ-likeness and it guides us in our lives. And we can take God at his Word because we know that the words of the Bible are the very words of God himself.

Quotes:

"Every true Christian should feel deep in his bones an utter dependence on God's self-revelation in the Scriptures." - Page 21

"The word of God is more than enough to accomplish the work of God in the people of God." - Page 24

"You do not need another special revelation from God outside the Bible. You can listen to the voice of God every day, Christ still speaks, because the Spirit has already spoken. If you want to hear from God, go to the book that records only what he has said. Immerse yourself in the word of God. You will not find anything more sure." - Page 42

"The word of God is more than enough for the people of God to live their lives to the glory of God." - Page 55

"It is not for us to stop believing because we lack understanding, but to believe in order that we may understand." - Page 82

"Counselors can counsel meaningfully because Scripture is sufficient. Bible study leaders can lead confidently because Scripture is clear. Preachers can preach with boldness because their biblical text is authoritative. And evangelists can evangelize with urgency because Scripture is necessary." - Page 92

"The purpose of Holy Scripture is not ultimately to make you smart, or make you relevant, or make you rich, or get you a job, or get you married, or take all your problems away, or tell you where to live. The aim is that you might be wise enough to put your faith in Christ and be saved." - Page 116

"All scripture is breathed out by God, not just the parts spoken by Jesus." - Page 119

"You and I simply will not mature as quickly, minister as effectively, or live as gloriously without immersing ourselves in the Scriptures." - Page 121

priorities of knowledge

So last Monday was our daughter Olivia's first day of Kindergarten. So absolutely nuts that she is in Kindergarten. We went to this orientation of sorts the week before her first day and I remember sitting there listening to the Principal talk about all of the state of the art teaching aids they have and how their school system got some of the best scores in the area. I felt this excitement that my child was going to get a great education and that she was going to learn so much. I got so excited thinking about how I'll be able to help her with her homework and I hope that she is able to get into some advanced placement classes when she hits high school like her daddy...and then it struck me. Do I have the same excitement and desire for her to learn the things of God?

Am I excited when she goes to Sunday School and hope she grows and become so in love with God and learning about Him? Do I long for her to hide God's words in her heart so that she does not sin against Him (Psalms 119:11)? Do I strive to teach the Bible to her, talking about the Bible when we are sitting in our house, and when I am walking by, and when I lie down and when I rise (Deut 11:19)?

Lord, I pray that my children will put knowledge of you so far above any knowledge that this world has to offer. I pray that I will put knowledge of you so far above any knowledge that this world has to offer.

“What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance; and this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?” - J.I. Packer

perfect missed opportunity

So the other day, I was sitting at Starbucks enjoying some relaxation that consisted of reading and sipping on my tall iced coffee with two pumps of caramel, one pump of vanilla and cream (the poor man's Caramel Macchiato as one person called it). Anyways, so I was sitting in a nice comfy leather chair reading David Platt's book "Follow Me" (highly recommend this book as I do all Platt books really) and this lady comes and sits in the chair next to me. At first I didn't think anything of it but then I was like, this would be a perfect opportunity to witness to someone. I have really been struggling with my witnessing or lack thereof for that matter and I have been looking for opportunities to be more vocal about my faith. So this lady is sitting next to me, perfect opportunity I think to myself...

Then I begin the normal questions that come in my mind, "How would I start a conversation with a random stranger?" "What if she is enjoying a nice relaxing evening and doesn't want to be bothered?" "What if she is offended by me even mentioning the name of Jesus?" "What if she has questions that I don't know how to answer?"

Then, as I am going through these questions in my mind and reading the book, I come to the following words in the book (I swear I couldn't have planned this to be even more perfect if I tried)

"So imagine sitting at a coffee shop today. What if God has been preparing the woman at the table next to you to hear the gospel? What if he has sovereignly arranged the circumstances in her life to set the stage for a conversation you will have with her about Jesus? What is God desires to use you, as you speak the gospel to her today, to change her life forever. But, you might think, it's just not that easy to speak about Jesus to the person sitting next to me at a coffee shop. We all have fears that quickly rise to the surface - the fear of offending someone, the fear of saying the wrong thing, the fear of being rejected, or even just the fear of initiating an awkward conversation. Yet such fears are only a sign that we are forgetting who we are. We are followers of Christ who have been crucified with Him; we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. He has united his life with ours and put His Spirit in us for this purpose. Without him, we have reason to fear; with Him, we have reason for faith."

Wow, talk about everything setting up for a perfect opportunity to share the gospel. Ok, so now what. So first I lay down my book mark on the table between us that says "Jesus" in red letters, thinking maybe that'll spark a conversation (as if anytime anyone sees the name Jesus, they will automatically pour their heart out). Needless to say, that didn't work. Ok, I can do this. What should I say first...after much debating...she packs up her things and walks out the door...I never said a word...

As I sit here now in the same coffee shop, I am still overcome by sadness and embarrassment. But at the same time, I feel motivated and empowered. It's as if God used this perfect missed opportunity to give me a wake up call. I need to never let this happen again. I have people all around me each day that are dying and going to hell and I sit around and open my mouth to sip on my poor man's caramel macchiato but never open my mouth to share the words that lead to eternal life...never again.

Busy at all the wrong things

So I just got done reading the book "Crazy Busy" by Kevin DeYoung who is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Man was this a much needed book in my life. Some serious conviction that has led to some rethinking my priorities.

The really convicting chapters were those on parenting, technology and sitting at the feet of Jesus. Things that I feel like I fall short (parenting), spend too much time on (technology) and spend too little time on (sitting at the feet of Jesus).

First parenting, I feel like I spend so much time trying to correct my 4 year old's behavior all the while thinking if I just limit her TV watching to this amount of time, give her a set routine for bedtime and not stray from it, say no to any juice after dinner and before lunch, express my frustration with her when she pees her pants because she is "too busy" to walk away from the TV or from playing with her dolls, and the list goes on. However, as I began to look back at my childhood and the way my parents brought me up, I do not remember any of the rules that they gave and don't really feel like they shaped me as much as I hope mine will shape my children's. What I do remember are our camping trips, playing kick the can with my dad and uncles, shooting around in the driveway with my dad. The memories. I need to spend more time making memories with my kids instead of making more rules for my kids.

Technology: I spend way, way too much time on my phone especially. I always have it by my side. I always answer text messages within a minute of when I receive them (and wrongly expect others to do the same for me), always am checking the twitter feed, Facebook statuses, sports scores, etc. I didn't think it effected Olivia much, that is until my wife said she was playing dolls and at some point in the conversation she was having with her dolls, she said something along the lines of "daddy is busy on his phone." Conviction from dolls. Gotta love it. I need to spend more time getting on the floor with my kids and playing dolls with my little girl and leave my phone upstairs or maybe somewhere out of arms reach and only answer in case of emergency. They are only this age for so long, and then they will be too old to play with mom and dad anymore.

And finally, and most importantly, I need to spend a lot more time at the feet of Christ! He is the vine from which all life flows, why do I stay disconnected from Him so much? Why do I value sleep so much that I wake up just before my kids a lot of the time and only have 15-30 minutes to spend with my Lord and Savior of my soul? If he is truly my most valuable "possession" why do I spend so much more time with everything else and only save what seems to be leftovers for Him? I need have my nose buried in His Word, my hands raised in worship of His Name and my knees bowed in humble dependence on His sustenance.

Crazy Busy - Kevin DeYoung

So it has been 5 months since my last blog post. Ironically, the reason I haven't posted in awhile is that I have been crazy busy and now my first blog is on the book "Crazy Busy" by Kevin DeYoung. This was a much needed book for me. This blog post will just be a review/summary but I intend on blogging about how this book really convicted me, challenged me and ultimately brings me to my knees in prayer.

DeYoung starts with some convicting questions. "Do you regularly work thirty minutes a day longer than your contracted hours? Do you check work e-mails and phone messages at home? Has anyone ever said to you 'I didn't want to trouble you because I know how busy you are'? Do you family or friends complain about not getting time with you? If tomorrow evening were unexpectedly freed up, would you use it to do work or a household chore? Do you often feel tired during the day or do you find your next and shoulders aching? Do you often exceed the speed limit while driving? Do you make use of any flexible working arrangements offered by your employers? Do you pray with your children regularly? Do you have enough time to pray? Do you have a hobby in which you are actively involved? Do you eat together as a family or household at least once a day?"

DeYoung warns of three dangers of busyness. It can ruin our joy (when we are so busy, we are more prone to anxiety, resentment, impatience and irritability), rob our hearts (our hearts go towards what keeps us busy) and it can cover up the rot in our souls (just because we are busy does not mean we are OK spiritually).

He then argues that busyness stems from pride which manifests itself in several P's; people pleasing, pats on the back, performance evaluation, possessions, proving myself, poor planing, pity, power, perfectionism, position, prestige and posting.

One of the big battles with busyness in the Christian church is this feeling that we have to do everything. We need to serve the homeless, be involved at every meeting, We need to realize we are not Christ, caring is not the same as doing and Jesus didn't do it all. It's one thing to have a care for everyone and it's a completely different thing to feel the obligation to do everything for everyone to "serve" them.

One way to help our busyness is to set priorities and realize we cannot do it all. We need to set priorities and cut things out. As Dave Crenshaw argues, "the brain really can't put forth effort in two mental processes at the same time." Multitasking is impossible.

Then he tackles parenting and this thought that parents have (myself included) that if we just do the right things, say the right things, keep our kids from doing certain things but allowing them to do certain things, they will turn out OK. However, "parents have a noticeable effect on how kids experience and remember their childhood." By us being less busy, we can give our children a more enjoyable and memorable childhood.

After parenting he doesn't let up on the gas at all and he goes into electronics. It is so easy to become addicted and to fill our mind with information but never engage our mind. We need to be purposeful to put technology down, we need to make boundaries on when and how much we use technology and be more conscience of how it effects those around us.

All this leads to the fact that we need to set a regular rhythm of our days and weeks and make sure to set aside a day of rest.

After all these ways we are busy, DeYoung says that we are meant to be busy. Which is a little confusing since he has been talking about all the bad things that come from busyness but I think his point is, busyness that is wrong is when we are busy doing the wrong things instead of being busy doing the best things that God has for us to do.

He ends it by taking us to the cross of Christ which is where everything in this life should start and end. "I must spend more time with Jesus!" that won't last. We have to believe that hearing from God is our good portion. We have to believe that the most significant opportunity before us every day is the opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus. We won't rearrange our priorities unless we really believe this is the best one"

Memorable Quotes 

"Busyness does not mean you are a faithful or fruitful Christian. It only means you are busy, just like everyone else" - Page 32

"Am I trying to do good or to make myself look good?" - Page 39

The cross says "I'll do anything to follow Jesus, not a cross that says I have to do everything for Jesus" - Page 51

"Men do seem more likely to choose their job at a cost to their family, while women seem more likely to choose their family at a cost to their job" - Page 59

"The people on this planet who end up doing nothing are those who never realized they couldn't do everything" - Page 60

Quoting Bryan Caplan in Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids - "Parents make their work more difficult than it has to be because they overestimate how much depends on them for the future well-
being of their children" - Page 68

"If my goal is God-glorifying productivity over a lifetime of hard work, there are few things I need more than a regular rhythm of rest" - Page 92

"Of all the concerns in our lives, can we honestly say and show that sitting at the feet of Jesus is the one thing that is necessary?" - Page 113

"No single practice brings more peace and discipline to life than sitting at the feet of Jesus" - Page 113

The Holy in our Holiness - Kevin DeYoung

This is a book, as DeYoung puts it, written because "we don't seem to care much about holiness. Or, at the very least, we don't understand it. This is a book for those of us who are ready to take holiness seriously,

ready to be more like Jesus, ready to live in the light of the grace that produces godliness. This is a book about God's power to help us grow in personal holiness and to enjoy the process of transformation."

Ephesians 1 states that God saved us so that we would "be holy and blameless before him." If he saved us so that we would become holy, I think that holiness and the pursuit of holiness is more important than we tend to show by our actions. However, holiness comes from the heart not from a checklist. DeYoung says that "mere rule keeping is not the answer because holiness cannot be reduced to a little ethical refurbishment." God doesn't give us commands so that we legalistically follow to please him, He gives us commands "as a means of grace so that we might grow in godliness and show that we love him."

So how do we balance the fact that we are no longer "under the law" and yet still are called to "obey all that (Jesus) commanded?" First of all, obeying the law CANNOT save us, however, obeying the law is how Christ says that we can know that we are in Him and are true disciples. "Our good works are accepted by God, not because they are 'wholly unblameable and unreproveable in God's sight," but because God is pleased through Christ to accept our sincere obedience, although it contains many weaknesses and imperfections." It is solely by his grace that our imperfect obedience is acceptable in his sight.

When we sin, it's not that our salvation is in jeopardy but sinning affects our communion with Christ. I have seen this in my life, when I sin, I feel my fellowship with Christ suffer because I don't desire to be in the word or in prayer as much as when I am walking closer to Him. We pursue communion with Christ in 4 distinct ways, through prayer, through the Bible, through fellowship with other believers and through taking the Lord's Supper. As John Owen said trying to be holy "from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world." The fact is, we can't obey in our own strength to the end that we try to justify ourselves in the presence of God. Both are impossible. Obedience to the God the Father is only possible through the work and help of God the Spirit and justification to God the Father is only possible through God the Son. The trinity is essential to our salvation and obedience.

However, this is not saying that we don't need to put any effort into obedience because it is all a work of God. As Paul says, we need to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling (us working) for it is God who works in you (God working)". Both-and not either-or.

Another main reason we are able to live a life of obedience is that we belong to Christ and we are joined to Him. Therefore, we are "dead to sin and alive to righteousness", "new creations", "no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness" and we can "walk as he did."

From here, DeYoung tackles sexual immorality and points out that just like in the Old Testament you had Israel who was unaware of their blind spots because they had become so pressed into the mold of the culture around them that it became normal and they were no longer sensitive to it, this is the same as the 21st century church and sexual sin. We need to flee from sexual immorality, not walk, not dabble...run! Why? One big reason is in 1 Corinthians where Paul basically says because we are one body with Christ now, when we engage in sexual immorality, it's like dragging Christ into it as well.

Finally, we need to realize that perfect holiness is not achievable on this side of heaven but we need to see continuing sanctification so that we are becoming more and more like Christ. We also need to realize that "direction matters more than position." I think it can be easy to point fingers at people sometimes and wonder why they aren't where we are spiritually (or at least I have seen this unfortunately happen in my life) but we we need to see the grace of God in everyone's life and see that we are all progressing in sanctification. Some are progressing slower than others, some seem to be more behind than others but that could be because perhaps their starting point was a lot lower than others so even though they are "behind", the progressive sanctification that God has miraculously performed in their lives is something to rejoice and praise God for.

"God wants you to be holy. Through faith he already counts you holy in Christ. Now he intends to make you holy with Christ"

Memorable Quotes

"First God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, then he gave them the law. God's people were not redeemed by observing the law, but they were redeemed so that they might obey the law." (Page 45)

"The truth is God's people can be righteous - not perfectly, but truly, and in a way that genuinely pleases God" (Page 64)

"Our good works are accepted by God, not because they are 'wholly unblameable and unreproveable in God's sight,' but because God is pleased through Christ to accept our sincere obedience, although it contains many weaknesses and imperfections" (Page 67)

"When every sing is seen as the same, we are less likely to fight any sins at all" (Page 72)

"When we sin, our union with Christ is not in jeopardy. But our communion is" (Page 74)

"If we understand all that God has done for us in Christ, we will be happy and eager to please him" (Page 83)

"Some Christians are stalled out in their sanctification for simple lack of effort" (Page 90)

"Sin may get in some good jabs. It may clean your clock once in a while. It may bring you to your knees. But if you are in Christ it will never knock you out. You are no longer a slave, but free. Sin has no dominion over you. It can't. It won't. A new King sits on the throne. You serve a different Master. You salute a different Lord." (Page 105)

"Don't think of Christianity as having to do what a peevish God demands. Think of it as now being able to do what a good God demands. Through union with Christ we are empowered for holiness" (Page 112)

"Sleep is such a dull, stupid state of existence, that even amongst mere animals, we despise them most which are most drowsy. He, therefore, that chooses to enlarge the slothful indulgence of sleep, rather than be early at his devotions to God, chooses the dullest refreshment of the body; before the highest, noblest employment of the soul; he chooses that state which is a reproach to mere animals, rather than exercise which is the glory of Angels" (Page 130)

"When it comes to sanctification, it's more important where you're going than where you are. Direction matters more than position." (Page 138)