Growing in Christ
Desiring God
Having joy in an abundance
04 months ago
For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
(Matthew 13:12 ESV)
This strikes me as one of the places C.S. Lewis plants one of the major columns of this thinking. Here the Lord lays plain the mathematics of joy in the mind of God. To the one who has joy, who has happiness in God, more will be given and he will have God in abundance. But from the one who does not have God, even the joy he does have (on account of good gifts given him by God’s common grace) will be taken away. Jesus holds out joy through knowing him as the serious business of his teaching. Lewis famously remarked, “Joy is the serious business of Heaven” (Letters to Malcolm). His abundant giving isn’t sparse either – merely giving enough to satiate the hungering soul for a moment. He gives in abundance, and invites us to ask for abundance of joy.
I have to confess that I read John Piper’s Desiring God about 5 or 6 years ago, and some of the main threads about delighting in God are just now beginning to click for me. I’m a dense guy I guess. Piper open’s the book with this quote from Lewis:
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
I’m beginning to see the connections in Christ’s teaching of invitations to himself, and invitations to a joy that’s nature is a continual dog-pile of joy. Jesus speaks to us: If you’ve seen me, for who I am, you joy will not be stolen away, but will grow in exceeding abundance. The rewards of joy in Christ’s equation are more joy. New joys. Deeper joys. All from the same Jesus (Piper). I am far too often the half-hearted creature that Lewis paints. I fool around with ambitions to appear a certain way, or have certain adorations from people, or the darker desires of my heart.
Lewis elsewhere comments that there “is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes” (The Last Battle). Like the half-hearted creature I am, I am far too easily pleased to find and waste my joy on the offerings of easy, worldly joys. There is a seriousness about joy that I need. But this is the joy of the Gospel: Forgiveness of sins, cleansing of heart, and a glorious Son of Righteousness set before you for joy that is given, and given in abundance. This year, I pray I will be less satisfied with the mud pies of joy the world offers, and cash in the Lord’s promises of joy for more rewords of joy in Christ.
Review: Think by John Piper
31 year ago
As I’m sitting down to write this review, my friend has been snagged into a conversation with the local Existentialist about the meaning of life (we were supposed to be having coffee). It’s the sort of conversation where you go from “Hello” to “Now follow this syllogism” in about thirty minutes. He’s a well meaning guy, though he’s one of those guys who’s zero’d in on one or two philosophers because they scratched an itch that he had, while not really being tested to see if his own thinking is sound. But the irony strikes me as tangible: Here I am, writing a review about a book on thinking for the glory of God, and my friend (just 10 feet away!) is being challenged to understand an oddity in our day – a man who’s passionately confused yet devoted to trying to think.
This is, of course, a poignant example of 
why John Piper’s recent book, Think, is so desperately needed today. I’m afraid that many Christians do not know how to think like Jesus. We are called to “just follow Jesus”, “be like Jesus”, and ask “What would Jesus do?”, but hardly does anybody give thought to thinking like Jesus. John Piper fills the gap.
The basic message of the book is this: Piper contends that loving God with our minds means that “our thinking is wholly engaged to do all it can to awaken and express the heartfelt fulness of treasuring God above all things” (19). Piper’s means of making this point is by expositing Scripture. His main texts, as I read the book are Luke 10:21 (God has hidden these things from the wise and understanding), 1 Corinthians 1:20 (God has made foolish the wisdom of the world), 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 (God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ) and Matthew 22:35-40 (You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind).
This may be easily passed by (who actually looks up all the Scripture references in books?), but to me it is one of the enduring qualities of this book. What is so refreshing about this means of building his book is that when we close the book, we’re built up in Scripture, understanding it better, and left leaning on God and his Book, not Piper and Think. This, my friends, is a sign of a faithful ministry.
This book will, I think, strike a cord with many people on many different levels. Piper works through the place of the mind and thinking in the Christian life, and then contrasts biblical thinking to intellectualism, anti-intellectualism, and relativism. Following the teaching of Jesus, he appeals to the Christian to be firmly fixed in the Bible, thinking good hard thoughts for the sake of stoking one’s affections with the glory of God and loving their fellow man.
Personally, this book was well timed and deeply helpful. It gives me hope to see that logic “is a furnace driving the engine of love” (54), not merely a cold, sterile tool for entertainment between the ears. That is, the mind isn’t merely the information hard-drive of the body that just stores information until you want to pull it up. No, thinking is about loving. However, for ”thinking to be loving, it must be more than thinking” (84). That is, the mind was made for working and serving something other than itself. ”[W]hile it is true that the mind and heart are mutually enlivening, it is also clear that the mind is mainly the servant of the heart. That is, the mind serves to know the truth that fuels the fires fo the heart” (36).
You mean to tell me that I don’t leave my brain at the door when I come to treasure Christ, but actually take it up as my chief tool in knowing and enjoying the glory of God? This. is. staggering. It is not my mind that needs to be repented of, but my shallow, selfish, and sinful thoughts that haven’t served my heart rightly as God intended.
There are great things in store for those who read this book. I think this may be one of Piper’s easiest primary books to read. Throughout the book he’s constantly explaining Scripture and helping us to see where his own thinking is going. Piper’s pastoral wisdom and care make this book not only accessible in content, but enlivening in application. I left the book wanting my thinking to be “wholly engaged to do all it can to awaken and express the heartfelt fulness of treasuring God above all things,” and I think you will too.
Title: Think
Author: John Piper
Boards: hardcover
Pages: 210
Volumes: 1
Dust jackets: yes
Binding: sewn
Topical index: yes (subjects and names)
Scriptural index: yes
Publisher: Crossway
Year: 2010
Price USD: $19.99 / $10.39 at WTS Books
ISBN: 978-1-4335-2071-6
I did receive this book free from Crossway Books for review, but the thoughts are unsolicited and completely my own.
DG Conf: Unregenerate Sheep
03 years ago
From the conference, I had the privilege of being in Matt Chandler’s message, A Shepherd and His Unregenerate Sheep (audio and text). The message is from 1 Timothy 4, and has been very helpful in thinking through the text and feeling the immediacy, and teaching, it impresses upon me. Rather than doing a social commentary on how unregenerate people get into, and stay in congregations, he did a more helpful message that centered around “living and preaching in such a way that regenerance is revealed.” Quite a stirring topic mainly because it focused on me, my faith, by treasure, and my growth in godliness before God. I’ve found it increasingly more constructive over time to look at myself on doctrinal and practical issues than to look at others. Yes, there are “Christians” who with one hand hold up the Bible, and with the other hand rip the Gospel out of the Scriptures for the sake of helping God be more inclusive and not so uptight in ancient garb. Sure, there are those people. I know them, I’m friends with them, I used to be one of them. But the main point of many passages about controversy and “wolves in sheep’s clothing” call us to evaluate our own existential standing as a Christian. The main issue in evaluating the regenerate or unregenerate state of another person or institution is to first turn your eye on yourself, we are to “keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:16).
The part I find most helpful in this is that in some measure it relieves the pressure to discern another’s standing. If I am living in such a way that the Gospel, the true Gospel of Jesus Christ slaughtered for sinners to justify them in his righteousness by faith, then in some serious manner, those around me who do not share the same passion will be revealed to be what they are. Now, for pastors, this is an additional charge or preaching in such a way as to make unregenerate people either convert of leave one’s church. But if one’s not, if they’re a coward, they’ll have loads of pseudo-Gospel success and will make the fires of Hell hotter for those they neglect to present the full Gospel to.
I commend his message to you. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
DG Conf: The Guys From OK
03 years ago
Here I am, me to the right, Steve second to the left (the guys wearing Banner of Truth shirts, if that wasn’t obvious) with three guys we met at the conference. These guys, (from the left) Brandon, Aaron, and Andrew, are three guys from Oklahoma City, OK who are laboring to plant a church there. Their church, Love and Justice Church, grew out of a Bible study. They’re story isn’t atypical: a Bible study of serious guys tucked away in a large, moderate church, who were passionate for the Lord, that grew and grew despite all intentions and desires, which birthed a conviction for a local church. Sure, the guys are young, but God is eternal, his grace is rich, his mercy and power eagerly available to the weak and needy.
Encouragement
I spent a good amount of time with these guys. Immediately when we started talking, their openness and honesty were the front door. They were great guys to talk to, eager to receive not only the teaching from the conference, but encouragement and suggestions on pastoral ministry and personal discipline to the Lord. I was particularly encouraged by my time with them in a couple ways:
1) My dad’s family comes from the area in Oklahoma that these guys are from, so it is encouraging to know that there are serious, sober-minded, Christ centered church planting efforts in that area to teach my family heritage.
2) I’m encouraged to meet peers who love the Savior and have a burning passion to proclaim his name, and grow his people in the grace of the Gospel.
Along these lines, as a “throw away statement” at one point, they mentioned that every Friday night, they go and just do “cold-turkey” evangelism with folks. With most folks they meet with thinking they’re Christians but having no knowledge of the Gospel, they just walk up to them and say, “Hey, can I preach the Gospel to you?” To which, they usually get the response, “Ah.. Sure.” What a heart, and what an example!
Ways to pray
1) Wisdom for leading their church.
2) Older pastors to mentor them. (This is something they’ve actively looking for at the moment)
3) Godly character in being disciples of Christ, husbands and fathers (where this applies).
4) Insight to know how to lead their church, proclaim the Gospel boldly, and care for their flock effectively.
5) That God would get all the glory through their labors; that he would grow people in the Gospel at their church, and that they would see new converts added to the people of Jesus Christ.
Desiring God 2009 Conference for Pastors
03 years ago
I just wanted to mention that I have the great priviledge and honor of not only going out to the Desiring God 2009 Conference for Pastors next week, but going by way of accompanying Steve Burlew of Banner of Truth as his assistant. His gracious offer for me to join him came from a conversation I started with him about the publishing/book world. I feel a call to pastoral ministry, but should that not happen for a while or never happen, I’d like to at least have some thoughts about other occupations – I don’t exactly feel like assembling computers is my life’s occupation! So, I just mention it here to say that I’ll probably post some reflections about the conference pre and post.
It’s going to be on evangelism, which will be great. I’m really looking forward to hearing Matt Chandler. I listened to his message from the Resurgence: Text and Context conference this past fall on Preaching the Gospel in the Center of the Evangelical World and really enjoyed it. Not only was it very well thought out and helpful in general, but it also helped me understand the struggles and frustrations that many of my friends coming out of a fundamentalist background have. I wasn’t raised in a fundamentalist culture (quite the opposite in the United Methodist Church), so this was helpful in thinking through the issues facing the evangelical world as whole, especially those in context saturated “evangelicalism”.
So anyhow, this is all aside the point. I’ll be out at the conference with Banner of Truth next to my wise and gracious friend Steve Burlew. Should the one person who reads this be there, feel free to say hi!
