A Box of John Piper

I can't think of a better way to celebrate Valentine's Day then to read some John Piper. However, since all of my lovely John Piper books are in storage, I can't sit and read them as a Happy Valentine's Day to myself, but I can gather a bunch of quotes from the internet and share them with you. Enjoy! Enjoy them like you would a great big box of chocolates. Yeah, a great big box of John Piper quotes. Delicious!

Encouraging:

"Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback. And the point of biblical stories like Joseph and Job and Esther and Ruth is to help us feel in our bones (not just know in our heads) that God is for us in all these strange turns. God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managing the troubles with far-reaching purposes for our good and for the glory of Jesus Christ."

More encouragement:

"The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours."

Sobering:

"The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for
heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not
the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we
drink in every night."

One of the reasons I like him so much:

"Reading is more important to me than eating."

This one brings tears to my eyes:

"Don't follow a defeated foe. Follow Christ. It is costly. You will be an exile in this age. But you will be free."

Conviction and encouragement:

"We are not as Christ-centered and cross-cherishing as we should be, because we do not ponder the truth that everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good, was purchased by the sufferings of Christ."

A good question to ask:

"Do you feel loved by God because you believe he makes much of you, or because you believe he frees you and empowers you to enjoy making much of him?"

My favorite:

"God is not an employer looking for employees. He is an Eagle looking for people who will take refuge under his wings. He is looking for people who will leave father and mother and homeland or anything else that may hold them back from a life of love under the wings of Jesus."

Quote

"In all these other matters what you call obeying Him is but doing what seems good in your own eyes also. Is love content with that? You do them, indeed, because they are His will, but not only because they are His will. Where can you taste the joy of obeying unless He bids you do something for which His bidding is the only reason?"

- C.S Lewis, from Perelandra

Stuffed

"If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great."
— John Piper, from A Hunger for God

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. - Philippians 3:8a

My soul is so easily stuffed with small things. I don't count all things as loss. Lord, forgive me for living a life that contradicts what I confess with my mouth.

Counterfeit Gods

I'm currently reading a book by Timothy Keller called "Counterfeit Gods" which I would highly recommend to anyone. It is all about the idols, deep and surface, which hold us captive to anything or anyone else besides Christ. Those things which tempt us away from obedience to Christ and complete loyalty to Him.

But how do we remove those idols? By digging in our heels and trying harder?

I thought I would share this quote with you because it has highly encouraged me:

"What breaks the power of money (*or food, or sex) over us is not just redoubled effort to follow the example of Christ. Rather, it is deepening your understanding of the salvation of Christ, what you have in him, and then living out the changes that that understanding makes in your heart - the seat of your mind, will, and emotions. Faith in the gospel restructures our motivations, our self-understanding and identity, our view of the world. Behavioral compliance to rules without a complete change of heart will be superficial and fleeting."

* added by me

Pretty powerful stuff, huh?

Devoid Evangelism

Does anyone else have a problem with impersonal evangelism, that is, evangelism seperated from at least a basic relationship with the other person? Boy, I do.

This weekend I was highly pressured to participate in a program whose premise I felt was all wrong. I was led to believe that the people in question "needed" me to be their friend. But not to be their friend because they are, as I am, created in the image of God and endowed with an inherant value that comes from that very fact, but because they are "lost" and, apparently, need my help to be found. Wrong. Now, I will never entirely build a relationship with another person uninterestedly, but I do believe that being someone's friend simply for the sake of proselytizing that person is dehumanizing, and what's more, unnecessary in God's economy.

I flatly refused to participate. Since I am a missionary, I will add the disclaimer that this had nothing whatever to do with my job or the organization that employs me. But I have often had problems with "random" evangelism. Although I believe that God can and does use this type of evangelism (that is, evangelism divorced from a basic relationship between the two parties) in the lives of individuals to draw them to Himself, I also believe that nothing is done outside of relationship. So while God may use an open air type ministry to finally draw us to Himself, it is not the only deciding blow. And we must be careful ourselves when participating in this type of activity that we don't look at others as simply a notch on our spiritual belt.

It was interesting then that I should come across this passage in a book I'm reading by Francis Schaeffer called "True Spirituality":

"We are not to stop with a proper legal relationship - for example, to think of a man as legally lost, which he is, in the sight of a holy God - without thinking of him as a person. Saying this, we can suddenly see that much of evangelism is not only sub-Christian, but subhuman - legalistic and impersonal."

Now, I'll be intellectually honest enough to say that this particular quote did in fact cause me to throw up my arms in victory and adopt a sort of "yes, I'm right!" stance, but even though I am imperfect in my reasons for pointing it out, I still thought it was a valid point. A very interesting, valid point.