John PIper: The One Who Seeks God's Glory is True----Sermon streaming live at 7:10 EST

John Piper will be preaching on John 7:1-4, streaming live at 7:10 tonight.

You can watch at this site:  The One Who Seeks God's Glory is True
Or watch below:

Book Review: Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper

Go to the best school you can.  Get the job that makes the most money possible.  Retire early.  Spend the rest of your life "Doing what you want to do"-----collecting antiques, going on cruises, woodworking.

None of these things are bad in and of themselves.  But is that all life is intended to be?  Is that the way God designed living our life here on earth to look like?

John Piper, in the book Don't Waste Your Life, takes issue with the prevailing thoughts that life is primarily for our enjoyment.  Instead, Piper pleads with his readers to "Make much of God"; that the joy that doing so creates, as well as the grace that we don't deserve, should lead the believer to be willing to risk all for Christ.

I was personally very taken by the story related in this book about Adinoram Judson, who, with his young bride, left the United States to serve God in Burma, only returning one time.  That sort of risk of life and wealth and the Western definition of (pseudo)-"happiness" and satisfaction seems to carry with it the kind of lasting contentedness that acknowledges that we are but sojourners in this life on earth-that our home is not here but eternally with God our father.

In reading this book, I have been reminded of a verse that has come to have a great deal of meaning to me personally.  Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 4:17-18:

17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 

But until that day when the eternal weight of glory is realized and attained, we are to live in this world.  But will our time here be wasted in vain pursuits?  In gaining all the "glory" we can gain here on this earth?  All the money, the cars, the vacations?  Piper urges his readers to evaluate their lives, to give thought to what really matters.  To realize that we may be called to give everything--including our lives--in order to make much of God.  And that to make much of God is the reason why we were created.

All the hell you will ever bear.........

To manage a life of pain, as a believer in Jesus, remember: This is all the hell you will ever bear. (M'Cheyne)

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My Fight with Depression

I think I have tried to write this post dozens of times.  I have sat down to write honestly about my fight with depression so many times.  Writing comes easily to me, and yet this topic is one that I find difficult to address.

I can't say when depression started.  It's not something, I think, that STARTS.  Just one day it was there, it was palpable, it was real.

That's not to say that there aren't real circumstances, in my unique situation, that have exacerbated this depression.  There are many types of depression.  The one that plagues me is referred to as "Situational Depression".  There are events that I can point to as triggers.  That gives me hope, actually.  My heart hurts for those who suffer from Chronic Depression, or depression with no known situational triggers.  O, to experience the throes of depression with nothing to be able to pin it on, would be terrifying I do believe.

It's hard to even find the words to write, to describe depression.  Words are so important to me.  And yet there are not words that come easily to me as I try to write this afternoon.  Elie Wiesel, in his book "Night" about the horrors of the concentration camp he was imprisoned in, wrote this about writing of these sacred things:

"....it would be necesssary to invent a new language.....I would pause at every sentence, and start over and over again....All the dictionary had to offer seemed meager, pale lifeless.....how was one to speak without trembling and a heart broken for all eternity....."

Of course, I know of no such indescribable horrors that Wiesel endured.  And yet his words speak to my heart as I struggle to also find words to convey the darker things of my soul.

Depression requires fighting, and fighting requires energy, and energy is absent in depression.  It is a vicious cycle.  I find myself facing what is proving to be a very physical fight.  Disruption of sleep, disruption of healthy eating patterns, and strange other symptoms:  Chilled, the inability to get warm, tension and jaw clenching (which is a symptom of one of the anti-depressants I am electing to take), hair loss, strange food cravings, insatiable appetite.

The worst is the darkness, the desperation, the despair.  It is like a weight, without the muscle integrity to lift the weight that is crushing the body.  Have you ever tried to watercolor?  Truly painting with watercolors is difficult to do--the colors notoriously bleed into the other colors.  That is what depression is like, it is the color black bleeding into all the other wonderful colors of life.  And even if the bleeding stops for awhile, there is a small amount of seepage that can't quite be detained.

Depression is cyclical.  Meaning, there are times when it is pronounced much more than other times.  This week is proving to be one of those times.  Today is proving to be one of the more depression-oriented days.  Days like this push hope further to the edges.  And then there are days where hope is so close it can be grasped, and depression becomes something that seems distant, even "silly".

Good grief, this is hard to write honestly about.  Why is that?  There is much shame in depression in my mind.  Up until Christ made me different, I have lived a very judgmental life----looking upon others without mercy, without compassion.  Even my own children.  And now one of the very things that I have spent my life being most judgmental and uncompassionate about, has a grip on me.

I don't know what I think about Satan, nor his role in depression.  I will admit that depression mimics characteristics of attack---surprise, brutal, exhausting.  Could it truly be attack?  I don't know.  I also don't know what part sin has in depression.  I am not saying sin causes depression, but what part does sin play in battling depression?  These are just a few of the questions my mind tumbles around.  Either way, I am out of words for today, and close this writing with these words by John Piper in the book "Suffering and the Sovereignty of God"

"Let us Celebrate That God is Sovereign Over Satan's Spiritual Bondage"

"To be freed from this bondage we must repent.  We must confess that God is good and trustworthy....But satan hates this repentance and does all he can to prevent it.  That is his bondage.  But when God chooses to overcome our rebellion and Satan's resistance, nothing can stop him.  And when God overcomes him and us, we repent and Satan's power is broken.  Here it is in 2 Timothy 2:24-26:

And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.  God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

Satan is not sovereign over his captives.  God is.  When God grants repentance, we are set free from the snare of the devil, and we spend our days celebrating our liberation and spreading it to others."

Free Audio Download of John Piper's book "Don't Waste Your Life"

ChristianAudio is a great site which makes available all sorts of great audio downloads...For Free!

For the month of October, they are offering John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life.....For Free!

To explore ChristianAudio and to find these dowloads and more (C.J. Mahaney, Alistair Begg, John Piper), Click Here!

Sunday Sabbath---John Piper

Today is Sunday.  Though I longed to observe a sabbath, my day filled up, ended with a shift of working at Macy's in Patrick Henry Mall tonight.


But what is Sabbath?  Even had I had the entire day off, even if I had safeguarded the day, would I truly be at rest?  Would my heart and soul be able to be still and know that God is God?  Why is that so difficult to do?


I appreciated what John Piper had to say about "Rest" and the "Sabbath".

The reason given in both Genesis 2:3 and Exodus 20:11 why God blessed and hallowed the seventh day is that "on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation." What does it mean that God rested? It means at least that he was satisfied that his work of creation was complete and was "very good." His rest means that he wanted to now stand back as it were in leisure and savor the beauty and completeness of his creative work.

This is the real basis of his hallowing and blessing the day of rest. He is saying in effect, "Let my highest creature, the one in my image, stop every seven days and commemorate with me the fact that I am the creator who has done all this. Let him stop working and focus on me, that I am the source of all that he has. I am the fountain of blessing. I have made the very hands and mind with which he works. Let one day out of seven demonstrate that all land and all animals and all raw materials and all breath and strength and thought and emotion and everything come from me. Let man look to me in leisure one day out of seven for the blessing that is so elusive in the affairs of this world."

The beautiful thing about the sabbath is that God instituted it as a weekly reminder of two things. One is that all true blessing comes from his grace, not our labor. The other is that we hallow him and honor him and keep the day holy if we seek the fullness of his blessing by giving our special attention to him on that day.

What is the Value of Reading a large amount of material, if one is frustrated by their lack of retention?

There is much value.

And C.J. Mahaney, in his post HERE gives some of the best answers to that question.  He also quotes John Piper, a quote that I recently also shared here on this blog in an earlier post.

One must always push themselves to read, understanding that the effort may only produce one new idea, one new insight into scripture, one new thought about leadership.  But who is to say that that one "gem" is not going to be a catalyst for great impact and chance in one's life and those around him?

N.T. Wright, C.S. Lewis, Tullian Tchividjian

Admittedly I have yet to read any of N.T. Wright's books.  However I do find the dialogue between Wright, John Piper and Tim Keller to be very though-provoking.  I need to read something by Wright, so I can better understand the points of agreement as well as the points that are questioned between these three theologians.

Wright has a new book out, After You Believe, is reviewed by Michael Horton on the Christianity Today website here.

Another one of his books that has garnered much attention, is Surprised by Hope.  While nothing can compare to C.S. Lewis' autobiography, Surprised by Joy,  (which is still one of the most important books I have ever read in my life), I do wonder if I will find it worthy of Top Shelf placement on my bookshelf, alongside my "Uncle" Lewis and the book I recently finished by Tullian Tchividjian titled Surprised by Grace:  God's Relentless Pursuit of Rebels.
  

The Importance of Words and Sentences

In an old message dated July 12, 1981, John Piper said:

“What I have learned from about twenty-years of serious reading is this. It is sentences that change my life, not books. What changes my life is some new glimpse of truth, some powerful challenge, some resolution to a long-standing dilemma, and these usually come concentrated in a sentence or two. I do not remember 99% of what I read, but if the 1% of each book or article I do remember is a life-changing insight, then I don’t begrudge the 99%.”

John Piper Shares about his writing plans for 2010

My 2010 Writing Leave: What? and Why? :: Desiring God Christian Resource Library

John Piper provides a preview of what he plans to work on during his annual writing leave this year. But what I particularly find interesting is his list of 6 reasons or explanations as to why he writes.