Hi all,
I hope you are all well and blessed by the Lord!
First, off - WOW! This book is hard to read, but WOW! It is truly remarkable what it does have to show us about our God! Last night, my small group started discussing these first two parts of the book - and let's just say, that was one of the best conversations we had. How joyous we found ourselves thinking about the Lord and our strength in Him. Beautiful.
I want to start with the big point that John Piper makes in the introduction about a hedonist. Hedonism is an ambiguous word that carries some negative connotations, but Piper flips our common definition on our heads! Hedonism, by definition, is the doctrine or way of life that puts pleasure or happiness as the highest good. And it is true that there have been negative uses of this style of life. But Piper calls us to pursue out a life of happiness in joy in what will ultimately always satisfy us. And that is God!
God calls us to delight always in Him and His perfect will. But, we're humans, and if you tell us to pursue pleasure, we're bound to get it wrong in our own effort. And we do. Piper quotes C.S. Lewis, from his astounding sermon The Weight of Glory, about our human state and our "great" ability at pursuing what ultimately fills us:
"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promieses of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospel, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak...We are far too easily pleased." (p. 20)
And thus, this is why Piper has written his account of why God must be our primary desire and how we can living a life seeking pleasure in Him. This book is to help us see how to increase our desire to be filled with the strong things of God and to lose sight of the unfulfilling pleasures of this world.
If we're going to start taking stock in pleasure in God, we've got to see something about God: that He takes pleasure in Himself. This is Piper's goal to show us from Scripture in the first chapter. If God wants us to be for Him, He needs to be for Himself as well.
God takes great joy in His glory and He preserves it. Even with the drenching amount of sin and evil in this world, God still takes delight in His glory.
Piper uses a great analogy revolving lenses in the sense of the amount of evil here and His greater plan. How can God still be joyous in who He is and His will when there are such devastating things going on in this world? Because He is sovereign. In the example of the lenses, Piper shows that we are often stuck with the narrow lens and cannot see the grander picture. In this position, much evil occurs, and God is grieved over that. But God also has a panoramic lens that shows the bigger picture. In the bigger picture, He can see the good of His plan that will come to fruition. And He is jubilant about this!
God takes great pleasure in Himself because He is the best! He is sovereign, completely in control of all things, and it is all for joy in Him.
When we realize that He is always at work for good, we can enjoy His plan, though the circumstances might not be enjoyable. And as we enjoy His plan, and in essence, He in Himself, we glorify Him. It expresses itself in our life and God is praised!
That's good stuff. This was our starting ground, and we discussed how we can start enjoying God more this week. So, I pose the same question we were posed last night: What are you going to do this week to just find joy in God? It doesn't have to be anything great, but simple and pleasurable to you. Then thank God for allowing you to find joy in Him and praise Him in this world.
Until next week...Love you all,
Brandon
