Guest writer: Sue Weaver

Here in Lancaster County, I know people who do things for/because of/about God. In fact, I like to think of myself as someone who serves God in her work. So Piper’s words surprised me: we don’t serve God, He serves us.

Piper points out that serving God is always receiving! The Apostle Paul asked a question to help believers see this:”Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected in the flesh?” (Gal 3:2-3). Serving God is always and fundamentally receiving His mercy, not rendering Him assistance. We do tend to think that we are doing God a favor with our service and work, but that is just not the case. Psalm 50 puts it this way: “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine…Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” (v12, 15)

Here’s the thing Piper emphasizes: God is a Giver, not a Taker. As we see both Him (wise, merciful, powerful) and ourselves (dependent on Him) more clearly, we become what God created us to be — we become people of prayer. In prayer we joyfully receive His mercy; and God gets the glory!

Probably the most memorable part of this chapter is a section called “the Difference Between Uncle Sam and Jesus Christ.” Piper says:
The difference between Uncle Sam and Jesus Christ is that Uncle Sam won’t enlist you in his service unless you are healthy and Jesus Christ won’t enlist you unless you are sick. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Christianity is fundamentally convalescence (Pray without ceasing = Keep buzzing the nurse). Patients do not serve their physicians. They trust them for good prescriptions.
We serve God by believing his promises, and by realizing that we do not put our power at his disposal, but that through prayer his power is at our disposal for our good. In all our prayers and obedience, it is we who are the beneficiaries! This realization makes me want to pray more. And Piper shares his secret for making want-to-pray-more happen: plan. Set a time, pick a place, and choose a passage of Scripture — and start!

Guest writer: Sue Weaver

Guest writer: Sue Weaver

Okay, here’s the unvarnished truth, right out loud: worship had become kind of an un-word to me. Vestiges of deep and satisfying still cling to it, but it mostly it really means Sunday morning church music. Which is nice, but not deep and satisfying.
So this third chapter in our summer reading, a chapter on worship, really grabbed my attention. Right on the first page of the chapter it says, “…worship has to do with real life. It is not a mythical interlude in a week of reality. Worship has to do with adultery and hunger and racial conflict.” (77)
This chapter is all about should-be-deep-and-satisfying! “Both the teaching of Jesus and the Holy Spirit satisfy the longing of our souls’ (page 79) and  “…true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship.”(82)

Piper examines at the nature of worship as an affair of the heart (pages 83-102) and as an affair of the mind (pages 102-109). In the ‘heart part’ of the chapter I gathered up so many good thoughts. I learned

• that where feelings for God are dead, worship is dead (86);
• that the human heart is supernaturally, radically changed in Christian conversion and the evidence of this is not just new decisions, but new affections, new feelings (89);
• that saving faith treasures Christ (90);
• that in the end the heart longs not for any of God’s good gifts, but for God Himself (87);
• that the real duty of worship is the inward duty, the command to delight yourself in the LORD! (94)
• that the joyful heart is a mirror that catches the rays of His radiance and reflects them back in worship (94)
• that the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever (94)
• the heavens are appalled and shocked when people give up soon on their quest for pleasure and settle for broken cisterns (98).

I circled and put stars beside these words in the ‘mind part’ of the chapter:

• True worship does not come from people whose feelings are like air ferns with no root in the solid ground of biblical doctrine. The only affections that honor God are those rooted in the rock of biblical truth. (102)
• Christian Hedonism is passionately opposed to all attempt to drive a wedge between deep thought and deep feeling. It rejects the common notion that profound reflection dries up fervent affection. It resists the assumption that intense emotion thrives only in the absence of coherent doctrine. (104)

I love the exhortation (and experience) Piper shares at the end of this chapter. He says, “Don’t let your worship decline to the performance of mere duty. Don’t let the childlike awe and wonder be choked out by unbiblical views of virtue. Don’t let the scenery and poetry and music of your relationship with God shrivel up and die. You have capacities for joy that you can scarcely imagine. They were made for enjoyment of God. He can awaken them no matter how long they have lain asleep.” (108)
Wow! Worship doesn’t seem like an un-word anymore!

Guest writer: Sue Weaver

Guest writer: Sue Weaver

Maybe you saw pictures on Facebook. A crane lifted a big air conditioning unit to the church roof on Wednesday morning. Getting ready for the new unit, all the wires to the old one were cut – including the one that sets off the fire alarm if the unit dangerously overheats!  An unplanned fire drill ensued.

Outside (enjoying the sunshine and the crane, I must admit), I chatted with several people from different parts of the building. My job at the church takes place in one small area of the building, so I always enjoy seeing friends “from the other end.”

While chatting, I saw Lois Ross! Turns out Lois was part of the fire drill because she had an appointment at the school. We started talking, and our conversation soon turned to our summer reading, Desiring God.

The chapter on conversion was our focus; we talked about  how difficult it is to grasp how we convert to following Christ. Not how in the sense that the blood of Christ saves us, but how in the sense of process, steps, what is His part and what is our part. Yes, we do the trusting in Christ’s sacrifice for us, but first we have to realize that we’re sinners because we’re not glorifying Him—this He provides.  Conversion theories abound, but we agreed that since our very existence is God’s idea, our salvation originates with/in/from Him, no matter how we describe our part.

We explored Piper’s definition of sin being everything that does not glorify God. Boy, sin looks big through this lens!  It makes us realize that we routinely dishonor God by exchanging our focus on God’s glory for things of lesser value: we trust ourselves, we take credit for His gifts, and we turn from His commandments because we think we know better.  Lois pointed out that we hold the glory of the Lord in contempt with cultural catchphrases like, “It’s my body and I’ll do what I want with it.” It’s not our body—He not only created it, He bought it with His blood.

The Bible says that whether we eat or drink or whatever we do , we are to do it all to the glory of God.  I told Lois that I have often experienced the phrase ”glorify God” as so spiritual that it’s vague, and it ended up having little practical meaning. But Piper explains that glorifying God doesn’t mean making Him more glorious, it means valuing Him above everything else and acknowledging how marvelously glorious He is, and then making His glory known. I told Lois that the phrases “valuing God” and “reflecting Him”  make the concept of glorifying God clearer for me; Lois remarked that if we value God when we eat and drink it will surely change our diets!

Guest writer: Sue Weaver

Guest writer: Sue Weaver

A TOP TEN THOTS LIST from chapter two in John Piper’s Desiring God

1. Most Amazing:

The pursuit of joy in God is not optional! Until your heart has hit upon this pursuit, your “faith” does not please God. Page 73

(Hebrews 11:6  …whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek Him.)

2. Most Unexpected:

Sin comes from not putting supreme value on the glory of God – this is the very essence of sin. Page 57

3. Most Poignant:

Hell is just. Page 59

4. Most Pithy:

Hell is one way to settle accounts with sinners and uphold his justice. But there is another way. The death of the Son of God for sinners! Page 61

5. Most Clarifying:

“For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28)—but not for everyone. There are sheep and there are goats (Matthew 25:32). There are wise and there are foolish (Matthew 25:2). There are those who are being saved and those who are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18). Page 54

6. Most Painful:

We are surrounded by unconverted people who think they do believe in Jesus… Page 54

7. Most Convicting:

Once we had no delight in God, and Christ was just a vague historical figure. What we enjoyed was food and friendships and productivity and investments and vacations and hobbies and games and reading and shopping and sex and sports and art and TV and travel…but not God. He was an idea—even a good one—and a topic for discussion; but He was not a treasure of delight.  Then something miraculous happened. Page 71

8. Most Startling:

Saving faith is the cry of a new creature in Christ. And the newness of the new creature is that it has a new taste. What was once distasteful or bland is now craved. Christ Himself has become a Treasure Chest of holy joy…the heart…craves the supreme gift that Christ died to give: not health, not wealth, not prestige – but God! Test yourself here. There are many professing Christians who delight in God’s gifts, but not God.

Pages 72 & 73

9. Most Remarkable:

Conversion is no mere human decision. It is a human decision – but, oh, so much more! Page 68

10. Most Delightful:

…God joins us in our pursuit of everlasting joy… Page 54

Guest writer: Sue Weaver